Brief in Support of the Petition of the Inhabitants of Lower Canada

From Independence of Québec
Revision as of 00:06, 23 September 2009 by Mathieugp (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search


Brief in Support of the Petition of the Inhabitants of Lower Canada
Québec, 1814






TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS the regent prince, humbly submitted to the consideration of lord Bathurst, minister of State for the colonies.

We look at our current constitution as one most suited to make our happiness, and our greatest desire would be to be able to enjoy it according to the intention of His Majesty and His Parliament; unfortunately, the way in which it was administered, up until now, gives it an effect that is quite the opposite of that intended.

This bad effect is a consequence of the way in which the parties of this province were formed.

When this constitution was granted to us, the old subjects (called Anglais in the country, of whatever nation they may be) were in possession of the offices of the government. If some Canadians were admitted to them, it was on their recommendation, and they were selected among those who were devoted to them.

Since the granting of the constitution, things have remained the same, the old subjects have continued to be in possession of the offices, and became the party of the government; the channel of recommendations continued in the same way, and were allowed to offices, as before, only the Canadians whose devotion was known.

As the Canadians make up the mass of the people, the majority of the House of Assembly was found to be made up of Canadians, and the English, with some devoted Canadians, formed the minority; and as the Canadians of the majority, freely elected by the people, were found not to exhibit the necessary devotion, they could not share in the offices. The members who were made Executive Counsellors were taken from the minority, the party of the government found itself tied to the minority of the House of Assembly, and the majority, that is to say the House of Assembly itself, to which the mass of the people is attached, is looked at as a foreign body, hardly recognized by the government and the other branches of the legislature, and was left in the opposition as intended to be ruled by force; and indeed the people of the English party, who had not succeeded in their efforts so that the constitution be granted to them alone, and that the Canadians have no share in it, found themselves, having become the party of the government, with the means to prevent the Canadians from enjoying it in any way other than that which they themselves wanted.

Every time the Canadians have wanted to propose something which was not in conformity with the ideas of this party, they found themselves in opposition to the government, and were treated as bad subjects and people opposed to the government. The government is in communication with the majority of the Assembly only through the means of the counsellors and office holders of the minority, who, being rival with majority, are not very likely to represent it well.

It is in their power to make such representations as they wish of its measures, feelings, and intentions, and not being of the majority, they are more like SPIES employed by the government to watch that majority, than members through whom a body communicates regularly with their government. The plans and projects of the government are prepared by counsellors of the minority, without the participation of the majority, and are thereafter taken to the House to be passed by the majority, and the majority has no alternative but to pass them or to be in opposition with the minority, that is to say the government, and to be treated as one would treat rebels to the government. The style of the people in the government, with talents generally rather poor, having only gloss and being strangers to merit, can easily be imagined. The divisions in the House of Assembly become national; the English on one side forming the minority, to which the government is tied, and the Canadians on the other forming the majority, to which is tied the mass of the people; the heat of the national divisions pass from the House of Assembly into the people, the whole country finding itself divided in two parties; the English party of the government on one side, and the mass of the people on the other. This appearance of the French and Catholic Canadians in opposition to their government, continually increases against them the prejudice of the vulgar part of the English party, who in good faith treat them in the most revolting manner for a people who feel themselves loyal; and so the more the Canadians want to enjoy their constitution, the more they feed matter to the pretext on which the English party founds its interest as a party, viz., that of the little confidence that one must have in the Canadians.

The governors who know the Canadians only through the people of the English party who own offices in the government, are struck to see them continuously opposing the government and the English, and soon cannot refrain from contracting the same prejudices; them, which they undoubtedly pass on to the government of the mother country so that the natural effect of the exercise of the constitution by the Canadians, is to ignite division between the English and them, to make them look on this side as bad subjects always opposed to their government and to the English, and to give a bad idea of them to the government of His Majesty, in England.

Every time the Canadians, encouraged by the idea of their constitution, have tried to enjoy it, they were struck down, as opposed to the government; they are still heart broken from the treatments they endured under the administration of the preceding government. It seems to them that they are but toys in a strange contradiction, as if on one hand a constitution had been granted to them, no doubt to enjoy it, but on the other hand a government had been purposely set up to prevent them from enjoying it at all, or at least from enjoying it without appearing to be bad subjects. They are worst off than if they had been deprived to take part in the constitution, and granted to the old subjects alone; because they would then be no more deprived from enjoy it than now and it would not be used as a means to render them odious to the mother country.

It seems to them impossible that the administration be placed in the hands of a party that see them as their rivals, without the direct effect being to hold them up continually, as though on purpose, in opposition to their government. That party has interest in making them pass for disloyal; it is in its interest to govern them in a way that will make them appear so; in a way that will render them such as they may appear to be.

The effect of such an administration which continuously keep the people in opposition to to their government can only be very bad.

The administration itself cannot be suited to attach the people to the government; it seems, on the contrary, that it would better suited to make the most loyal people a people of bad subjects. The maxims on which this party supports its interest corrupt the advantageous ideas the Canadians make of their constitution, and tend to make it appear to them under a bad light as odious.

According to them maxis, the interests of the government would be seen as opposed to that of the country; the Canadians as less attached to the interests of the mother country, because they are attached to their country, and the people of the English party as the only ones to whom the interests of the government of His Majesty can be entrusted, because they have less affection for the country. That colony would be looked at rather as a prey that must be kept by force, than as a dependence of the Empire that is attached to the government of His Majesty for its own happiness, as do the other parts.

It is not the intention of the mother country that all be sacrificed in the country, so that the offices be given to a party rather than the other; and yet it happens to be that all is being sacrificed so that the offices be given to this party. It is so that all the offices' of counsellor be given to that party that no member from the majority of the Assembly, not even the Speaker, could become counsellor, which is the cause of all the disorder that occurred in the exercise of our constitution. Our property laws have sunk into oblivion, so that we may have on the bench judges from that party who ignored them. There is a judge in chief and two puisné judges to judger over the actions "for goods sold and delivered" and some other mercantile actions, and there is but one Canadian judge for all the laws that ensure the properties of the Canadian subjects of His Majesty.

Our rules and our forms of proceeding sunk into oblivion to have on the bench judges of this party who were unaware of them; lack of experience which never suspects difficulties, suggested the judges who were in the legislature, (the former Legislative Council) to create new ones so as to avoid the hard work of learning the old ones.

The new ones were found to be imperfect, and it became necessary to make new ones still, which were again found to be imperfect; it was finally necessary to abandon to courts of justice the power to make them at discretion, and thus they always were in a state of continual fluctuation by the need to change them continually; always new, always subject to interpretation, to unforeseen cases, to be infringed when it was found equitable to infringe them, and the administration of justice has been arbitrary for lack of fixed rules and known procedures, and a remedy is impossible, whether one asks the Legislature or the Executive, because as a consequence of the evil of which we complain, and to have everywhere people of this party, who cannot suffice to all needs, the judges are in the Legislative and Executive Councils.

The defence of the Province can only be considerably weakened by the existence of the parties such as they are in the country. A governor cannot have for himself the English party, the party of the government, without adopting all its ideas, its prejudices and his plans against the Canadians; he cannot render the Canadians favourable to him, without exciting against him the hatred of all this party, so powerful by its clamours which corrupt all in the country, and for his communications in England, which make the faith of those against whom they complains continuously precarious and dubious.

There will be very few governors who will have enough talent to fight against so many disadvantages, and a virtue sublime enough to make what they will believe their duty for the greatest interest of the mother country, at the risk of succumbing under the reports submitted against them to the government of the mother country and to appear to have badly served; while it would be so easy to follow the method which would get favourable applause and reports, by giving as an excuse the little of confidence there is to place in the Canadians.

Canadians forming the principal population of the country, and that on which the government can draw resource if needed, it would be just that they have the means to be known through themselves, and that it be not abandoned to the party which oppose them, however respectable it may be, to represent them under the colours they please. All counsellors and people in office who are called near the governor, being of this party, the governor has the means to know the Canadians only through them.

If a governor wanted to be just and hear the two parties, he was obliged to do it secretly through irregular means, and could not do it without appearing to neglect the councils that were given to him by the counsellors and officers of the government, to act on advises obtained here and there from private individuals, and without exciting by this, with some appearance of plausibility, the jealousy and the hatred of the first and all the party.

If it is just that the governors know the two parties, and that they not receive the charges against the inhabitants of the country without hearing, it is just that the latter also have a regular means to be understood by counsellors and people in office, taken among them, and that these counsellors be not appointed after the recommendations which pass through the ordinary channel.

The House of Assembly offers a means of obtaining a regular manner, without it being on the recommendations of those of the English party. If the governor had the power to call to the council the principal members of the majority of the House of Assembly, he would have a means of hearing the two parties, and not to be forced not to know one through the information received from the other, he would no longer be deprived of the knowledge and advises he could draw from the old inhabitants of the country, and be required to listen only those which come from the opposite party, which is not that where there is the most knowledge of the country, nor interests the more in conformity with those of the country.

After having heard both parties, he would be in a position to decide on the measures to be taken, and to transmit accurate informations in England.

He would not be forced to follow the advises given to him when he would not find them just, he would only have the advantage of benefiting from them when they would be so.

He would not so often find himself in opposition to the House of Assembly.

There would take place where the two parties could agree and reconcile themselves on their plans and their projects, and many useless oppositions which only come from the fact that the projects were separately concerted, and that the self-esteem of those who made them is committed to support them, would be removed; there would no more be any means to upset the government, here or in England, against the mass of the people of the country.

The people would be better attached to the government. The government they would no longer consider as being made up of people who are full of prejudice against them, and who are always opposed to them, would inspire them more confidence and respect. It would no longer happen that plans be supported by the governor after the debates have exposed their errors in a palpable manner, in the face of the whole public; it would no longer happen that governors rely in good faith on reasons given by the minority in the Assembly, reasons whose weakness would have been shown in the debates. The wounded self-esteem of a counsellor of the minority would no longer be interested in resurrecting, with the support of the governor, a principle or a measure of which the absurdity would have been publicly discovered. The partiality of communication between the Assembly and the government through the means of a counsellor tied to the minority, whose self-esteem is interested in putting forward the position which often he took randomly, or by spirit of rivalry on an unforeseen question, and to attenuate and to disguise the force of the reasons employed against him, would cease to be a source of disagreements between the government and the House of Assembly. The sensitivity of the members of the Assembly would not be so often wounded by the appearance of partiality from the government, for a member of the minority against the whole Assembly, and this branch of the Legislature would not so often be brought back to the feeling of its own degradation, by being judged and often insulted on the interested report of one of the members of the minority, and exposed to the irritated insolence of one of these members supported by the government in the vain efforts he makes against it.

And finally the government's means of influence on the House of Assembly, would no longer be expressed through malignant insinuations, insults and threats that put off and throw discord between the two parties in the Assembly from where it passes outdoor.

If it were possible that a number of offices of counsellors or other places of honour and profit, be granted to those who have the most influence on the majority of the House of Assembly, that these places be made to depend entirely on the success in keeping the majority's support, and that it be certain and well known that there would be no other means to obtain them, there is reason to presume that both parties would soon reunite in the House of Assembly, that this national division so contrary to the purpose of government would disappear as much in the Assembly as outside of it, and that the shameful appearance of an opposition between the Canadians and their government, that withers the people of the country and undeservedly make it appear under odious colours, would cease spoiling one of the most beautiful dependencies of the Empire in America.


TO BE TRANSLATED


Les idées que ceux du parti anglais s'efforcent d'entretenir, que les Canadiens sont moins propres à remplir des offices de confiance parce qu'ils sont trop intéressés pour leur pays, et qu'ils ont moins d'intérêt et d'affection pour la mère-patrie, sont peu justes. Un Canadien est plus attaché à son pays qu'à toute autre partie de l'Empire, comme un Écossais est plus attache à l'Écosse, comme un Anglais est plus attaché à 1'Angleterre, il n'en est pas pour cela moins capable d'occuper des offices de confiance dans son pays. L'honneur ou même le risque de perdre sa place n'influera pas moins sur lui que sur un autre, en supposant le faux principe de la différence entre les intérêts de la mère-patrie et ceux du pays.

Un ancien sujet doit être, il est vrai, plus attaché à 1'Empire; mais aussi il a moins d'aversion pour le peuple et le gouvernement des États-Unis, et si tout est mis en calcul, il en résultera qu'un Canadien est beaucoup plus fortement attaché aux intérêts de la mère-patrie, relativement à la conservation de ce pays.

Les Canadiens incapables de se protéger eux-mêmes, n'ont point d'autres ressources que dans la protection de la mère-patrie. Ce pays une fois perdu, ils n'ont plus de patrie ou ils puissent tourner les yeux; un Anglais a encore sa patrie.

Si les Canadas passent sous la domination des États-Unis, leur population sera submergée par celle des États-Unis, et ils deviendront nuls, sans aucune influence dans leur gouvernement; incapables de protéger leur religion, qui ne fera que les rendre odieux à toutes les autres sectes qui abondent dans les États-Unis, et qui, quoique tolérantes entre elles, s'accordent toutes à détester la leur.

Tous les pères de famille attachés à leur religion ne peuvent penser qu'avec horreur à laisser en mourant leurs enfants sous une pareille domination. Tant que le pays demeurera sous 1'Empire britannique, ils n'ont pas les mêmes dangers à craindre, ils n'ont pas à appréhender qu'une population ennemie de leur religion, émigre des domaines de la mère-patrie; ils ont espérance que leur population sera toujours la plus considérable du pays, et qu'avec une constitution telle que leur a accordée la mère-patrie, ils auront le moyen de conserver leur religion, et tout ce qui leur est cher, pourvu que la mère-patrie veuille bien les laisser jouir de cette constitution sans qu'elle serve à les rendre odieux, et pourvu que l'encouragement donnée à la population américaine dans ce pays par 1'administration du parti anglais, cesse d'amener le mal qu'ils ont à craindre.

Ceux du parti anglais sont opposés à leurs intérêts, en ce qu'ayant beaucoup plus d'affinité avec les Américains par leurs mœurs, leur religion, leur langage, ils encouragent la population américaine, comme un moyen de se débarrasser des Canadiens qu'ils regardent toujours comme une population étrangère, comme une population française catholique, avec les mêmes préjugés que la classe du peuple, dans la mère-patrie, a contre les Français et les Catholiques, ils ne peuvent s'empêcher de se regarder comme dans un pays étranger, dans une province où la population canadienne (française) domine; une colonie peuplée d'Américains leur paraît plus une colonie anglaise, et ils ne s'y regarderaient pas autant comme dans un pays étranger. Ces effets sont encore augmentés par la circonstance, que la plus grande partie, peut-être, des officiers du gouvernement est devenue personnellement intéressée à 1'introduction de la population américaine dans ce pays, par les concessions des terres de la Couronne, qui leur ont été accordées, dans le voisinage des États-Unis; ainsi le parti anglais est opposé au parti canadien, justement sur le point qui touche à sa vie et à son existence comme peuple.

La seule chose qui reste aux Canadiens dans leur situation actuelle, est l'espoir qu'ils ont que la mère-patrie trouvera enfin que leurs intérêts concourent avec les siens pour la conservation du pays, que l'engloutissement de la population canadienne par la population américaine, sera l'engloutissement de la domination de la mère-patrie sur le pays, et que la perte de la vie politique des Canadiens, comme peuple naissant, sera aussi la perte de la vie politique de tout le pays, comme colonie britannique. Ils espèrent que ces choses seront aperçues de la mère-patrie, et qu'on y concevra une assez bonne opinion de leur intérêt, sinon de leur fidélité, pour les juger dignes de jouir de leur constitution, en commun avec les autres sujets de Sa Majesté sans aucune distinction, et s'ils n'ont pas ce bonheur, ils se voient par leur situation actuelle destinés à devenir, aux yeux de la mère-patrie, un peuple odieux et continuellement soupçonné, en attendant qu'ils soient engloutis dans le gouffre qui les attend.

Nous supplions Votre Seigneurie d'être persuadée que les sujets canadiens de Sa Majesté sont de vrais et fidèles sujets: ils ont déjà, sous les armes de Sa Majesté, conservé leur pays dans un temps ou les autres sujets de Sa Majesté leur cédèrent en fidélité, ils sont encore actuellement sous les armes de Sa Majesté pour le défendre, si leurs faibles efforts peuvent être un témoignage suffisant de leur fidélité, ils espèrent que Son Altesse Royale voudra bien prendre leur situation en considération, et leur accorder tel remède qu'elle jugera convenable.

Notes

  • Robert Christie, A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada, Volume VI, p. 313-323 [1]