its operation was very different in the French and English sections, and the reasons urged for its maintenance or change equally dissimilar. In Lower Canada the Governors came out, generally, with an idea that the French-Canadians must be conciliated and their loyalty maintained; but that no shred of Imperial supremacy should be surrendered. Upon their arrival they found that the English minority was enterprising, wealthy and undoubtedly loyal to British interests and ideas, but in continuous and bitter controversy with a French majority whose leaders every year became more anti-British, and more out of touch with the principles supported by the Crown's representatives, and, as they soon discovered, by the members of the two English-speaking Councils. In following out their instructions to conserve British connection they had, therefore, to practically renounce the hope of conciliating the French, or else to place themselves in a position of direct antagonism to the English. Sometimes they risked the latter alternative and the interests, or supposed interests, of England and the British element in the Colony were sacrificed at the shrine of a fleeting French popularity. Then there was confusion worse confounded. In Upper Canada the difficulty took a slightly different shape. There was little trouble during the earlier years as all the population was Loyalist, of one mind in political thought, and intent chiefly upon building up its homes and strengthening its stakes in the wilderness. Later, when population grew greater and Radicals came from Scotland and Lancashire, Liberals from various parts of England, Americans from the States, who were intent upon business advantage and filled with republican notions, the situation altered considerably. These people naturally knew nothing of former conditions, and were antagonistic to the class government which they found in existence. That it was the best in administrative skill and knowledge which the Colony-little in population and great in territory--could produce; that the Councils were made up of men who had gone through the perils and privations of pioneer life without original hope of power, and who thoroughly believed in their right to rule the Province they had founded; that it was desirable to proceed slowly and carefully in the making of a constitution; for all these things the new-comers cared little. Collisions of opinion under such conditions were inevitable, and it was equally a matter of course and of right, as affairs then stood, that the Governor and the Loyalists should work together. In the Maritime Provinces affairs remained without change, or serious agitation for change, until long after this period. The bulk of the settlers were either Loyalists, or Acadians, and in either case not inclined to active agitation against the governing powers. The Governors, upon the whole, were good administrators, intent upon developing Colonial resources. So it was that, while most of the powers of government remained in the hands of the Governor and Council in each of the Atlantic Provinces, people did not find themselves placed in any position of acute antagonism, or under the apparent necessity of energetic agitation. None the less, however, was the time merely postponed for beginning the long struggle which was to develop here, as elsewhere, between Governor and Assembly. That conflict commenced seriously in the Maritime Provinces.after the War of 1812, and lasted through infinite variations, until 1848. A CHAPTER IX The War of 1812-15 S in the case of so many historic conflicts, the nominal causes of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States were not the real ones. The Berlin Decrees of Napoleon Bonaparte and the retaliatory Orders-in-Council of the British Government, by which each Power sought to blockade the coast of its enemy and check its trade and commerce, naturally bore hardly upon neutral Powers. Especially was this the case with the American Republic, which had come to almost monopolize the carrying trade of the world during England's prolonged death-grapple with France. So far as the latter country was concerned, the blockade was a mere paper mandate, but in the case of England, with her immense and effective navy, the Orders-in-Council became a stern reality and were not a little injurious to American interests. CAUSES OF THE WAR Still, the action on the part of England was just in itself, as well as a matter of justifiable self-defence, and had there been anything approaching a general spirit of friendliness or kinship in the United States, to say nothing of sympathy with the Mother-country's continued struggle for the liberties of Europe, the policy would have been borne patiently or modified as a result of courteous representations. But, except in parts of New England, and in isolated instances elsewhere, this sentiment did not exist, and the irritation which still lingered from the days of the Revolution grew in force and fire as it fed upon the unfortunate effect of the war on American commerce. |