Canada : its defences, condition, and resources ; being a third and concluding volume of "My diary, North and South"

Front matter

MW i

GoJLL,

The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

Chapter I. Page

Introductory— Canada and the Mason and Slidell case — Threats of annexation — Defence of Canada — Reasons for visiting the British Provinces — Illness at New York — Hostility displayed there — Monotony of New York — Hotel life — " Birds of a feather " — Nationality absorbed — Start for Canada — Railway Companions — Public credulity — A victory in the papers — History of " A Big Fight" — General Pumpkin and Jefferson Brick 1

Chapter II

To the Station — Stars and Stripes — Crowd at Station — Train impeded by Snow — Classic ground — "Manhattan" — "Yonkers" — Fellowtravellers and their ways — "Beauties of the Hudson" — West Point : their education, &c. — Large Towns on the banks of the Hudson — Arrive at East Albany— Delavan House— Beds at a premium — Aspect of Albany not impressive — Sights — The Legislature . . . . . . . . . . .17

Chapter III

Unpleasant journey to Niagara — Mr. Seward — The Union and its dangers — Pass Buffalo —Arrival at Niagara — A " Touter" — Bad weather — The Road — Climate compared — Desolate appearance of houses — The St. Lawrence viewed from above — Oue hundred years ago — Canada the great object of the Americans — The Welland Canal — Effect of the Falls from a distance — Gradual approach — Less volume of waier in winter — Different effect and dangers in

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

winter — Icicles — Behind the Cataract — Photographs and Bazaar — Visit the " Lions " generally — Brock — American and Canadian sides contrasted — Goat Island — A whisper heard— Mills and Manufactories .......... 28

CHAPTER IY.

Leave Niagara— Suspension Bridge — In British territory — Hamilton City — Buildings — Proceed eastward — Toronto — Dine at Mess — Pay visits — Public edifices — Sleighs — Amusement of the boys — Camaraderie in the army — Kindly feeling displayed — Journey resumed towards Quebec — Intense cold — Snow landscape — Morning in the train — Hunger and lesser troubles— Kingston, its rise and military position — Harbour, dockyards — Its connection with the Prince of Wales' Tour — -The Upper St. Lawrence — Canada as to Defence ........... 53

Chapter V

Arrive at Cornwall — The St. Lawrence— Gossip on India — Aspect of the country — Montreal — The St. Lawrence Hall Hotel — Story of a Guardsman — Burnside — Dinner — Refuse a banquet — Flags — Climate — Salon- ti-manger — Contrast of Americans and English — Sleighs — The "Driving Club" — The Victoria Bridge — Uneasy feeling — Monument to Irish emigrants — Irish character — Montreal and New York — The Rink— Sir F. Williams — Influence of the Northerners .......... 71

Chapter VI

Visit the "lions" of Montreal— The 47th Regiment — The city open to attack— Quays, public buildings — French colonisation — Rise of Montreal— Stone— A French-Anglicised city— Loyalty of Canadians — Arrival of Troops — Facings — British and American Army compared— Experience needed by latter — Slavery . . . 87

Chapter VII

First view of Quebec — Passage of the St. Lawrence — Novel and rather alarming sit .; tion — Russell's Hotel — The Falls of Montmorency, and the "Cone " — Aspect of the city — The Point — " Tarboggining "

CONTENTS. XI

PAGE

Description of the "Cone" — Audacity of one of my companions —A Canadian dinner — Call on the Governor — Visit the Citadel — Its position — Capabilities for defence — View from parapet — The armoury — Old muskets — 'Red-tape though tfulness — French and English occupation of Quebec— Strength of Quebec . . .100

Chapter VIII

Lower Canada and Ancient France — Soldiers in Garrison at Quebec — Canadian Volunteers — The Governor-General Viscount Monck — Uniform in the United States — A Sleighing Party — Dinner and Calico Ball 121

Chapter IX

Canadian view of the American Struggle — English Officers in the States — My own position in the States and in Canada — The Ursulines in Quebec — General Montcalm — French Canadians — Imperial honours— Celts and Saxons — Salmon fishing— Early Government of Canada — Past and future . . . . . . . .128

Chapter X

Canadian Hospitality — Muffins— Departure for the States — Desertions — Montreal again — Southerners in Montreal — Drill and Snow Shoes — Winter Campaigning — Snow Drifts— Military Discontent . .148

Chapter XI

Extent of Canada — The Lakes — Canadian Wealth — Early History — La Salle — Border Conflicts — Early Expeditions — Invasions from New England — Louisburgh and Ticonderoga — The Colonial Insurrection— Partition of Canada — Progress of Upper Canada — France and Canada — The American Invasion — Winter Campaign — New Orleans and Plattsburgh — Peace of Ghent — Political Controversies— Winter Communication — Sentiments of Hon. Joseph Howe — General view of Imperial and Colonial relations . . 158

Chapter XII

The Militia— American Intentions— Instability of the Volunteer Principle—The Drilling of Militia— The Commission of 1862— The Duke of Newcastle's Views — Militia Schemes — Volunteer Force — Apathy of the French Canadians — The first Summons .... 200

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter XIII. Page

Possible dangers — The future danger — Open to attack — Canals and railways — Probable lines of invasion — Lines of attack and defence — London — Toronto — Defences of Kingston — Defences of Quebec . 222

Chapter XIV

Rapid Increase of Population — Mineral Wealth — Cereals— Imports and Exports — Climate — Agriculture — A Settler's Life — Reciprocity Treaty — Report of the Committee of the Executive Council — Mr. Gait — Senator Douglas — A Zollverein — Terms of the Convention — Free Trade, and what is meant by it — Mr. Gait's opinion on the subject — Canadian Imports and Exports ..... 241

Chapter XV

Reciprocal Rights- — American ideas of Reciprocity — The Ad Valorem System— Commercial Improvements— Trade with Ameiica — The Ottawa Route— The Saskatchewan — Fertility of tbe country — Water communication — The Maritime Provinces — Area and Population . 259

Chapter XVI

The " A shburton Capitulation" — Boundaries of Quebec — Arbitration in 1831 — Lord Ashbur'ton's Mission — The questions in dispute — "The Sea" v. "The Atlantic" — American Diplomatists — Franklin's Red Line — Compromise — The Maps — Maine — Damage to Canada — Mr. Webster's Defence — His Opinion of the Road — Value of the Heights — Our Share of Equivalents — Strategic value of Rouse's Point — Mr. Webster on the Invasion of Canada — Vermont — New Hampshire . . . . . . . . . 283

Chapter XVII

The Acadian Confederation — Union is Strength — The Provinces — New Brunswick — The Temperature— Trade of St. John — Climate and agriculture of Nova Scotia — Newfoundland — Prince Edward Island — The Red River District — Assiniboia — The Red River Valley — Minnesota and the West — The Hudson's Bay Company — Their Territory — The North-West Regions — Climate of Winnipeg Basin — The area of Winnipeg Basin — Finances of the Confederation — Imports, exports, and tonnage — Proposed Federal Constitution — Lessons from the American struggle . . . . . .310

XU CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIII.

PAGE

Possible dangers — The future danger — Open to attack — Canals and railways — Probable lines of invasion— Lines of attack and defence — London — Toronto — Defences of Kingston — Defences of Quebec . 222

CHAPTER XIV.

Papid Increase of Population — Mineral Wealth — Cereals— Imports and Exports — Climate — Agriculture — A Settler's Life— Reciprocity- Treaty — Report of the Committee of the Executive Council — Mr. Gait — Senator Douglas — A Zollverein — Terms of the Convention — Free Trade, and what is meant by it — Mr. Gait's opinion on the subject — Canadian Imports and Exports . . . . .241

CHAPTER XV.

Reciprocal Rights — American ideas of Reciprocity — The Ad Valorem System— Commercial Improvements — Trade with America — The Ottawa Route— The Saskatchewan — Fertility of the country — Water communication — The Maritime Provinces — Area and Population . 259

CHAPTER XVI.

The " Ashburton Capitulation" — Boundaries of Quebec — Arbitration in 1831 — Lord Ashburton's Mission — The questions in dispute — "The Sea" v. "The Atlantic" — American Diplomatists — Franklin's Red Line — Compromise — The Maps — Maine — Damage to Canada — Mr. Webster's Defence — His Opinion of the Road — Yalue of the Heights — Our Share of Equivalents — Strategic value of Rouse's Point — Mr. Webster on the Invasion of Canada — Vermont —New Hampshire 283

CHAPTER XVII.

The Acadian Confederation — Union is Strength— The Provinces— New- Brunswick — The Temperature— Trade of St. John — Climate and agriculture of Nova Scotia — Newfoundland — Prince Edward Island — The Red River District — Assiniboia — The Red River Valley — Minnesota and the West — The Hudson's Bay Company — Their Territory — The North-West Regions— Climate of Winnipeg Basiu — The area of Winnipeg Basin — Finances of the Confederation — Imports, exports, and tonnage — Proposed Federal Constitution — Lessons from the American struggle . . . . . .310

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ITS DEFENCES, CONDITION, AND KESOUKCES.

Chapter I

Introductory — Canada and the Mason and Slidell case — Threats of annexation — Defence of Canada — Reasons for visiting the British Provinces — Illnes3 at New York — Hostility displayed there — Monotony of New York — Hotel life — "Birds of a feather" — Nationality absorbed — Start for Canada — Railway Companions — Public credulity — A victory in the papers — History of " A Big Fight" — General Pumpkin and Jefferson Brick.

I do not pretend to offer any new observations on the climate, soil, or capabilities of Canada, nor can I venture to call these pages a " work " on that great province. I have nothing novel to advance in the hope of attracting an immigration to its widespread territories, and any statistical facts and figures I may use are accessible to all interested in the commerce or in the past, present, and future of the land.

Nor do I write with any particular theory in view, or with any crotchet on the subject of colonies, outlying provinces, and dependencies, and their value or detriment to the dominant commercial and imperial power.

My actual acquaintance with the country and the people is only such as I acquired in a few weeks' travelling in the depth of winter ; and such sort of knowledge as I gathered would certainly afford no great excuse in itself for intruding my remarks or opinions on the public when so many excellent books on Canada already exist,

But it happened that my visit took place at a very remarkable period of Canadian and American history, and at a time, too, when certain doctrines, broached not for the first time, but urged with more than usual ability, as to the relations between what for convenience I call the mother-country and her colonies, were exciting great attention across the Atlantic.

When I left Washington in the winter, a great crisis had been peacefully but not willingly averted by a concession on the part of the Federal Government to what the sentiment of the American people considered an exhibition of brute force. The first year of the war had closed over the Federals in gloom. Their arms were not wielded with credit at home — if credit ever can attach to arms wielded in a civil war — and the foreign power which it had been their wont to treat with something as near akin to disrespect as diplomatic decency would permit, aroused by an act which outraged the laws of nations and provoked the censure of every European power with business on the waters, had made preparations which could only imply that she would have recourse to hostility if her demands for satisfaction were refused.

It was under these circumstances that England obtained the reparation for which she sought, and in the eyes of Americans filched a triumph over their flag and took an insolent advantage over their weakened power " to do as they pleased." General McClellan,

THE KEVBNGB OF THE FUTURE. 3

playing the part of Fabius, perhaps because he knew not how to play any other part, had fallen sick and was nigh at death's door in the malarious winter at Washington. The great Union army, like a hybernating eel in the mud, lay motionless, between the Potomac and the clever imposture of the Confederate lines and wooden batteries at Manassas.

But haughty and hopeful as ever, in tone if not in heart, the Americans raved about vengeance for their own just concessions. They boasted that the seizure of Canada would be one of the measures of retaliation to which they intended promptly to resort, as the indemnity to their injured vanity and as compensation for the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell.

Meanwhile the small force of British troops stationed in Canada was reinforced by the speedy dispatch of some picked regiments from England, which did not raise it much beyond its regular strength, and tardy steps were taken to organise an efficient militia in the province. The volunteer movement had extended its influence across the ocean, and a commendable activity all- over the British Colonies and Canada falsified the complacent statements of the American papers that the people were not loyal to the Crown nor careful of the connection, which, it was alleged, they would gladly substitute for the protection of the standard of the Northern Republic.

All these necessary precautions against the consequences of the refusal of the American Government to yield the passengers taken from under our flag, were watched angrily and jealously in the States. The British reinforcements were ridiculed ; their tedious passages, their cheerless marches, were jeeringly chronicled.

b 2

Whole ships were reported to have gone down with living cargoes. Those who landed were represented as being borne on sleighs by sufferance routes, which would be impracticable in war. The Canadians were abused — and so were the Provincialists. The volunteers were assailed with the weapons which the American press knows so well how to use.

But that was false policy. It gave a stimulus to the loyal feeling of the subjects of the Crown. The Canadian press retorted, and, exulting in the triumph of the Home Government over the Republican Administration, uttered the taunts which Americans least brook to hear.

It was assumed that the task of vengeance and conquest would be light. I received letters in which it was maintained that Canada could not be defended, and that she was not worth defending ; others merely urged that if the Canadians would not take a prominent part in aid of imperial measures for their protection, they must be handed over to the invading Americans ; that their country cost more than it was worth, and that it was a mistake to keep any connection with the wrong side of the ledger, no matter what the results of rupturing it might be.

Americans told me " General Scott declares the Canadian frontier is not capable of defence." True, Americans had told me some months ago that General Scott, now mis en retraite in New York, after a hasty return from Europe — not, as was asserted, with diplomatic authority or with the view of invading Canada, but to save his pension in case of foreign Avar — would be in Richmond about July 22nd or 24th, 1801. I heard some views of the same kind from our own officer?,

AMERICA AND ENGLAND. 5

who expressed doubts respecting the possibility of a successful resistance to American invasion.

Now if that were so, it struck me that the troops we had in the country could prove but of little use, and that at the same time the relative condition of strength between the United States and Great Britain had undergone a vital change in face of the very agencies which ought to have established more solidly the results obtained in the last trial of force and resources between them on Canadian ground. It was worth while trying to ascertain the truth and to resolve these questions.

The United States, dreading a foreign war which might interfere with their invasion of the Southern States, had ungraciously made a concession, in revenge for making which their press declared they would on the first convenient occasion make war on the Power they had offended, in a country which they had invaded with all their united power — when Great Britain, steamless and remote, was engaged in European conflicts and destitute of maritime allies — only to meet with defeat, or with success of a nature to prove their incompetency to conquer.

Was the power of this distracted republic, contending furiously with rebellious members, then, become so great ? If so, with what motive was Great Britain hurrying across the sea the elite of her troops — too few to save these vast domains, too many to lose, and far too many to return as paroled prisoners? Why try to defend on such terms what was worthless and indefensible ? Canada, if not susceptible of defence, would be certainly unsuitable as a base for offensive operations against the States. Obviously the matter stood thus : that the military question depended on the temper and spirit of the people themselves.

The whole force of the Canadians, sustained by Great Britain, might, apparently, defy all the offensive power of the United States; and I desired to ascertain in what condition were their temper and defences.

At this time British officers were endeavouring to prepare the possessions of the Crown against threatened invasion. The Americans on their side were busy fortifying some important points on the lakes.

General Totten, an officer of the United States Engineers, well known for his ability, was understood to be engaged on a very elaborate plan of works along the frontier. Colonel Gordon, whose name will be for ever associated with the left attack at the siege of Sebastopol, aided by an experienced staff, was employed on our side, studying the capabilities of the frontier, and maturing a plan for the consideration of the Government in case of an American war.

There were reasons, too, of a personal character for my visiting Canada. I had a fever, which was contracted at Washington and laid me prostrate at New York. It was of the low typhoid type, which proved fatal to so many in the Federal army at the same time, and its effects made me weaker for the time than I ever remember to have been. There was no promise whatever of military operations, and I read every day of the arrival of friends and acquaintances in Canada, whose faces it Avould be pleasant to see, after the endurance of so many hostile glances and such public exhibition of illw-ill.

I do not wish to dwell en private annoyances, but as an instance of the feeling displayed towards me in New

THE NEW YORK CLUB. 7

York I may mention one circumstance. On my arrival in 1861 I was elected an honorary member of the club which derives its name from the state or city, and was indebted to its members for many acts of courtesy and for more than one entertainment. Returning to the city from Washington early this year, I was invited to dine at the same club by one or two of my friends. Certain members, as I afterwards heard, took umbrage at my presence, and fastened a quarrel on my entertainers. A day or two subsequently the people of New York were called on, by the notorious journalist who had honoured me with his animosity ever since I refused the dishonour of his acquaintance, to express their indignation at the conduct of the club ; and the members received a characteristic reprimand for their presumption in letting me into the club, from which they had kept their censor and his clientelle carefully out. My offence was rank; and public opinion — or what is called so — perhaps was in favour of the ostracism at that moment; for, as far as I know, the people must have believed I was the sole cause of the Federal defeat and flight at Ball Run.

There was some novelty in the idea of starting for Canada in the midst of the bitter winter wind and the dazzling snow; but I would have gone to Nova Zembla at the time to have escaped the monotony of New York, which the effects of recent illness rendered more irksome.

New York is among cities, what one of the lower order of molluscous animals, with a single intestinal canal, is to a creature of a higher development, with various organs, and full of veins and arteries. Up and down the Broadway passes the stream of life to and from the heart in Wall-street. In the narrow space from water to water on either side of this dry canal there is comparatively little animation, and nothing at all to reward the researches of a stranger.

Johnson's remark about Fleet-street would apply with truth to the gawky thoroughfare of the Atlantic Tyre. In the Broadway or its " west-end" extensions are to be found all the hotels, which are the ganglia of the feverish nervous system so incessantly agitated by the operations of the journalistic insects living in secret cysts nigh at hand. All day the great tideway is rolling in, headed by a noisy crest of little boys, with extras under their arms, and heralded by a confused surfy murmur of voices telling "lies" for cents, and enunciating "Another Great Union Victory \" in one great bore; or it is rushing out again with a dismal leaden current, laden with doubts and fears, as the news of some disaster breaks through the locks of government reservoirs and floods the press.

In my hotel, where I was fain to seclude myself in my illness, and to follow the very un-American practice of living in a suite of private rooms, there was but little conflict of opinion on any great event, real or fictitious, which turned up from day to day. The guests and visitors were well-nigh all of one way of thinking. They were of the old conservative party, so oddly denominated Democrats, who believed in States Rights : in the right of states to create and maintain their domestic institutions — to secede, if they pleased, from the Union — to resist the attempts of the General Government of the other states to coerce them by force of arms.

Some of these gentlemen were satisfied the South

NEW YORK DEMOCRATS. 9

would not be coerced ; some hoped the South would resist successfully. None, I fear, were " loyal " to President Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and I am sure none would have said so much for either of them or their friends as I would.

The majority principle forces people who hold similar views to meet together, and to select the same hotels to live in. This is unfortunate for a stranger who desires to hear the views of both sides. In the New York, from the highly artistic and skilful operator who flashed out cocktails at the bar, up to the highest authority, there was no man who would like to say that he Avas on good terms with Mr. Sumner, or that he did not think Mr. Seward the representative of evil principles. The rule was proved by the exceptions : two I suspect there were — stout Irish waiters, who did not approve of the attempts to destroy " our glorious Union," but who did not find the atmosphere of the place quite favourable to the free expression of the opinion they mildly hinted at to myself.

The sameness of ideas, of expressions, of faces, became unbearable. I could tell quite well by the look of men's faces what news they had heard, and what they were saying or going to say about it. Here were crafty politicals and practical men of business, and persons of a philosophical and reflective temperament, as well as the foolish, the mere pleasurehunters, and the unthinking mass of an hotel world, all looking forward to a near to-morrow to end the woes of the state, always waiting for a "decisive" battle or "an indignant uprising of the people " to drive the Republicans out of power and office.

Not one of them could or would see that the contest, when terminated, would give birth to others — that the vast bodies of diverse interests, prejudices, hatreds, and wrongs set in motion by war over so enormous a surface, where they had been kept suspended and inert by the powers of compromise, could never be reconsolidated and restored to the same state as before, and that it would be the work of time, the labour of many years, ere they could settle to rest in any shape whatever.

I am told respectable Americans do not use the word " Britisher," but I am bound to say I heard Americans who looked very respectable using the word at the time of which I speak, when there was still irritation on both sides in consequence of the surrender of Mason and Slidell — in the minds of the friends of the South, because they were balked in their anticipation of a foreign war ; in the Federal mind, because, after much threatening and menaces, they had seen the captives surrendered to the British by the President, or, more properly speaking, by Mr. Seward.

Hence it was, perhaps, that Canada was always mentioned in such a tone of contempt, as though the speakers sought to relieve their feelings by abuse of a British dependency.

" Goin' to Canada !" exclaimed the faithful Milesian who had been my attendant — in fact, my substitute for a nurse. " Lord help us ! That's a poor place, anyhow. I thought you'd be contint wid the snow we've got here. It's plinty, anyhow. But Canada [" The man had never been there in his life, but he spoke as if it were beyond the bounds of civilisation. He had served in a British regiment for many years ; many of his brothers had been, I think he told me, in the service,

CHANGE OF FEELING. 11

but now they were all in the States, and to his notion thriving like himself.

In no country on earth is an old nationality so soon absorbed as in America. I am inclined to think the regard professed for England by American literary men is sentimental, and is produced by education and study rather than by any feeling transmitted in families or by society.

The emigrant, it is remarked, speedily forgets — in the hurry of his new life the ways of the old slip out of his memory. One day I said to my man, as a regiment of volunteers was marching down Broadway, " Those fellows are not quite as well set up as the 41st, Pat." "Well, indeed, and that's thrue; but they'd fight as well I b'lieve, and better maybe, if they'd the officers, poor craychures ! Anyhow," continued he with great gravity, " they can't be flogged for nothin' or for anything." "Were you ever flogged?" "No, sirir — not a lash ever touched my back, but I've known fine sogers spiled by it." It is likely enough that he had never thought on the subject till he came to the States — a short time before and he would have resented deeply the idea that any regiment on earth could stand before Her Majesty's 41st.

It was now near the end of January, and as a gleam of fine weather might thaw the glorious Union army of the Potomac, and induce them to advance on the inglorious army of the Confederacy, I resolved to make the best of my way northwards forthwith.

My companions were a young British officer, distinguished in the Crimea, in India, and in China, who represented a borough in Parliament, and had come out to see the great contest which was raging in the United States ; and an English gentleman, who happened to be at New York, and was anxious to have a look at Niagara, even in its winter dress.

On the 27th January we were all packed to start by the 5.30 p.m. train by Albany to Niagara, and thence to Toronto. The landlord made me up a small assortment of provisions, as in snow-time trains are not always certain of anything but irregularity. I was regarded as one who Mras about to make myself needlessly miserable when he might continue in much happiness. " You had better stay, sir, for a few days. I have certain intelligence, let me whisper you, that the Abolitionists will be whipped at the end of this week, and old Abe driven out of Washington."

The little boys still shout out, "Another great Union victory." The last, by-the-bye, was of General Thomas, at Somerset, which has gradually sublimed into uncertainty, though he handled his men well, and is not bad at a despatch.

The credulity of the American mind is beyond belief. Populus vult decipi — and certainly its wishes are complied with to the fullest extent. The process of a Union victory, from its birth in the first telegram down to its dissolution in the last despatch, is curious enough.