Toward the end of 1837 armed rebellion broke out in both the Canadas.In both it was merely a flash in the pan.In Lower Canada there had been latterly much use of the phrases of revolution and some drilling, but rebellion was neither definitely planned nor carefully organized.The more extreme leaders of the Patriotes simply drifted into it, and the actual outbreak was a haphazard affair.Alarmed by the sudden and seemingly concerted departure of Papineau and some of his lieutenants, Nelson, Brown, and O'Callaghan, from Montreal, the Government gave orders for their arrest.The petty skirmish that followed on November 16, 1837, was the signal for the rallying of armed habitants around impromptu leaders at various points.The rising was local and spasmodic.The vast body of the habitants stood aloof.The Catholic Church, which earlier had sympathized with Papineau, had parted from him when he developed radical and republican views.Now the strong exhortations of the clergy to the faithful counted for much in keeping peace, and in one view justified the policy of the British Government in seeking to purchase their favor.The Quebec and Three Rivers districts remained quiet.In the Richelieu and Montreal districts, where disaffection was strongest, the habitants lacked leadership, discipline, and touch with other groups, and were armed only with old flintlocks, scythes, or clubs.Here and there a brave and skillful leader, such as Dr.Jean Olivier Chenier, was thrown up by the evidence opened a way out of the difficult situation.Ayear later Peel and Webster, representing the two countries, exchanged formal explanations, and the incident was closed.
In Upper Canada many a rebel sympathizer lay for months in jail, but only two leaders, Lount and Matthews, both brave men, paid the penalty of death for their failure.In Lower Canada the new Governor General, Lord Durham, proved more clement, merely banishing to Bermuda eight of the captured leaders.When, a year later, after Durham's return to England, a second brief rising broke out under Robert Nelson, it was stamped out in a week, twelve of the ringleaders were executed, and others were deported to Botany Bay.
The rebellion, it seemed, had failed and failed miserably.Most of the leaders of the extreme factions in both provinces had been discredited, and the moderate men had been driven into the government camp.Yet in one sense the rising proved successful.
It was not the first nor the last time that wild and misguided force brought reform where sane and moderate tactics met only contempt.If men were willing to die to redress their wrongs, the most easy-going official could no longer deny that there was a case for inquiry and possibly for reform.Lord Melbourne's Government had acted at once in sending out to Canada, as Governor General and High Commissioner with sweeping powers, one of the ablest men in English public life.Lord Durham was an aristocratic Radical, intensely devoted to political equality and equally convinced of his own personal superiority.Yet he had vision, firmness, independence, and his very rudeness kept him free from the social influences which had ensnared many another Governor.Attended by a gorgeous retinue and by some able working secretaries, including Charles Buller, Carlyle's pupil, he made a rapid survey of Upper and Lower Canada.Suddenly, after five crowded months, his mission ended.He had left at home active enemies and lukewarm friends.Lord Brougham, one of his foes, called in question the legality of his edict banishing the rebel leaders to Bermuda.The Ministers did not back him, as they should have done; and Durham indignantly resigned and hurried back to England.
Three months later, however, his "Report" appeared and his mission stood vindicated.There are few British state papers of more fame or more worth than Durham's "Report".It was not, however, the beginning and the end of wisdom in colonial policy, as has often been declared.Much that Durham advocated was not new, and much has been condemned by time.His main suggestions were four: to unite the Canadas, to swamp the French Canadians by such union, to grant a measure of responsible government, and to set up municipal government.His attitude towards the French Canadians was prejudiced and shortsighted.He was not the first to recommend responsible government, nor did his approval make it a reality.Yet with all qualifications his "Report" showed a confidence in the liberating and solving power of self-government which was the all-essential thing for the English Government to see; and his reasoned and powerful advocacy gave an impetus and a rallying point to the movement which were to prove of the greatest value in the future growth not only of Canada but of the whole British Empire.
