Tag Archives: Constitutional Act 1791

Maps of Canada

15 Thursday Oct 2020

Posted by in Canada, Canadian art

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The Jack Pine, by Tom Thomson (1916)

1. The Quebec Act, 1774

New France fell to Britain in 1759 (Quebec City), 1760 (Montreal), and by virtue of the Treaty of Paris, 1763. The Quebec Act (1774) gave French-speaking Canadians a status that approximated the status of English-speaking Canadians. The Governor of Canada was Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester.

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The Quebec Act, 1774

2. The Constitutional Act, 1791

After the American Revolutionary War, the United Empire Loyalists moved to Canada. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the large province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada. Most of the inhabitants of Upper Canada spoke English. In Lower Canada, the majority of Canadians were French-speaking (Canadiens). English-speaking newcomers also settled in Lower Canada. The Eastern Townships would be home to a large number of English-speaking Canadians. But many French-speaking Canadians felt Lower Canada was their land.

Both the citizens of Upper Canada and Lower Canada rebelled in 1837-1838. The Crown levied money from its British North American colonies.

The Constitutional Act, 1791

3. The Act of Union, 1840

Lord Durham investigated the Rebellions of 1837-1838. He recommended the union of the two Canadas. He hoped English-speaking Canadians would outnumber French-speaking Canadians.

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The Act of Union, 1840

4. Confederation Onwards

The Purchase of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay Company transformed Canada into a large territory.

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Confederation, 1867 +

5. Canada, as it is

Map of Canada
Canada (2020)

Love to everyone 💕

© Micheline Walker
15 October 2020
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A Short History of the Indépendantistes

16 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Canada

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https://michelinewalker.com/2012/04/12/upper-and-lower-canada/
Upper and Lower Canada
 

Upper and Lower Canada

We are now returning to an earlier post:  Upper and Lower Canada.  Let me copy its final paragraph.

“At this point, we pause so we can remember the essential facts. 1) In 1774, Canadiens inhabited a very large Province of Quebec, but 2), as of 1791, due to the arrival in the Province of Quebec of the United Empire Loyalists, the Province of Quebec was divided into Lower Canada and Upper Canada. 3) As a result, Canadiens lived in a smaller territory, but a territory which they felt was theirs.”

Number 3 is our key sentence: 3) As a result, Canadiens lived in a smaller territory, but a territory which they felt was theirs.

The Constitutional Act of 1791: a Mirage

 

The Rebellions in Lower and Upper Canada occurred because Britain was dipping into taxes levied by the governments of both Canadas.  There were two rebellions and two leaders: William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau.  Preserving the French Language was not on the agenda.  However, after Lord Durham proposed that the two Canadas be united, many of the Rebels started to look upon the Rebellion and its aftermath, the Act of Union (1840-1841), as the loss of their predominantly French-language country: Lower Canada.

********************************* 

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham GCB, PC
(12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840)
 

The Constitutional Act of 1791 had therefore been a mirage for French-speaking Canadians.  It had created a Lower Canada where French was spoken by a majority of the population, but this did not mean that the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, had been revoked. 

The Union Act: The Birth of the Patriote  

When the two Canadas were joined, Lower Canada Rebels were quickly transformed into French-speaking patriotes.  French-speaking Canadians were to be

  • assimilated (Lord Durham) and
  • a minority.

At this point, the Rebellions of both Canadas took on a new dimension.   French-speaking Canadians started to look upon its dead soldiers, the persons who were executed and those who had been sent to Australia as martyrs.  French-speaking Canadians saw the Act of Union as an attempt to take away from them

  • their language and
  • their territory. 

Henceforth, there would be a language problem in an expanding Canada.  So two stories were about to begin: that of Canada and the long tale of grievances on the part of French-speaking Canadians.   

Canada: from the Act of Union to Confederation

Under the able leadership of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, the clauses of the Act of Union were not read literally.  The constitution was quickly restored and Parliament convened under Baldwin (in the west) and Lafontaine (in the east).  As we have seen, it was a fruitful alliance because it offered a solution to flaws in the Act of Union.  It would be for Parliament to determine the fate of the nation.

By 1848, responsible government was achieved.  Lord Elgin, the Governor General, asked Lafontaine to be prime minister.  From that moment on, Canada was engaged into stretching itself from sea to sea and, in 1867, Confederation was achieved under the condition that a railroad link the provinces from coast to coast, a feat that would not have been possible before the invention of dynamite by Alfred Nobel of Sweden. 

The Seeds of Dissent had been sown

So Canada was on its way to becoming the country I know and love.  But the Rebels of 1837, who had become patriotes wanted to live in a country of their own, a version of their lost Lower Canada.  Over the years, these patriotes, today’s indépendantistes would be nationalistes, séparatistes, souverainistes and now indépendantistes.  The various names are synonyms. 

This takes us to the last Federal Election, held on May 2, 2011 

The Last Federal Election : the Spring of 2011

Quebec has a Liberal government headed by Jean Charest.  As for Canada, during the last Federal election, Ottawa seats occupied by Québécois were lost to other parties, the New Democratic Party being the Québécois’s favourite.  Monsieur Charest’s government did not suffer from these events, but Madame Pauline Marois‘s Parti Québécois found itself losing popularity.  Madame Marois’s personal ratings plunged to approximately 18%, except that the students went on strike three months ago. 

The students’ strike gave her an opportunity to breathe new life into the Parti Québécois.  She, mainly, and members of her party started to support the students, most of whom could not tell what was happening and were rebels without a cause, which constitutes shameless behaviour on the part of Madame Marois’s party.  The students think she is on their side.  But that could be another mirage

* * *

Here is a short history of the Indépendantistes

Refus Global & the Duplessis Era

Iin 1948, a Manifesto entitled Refus Global, [i] was written by sixteen young Québécois artists and intellectuals that included Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle.  It could be said that to a large extent this Manifesto led to the rebirth of patriote sentiment.  The Manifesto painted a sorry picture of Quebec, which was often referred to as a priest-ridden province and was indeed both priest ridden and saddled with the corrupt government Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis. Duplessis literally bought votes.  Moreover, this manifesto coincided with the Asbestos Strike.  Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis remained Premier until his death on September 7, 1959.  Maurice Duplessis was Premier of the current province of Quebec from August 17, 1936 until October 25, 1939 and from August 8, 1944 until September 7, 1959.

The Quiet Revolution / la Révolution tranquille

Health and Education

Everything started to change when Jean Lesage‘s Liberal Party won the June 22, 1960 Quebec general election.  Monsieur Lesage was Premier of Quebec for six years during which the Province underwent profound changes.  He ushered in the Révolution tranquille / Quiet Revolution [ii].  During those six years, Quebec ceased to be a priest-ridden province. 

Let me quote Wikipedia:

The provincial government took over the fields of health care and education, which had been in the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. It created ministries of Education and Health, expanded the public service, and made massive investments in the public education system and provincial infrastructure. The government allowed unionization of the civil service. It took measures to increase Québécois control over the province’s economy and nationalized electricity production and distribution. (Wikipedia: Quiet Revolution)

 

Zeitgeist

The Separatist Movement is, officially, a product of the 1960s and a Quebec movement.  However, it can be linked to worldwide changes and events: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the War in Vietnam, protest against the War in Vietnam, the Woman’s Liberation Movement, etc.  Pictures of Che Guevara and Mao Tse Tung were on every wall. 

La Révolution tranquille / The Quiet Revolution

The Language Debate

There was nothing particularly tranquille about the Quiet Revolution. Its programme soon grew to include the preservation of the French language.  Quebecers remembered their Lower Canada and many became nationalists.  In fact, many became séparatistes who wanted to turn the Province of Quebec into a separate country where French would be spoken by a majority of the population.

The Trudeau Era

In 1968, Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau CC, CH, PC, QC, FRSC (Liberal Party) rose to power and, a year later, on September 9, 1969, the Official Languages Act became law. The Act gave and still gives “English and French equal status in the government of Canada.” (Wikipedia)

The Parti québécois is elected into power: 1976

The Official Languages Act, signed into law on September 9, 1969, did not go far enough for the séparatistes.  In 1976, the Parti Québécois was elected into power in Quebec, under the leadership of René Lévesque.  René Lévesque was in office from 1976 until 1985.  Hundreds of thousands of people, mostly English-speaking, left Quebec, which caused a degree of impoverishment in the now séparatiste province.  Many companies and banks moved their head office to Toronto. Moreover, drastic laws were enacted to protect the French language in Quebec

Charter of the French Language: Bill 101

In 1974, Bill 22 made French into the official language of Quebec under Premier Robert Bourassa.  There had been and would be other bills, but Bill 101, [iii], enacted in 1977, was a radical version of Bill 22 and was in contravention of the

The Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ)

As the Province of Quebec was doing away with Church-run institutions (health and education), a terrorist group was organized and it supported the Quebec sovereignty movement until the October Crisis of 1970.  Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the then Prime Minister of Canada, invoked the War Measures Act to suppress the FLQ:  Front de Libération du Québec whose members had kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross.  The following is a quotation from Wikipedia.

“It [the FLQ] was responsible for over 160 violent incidents which killed eight people and injured many more, including the bombing of the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1969. These attacks culminated in 1970 with what is known as the October Crisis, in which British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was murdered by strangulation.” (Wikipedia)

Conclusion 

The Front de Libération du Québec has not been active since 1970, but the public remembers and it fears it may resurface.  I doubt it.  As for the Parti Québécois, it still has seats in the Quebec government.  It is the official opposition. 

At the moment, the students are asking for a free education, but Pauline Marois was not as supportive of them today as she had been previously.  First, yesterday, May 14, Line Beauchamp, Monsieur Jean Charest‘s Minister of Education, resigned.  She has been replaced by Michelle Courchesne.  Second, the students who have been ordered back into their classroom were maligned by the more rebellious students.  They were called strike breakers or scabs.  In short, the drama continues and Quebec may have new martyrs.

This is an imperfect blog, but it gives an overview of nationalism in Quebec and point to a few key moments.  I will therefore post it because it sheds a little light on Canada’s long language debate.  Nothing and no one prevents French-speaking Canadians from surviving and thriving.  

Maîtres chez nous

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Micheline Walker©
May 15, 2012
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_________________________

[i] See also: François-Marc Gagnon, “Refus Global,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/refus-global

[ii] See also: René Durocher, “Quiet Revolution,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/quiet-revolution

[iii] R. Hudon, “Bill 101,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/bill-101

 

Parliament to the Rescue: the Hidden Resource

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by in Canada, History, Quebec

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L’Enfant au pain (Boy with Bread) by Ozias Leduc 1892-99, National Gallery of Canada

Until the Act of Union, 1840-1841, the former citizens of New France were surprisingly happy with their new masters.  They enjoyed the fact that they no longer had to bend their head before an intendant or a gouverneur and, although the Seigneurial system was maintained, British Rule brought a Parliament. Moreover, Canadiens could also express themselves in newspapers and their priests occupied a privileged position.

Here are testimonials:

Le Canadien: a newspaper

« Vous avez peut-être vécu dans ces tems malheureux qui on précédé la conquête de ce pays, où un Gouverneur étoit une Idole devant laquelle il n’étoit pas permis de lever la tête. »[i]
Translation
“You may have lived during these unfortunate days that preceded the conquest of this country, when a governor was an idol in whose presence one was not allowed to raise one’s head.”

The above quotation is taken from the 4 November 1809 issue of Le Canadien, a newspaper founded on 22 November 1806.  Earlier in the same article, the anonymous Canadien had also praised freedom of the press, which had not been allowed the citizens of New France.  Later, in the same article, our anonymous writer would praise the British Constitution.

The Oraison Funèbre (the funeral oration) of Mgr Jean-Olivier Brian

More eloquent, however, is Father Joseph-Octave Plessis‘s (1763-1825) Oraison Funèbre. In his funeral oration, Oraison Funèbre, on the death of Mgr Jean-Olivier Brian, Bishop of Quebec from 1764 to 1784, Plessis apologized on behalf of his people, the Canadiens, for having feared British rule.  He said that the people of New France had been rather apprehensive because they could not be persuaded that foreign men, unaccustomed to New France’s land, laws, customs and religion, would be able “to give back to Canada what it had just lost by changing masters:”

« On ne pouvait se persuader que des hommes étrangers à notre sol, à notre langage, à nos lois (laws), à nos usages (customs) et à notre  culte (religion), fussent jamais  capables de rendre au Canada ce qu’il venait de perdre en changeant de maîtres. »[ii]
Translation
“We could not persuade ourselves that men who knew little about our land, our language, or laws, our customs and our religion could ever return to Canada what it had just lost by changing masters.”

Back to the Quebec Act and Lord Dorchester

There can be doubt that the Canadiens had much to gain when Sir Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester made them full-fledged British citizens under the Quebec Act.[III] Nothing had been taken away from Britain’s French subject and they had now gained the right to have newspapers and be members of Parliament.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), it had been negotiated that the Canadiens were to be left undisturbed.  But, ironically, the citizens of the Province de Québec (1774) and of the two Canadas, born of the Constitutional Act of 1791, had been provided with the tools that would allow them to regain what they lost when the Act of Union was signed into law: Parliament, as the word suggests.

The Rebellions and the Act of Union

The events of 1837-1838 and the ensuing decision to unite the two Canadas and to prohibit the use of French were regrettable.  However, once order was restored, the new United Province of Canada was again enjoying the benefits of the British Constitution.

When first appointed Joint Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada, in 1842, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, or LaFontaine, was not heading a responsible government, which would cause him to resign, but the United Province of Canada had a Canadien voice and it so happened that this Canadien, Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, spoke English.  You may recall that Lafontaine had travelled to Britain in an effort to avert a call to arms in 1837.

A Bilingual Household

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine was married first to Lynzee Rickard (1813–1859) who became his wife on 9 July 1831.  When Lynzee died (in 1859), Louis-Hippolyte married the widowed Jane Élisabeth Geneviève Morrison (1822-1905) daughter of Charles Morrison.  They were married on 30 January 1861 and lived on rue Saint-Denis in Montreal.  It was a bilingual household.

As joint Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada, Louis-Hippolyte first addressed the assembly in French and then he and his political partner Robert Baldwin set about returning to Canadiens the right to speak their own language.

In fact, assimilation would have been difficult due to the land tenure system, the   seigneurial system.  As for those Canadiens who were not farmers they gathered  around a priest, in a parish.  That was what I like to call the “parochial” system.

Conclusion

So let me close this blog on an optimistic note. In the 1840s, we have fine men in Parliament and their goal, responsible government, had been attained between 1842 and 1848, when Baldwin and Lafontaine became Joint Prime Ministers.

In my next post, we will examine the Seigneurial System which was not abolished until 1854.  In fact, Louis-Joseph Papineau was a seigneur and, from 1774 (the Quebec Act) until 1854, French-speaking Canadians had both seigneuries and a Parliament.

Ravel: 10 Jeux d’eau 

 

Nature morte by Cornelius Krieghoff

© Micheline Walker
28 April 2012
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_________________________

[I] René Dionne, Les Origines canadiennes (1763-1836), in Gilles Marcotte, dir. vol. 2, Anthologie de la littérature québécoise (Montréal: L’Hexagone, 1994), p. 324. 

[II] Op. Cit., p. 331.

[III] The Quebec Act: 1774 

The Quebec Act of 1774 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 14 Geo. III c. 83) setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec. The principal components of the Act were:

  • The province’s territory was expanded to take over part of the Indian Reserve, including much of what is now southern Ontario, plus Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.
  • The oath of allegiance was replaced with one that no longer made reference to the Protestant faith.
  • It guaranteed free practice of the Catholic faith.
  • It restored the use of the French civil law for private matters while maintaining the use of the English common law for public administration, including criminal prosecution.
  • The province’s territory was expanded to take over part of the Indian Reserve, including much of what is now southern Ontario, plus Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.
  • The oath of allegiance was replaced with one that no longer made reference to the Protestant faith.
  • It guaranteed free practice of the Catholic faith.
  • It restored the use of the French civil law for private matters while maintaining the use of the English common law for public administration, including criminal prosecution.
  • The province’s territory was expanded to take over part of the Indian Reserve, including much of what is now southern Ontario, plus Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.
  • The oath of allegiance was replaced with one that no longer made reference to the Protestant faith.
  • It guaranteed free practice of the Catholic faith.
  • It restored the use of the French civil law for private matters while maintaining the use of the English common law for public administration, including criminal prosecution.

Canada’s Act of Union, 1840-41

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Canada, History

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George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland

George III (1738 – 1820), whose reign began in 1760, was King when New France was ceded to Britain, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), and he was also King on July 4, 1776, when the Thirteen Colonies declared independence from Britain. 
 

Louis-Joseph Papineau

Upon George III’s death, Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786 -1871), a Canadien, seigneur, lawyer, politician, orator and future patriote, praised his King.  He said that “it was impossible not to express our [Canadiens‘s] feelings of gratitude for [George III’s] good deeds towards French Canadians[.]” (“il est impossible de ne pas exprimer nos sentiments de gratitude pour les bienfaits que nous avons reçus de lui…”) [i]  Matters  would change rapidly. 

The Rebellions

The Constitutional Act: taxation

Under the terms of the Constitutional Act of 1791, the “colonial assemblies” of the two Canadas were granted “the right to levy taxes with which to pay for local civil and legal administration.” [ii] However, when Britain started helping itself to money levied through taxation in the Canadas, there was considerable indignation in both Canadas. Britain was in breach of the terms of the Constitutional Act. December 5, 1837 In Upper Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie (12 March 1795 – 28 August 1861), a journalist, a politician and the first mayor of Toronto, thought, at first, that such high-handedness could be stopped without an uprising and, possibly, bloodshed.  However, on 5 December 1837, after proclaiming a Declaration of Independence, he lead rebels into battle.  At one point, the rebels regrouped a Montgomery’s Tavern and a battle ensued.  The rebels lost and kept losing.

William Lyon Mackenzie was able to flee, but Samuel Launt and Peter Matthews were not so fortunate.  Both were hanged in Toronto on 12 April 1838.

A proclamation posted on December 7, 1837 offering a reward of one thousand pounds for the capture of William Lyon Mackenzie

8 December 1837: the Western Rising

On 8 December 1837, a second group of rebels, led by Dr Charles Duncombe (Wikipedia) and “patriots” Robert Alway, Finlay Malcolm, Eliakim Malcolm, and Joshua Doan, rose outside Toronto. Duncombe gathered about 200 men and marched towards Toronto. A few hundred more rebels joined them on their march, but they dispersed near Hamilton on 13 December when they learned of Mackenzie’s defeat, and that a militia under Colonel Allan MacNab was on its way to stop them.

Duncombe and Eliakim Malcolm fled to the United States where Dr Duncombe remained for the rest of his life, despite being pardoned in 1843. Joshua Doan was executed in 1839.

There were other contentious issues, such as the Family Compact and the Clergy Reserve (Protestant Clergy) in Upper Canada. [iii]  But these will not be discussed in any depth in this post.  However, you may wish to read my post entitled Upper and Lower Canada, this current blog being its continuation.

Lower Canada: Louis-Joseph Papineau

Louis-Joseph Papineau, who had praised George III, could no more accept the Crown’s high-handedness than William Lyon Mackenzie.  In fact, no sooner did Papineau praise George III than he grew disillusioned with respect to British rule in general and the lack of power granted to the elected Legislative Assembly.  According to the Canadian Encyclopedia,

“[Papineau] came to see himself as the defender of the national heritage of French Canada and led the fight for control of the political institutions of Lower Canada. Early in his career he was a moderate who admired British parliamentary ins/titutions, but during the 1820s his views became more radical and his parliamentary strategy was obstructionist, using the Assembly’s control of revenues and the civil list to combat the policies of the English commercial class, which he considered anathema to the interests of French Canada.” [iv]

Too weak an elected Legislative Assembly

“The Constitutional Act of 1791 had established three branches of government: the Legislative Assembly, an elected lower house; the Legislative Council, an appointed upper house; and the Executive Council, which acted as a kind of cabinet for the lieutenant governor. The governor was always an appointed British nobleman, and he appointed members of the [Château Clique] as his advisers.” [V]

 An elected Legislative Assembly was therefore outnumbered by appointed officials:
  • an appointed Legislative Council,
  • an appointed Executive Council,
  • an appointed Lieutenant Governor,
  • &  the Château Clique, advisors to the Lieutenant Governor and appointed by him. The Château Clique was Lower’s Canada equivalent of Upper Canada’s Family Compact.
The power of the nonelective bodies of government was so overwhelming that in 1823, Papineau travelled to England to defeat, successfully, the Union Bill of 1822.  As for the the Assembly in Upper Canada, William Lyon MacKenzie was battling the Family Compact, Upper Canada’s version of Lower Canada’s Château Clique.  The Clique consisted of mostly rich and influential individuals appointed by the Lieutenant Governor as advisors.
 

November 1937: three main battles It follows that when the Crown began dipping into Lower Canada’s Assembly’s funds, protest soon escalated into rebellion. Having won a first battle at Saint-Denis, Papineau and the patriotes were defeated at Saint-Charles and Saint-Eustache.  Papineau fled to the United States. However, there was a second insurrection, led by Dr Robert Nelson, Wolfred Nelson‘s brother. The “patriotes” were defeated once again, and Papineau sailed to France.  The damage and repercussions are as follows:

Of the 99 condemned to death, only 12 went to the gallows, while 58 were transported to Australia. In total the 6 battles of both campaigns left 325 dead, 27 of them soldiers and the rest rebels, while 13 men were executed (one by the rebels), one was murdered, one committed suicide and 2 prisoners were shot. [vi]

Lord Durham’s investigation and Report

Lord Durham, “Radical Jack,” was appointed to investigate the 1837-1838 rebellions in the Canadas, and to present a Report.  He reported that “French” Canadians “had no history and no culture” (Wikipedia) and recommended that they be assimilated and that the two Canadas be joined.  The Union Act is an “…Act of the British Parliament, passed July 1840 and proclaimed 10 February 1841, uniting UPPER CANADA and LOWER CANADA under one government.”  To his credit, Lord Durham dismissed the Family Compact as “a petty corrupt insolent Tory clique”. (“Family Compact,” Wikipedia)

Lord Durham’s Report and the Act of Union

The Act’s “main provisions were the establishment of a single parliament with equal representation from each constituent section; consolidation of debt; a permanent Civil List; banishment of the French language from official government use; and suspension of specific French Canadian institutions relating to education and civil law. The Act naturally aroused considerable opposition. In Upper Canada, the FAMILY COMPACT opposed union, and in Lower Canada religious and political leaders reacted against its anti-French measures. ” [vii]

Conclusion

Given the nature of his Report, one could surmise that Lord Durham considered the Rebellions of 1837-1838 a mainly ethnic struggle.  It would seem, in other words, that Lord Durham determined rather hastily the causes of the Rebellions. There can be no doubt that Lower Canada’s Canadiens liked their Lower Canada.  However, the Rebelllions of 1837-1838, which took place in both Canadas were, first and foremost, a step towards a greater measure of self-rule or responsible government. It does appear that the elected Assemblies of both Canadas had insufficient power.  Decisions were made by persons who were appointed, rather than elected, to their position, which was problematical.  As a result, when the British trespassed by dipping into the treasuries of both Canadas, there was dismay in both Canadas. Following the Act of Union, the French-speaking Canadians became a minority which was unavoidable.  Combined, the two Canadas were a predominantly English-speaking community, but the French were not assimilated.  However, enmity had been suggested and French-Canadian patriotes were executed by the British.  It had been 74 years since Britain ruled the inhabitants of the former and peaceful New France. The climate had therefore changed.  After the Act of Union (1840-1841), the Canadiens remained politically active, but Canadiens also huddled in various Petits-Canadas, French-speaking areas within English-speaking villages and other communities. The Seigneurial System was abolished in 1854 and, the birth rate being very high, the habitant‘s thirty acres continued to shrink as sons were born who could not remain into the land allotted them in the days of New France.  This caused an exode and the colonisation the Curé Labelle advocated.  See The Canadien’s Terroir and Maria Chapdelaine, earlier posts.  Yet, the daily life of Canadiens families did not change.  It was, in fact, as Krieghoff depicted it.

Habitants by Cornelius Krieghoff

The Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada (You Tube)
(please click on the title to see the Video)
 
William Lyon Mackenzie, the first mayor of Toronto and a rebel, is the grandfather of The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, OM, CMG (17 December 1874 – 22 July 1950) [who] was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s through the 1940s. He served as the tenth Prime Minister of Canada from 29 December 1921 to 28 June 1926; from September 25, 1926 to August 7, 1930; and from 23 October 1935 to 15 November 1948. (Wikipedia)
_________________________ 
[i] Louis-Joseph Papineau, cité par René Dionne, La Patrie littéraire, volume 2, p. 344, in Gilles Marcotte, directeur, Anthologie de la littérature québécoise (Montréal: l’Hexagone, 1994). 
[ii] The Constitutional Act, 1791
“The bill had 4 main objectives: to guarantee the same rights and privileges as were enjoyed by loyal subjects elsewhere in North America; to ease the burden on the imperial treasury by granting colonial assemblies the right to levy taxes with which to pay for local civil and legal administration; to justify the territorial division of the PROVINCE OF QUEBEC and the creation of separate provincial legislatures; and to maintain and strengthen the bonds of political dependency by remedying acknowledged constitutional weaknesses of previous colonial governments.”
Pierre Tousignant, The Constitutional Act, 1791, The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/constitutional-act-1791. 
[iii] Seigneurial System and Clergy (Protestant) Reserves (Constitutional Act, 1791)
“The Act guaranteed continuity of ownership of lands held under the SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM in Lower Canada and created the CLERGY RESERVES in Upper Canada.”
Pierre Tousignant, The Constitutional Act, 1791, The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/constitutional-act-1791
[iv] James Marsh, “Louis-Joseph Papineau,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/louisjoseph-papineau
[v] Château Clique, Wikipedia
[vi] P. A. Buckner, “Rebellions of 1837,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/rebellions-of-1837
[vii] Jacques Monet, S.J., “The Act of Union,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/act-of-union

The Aftermath & Krieghoff’s Quintessential Quebec

29 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Aboriginals, Art, Canada

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—Bargaining for a Load of Wood by Cornelius Krieghoff (1815 – 1872), 1860
 
Galerie Walter Klinkhoff
http://www.klinkhoff.com/gwk/home/gwkexhbrowse.asp?WID=769&artist=75
 

“After Canada was ceded to Britain in 1763, new British laws respected the private agreements and the property rights of francophone society, and the seigneurial system was maintained.” The Canadian Encyclopedia

—ooo—

In 1755, the British deported thousands of Acadians but, in 1874, nineteen years later, the Quebec Act made French-speaking Canadians full-fledged British subjects.

At first, there were difficult years on both sides. But, as stated in the Canadian Encyclopedia, after Canada was ceded to Britain in 1763, “new British laws respected the private agreements and the property rights of francophone society, and the seigneurial system was maintained.”[i] For details regarding this question, one can read Michel Brunet’s French Canada and the early decades of the British Rule (go to pages 3 and 4).

The Royal Proclamation and the Quebec Act

The ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763 renamed Nouvelle-France the Province of Quebec, but made it rather small, which would no longer be the case in 1774. According to the Quebec Act, “which received royal assent 22 June 1774 and became effective 1 May 1775,”[ii] the Province of Quebec would “include Labrador, Ile d’Anticosti and Iles-de-la-Madeleine on the east, and the Indian territory south of the Great Lakes between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on the west.” This enlarged Quebec would have an elected assembly and Catholics could be elected into office.

Sir Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester

The Quebec Act came into effect under General and Right Honourable Sir Guy Carleton 1st Baron Dorchester, KB [Order of Bath] (Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, 3 September 1724 – 10 November 1808 Stubbings, Maidenhead, Berkshire), Governor of Quebec (1768–1778) and Governor General of the Canadas (1786–1796). But Lord Dorchester opposed the Constitutional Act of 1991 that created two Canadas: Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

Lord Guy Carleton[iii] was largely responsible for the Quebec Act, which helped to preserve French laws and customs (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-2833). (The Canadian Encyclopedia)

I will discuss the Constitutional Act (1791), which Lord Dorchester opposed, in a later post. For the time being, it suffices to tell about the life of the Canadien after the Treaty of Paris. France could have kept New France but it preferred to keep sugar-rich Guadeloupe. However, the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which protected Quebec, were respected.

It has been said that it was in Britain’s best interest to give full citizenship to the Canadiens in a formal Act, the Quebec Act. Its thirteen colonies to the South were threatening to part company with England. Therefore, why alienate the French Canadians? Yet, it has also been said that Britain acted in the best interest of its new British subjects.

Cornelius Krieghoff

So, let us remember Cornelius Krieghoof’s quintessential Quebec: a snow land, un pays de neige: snow as a country.

— Winter Landscape, c. 1889 (Photo credit: Art.com) 
 

Cornelius David Krieghoff (19 June 1815 – 8 March 1872) was born in Amsterdam and entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, in c. 1830. He moved to New York in 1836 and enlisted in the US army the following year, 1837. In 1840, he deserted the US army and married Émilie Gauthier.  “They moved to Montreal, where he participated in the Salon de la Société des Artistes de Montréal. While in Montreal, he befriended the Mohawks living on the Kahnawake Indian Reservation and made many sketches of them from which he later produced oil paintings.”[iv]

In 1844, the Krieghoffs travelled to Paris and Krieghoof made copies of works located in the Louvre under the direction of Michel Martin Drolling (1789–1851).  Krieghoof was invited to participate in the first exhibition of the Toronto Society of Arts, held in 1847. So the Krieghoffs returned to Montreal in 1846 and moved to Quebec City in 1853. Krieghoff returned to Europe twice. He did so briefly, in 1854, and at greater length, from 1863 to 1868.

He then moved to Chicago to retire, and Chicago was his last destination. He died on 8 March 1872 at the age of 56 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. The Great Quebec Fire of 8 June 1881 destroyed many of his sketches, “then owned by John S. Budden, who had lived with the artist for thirteen years.” (Wikipedia). Cornelius Krieghoof is considered the finest Canadian artist of the nineteenth century. However, although called a Canadian, he could be labelled a Dutch master.

The Habitant and his Seigneur

Just below is a painting of habitants, the name given censitaires or tenants under the Seigneurial System, abolished in 1854. They had been called habitants since the seventeenth century. The word has now become pejorative.

Habitants, painting by Cornelius Krieghoff

Habitants, 1852 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two Major Themes

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia:

“Krieghoff early on established in his repertoire two major themes that he would revisit throughout his career and for which he is perhaps best known: rural francophones and aboriginals. His HABITANT scenes cover a range of situations: in some, for example, folk greet one another en route, play cards, race their sleds, fraternize at the local in, or attempt to settle a tract of un-arable land – granted to them by the government – in the hinterlands of Québec.”[v]

The hinterlands would be Maria Chapdelaine’s Peribonka: les pays d’en-haut (the countries above), a story told by Frenchman, Louis Hémon.  As for the aboriginals, when he served in the US army, Krieghoff was assigned for service in the Seminole Wars in Florida.  Krieghoff had made sketches of the Second Seminole War.  The Seminoles were Amerindians.

— Wyandot hunter calling a moose, c. 1868 (print)

Track 25 Beethoven Rondo in C major C-Dur; ut majeur Op. 51.1, Louis Lortie
(please click on Track 25 to hear the music)
© Micheline Walker
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[i] Jacques Mathieu, “The Seignorial System,” The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/seigneurial-system  
[ii] Nancy Brown Foulds, “Quebec Act,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/quebec-act 
[iii] S. R. Mealing, “Guy Carleton,” The Canadian Encyclopedia  http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/guy-carleton-1st-baron-dorchester 
[iv] “Cornelius Krieghoff,” Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Krieghoff 
[v] Arlene Gehmacher, “Cornelius Krieghoff,” The Canadian Encyclopedia
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/cornelius-david-krieghoff