[[Image:The-quebec-mercury.jpg|thumb|left|200px|''The Quebec Mercury'', first issue of the ''Tory'' newspaper, January 5, 1805]]Nothing would be more compromising for an honest man than to be praised, often and highly, by rascals. Nothing would tend to ruin more quickly a reputation of political integrity, of devotion to the cause of justice, freedom and the rights of the people, than to deserve a word of praise, to get a second compliment from ''[[The Transcript]]'', or any other section of the [[Wikipedia:Tory|Tory]] press of [[Wikipedia:Lower Canada|Lower Canada]], such as it has been on the whole, since the first page of ''[[Wikipedia:Quebec Mercury|The Mercury]]'' to the last lucubration of ''[[The Courier]]''. It is to thwart such a perfidious tactic, it is to push back such an offencive praise, as the one which the slanderous sheet, ''The Transcript'', gives me by publishing that I said to a delegation of Irish fellow-citizens, that understood that the object of their meeting was concerned with foreign countries alone, and not Canada, I did not want to take any part in it, that I decided to give an account of the interview which I had with them.
Nothing would be more compromising for an honest man than to be often and highly praised by rascals. Nothing would tend to ruin more quickly the reputation of political integrity, of devotion to the cause of justice, freedom and the rights of the people, than to deserve a word of praise, to get a second compliment from the ''[[Transcript]]'', or any other section of the [[Tory]] press of [[Lower Canada]], such as it has been in the whole, since the first page of ''[[Mercury]]'' to the last lucubration of the ''[[Courier]]''. It is to thwart such a perfidious tactic, it is to push back such an offencive praise, as the one which the slanderous sheet, the ''Transcript'', gives me by publishing that I said to a delegation of Irish fellow-citizens, that understood that the object of their meeting were for foreign countries alone, and not Canada, I did not want to take any part in it, that I decided to give an account of the interview which I had with them.
[[Image:Old-irish-parliament.jpg|thumb|Building hosting the Irish Parliament abolished by the 1800 Act of Union]]I was being invited to become the chairman of a public meeting to demand the repeal of the oppressive [[Wikipedia:Act of Union 1800|Act of Union of Ireland]], and to express our strong sympathies, for the heroism with which the French people destroyed a corrupting [[Wikipedia:monarchy|monarchy]], made a bonfire out of a throne whose ashes, blown over the world by a favourable breeze, with the Westward wind of America, with the wind of freedom, started the burning of so many other thrones; and for the sublime moderation with which this people forgives the vanquished tyrants. These truths, I had called them holy. I had made myself their apostle; I had preached them. I was bound by the public, as by my conscience to make constant efforts to have them prevail, and I could have given an answer as wretched as the one which the ''Transcript'' charges on me! It is for that that I am praised! astute praise; atrocious lie, which proves the imbecility of the one who believed such news, or the corruption of the heart, the perfidy and spirit of intrigue of the one or the ones who invented and accredited it.
L'on m'invitait à devenir le président d'une assemblée publique pour y demander le rappel de l'[[Wikipedia:fr:Acte d'Union (1800)|acte oppresseur de l'Union de l'Irlande]], et pour donner expression à nos vives sympathies, pour l'héroïsme avec lequel le peuple français a détruit une [[Wikipedia:fr:Monarchie|monarchie]] corruptrice, a brûler et fait un feu de joie d'un trône dont les cendres, promenées sur le monde par une brise propice, par le vent d'ouest de l'Amérique, par le vent de la liberté, ont commencé l'incendie de tant d'autres trônes; et pour la modération sublime avec laquelle il pardonne à ses tyrans abattus. Ces vérités, je les avait appelées saintes. Je m'en étais fait l'apôtre; je les avais prêchées. J'étais lié avec le public, comme par ma conscience à faire de constants efforts pour les faire prévaloir, et j'aurais pu faire une réponse aussi ignoble que celle que m'impute le ''Transcript''! C'est pour cela que je suis louangé! louange astucieuse; atroce mensonge, qui prouve l'imbécillité de celui qui a cru un pareil rapport, ou la corruption de coeur, la perfidie et l'esprit d'intrigue de celui ou de ceux qui l'ont inventé et accrédité.
If I were capable of such a contemptible selfishness, of such a disgusting servilism, I would be worthy of falling to what I consider the lowest degree of the social scale: worthy to become, not by need or to win my bread, something to which an honest but unfortunate man could be reduced, to become, says I, a ''garçon-typographe-volontaire'' (what the courtesy of the English language would call a "volunteer devil") in the printing works of ''The Transcript''.
Si j'étais capable d'un égoïsme aussi abject, d'un servilisme aussi ord, je serais digne de tomber dans ce que je regarde comme le plus bas degré de l'échelle sociale : digne de revenir, non par nécessité et pour gagner mon pain, ce à quoi un homme honnête mais infortuné peut être réduit, à devenir, dis-je, garçon-typographe-volontaire (ce que la politesse de la langue anglaise appellerait diable-par-choix, a ''volunteer devil'') dans l'imprimerie du ''Transcript''.
The paper's tale is of infernal origin, since ''The Transcript'' ensures the readers that [[Wikipedia:Beelzebub|Beelzebub]] alone knows where the delegation came from. It is the editor's devotion to such a boss who undoubtedly hired him to become his servant and his echo, since he publishes, as truth, the lie to which he attributes such an origin. He believes it true because it comes from from where the majority of his inspirations and inventions come from, his discoveries and his denunciations in nocturnal assemblies, as real and criminal as were those of the sorcerers' Sabbath. The last ones who were judicially burned in Europe were so in England!
Son conte est d'infernale origine, puisque le Transcript assure que Belzébuth seul sait d'où venait la députation. C'est la dévotion de l'[[éditeur]] pour un tel patron qui sans doute l'a engagé à s'en faire le serviteur et l'écho, puisqu'il publie, comme vrai, le mensonge auquel il donne une telle origine. Il le croit vrai parce qu'il vient de là d'où lui viennent la plupart de ses inspirations et inventions, de ses découvertes et de ses dénonciations d'assemblées nocturnes, aussi réelles et criminelles que l'étaient celles du sabbat des sorciers. Les derniers qui ont été judiciairement brûlés en Europe l'ont été en Angleterre!
The veracious version of what this delegation was, and what it wished for, is that it was animated by feelings too human and too generous to be suspected of coming on behalf of [[Wikipedia:Downing Street|Downing Street]]. Thus it did not come from Beelzebub. Well convinced of that, I felt my conscience safe to ear what it had to say. The delegation's feelings of hatred against all aristocratic tyranny, and of love for all popular freedoms, established from the start rapports of sympathy between its members and me. The conversation was thus frank and free, such as it would be between associates of [[Wikipedia:Tivoli Variety Theatre|Conciliation Hall]].
La version véridique de ce qu'était et de ce que désirait cette députation est qu'elle était animée de sentiments trop humains et trop généreux, pour pouvoir être soupçonnée de venir de la part de [[Wikipedia:fr:Downing Street|Downing Street]]. Elle ne venait donc pas de Belzébuth. Bien convaincu de cela, j'ai pu en sûreté de conscience l'écouteur. Ses sentiments de haine contre toute les tyrannies aristocratiques, et d'amour pour toutes les libertés populaires, établissaient de suite des rapports de sympathie entre elle et moi. La conversation fut donc franche et libre, telle qu'elle pourrait être entre des affiliés de ''[[Conciliation Hall]]''.
When nearly two centuries before the birth of [[Wikipedia:Christianity|Christianity]], on the theatre of [[Wikipedia:pagan|pagan]] [[Wikipedia:Roman Republic|Rome]], one of most elegant of her poets exhaled this suave sentence: "I am human, nothing that is human is alien to me", the unanimous applause of one hundred thousand spectators welcomed this evangelic revelation. There was not a single man in such a numerous assembly, to which assisted envoys of all the Roman colonies, ambassadors of all the parts of the globe where the [[Wikipedia:Greco-Roman|Greek and Latin civilization]], or even ours, had penetrated, who was not sensitive to this sentiment of the heart, to this cry of nature. How is it then that the whole of the Canadian Tory press believes that the duty and honesty of the British government require that it only expresses contempt and animosity for this Ireland, whose oppression produced a [[Wikipedia:Golgotha|Golgotha]] too narrow to hide in its entrails the corpses that famine feeds it; the result being that they remain exposed on its surface, and find their burial in the entrails of dogs and birds of prey! Pity for Ireland! It would be an insult to the British government, so vigilant to punish those who would be hard and cruel for the Irish, object of predilection of the Lords [[Wikipedia:John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Russell]] and [[Wikipedia:Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Brougham]], [[Wikipedia:Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Palmerston]] and [[Wikipedia:Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby|Stanley]] and ''hoc omne genus''; a proof of it is the rigour of the punishment which they have just inflicted to [[Blake]]. In the night of last December 31, this ''mauvais riche'', this great landowner, sent men to destroy the poor houses of a great number of Irish families and made them perish by the rigour of the cold. One then asked to the worthier of the viceroys which this valley of tears and tortures ever had if it were possible to have the infamous murderer punished. The viceroy answered no, that Mr. Blake was the Master of these houses and that he could do what he wanted with them; but that, wishing to punish, as much as the English legislation and sensitivity can allow, this outrage against humanity of the highest degree, he would strike out of the list of the Justices of the Peace this monster with a man's face, a tiger's heart, the hyena's instincts, enjoying the smell of corpses in a state of decomposition around his den!
Quand près de deux siècles avant la naissance du [[Wikipedia:fr:Christianisme|christianisme]], sur le théâtre de [[Wikipedia:fr:Rome antique|Rome païenne]], l'un des plus élégants de ses poètes exhalait cette suave sentence : « Je suis homme, rien de ce qui peut aider au bonheur de l'homme ne m'est étranger », l'applaudissement unanime de cent mille spectateurs accueillit cette évangélique révélation. Il ne se trouva pas un seul homme dans une assemblée si nombreuse, à laquelle assistaient des envoyés de toutes les colonies romaines, des ambassadeurs de toutes les parties du globe où avait pénétré la civilisation grecque et latine, même de la nôtre, qui ne fût sensible à cet élan du coeur, à ce cri de la nature. Comment se fait-il donc que la presse tory canadienne toute entière croie que le devoir et la loyauté pour le gouvernement britannique exigent qu'elle n'exprime que mépris et animosité pour cette Irlande, dont l'oppression a fait un [[Wikipedia:fr:Golgotha (Calvaire)|Golgotha]] trop étroit pour cacher dans ses entrailles les cadavres que lui donne la famine; en sorte qu'ils restent exposés à sa surface, pour trouver leur sépulture dans les entrailles des chiens et des oiseaux de proie! La pitié pour l'Irlande! Ce serait une insulte pour le gouvernement britannique, si vigilant à punir ceux qui seraient durs et cruels pour les Irlandais, objets des prédilections des lords [[Wikipedia:fr:John Russell|Russell]] et [[Wikipedia:fr:Henry Brougham|Brougham]], [[Wikipedia:fr:Henry John Temple|Palmerston]] et [[Stanley]] ''et hoc omne genus''; témoin la rigueur du châtiment qu'ils viennent d'infliger à [[Blake]]. Dans la nuit du 31 décembre dernier, ce mauvais riche, ce grand propriétaire, envoie détruire les pauvres demeures d'un grand nombre de familles irlandaises et les fait périr par la rigueur du froid. L'on a été demander à l'un des plus dignes des vice-rois qu'ait eus cette vallée des pleurs et des tortures s'il y avait quelque moyen de faire punir cet infâme meurtrier. Le vice-roi répond que non, que M. Blake est le maître de ces maisons et qu'il en peut faire ce qu'il voudra ; mais que, désirant punir, autant que la législation et la sensibilité anglaises le peuvent permettre, ce crime de lèse-humanité au premier chef, il rayera de la liste des juges de paix ce monstre à visage d'homme, à coeur de tigre, avec les instincts de la hyène, savourant l'odeur des cadavres en décomposition autour de son repaire!
[[Image:Terentius.jpg|thumb|left|Terence, Carthage slave who became a Roman playwright]]How to explain the savage cry of hatred against men oppressed to this degree; how not to share the natural feeling of all of Rome, electrified by the hollow voice of [[Wikipedia:Terence|Terence]]? It is because at that time the Roman government was a civilizing conqueror, whereas the English government was for Ireland, for India, for New France, an exterminating conqueror. Pagan Rome had agreed to give peace to [[Wikipedia:Carthage|Carthage]] only at the condition that she soften her sanguinary cult and abolish human sacrifices. The mercantile government of the Indies had its Christian dignitaries assist the holocausts of the widows, burned alive with the corpses of their husbands; same for the processions of [[Wikipedia:Juggernaut|Juggernaut]] where, by the hundreds, fanatics are each year crushed under the wheels of the cart carrying an idol much more avid of human blood than ever was that which is honoured by the African ferocity.
Comment expliquer le cri sauvage de la haine contre des hommes opprimés à ce degré; comment ne pas partager l'élan naturel de Rome entière, électrisée par la voix creuse de [[Wikipedia:fr:Térence|Térence]]? C'est qu'à cette époque le gouvernement romain était un conquérant civilisateur, et que le gouvernement anglais a été pour l'Irlande, pour les Indes, pour la Nouvelle-France, un conquérant exterminateur. Rome païenne n'avait consenti à donner la paix à [[Wikipedia:fr:Carthage|Carthage]] qu'à la condition qu'elle adoucirait son culte sanguinaire et abolirait les sacrifices humains. Le gouvernement ''mercandier'' des Indes a longtemps fait assister ses hauts dignitaires chrétiens aux [[holocaustes des veuves]], brûlées vives avec le corps mort de leur mari; ainsi qu'aux processions de [[Wikipedia:fr:Jaggernaut|Jagrenaut]] où, par centaines, des fanatiques sont écrasés chaque année sous les roues du char qui traîne une idole bien plus avide de sang humain que ne le fut celle qu'honora l'africaine férocité.
There can be no sympathy expressed in the Tory press for the anguish of Ireland. Its Masters do not give gold for such paragraphs. They give advertisements, gold, places and honours to those who desert and curse Ireland and Canada.
Il ne peut y avoir de sympathie exprimée dans la presse tory pour l'agonie de l'Irlande. Ses maîtres ne donnent point d'or pour de pareils paragraphes. Ils donnent des avertissements, de l'or, des places et des honneurs à ceux qui désertent, à ceux qui maudissent l'Irlande et le Canada.
Damned be Ireland and Canada; blessed be the acts of Union of Ireland and of Canada, say the men and the newspapers devoured by hunger and thirst for advertising, gold, places and what they call honours.
Maudits soient l'Irlande et le Canada; bénis soient les actes d'Union de l'Irlande et du Canada, disent les hommes et les journaux qui sont dévorés de la faim et de la soif, d'avoir des avertissements, de l'or, des places et ce qu'ils appellent honneurs.
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Monsieur, il y a eu à Québec une belle assemblée, dans laquelle l'on a dénoncé la tyrannie de l'Angleterre, donné une larme aux souffrances de l'Irlande, une aspiration pour sa délivrance; et un cri d'allégresse pour la gloire pure et sans tache de la France républicaine. Ici où nous sommes deux fois plus nombreux que ne le sont nos compatriotes de Québec; ici, dans la capitale de deux grandes provinces, n'en devons-nous pas avoir une semblable? Nous voulons l'avoir et nous vous prions de la présider.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: Dear Sir, there was in Quebec City a nice public meeting, in which people denounced the tyranny of England, poured tears for the sufferings of Ireland, and expressed their aspirations for her relief; and a cry of joy for the pure and unstained glory of republican France. Here where we are twice as numerous as our compatriots of Quebec City; here, in the capital of two big provinces, shouldn't we hold a similar one? We want to have it and we pray you to chair it.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : Vous avez raison, mes amis, d'en vouloir organiser une semblable à celle de Québec. Pour cette fin, ma voix et mon coeur vous sont acquis. Vous n'avez pas raison de vouloir que je la préside. Il y a de la vie et de l'honneur dans Québec. Il y en a eu quand, sous le règne de la terreur et sous l'inspiration de la liberté, en présence de lord [[Wikipedia:fr:John George Lambton, 1er comte de Durham|Durham]], l'on y a flétri sa tyrannie exercée contre les [[exilés de la Bermude]]; flétri l'exubérance de sa déraison quand il publiait que le retour au pays d'accusés absents serait haute trahison, pour laquelle ils souffriraient la mort, sans procès; quand ''[http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/fantasque/ Le Fantasque]'' édifiait ses lecteurs, sur les folies quotidiennes des actes de la dictature d'alors (celle du moment pourrait bien le ressusciter avec toute sa verve); quand on y a protesté et pétitionné contre l'acte d'Union; quand on s'y est organisé l'été dernier, en comité nombreux de la réforme et du progrès; quand enfin, en assemblée récente, on s'y est réuni pour l'exaltation de l'héroïsme français, l'exécration du despotisme anglais, la commisération pour les râles de l'Irlande agonisante. Oui, il y a à Québec de la vie et de l'honneur. À Montréal, c'est autre chose. Nous y avons le siège du [[Wikipedia:fr:Gouvernement responsable|gouvernement responsable]]. Nous y avons des hommes d'État, politiques profonds comme l'abîme et muets comme la tombe, qui étouffent toutes les mesures qui naissent dans Québec. Pourquoi le font-ils? Ils ne m'ont pas dit leurs secrets. Je n'ai pas assez de clairvoyance pour les deviner. Il faut donc que vous sachiez s'il leur plaît que vous ayez l'assemblée que vous projetez.
[[Image:Fantasque.jpg|thumb|''Le Fantasque'', first issue, August 1837]]<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: You are right, my friends, to want to organize a meeting similar to that of Quebec City. To this end, my voice and my heart are all yours. But you are not right to want me to chair it. There are life and honour in Quebec City. There was some when, under the reign of terror and under the inspiration of freedom, in the presence of Lord [[Wikipedia:John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham|Durham]], people faded the tyranny he exerted against the [[exiled of the Bermudas]]; withered the exuberance of his insanity when he published that by returning to the country the absent defendants would commit high treason, for which they would suffer death, without any trial; when ''[http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/fantasque/ Le Fantasque]'' edified its readers, on the daily follies of the dictatorship's actions of the time (the current one could very well resuscitate it in all its liveliness); when people protested and petitioned against the Act of Union; when last summer they organized themselves in a committee of reform and progress; when finally, in a recent meeting, some gathered for the exaltation of French heroism, the execration of English despotism, the commiseration for the groans of agonizing Ireland. Yes, in Quebec City there is life and honour. In Montreal, that is another story. We have the seat of the [[Wikipedia:Responsible government|responsible government]] there. We have statesmen, politicians as deep as the abyss and men as mute as grave stones, who choke all measures which were born in Quebec City. Why do they do it? They did not tell me their secrets. I do not have enough perspicacity to guess them. It is necessary that you know if they like it that you have the public meeting you are planning.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Nous avons lieu de penser qu'il leur plaît que nous ne l'ayons pas. L'on a demandé à M. [http://www.biographi.ca/FR/ShowBio.asp?BioId=39613 Drummond], président de [[notre association pour le rappel de l'acte d'Union de l'Irlande]], et à M. [[Ryan]] qui en était le secrétaire, de convoquer cette assemblée, à l'instar de celle qui a eu lieu à Québec : ils s'y sont refusés. Ils ont dit que nos compatriotes québécois avaient commis une grande étourderie d'avoir eu cette assemblée, d'avoir eu cette intempestive réunion, sans avoir préalablement consulté aucun des membres du gouvernement ici; que c'était susciter de l'embarras à une autorité amie, de qui nous obtiendrions à la fin tout ce que nous voudrions si, avec assez de patience, nous savions attendre assez longtemps; que maintenant qu'ils s'étaient attachés au gouvernement ils devaient se détacher de notre association; que nous pouvons élire d'autres officiers. C'est pour cela qu'en même temps que nous souhaitons vous choisir pour président, nous voulons avoir des résolutions publiques votées pour le rappel de l'Union et pour l'exaltation de la vertu et de la bravoure françaises, qui vivifient tous les peuples et, sous peine de déchéance, convertissent tous les rois.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: We have reasons to think that they would be happy if we did not have it. We asked Mr. Drummond, chairman of our association for the recall of the act of Union of Ireland, and Mr. Ryan who was secretary, to convene this meeting as was done in Quebec City: they refused. They said that our compatriots from Quebec City had done something thoughtless in holding this meeting, which was inopportune, without having beforehand consulted any of the members of the government here [in Montreal]; that was to cause embarrassment to a friendly authority, which we would in the end grant all that we would like if, with enough patience, we could wait long enough; that now that they had tied themselves to the government they had to detach themselves from our association; that we could elect other officers. That is why we wish to choose you as chairman and at the same time we want to have public resolutions voted for the recall of the Union and for the exaltation of the virtue and French bravery, which vivify all peoples and, at the price of forfeiture, convert all kings.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : Ah! M. Drummond et M. Ryan, hommes libres, étaient des officiers de votre société; et, serviteurs du gouvernement, ils doivent la répudier? Mais certes, il y a là-dessous quelque chose de fort grave et de très compromettant. Il faut que je connaisse bien votre but et vos règles, avant que je me hasarde à m'affilier. Auraient-ils découvert, depuis qu'ils sont commissionnés, qu'il y a quelque odeur de déloyauté dans ces déplorables règles, que je ne connais pas? Ont-ils été longtemps vos officiers? Ont-ils pris part à vos discussions?
<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: Ah! Mr. Drummond and Mr. Ryan, free men, were officers in your society; and, civil servants, they now repudiate it? But there certainly is something very serious and very compromising underneath it . I must know your goal and your rules, before I venture myself to affiliate myself with you. Would they have discovered, since they were commissioned, that there is some odour of disloyalty in these deplorable rules, that I do not know? Were they your officers for a long time? Did they take part in your discussions?
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Oh! pour cela, oui. Ils ont parlé plus souvent, plus dru, plus gros et plus fort qu'aucun autre des membres de la société.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: Oh! for that, yes. They spoke more often, more thickly, bigger and louder than any of the other members of the society.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : Bon, comme cela. Vous me faîtes plaisir. Il n'y avait rien de criminel dans votre maçonnerie, quand ils parlaient; j'en conclus qu'il n'y a rien de criminel quand ils se taisent.
<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: Good them. You make me happy. There was nothing criminal in your masonry, when they spoke; I conclude that there is nothing criminal now that they are keeping silent. It is not you who changed; it is them who are changed, or who are not changed; but...</blockquote>
Ce n'est pas vous qui avez changé; ce sont eux qui sont changés, c'est-à-dire qui ne le sont pas; mais...</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
« Qui sont tenus de le paraître. Peuple caméléon, peuple singe du maître. » [1]
"Their task it is to seem it all — Chameleons, monkeys, great and small." {{Refl|1}}
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Oh! bien moi, qui n'ai pas d'autre maître que la loi, je pourrai oser parler quand ils ne pourront pas oser le faire? Vrai. C'est réjouissant d'apprendre que l'on peut devenir l'un de vous sans pour cela être trop facilement poursuivi par le [[solliciteur général]], qui a été l'un de vous.
Oh! well in my case, me who has no other Master than the law, I could dare to speak when they will not dare to do it? True. It is amusing to learn that one can become one of yours without being too easily persecuted by the Solicitor General, who was also one of you.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Non seulement il ne doit pas poursuivre ses frères associés, mais nous croyons bien que c'est cette qualité de président des frères associés qui l'a fait solliciteur général. Ce n'est pas à raison de la seule circonstance de son origine irlandaise que nous l'avons porté à la représentation. Ce fut encore plus à raison de ses protestations énergiques et réitérées d'amour passionné pour les libertés populaires; de haine contre une oppression séculaire, régularisée contre notre infortunée patrie, au profit de nobles et de prêtres ennemis étrangers, justement odieux, depuis les dévastations des [[Wikipedia:fr:Plantagenêt|Plantagenets]], des [[Wikipedia:fr:Maison Tudor|Tudors]] et des [[Wikipedia:fr:Stuart|Stuarts]] jusqu'aux proscriptions de [[Wikipedia:fr:Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], jusqu'aux trahisons de [[Wikipedia:fr:Robert Stewart|Castlereagh]], jusqu'aux fourberies de lord Russell : ce fut à raison de ses promesses de faire écho aux dénonciations fulminées par les [[Wikipedia:fr:Henry Grattan|Grattan]] et les [[Wikipedia:fr:Daniel O'Connell|O'Connell]] contre les traîtres, qui ont vendu l'Irlande au [[Sassenagh]], que nous l'avons porté à la représentation, voie d'avancement la plus large et la plus facile de toutes, sous l'heureux système de gouvernement responsable, intègre, économique, désintéressé, grand travailleur pour de minces rémunérations, dont nous avons eu le bonheur de jouir depuis sept années.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: Not only should he not prosecute his associate brothers, but we believe that it is this quality of chairman of the associate brothers which made him Solicitor General. It is not only because of his Irish origin that we elected him in the representation. It was even more because of his energetic and reiterated protests of passionate love for popular freedoms; of hatred against a centuries-old oppression, regularized against our unfortunate fatherland, for the profit of the nobles and priests who were foreign enemy, precisely odious, from the devastations of the [[Wikipedia:House of Plantagenet|Plantagenets]], [[Wikipedia:Tudor dynasty|Tudors]] and [[Wikipedia:House of Stuart|Stuarts]] to the proscriptions of [[Wikipedia:Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]], the treasons of [[Wikipedia:Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Castlereagh]], the cheatings of Lord Russell: it was because of his promises to echo the denunciations fulminated by [[Wikipedia:Henry Grattan|Grattan]] and [[Wikipedia:Daniel O'Connell|O'Connell]] against the traitors, who sold Ireland to the [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sassenach Sassenagh], that we sent him in the representation, the widest and easiest of all paths to personal advancement, under the happy system of responsible government, honest, economic, disinterested, great worker for little remunerations, system which we have had the happiness to enjoy for seven years.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : En est-il ainsi? Alors soyez sûrs que vous aurez mal compris votre président. Il ne peut pas prétendre que toute la respectabilité qu'il y ait dans votre association s'en retire dès qu'il s'est retiré. Ni lui, ni aucun membre de notre [[cabinet libéral]] ne peuvent avoir la présomption de condamner comme une étourderie une assemblée comme celle de Québec, présidée par un [[Wikipedia:fr:Bernard O'Reilly|prêtre respectable]], en rapport journalier avec ses supérieurs ecclésiastiques, Sa Grâce l'archevêque, son coadjuteur et autres de nos prêtres les plus éclairés du pays; encouragée par la présence et la participation de toute la représentation de la ville et du voisinage de Québec, dont l'un des représentants était aussi [[membre du cabinet]]. Il a été fait juge depuis, ce qui n'aurait pu être, s'il y avait eu quelque chose de déloyal dans ces procédés. S'il avait vu quelque imprudence dans aucune des résolutions débattues et votées, il n'aurait pas manqué d'y proposer quelque judicieux amendement. Je vous conseille donc de revoir votre président, de le prier de continuer à conserver cette charge, et les sentiments qui vous ont engagés à la lui déférer; de l'assurer que je ne voudrais participer à aucun mouvement qui, mal interprété, aurait l'air de ma part de vouloir lui ravir un honneur qu'il a si bien mérité. Je l'estime. Il est homme de talents distingués, de solide et de brillante éducation. Des hommes de ce calibre, je les honore, à quelque école qu'ils appartiennent; mais c'est avec prédilection que je les honore quand ils appartiennent à l'[[école libérale canadienne]] et [[irlandaise]]. Allez plusieurs ensemble le revoir. Renouvelez votre demande. Qu'il n'y ait point de surprise. Dites-lui que, s'il vous donne des raisons de vous désister qui vous paraissent bonnes, vous les donnerez au public, pour vous excuser de ne pas imiter le bel et bon exemple que nous donne Québec; que si elles paraissent mauvaises, vous ne vous désisterez point, et les publierez pour que vous et lui soyez jugés en pleine connaissance de case.</blockquote>
<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: Is it so? Then you can be sure that you have misunderstood your chairman. He cannot pretend that all the respectability that there is in your association has been withdrawn as soon as he left it. Neither him, nor any member of our liberal cabinet can have the presumption of condemning as a thoughtlessness a meeting such as that of Quebec, chaired by a [[respectable priest]], in daily connection with his ecclesiastical superiors, His Grace the archbishop, his coadjutor and others of our most enlightened priests in the country; encouraged by the presence and the participation of all the representation of the city and the vicinity of Quebec, including one of the representatives who was also [[member of the cabinet]]. He was since made judge, which could not have been, if there had been something disloyal in these activities. If he had seen some imprudence in any of the resolutions that were discussed and voted, he would not have failed to propose some judicious amendment. I thus advise you to re-examine your chairman, to request that he continue to exercise his function, and to keep the feelings which made you choose him as your representative; to ensure him that I would not want to take part in a movement which, badly interpreted, would give the impression of my wanting to steal an honour which he so well deserved. I esteem him. He is man of distinguished talents, and had solid and brilliant education. Men of this gauge, I honour them, to whichever school they belong; but it is by predilection that I honour them when they belong to the Canadian and Irish liberal schools. Go and meet him again as a group. Renew your request. Let there be no surprise. Say to him that, if he gives you reasons to desist which appear good to you, you will let them be known to the public, to apologize for not imitating the beautiful and good example which Quebec gives us; that if his reasons appear to be bad, you will not desist, and will publish those reasons so that you and him may be judged in full knowledge of the case.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Dites-lui que, s'il veut bien présider l'assemblée que vous désirez avoir, je l'y seconderai de grand coeur. Si, à ma grande surprise, il s'y refusait, cela même ne deviendrait pas ne raison suffisante pour que vous dussiez me faire l'honneur de me choisir pour président, ni de votre association ni de votre assemblée. Croyez-en un ami sincère de la bonne cause, dans laquelle vous êtes engagés, qui a quelque expérience acquise des hommes et des affaires, de celles de votre pays en particulier.</blockquote>
Tell him that, if he wants to chair at the meeting that you wish to have, I will second him open heartedly. If, to my surprise, he refuses, even that would not constitution a sufficient reason for you to give me the honour of choosing me as chairman, neither of your association nor of your meeting. Believe a sincere friend of the good cause in which you are engaged, a friend who has gained some experience of men and business, of those of your country in particular.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
La tyrannie a été si exorbitante contre votre déplorable patrie, aussi riante et embellie par les bienfaits de la Providence qu'elle est assombrie par les méfaits de vos gouvernants, qu'elle a développé chez la généralité d'entre vous des vertus natives, et des vices qu'a fait naître le dominateur étranger. Vous avez été dans un état de conjuration plus fréquent qu'aucun autre peuple, contre des iniquités plus atroces que n'en a souffertes aucune autre nation. De là votre amour plus enthousiaste pour le culte de la patrie; pour votre dignité chérie, [[Érin]] la belle, Érin dénudée par le spoliateur qui l'outrage. Cet amour du pays, c'est la première des vertus pour l'Anglais qui commande; c'est à ses yeux le plus détestable des sentiments que le peuple puisse nourrir dans ses colonies d'Irlande et du Canada. C'est celui qu'il y a le plus souvent et le plus impitoyablement châtié. Vous donnez avec un élan de générosité sans bornes votre confiance à quiconque est dévoué à votre cause. Vous savez que je suis un de ces hommes; vous voulez m'en témoigner votre reconnaissance d'une manière qui dépasse les bornes de la discrétion, de la fierté nationale, du sentiment d'estime que vous devez nourrir et afficher pour vous-mêmes, pour votre nationalité et pour vos nationaux. Les associations que l'on forme doivent resserrer les liens de confiance et de dépendance mutuelle entre les associés. Ne faites rien qui puisse relâcher les liens d'entière confiance entre vous tous, dans une association irlandaise, formée dans un intérêt irlandais : le rappel de votre néfaste acte d'Union.</blockquote>
[[Image:Irelande.jpg|thumb|left|Erin, the magnificently green island]]Tyranny has been so exorbitant against your deplorable fatherland, made as joyful and beautiful by the good doings of the Providence as it has been obscured by the misdeeds of your governors, that she developed, among the generality of your kind, virtues which are native to you and vices which the foreign dominator gave birth to. You have been living in a more frequent state of conspiracy than any other people, against iniquities more atrocious than any other nation had to suffered. From there your more enthusiastic love for the cult of the fatherland; for your cherished dignity, [[Wikipedia:Erin|Erin]] the beautiful, Erin dispossessed by the despoiler insulting her. This love of the country, is the first of virtues for the English who gives orders; and it is to his eyes the most hateful of feelings that the people could nourish in his colonies of Ireland and Canada. It is the virtue which he most generally and most pitilessly punished. You give your confidence, with a limitless burst of generosity, to whoever is devoted to your cause. You know that I am one of these men; you want to testify your recognition to me in a manner which exceeds the limits of discretion, of national pride, of the feeling of esteem that you must nourish and display for yourselves, for your nationality and your nationals. Associations must be created to tighten the bonds of confidence and mutual dependence among the associates. Do not do anything which can slacken the bonds of complete confidence between you all, in an Irish association, created for an Irish interest: the repeal of your harmful Act of Union.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Souvent décimés en punition de votre fort amour du pays, vous vous êtes trop souvent formés en [[sociétés secrètes]], dans lesquelles l'or anglais, les espions anglais vous poussaient à la vengeance; et, à la veille de son explosion, vous trahissaient. Cela vous a rendus soupçonneux. C'est le vice que le dominateur étranger a fait naître dans des natures disposées par la Providence à être les plus confiantes qu'il y eût sur terre. L'Irlande a plus de chances de salut en ce moment que jamais, parce qu'elle n'a pas de société secrètes. Sa haine est aussi hautement avouée que justement formée.</blockquote>
Often decimated in punishment of your strong love for your country, you have too often organized in [[secret societies]], in which the English gold, the English spies were pushing you to revenge; and, the day before the explosion, betrayed you. This made you suspicious. It is the vice to which the foreign dominator gave birth in natures which the Providence made to be the most trustful that there ever was on Earth. Ireland has currently more chances of salute than ever, because she does not have secret societies. Her hatred is as highly avowed as it is properly organized.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Ne sentez-vous pas que plus tard l'on ira murmurer aux oreilles des uns et des autres d'entre vous : « Eh quoi, vous êtes ici vingt mille Irlandais, et vous avez jugé que pas un d'entre vous ne méritait l'honneur de vous présider; vous avez jugé que c'était un étranger que vous deviez installer au-dessus de vous tous, quand il est question non pas d'un intérêt social également ''stringent'' pour toutes nos populations mélangées, mais d'un intérêt spécialement national pour vous. » Non. Vous en devez conserver la direction et la présidence. D'autres y ont de meilleurs titres que moi.</blockquote>
Don't you feel that eventually one will murmur in the ear of one another among you: "Eh what, you are twenty thousand Irish people here, and you considered that not one among you deserved the honour to chair your meeting; you have ruled that a foreigner should be installed above you all, when the question is not of a social interest as important for all our mixed populations, but of a special national interest for you." No. You must keep the leadership and the chair to yourselves. Others have a better right to it than me.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Vous avez sur d'autres hommes plus de contrôle, un meilleur droit à exiger qu'ils répondent à votre appel, que vous n'en avez sur moi. C'est la première fois, Messieurs, que nous nous rencontrons. N'y a-t-il pas quelques autres hommes publics avec qui vous avez eu des rapports plus fréquents qu'avec moi; qui vous ont recherché quand ils ont eu besoin de vous; à qui vous avez rendu les services qu'ils sollicitaient de votre part; à qui il a été agréable de recevoir vos suffrages et qui, en retour de vos votes dans leurs élections, vous ont promis de douces paroles, de la déférence et de la civilité; qui vous ont dit que vous aviez droit à leurs conseils, à leurs énergiques encouragements, et toute occasion où vous les demanderiez; droit à leur appui cordial partout où vous en auriez besoin? Le temps et l'occasion sont venus où vous devez apprécier à leur juste valeur la sincérité et l'importance de leurs promesses. Allez vers vos représentants, allez-y avec franchise et avec les mêmes déclarations que je vous ai conseillé de porter à M. Drummond. C'est votre droit de demander, c'est leur devoir de vous donner leur appui, si les objets que vous avez en vue sont, comme il me paraît à moi qu'ils le sont, utiles et honorables à votre patrie, à la mienne, à vous et à tous ceux qui vous seconderont. S'ils vous détrompent, nous leur en aurons obligation. Habiles opérateurs, ils auront donné la lumière à des malheureux qui tâtonnaient dans l'épaisses ténèbres. Ils peuvent nous désillusionner, nous pouvons leur révéler des vérités qu'ils ignorent. Ce n'est qu'en comparant nos doctrines que nous pouvons déterminer quelle est la juste et vraie ''[[doxie]]'', la nôtre ou la leur.</blockquote>
You have on other men more control and a better right to require than they answer your call, than you have on me. It is the first time, Messrs, that we meet. Are there not some other public men with whom you had a more frequent relationship than me; who sought you when they needed you; to whom you rendered services that they requested from you; with whom it was pleasant to receive your votes and who, in return of your votes in their election, promised soft words, respect and civility to you; who said to you that you had the right to their advice, their energetic encouragements, on any occasion you would ask them; the right to their cordial support everywhere you needed it? The time and the occasion have come when you should appreciate to their right value the sincerity and the importance of their promises. Go towards your representatives, go ahead with frankness and with the same declarations that I advised you to bring to Mr. Drummond. It is your right to require, it is their duty to give you their support, if the objects which you seek are as they appears to be, as far as I can tell, useful and honourable to your fatherland, to you and all those who will second you. If they undeceive you, we will be obliged to them for it. Skilful operators, they will have given light to the unhappy ones who were groping in a thick darkness. They could disillusion us, we could reveal them truths they are unaware of. It is only by comparing our doctrines that we can determine which one is the just and true ''[[Wikipedia:doxy|doxy]]'', ours or theirs.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Je suis jeté dans la vie politique contre mon inclination. Après que j'eus franchement expliqué mon mécontentement et mon dédain pour l'ordre politique forcément imposé à mon pays, dans le même but hostile, par les mêmes moyens pervers qui ont enchaîné le vôtre, par une Union meurtrière et dégradante pour l'Irlande, comme la nôtre nous est hostile et plus dégradante encore pour le Bas-Canada, colonie deux fois assujettie à deux métropoles, celle de l'Angleterre qui opprime par antipathie, celle du Haut-Canada qui nous exploite par cupidité, le [[comté de Saint-Maurice]] m'a choisi pour le représenter. Que ce comté s'assemble pour délibérer sur les intérêts généraux du pays, sur ses intérêts locaux, ou sur des questions liées à la cause de la justice, exercée par des vainqueurs généreux contre des rois oppresseurs; ou à celles des droits, des libertés, du bonheur de nos co-sujets dans aucune partie de l'empire, ce comté a droit, si je garde son mandat, de commander mon assistance et ma participation à ses discussions. À Montréal, je ne suis qu'un citoyen qui ne prend part aux délibérations que timidement, quand ses représentants dédaignent de le faire. L'on y a si souvent dit à mes concitoyens, tant de vive voix que par écrit, que j'étais un homme changé, devenu un [http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/parangon parangon] de dévouement au gouvernement contre lequel j'avais lutté toute ma vie; que j'applaudissais à la détermination qu'avaient prise MM. [[Wikipedia:fr:Denis-Benjamin Viger|Viger]] et [[Wikipedia:fr:Denis-Benjamin Papineau|Papineau]] de donner leur appui à l'administration de lord [http://www.biographi.ca/FR/ShowBio.asp?BioId=37683 Metcalfe], puisqu'ils restaient au ministère, plus longtemps que ne le souhaitaient ceux qui brûlaient d'envie et de désir de les remplacer; que, sans l'accueil bienveillant que 7000 de ces mêmes concitoyens m'ont fait dans leur récente assemblée, j'aurais cru me croire repoussé par la majorité d'entre eux, avec autant de sollicitude que je l'étais par leurs nouveaux directeurs. Avant mon retour et depuis mon retour, l'on a si haut proclamé à mon pays qu'il fallait bien se garder d'élire un homme dont les principes étaient aussi inconnus, flottants et versatiles que les miens, à moins qu'on ne lui fît faire sa profession de foi politique; et quand j'ai voulu la formuler, l'on a fait jouer tant d'intrigues pour m'empêcher de la publier que j'ai dû les regarder comme le soin charitable d'hommes qui me disaient : </blockquote>
[[Image:Charles-metcalfe.jpg|thumb|Charles T. Metcalfe, Baron Metcalfe, Governor General of the United Province of Canada from 1843 to 1845]]I am thrown in the political life against my inclination. After I frankly explained my dissatisfaction and my scorn for the political order forcibly imposed to my country, with the same hostile aim, by the same perverse means which chains yours, by a fatal and degrading Union for Ireland, as ours is hostile to us and more degrading even for Lower Canada, colony twice subjugated to two metropolises, that of England which oppresses by antipathy, that of Upper Canada which exploits us by cupidity, the [[Wikipedia:Saint-Maurice (electoral district)|county of Saint-Maurice]] chose me to represent it. If this county meets to deliberate on the general interests on the country, its local interests, or questions related to the cause of the justice, exerted by generous vanquishers against oppressive kings; or to that of the rights, freedoms, and happiness of our Co-Subjects in any part of the Empire, this county has the right, if I keep the mandate it gave me, to order my assistance and my participation in its discussions. In Montreal, I am but a simple citizen who timidly takes part to the deliberations, when its representatives disdain to do it. One so often said to my fellow-citizens, in speech as in writing, that I was a changed man, that I have become a [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/paragon paragon] of devotion to the government against which I had fought all my life; that I applauded to the determination which Misters [[Wikipedia:Louis-Michel Viger|Viger]] and [[Wikipedia:Denis-Benjamin Papineau|Papineau]] had taken to give their support to the administration of Lord [[Wikipedia:Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe|Metcalfe]], since they remained in power, longer than those who were burning with the envy and the desire to replace them; that, without the benevolent welcoming which 7,000 of these same fellow-citizens gave me in their recent meeting, I would have believed myself pushed away by the majority of them, with as much solicitude as I was by their new leaders. Before my return and since my return, one so high proclaimed to my country that one should be careful not to elect a man whose principles were so unknown, floating and changeable that mine, unless one made him do his political profession of faith; and when I wanted to formulate it, so many intrigues were done to prevent me from publishing it that I had to consider those actions as expressing the charitable care of men who were saying to me:</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
« Ne parlez pas, vous ne seriez pas écouté. Si vous voulez parler dans notre sens, c'est votre droit. Qu'alors vos professions soient courtes comme le sont les nôtres. Ne parlez pas beaucoup, ne dites rien du mérite ou du démérite de l'Union; de la représentation proportionnée à la population; de l'extension du droit de suffrage à tous; de l'utilité que partie au moins de la représentation soit choisie parmi les électeurs résidents; que l'éligibilité ne devrait dépendre que de la confiance publique, non de la propriété bien ou mal acquise du candidat. Ne dites pas que la conviction, devant juré légal, tel qu'il n'y en a pas encore eu dans le pays, de l'emploi de moyens de corruption dans une élection, devrait disqualifier pour toujours le coupable convaincu, de ses droits d'électeur et d'éligible, et de l'aptitude à remplir aucune charge d'honneur et de profit. N'insinuez point qu'il serait désirable que l'administration fût plus travaillante et surtout moins dispendieuse, c'est contre l'intention de ceux qui nous ont donné le gouvernement responsable et contre l'intérêt de ceux qui l'exercent; ne soufflez mot de bien d'autres vétilles de cette nature, dont vous avez la manie de vous occuper »; </blockquote>
" Do not speak you would not be listened to. If you want to talk in the same way we do, it is your right. Then make your statements short like ours. Do not speak much, do not say anything on the merit or the demerit of the Union; representation proportional to the population; the extension of the right to vote to all; of the usefulness that at least a part of the representation be selected among the resident voters; that the eligibility should depend only on public confidence, not on the badly or justly acquired property of the candidate. Do not say that the conviction, in front of a legally sworn jury, such as we have not yet seen in the country, of the use of corruption methods in an election, should forever disqualify the convinced culprit, of his rights as voter and eligible, and of the aptitude to fill any public function of honour and profit. Do not insinuate that it would be desirable that the administration be working more and especially be less expensive, it is against the intention of those who gave us the responsible government and against the interest of those who exert it; do not say a good word or other trifles of this nature, which you have the habit to take care of; these are rather useless details since the symbol that represent the good citizenship card, the essential certificate of eligibility has been translated into one supremely simple sentence. Here it is for you to use: "I believe in the [[Wikipedia:Robert Baldwin|Baldwin]]-[[Wikipedia:Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine|La Fontaine]] ministry and I swear a blind obedience to it." "
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
détails fort inutiles depuis que le symbole qui est une carte civisme, un certificat indispensable d'éligibilité a été traduit en une seule phrase suprêmement simple. La voilà à votre service : « Je crois en le ministère Baldwin-La Fontaine et je lui jure obéissance aveugle. »</blockquote>
[[Image:Robert-baldwin.jpg|thumb|left|Robert Baldwin, lawyer, parliamentarian and minister from Lower Canada]][[Image:Louis-hippolyte-la-fontaine.jpg|thumb|Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, lawyer, parliamentarian and minister from Lower Canada]]My own formula is to give a cordial support to all measures that will seem good to me; and give a free censure with refusal to support those measures which will seem bad to me. With the antecedents that I have given myself and with those which other gave me, I do not have strong motives to court, in Montreal, the disloyal inventors and the easily fooled victims of this vulgar stratagem. Those who sold and those who printed these lies against me knew that they lied. They had their reasons to do it. Whether they collect or do not collect the honours and the profits which systematized trickery and falseness deserve, that is their business and their study; not mine.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Ma formule à moi, c'est de prêter appui cordial à toutes celles de ses mesures qui me paraîtront bonnes; et libre censure avec refus d'appuyer celles qui me paraîtront mauvaises. Avec les antécédents que je me suis faits et avec ceux que l'on m'a faits, je n'ai pas de forts motifs de courtiser, dans Montréal, les déloyaux inventeurs et les dupes faciles de ce grossier manège. Ceux qui débitaient et ceux qui imprimaient ces mensonges contre moi savaient qu'ils mentaient. Ils avaient leurs motifs de le faire. Qu'ils recueillent ou ne recueillent pas les honneurs et les profits que méritent la ruse et la fausseté systématisées, c'est leur affaire et leur étude; non les miennes.</blockquote>
Remote and dispersed as you are, it is no your efforts that could tear off the hands of your tyrants, neither the thunder by which they devastate and sterilize your fatherland, nor the lead sceptre under which they crush it. It is less for your fatherland than for yourselves; less for its happiness that for your honour, that you should not give up, disband, and dissolve your association on the perilous day of the upcoming dangers or the next chances of salute which shine on your country. Throughout Christendom, from religious Rome to philosophical Paris, autocratic Russia to the democratic United States, rises a universal cry of love and pity for Ireland, wrapped in her shroud of plague and famine, woven and sewn around it by aristocratic hands. Montreal alone, [distracted] by I do not know what juggler, would not be able to find, in the middle of the sheds devoted to death which England pours from her European Ireland onto her American Ireland, a word of sympathy for pains and sufferings such as the [[Wikipedia:Book of Lamentations|lamentations of Jeremiah]] alone could let us imagine the horror! Shame on the men who can be demoralizing enough to want for Montreal to be as lethargic as they are apathetic!</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Éloignés et peu nombreux comme vous l'êtes, ce ne sont pas vos efforts qui peuvent arracher des mains de vos tyrans, ni la foudre par laquelle ils dévastent et stérilisent votre patrie, ni le sceptre de plomb sous lequel ils l'écrasent. C'est moins pour elle que pour vous-mêmes; moins pour son bonheur que pour votre honneur, que vous ne devez pas lâcher pied, vous débander, dissoudre votre association au jour périlleux des plus prochains dangers ou des plus prochaines chances de salut qui ait lui sur votre pays. Par toute la chrétienté, de Rome religieuse à Paris philosophique, de la Russie autocratique aux États-Unis démocratiques, s'élève un cri universel d'amour et de pitié pour l'Irlande, enveloppée dans son linceul de peste et de famine, tissé et cousu autour d'elle par des mains aristocratiques. Montréal seul, [stupéfié] par je ne sais quels jongleurs, ne pourra pas, au milieu des ''sheds'' consacrés à la mort que l'Angleterre déverse de son Irlande européenne sur son Irlande américaine, trouver un mot de sympathie pour des douleurs et des souffrances telles que les [[Wikipedia:fr:Livre des Lamentations|lamentations de Jérémie]] seules peuvent en laisser entrevoir l'horreur! Honte aux hommes qui peuvent être assez démoralisateurs pour vouloir que Montréal soit aussi léthargique qu'ils sont apathiques!</blockquote>
It is only a few weeks ago that you were organized, bribed and armed to meet, head to head, other organized, bribed and armed men. Those who enrolled you were less faulty than those against whom they pushed you. You, resident voters, were armed for the defence of your rights. Tories, seeking ''sacaires'' outside the limits of the county, armed others for the illegal invasion of your rights. They were placing you in a position of legitimate self-defence. Nevertheless, the ball and the sword are blind instruments which could as well reach your innocent chests as the culprit chests of your adversaries. The courts of justice are a closed field, where the fight begins in the middle of a night as dark as the [[Wikipedia:Erebus|Erebus]], of a labyrinth of turns and stratagems where justice is sometimes mislaid; where the skilful lawyer wins bad causes. You faced the dangers of the battle field, and the greater dangers of the lair of squabbles.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Il n'y a que quelques semaines que vous avez été organisés, soudoyés et armés pour rencontrer, corps à corps, d'autres hommes organisés, soudoyés et armés. Ceux qui vous ont enrôlés étaient moins fautifs que ceux contre lesquels ils vous lançaient. Vous, des électeurs résidents, étiez armés pour la défense de vos droits. Des tories, allant chercher des sicaires hors des limites du comté, armaient pour l'illégale invasion de vos droits. Ils vous plaçaient dans le cas de légitime défense. Néanmoins, la balle et l'épée sont des instruments aveugles qui pouvaient aussi bien atteindre vos poitrines innocentes que les coupables poitrines de vos adversaires. Les cours de justice sont un champ clos, où la lutte s'engage au milieu d'une nuit noire comme l'[[Wikipedia:fr:Érèbe|Érèbe]], d'un labyrinthe de détours et de stratagèmes où s'égare quelquefois le bon droit; où l'avocat adroit gagne de mauvaises causes. Vous avez affronté les dangers du champ de bataille, et les périls plus grands de l'antre de la chicane.</blockquote>
You thus have some right to the services of those whom you placed on the bulwark, of those that you made great, putting your lives in peril. Go toward your representatives. You have the right to ask, that those who seek you before the elections hear you after the elections; that they guide you and help you in your efforts, if they are useful and honourable to you; let them persuade you to discontinue them, if they prove you that they are harmful to the public interest, and, consequently, not very honourable for those who shared your efforts.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Vous avez donc quelque droit aux services et ceux que vous avez portés sur le pavois, de eux que vous avez faits grands, à vos périls et risques. Allez vers vos représentants. Vous avez droit de demander, à ceux qui vous cherchent avant les élections, qu'ils vous entendent après les élections; qu'ils vous guident et vous aident dans vos efforts, s'ils vous sont utiles et honorables; qu'ils vous persuadent de les discontinuer, s'ils vous prouvent qu'ils sont nuisibles à l'intérêt public, et, dès lors, peu honorables pour ceux qui les partageaient avec vous.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: But it is useless, since we will be refused. We will be rudely pushed away.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Mais c'est inutile, puisque nous serons refusés. On nous repoussera grossièrement.
<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: Impossible. I refer you to gentlemen.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : Impossible. Je vous adresse à des gentilshommes.
<font color="green">''Delegation''</font>: We were politely but peremptorily refused by Mr. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=39568 Coursol], who said to us that he did not want to help us to embarrass the government and that our actions would not be pleasant to him.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="green">''La Députation''</font> : Nous avons été refusés poliment mais péremptoirement par M. [http://www.biographi.ca/FR/ShowBio.asp?BioId=39568 Coursol], qui nous dit qu'il ne voulait pas nous aider à embarrasser le ministère et que notre démarche ne lui serait pas agréable.
<font color="blue">''Mr. Papineau''</font>: Ah! Here is one who is not in the government and who takes part in the secrecies of a government as mysterious as ours! No, you are wrong. It is not an established fact which he reveals you; it is a clever assumption to which he arrived according to a rather plausible calculation of probability, that the quietude of rest and the wisdom of silence are as pleasant to the Canadian ministry as the din of Ireland is annoying to it, and to Lord Russell too. I repeat you, go to the source of all these reports. See your representatives. My own opinion, is that active and judicious ministries, inside which "several Irish members" and "of Irish extraction", should give themselves the honour to prove that their heart is not made of ice for the anguishes of their country; to give themselves the honour not to choke your patriotic fervour. If they can be excused not to be there in person, they must at least encourage their friends to attend your meeting, to prepare the resolutions with you, so that, in not exceeding the limits of the law, you may go as far it permits, as did their very devoted partisans in Quebec City. See Mr. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38621 Holmes], he is your representative, he is friends with the Cabinet, he is of Irish origin; you have on him rights which you do not have on me: he must be your chairman if you call him there.
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<font color="blue">''M. Papineau''</font> : Ah! En voilà donc un qui n'est pas dans le gouvernement et qui est dans les secrets d'un gouvernement aussi mystérieux que le nôtre! Non, vous êtes dans l'erreur. Ce n'est pas un fait acquis qu'il vous révèle; c'est une supposition ingénieuse à laquelle il est parvenu d'après un calcul assez plausible de probabilité, que la quiétude du repos et de la sagesse du silence sont aussi agréables au ministère canadien que le tapage de l'Irlande lui est ennuyeux, et à lord Russell aussi. Je vous répète, remontez à la source de tous ces rapports. Voyez vos représentants. Mon avis à moi, est que des ministères actifs et judicieux, entre lesquels se trouvent « plusieurs membres irlandais » et « d'origine irlandaise », devraient se faire l'honneur de prouver que leur coeur n'est pas de glace pour les angoisses de leur pays; se faire l'honneur de ne pas étouffer votre élan patriotique. S'ils peuvent s'excuser de ne pas y être en personne, ils doivent au moins encourager leurs amis à assister à votre assemblée, à en préparer avec vous les résolutions, afin que, ne dépassant pas les limites de la loi, vous alliez aussi loin qu'elle le permet, ainsi que l'ont fait leurs partisans très dévoués à Québec. Voyez M. [http://www.biographi.ca/FR/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38621 Holmes], il est votre représentant, il est ami du cabinet, il est irlandais d'origine; vous avez sur lui des droits que vous n'avez pas sur moi : il doit être votre président si vous l'y appelez.</blockquote>
You come after your fellow-citizens from Quebec, to organize a demonstration similar to that which they organized and which particularly interests you. Having the benefit of their example, and the time to reflect on the matter, you must endeavour to do something more than they did.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Vous venez après vos concitoyens de Québec, pour organiser une démonstration analogue à celle qu'ils ont eue et qui justement vous intéresse. Ayant le bénéfice de leur exemple, et le temps de la réflexion, vous devez vous efforcer de faire quelque chose de plus qu'eux.</blockquote>
Though you must, in this occasion, hold an Irish meeting, you will add importance to it, if you call upon, among all the origins of which our society is composed, to the men who are human, devoted to the cause of progress, to the respect of justice, the hatred of oppression, and if you ask them to assist you. Have the various nationalities which are somewhat numerous be represented in your meeting. Elect Canadian, English, Scottish, American, and German vice-chairmen. Learn to know the liberty of sentiments, the thirst for liberality, equality and fraternity of the majority of your fellow-citizens of French extraction. Invite them to take part in a demonstration for the purpose of giving a free expression to the feelings which inflate their generous chests, the hatred of oppression, the pity for the national sufferings of Ireland, as for her individual sufferings, as proves the adoption, by Canadian families, of such a great number of the [[Wikipedia:Grosse Isle, Quebec|orphans from Ireland]], orphans made so by the cowardice of the Whig ministries meanly controlled by mercantile interests and, in consequence of this servility, letting the owners of English vessels operate the trade of the Irish with an even more sordid greed of lucre, a more brutal inhumanity, a more murderous improvidence than the privateer of Cuba and Brazil did in the [[Wikipedia:African slave trade|trade of the blacks]].
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Quoique vous deviez, dans cette occasion, avoir une réunion irlandaise, vous ajoutez à son importance, si vous faites appel, dans toutes les origines dont se compose notre société, aux hommes humains, dévoués à la cause du progrès, au respect de la justice, à la haine contre l'oppression, et si vous leur demandez de vous seconder. Que les diverses nationalités un peu nombreuses soient représentées dans votre assemblée. Élisez des vice-présidents, Canadien, Anglais, Écossais, Américain, et Allemand. Apprenez à connaître la liberté de sentiments, la soif de libéralité, d'égalité et de fraternité que possède la majorité de vos concitoyens d'origine française. Invitez-les à prendre part à une démonstration qui a pour but de donner une libre expression aux sentiments qui gonflent leurs généreuses poitrines, haine à l'oppression, pitié pour les souffrances nationales de l'Irlande, comme pour ses souffrances individuelles, ainsi que vous le prouve l'adoption, dans les familles canadiennes, d'un si grand nombre des [[orphelins de l'Irlande]], faits orphelins par la lâcheté des ministères whigs bassement maîtrisés par l'intérêt mercantile et, par suite de cet asservissement, laissant faire par les propriétaires de vaisseaux anglais, avec une avidité de lucre plus sordide, une inhumanité plus brutale, une imprévoyance plus meurtrière, la traite des Irlandais que n'en mettent les corsaires de Cuba et du Brésil dans la [[Wikipedia:fr:Traite des Noirs|traite des noirs]].</blockquote>
The interest of the [[Wikipedia:Slave ship|slave trader]] is to have a short passage and to sell a complete and healthy cargo. The interest of the Stanley, Palmerston, Blake and others of their caste and their temperament, is to drive out of their vast Irish fields those whom they made poor and who can no longer pay them. The more the vessel which carries them is encumbered, the more the field and the heart of the ''mauvais riche'' is alleviated, and the more the income is increased. They cannot enforce, do they inform us officially, their law which would tend to prevent the congestion. They "do not want" to have it enforced. They obtain profit and pleasure from it being eluded. From there, the expressed angers of Stanley against our colonial law. From there the hyperbolic lowness of [[Wikipedia:Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Grey]] and all his colleagues, blaming the last colonial law passed according to their instructions. Here is the responsible government in its source, in all its sincerity, its benevolence, or its nudity as one will want to call it! Should we be astonished that it be so thickened with blood and mud when we see this government going all the way to [[Wikipedia:Sandwich, Kent|Sandwich]] to chose representatives who will understand and recommend it!
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
== Notes ==
L'intérêt du [[Wikipedia:fr:Négrier|négrier]] est d'avoir un court passage et de vendre entière et en santé sa cargaison. L'intérêt des Stanley, des Palmerston, des Blake et autres de leur caste et de leur tempérament, est de chasser de leurs vastes domaines irlandais ceux qu'ils ont faits pauvres et qui ne peuvent plus les payer. Plus le vaisseau qui les emporte est encombré, plus le domaine et le coeur des mauvais riches sont allégés, et plus le revenu est grossi. Ils ne peuvent pas faire exécuter, nous informent-ils officiellement, leur loi qui tendrait à prévenir l'encombrement. Ils ne la « veulent pas » faire exécuter. Ils ont profit et plaisir à ce qu'elle soit éludée. De là, les colères exprimées d'un Stanley contre notre loi coloniale. De là l'hyperbolique bassesse d'un [[Grey]] et de tous ses collègues, blâmant la loi coloniale passée d'après leurs instructions. Voilà le gouvernement responsable à sa source, dans toute sa sincérité, sa bienfaisance, ou sa nudité comme on voudra l'appeler! Faut-il s'étonner qu'il soit si épaissi de sang et de boue quand il est rendu à [[Sandwich]] pour y faire choix de représentants qui le comprennent et le préconisent!
</blockquote>
Taken from ''L'Avenir'' on May 15, 1848 as reproduced in ''Louis-Joseph Papineau. Cette fatale union. Adresses, discours et manifestes. 1847-1848'', introduction et notes de Georges Aubin, Lux Éditeur, 2003, ISBN 2-89596-009-7
----
* {{Refa|1}} Quote from [http://oaks.nvg.org/lg2ra12.html#sefunliones ''The Funeral of The Lioness''], one of the [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fables ''Fables''] of [[Wikipedia:Jean de La Fontaine|Jean de La Fontaine]] (Fable XIV, Book VIII) The original quote was ''Qui sont tenus de le paraître. Peuple caméléon, peuple singe du maître.''
== Also by Papineau ==
* The [[History of the Insurrection in Canada in refutation of the report of Lord Durham]], 1839
* The [[Political Testament of Louis-Joseph Papineau|Political Testament]] of Louis-Joseph Papineau, 1867
== Notes and comments ==
{{GFDL}}
* Taken from ''Louis-Joseph Papineau. Cette fatale union. Adresses, discours et manifestes. 1847-1848'', introduction et notes de Georges Aubin, Lux Éditeur, 2003, ISBN 2-89596-009-7
[[Category:Press articles]]
* 1. [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Les_Obs%C3%A8ques_de_la_lionne ''Les obsèques de la lionne''], one of the [http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Fables_de_La_Fontaine ''Fables''] de [[Wikipedia:fr:Jean de La Fontaine|Jean de La Fontaine]] (Fable XIV, Livre VIII)
The Quebec Mercury, first issue of the Tory newspaper, January 5, 1805
Nothing would be more compromising for an honest man than to be praised, often and highly, by rascals. Nothing would tend to ruin more quickly a reputation of political integrity, of devotion to the cause of justice, freedom and the rights of the people, than to deserve a word of praise, to get a second compliment from The Transcript, or any other section of the Tory press of Lower Canada, such as it has been on the whole, since the first page of The Mercury to the last lucubration of The Courier. It is to thwart such a perfidious tactic, it is to push back such an offencive praise, as the one which the slanderous sheet, The Transcript, gives me by publishing that I said to a delegation of Irish fellow-citizens, that understood that the object of their meeting was concerned with foreign countries alone, and not Canada, I did not want to take any part in it, that I decided to give an account of the interview which I had with them.
Building hosting the Irish Parliament abolished by the 1800 Act of Union
I was being invited to become the chairman of a public meeting to demand the repeal of the oppressive Act of Union of Ireland, and to express our strong sympathies, for the heroism with which the French people destroyed a corrupting monarchy, made a bonfire out of a throne whose ashes, blown over the world by a favourable breeze, with the Westward wind of America, with the wind of freedom, started the burning of so many other thrones; and for the sublime moderation with which this people forgives the vanquished tyrants. These truths, I had called them holy. I had made myself their apostle; I had preached them. I was bound by the public, as by my conscience to make constant efforts to have them prevail, and I could have given an answer as wretched as the one which the Transcript charges on me! It is for that that I am praised! astute praise; atrocious lie, which proves the imbecility of the one who believed such news, or the corruption of the heart, the perfidy and spirit of intrigue of the one or the ones who invented and accredited it.
If I were capable of such a contemptible selfishness, of such a disgusting servilism, I would be worthy of falling to what I consider the lowest degree of the social scale: worthy to become, not by need or to win my bread, something to which an honest but unfortunate man could be reduced, to become, says I, a garçon-typographe-volontaire (what the courtesy of the English language would call a "volunteer devil") in the printing works of The Transcript.
The paper's tale is of infernal origin, since The Transcript ensures the readers that Beelzebub alone knows where the delegation came from. It is the editor's devotion to such a boss who undoubtedly hired him to become his servant and his echo, since he publishes, as truth, the lie to which he attributes such an origin. He believes it true because it comes from from where the majority of his inspirations and inventions come from, his discoveries and his denunciations in nocturnal assemblies, as real and criminal as were those of the sorcerers' Sabbath. The last ones who were judicially burned in Europe were so in England!
The veracious version of what this delegation was, and what it wished for, is that it was animated by feelings too human and too generous to be suspected of coming on behalf of Downing Street. Thus it did not come from Beelzebub. Well convinced of that, I felt my conscience safe to ear what it had to say. The delegation's feelings of hatred against all aristocratic tyranny, and of love for all popular freedoms, established from the start rapports of sympathy between its members and me. The conversation was thus frank and free, such as it would be between associates of Conciliation Hall.
When nearly two centuries before the birth of Christianity, on the theatre of paganRome, one of most elegant of her poets exhaled this suave sentence: "I am human, nothing that is human is alien to me", the unanimous applause of one hundred thousand spectators welcomed this evangelic revelation. There was not a single man in such a numerous assembly, to which assisted envoys of all the Roman colonies, ambassadors of all the parts of the globe where the Greek and Latin civilization, or even ours, had penetrated, who was not sensitive to this sentiment of the heart, to this cry of nature. How is it then that the whole of the Canadian Tory press believes that the duty and honesty of the British government require that it only expresses contempt and animosity for this Ireland, whose oppression produced a Golgotha too narrow to hide in its entrails the corpses that famine feeds it; the result being that they remain exposed on its surface, and find their burial in the entrails of dogs and birds of prey! Pity for Ireland! It would be an insult to the British government, so vigilant to punish those who would be hard and cruel for the Irish, object of predilection of the Lords Russell and Brougham, Palmerston and Stanley and hoc omne genus; a proof of it is the rigour of the punishment which they have just inflicted to Blake. In the night of last December 31, this mauvais riche, this great landowner, sent men to destroy the poor houses of a great number of Irish families and made them perish by the rigour of the cold. One then asked to the worthier of the viceroys which this valley of tears and tortures ever had if it were possible to have the infamous murderer punished. The viceroy answered no, that Mr. Blake was the Master of these houses and that he could do what he wanted with them; but that, wishing to punish, as much as the English legislation and sensitivity can allow, this outrage against humanity of the highest degree, he would strike out of the list of the Justices of the Peace this monster with a man's face, a tiger's heart, the hyena's instincts, enjoying the smell of corpses in a state of decomposition around his den!
Terence, Carthage slave who became a Roman playwright
How to explain the savage cry of hatred against men oppressed to this degree; how not to share the natural feeling of all of Rome, electrified by the hollow voice of Terence? It is because at that time the Roman government was a civilizing conqueror, whereas the English government was for Ireland, for India, for New France, an exterminating conqueror. Pagan Rome had agreed to give peace to Carthage only at the condition that she soften her sanguinary cult and abolish human sacrifices. The mercantile government of the Indies had its Christian dignitaries assist the holocausts of the widows, burned alive with the corpses of their husbands; same for the processions of Juggernaut where, by the hundreds, fanatics are each year crushed under the wheels of the cart carrying an idol much more avid of human blood than ever was that which is honoured by the African ferocity.
There can be no sympathy expressed in the Tory press for the anguish of Ireland. Its Masters do not give gold for such paragraphs. They give advertisements, gold, places and honours to those who desert and curse Ireland and Canada.
Damned be Ireland and Canada; blessed be the acts of Union of Ireland and of Canada, say the men and the newspapers devoured by hunger and thirst for advertising, gold, places and what they call honours.
Delegation: Dear Sir, there was in Quebec City a nice public meeting, in which people denounced the tyranny of England, poured tears for the sufferings of Ireland, and expressed their aspirations for her relief; and a cry of joy for the pure and unstained glory of republican France. Here where we are twice as numerous as our compatriots of Quebec City; here, in the capital of two big provinces, shouldn't we hold a similar one? We want to have it and we pray you to chair it.
Le Fantasque, first issue, August 1837
Mr. Papineau: You are right, my friends, to want to organize a meeting similar to that of Quebec City. To this end, my voice and my heart are all yours. But you are not right to want me to chair it. There are life and honour in Quebec City. There was some when, under the reign of terror and under the inspiration of freedom, in the presence of Lord Durham, people faded the tyranny he exerted against the exiled of the Bermudas; withered the exuberance of his insanity when he published that by returning to the country the absent defendants would commit high treason, for which they would suffer death, without any trial; when Le Fantasque edified its readers, on the daily follies of the dictatorship's actions of the time (the current one could very well resuscitate it in all its liveliness); when people protested and petitioned against the Act of Union; when last summer they organized themselves in a committee of reform and progress; when finally, in a recent meeting, some gathered for the exaltation of French heroism, the execration of English despotism, the commiseration for the groans of agonizing Ireland. Yes, in Quebec City there is life and honour. In Montreal, that is another story. We have the seat of the responsible government there. We have statesmen, politicians as deep as the abyss and men as mute as grave stones, who choke all measures which were born in Quebec City. Why do they do it? They did not tell me their secrets. I do not have enough perspicacity to guess them. It is necessary that you know if they like it that you have the public meeting you are planning.
Delegation: We have reasons to think that they would be happy if we did not have it. We asked Mr. Drummond, chairman of our association for the recall of the act of Union of Ireland, and Mr. Ryan who was secretary, to convene this meeting as was done in Quebec City: they refused. They said that our compatriots from Quebec City had done something thoughtless in holding this meeting, which was inopportune, without having beforehand consulted any of the members of the government here [in Montreal]; that was to cause embarrassment to a friendly authority, which we would in the end grant all that we would like if, with enough patience, we could wait long enough; that now that they had tied themselves to the government they had to detach themselves from our association; that we could elect other officers. That is why we wish to choose you as chairman and at the same time we want to have public resolutions voted for the recall of the Union and for the exaltation of the virtue and French bravery, which vivify all peoples and, at the price of forfeiture, convert all kings.
Mr. Papineau: Ah! Mr. Drummond and Mr. Ryan, free men, were officers in your society; and, civil servants, they now repudiate it? But there certainly is something very serious and very compromising underneath it . I must know your goal and your rules, before I venture myself to affiliate myself with you. Would they have discovered, since they were commissioned, that there is some odour of disloyalty in these deplorable rules, that I do not know? Were they your officers for a long time? Did they take part in your discussions?
Delegation: Oh! for that, yes. They spoke more often, more thickly, bigger and louder than any of the other members of the society.
Mr. Papineau: Good them. You make me happy. There was nothing criminal in your masonry, when they spoke; I conclude that there is nothing criminal now that they are keeping silent. It is not you who changed; it is them who are changed, or who are not changed; but...
"Their task it is to seem it all — Chameleons, monkeys, great and small." 1
Oh! well in my case, me who has no other Master than the law, I could dare to speak when they will not dare to do it? True. It is amusing to learn that one can become one of yours without being too easily persecuted by the Solicitor General, who was also one of you.
Delegation: Not only should he not prosecute his associate brothers, but we believe that it is this quality of chairman of the associate brothers which made him Solicitor General. It is not only because of his Irish origin that we elected him in the representation. It was even more because of his energetic and reiterated protests of passionate love for popular freedoms; of hatred against a centuries-old oppression, regularized against our unfortunate fatherland, for the profit of the nobles and priests who were foreign enemy, precisely odious, from the devastations of the Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts to the proscriptions of Cromwell, the treasons of Castlereagh, the cheatings of Lord Russell: it was because of his promises to echo the denunciations fulminated by Grattan and O'Connell against the traitors, who sold Ireland to the Sassenagh, that we sent him in the representation, the widest and easiest of all paths to personal advancement, under the happy system of responsible government, honest, economic, disinterested, great worker for little remunerations, system which we have had the happiness to enjoy for seven years.
Mr. Papineau: Is it so? Then you can be sure that you have misunderstood your chairman. He cannot pretend that all the respectability that there is in your association has been withdrawn as soon as he left it. Neither him, nor any member of our liberal cabinet can have the presumption of condemning as a thoughtlessness a meeting such as that of Quebec, chaired by a respectable priest, in daily connection with his ecclesiastical superiors, His Grace the archbishop, his coadjutor and others of our most enlightened priests in the country; encouraged by the presence and the participation of all the representation of the city and the vicinity of Quebec, including one of the representatives who was also member of the cabinet. He was since made judge, which could not have been, if there had been something disloyal in these activities. If he had seen some imprudence in any of the resolutions that were discussed and voted, he would not have failed to propose some judicious amendment. I thus advise you to re-examine your chairman, to request that he continue to exercise his function, and to keep the feelings which made you choose him as your representative; to ensure him that I would not want to take part in a movement which, badly interpreted, would give the impression of my wanting to steal an honour which he so well deserved. I esteem him. He is man of distinguished talents, and had solid and brilliant education. Men of this gauge, I honour them, to whichever school they belong; but it is by predilection that I honour them when they belong to the Canadian and Irish liberal schools. Go and meet him again as a group. Renew your request. Let there be no surprise. Say to him that, if he gives you reasons to desist which appear good to you, you will let them be known to the public, to apologize for not imitating the beautiful and good example which Quebec gives us; that if his reasons appear to be bad, you will not desist, and will publish those reasons so that you and him may be judged in full knowledge of the case.
Tell him that, if he wants to chair at the meeting that you wish to have, I will second him open heartedly. If, to my surprise, he refuses, even that would not constitution a sufficient reason for you to give me the honour of choosing me as chairman, neither of your association nor of your meeting. Believe a sincere friend of the good cause in which you are engaged, a friend who has gained some experience of men and business, of those of your country in particular.
Erin, the magnificently green island
Tyranny has been so exorbitant against your deplorable fatherland, made as joyful and beautiful by the good doings of the Providence as it has been obscured by the misdeeds of your governors, that she developed, among the generality of your kind, virtues which are native to you and vices which the foreign dominator gave birth to. You have been living in a more frequent state of conspiracy than any other people, against iniquities more atrocious than any other nation had to suffered. From there your more enthusiastic love for the cult of the fatherland; for your cherished dignity, Erin the beautiful, Erin dispossessed by the despoiler insulting her. This love of the country, is the first of virtues for the English who gives orders; and it is to his eyes the most hateful of feelings that the people could nourish in his colonies of Ireland and Canada. It is the virtue which he most generally and most pitilessly punished. You give your confidence, with a limitless burst of generosity, to whoever is devoted to your cause. You know that I am one of these men; you want to testify your recognition to me in a manner which exceeds the limits of discretion, of national pride, of the feeling of esteem that you must nourish and display for yourselves, for your nationality and your nationals. Associations must be created to tighten the bonds of confidence and mutual dependence among the associates. Do not do anything which can slacken the bonds of complete confidence between you all, in an Irish association, created for an Irish interest: the repeal of your harmful Act of Union.
Often decimated in punishment of your strong love for your country, you have too often organized in secret societies, in which the English gold, the English spies were pushing you to revenge; and, the day before the explosion, betrayed you. This made you suspicious. It is the vice to which the foreign dominator gave birth in natures which the Providence made to be the most trustful that there ever was on Earth. Ireland has currently more chances of salute than ever, because she does not have secret societies. Her hatred is as highly avowed as it is properly organized.
Don't you feel that eventually one will murmur in the ear of one another among you: "Eh what, you are twenty thousand Irish people here, and you considered that not one among you deserved the honour to chair your meeting; you have ruled that a foreigner should be installed above you all, when the question is not of a social interest as important for all our mixed populations, but of a special national interest for you." No. You must keep the leadership and the chair to yourselves. Others have a better right to it than me.
You have on other men more control and a better right to require than they answer your call, than you have on me. It is the first time, Messrs, that we meet. Are there not some other public men with whom you had a more frequent relationship than me; who sought you when they needed you; to whom you rendered services that they requested from you; with whom it was pleasant to receive your votes and who, in return of your votes in their election, promised soft words, respect and civility to you; who said to you that you had the right to their advice, their energetic encouragements, on any occasion you would ask them; the right to their cordial support everywhere you needed it? The time and the occasion have come when you should appreciate to their right value the sincerity and the importance of their promises. Go towards your representatives, go ahead with frankness and with the same declarations that I advised you to bring to Mr. Drummond. It is your right to require, it is their duty to give you their support, if the objects which you seek are as they appears to be, as far as I can tell, useful and honourable to your fatherland, to you and all those who will second you. If they undeceive you, we will be obliged to them for it. Skilful operators, they will have given light to the unhappy ones who were groping in a thick darkness. They could disillusion us, we could reveal them truths they are unaware of. It is only by comparing our doctrines that we can determine which one is the just and true doxy, ours or theirs.
Charles T. Metcalfe, Baron Metcalfe, Governor General of the United Province of Canada from 1843 to 1845
I am thrown in the political life against my inclination. After I frankly explained my dissatisfaction and my scorn for the political order forcibly imposed to my country, with the same hostile aim, by the same perverse means which chains yours, by a fatal and degrading Union for Ireland, as ours is hostile to us and more degrading even for Lower Canada, colony twice subjugated to two metropolises, that of England which oppresses by antipathy, that of Upper Canada which exploits us by cupidity, the county of Saint-Maurice chose me to represent it. If this county meets to deliberate on the general interests on the country, its local interests, or questions related to the cause of the justice, exerted by generous vanquishers against oppressive kings; or to that of the rights, freedoms, and happiness of our Co-Subjects in any part of the Empire, this county has the right, if I keep the mandate it gave me, to order my assistance and my participation in its discussions. In Montreal, I am but a simple citizen who timidly takes part to the deliberations, when its representatives disdain to do it. One so often said to my fellow-citizens, in speech as in writing, that I was a changed man, that I have become a paragon of devotion to the government against which I had fought all my life; that I applauded to the determination which Misters Viger and Papineau had taken to give their support to the administration of Lord Metcalfe, since they remained in power, longer than those who were burning with the envy and the desire to replace them; that, without the benevolent welcoming which 7,000 of these same fellow-citizens gave me in their recent meeting, I would have believed myself pushed away by the majority of them, with as much solicitude as I was by their new leaders. Before my return and since my return, one so high proclaimed to my country that one should be careful not to elect a man whose principles were so unknown, floating and changeable that mine, unless one made him do his political profession of faith; and when I wanted to formulate it, so many intrigues were done to prevent me from publishing it that I had to consider those actions as expressing the charitable care of men who were saying to me:
" Do not speak you would not be listened to. If you want to talk in the same way we do, it is your right. Then make your statements short like ours. Do not speak much, do not say anything on the merit or the demerit of the Union; representation proportional to the population; the extension of the right to vote to all; of the usefulness that at least a part of the representation be selected among the resident voters; that the eligibility should depend only on public confidence, not on the badly or justly acquired property of the candidate. Do not say that the conviction, in front of a legally sworn jury, such as we have not yet seen in the country, of the use of corruption methods in an election, should forever disqualify the convinced culprit, of his rights as voter and eligible, and of the aptitude to fill any public function of honour and profit. Do not insinuate that it would be desirable that the administration be working more and especially be less expensive, it is against the intention of those who gave us the responsible government and against the interest of those who exert it; do not say a good word or other trifles of this nature, which you have the habit to take care of; these are rather useless details since the symbol that represent the good citizenship card, the essential certificate of eligibility has been translated into one supremely simple sentence. Here it is for you to use: "I believe in the Baldwin-La Fontaine ministry and I swear a blind obedience to it." "
Robert Baldwin, lawyer, parliamentarian and minister from Lower CanadaLouis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, lawyer, parliamentarian and minister from Lower Canada
My own formula is to give a cordial support to all measures that will seem good to me; and give a free censure with refusal to support those measures which will seem bad to me. With the antecedents that I have given myself and with those which other gave me, I do not have strong motives to court, in Montreal, the disloyal inventors and the easily fooled victims of this vulgar stratagem. Those who sold and those who printed these lies against me knew that they lied. They had their reasons to do it. Whether they collect or do not collect the honours and the profits which systematized trickery and falseness deserve, that is their business and their study; not mine.
Remote and dispersed as you are, it is no your efforts that could tear off the hands of your tyrants, neither the thunder by which they devastate and sterilize your fatherland, nor the lead sceptre under which they crush it. It is less for your fatherland than for yourselves; less for its happiness that for your honour, that you should not give up, disband, and dissolve your association on the perilous day of the upcoming dangers or the next chances of salute which shine on your country. Throughout Christendom, from religious Rome to philosophical Paris, autocratic Russia to the democratic United States, rises a universal cry of love and pity for Ireland, wrapped in her shroud of plague and famine, woven and sewn around it by aristocratic hands. Montreal alone, [distracted] by I do not know what juggler, would not be able to find, in the middle of the sheds devoted to death which England pours from her European Ireland onto her American Ireland, a word of sympathy for pains and sufferings such as the lamentations of Jeremiah alone could let us imagine the horror! Shame on the men who can be demoralizing enough to want for Montreal to be as lethargic as they are apathetic!
It is only a few weeks ago that you were organized, bribed and armed to meet, head to head, other organized, bribed and armed men. Those who enrolled you were less faulty than those against whom they pushed you. You, resident voters, were armed for the defence of your rights. Tories, seeking sacaires outside the limits of the county, armed others for the illegal invasion of your rights. They were placing you in a position of legitimate self-defence. Nevertheless, the ball and the sword are blind instruments which could as well reach your innocent chests as the culprit chests of your adversaries. The courts of justice are a closed field, where the fight begins in the middle of a night as dark as the Erebus, of a labyrinth of turns and stratagems where justice is sometimes mislaid; where the skilful lawyer wins bad causes. You faced the dangers of the battle field, and the greater dangers of the lair of squabbles.
You thus have some right to the services of those whom you placed on the bulwark, of those that you made great, putting your lives in peril. Go toward your representatives. You have the right to ask, that those who seek you before the elections hear you after the elections; that they guide you and help you in your efforts, if they are useful and honourable to you; let them persuade you to discontinue them, if they prove you that they are harmful to the public interest, and, consequently, not very honourable for those who shared your efforts.
Delegation: But it is useless, since we will be refused. We will be rudely pushed away.
Mr. Papineau: Impossible. I refer you to gentlemen.
Delegation: We were politely but peremptorily refused by Mr. Coursol, who said to us that he did not want to help us to embarrass the government and that our actions would not be pleasant to him.
Mr. Papineau: Ah! Here is one who is not in the government and who takes part in the secrecies of a government as mysterious as ours! No, you are wrong. It is not an established fact which he reveals you; it is a clever assumption to which he arrived according to a rather plausible calculation of probability, that the quietude of rest and the wisdom of silence are as pleasant to the Canadian ministry as the din of Ireland is annoying to it, and to Lord Russell too. I repeat you, go to the source of all these reports. See your representatives. My own opinion, is that active and judicious ministries, inside which "several Irish members" and "of Irish extraction", should give themselves the honour to prove that their heart is not made of ice for the anguishes of their country; to give themselves the honour not to choke your patriotic fervour. If they can be excused not to be there in person, they must at least encourage their friends to attend your meeting, to prepare the resolutions with you, so that, in not exceeding the limits of the law, you may go as far it permits, as did their very devoted partisans in Quebec City. See Mr. Holmes, he is your representative, he is friends with the Cabinet, he is of Irish origin; you have on him rights which you do not have on me: he must be your chairman if you call him there.
You come after your fellow-citizens from Quebec, to organize a demonstration similar to that which they organized and which particularly interests you. Having the benefit of their example, and the time to reflect on the matter, you must endeavour to do something more than they did.
Though you must, in this occasion, hold an Irish meeting, you will add importance to it, if you call upon, among all the origins of which our society is composed, to the men who are human, devoted to the cause of progress, to the respect of justice, the hatred of oppression, and if you ask them to assist you. Have the various nationalities which are somewhat numerous be represented in your meeting. Elect Canadian, English, Scottish, American, and German vice-chairmen. Learn to know the liberty of sentiments, the thirst for liberality, equality and fraternity of the majority of your fellow-citizens of French extraction. Invite them to take part in a demonstration for the purpose of giving a free expression to the feelings which inflate their generous chests, the hatred of oppression, the pity for the national sufferings of Ireland, as for her individual sufferings, as proves the adoption, by Canadian families, of such a great number of the orphans from Ireland, orphans made so by the cowardice of the Whig ministries meanly controlled by mercantile interests and, in consequence of this servility, letting the owners of English vessels operate the trade of the Irish with an even more sordid greed of lucre, a more brutal inhumanity, a more murderous improvidence than the privateer of Cuba and Brazil did in the trade of the blacks.
The interest of the slave trader is to have a short passage and to sell a complete and healthy cargo. The interest of the Stanley, Palmerston, Blake and others of their caste and their temperament, is to drive out of their vast Irish fields those whom they made poor and who can no longer pay them. The more the vessel which carries them is encumbered, the more the field and the heart of the mauvais riche is alleviated, and the more the income is increased. They cannot enforce, do they inform us officially, their law which would tend to prevent the congestion. They "do not want" to have it enforced. They obtain profit and pleasure from it being eluded. From there, the expressed angers of Stanley against our colonial law. From there the hyperbolic lowness of Grey and all his colleagues, blaming the last colonial law passed according to their instructions. Here is the responsible government in its source, in all its sincerity, its benevolence, or its nudity as one will want to call it! Should we be astonished that it be so thickened with blood and mud when we see this government going all the way to Sandwich to chose representatives who will understand and recommend it!
Notes
Taken from L'Avenir on May 15, 1848 as reproduced in Louis-Joseph Papineau. Cette fatale union. Adresses, discours et manifestes. 1847-1848, introduction et notes de Georges Aubin, Lux Éditeur, 2003, ISBN 2-89596-009-7
