providing against hostile attempts as a guarantee of the laudable vigilance indispensable, so long as the country might be threatened by war and by attempts to delude the multitude. He informed them that the judges and law officers of the crown had been instructed to report on the proceedings of the courts of justice and the tables of fees. The public accounts were also sent down. The expenses of civil government for the year were £24,711, ($98,844) including £1,205 2s. 10d., ($4,820.55) due to Upper Canada. The net revenue was £10,425 18s., ($41,703.60.) The commissioners appointed by Upper and Lower Canada to determine the amount of the duties levied and payable to the upper province entered into an agreement, to be valid until the last day of December, 1796, that one-eighth of the net produce of the taxes collected should be paid to Upper Canada as the proportion due. Upper Canada further agreed that no duty should be laid upon articles entering that province, by these means rendering the establishment of custom houses unnecessary: an avoidance of expense which it is not impossible would have exceeded the receipts. The speaker, Chartier de Lotbinière, of an old French Canadian family, in presenting the bills for revenue dwelt upon the fact that they had been passed with unanimity. The articles selected from which revenue was derived were acknowledged luxuries, with the exception of salt, on which the impost was trifling, and would be generally contributed and but slightly felt. Mr. de Lotbinière's words on this occasion can be profitably reproduced. In a pecuniary point of view, my lord, this supply can be an object of small amount to his majesty; but when the slender abilities of our constituents are considered, and that it is presented as a tribute of gratitude for the happiness which we enjoy under the fostering care and protection of the parent state, and the benign influence of that constitution which has been accorded to us upon a model of perfect practical excellence; it thence assumes an importance that we doubt not our most gracious sovereign and the magnanimous and 1795] DUC DE ROCHEFOUCAULT. 399 generous nation which he governs will measure only by our intentions." The alien act was passed on the 31st of May, 1794. It consisted of thirty-four clauses, and was to continue in force until the end of the session of 1795. Its spirit can be seen by the preamble and the early clauses. It was to prevent the danger which under existent circumstances might happen to public tranquillity from the presence in the province of persons who were not British subjects, neither natural born, nor naturalized. Each master was to give the name of every foreigner on board his vessel, while every alien on his arrival by ship, or entering inland, was bound to declare his identity. Neglect of this regulation was liable to the punishment of transportation for life. Persons holding seditious discourses, uttering treasonable words, publishing false news, publishing or distributing libellous or seditious papers, could be imprisoned and detained until bailed out by a judge. Nor was the alien act a dead letter. The duc de Rochefoucault-Linancour paid a visit to Canada in June, 1795. He was received by the captain of a frigate on lake Erie ceremoniously, and proceeded to Niagara to meet Simcoe. The duke was then shewn Dorchester's order not to permit a foreigner to enter Canada. Application was made on his behalf to descend the Saint Lawrence, but leave was not granted. Dorchester, judging that if war broke out it would be attributable to the strong sympathy felt with France, conceived that the duke was acting in the interest of the United States. He, therefore, refused the permission asked. The duke remained some time the guest of Simcoe while waiting for the answer to his application. He recorded the impressions made upon him during his stay in Niagara. I have alluded to the character he has given of Mrs. Simcoe.* He describes the scarcity of specie, how business was carried on by paper notes, some as low as twopence. It is not difficult to understand that de Rochefoucault did not carry * [Ante., p. 339.] away with him any favourable feeling towards the governorin-chief. out. In order to test the condition of public feeling, Dorchester, in May, had directed that the militia should be called There was so much unwillingness to serve that it was plain in the event of war the militia as a whole could not be counted upon, even for defence. There were some localities in which many of the residents were willing to serve, but against such as these violent menaces had been directed by Genet's emissaries. At Charlesbourg, some five miles from the city of Quebec, those active in this disloyalty were restrained by no influence. Blood relationship was even ignored by the partisans of France. They threatened to burn the houses of all who desired to perform their duty to the government, to disembowel them, and to carry their head on a pole, in the approved fashion of Paris.* They defied the clergy, stating that they had occasion neither for them nor for confession. Several of the ringleaders were apprehended. From this source it was discovered that there. had been frequent conferences with Genet and with the French consuls. Genet's audacity and self-assertion were of a character to impress the minds of the uneducated men he had met, to whom he had been profuse in his assertions of French power and of the certainty of the immediate arrival of an armed force in Canada. Several Canadians had left the province after the events of 1775-1776, and had remained in the states; in the interval they had been joined by many of their countrymen. It was members of this class who returned to wander through the parishes to sow revolt and sedition. Several of these emissaries were also natives of France. Their continual cry was the liberty enjoyed by the French people, and that the Canadians by following their example would be freed from the burdens by which they were oppressed. They would be expressly relieved from the charges, responsibilities and observances appertaining to the seigniorial tenure. Every effort was made to excite the [Les étriller, porter les têtes au bout des Bâtons.] 1795] ACTIVITY OF FRENCH AGENTS. 401 French Canadians against the British population by the representation that the old subjects were inimical to their language, and, when the argument would prevail, to their religion. In this stage of disquiet there were but 2,300 troops of all arms in Canada, at the time when it had been earnestly impressed on the home government that, if the province were to be defended, at least 5,000 were necessary. While the passage of the alien act and the vigorous policy of the government on one side called forth expressions of loyalty, they equally acted as a repression to open sedition. Moreover, the very sanguine began to feel that little reliance could be placed upon the promises so liberally made by the agitators, that French and United States troops would immediately appear. The announcement had been made throughout the parishes that the French troops would enter Canada between the pentecost and the fête dieu, the 8th and the 19th of June. As the time passed and no army appeared, assurances were made that the movement was delayed until the answer should be received of Jay's mission to England. This explanation failed. to obtain confidence, and despondency took the place of boisterous self-assertion; especially as the Roman catholic bishop and the clergy, with very few exceptions, had cordially given their support to the movement begun by the constitutional association, and had shewn themselves zealous in the re-establishment of order and the observance of law. Of all men, they had the least to hope for the propagation of the doctrines introduced during the reign of terror. The hand of the government being thus strengthened, the leaders of the small insurrection at Charlesbourg were arrested. There was some talk of resistance, but the recusants submitted, and the balloting for the militia followed. The population of Beauport had likewise shewn disaffection, but those who had been refractory ceased to be so, and they made their submission, as at Charlesbourg, by companies of militia. 2A At Montreal, some important arrests were made; one, Duclos, an active agent of the United States who had served in the congress forces in 1775. He had moved among the population, confidently foretelling the invasion by French troops, and threatening that all who had not sustained the United States would see their property pillaged. A tailor named Costello was imprisoned; he was proved to have been one of the distributers of the French incendiary pamphlets. Dorchester reported to Dundas that the sedition had generally subsided without military interference, to which he had determined, on no account, to have appealed. Should an invasion take place, matters would possibly revert to their old condition, and even become worse, if dependence were placed on the militia of the province and the small regular force to sustain it. Osgoode, who, as has been said, had applied to be appointed chief justice on Smith's death, was nominated without any claim to fees or perquisites. He arrived at Quebec from Upper Canada on the 27th of July, 1794. He was, however, not sworn in as member of the executive council until the 14th of September. Russell was appointed, in his place, president of the council of Upper Canada. In February, 1795, Dorchester wrote to Portland, earnestly drawing his attention to the disorganization which had arisen in the province. He pointed out that ministers in England were not long enough in office to see through the intricacies of colonial politics. Moreover, the attention of a minister was taken up by important matters at home, and, hence, he sometimes failed to examine the projects submitted to him from the colonies, divested of the illusion of fancy and the varnish of private interest. It was necessary that the government should be administered from a centre, but the present policy was to divide and subdivide. Instead of competent authority being given to the person charged with the king's commission, communications were made and directions sent to inferior officers which virtually superseded him. Every one became impatient of restraint. It was |