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The Prerogative of the Crown assailed by the Executive Council—The House of Assembly furiously join in the Attack—Remonstrance useless—They stop the Supplies—Insult me in a Petition to the King, and to the House of Commons—I appeal to His Majesty’s Government for Support—Solemnly warn the Government of their Policy—Withhold Assent to the Money-Bills—Decline to grant the Contingencies, and dissolve the Assembly—Explain to His Majesty’s Government why I cannot agree with the Commissioners of Inquiry, and tender my Resignation—Result of the Elections—Dr. Duncombe and Mr. Hume declare to Lord Melbourne that I have fabricated Votes—Earnest Recommendation to His Majesty’s Government not to surrender the casual and territorial Revenues of the Crown.

The reader is now about to enter upon the most violent, and certainly the most eventful, moral struggle that has ever taken place in our North American colonies; and as I have no hesitation in confessing, that, by retreating before the Republicans, the contest could have been avoided, I beg particular attention to the subject.

The subtle, persuasive eloquence of Dr. Rolph, whose treasonable principles were, by several intelligent people, justly estimated, induced many to believe that from the moment he became a member of my Executive Council I was lost. However, I entertained not the slightest apprehension on the subject, for so long as the Council afforded me constitutional advice, I knew I should be too thankful to {65} give it immediate consideration; and, on the other hand, standing as I did (to say the least) totally without support from any party, I felt confident that if the Council should attempt to force upon me unconstitutional proposals, it would be out of their power to deprive me of that invincible moral power which always rushes to the vindication of a just cause.

With the members of the Council, however, Dr. Rolph, who I soon learned was the bosom friend and confidant of Mr. Speaker Bidwell, did not plead in vain.

Aware that in the House of Assembly there stood in array an irresistible majority in favour of the republican principle of making the Lieutenant-Governor’s Executive or Privy Council “responsible to the people,” the necessity of my making this concession appeared to be inevitable; and calculating therefore that, situated as I was, I would not venture to refuse, they at last agreed together to address to me a written requisition to this effect.

When I received this unexpected document which was regularly signed by all the six members of the Council, I saw no reason to be alarmed at it. That I was sentenced to contend on the soil of America with Democracy, and that if I did not overpower it, it would overpower me, were solemn facts, which for some weeks had been perfectly evident to my mind; but by far the most difficult problem I had to solve {66} was, where I ought to make my stand. To involve myself in a struggle with the House of Assembly, about any one trifling concession, would, I knew, have brought the Home Government down upon me with all its power; the province might also with some apparent reason have complained; and thus, bit by bit, and inch by inch, I felt I might be driven to abandon constitutional ground, which, once lost, could never be reclaimed. It was therefore, I repeat, with but little apprehension that I found my Council (who I knew would be immediately backed by the House of Assembly) had called upon me at once to surrender to a democratic principle of government, which I felt, so long as the British flag waved in America, could never be admitted. I accordingly declined to accede to the demands of my Council, who, taken quite aback by my refusal, were no sooner politely bowed out of my service, than I received from the House of Assembly the following address, to which I gave the reply which follows it:—

“House of Assembly.

“To His Excellency Sir Francis Bond Head, Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and of the Prussian Military Order of Merit, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, &c. &c. &c.

“May it please your Excellency,

“We his Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Upper Canada in provincial Parliament assembled, humbly beg leave to inform your Excellency, that this {67} House, considering the appointment of a responsible Executive Council, to advise your Excellency on the affairs of the province, to be one of the most happy and wise features in the Constitution, and essential to the form of our government, and one of the strongest securities for a just and equitable administration, and eminently calculated to ensure the full enjoyment of our civil and religious rights and privileges, have lately learned, with no small degree of anxiety, that the Executive Council so recently formed for the purpose above stated (as we presume), consisting of six members, did, on Saturday the 12th instant, unanimously tender to your Excellency their resignations, and that your Excellency was pleased to accept the same; and humbly request your Excellency to inform this House, without delay, whether such are the facts, and also to communicate to this House full information relative to the cause of disagreement between your Excellency and your said late Executive Council, as far as lies in your Excellency’s power to make known; as also to furnish this House with copies of all communications between your Excellency and your said late Council, or any of them, on the subject of such disagreement and subsequent tender of resignation.”

(Signed)M. S. Bidwell, Speaker.

Commons’ House of Assembly,

March 14th, 1836.

His Excellency’s Reply.

“Gentlemen,

“Nothing can appear more reasonable to my mind than the surprise and anxiety which the House of Assembly express to me at the intelligence they have received of the sudden resignation of the six members of the Executive Council; for with both these feelings I was myself deeply {68} impressed, when firmly relying on the advice, assistance, and cordial co-operation of my Council, I unexpectedly received from them the embarrassing document which, with my reply thereto, I now, at the request of the House of Assembly, willingly present to you. With every desire to consult my Council, I was preparing for their consideration important remedial measures, which I conceived would be advisable to adopt; and had they but afforded me those few moments for reflection, which, from my sudden arrival among you, I fancied I might fairly have claimed as my due, the question, which so unnecessarily they have agitated, would have proved practically useless.

“Had they chosen to have verbally submitted to me in Council, that the responsibility, and consequently the power and patronage of the Lieutenant-Governor ought henceforward to be transferred from him to them—had they even, in the usual form of a written petition, recommended to my attention as a new theory, that the Council, instead of the Governor, was to be responsible to the people—I should have raised no objection whatever to the proceeding, however in opinion I might have opposed it; but when they simultaneously declared, not that such ought to be, but that such actually was the law of the land, and concluded their statement by praying that a Council sworn in secrecy to assist me might be permitted, in case I disapproved of their opinion, to communicate with the public, I felt it my duty, calmly, and with due courtesy, to inform them, that they could not retain such principles together with my confidence, and to this opinion I continue steadfastly to adhere.

“I feel confident that the House of Assembly will be sensible that the power intrusted to me by our Gracious Sovereign is a subject of painful anxiety;—that from the {69} patronage of this province I can derive no advantage; and that I can have no object in retaining undivided responsibility, except that which proceeds from a just desire to be constitutionally answerable to his Majesty in case I should neglect the interests of his subjects in this province. With these sentiments I transmit to the House of Assembly the documents they have requested, feeling confident that I can give them no surer proof of my desire to preserve their privileges inviolate, than by proving to them that I am equally determined to maintain the rights and prerogatives of the Crown, one of the most prominent of which is, that which I have just assumed, of naming those Councillors in whom I conscientiously believe I can confide.

“For their acts I deliberately declare myself responsible; but they are not responsible for mine, and cannot be, because, being sworn to silence, they are deprived by this fact, as well as by the Constitution, of all power to defend themselves.”

The foregoing documents I forwarded to the Colonial Office with the following despatch.

No. 15,

Toronto, March 22nd, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to inform your Lordship that on Saturday, 12th instant, the six members of the Executive Council suddenly and simultaneously resigned—that a majority of twenty-seven against twenty-one of the House of Assembly very resolutely espoused their cause—that all business in the House was suspended {70} until my answer to their address was received—that a public meeting has been called on the subject, at Toronto—that similar meetings will probably take place throughout the country—and that the whole province is, and for a short time will be, in a state of very great excitement.

All this will, I firmly believe, be productive of the most beneficial political results, and I now proceed to submit to your Lordship a plain statement of the whole affair.

In my despatch No. 9, I stated to your Lordship that almost immediately after my arrival here, the old Executive Council represented to me the necessity of increasing the number which was not only barely sufficient to form a quorum, and, consequently, in case of the illness of any one member would be powerless, but that the Commissioner of Crown Lands, from being one of the members, was obliged to audit his own accounts.

In my despatch alluded to, which I beg your Lordship will be pleased to re-peruse, I detailed the difficulty I had had in adding three new members to the Council, and the attempt which had been made to insist on my forcing the unpopular old members to retire.

As soon as this addition to the Council was gazetted, which happened less than a month ago, a universal joy and satisfaction was expressed by the radical party, and I received addresses from various {71} places, expressing in very strong terms approbation of the addition I had made to the Council, and praying that the old members might be dismissed.

In receiving these addresses I could not but remark, that not only were many of them expressed in exactly the same terms, as if written by one person, but that several were presented to me by the same two members of the Assembly; and from other ominous circumstances I became fully convinced that an attempt somewhere or other was making to promulgate an error which has long been artfully inculcated in this province—namely, that the Executive Council were responsible to the people for the acts of the Lieutenant-Governor.

The object of this smooth-faced, insidious doctrine was at first to obtain for the Council merely responsibility, and, when that point was conceded, immediately to demand from the Crown the power and patronage which has hitherto been invested in the Lieutenant-Governor.

As the addresses proceeded from places of no importance, I replied to the personal congratulations on my arrival, with which they commenced, without taking any notice at all of the objectionable clauses, at the same time I was perfectly alive to the very great danger that was brooding; and expecting that it would sooner or later be brought before my notice by an address from the House of Assembly, I determined that, the moment it assumed a tangible form, I would at once stand against it.

{72}

While I was in this suspense, the attack was made upon me from a quarter from which I certainly did not expect it; namely, from the Executive Council itself, which, in a document signed by them all, declared that the popular doctrine was the law of the land, that the old practice had been unconstitutional; and that in case I was of a different opinion, my council, sworn to secrecy, humbly prayed that it might be permitted to communicate with the people.

I need hardly observe, that by this address the old, unpopular Councillors^[1] at once impeached the conduct and practice of their whole lives. However, on the receipt of the document, I immediately informed the Council that they could not retain such principles and my confidence, and that they must consequently abandon either the one or the other.

This reply was what they did not expect; for the new members, elated by the success of the intrigues which had been adopted, had fancied themselves to be so strongly supported by the people, that they did not conceive I would venture to do anything but accede to their threat.

As soon as the Council received my reply, four of the members, namely, .... at once surrendered at discretion, offering to recant all they had written, and assuring me they had since the receipt of my answer again changed their minds: {73} however, the other two held out; and I, therefore, declared that the document by which I had been attacked could only be cancelled by the same Council from which it had proceeded, and that unless it was retracted as formally as it had been made, I must adhere to the reply I had given to it.

I had two reasons for maintaining this course: first, because had I dismissed only the two popular candidates without explaining the cause, I should have incurred the greatest unpopularity, and should have been hampered by the continuance in office of the other four: secondly, because, for the reasons above stated, being persuaded that sooner or later it would be necessary I should stand against a doctrine which was rapidly tending to upset the prerogative of the Crown, I deemed it advisable to do so before it got too strong for me, particularly as I never could hope to attain a more advantageous position for the contest than that afforded me by the ill-written document of my own Council.

Having now very briefly explained the outline of the affair, I beg to refer your Lordship to the four following printed papers which will fully explain it in detail.

1. A copy of the address I received from the House of Assembly.

2. My reply thereto, enclosing,

3. The communication I had received from the Executive Council, and

4. My reply thereto.

{74}

Having submitted to your Lordship the foregoing documents, I beg leave to repeat, as my humble opinion, that the greatest possible benefit will be derived from the dispute I am having with this province: for if truth be invincible, it will follow that the effort which is making to oppose me must eventually be discomfited, and among the description of people which I have to deal with such a result will be highly important.

On the other hand, should I be defeated, I trust your Lordship will never regret that I did not hesitate to maintain the rights and prerogatives of the Crown.

I also enclose herewith to your Lordship, an address I have received from the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the City of Toronto, with my reply thereto.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord,

Your Lordship’s obedient servant,

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

As soon as the Constitutionists were convinced by the principles I was maintaining, that notwithstanding Mr. Hume’s pestilential letter of recommendation in favour of Mr. M‘Kenzie (who had openly boasted of it), and notwithstanding the suspicious appointment of Dr. Rolph to my Council, {75} I was not, as had been generally supposed, a democrat, they most loyally, one and all, joined me to a man. Moral war was thus (as it long ago ought to have been by his Majesty’s Government) openly proclaimed between the Constitutionists and the Republicans; or, in other words, between those who were for British institutions, against those who were for soiling the empire by the introduction of democracy; and I need hardly add, that the approaching struggle was most anxiously looked upon by the other North American Colonies as one on which their own political destinies depended.

I was, of course, too much occupied to be able to write to the Colonial Office at very great length: however, on the 6th of April, 1836, I forwarded a despatch which, commencing with detailing events which having already been submitted to the reader, it would be tedious to recapitulate, proceeded as follows:—

extract.

Many of the addresses I received on this subject had evidently proceeded from the same pen, and had the influence, which was thus exerted, continued to be secret, it might shortly have produced such powerful effects, that I might have found it almost impossible to have opposed it; but, very fortunately, the power exerted against me was too eager for its object, and the battery was unmasked before the enemy was sufficiently organized to man it.

{76}

My Executive Councillors themselves suddenly claimed the responsibility which had hitherto rested with the Lieutenant-Governor; and on my requiring them to resign, an excitement suddenly burst forth in the House of Assembly beyond all description.

The republican party fancying that their object was attained, and that I was caught in the net which had been so insidiously drawn around me, were exasperated at seeing me suddenly extricate myself from it, and the House addressing me on the subject, instantly suspended all business until it had received my reply.

The whole correspondence on the subject, some of which has already been forwarded to your Lordship, I here annex in a printed form: it contains—

“1. The address of the House of Assembly.

“2. My reply thereto.

“3. The communication addressed to me by the Executive Council.

“4. My reply thereto.

“5. An address from the mayor and common council of the City of Toronto.

“6. My reply.

“7. An address, signed by the mayor, from a public meeting held in the city hall.

“8. My reply.

“9. An address from the House of Assembly.

“10. My reply.”

I trust that the tone of my answers to the above {77} communications will sufficiently prove to your Lordship how desirous I was to offer all possible explanation, and to do everything in my power to govern, and to be governed, by truth and reason.

At the time I conducted this correspondence, I was perfectly sensible that I was friendless; for the republican party had proved themselves to be implacable, and the constitutional party I had refused to join: however, seeing that the moment had now arrived for resolutely assuming my position, I awaited the result of the conflict with a perfect confidence, solely proceeding from the justice of my cause.

The success of these measures has, I can faithfully assure your Lordship, equalled my most sanguine expectations.

Every newspaper in the Upper as well as in the Lower Province, excepting Mr. M‘Kenzie’s Advocate and one other, has in the most unequivocal terms supported me in the doctrine I have maintained; the constitutional party have joined me to a man, and in the numerous addresses I have received are the names of many influential individuals who have hitherto been opposing the Government. Indeed, I can truly declare, that the intelligent classes of every denomination are rallying around me in a manner which fully corroborates the statement I first made to you on arriving in this province, namely, “that all that is good and estimable remains at the bottom, while the surface is agitated by factious discussions.”

{78}

A very striking example of this fact occurred Saturday last.

As soon as the late Executive Council resigned, Mr. M‘Kenzie and his party, at an immense expense, forwarded to every part of the province printed copies of the annexed circular, almost all of which were franked by members of the Assembly. This document, as your Lordship will observe, ended by a printed petition to the House of Assembly, which only required the insertion of the name of the township and of the subscribers.

As soon as this firebrand was supposed to have caused sufficient excitement, the four members of the Metropolitan County of York, namely,^[2] Mr. M‘Kenzie, Dr. Morrison, Mr. Gibson and Mr. M‘Intosh, issued another notice (which I also annex) dated “House of Assembly,” and calling a public meeting to be held ten miles from Toronto on Saturday last.

As this country has been supposed to be under the complete influence of Mr. M‘Kenzie, and its other members, it was agreed upon by the constitutional party, that, as they might be overpowered by numbers, they would not attend, and accordingly was expected that the Radicals would completely carry the day: however, the reply I had written to the {79} industrious classes of Toronto had been much read, and accordingly, when the meeting assembled on Saturday an unexpected result took place.

Mr. M‘Kenzie totally failed in gaining attention; another member, Dr. Morrison, who is mayor of Toronto, was collared and severely shaken, and the whole affair was so completely stifled by the indignation of the people, that the meeting was dissolved without the passing of a single resolution.

Mr. M‘Kenzie and his party afterwards assembled, and then went through the form of carrying their ready-concocted resolutions.

The effect which this unexpected defeat will produce throughout the province will, I am perfectly convinced, eventually break up the radical faction; and as soon as I have an opportunity of visiting, as I propose to do if I remain here, every county in this province, and of meeting and conversing with the inhabitants, I feel quite confident that a burst of loyalty will resound from one end of the province to the other, for a more honest, well-meaning yeomanry and peasantry cannot exist than his Majesty’s subjects in this noble province.

It is out of my power to describe to your Lordship, without the appearance of exaggeration, the joy and gladness expressed to me by all parties at the constitutional resistance I have made; but I will not conceal from your Lordship that there is one question in almost everybody’s mouth, namely, “Will the {80} Lieutenant-Governor be supported by the Home Government?” “He never will!” say the Radicals; “We fear he will not!” say the Constitutionists.

Your Lordship has to settle this question, and in my humble opinion upon your decision rests our possession of the Canadas.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord,

Your Lordship’s most obedient servant,

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

The war which raged against the Executive Government of Upper Canada, in the House of Assembly, could only be explained by a publication of the violent speeches of the Republicans, which are much too long to be here inserted. Suffice it to say, that the republican majority adopted an address to the King, signed Marshall S. Bidwell, Speaker, in which his late Majesty’s attention was called to a report which the House of Assembly had adopted, in which it was declared that my “ear was credulous,” my “mind poisoned,” my “feelings bitter”—that I was “despotic, tyrannical, unjust, deceitful,” that my conduct had been “derogatory to the honour of the King,” “demoralizing to the community,” and that I had treated the people of the province as being “little better than a country of rogues and fools.” Not satisfied with this attack upon my character, the {81} House adopted a long memorial to the House of Commons, signed Marshall S. Bidwell, Speaker, in which not only was the same offensive report submitted, but it was further stated in the memorial as follows:—

“It is with pain, disappointment, and humiliation we notice the reiterated declaration of his Excellency to conduct our affairs without the advice of the Executive Council according to his own will and pleasure, which his public acts have already proved to be arbitrary and vindictive. And this view of his sole ministerial power and authority, with a nominal responsibility to Downing-street, he has sustained before the public by mis-statements and misrepresentations so palpably opposed to candour and truth, as to destroy all hopes of further justice from his government.... For other instances of his deviation from candour and truth, &c., we refer to the appended documents.

(Signed)“Marshall S. Bidwell, Speaker.”

As this Mr. Bidwell was the well-known leader of his party, as he was generally supposed to have been the framer of the address against me to the King, and as he was at all events the official organ of a House of Assembly which had heaped upon me such unparalleled abuse, the reader will hereafter learn with no little surprise, that his Majesty’s Government, instead of supporting me by openly resenting his {82} conduct, desired that he should be publicly exalted to the Judicial Bench, by me, whose station of representative of the King he had so grossly insulted. But as this will form the subject of a distant chapter, I will at once regularly proceed with my narrative by stating, that on the Assembly stopping the supplies, I withheld my assent from all their money bills, and even from their own contingencies, on the principle that as nothing but a storm of agitation could now settle the weather, it would be useless to attempt to suppress it. In the following despatch, I will, however, request the reader’s especial attention to and recollection of the solemn warning it contains.

No. 26.

Toronto, 21st April, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship two addresses from the House of Assembly to his Majesty, as also a copy of one to the House of Commons, reprobating in unusual language my conduct as Lieutenant-Governor of this province. I have also to inform your Lordship, that the House of Assembly have deemed it their duty to stop the supplies—that, in consequence of this proceeding, I have reserved all their money bills for the consideration of his Majesty; {83} and that I have declined to grant their contingencies. I also enclose to your Lordship a copy of my speech on proroguing the Provincial Legislature.

Under these circumstances, I feel it incumbent to submit to your Lordship a plain statement of the whole affair.

In my despatch No. 3, to your Lordship, dated 5th February, I stated as follows:—

“As far as I have been able to judge, I should say that the republican party are implacable, that no concession whatever would satisfy them, their self-interested object being to possess themselves of the government of this province, for the sake of lucre and emolument.”

In my despatch, No. 9, dated 22nd February, I stated to your Lordship as follows:—

“Having now informed your Lordship of the individuals I have added to the Executive Council, with the circumstances which have preceded their appointments (which I trust may be confirmed), it only remains for me to state that although tranquillity in this province is, I conceive, now momentarily established, I do not expect that the present House of Assembly will long discontinue their agitations.

“It shall be my duty, however, to afford them no reasonable cause for complaint. To their addresses, as well as their opinions, I shall give every possible attention, and will afford them every assistance to correct all real grievances; but I am so convinced that every improper concession will not only strengthen their demands, but weaken my influence in the province, that I shall continue to resist, as I {84} have hitherto done, any demand that may at all tend to undermine the happy constitution of the province, as I believe that this policy will eventually secure to the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (whoever he may be) the confidence and support of the community.”

To the foregoing opinions, expressed to your Lordship, I firmly continue to adhere, and refer to them for the object of proving that the political state of this province requires no deep experience, but that its moral was evident to me before I had been a month in this capital.

The speech I yesterday delivered on proroguing the Provincial Legislature will sufficiently explain the attempts I have in vain made to carry into effect the remedial measures with which I was intrusted. I will, therefore, only shortly observe, that the Grievance Report remains unopened—that not one of the remedies your Lordship prescribed has been carried into effect; that, in fact, this Grievance Report was nothing but a revolutionary ignis fatuus, purposely created to deceive the British Government, and that, as I stated in my despatch, No. 24, dated 6th April, “far from desiring to remove these grievances, the republican members deem them the fulcrum for subverting the government, and for destroying the constitutional liberties of the province.”

The decided measures which your Lordship took promptly to correct the alleged grievances which were brought before you have had the happy effect of breaking {85} up the faction which, from want of firmness, has long been undermining the constitution of this province. Its enemies are now unmasked, disarmed, and discomfited, and the inhabitants of this country are now indignantly exclaiming, as Cromwell said, “You who are deputed here by the people, to get their grievances redressed, are yourselves become their greatest grievance!”

If the sentiments contained in these petitions from the House of Assembly were really the sentiments of their constituents, this province might justly be said to be in a state of revolt; whereas the fact is, as I stated it to your Lordship in my despatch No. 24, “that a burst of loyalty will very shortly resound from one end of the province to the other, as a more honest, well-meaning yeomanry cannot exist than his Majesty’s subjects in this noble province;” and for a proof of this assertion, I refer your Lordship to the enclosed addresses I have already received.

Your Lordship cannot but remark, that, for the first time in the history of this province, the supplies have been stopped—that the whole country has thus been thrown into confusion, and that the period selected for this violence has been my arrival with your Lordship’s instructions to correct all the grievances of the country! Had the object of those who have styled themselves Reformers been reform, your Lordship’s instructions would have been hailed with joy; instead of which they have been repudiated by the Republicans, as the enemy of their hopes.

{86}

The case is fortunately so clear, that no one even in England can now fail to understand it.

“Why,” it will be asked, “have the supplies in Upper Canada been stopped?” The answer is, because the complaints of the Republicans were ordered to be corrected; and being thus driven off their grievance-ground, they were forced by your Lordship to unveil their real object, which has been neither more nor less than to seize upon the power and patronage of the Crown!

“And how,” it will be asked, “have they attempted to do this?” I reply, by demanding that the Executive Council be henceforward responsible to the people; or, in other words, to themselves, for the acts of the Lieutenant-Governor.

“And is this all?” No; they further demand that the Legislative Council shall be elective; or, in other words, that it also shall be nominated by themselves: and if this does not betray their real object—if this does not prove to people in England the traitorous, democratic intentions of the half-dozen Republicans who have been allowed to agitate this noble province—facts are useless, and argument powerless!

If the duties of the Lieutenant-Governor of this province merely consisted in his being one branch out of three of the Colonial Legislature, even in that case there could be no more reason why he should be governed by an Executive Council, than that such a body should be created to govern the House of Assembly or the Legislative Council; but, besides the {87} Lieutenant-Governor’s station in the Provincial Legislature, he has to guard the lands and property of the Crown: in short, he is the only individual in this colony competent to consider the interests of the British Empire, of which this colony is but an atom.

The Executive Council are his Privy Council, to give him sworn advice when he wants it, and not to “encumber him with help” when he does not require it.

If I had been governed by my late Council, the constitution of this province would at this moment be subverted, for it will be evident to your Lordship that the unanimous demand they made upon me was contrary to law.

This doctrine was, in 1828, clearly explained by Mr. (now Lord) Stanley, who, in reply to Mr. Roebuck’s motion, “That a select committee be appointed to inquire into the political state of the Canadas,” declared as follows:—

“The first point to which the Honourable Member referred, was, the constitution of the Executive Council. It may, perhaps, be necessary for me to inform the House that the Executive Council is a body acting in the nature of the Privy Council in this country—advising the governor, but not responsible to him, and forming a council against whose opinion, as well as with it, he may act.”

My Lord, I most solemnly declare, as my deliberate opinion, that if this doctrine be ever subverted, {88} democracy, in the worst possible form, will prevail in our Colonies.^[3] The two branches of the Legislature have their respective interests to attend to, which too often are made subservient to their private views; but the Lieutenant-Governor is the King’s sentinel, and if he be disarmed of the power he has received from the Imperial Parliament, and be fettered by his Provincial Council, the Republicans will move heaven and earth to become the individuals to govern him.

If the power of the Lieutenant-Governor is to be surrendered, I respectfully recommend that the deed be done in broad daylight: for, to hamper him by the number of his councillors, or to oblige him to consult them when he does not need their advice, would most surely produce the same effect in a weak, discreditable manner.

As the subject is of vast importance, and as I believe our colonial possessions now hang upon your Lordship’s decision, I will proceed to shew with what artifice the Republicans of the House of Assembly of this province have, in their petition against me, endeavoured to attain this object.

·····

But the Republicans in the House of Assembly {89} were unable to answer the correspondence which I had held with my late Executive Council, and, feeling that they were dead beaten, they caught at this straw, and petitioned the House of Commons, which of course they knew were perfectly ignorant of the whole subject, against what they have termed my “deviation from candour and truth.”

But it is perhaps well they should have done so, as it will explain to the House of Commons, as well as to your Lordship, what sort of people the revolutionists of Upper Canada are, and will prove the absolute necessity of not ordering the Lieutenant-Governor to be governed by his Executive Council, which might be composed of such men. In this event, what would become of the property of the Crown?—What would become of the rights of the people?

I have now submitted to your Lordship facts which are incontrovertible, and have replied to the accusations which have been made against me by the House of Assembly, by merely contrasting them with their own declarations.

I must now proceed alone upon my own testimony, to which I trust your Lordship will give that weight which is due to the station I hold.

I have stated to your Lordship that the instructions you gave me to correct the grievances of this country have had the effect of breaking to pieces the republican party. The loyal feeling which is now rising {90} up to support me in all directions is greater than I dare describe; as a single proof of which, I will inform you, that a scene took place on my proroguing the Provincial Legislature which is unprecedented in the history of this country.

Although Toronto is, and always has been, the head-quarters of the reformers, and though this capital will suffer more than any other part of the province by the stoppage of the supplies, yet never before was the Parliament House so crowded, inside and out, as when I went there to deliver my speech.

As soon as it was ended, contrary to all custom, a burst of acclamation resounded—cheers were several times repeated, and a crowd of the most respectable people, of all parties, actually endeavoured to take the horses from my carriage to draw me up to Government House.

On the speech being read again by the Speaker in the House of Assembly, the gallery and floor was equally crowded, and, as soon as Mr. Speaker Bidwell had concluded, three cheers were given in the House, although never before had such a demonstration of public feeling been evinced.

I am perfectly confident that the whole country is disposed to rise up to support me, and I can assure your Lordship that I foresee no difficulty whatever in crushing the republican party, and in establishing loyalty, except a general fear which prevails throughout {91} the country that the Home Government will be afraid to support me.

I tell your Lordship the truth, for it is proper you should know that the reception which was given in England to Mr. M‘Kenzie has had the effect of cowing the loyalists and of giving a false courage to the republicans.

One word of firmness from the British Government will now settle the question for ever; but if you hesitate to support me; if in your Lordship’s reply to this despatch you encourage by a single word the republicans, they will instantly be reanimated, and will again utter their old cry against the “weak and trembling Government of Great Britain.”

That they have mistaken British generosity for fear no one is more persuaded than myself, but I earnestly entreat your Lordship to put confidence in me, for I pledge my character to the result; I solemnly declare to your Lordship that I have no difficulties to contend with here that I have not already overcome; the game is won; the battle is gained as far as relates to this country, and I cannot give your Lordship a more practical proof of it than by saying I want no assistance excepting the negative advantage of not being undermined at home.

I am not myself in the least afraid of your Lordship’s shrinking from supporting me, but if you knew the feeling of this country you would pardon my telling you that the loyalists are incapable of {92} understanding the generous, liberal policy under which the Home Government has intended to act, and that the republicans firmly look to it for support.

In the present House of Assembly, which is composed of 60 members, five of whom only are English, five Irish, and nine Scotch, there are thirteen American members, many of whom have not only a distaste for monarchical government, and are avowed advocates for the election of magistrates, legislative councillors, &c. &c., but who are desirous to upset the constitution of this province for the sake of reigning in its stead [for which see their incorrect accusations against me.]

Many of these individuals attained their places by the encouragement which was given to Mr. M‘Kenzie in England; and, now that I have succeeded in turning the tide, they will, I hope, sink for ever, and be replaced by intelligent, loyal British subjects, if your Lordship will firmly support me.

Whether I may continue here, or be replaced, is a subject I will not now discuss; but as long as I do remain here, and just at the present moment, it is of vital importance that I should retain the victory which has been won.

Upon Upper Canada, I conceive, hangs our possession of our North American, and possibly of our West Indian possessions: for, if this colony be firmly secured, not only will the rest be maintained, but I believe every intelligent individual in the United {93} States foresees that democracy must ere long produce, by a revolution in that country, the identical form of government (I mean a monarchy) which it is endeavouring to overturn in this province.

Your Lordship is aware I have had some experience in ascertaining the opinions of the lower classes in the mother-country, and I have no hesitation in declaring that in no part of Great Britain does there exist so loyal a disposition as will be displayed in this province, if we will only act towards it with firmness and decision.

I shall never regret the generous policy which attempted to produce here tranquillity by conciliation, for I at present owe to it my success; but my speech to the Legislature will prove to your Lordship that we can carry that policy no further—that to Republicans the more we concede the more they demand—that, while they are pushing at the constitution, every inch of ground they gain redoubles their exertions—and that, on the contrary, if resistance be sternly offered to them they give up the attempt and run away.^[4]

I fully expect that before a month has elapsed the country will petition me to dissolve the present House of Assembly, but until the feeling is quite ripe I shall not attend to it: I would therefore request your Lordship to send me no orders on the {94} subject, but to allow me to let the thing work by itself; for it now requires no argument, as the stoppage of the supplies, of the road money, and all other money bills, will soon speak for themselves in a provincial dialect which every body will understand.

The language contained in the 92 Resolutions from Lower Canada, as well as in the resolutions they have lately forwarded to the Government; the language contained in the Grievance Report of this province, in the petitions now forwarded by the House of Assembly of Upper Canada against me, and in Mr. Speaker Papineau’s letter to Mr. Speaker Bidwell, are in my humble judgment subversive of all discipline, and totally irreconcilable with the allegiance due from its colonies to the British Empire.

I feel quite confident that if such language be received by his Majesty’s Government without a stern rebuke it will be aggravated; and I therefore earnestly express my hope that your Lordship will deem it proper to reprobate the reception which I, as the bearer of your remedial measures, have met with by the House of Assembly, and that you will by your expressions firmly support me in the course I have pursued.

I have, &c.

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

{95}

The reader will soon perceive that, instead of supporting me in the course I had pursued, and instead of reprobating the author of the 92 Resolutions in Lower Canada, and the conduct of Mr. Speaker Bidwell in the Upper Province, his Majesty’s Government, after the receipt of this despatch, obtained the royal assent to the Road Bills I had reserved, thus restoring to Radical Road Commissioners the disposition of road money which had notoriously been misapplied to the basest political purposes!

Not satisfied with this, his Majesty’s Government communicated to me their desire that Mr. Bidwell, like the author of the 92 Resolutions in Lower Canada, should be exalted to the Judicial Bench, notwithstanding the recommendations contained in the three following despatches!

No. 28.

1.

Toronto, 27th April, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to you a copy of a letter which Mr. Papineau, Speaker of the Assembly of the Lower Province, has addressed to Mr. Bidwell, Speaker of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada.

I conceive that the traitorous and revolutionary language it contains, as well as the terms in which it speaks of your Lordship, need no comment; but I will only observe, that although the letter is dated {96} 20th of March, it was detained by Mr. Bidwell until a few hours before I prorogued the Legislature, and then by him laid before the House of Assembly of this province.

I take this opportunity of mentioning to your Lordship that the House of Assembly lately appointed three Commissioners to meet Mr. Papineau and the other two Commissioners from the Lower Province, and that the individuals named for this unconstitutional object were Mr. Speaker Bidwell, Mr. Perry, the chairman of the committee to whom was referred my correspondence with the Executive Council (a gentleman who has lately uttered most violent language against me as well as against the British Government), and Mr. ——.

No. 29.

2.

Toronto, April 28th, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to enclose to your Lordship a copy of the minutes of the Executive Council, by which it will appear that, in withholding assent to the money bills, and in declining to grant the contingencies of the House of Assembly, I acted with the advice of my Council.

One of my reasons for not granting the contingencies was, the knowledge that a large sum would be granted out of them, by the Assembly, to send an {97} agent to England, which I have good reason for knowing they had determined to do.

I have just learned that Mr. Robert Baldwin, one of the Executive Council, leaves Toronto this day for London. It is stated that he goes there for the recovery of his health; but it is acknowledged by his party, that he will be prepared to answer any questions which the Government may feel disposed to put to him.

The system of sending agents from the British North American Colonies, and their being received by the Government, is one which I feel confident your Lordship will discountenance.^[5]

The House of Assembly, or the Legislative Council, or the Executive Council, or any individual in the colony, have a constitutional mode of making accusations against the Governor, to which accusations he has also a constitutional opportunity to reply.

Should this not be deemed sufficient, and should the novel course of receiving agents be adopted, then I submit that, in common justice, the party complaining should appoint one agent, and the party complained of another, but that one should not be heard without the other: the inconvenience of such a system must be so apparent, that I feel confident your Lordship will not approve of it.

{98}

The mere fact of its being supposed that the revolutionary party have an agent at home, who is successfully undermining the character of the Lieutenant-Governor, will give great importance in this country to Mr. Baldwin’s residence in London; and I therefore hope that, should he, directly or indirectly, communicate with the Colonial Office, your Lordship will give him that style of answer, a copy of which, transmitted to me, and published in this country, would at once put an end to that sort of left-handed attacks upon the constitution.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord, &c.

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

No. 38.

3.

Toronto, May 19th, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship an address which was this morning presented to me by a deputation from the electors of this city, with my answer thereto.

I would direct your Lordship’s attention to the fact, that, at the last general election for the city, the total number of votes that were polled amounted to 512, and that to the present address there are attached no less than 461 signatures.

I have also the honour to transmit an address from {99} the electors of the county of Lennox, of which Mr. Speaker Bidwell and Mr. Perry (the chairman of the committee, who drew up the report on the correspondence with my late Executive Council) are at present the members. It will explain to your Lordship the reaction which is taking place in this province.

I may also observe, that I have this evening received official information, that 1200 electors of the Gore district are coming down in a body to Toronto to present to me, in person, an address, strongly supporting me in the measures I have adopted.

I have the honour to be,

My Lord,

Your Lordship’s most obedient servant

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

No. 40.

Toronto, May 28th, 1836.

My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship a copy of a Gazette Extraordinary, by which it will appear that I this day dissolved the Provincial Parliament.

The new elections will be concluded on 27th June.

The number of signatures attached to the loyal addresses which I have received already amount to 24,100; many others are on their way.

{100}

(Private.)

Toronto, May 28th, 1836.

My Lord,

My official communication of this day’s date will inform your Lordship that I have this day dissolved the Provincial Parliament.

Of course a most violent contest will take place, and I need hardly observe that it is one upon which our possession of the Canadas may almost be said to depend.

Sensible as I am of its importance, I feel calm and tranquil as regards its result.

In South America, truth and justice carried me through difficulties even greater than those I have now to contend with, and I have the firmest reliance they will again be triumphant.

I enclose to your Lordship a printed copy of an answer I this day gave to one of the numerous addresses.

In all my other answers I have been cool and calm; but in this I have made an exception, because I have long determined to notice that letter which Papineau addressed to Mr. Speaker Bidwell.

The fact is, Papineau as well as Bidwell, and all their party, have long endeavoured to inculcate the idea, that the whole of the population of the Canadas are “united, to a man”—that they only tolerate the British Government, and that, consequently, they can throw it off when they please.

Now, I think it highly necessary that this artful {101} spell should be broken—that the truth should be proved, and I have therefore done so effectually.

I am quite sure that my answer^[6] will do Papineau the greatest possible injury; for it will prove his theory to have been false. It will re-animate the loyalists; and as our militia regiments all assemble for a few days on the 4th of June, the appeal will stir them up, and turn their votes in the right direction.

I am aware that the answer may be cavilled at in Downing-street, for I know it is not exactly according to Hoyle. Mais, mon seigneur, croyez-vous donc qu’on fasse des révolutions avec de l’eau de rose? It is impossible to put down republicanism by soft words.

I have only one moment, as the mail is starting.

I remain,

Your Lordship’s faithful and obedient servant,

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

The reader will have observed the heavy difficulties I had to contend with, not only in Upper Canada, but in England. The following despatch will moreover explain that, although I was privately on amicable terms with the Commissioners of Inquiry in Lower Canada, yet that I found it so utterly impossible to {102} subscribe to the policy they were ordered to pursue, that I respectfully tendered to her Majesty’s Government my resignation.

Toronto, June 1st, 1836.

My Lord,

I have received from Lord Gosford and the Commissioners of Inquiry, a copy of their reports to your Lordship on the Executive Council, and I have had an interview with Sir George Gipps, who was here two days ago, on his way to Niagara.

It may have appeared strange to your Lordship that, during the short time that has elapsed since my arrival here, I should have twice respectfully tendered to your Lordship my resignation of the station I hold.

The ostensible reason which I gave for so serious a proposal was, that my income and rank were inadequate, as I still declare them to be, to the duties I had to perform; but having read the Commissioners’ Report, and having conversed with Sir George Gipps, of whose talents and probity I am deeply sensible, I have resolved to hesitate no longer to confess to your Lordship, that I do not agree in opinion with the Commissioners of Inquiry; and that I have long felt I should eventually embarrass them by remaining in this country. I should not do justice to myself, or act frankly towards your Lordship, the Governor-General, or Commissioners, were I any longer to conceal that, as regards their policy, I have not an idea in common with them.

{103}

The very first act of my administration was a deliberate departure from the course they adopted. I perfectly well knew, and I stated it to your Lordship, that by not giving to the legislature of this province the Commissioners’ version of their instructions, I should seriously embarrass them: at the same time I could not make up my mind to conceal the truth, and I therefore promulgated the instructions themselves, in puris naturalibus, although I was sensible it might cause my recall.

In the Commissioners’ Report respecting the Executive Council, they build their recommendations on the foundation, “that the weightiest accountability which can attach to any man, in matters of a public nature, for which he is not punishable by law, or by loss of office, is accountability to public opinion.”

To this doctrine I have never been able to subscribe; on the contrary, I have always considered that every man in office should make public opinion follow him, and never attempt to follow it.

However, upon this foundation the Commissioners project plans which, consistently with their theory, are avowedly framed “to secure as much as possible of the confidence of the people.”

In the contest which I have had with the House of Assembly here, my argument has been that the Governor and his Executive Council form the great constitutional counterpoise to the representatives of the people; and that in proportion as the Provincial {104} Legislative Council is deficient in the rank, wealth, and superior education which give influence to our House of Lords, so it is necessary that the Governor and his Council should be enabled to withstand the democratic pressure which, in the British constitution, it is as much as the King and the House of Lords can do to resist. I therefore consider that the Commissioners’ recommendation of attempting to conciliate partly public opinion by forming the Executive Council out of the two Houses of the Legislature—or, in other words, out of the very elements it is intended to control, is a fatal error.

I also consider, that to absolve the Governor’s council from secrecy would render it absolutely impossible for him to consult them; for as he is only supposed to consult them on subjects upon which he feels his judgment to be rickety, the confession to them of his own weakness would, if made public, ruin his authority by depriving him of respect.

Besides this, if a councillor were permitted to declare what measure he had not advised, he would equally be at liberty to declare what measures he had advised; and, if these were popular measures, the Governor of this colony, besides having to stand against democracy, would also have to bear against the additional odium of having stood against the popularity-hunting advice of his Council; which, altogether, would in practice be more than he could bear.

But the Report of the Commissioners respecting {105} the Executive Council forms but a single feature in the whole picture of their policy, which to my mind has a democratic character to which I cannot conscientiously accord.

I can declare to your Lordship, that, before I came to this country, many of my friends fancied I was a radical, and, indeed, I almost fancied I was one myself, for in all the countries I have ever visited I really have been devotedly attached to what is vulgarly called the liberty of the subject, but I cannot go as far as the Commissioners; and I feel it only due to them, and to your Lordship, to state so.

For instance, I consider that the language of the 92 Resolutions of Lower Canada was not only insulting to the British Government, but traitorous.

If this be true, it unavoidably follows that the author of these resolutions is a traitor, and to create him a judge was, in my humble opinion, to place on the British bench one whose proper situation was the dock.

I consider that, in a British colony, British interests should be paramount, and that in these provinces we should foster them by every means in our power, by infusing into the country our redundant population, and by giving nothing to aliens but their bare rights.

I do not in the slightest degree presume to offer these observations as complaints against the Commissioners, or even as suggestions worthy your Lordship’s {106} consideration; but merely as a confession that my principles and opinions differ completely from those of gentlemen under whom, I believe, I should act, and with whom, I am sure, it is highly advisable I should concur.

As long as I could continue neutral, my opinions were concealed in my own breast, but every hour drives me to the necessity of taking decisive measures; and as the Commissioners and I are now acting in opposite directions, I feel quite confident that sooner or later the principles which govern us must be suspected to be different, and that, the moment the truth is elicited, embarrassments of a very serious nature must ensue. The British population of both the Canadas is now leaning with its whole weight upon me, instead, as it ought to do, upon the Commissioners; I therefore feel I am doing his Majesty’s Government more harm than good—that being the lesser power I really ought to retire—and I have no hesitation in recommending to your Lordship that I should do so.

There exist, in the Commission of Inquiry, opinions openly promulgated which many may term liberal, to which I cannot and never will subscribe; but, far from wishing to oppose them, I only desire to offer to your Lordship to yield to them the field.

I have, &c.,

F. B. Head.

The Lord Glenelg, &c. &c. &c.

{107}

Although in the foregoing despatch I divulged to his Majesty’s Government my opinion concerning the Commission of Inquiry, the high jurisdiction of which extended to Upper Canada, yet in doing so I felt it but right, 1st—to tender my resignation; and, 2ndly, to make the Commission aware of the opinions I entertained, by communicating them almost literally in a letter to Sir Charles Grey.

As his Majesty’s Government, in reply to my communication, declined to lay my resignation before the King, I could not, as I desired, “yield to them the field;” and as the Government did not call upon me to explain my meaning, I had no opportunity of doing so: but as the despatch has now become public, I feel it a duty I owe to the Commission precisely to explain my meaning.

In the Commission there existed one gentleman of whose talent and probity I have already spoken in high terms. His abilities were good, his power of writing uncommon, but his political principles were offensive to almost the whole of the British population. The freedom (which surely must be known even in this country) with which he avowed them was a subject of general regret; and although I could not but admire the honesty with which he spoke his mind, yet when I found that even at a large party, expressly invited to meet him at the Government House at Toronto, in Upper Canada, he advocated his principles so undisguisedly, that, on his leaving the room, {108} one of the public officers observed, loud enough for me to hear him, “That gentleman should be recalled!” I felt it my duty, though he was personally my friend, to express what I did in my despatch, and having done this “to yield to him the field.”

The feeling in the Canadas among the British party was, on this subject, right or wrong, so strong, that, on this gentleman returning to England, it was a subject of considerable speculation to observe in what way a person who was known to have honestly expressed such sentiments would be received by the Colonial Office; and they were equally astonished and disheartened (to no one was the moral more appalling than to myself), when they saw it very shortly announced that, out of the whole population of Great Britain, he was selected by his Majesty’s Government to be placed at the head of one of the most rising and important of our colonies. On this appointment I have no comment to offer, and I most deeply regret the necessity which has called for even what I have said.

The following despatches on various subjects will speak for themselves.

Toronto, June 22, 1836

My Lord,

I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship a newspaper published here, entitled the Correspondent and Advocate, which contains a letter from Mr. M‘Kenzie, of which the following is an extract.

{109}

“The people of Lower Canada and the Upper Canada Reformers especially direct their views to four important objects, not one of which will be conceded as I believe, until it be too late. They are—an elective Legislative Council; an Executive Council responsible to public opinion; the control over the whole provincial revenue to be in the Legislature; and the British Parliament and the Colonial Office to cease their interference in our internal concerns.”

As the Republicans in the Canadas generally mask their designs by professions of attachment to the mother-country, I think it is important to record this admission on the part of Mr. M‘Kenzie of the traitorous object which the Reformers of this province have in view.

I have, &c.

F. B. Head.

No.56.