Henry Samuel Chapman

“ It appears to us, that the representative system is at least as dear to the French as to the British. Indeed, we had an impression, and we can see nothing to remove it, that it was more so, for the assembly representing the majority, has been for some years attempting to apply the representative principle to the Second Chamber or Legislative Council, an extension of the system which the constitutional party have to the last opposed. However, the representative system has been destroyed — deeply do we regret that it has been so — but being so, the constitutionalists must "brook" it. ”

“ Let not the men of the British race, who meet to-day, be misled by a contemporary, who speaks of the replies of Lord Gosford to the 'Loyal!' Addresses from the French Canadians, as 'civil and admonitory answers.' Those replies are pregnant with meaning; they speak of the continuance of the policy which has cursed this Province, and made the very name of Lower Canada, a bye-word and a reproach to surrounding states. ”

“ Our law-writers tell us that martial law should not be resorted to in time of peace, when the regular courts are open to all persons, to receive justice according to the laws of the land. Now, although Lower Canada has but recently ceased to be in a state of civil war, it is admitted that peace is restored, hence the ordinary courts should be again thrown open. ”

“ The English tenure of free and common soccage is, in practice nearly similar; but free and common soccage still supposes a feudal superior, which fanc-aleu does not. One objection of the mass of the inhabitants of British descent, is to the incidents of the English tenure, as already noticed; there is also another, which is much stronger, because it is more tangible, and indisputable; we allude to the expensiveness of conveyances. The first objection will wear out as the people find there is a disposition to abandon the obnoxious incidents ”

“ We believe the mass of the French to be as much opposed to the burthens of the feudal law, as the constitutionalists are. At one of the county meetings convened for the purpose of denouncing Lord John Russell's resolutions; a resolution against feudal burthens was incidentally introduced. If the people of Lower Canada and their seigneurs were not kept together by external pressure — by the necessity of uniting against a common enemy, the grievance of the Constitutionalists would long since have been removed by the Assembly. ”

“ As Englishmen it is our interest — as men it should be our desire, that no class of her Majesty's subjects, in any portion of our dominions, should have wrongs unredressed; but it should be our especial care to see that, under the plea of wrongs, a claim is not successfully urged by one class, to dominion over another. The demand that the French Canadians shall be disfranchised for ten years is of this character, — it cannot be acceded to. ”

“ By whatsoever tribunal the prisoners may be tried, it is highly probable that many convictions will take place. Political offences, at least such as fall short of high treason, are so extremely vague and undefined, that tribunals predisposed to convict, will be satisfied with evidence of an equally lax and doubtful character. ”

“ The suppression of the revolt has certainly raised their hopes of continued domination, and these hopes will not fail to embody themselves in the shape of a demand for a representative preponderance. The English counties of Lower Canada have already nearly twice as many members, compared with the population, as the French counties.115 But the English counties some how or other send members favourable to the majority, hence, to give more members to the townships will not answer the purpose of the constitutional party. ”

“ The Canadian militia must be embodied and brought to act against the new class of insurgents. The men who "fought like tigers," against the British troops, united with their political adversaries, would certainly do no less when fighting at the side of British troops against their oppressors. The mother country has nothing to fear from the threats of the Constitutionalists. ”

“ While the full exercise of their religious worship, the complete enjoyment of their French civil law, the undisturbed use of their native language, and perfect immunity from taxation, the entire control over the provincial legislature and the redress of every pretended or theoretical grievance, conjoined to render the French inhabitants of Lower Canada the most favoured portion of her Majesty's subjects; the real and substantial wrongs of the British inhabitants of this province remained neglected and unredressed ”

“ There are no people more attached to a locality than the Lower Canadians. They have often been accused of want of enterprise, in consequence of their propensity to crowd upon a narrow space, and subdivide their patrimony, rather than remove to distant lands ”

“ In plain English, the French Canadians are a majority made more numerous and stronger by the sympathy and co-operation of a large number of the British inhabitants of the townships. The party which the Herald represents on the other hand, is a minority, made smaller and weaker, morally as well as physically, by the same cause. ”

“ And your committee declare their settled conviction, that without a reunion of the provinces these evils must every year be increasing as the population of British origin increases, and that true wisdom will be shown in meeting these evils with boldness, and at once effecting their entire removal. ”

“ On the 28th of December, Lord Gosford empowered commissioners all over the country to administer the oath of allegiance. This will, without doubt, be universally taken, as those who took up arms to defend their leading men, did not consider that in so doing they were violating their allegiance to her Majesty. Their political struggles have little or no reference to this country; they consider themselves as being engaged in a struggle against a political party opposed to them ”

“ To show more conclusively that the constitutional party consider the suppression of the revolt to be a most favourable opportunity for insisting on their demands, we shall make a few quotations from the Montreal Herald, the language of which, on the present occasion, is strikingly similar to that of the report from which we have already quoted.
"We are," says the Herald, "amid no common times; upon the present action of the British population depends their fate ”

“ A small section of the country has risen — not, we believe, with any systematic plan of revolution, but merely for the purpose of defencing their political leaders from arrest. The rising has been put down by force. ”

“ Do they mean to refuse to lay down their arms until their demands be granted? Something of this sort may, perhaps, be intended, and may, moreover, alarm the Colonial Minister; but should any such arrogance — such madness be exhibited, there is a ready remedy, at hand. ”

“ Should the death of either or both bear that character, the perpetrators will of course be dealt with as their crimes deserve, without any reference to the insurrection, with which they are only accidentally and not necessarily connected. ”

“ Depriving the French Canadians of the right of suffrage for a period of ten years, or longer if necessary, as a just punishment for their unjust rebellion. No person, unless it be Jacques Viger, P. D. Debartzch, or some other French Canadian counsellor of Lord Gosford, or Lord Gosford himself, will have the hardihood to deny that the whole country would have been up in arms if Col. ”