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Preliminary History—The Elevation of Mr. M‘Kenzie, and the recall, by the Colonial Office, of His Excellency Major General Sir John Colborne.

Mr. M‘Kenzie, who has caused the effusion of so much British blood and money, was, it is believed, an insignificant pedlar-lad, who, about eighteen years ago, having transferred himself to America, under disreputable circumstances, succeeded in becoming the shop or errand-boy of a notorious republican at Toronto.

After living for some years in this description of society, he gradually brought himself into notice by the extraordinary talent he displayed in inventing gross falsehoods, and, as his radical associates acutely perceived that such poisonous misrepresentations flowing through the province would by degrees sicken the loyalty of those who, secluded in the backwoods, were completely dependent for political information on the local press, he was strongly encouraged to throw aside his shopman’s apron, and to set up a newspaper.

With this detestable object in view, Mr. M‘Kenzie’s exertions for many years were really almost superhuman. Every hardship, whether of wood, wind, or {2} weather, which the settler encountered in his lonely residence in the forest, was, by some falsehood or other, ingeniously shown to proceed indirectly from Downing-street, or directly from the Government House, or Legislative Council, at Toronto. Every magistrate, militia officer, postmaster, or schoolmaster, who in any way misbehaved himself, either in public or private, was declared to be an especial favourite of the Government; artful comparisons were constantly unfairly made between the condition of the old, densely-peopled districts of the United States and the young settlements of Upper Canada, the difference being of course attributed to the withering influence of monarchical institutions.

After these mischievous misrepresentations (which lowered, if it were possible, Mr. M‘Kenzie in the estimation of every honest, intelligent man) had sufficiently shaken the loyalty of those who, secluded in moral darkness, had unfortunately listened to his tales, he considered that the time had arrived for getting up some vague petition to the Colonial Secretary for the general correction of “grievances.” In order to obtain sufficient signatures for this purpose, it is perfectly notorious, throughout Upper Canada, that the most barefaced and impudent deceptions were practised. In various directions agents were employed who, themselves, affixed the names or marks of all who could be induced to acknowledge they had any one thing to complain of, indeed, {3} several worthy individuals were added to the list, who actually believed they had joined in a loyal address. The names and signatures thus collected in batches, on separate pieces of paper, were then all pasted together, and, with scarcely anything but these credentials in his wallet, and with unprincipled impudence as his companion, this low adventurer (by one of those eccentric chances which occasionally characterise the course of an impostor’s life) returned to his mother-country, to introduce himself in Downing-street to her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies, leaving behind him in Upper Canada that kind of character which, with more wit than elegance, has been thus quaintly described by an American writer:—

“He is, without exception, the most notorious liar in all our country. He lies out of every pore in his skin. Whether he be sleeping or waking, on foot or on horseback, talking with his neighbours or writing for a newspaper, a multitudinous swarm of lies, visible, palpable, and tangible, are buzzing and settling about him like flies around a horse in August.”

One would have thought that the infamous notoriety of this low-bred, vulgar man would have secured the Governor and Legislature of Upper Canada from his libellous and seditious accusations; but, alas! the very fact of his undertaking a journey of nearly 4000 miles shows pretty clearly that Mr. M‘Kenzie {4} shrewdly suspected that the Colonial Office would not be very inimical to his demands.

The reception which Mr. M‘Kenzie met with in Downing-street he has boastingly explained by the following letters, which are only a part of many he has published in Upper Canada, in order triumphantly to demonstrate the accredited importance with which he had been received, notwithstanding the documents, of which he was the advocate, had not passed through the executive government, or before either branch of the Legislature of Upper Canada.

(copy.)

Colonial Office, July 26, 1832.

Sir,

Lord Goderich has desired me to acknowledge the receipt of your papers, and I have the honour to inform you that his Lordship regrets he cannot appoint an earlier day than Friday, the 3rd of August. On that day, however, at two o’clock, he will be glad to see you at this office.

I have the honour to be

Your most obedient humble servant,

Charles Douglas.

W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire.

19, Wakefield-street, Brunswick-square.

(copy of extract.)

Downing-street, 8th September, 1832.

Sir,

I am directed by Lord Goderich to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 27th August and 5th September. {5} In answer to these communications, I have to inform you that the other addresses, as well as that from the Niagara district, have in the usual manner been laid before his Majesty, and you are at liberty to state this fact to the persons by whom they have been signed, without receiving a separate answer to each.

With respect to the war losses and the state of the representation, although, of course, he can enter into no discussion with any private individual on those subjects. Lord Goderich is willing to receive and to pay such attention as they may seem to require to any further written statements you may think fit to submit to him. If you have anything to offer which can only be verbally communicated, his Lordship will not refuse, on his return to town, to afford you such opportunities of addressing him as his other avocations will allow.

(Signed)Howick.

To W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire.

(copy.)

Colonial Office, Tuesday 26th.

Sir,

I am desired by Lord Goderich to propose to you to call here on Saturday next, at two, instead of to-morrow, at half-past twelve, as the House of Lords meet at one o’clock to send up an address to his Majesty.

I am, Sir,

Your humble servant,

B. J. Balfour.

To W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire.

&c.&c.

Colonial Office, November 2, Tuesday.

Sir,

Lord Goderich has desired me to express to you his {6} regret that the pressure of business should have prevented him seeing you since his return to town. He now begs leave to propose one o’clock on Tuesday next, at this office, for the interview you desire.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

B. J. Balfour.

W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire

&c.&c.

Colonial Office, November 5th.

Lord Goderich presents his compliments to Mr. M‘Kenzie. He finds himself obliged to change the proposed hour for interview to-morrow to twelve o’clock instead of one, which he hopes will not be inconvenient to Mr. M‘Kenzie.

W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire.

Colonial Office, November 6th.

Lord Goderich is sorry to be again obliged to put Mr. M‘Kenzie off. He has now to propose twelve o’clock on Wednesday, instead of twelve to-morrow.

W. L. M‘Kenzie, Esquire.

In this country, people will scarcely comprehend why Mr. M‘Kenzie should (writing the words “Esquire” and “your most obedient humble servant” at full length) have published with so much ostentation copies of the above commonplace communications. In a small community, however, considerable importance is attached to any interview with a minister; and in colonial society this distinction is {7} not only, by the vulgar, looked upon as an honour, but, by the most sensible and reflecting, it is justly considered as a political advantage which may be productive of very serious results.

The following memorandum, which Mr. M‘Kenzie published in Upper Canada, together with the notes which have been just quoted, sufficiently show the mischievous application that may be made of these improper interviews.

(copy.)

Memorandum.—On Wednesday, the 7th of November, 1832, I had the honour of a very long interview with the Secretary of State; and on the day following the despatch was written, which is an answer, in part, to my representations.

(Signed)W. L. M‘Kenzie.

The despatch from the Colonial Minister to His Excellency Sir John Colborne, to which Mr. M‘Kenzie here alludes, is one of the most extraordinary public documents ever published in Upper Canada. It begins as follows:

(copy.)

Downing-street, Nov. 8, 1832.

Sir,

During several months past, I have been in occasional communication with Mr. William M‘Kenzie upon the subject of the grievances said to exist in Upper Canada, and for redress of which various petitions have been addressed {8} to his Majesty, I propose in this despatch to follow Mr. M‘Kenzie through those parts of his statement, respecting the representation of the inhabitants in the House of General Assembly, which appear to me essential to the consideration of the practical questions he has undertaken to agitate.

The despatch accordingly obsequiously follows Mr. M‘Kenzie through the whole course of his most insulting abuse of the executive, legislative, civil and religious authorities of the colony; and in one instance, merely because Mr. M‘Kenzie, an unprincipled, vagrant grievance-monger, had complained “that the law, as interpreted by the Court of King’s Bench, entitles the county members only to wages,” without asking His Excellency Sir John Colborne or the House of Assembly itself for explanation or vindication, the despatch says, “I have no right to interfere with the deliberations of the Council, but I am able to signify to you his Majesty’s pleasure that you should not oppose any objection to any law which may be presented for your acceptance for placing the town and county representations on the same footing in this respect.”

Again, because Mr. M‘Kenzie had complained that various religious bodies, not choosing to take an oath, were excluded from the elective franchise, the despatch most humbly says, “I shall be happy to introduce a bill into parliament for amending this part of the constitutional Act of 1791, unless there should {9} appear to be some difficulty in that measure which does not occur to me at present.”

The influence of the crown appears to have been as successfully attacked by Mr. M‘Kenzie as the great constitutional Act of 1791, for, in reply to Mr. M‘Kenzie’s accusations that “the crown possessed an undue influence in the Provincial Legislature,” the despatch says, “If this could be shown, his Majesty would not hesitate to assent to any law which might be passed for the purpose of limiting the number of persons holding offices at pleasure who should be permitted at one time to sit there.”

This uncalled-for surrender of the influence of the crown, when compared with succeeding events, forms a most melancholy illustration of the following ominous prophecy, with which it was officially accompanied: “Mr. M‘Kenzie,” says the despatch to Sir John Colborne, “has concluded his paper by predictions of bloodshed and civil war, and a dissolution of the connexion between Upper Canada and this kingdom.

“But against gloomy prophecies of this nature every man conversant with public business must learn to fortify his mind. They have ever been the resource of those who endeavour to extort from the fears of government concessions in favour of which no adequate reasons could be urged.”

Nothing could be more applicable to Mr. M‘Kenzie than the above remark, and yet, as if to {10} prove how much easier it is to preach wisdom than to practise it, the despatch concludes by saying to his Excellency Sir John Colborne,—

“I have received these documents from Mr. M‘Kenzie, not merely as expressing his own opinion, but also as explanatory of the views of those who have deputed him to represent what they call their grievances to his Majesty. To them, the utmost possible respect is due.

“Having written this despatch with a view to publicity, you have my authority to make it public in whatever manner you may think most convenient.”

Now, instead of appearing at the Colonial Office as a broken-down pedlar and a notorious disturber of the public mind, let us suppose that Mr. M‘Kenzie had come from a distant colony to the Horse Guards, to complain against the military officer in command,—can any one believe that Lord Hill would have taken any other notice of the complainant than mildly, but firmly, to have desired him to transmit his communication through his commanding officer?

In case a sailor, or even a naval officer, were to come up to London to abuse his commodore, would not the Admiralty pursue the same course, and ought not our colonial governors and legislators to be supported by the Colonial Office with that common caution which would induce every judge and magistrate, or, indeed, any sensible person, not to deliver, {11} or even to form, an opinion on an ex parte statement? Yet, in the case before us, the accusations of a man of broken character and fortune against his Excellency Sir John Colborne, against every constituted authority, and against the feelings of every respectable inhabitant in Upper Canada, were not only listened to by repeated appointments, but replied to “with the utmost possible respect” in the elaborate despatch above alluded to.

What were Sir John Colborne’s feelings, on unexpectedly receiving this most extraordinary communication, it surely cannot be necessary to divulge, as the sentiments of the other two branches of the legislature of Upper Canada sufficiently appear from the following published extracts of their admirable, constitutional, and indignant reply to the message in which the Lieutenant-Governor transmitted to them a copy of the unfortunate document in question.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR JOHN COLBORNE,

&c. &c. &c.

May it please your Excellency,

We, his Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the legislative council of Upper Canada, in provincial parliament assembled, beg leave to express our thanks to your Excellency for laying before us an original despatch, written to your Excellency by the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the 8th of November last, containing his Lordship’s observations at great length upon a variety of statements made to him by Mr. W. L. M‘Kenzie, an inhabitant of this town.

{12}

The statements upon which these comments have been framed have also been laid before us by your Excellency; but, without entering into any particular consideration of their contents, with which the council had little desire to become acquainted, enough appears in the tenor of his Lordship’s observations to make it manifest that those statements have been made with a very unusual disregard of truth, and in a spirit of wanton and intemperate hostility to the legislative and executive authorities in this province.

We cannot say that it may not possibly give satisfaction to some persons in this province to observe the condescending and respectful manner in which representations of so peculiar a description, proceeding from an individual, have been received and replied to, notwithstanding it was evident they were outrageously insulting to all the constituted authorities of this colony, and scarcely less so to the people at large, in imputing to them sentiments and feelings by which they never have been, and we are convinced never will be, actuated. It is not in the nature of things, however, that the legislative council, or that any portion of the people in this province, of sound hearts and understandings, having the truth under their view, can regard such statements as compose Mr. M‘Kenzie’s voluminous correspondence with his Majesty’s Secretary of State in any other manner than with the most unqualified contempt—a contempt which, upon every principle on which character is acquired or lost, we think it must be more conducive to the public interests and honour, and to all the ends of good government, to avow than disclaim. So far, therefore, as the despatch of his Majesty’s Secretary of State is to be considered as a reply to those statements, or as a commentary upon information derived from the same source, we cannot regard it as calling for the serious attention of the legislative council.

{13}

We appeal, however, to the intimate knowledge of this colony which your Excellency has acquired during a residence of four years, for a confirmation of our remark, that, upon several of the questions which in this despatch are most elaborately discussed, no dissatisfaction or difficulty prevails, or ever has prevailed; that no person living here ever heard or imagined before that they were seriously talked of or thought of as grievances; and that the minds of the people are so far from being disquieted by them, that it is probable not a word would be heard upon them in travelling from one extremity of the province to the other, and in mingling with its industrious population through every portion of it.

It has been painful to the legislative council to see that, in a discussion founded upon these documents, the office of Lieutenant-Governor of this province, and the names of some of the most responsible of the King’s servants, are even hypothetically connected with imputations which no one can easily tolerate to find connected with his name....

(Signed)John B. Robinson, Speaker,

Legislative Council Chamber,

2nd day of February, 1833.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR JOHN COLBORNE,

&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, return our thanks for your Excellency’s message of the twelfth day of January last, transmitting a despatch of the Right Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in answer to certain letters and documents addressed {14} to his Lordship for the purpose of proving that the people of this happy and prosperous colony are oppressed and burthened with grievances, and have become so discontented that there is danger of revolt and bloodshed, unless these alleged burthens and grievances are removed and redressed.

We most readily concede that the noble Secretary of State was actuated by the best motives in framing the despatch in question; but we cannot refrain from expressing our great regret that it did not occur to his Lordship that allegations thus deeply affecting the character of his Majesty’s subjects of Upper Canada rested on no better testimony than that of an individual who had been twice expelled this House, and who, in consequence of his having fabricated and reiterated libels of the grossest description, had been declared unfit and unworthy a seat in the Assembly during the present parliament. If this fact had occurred to his Lordship, it is reasonable to suppose that he would not have felt himself at liberty to recognise the author of this additional calumny on the people of this province as the agent, or as speaking the sentiments, of any portion of the loyal inhabitants of the province of Upper Canada, and would therefore have considered it utterly unnecessary to enter into so elaborate an examination or refutation of anything advanced by him.

(Signed)Arch. M‘Lean, Speaker.

Commons House of Assembly,

9th day of February, 1833.

One would have thought that the manly indignation displayed in these high-spirited, loyal remonstrances {15} from both branches of the Canadian Legislature would have induced the Colonial Office to have drawn in for ever the horns with which even then it was feeling its way towards democracy: however, Mr. M‘Kenzie had still access to the department, and, as her Majesty’s Attorney and Solicitor-Generals of Upper Canada had joined in ignominiously expelling him from the House of Assembly, he determined to endeavour to display the almost royal influence he possessed, by making it appear that he had induced the Colonial Minister to dismiss both these officers from his Majesty’s service. Accordingly, with this object in view, he has published in Upper Canada the following note and memorandum:—

(copy.)

Lord Howick presents his compliments to Mr. M‘Kenzie, and will be happy to see him, if he will be good enough to call on him, Monday, at twelve o’clock.

Colonial Office, 7th March, 1833.

Memorandum.—This note was addressed to me on the occasion on which the Colonial Office resolved to change the Attorney and Solicitor-Generals of Upper Canada, in answer to my representations as to their conduct.

(Signed)W. L. M‘Kenzie.

Accordingly, within one day of the date of Lord Howick’s note, a despatch (6th March, 1833, and published by Mr. M‘Kenzie) was addressed to Sir John Colborne, which, after referring to the part {16} which the two crown officers had taken in joining in the votes for the expulsion of Mr. M‘Kenzie, concluded by saying, “I have received his Majesty’s commands to inform you that he regrets that he can no longer avail himself of their services, and that, from the time of your receiving this despatch, they are to be relieved from the duties imposed upon them in their respective offices.”

At the time this despatch was written it was known to every loyal man in the North American colonies that Mr. M‘Kenzie was secretly, in his heart, the same rebel and the same traitor which experience has since proved him to be; and, although it might have been deemed impolitic in the crown officers to avow their natural hostility to such a being, yet the bare fact of the Colonial Office publicly expelling them with ignominy at the very moment when it was known that Mr. M‘Kenzie was revelling in Downing-street, reading confidential communications which ought never to have been submitted to him, had the effect of disheartening the British, and of encouraging the republicans to believe most confidently that the Colonial Office was with them, and that, with that resistless engine to assist them, their dark nameless object must eventually succeed.

On Mr. M‘Kenzie’s return from England he was accordingly hailed by the republicans, or anti-British, as their “conquering hero,” and, supported as he had been in Downing-street, it was not surprising that {17} he succeeded in regaining a seat in the House of Assembly, where he was enabled to ejaculate falsehoods almost faster than his own infamous newspaper and the republican press could manage to print them.

The loyal being dispirited, it was not surprising that at the next election the republicans should be successful. Accordingly, at the meeting of the session in January, 1835, a large majority of republican members (13 of whom actually were Americans) was obtained. Mr. Bidwell, an avowed enemy to monarchical institutions, and an incurable American in his mind, manner, and utterance, was elected Speaker; and, as Mr. M‘Kenzie’s grievances had proved so fruitful and so successful to the radical cause, it was determined to sicken the loyalists by a second dose, and, accordingly, before the session was a fortnight old, a grievance committee was appointed as follows:—

1. W. L. M‘Kenzie,

For whose apprehension for treason, murder, arson, and highway robbery a reward of 1000l. is now offered.

2. T. D. Morrison,

Since tried for treason, and has suddenly quitted the province.

3. David Gibson,

One of M‘Kenzie’s principal officers in the battle of Gallow-hill, on which day, having absconded, he is now outlawed as a traitor, a reward of 500l. having been offered for his apprehension.

{18}

4. Charles Waters,

A notorious republican.

Although the transparent veil, which covered rather than concealed the character of this committee, had not as yet rebelliously been cast aside, still it was just as evident in our North American colonies then as it is now, that the whole and sole objects for which these republicans were striving were—

1.

Separation of the Canadas from the mother-country.

2.

The robbery and murder of the loyal inhabitants.

3.

The attainment of that general letter of licence which is the natural effect, in a young, thinly-peopled country, of a sudden transition to democracy.

It was perfectly well known to every man of character in Upper Canada that, because the report of this Grievance Committee would be written by its chairman, Mr. M‘Kenzie, it could possibly not, in the nature of things, contain anything but a confused mass of falsehoods and misrepresentations, forming the basis of new demands upon the Colonial Office, that the power of the Lieutenant-Governor should be weakened—that his Executive Council should be made “responsible to the people,” and that the Legislative Council, which corresponds with our House of Lords, should also be elected by “the people.”

All this being clearly foreseen, it became necessary {19} for Mr. M‘Kenzie and his colleagues, in delivering themselves of their report, to have recourse to a considerable degree of stratagem. Accordingly, a very few days before the close of the session, Mr. M‘Kenzie, at midnight, brought up in the House of Assembly, when it was thinly attended, this report of the Grievance Committee, which, without being read, was merely received and laid on the table. It was not adopted, but, on its being artfully proposed that 2000 copies of it should be printed in “pamphlet form” (thereby giving the house to understand that this report, whatever it might contain, was after all a mere pamphlet), even this was opposed and eventually carried only by a majority of eight.

On the following morning, and on the two succeeding days, several members inquired for this Grievance Report, but for three days it could not anywhere be found, until it was again produced by Mr. M‘Kenzie himself, who was obliged to confess he had taken it home with him; and it is now well known that he did so for the purpose of surreptitiously inserting, previous to its being printed, a quantity of additional matter; and with this base transaction the session closed.

At the end of May the report of the Committee was printed, and, when it made its appearance, instead of being in “pamphlet form,” it turned out to be a large octavo grievance volume, in boards, containing {20} 553 closely-printed pages; and it has been calculated (I believe accurately) that there exist in this book more than three times as many gross falsehoods as pages!

As every respectable inhabitant in the colony knew that nothing but wilful misrepresentations could proceed from the pen of Mr. M‘Kenzie, the insulting libels which this report contained on the Executive Government, the Executive Council, the Legislative Council, and on everything that is venerated in our social fabric, were treated with indifference and contempt, and by no one more so than by His Excellency Sir John Colborne, who at once forwarded the infamous volume to the Colonial Office, with a few short observations, pointing out the glaring “falsehoods” it contained.

On the arrival in Downing-street of this huge book of grievances, declared by the Lieutenant-Governor to be full of “falsehoods,” which had not appeared before or even been alluded to by the Legislative or Executive Councils, and which had neither been read nor adopted by the House of the representatives of the people of Upper Canada, one would have thought that the Colonial Office would have recollected the punishment under which it had lately smarted—first, by the stern, manly rebuke it had received from both Houses of the Legislature, for having, without consulting them, recommended legislative proceedings on Mr. M‘Kenzie’s {21} alleged grievances—and, secondly, by the humiliating necessity to which it had been reduced, of publicly restoring to office the two crown officers who (Mr. M‘Kenzie has stated) were dismissed in consequence of his representation.

One would have thought that, as “a burnt child dreads the fire,” such fatal experience would have taught the Colonial Office to shudder at the very name of Mr. M‘Kenzie—that it would have taught the Office to place a just confidence in the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, and never again, by listening to ex parte unofficial statements, to subvert all rule and government, by giving the Governor and Legislature the go-by. But the policy of the Colonial Office was immoveable—its course unalterable—its malady incurable; and, though it was perfectly aware of the struggle that was taking place on the continent of America between monarchy and democracy, it deliberately threw its immense influence into the wrong scale!

Accordingly, instead of disregarding this unadopted, and even unread, report of a party who have since shown they were a nest of traitors; instead of supporting the Executive Government, which had been infamously reviled, they came to the determination, not only to recall His Excellency Sir John Colborne from his post, principally because he had treated this report with silent contempt, but, as if to gild the fame, or rather the infamy of Mr. M‘Kenzie, {22} they resolved to submit for the King’s approval a series of drastic remedies for almost all the fictitious disorders which the wicked report of Mr. M‘Kenzie had detailed. That brave and gallant veteran officer Sir John Colborne (whom, though a slight difference exists between us, I both respect and regard) was accordingly officially apprized that he would immediately be removed—remedial concessions were framed—the loyal population were again disheartened—the republicans again improperly boasted that the Home Government was with them;—and thus ends the first chapter of the political accidents it has become my melancholy fortune to relate.