Eight Years in Canada, embracing a review of the administrations of Lords Durham and Sydenham, Sir C. Bagot and Lord Metcalfe; and including numerous interesting letters from Lord Durham, Mr. Chas. Buller, and other well-known public characters

Front matter

EIGHT YEARS IN CANADA; EMBRACING A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATIONS ny LORDS DURHAM AND SYDENHAM, SIR CHAS. BAGOT, AND LORD METCALFE ; AND INCLUDING NUMEROUS INTERESTING LETTERS FROM LORD DURHAM, MR. CHAS. BULLER, AND OTHER WELL-KNOWN PUBLIC CHARACTERS, BY MAJOR RICHARDSON, Knight ofthe Military Order of St. Ferdinand, Author or "Ecarte," "Wacousta," "The Canadian Brothers," Ice. fcc.fcc, DE OMNIBUS REBUS ET QTJIBVSDAM ALIIS. MONTREAL, CANADA : PUBLISHED BY H. H. CUNNINGHAM, 50, NOTRE DAME STKEET, 1817. " When we transplant the institutions of England into our Colonies, we ought at least to take care beforehand that the social state ofthe Colony should possess those peculiar materials on which alone the excellence of those institutions depends in the Mother Country.' %—>Lord. Durham's Report, Page 47, [Entered according to Act ofthe Provincial Legislature, in the year IP47. by Major John Richardson, in the Office of the Registrar of the Province of Canada ; and at .Stationers' Hall, London.]

DONOGHUE AND MANTZ, PRINTERS, MONTREAL. INTRODUCTION, This book, as will be seen on reference to a letter from Lord Durham to myself, written after his departure from Canada, and given in the Appendix, was intended to have been inscribed exclusively to his Lordship. Had he still existed, that intention would have been carried out ; but as he is no more, and as subsequent events have, in some degree, released me from what, had his Lordship lived, I should have regarded as an obligation, I hesitate not to satisfy my own strong in clination, by coupling with his name that of one, who, alas ! is also no more, and whose principles of government, and nobleness of character, have, in the highest degree, claimed the warmest attachment of the Cana dian people. It is far purer, moreover, to render the meed of homage to the dead, than to seek by adula tion to win the favor of the living ; and, therefore, to the memory of LORD DURHAM, the founder of a great system, and to that of LORD METCALFE, the true reader of the application of that system to a colony, do I inscribe this volume.

It is far from being an offering adequate to the worth of these celebrated dead, but its pages will at least be found to embrace much that will redeem their memories from whatever aspersions the malevolent may seek to cast upon them. J. RICHARDSON. Montreal, March 1st, 1847. EIGHT VEAES IN CANADA. be made available in her defence, I resolved to embark forthwith. I had recently been fighting in Spain, in aid of a liberty which, it will be remembered, it was shown, in the course of Sir Henry Har dinge's defence of my conduct, in the House of Commons, against tbe unfounded attacks of O'Connell, acting at the instance of his friend the would-be Spanish Dnke, — Sir De Lacy Evans, — I had not much enj'03-ed myself; but discouraging as had proved my ex perience of the recently past, I was supported by the conviction that should circumstances bring me again under the wand of autho rity, I should at least, in meeting Sir John Colborne, come in con tact with a gentleman.

Chapter II

On the 29th of March we took our leave of New York, and em barking on the Rochester, which, by reason of its being one of the earliest steamers of the season, was excessively crowded, ascended the beautiful Hudson as far as Albany, where, on the following morning, we took the cars for Utica. The scenery along the village of the Mohawk, through which we passed, was not at that early season of the year, when the air is bleak and the tree leafless, sufficiently developed to give it much claim to that character for loveliness which has been ascribed to it by the gifted pen of the first among American authors, Cooper ; but from the graceful windings of the valley, the undulating hills, or rather hillocks, which enclose it on either hand, and the picturesque and prominent frame in which the whole is set, it was evident that it wanted but the glowing and fertilizing influence of a summer sun to render the landscape one of extreme beauty.

Thus much for its character between Albany and Schenectady. From this latter place to Utica the scenery assumes a bolder character, and in the vicinity of a hamlet called, most ap propriately, Canajoharrie, are exhibited features which, although far inferior in grandeur, in some degree remind one of the mountain passes in Spain. Utica was the point of termination of the luxurious rail-road tra velling, and here I found that the real difficulties of an American spring journey were to commence. I had, as I have elsewhere remarked, a good deal of baggage, and the coach which was to pro ceed to Syracuse — a distance of fifty miles through (it was stated for our comfort) the most execrable of roads — was the only means by which I could have it transported. Now, as only a limited quantity of " plunder " was allowed to each passenger, there was no alter native than to take as many places in the coach as would pay for the extra baggage.

This I did, still leaving one large case behind, to follow on the opening of the eanal. To my dismay and surprise, however, I found that, while my trunks and packages had been slowed away in every available part of the coach, the full comple ment of passengers — most osthemfa! and heavy men — were prenaring to take their places with me. I remonstrated with the agent — pointed out to him the injustice of filling the coach in this manner, after charging me for extra seats, and requested that, if he persisted in forcing these people upon me, he would at least return my money, when I might avail myself of some other conveyance. But I might as well have talked to the winds. The money was in his pocket, and my expostulation was unheeded. He said he had overloaded his coach with my additional « baggage," and that was his " look out."

Them gentlemen wanted to go on, and they must go " any how," as well as me, while as for returning the money, he "guessed" he would do no such thing. Finding it useless to remonstrate, I resigned myself to my fate, and ensconcing myself in a corner of the vehicle, with almost every hope of air taken from me by three of the stout men who sat on the centre bench, supported by a broad strap, that thumped ever and anon against my breast, I resolved to preserve a sullen silence, un!il released from my purgatory. But this was not to be the penance of a few hours. The roads, as had been truly enough stated, were exe crable, even from the commencement of the journey, and as night approached, they grew worse. About midnight, the misery of our position was at its climax. The driver, a fellow who by the way preserved the most extraordinary good humour in the midst of so much difficulty, was frequently, after the most untiring exertions of guidance, compelled to stop in the middle of the road, and exclaim with an oath that he had got into an " almighty fix," for that amid the mass of mud which surrounded him, he could not tell where the track lay.

Then declaring that he would go " slick " through at all hazards, leaving his horses to find their own way, he would drag us over inequalities that threatened at every instant to overturn the coach, and what was worse than the mere act of overturning, to bury my unfortunate baggage in the sea of mire through which we moved. Finally, about two o'clock, we stuck fast, and no exertion of the horses could extricate us. The driver dismounted, and opening the door of the vehicle, courteously intimated that, unless the passengers would get out and walk through the mud, there was no chance of reaching Syracuse until the roads should begin to dry, for that his horses were completely done up. Cheerfully obeying his wish, the whole of the men, with the exception of myself, instantly alighted. 1 was in no mood, after having paid for my own and several extra places, to wade through deep and seemingly interminable mire, in a night so dark that the driver could not, without straining his vision, see his leaders' heads from his seat, and therefore determined not to move.

Moreover, I had no inclination to abandon my baggage to the tender mercies of one who might, for ought I knew, take it into his head to lighten the outside of the coach even as he had done the inside. Relieved of this mass of human flesh, the jaded yet spirited horses succeeded in extricating the wheels of the vehicle ; and the driver resuming his seat, went on floundering as before, yet with t'ie same almost undisturbed good humor, and rather leaving the animals to pick their road, than seeking to guide them, until again we sank in a deep rut, from which no coaxing or whipping could prevail upon them to extricate their burden. Our case was now one of seeming hopelessness, and the only chance of relief we had was that the approaching dawn would shew us to be in the vicinity of some habitation, where assistance might be obtained.

With bitter annoyance at my heart, and much the same sort of feeling with which a man takes a forced cold bath in December, I opened the door of the coach, and, plunging into the mud below, began to grope my way in the direction of the dark line before me, which I correctly assumed to be the whole breadth of the trackless road. I had not proceeded many yards, before, from increasing cold and dampness in one foot, I detected that I had lost one of my India rubber shoes. This was a grievous deprivation at such a season, and in such a road ; and satisfied, by seeling, of my loss, I retrac ed my steps as well as I could, making an ineffectual attempt to recover the lost treasure. But it was vain. The ill-fated shoe was buried far beneath the surface of the mud ; and even if there had been light enough to have admitted of an examination, no track could have been found of the foot which had deposited its outward covering far beneath.

My hands were much soiled in the fruitless search ; and as I thought of Sir Francis Head and his mud-covered high boots, I now fully comprehended the sensible style of dress in which he had travelled, and the difficulties to which he must have been exposed. Giving up the shoe as ir recoverable, I again turned my back upon the horses, with the in tention of " going a-head " ; and had walked, as I thought, much more than a mile, when the dawning day revealed to me a rude inn on the right of the road, and the shivering passengers grouped around its front, evidently waiting for the appearance of the ve hicle they had so recently lightened. As the grey morning in creased in strength, we looked backed in the direction from which it was expected, and, much to my satisfaction, I beheld the coach and horses (albeit still stationary) not more than a quarter of a mile from the house.

On the driver coming up, I inquired if this was his third stoppage, and whether he had succeeded in ex tricating the coach after I had left it. He good humoredly "guessed" not; this had only been his second "fix," and he " rayther " expected it would be his last before he reached Syra cuse, as he knew where he now was, and the rest of the road was a little better than what we had passed through the preceding night. It was therefore obvious that I must have been flounder ing about nearly in a circle since leaving the coach, for I had as suredly walked the distance three or four times over, although I had not in reality made more than a quarter of a mile of actual progress. On reaching the spot where we stood, the driver immediately, and as matter of course, put the services of the passengers under contribution, and they all repaired to the coach once more.

Rails were taken from the fences near, and with those they raised and propped the wheels and body of the carriage, until the horses were enabled to do their part of the duty, and extricate the coach, which was now driven up to the house, where a rude breakfast had in the meantime been prepared. This was voraciously eaten by those who had no particular repugnance to it. The remainder of the journey, performed as it was by daylight, was unmarked by similar disaster, or even by risk, although our bones continued to ache from the violent joltings of the preceding night. Some idea may be formed of the infamous state of the roads from the fact, that, during one portion of the journey, we made only 11 miles in 12 hours, and were altogether 25 hours in reaching our destination, a distance of 50 miles.

It has often since been my fate to encounter difficulties of this kind in Canada, and occasionally in the States ; but nothing I have ever since experi enced, has at all approached this memorable journey between Utica and Syracuse. Whoever wishes to satisfy himself, must try it at the season of the year I have named ; and should he com plain of the vileness of the road, he will in all probability have the consolation to learn, as I did, that had he deferred his journey for a month or two, he would have fouud it better. Our first entrance into Syracuse had nothing to tempt us to remain there longer than a change of conveyance would require, for on desiring an Irish porter to unstrap a trunk from behind the coach, as it stooctljeforenhe principal hotel, he replied that " He would be d — d if he did.

If I wanted the trunk off, I might un strap it myself." As soon, therefore, as I could get the baggage removed, we proceeded by the horse cars which run between Syra use and Auburn, a distance of twenty-five miles, and reached the latter place about nine o'clock the same evening. As a "set off" to the insolence of the Irishman, I feel plea sure in here recording the very obliging conduct of an Ame rican, one of my fellow-passengers, from Utica. From the first moment of our being thrown together iu American stage-coach misery, this amiable man, who was a substantial farmer on his way to visit a rich daughter at Seneca Falls, perceiving that I was a stranger, and even suspecting me to be on my way to Ca nada to fight against the Patriots and Sympathizers, was most for ward in tendering that assistance which he conceived my ignorance of the customs of the country so much demanded.

Often, when I sought in vain for the aid of the driver, would this good Samaritan tender his services, frequently lifting my luggage with his own hands whenever it might be necessary, and always ascertaining, not only that it was properly secured, but that no parcel was deficient. This certainly was disinterested kindness, and induced wholly by a benevolent disposition. As such I felt it, and my sense of the service was heightened by the very fact that he did not seem to think himself privileged to force his con versation upon me farther than I was disposed to invite it. On parting with him, I gave him my card, took his name, which I now forget, and promised, if ever I should visit the neighbor hood in" which he resided, to make it an especial point to call upon him. The evening of our arrival at the beautiful and neat cottage studded village of Auburn was Saturday ; and as we were not in clined again to run the risk of being cooped up with eight fat " insides," after paying for one third of the places they occupied, we determined on passing the night and part of the following day in Auburn, for the double"purpose of resting from the fatigue and joltingwe had so recently endured, and (if possible) visiting its celebrated Penitentiary.

On the next day, therefore, after having despatched a somewhat late breakfast, we bent our course to wards that imposing pile of building. The governor was already jrone to church ; and on my stating to the porter the object of my visit, he inforned me that the Penitentiary was never open on the Sabbath to others than the officers connected with the establishment. I however left my card, requesting that he would acquaint the governor, on his return, that the gentleman whose name it bore was a stranger travelling through the country, and intending to depart from Auburn on the following morning. I added that I would call again between one and two o'clock, when I trusted I should find an exception to the rule had been made in my favor. At the hour named, we returned, and met the governor near the principal entrance.

He received us very kindly, and expressed his ready assent to my request. He then, after some little con versation of a desultory kind, led the way, attended by the chap lain of the establishment, into the body of the building, and showed us whatever was to be seen. In consequence of its being Sunday, the whole of the convicts were in their cells, (these latter some six hundred in number, and filling corridors of stone, which rose, tier after tier, above each other,) and as we passed along, the ex pression of the countenances of those, who, attracted by the unu sual sound of a footfall on that day, had instinctively moved to the front or open grating of their cells, was profoundly melancholy to behold. The sympathies of the human mind appeared to have been withered up in each breast, for almost every face bore the stern impress of a fixed and stubborn despair, which no ray of light or hope could ever again penetrate.

One man only, of the number of those whose faces I beheld, suffered the rigidity of his features to relax even for a moment, and he was a Negro. This man absolutely seemed pleased when he saw me with a countenance not many shades lighter than his own ; but it was evident that his was the idle and vacant grin of a mere animal and gra tified curiosity. From the cells, which (necessarily fetid from the close confine ment of so great a mass of human beings, notwithstanding the at tention that is paid to the enforcement of a system of cleanliness among them), I was not sorry to leave, we were conducted to the large, commodious, and airy apartments of the women, and thence to the spacious chapel. Our inspection being finished, the go vernor led us again to the lower basement, where the dining rooms and kitchens are situated.

The latter were well furnished writh meat, of which the best quality is given to the convicts, and the bread had so tempting an appearance that I expressed a desire to be permitted to carry away a small piece of it as a sample. There were two of the convicts (cooks) in the kitchen at the time preparing the next meal for their companions, and the governor addressing one of them, desired him to cut a small square off a loaf. The man did so without replying ; but, a moment after wards, seemingly at a loss how to dispose of it, he turned to the governor, and said briefly, and in an enquiring tone, "Paper?" " Yes, put it in paper, and tie it up." This was the only sound of the human voice we had heard from that mass of living matter, during the period of our visit. It vibrated harshly on the ear, as though the man had, in infringing the regulations, done violence to himself; and for days afterwards, that peculiarly uttered Word " Paper ?" came, at intervals, inharmoniously to my recollection.

From the building itself, and after having pointed out the very excellent arrangements of the keepers' department, which are ne cessarily on an extensive but simplified scale, our polite conduc tors led the way across the court to the different work-room?, where almost every description of trade was in the course of being carried on ; but what most excited my curiosity and attention was the extreme beauty of many of the carpets that are made in this establishment. From the whole, a handsome revenue is derived, and this, after deducting the expenses of all connected with the prison, is paid into the State Treasury. From Captain Basil Hall's description of them, I had some curiosity to see the narrow passages in which the keepers, or overseers, have the power of being ever near the workmen, and are thus enabled to detect unseen any violation of the prescribed rules of the place.

They were carefully pointed out to me by the obliging governor, and I found them exactly as described. The narrow corridor, enclosed on either side, and running along the outer extremity of the work-rooms, is provided with an estrade elevated some feet above the floor of the apartments, and is lined in such a manner that the footfall cannot be heard by the acutest ear. The inner side of the corridors, which are of wood, are perforated, at certain distances, much after the manner of loop-holes for musketry, so that the distance of the eye from the surface of the partition which is visible from the work-room, is so great as to prevent it, applied as it is to so narrow an aperture, from being seen by those within, while it, on the other hand, commands a view of the actions of the convicts. Our examination of the work-rooms having been concluded, the worthy governor introduced us to a very neat garden — also the fruit of the labor of the convicts — which adjoined the building, and on which much pains and horticultural taste had been ex pended.

Soon afterwards, we took our leave, deeply impressed with the urbanity of those who had cheerfully sacrificed to strangers so much of a day devoted, not more to religious exercises, than to their own necessary leisure ; and returned, with gratified curiosity, but oppressed spirits, to the hotel. Having agreed with the coach agent to be conveyed on to Rochester, a distance of sixty-sour miles, in an " extra," for which I was to pay the moderate charge of thirty dollars, we left Auburn on the afternoon of the same day, and under a much more decided feeling of independence, it will be presumed, than when we saw the fat men get into the coach at Utica. The driver was in good spirits, the horses seemingly delighted that they had not a greater weight to drag ; and away we darted from the crowded front of the hotel, amid the flourishing of the whip, which was a bad imitation, both in sound and execution, of that of a French postillion.

The day had been ushered in with a genial warmth, not usual in America at that season of the year, and it was this consideration chiefly which had induced us to avail ourselves of the afternoon to get on as far as Geneva, between which pretty village and Auburn there was, we had been informed, some picturesque views to be obtained. Nor were we disappointed. The undulating nature of the country presented so many features to be admired, so many attractive coup d'teils, that it was impossible to restrain a desire to revisit them when the season should be more advanced, and the foliage, that great adorner of the works of Him who clothes the hill and the valley in all the gorgeousness of nature's beauty, more fully developed. One remarkable feature in this day's journey was the enormous length of a disproportionately narrow bridge traversing the Lake of Cayuga (one mile and eight rods in extent), over which we passed at the close of the day, of course at a walk.

This, to a nervous per son, must be exciting in a high degree. The starting of one of the horses, the meeting of another team, the throwing off of a wheel, all are accidents that might be apprehended from one who, looking from either window of the coach, could see only a few feet of bridge on either side, and beyond this a vast and deep sheet of water, which, in a season of tempest, must lash with no ordinary fury against the road that barely overtops its surface. No railing of any kind affords even the appearance of a safeguard to the passenger, so that one's only trust is in Providence, on the one hand, and the skill of the driver, and the proverbial tractability of the American horses, on the other. The sun was just rising when we left Geneva, picturesquely situated at the head of Lake Seneca, where we had slept, and the view, as we rose to the eminence which overhangs the village, was for several miles around exceedingly beautiful ; nor indeed did the scenery Jose much of its attractive power during the whole of our route to Rochester.

This latter place we reached about four o'clock, and as 1 had taken my " extra " only thus far, I was compelled here to hire another to Youngstown, on the Niagara Frontier, which was the termination of our land journey, before crossing, at that point, into Canada. For this— the distance being eighty miles — I paid an additional forty dollars. In the evening, we resumed our journey, and as we passed through the streets of Rochester, I could not but admire the vast improvement, both in the size and respectable appearance of the place, which had been effected in the short period that had elapsed since Captain Hall had described it as a " city of stumps." The Americans are unquestionably a "go-ahead " people, and although it frequently happens that they who build almost irretrievably ruin themselves, their successors are certain to reap a lasting benefit from their labors.

The Genessee Falls I had not an opportunity of seeing to advantage, although I caught, as I passed near them, occasional glimpses of their spray, and heard them dashing and hissing against whatever impeded their headlong course. Late at night, we reached the miserable hamlet of Clarkson, where, as if to make amends for bad accommodation, there was a heavy fall of snow during the night, that offered some hopes of our wheels being exchanged for runners for the remainder of the route. But this was too desirable to be true. The following morning brought with it a heavy thaw, and the only result was, that the roads, which had hitherto been tolerably good from Auburn, were again rendered heavy and unequal. Fortunately, our journey this day was, as far as Lockport, along what is called the ridge road, sandy in its nature, and from its regularity, and the almost unbroken evenness of the bottom between the ridge itself and the distant body of water, bearing the most indisputable evidence of having once formed a portion of the boundary of Lake Ontario.

During this drive, an amusing and characteristic incident oc curred. At one of the inns where we stopped to change horses, a small knot, consisting of the occupants of some half dozen dwellings, that rose stragglingly around the public house, were assem bled, and looking with much apparent interest and curiosity at the " extra," in which, having felt no inclination to alight, I was indo lently reclining. Presently, a tall personage — evidently one in authority above his fellows— detached himself from his party, and, approaching the coach, cast his glance upon the baggage that was piled on the outside of the vehicle. He then deliberately placed his arms across the open window, and thrusting his head in, proceeded to examine the interior in a spirit of great curiosity. I bore this for some time with becoming patience, but perceiving that he was not inclined to discontinue his inspection.

I abruptly demanded to know if he wanted anything? " No, Mr. Durham, no," he very quietly rejoined, " I am the stage agent here, and I was merely looking to see if your baggage was all right. That's all, Mr. Durham," and he looked significantly at me, as though he meant to convey that he had detected an English Governor travelling for security under a feigned name. This was too good a jest to be lost or nipped in the bud. To be taken for John George, Earl of Durham, without retinue or even a servant, travelling along the shores of Lake Ontario in a crazy " extra,'' was rich beyond measure, and on no account could I have undeceived the simple agent. " I thank you," I simply said, with a very condescending bow, that might have satisfied him I was "the person he supposed, "I think, however, that everything is secure."

By this time the driver had remounted his box, and the coach began to move, " Good bye, Mr. Duriiam," saluted my friend, touching his hat slightly, " I wish you a pleasant journey." Again I bowed very gravely, and, as the wheels rolled on, I could observe him returning to the group, evidently for the purpose of assuring them that he had made the sapient discovery that I was actually the Governor General of Canada travelling incog, to his destination. From Lockport to Youngstown I was forcibly impressed with the wildness of the scenes, which is everywhere peculiar to the newly-settled parts of America, but which, after so long an absence from the country, had nearly faded from my recollection. The tall, seared and blackened pine, which rises at intervals between myriads of burnt stumps in their several stages of decay — the rude and zigzag fence — the moss-covered log — the screaming blue-jay, and the scarlet-headed woodpecker, whose measured hammerings against the trunk of the blasted pine, ring loudly in the melancholy stillness that otherwise reigns around — all these, with an occasional warble from the more merry meadow-lark, just stirring into activity and song, constitute a picture so essentially American, that its similitude is not to be found in a ty other part of the world.