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Читать книгу: «Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 404, June, 1849», страница 15

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Mr Merritt, the president of the council, and occupying a similar position in the government of Canada that Lord John Russell does in the government of England, thus writes to his constituents, who had addressed him on the subject, and remonstrated against paying these charges: – "On becoming a member of the government (he was appointed president of the council upon Mr Sullivan's being raised to the bench, a short time before the meeting of parliament) I found their payment determined on by the administration." The reader will observe, that it was against the payment of the items above quoted, that Mr Merritt's constituents remonstrated. He answered, that their payment was decided upon before he took office. But he continues: – "My first impression was, I confess, against it; but I soon became convinced that they had no alternative. I neither wish to be misunderstood, nor relieved from responsibility. Although the government approved of Mr Boulton's amendment, [which was an amendment of its own resolution,] which excludes those who were sent to Bermuda, I was prepared to vote for excluding none." That is to say, – Mr Merritt had the manliness to risk his character, by voting for what his fellow-ministers had convinced him was necessary. They wanted the manliness to do what they had previously convinced him, according to their ideas, would be but an act of justice.

But the fact was, her Majesty's Canadian Executive Council had calculated too highly upon their own strength, or, having provoked the storm, they shrunk back in terror at its violence and its consequences. They were, therefore, obliged to resort to the skin of the fox, to make up what they found they wanted of that of the lion. And the substitution was managed after the following manner:

The amendment alluded to by Mr Merritt, or the operative part of it, was in these words:

"That the losses, so far only as they have arisen from the total, or partially unjust, unnecessary, or wanton destruction of the dwellings, buildings, property, and effects of the said inhabitants [of Lower Canada], and by the seizure, taking, or carrying away of their property and effects, should be satisfied; provided that none of the persons who have been convicted of high treason, alleged to have been committed in that part of this province formerly called Lower Canada, since the first day of November 1847, or who, having been charged with high treason, or other offences of a treasonable nature, and having been committed to the custody of the sheriff in the gaol of Montreal, submitted themselves to the will and pleasure of her Majesty, and were thereupon transported to her Majesty's island of Bermuda, shall be entitled to any indemnity for losses sustained during or after the said rebellion, or in consequence thereof."

This amendment is worded carefully enough, and, like Mr Lafontaine's resolution, is apparently just and harmless in its abstract signification; but it proves, like the former, a vastly different matter when its intentions come to be discovered by its practical application.

It is necessary that the reader should understand that there were a great number of the French rebels, particularly the leading characters, who fled the country immediately after the first few contests were over – and some of them were brave enough not even to wait so long – who came back under the amnesty, and consequently neither submitted themselves to the custody of the sheriff of Montreal, nor were prosecuted in any way: these are, therefore, no matter how high, or how notorious their treason, exempted from disability, under this amendment, to claim rebellion losses. Among these was a Doctor Wolfred Nelson, who was commander-in-chief of the rebels at the battles of St Denis and St Charles; who fought with them as well as he could; who published the declaration of independence for the Canadas; who, after he had made his escape to the States, hovered round the borders as the leader of the piratical gangs that devastated the country; and whom General Wood was finally despatched by the United States government to put down. This individual is now a member of the Canadian parliament for a French county, and is an admitted claimant, under Mr Boulton's amendment, for twenty-three thousand pounds, for his rebellion losses. His own words in the debate upon the question are these: – "As to the claims made for my property, I had sent in a detailed account of the losses which had occurred, and which amounted to £23,000, of which £11,000 did not belong to me, but to my creditors. I mentioned their names, and as far as my memory would serve, that was the amount." Now, setting aside the doctrine, subversive even of all traitors' honour, and of all security under any government, that men may first half destroy a country by rebellion, and afterwards make up the other half of its destruction by claiming indemnity for incidental losses; setting aside this question, and viewing the matter in the abstract light, that all claims for injuries should be paid, we should like to know who is to pay the creditors of the poor widows of the soldiers and the loyalists whose blood stained the snows of Canada in suppressing Dr Wolfred Nelson's rebellion? Who is to feed their children, who are at this moment – we can vouch for the fact in at least one instance – shoeless and houseless, wandering upon the world? Yet Dr Nelson's creditors, on account of Dr Nelson's crime, must be paid. Who is to pay the creditors of the merchants, of the millers, of the lumberers, who were ruined by the general devastation that Dr Nelson's rebellion brought upon Lower Canada? Still Dr Nelson's creditors must be paid, although he spent the very money in bringing about other people's ruin. Who is to indemnify the people of England for two millions sterling spent in putting down Dr Nelson's rebellion? Yet Dr Nelson's property must be made good, and Dr Nelson's creditors must be paid, because England was under the necessity of putting down Dr Nelson's insurrection. And will – can England look on with indifference while Upper Canada – whose loyalists, when she was without a soldier to hoist her flag, did it for her – whose people freely and gladly sacrificed their lives, as well in the hardships as in the struggle with the traitor and the assassin, and whose trade and property were wellnigh ruined by this Dr Wolfred Nelson's rebellion – is now called upon to make good to him money he spent in carrying it on, and property that shared but the common ruin he brought upon the whole country? Yet Dr Nelson's payment is now decided upon by the parliament of Canada; and as the climax of such unheard-of legislation, he voted for it himself.

When such a coach-and-four as this can walk through Mr Boulton's amendment, it is needless to spend time upon smaller fry. The loyalists of Canada have now, or will have, if the governor, or the British government assents to the measure, to pay for the very torch that was employed to set fire to their homes; for the guns that were used to shoot them down by the wayside; for the shoes that an enemy who challenged them to fight, wore out in running away; for the time that men who, assassin-like, established hunters' lodges in the States, for the purpose of cutting down the defenceless, and burning up the unprotected, were engaged in the conception and execution of their diabolical designs. These may be strong statements, but they are facts. We need go no farther than Dr Nelson's case, who claims indemnity for the very money he spent in buying powder and balls to destroy her Majesty's subjects, and who claims £12,000 for injury to his property, while he himself was at the head of gangs of desperadoes laying waste the whole southern frontier of the province to sustain them.

But, to convey an idea to the English reader of the full extent to which payment may be, and is contemplated to be, made to parties engaged in the rebellion, under this amendment, we need but quote the questions that were put to Mr Lafontaine, before the final vote was taken on the question, and the manner in which he treated them.

"In committee last night, Colonel Prince stated that a great deal of uncertainty existed as to the class of persons whom it was intended by the ministry to pay, under the measure introduced by them, and he begged Mr Attorney General Lafontaine to settle the matter explicitly by replying to certain questions which he would put to him. Colonel Prince promised, on his part, to regard the replies as final, and after receiving them, he would allude no further to the rebellion claims.
He then put the following questions in a deliberate, solemn manner, pausing between each for an answer.
'Do you propose to exclude, in your instructions to the commissioners to be appointed under this act, all who aided and abetted in the rebellion of 1837-1838?'
No Reply.
'Do you propose to exclude those, who, by their admissions and confessions, admitted their participation in the rebellion?'
No Reply.
'Do you mean to exclude those whose admission of guilt is at this very moment in the possession of the government, or of the courts of law, unless these admissions have been destroyed with the connivance of honourable gentlemen opposite?'
No Reply.
'Do you mean to exclude any of those 800 men who were imprisoned in the jail of Montreal, for their participation in the rebellion, and who were subsequently discharged from custody through the clemency of the government, and whose claims I understand to exceed some £70,000?'
No Reply.
'Do you not mean to pay every one, let his participation in the rebellion have been what it may, except the very few who were convicted by the courts-martial, and some six or seven who admitted their guilt and were sent to Bermuda?'
No Reply."
Montreal Gazette.

But what course did the enlightened reformers of Upper Canada take in this business – did that party which Lord Durham expressly stated was made up, for the most part, of men of strong British feelings, and by whose aid the French domination was to be crushed? Out of the strongest majority – out of the most united and effective representation of the whole party that has ever been had since Sir Francis Head assumed the government of the province, one only voted against the French; seventeen voted with them, and five found it convenient to be absent.

But, bad as this measure is, and plainly as it shows that England's friends have been rendered politically powerless in the provinces, it is even better than the representation scheme, which these two parties have still more unitedly, and, if anything, more determinedly endeavoured to push through parliament. The following extracts from the leading journals of both provinces, will convey an idea of the intention of this measure, and what it is likely to lead to: —

"The rebellion claims which have roused, in every English breast, a feeling of strong antipathy against the French Canadian race, is but an affair of skirmishing, preparatory to the great battle for perpetual domination in Canada by the French Canadian race over those whom Mr Lafontaine has styled their 'natural enemies.' It is the Representation scheme that is to raise over us, for ever, our 'French Masters.' As an affair of money, that of the Rebellion Losses is an injury and insult to every man who obeyed the order of the government in its time of need. It has planted deeply the seeds of a never-dying irritation, but it involves not our national existence. The Representation scheme is a triple iniquity, and will cement, if the madness of party be strong enough to carry it, all the little differences of parties among Englishmen, into one settled, determined hatred of the French race. It is a triple iniquity – an injury, an insult, and slavery to our children." —Montreal Gazette.
"By the Ministerial scheme, then, it is proposed to give the British Canadian population, say 13 members – as follows: – Ottawa 2, Argenteuil 1, Drummond (doubtful) 1, Sherbrooke 2, Shefford 1, Huntingdon 1, Megantic 1, Missisquoi 1, Gaspé 1, Stanstead 1, Sherbrooke Town 1. Thus leaving 62 members for the Franco-Canadians – giving the former an increase on their present number of 3 and the latter of 30! Can this be called a just proportion? It cannot." —Montreal Herald.
"That measure extends over the whole of the province —Lower as well as Upper Canada; and one of its leading features being, according to the testimony of Mr Hincks, to insure to the French Canadians the perpetuation of their ascendency in the legislature, as a distinct race, we may look forward in future to the infliction of the most oppressive measures, upon the colonists of British origin, which the masters of the Union may choose to dictate. These are the fruits of radical ascendency in the executive and the legislature, from Upper Canada, and the prostration of those of British origin in Lower Canada." —British Colonist, Toronto.

Fortunately, however – fortunately even for those it was intended to invest with so great a power, this measure did not pass. For to give a naturally unprogressive race legislative superiority over an inevitably progressive one, is but to prolong a contest, or make more desperate an immediate struggle. The race that advances will not perpetually strive with a rope round its neck, or a chain round its leg. If it cannot loose itself, it will turn round and fight its holders. The French might have bound the English, but they would have had to fight them. A miss, however, is as good as a mile. It required a vote of two-thirds of the whole house to make such a change in the representation. Fifty-six voters would have done it; they had but fifty-five; so that this part of the storm at all events has passed over.

But how did the enlightened reformers of Upper Canada act, upon a measure avowedly and undisguisedly intended to perpetuate French domination? Every man of them voted for it. What a melancholy comment this is upon the following – the closing reflection of Lord Durham, upon the government of Canada. What a comment it is upon the attempt to change a people by a measure; to purge out of Frenchmen errors as strong as their nature – out of democrats feelings as large as their souls, by a single pill of abstract right in the shape of responsible government.

"In the state of mind in which I have described the French Canadian population, as not only now being, but as likely for a long while to remain, the trusting them with an entire control over this province would be, in fact, only facilitating a rebellion. Lower Canada must be governed now, as it must be hereafter, by an English population; and thus the policy which the necessities of the moment force on us, is in accordance with that suggested by a comprehensive view of the future and permanent improvement of the province." —Report Can. E., p. 127.

But it is not alone that British prosperity is now crushed by the domination of a retrogressive race, but it is that a British people are obliged to feel the galling and unnatural fact, that the power of the government of England is wielded to keep up institutions in America, to the destruction of which, in Europe, it owes its freedom and its greatness. It is not alone that loyalty is sickened to the very death in Upper Canada, at seeing the best gifts of the crown handed over to political pickpockets – for we hold every man, and we can call upon all America to second us in it, as no better than a political pickpocket, who is a democrat in his heart and soul, and whines out "God save the Queen," to pillage her Majesty's treasury – it is not alone that loyalty is galled to madness at this, but it is that loyalty is obliged to see that, however much it may beat these men at the hustings, and by virtue of the constitution, they can still laugh at all its efforts as long as they can play the part of French tools. In all history, in short, there is not a parallel to the state of things at present existing in the Canadas. To men whose very accents, whose very faces are a living libel upon all loyalty to England, England has by her legislation given power to trample under their feet the only friends she had in the hour of her need. To men who are contending for the perpetuation of institutions which all Europe was obliged to throw off before it could breathe a free breath, or extend a free arm, England has by her legislation given the power, not only to drive her children into the slough of despond, but to mount upon their shoulders there, and sink them irretrievably. England has literally in the Canadas made her loyalists political slaves; her enemies their political task-masters.

Hamilton, Canada West.
23d April, 1849.

Dies Boreales

No. I

CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS

Scene —Cladich, Lochawe-side

Time —Sunrise

North – Buller – Seward

NORTH

"Under the opening eyelids of the Morn!" Mefeels, Amici, at this moment, the charm of that Impersonation. Slowly awaking from sleep – scarcely conscious of her whereabouts – bewildered by the beauty of the revelation, nor recognising her beloved lochs and mountains – visionary and nameless all as if an uncertain prolongation of her Summer's Night's Dream.

SEWARD

I was not going to speak, my dear sir.

NORTH

And now she is broad awake. She sees the heaven and the earth, nor thinks, God bless her, that 'tis herself that beautifies them!

SEWARD

Twenty years since I stood on this knoll, honoured sir, by your side – twenty years to a day – and now the same perfect peace possesses me – mysterious return – as if all the intervening time slid away – and this were not a renewed but a continuous happiness.

NORTH

And let it slide away into the still recesses of Memory – the Present has its privileges – and they may be blamelessly, wisely, virtuously enjoyed – and without irreverence to the sanctity of the Past. Let it slide away – but not into oblivion – no danger, no fear of oblivion – even joys will return on their wings of gossamer; – sorrows may be buried, but they are immortal.

SEWARD

I see not the slightest change on this Grove of Sycamores. Twenty years tell not on boles that have for centuries been in their prime. Yes – that one a little way down – and that one still farther off —have grown – and those striplings, then but saplings, may now be called Trees.

BULLER

I never heard such a noise.

NORTH

A cigar in your mouth at four o'clock in the morning! Well – well.

BULLER

There, my dear sir, keep me in countenance with a Manilla.

NORTH

The Herb! You have high authority – Spenser's – for "noise."

BULLER

I said Noise – because it is Noise. Why, the hum of bees overhead is absolutely like soft sustained thunder – and yet no bees visible in the umbrage. The sound is like that of one single bee, and he must be a giant. Ay – there I see a few working like mad – and I guess there must be myriads. The Grove must be full of bees' nests.

NORTH

Not one. Hundreds of smokes are stealing up from hidden or apparent cottages – for the region is not unpopulous, and not a garden without its hives – and early risers though we be, the matutinæ apes are still before us, and so are the birds.

BULLER

They, too, are making a noise. Who says a shilfa cannot sing? Of the fifty now "pouring his throat," as the poet well says, I defy you to tell which sings best. That splendid fellow on the birch-tree top – or yonder gorgeous tyke on the yellow oak – or —

NORTH

"In shadiest covert hid" the leader of the chorus that thrills the many-nested underwood with connubial bliss.

SEWARD

Not till this moment heard I the waterfall.

BULLER

You did, though, all along – a felt accompaniment.

NORTH

I know few dens more beautiful than Cladich-Cleugh!

BULLER

Pardon me, sir, if I do not attempt that name.

NORTH

How mellifluous! – Cladich-Cleugh!

BULLER

Great is the power of gutturals.

NORTH

It is not inaccessible. But you must skirt it till you reach the meadow where the cattle are beginning to browse. And then threading your way through a coppice, where you are almost sure to see a roe, you come down upon a series of little pools, in such weather as this so clear that you can count the trouts; and then the verdurous walls begin to rise on either side and right before you; and you begin to feel that the beauty is becoming magnificence, for the pools are now black, and the stems are old, and the cliffs intercept the sky, and there are caves, and that waterfall has dominion in the gloom, and there is sublimity in the sounding solitude.

BULLER

Cladick-Cloock.

NORTH

A miserable failure.

BULLER

Cladig-Cloog.

NORTH

Worser and worser.

SEWARD

Any footpath, sir?

NORTH

Yes – for the roe and the goat.

BULLER

And the Man of the Crutch.

NORTH

Good. But I speak of days when the Crutch was in its tree-bole —

BULLER

As the Apollo was in its marble block.

NORTH

Not so good. But, believe me, gentlemen, I have done it with the Crutch.

SEWARD

Ay, sir, and could do it again.

NORTH

No. But you two are yet boys – on the sunny side of fifty – and I leave you, Seward, to act the guide to Buller up Cladich-Cleugh.

BULLER

Pray, Mr North, what may be the name of that sheet of water?

NORTH

In Scotland we call it Loch-Owe.

BULLER

I am so happy – sir – that I talk nonsense.

NORTH

Much nonsense may you talk.

BULLER

'Twas a foolish question – but you know, sir, that by some strange fatality or another I have been three times called away from Scotland without having seen Lock-Owe.

NORTH

Make good use of your eyes now, sirrah, and you will remember it all the days of your life. That is Cruachan – no usurper he – by divine right a king. The sun is up, and there is motion in the clouds. Saw you ever such shadows? How majestically they stalk! And now how beautifully they glide! And now see you that broad black forest, half-way up the mountain?

BULLER

I do.

NORTH

You are sure you do.

BULLER

I am.

NORTH

You are mistaken. It is no broad black forest – it is mere gloom – shadow that in a minute will pass away, though now seeming steadfast as the woods.

BULLER

I could swear it is a forest.

NORTH

Swear not at all. Shut your eyes. Open them. Where now your wood?

BULLER

Most extraordinary ocular deception.

NORTH

Quite common. Yet no poet has described it. See again. The same forest a mile off. No need of trees – sun and cloud make our visionary mountains sylvan: and the grandest visions are ever those that are transitory – ask your soul.

BULLER

Your Manilla is out, my dear sir. There is the case.

NORTH

Caught like a cricketer. You must ascend Cruachan. "This morning gives us promise of a glorious day;" you cannot do better than take time by the forelock, and be off now. Say the word – and I will myself row you over the Loch. No need of a guide: inclining to the left for an hour or two after you have cleared yonder real timber and sap wood – and then for an hour or two, to the right – and then for another hour or two straight forwards – and then you will see the highest of the three peaks within an hour or two's walk of you – and thus, by mid-day, find yourself seated on the summit.

BULLER

Seated on the summit!

NORTH

Not too long, for the air is often very sharp at that altitude – and so rare, that I have heard tell of people fainting.

BULLER

I am occasionally troubled with a palpitation of the heart —

NORTH

Pooh, nonsense. Only the stomach.

BULLER

And occasionally with a determination of blood to the head —

NORTH

Pooh, nonsense. Only the stomach. Take a calker every two hours on your way up – and I warrant both heart and head —

BULLER

Not to-day. It looks cloudy.

NORTH

Why, I don't much care though I should accompany you —

BULLER

I knew you would offer to do so, and I feel the delicacy of putting a decided negative on the proposal. Let us defer it till to-morrow. For my sake, my dear sir, if not for your own, do not think of it; it will be no disappointment to me to remain with you here – and I shudder at the thought of your fainting on the summit. Be advised, my dear sir, be advised —

NORTH

Well then, be it so – I am not obstinate; but such another day for the ascent there may not be during the summer. On just such a day I made the ascent some half-century ago. I took it from Tyanuilt – having walked that morning from Dalmally, some dozen miles, for a breathing on level ground, before facing the steepish shoulder that roughens into Loch Etive. The fox-hunter from Gleno gave me his company with his hounds and terriers nearly half-way up, and after killing some cubs we parted – not without a tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well —

BULLER

A tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well!

NORTH

Yea – a tinful of the creature at the Fairies' Well. Now I am a total-abstinent —

BULLER

A total-abstinent!

NORTH

By heavens! he echoes me. Pleasant, but mournful to the soul is the memory of joys that are past! A tinful of the unchristened creature to the health of the Silent People. Oh! Buller, there are no Silent People now.

BULLER

In your company, sir, I am always willing to be a listener.

NORTH

Well, on I flew as on wings.

BULLER

What! Up Cruackan?

NORTH

On feet, then, if you will; but the feet of a deer.

BULLER

On all-fours?

NORTH

Yes – sometimes on all-fours. On all-fours, like a frog in his prime, clearing tiny obstructions with a spang. On all-fours, like an ourang-outang, who, in difficult places, brings his arms into play. On all-fours, like the —

BULLER

I cry you mercy.

NORTH

Without palpitation of the heart; without determination of blood to the head; without panting; without dizziness; with merely a slight acceleration of the breath, and now and then something like a gasp after a run to a knowe which we foresaw as a momentary resting-place – we felt that we were conquering Cruachan! Lovely level places, like platforms – level as if water had formed them, flowing up just so far continually, and then ebbing back to some unimaginable sea – awaited our arrival, that on them we might lie down, and from beds of state survey our empire, for our empire it was felt to be, far away into the lowlands, with many a hill between – many a hill, that, in its own neighbourhood, is believed to be a mountain – just as many a man of moderate mental dimensions is believed by those who live beneath his shade to be of the first order of magnitude, and with funeral honours is interred.

BULLER

Well for him that he is a hill at all – eminent on a flat, or among humbler undulations. All is comparative.

NORTH

Just so. From a site on a mountain's side – far from the summit – the ascender hath sometimes a sublimer – often a lovelier vision – than from its most commanding peak. Yet still he has the feeling of ascension – stifle that, and the discontent of insufficiency dwarfs and darkens all that lies below.

BULLER

Words to the wise.

NORTH

We fear to ascend higher lest we should lose what we comprehend: yet we will ascend higher, though we know the clouds are gathering, and we are already enveloped in mist. But there were no clouds – no mist on that day – and the secret top of Cruachan was clear as a good man's conscience, and the whole world below like the promised land.

BULLER

Let us go – let us go – let us go.

NORTH

All knowledge, my dear boy, may be likened to stupendous ranges of mountains – clear and clouded, smooth and precipitous; and you or I in youth assail them in joy and pride of soul, not blind but blindfolded often, and ignorant of their inclination; so that we often are met by a beetling cliff with its cataract, and must keep ascending and descending ignorant of our whereabouts, and summit-seeking in vain. Yet all the while are we glorified. In maturer mind, when experience is like an instinct, we ascertain levels without a theodolite, and know assuredly where dwell the peaks. We know how to ascend – sideways or right on; we know which are midway heights; we can walk in mist and cloud as surely as in light, and we learn to know the Inaccessible.

BULLER

I fear you will fatigue yourself —

NORTH

Or another image. You sail down a stream, my good Buller, which widens as it flows, and will lead through inland seas – or lochs – down to the mighty ocean: what that is I need not say: you sail down it, sometimes with hoisted sail – sometimes with oars – on a quest or mission all undefined; but often anchoring where no need is, and leaping ashore, and engaging in pursuits or pastimes forbidden or vain —with the natives—

BULLER

The natives!

NORTH

Nay, adopting their dress – though dress it be none at all – and becoming one of themselves – naturalised; forgetting your mission clean out of mind! Fishing and hunting with the natives —

BULLER

Whom?

NORTH

The natives – when you ought to have been pursuing your voyage on – on – on. Such are youth's pastimes all. But you had not deserted – not you: and you return of your own accord to the ship.

BULLER

What ship?

NORTH

The ship of life – leaving some to lament you, who knew you only as a jolly mariner, who was bound afar! They believed that you had drawn up your pinnace for ever on that shore, in that lovely little haven, among reeds and palms – unknowing that you would relaunch her some day soon, and, bounding in her over the billows, rejoin your ship, waiting for you in the offing, and revisit the simple natives no more!

BULLER

Methinks I understand now your mysterious meaning.

NORTH

You do. But where was I?

BULLER

Ascending Cruackan, and near the summit.

NORTH

On the summit. Not a whit tired – not a bit fatigued; strong as ten – active as twenty ownselves on the flat – divinely drunk on draughts of ether – happier a thousand times, greater and more glorious, than Jupiter, with all his gods, enthroned on Olympus.