1806] GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. 523 remaining a British subject, he continued to live at this spot until his death in 1813, frequently visiting Amherstburg and attending his legislative duties at York.* It was during the short administration of Grant that the feeling of dissatisfaction which was creeping into public life first became manifest, and for the succeeding thirty years, in different forms, continued to trouble the peace of the province. The case is stated by Grant himself in a letter to lord Castlereagh.+ From the first establishment of the province until 1803 certain taxes levied in Upper Canada, together with the eighth part of the amount of duties collected at Quebec, had been left solely at the disposal of the legislature; but, in 1803, Hunter, without the authority of the house, charged against this sum certain disbursements made in the interest of the province. If any discontent was felt at this proceeding it was not expressed, and the system was continued during 1804 without any expression of want of consent. It was not pretended that the application of the moneys was not just and proper. There was no complaint on this score; the grievance was that the expenditure had been made without the consent of the house. The strong hand of Hunter had been removed by death; otherwise, it is probable that no comment would have been made on the proceeding. Grant himself was without prestige to enforce his opinions; to use his own words, he did not feel himself at liberty, in his temporary situation, to discountenance what Hunter had authorised. The total amount of this sum was £617 13s. 7d. One of the early proceedings of the house, which had met * I am indebted for the above information to judge Woods, of Chatham, a grandson of Grant. There is a family tradition that Grant married a French Canadian of Detroit, he not speaking a word of French and the lady being as ignorant of English. A Boyer's French dictionary remains in the family, which was sent for from New York by Grant before the ceremony. Although he was married late in life, the offspring of the union was daughters and one son, all of whom married, except the youngest daughter. [Can. Arch., Q. 304, p. 10, 14th of March, 1806.] ten on the 4th of February, 1806, was to address Grant on the subject, setting forth that the first and constitutional privilege of the commons had been violated in the application of moneys out of the provincial treasury without the assent of parliament or a vote of the commons. The whole tone with regard to this trifling affair shewed a design to be troublesome. It is impossible to reject the impression that Mr. justice Thorpe, who became very prominent in this form a few years later, was at the bottom of the affair. After some very stilted sentences, the address asked that not only the money should be replaced, but directions also should be given that hereafter no moneys should be issued without the assent of parliament. The address was dated the 1st of March, 1806. Judge Powell, afterwards chief justice, has left a memorandum telling us that he was consulted in the matter and had been shewn the reply proposed, which he considered "weak and wavering." He recommended Grant to say that he had found the practice established and had followed it; that he would transmit the address to the king and, no doubt, orders would be sent to replace the money. At the same time, that he could not forbear submitting for the consideration of the members, if it would not be best for the dignity of the house to cover by a vote the expenditure admitted to be purely provincial, and, before they separated, to provide for similar contingences. Mr. Grant did not take this course; he stated that the expenditure had been applied to useful and necessary provincial purposes; he would, however, direct the matter to be investigated, and if there was error he would take * "To comment on this departure from constituted authority and fiscal establishment must be more than painful to all who appreciate the advantages of our happy constitution; and who wish the continuance to the latest posterity, but however studious we may be to refrain from Stricture, we cannot suppress the mixed emotion of our relative condition. We feel it as the representatives of a free people. We lament it as the subjects of a beneficent Sovereign, and we hope that you in your relations to both will more than sympathise in so extraordinary an occurrence." [Can. Archive Report, 1892, App., p. 33.] 1806] FIRST POLITICAL DIFFICULTY. 525 measures to have it corrected and obviated for the time to come. After sending the message, on the 3rd of March he attended to prorogue the house. According to judge Powell, the door was barred against the usher when giving the notification. The house was, nevertheless, prorogued on that day. Although this fact, from the insignificance of the interests involved, might be passed over with but few words, it assumes importance from having been the first in the series of political difficulties which henceforth were to be experienced in the province. It was the forerunner of the active opposition shewn in the assembly to the executive by a party inclined to discontent and anxious to find cause for the expression of the feeling. When we think of the population of 75,000 souls scattered over the entire province from the boundary line to Sandwich, some 450 miles, inhabiting a narrow fringe of the territory, except at localities where' settlement extended a few miles to the north, it is impossible not to recognise the minor diversities of interest which presented themselves. Nevertheless, the main lines of policy called for by good government ran in the one direction. Hitherto there had been peace in the house of assembly. Its sixteen members had not been free from petty differences, but any such disagreement was short-lived and passed away without leaving any trace of discontent or bad feeling as its heritage. The reason is not difficult of explanation. Men were too much occupied in the struggle to live, to waste effort upon insignificant and unimportant observances. But But a class had entered the province, the too frequent attendant of prosperity. members were desirous of gaining emolument on easy terms, and, by forcing themselves into notoriety and clamouring for political rights, sought to establish themselves in the public estimation. The best mode of destroying the power of the agitator is to take from him the weapons with which he can wage warfare. But the science of colonial government was then in its infancy. There was a dread of liberal Its opinions, which led to unwise repression, and there was a failure to understand that true and genuine liberty is the best safeguard for law and order. It was a truth to be learned, not without much tribulation and sorrow, and was to call forth party rancour and personal enmity, the fires of which long vividly burned, only within the last quarter of a century to cease entirely to smoulder. END OF VOLUME VII. |