Note 159 — Chapter XLV

The transmission of this letter occupied ten weeks, it being dated the 9th of February, and reaching Quebec the 25th of April. In the Quebec Gazette of the 10th of November, 1792, it is stated that the latest news from Philadelphia and New York was to the 8th of October, giving accounts of a battle on the Wabash and Arguille rivers, between an expedition of American forces under General Wilkinson and a body of Indians, in which the latter were routed. In a notice from the "General Post Office, Quebec, 17th of November, 1791," information is given that "a mail for England will be closed at this office on Monday, the 5th of December next, at four o'clock p.m., to be forwarded by way of New York, in H.M. packet-boat which will sail from thence in January." (Christie's History of Canada, Vol. I., Chap. iv., p. 142.)

[160] "Thus ended the first session of the first Parliament of Lower Canada, and as a whole we may say that the session was a satisfactory one. The demons of party spirit and of national prejudice had indeed shown themselves; but only enough to show that they were in existence, and would become potent agents of discord as the heat of political contest warmed them into life. The war of races, which had been going on between the French and English on this continent for over a century and a half, was not ended by the capitulation and cession of Canada; only the scene of action was changed from the battle field to the council chamber, and words and ballots took the place of swords and bullets. The French Canadians showed at the very commencement of constitutional government that they considered the French language, the French people, the French laws, and the French religion, the language, people, laws, and religion of Canada, and that the English were only interlopers who had no business there, and with whom they were to affiliate as little as possible." (Tuttle's History of the Dominion of Canada, Chap. lxviii., p. 332.)

With the exception of the first sentence, we have no sympathy with the spirit or sentiment of the above quoted passage. The addresses to the Governor and the King show that the French did not regard the British as intruders, but as the legitimate rulers of the country, to whom they expressed all possible respect and loyalty. All that they asked on the question of language was, that in legislative and judicial proceedings the French language might be equally used with the English language; and was this unreasonable on the part of those who then comprised nine-tenths of the population, and whose laws and exercise of worship had been guaranteed by the articles of capitulation and the Quebec Act of 1774?