Читать книгу The Life of John Graves Simcoe - William Renwick Riddell - Страница 12

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Simcoe was in bad health when he arrived in England, “equally the result of excessive fatigue from his arduous services and of vexation at the inglorious fate of his cherished soldiers”, as he himself says.

He was a great favorite in society and well-received in the best circles, while the War Office always listened with respect to him though it did not always approve his suggestions.

He spent a short time in London in consultation with the War Office; and, early in 1782, he went to Exeter, his old home, and began the quiet life with perfect rest prescribed for him; it was not long before he thought himself quite recovered, though it is impossible for anyone to read of his after life without seeing that he never again had very robust health^[1].

The Administration of the Marquis of Rockingham who had been Prime Minister from March, 1782, was consistently conciliatory not only toward the American Revolutionaries, but also toward the French; but it lost its head by the death of Rockingham in July, 1782. For some time there was a division in the Ministry, some favouring Shelburne, the other, largely under the lead of Fox, putting forward the Duke of Portland. Shelburne was selected by the King: he had been determinedly opposed to the grant of American Independence and asserted that “to nothing short of necessity would he give way on that head.” It was determined to press more vigorously against the ally in Europe in the hope of detaching him from the American alliance: and Simcoe’s friend, Charles Stuart, who had served with him in the American wars, was selected to go to Gibraltar. He wanted Simcoe to accompany him as second in command: this request was refused by Conway but he persisted—and in August made a written request to Simcoe. The parole was in the way; and all his efforts for an exchange were fruitless—he could not serve against the French and was compelled, much to his own disappointment, to decline the request.

This disappointment was in a measure assuaged—cedant arma amori.

At Hembury Fort, near Honiton, Devonshire, there lived Admiral Graves, his god-father, whose wife was sister of the widow of Colonel Thomas Gwillim of “Old Court” near the Town of Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. After the death of Colonel Gwillim, his widow gave birth, 1766, to a posthumous child, who was christened Elizabeth Posthuma; the mother died shortly after the birth and the infant was taken by her aunt, Mrs. Graves, and tenderly nurtured by her as her own child, at Hembury Fort.

Simcoe on his visit to his godfather met the young girl of sixteen and mutual love was the result; they were married, December 30, 1782, at Buckerell Parish Church, with Admiral and Mrs. Graves as witnesses^[2]. The young people lived for a time in Exeter, Simcoe being relieved of his parole early in 1783.

The fierce struggle between the influence of the Crown and that of the great houses attracted the attention of all Englishmen above the lowest station. Fox’s India Bill, opposed in violent terms by Pitt, passed both Houses of Parliament, although the King authorised Earl Temple to state in the Upper House that he should regard everyone as his enemy who voted for it—December 19, 1783, the King dismissed Fox and his Coalition Administration and appointed Pitt, First Lord of the Treasury—a Prime Minister before he was twenty-five. The Commons received the announcement with derisive laughter, and Pitt, not being able to secure a suitable Member of the House to act as a Minister, had to fight single-handed—and his fight is historical.

Throughout the country, sentiment was divided—some taking the part of the King and his Royal Prerogative and others contending for what were called the rights of the Commons, but in fact the rights of the nominees of the great houses.

In this contest, there was no doubt of the position of Simcoe—he was before all else a supporter of the King—and he issued an Address to the Freeholders of Exeter in that sense^[3].

Parliament was dissolved: Simcoe, however, did not stand for Exeter or other constituency in that election.

In 1784, Mrs. Simcoe, who was a considerable heiress, purchased Wolford and the surrounding estate near Honiton, Devonshire, and the young couple went there to live^[4]. In this and the following year, he was in correspondence with Anna Seward, the “Swan of Lichfield”, the friend (or enemy) of Dr. Johnson, in reference to Major André. Simcoe was the means of securing for her a copy of the drawing made by André of himself when about to be executed, an engraving of which appeared in her Monody on his fate^[5].

Simcoe spent the next few years as a country gentleman, improving his estate, building a Manor House at Wolford, laying out roads, &c. He was not neglectful of literature; he prepared and had printed, (1787), the Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers so often referred to, and he was the author of some verses not without merit. Some of these disclose very clearly the trend of his mind. In a “Fragment”, he writes:

“Essex! (ye Muses bless his name!) thy flight

Nor shall mischance nor envious clouds obscure!

Thou the bold Eaglet, whose superior height,

While Cadiz towers, forever shall endure.

O, if again Hope prompts the daring song,

And Fancy stamps it with the mark of truth,

O, if again Britannia’s coasts should throng

With such heroic and determined youth,

Be mine to raise her standards on that height,

Where thou, great Chief! thy envied trophies bore!

Be mine to snatch from abject Spain the state,

Which, in her mid-day pride, thy valour tore!

And oh! to crown my triumph, tho’ no Queen,

Cold politician, frown on my return,

Sweetly adorning the domestic scene,

Shall my Eliza with true passion burn,

Or smile, amid her grief, at Fame, who hovers o’er my urn.”

Simcoe never was satisfied that Cadiz should remain in Spanish hands, and, January 10, 1788, he laid before Pitt a plan for its surprise and capture. He said that “the genius of the great Earl of Essex forced from the Councillors of Elizabeth to permit him to undertake the capture of this City. He succeeded and nothing but the selfishness of those who acted with him prevented him from keeping possession of it. He reluctantly quitted it after offering to remain with an adequate force in its garrison which would become, to use his own expression, ‘a thorn sticking in the King’s foot’ ....” The information which enabled Simcoe to formulate his plan was given him by Lieutenant Spencer who had served with him in the Queen’s Rangers. Spencer was the son of a Spanish merchant and Spanish was his native language; Simcoe at the Peace procured him recommendations which enabled him to live in Cadiz two years; he was a good engineer and made accurate observations; he was now in the 73rd Regiment and about to sail for the East Indies; this could be prevented by making him a Lieutenant of Cavalry or a Captain of Infantry. Simcoe was anxious for honorable, active, dangerous and responsible service such as he had been used to, and would be glad to accompany Spencer to Cadiz if further information was required. The plan was secret, no one knew of it except Simcoe and Spencer^[6].

Nothing came of this; and, indeed, Pitt was having on his hands at home all he could attend to and sometimes more^[7]. Then the King lost his reason, largely through grief over loss of the American Colonies; and the contest over the Regency Bill began and continued until stopped by the recovery of the King.

A few days after the King’s restoration to health, Simcoe sent to him a copy of his Journal (still in the British Museum), in support of a petition to be permitted to raise “a corps to consist of one troop of Hussars, four troops of Dragoons, eight battalion companies, two Grenadier companies and two light companies”. This was sent, as he said in his autograph letter, “to confirm in some measure by actual experience what otherwise might appear to be too theoretical”^[8]. The petition was unsuccessful.

Later on in the year, he presented a copy of his Journal to Evan Nepean, Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department^[9].

The minds of many thinking men were turned to the northern part of this Continent, and Simcoe’s was naturally turned in that direction from the part he had taken in the war and from believing his father to have been the principal cause of Quebec being attacked. He wrote to Nepean, December 3, 1789, urging the abolition of every vestige of military government and the “miserable feudal system of old Canada”; and said, “I should be happy to consecrate myself to the service of Great Britain in that country in preference to any situation of whatever emolument or dignity”^[10].

This seems to be the earliest suggestion of his appointment to a post in Canada; and thereafter it seems to have been certain that he would receive an appointment at the proper time.

Precisely how, when and by whom, Simcoe’s appointment was arranged is not quite certain. Lord Dorchester, who was Governor at Quebec, recommended Sir John Johnson, March 15, 1790, hoping that “his zeal and fidelity in the King’s service from the first beginning of the late war, the sacrifice of a very considerable property and the advantage of a high degree of confidence among those loyalists will point him out to His Majesty as the Properest Person for the Government of Upper Canada”^[11]. This encomium was well deserved; Sir John had been very active in the cause of the Loyalists and beyond question his appointment would have been most acceptable to them. But before the receipt by Grenville of this despatch, he had selected Simcoe for the place in case the division of Quebec should take place, had submitted his name to the King and received the King’s approval. Sir John had not been forgotten or his services overlooked, but it was not thought desirable to have a person belonging to and possessing such large property in the Province to be Lieutenant-Governor especially in the formation of the new Government. “The disadvantage to His Majesty’s Service which might be expected from the effect of local habits, connections and interests appear to me to be more than sufficient to counterbalance those benefits which may be stated as arising from the same circumstances^[12].

The fact that Simcoe was to be chosen seems not to have been kept secret^[13].

At the succeeding General Election, October-November, 1790, Simcoe was returned a Member of the House of Commons for St. Mawes^[14] in Cornwall, his colleagues being Sir William Young, a political writer, afterwards Governor of Tobago, and always a man of influence and capacity.

The House was called for November 25; before it met, Simcoe laid a proposal before the Government to raise a corps of twelve Companies, each to consist of a Captain, two Lieutenants and one hundred rank and file, with two Majors, and two troops of similar number, he, of course, to be the Colonel. The Government was asked to allow the usual bounty of five guineas, the “Ensigneys” to be sold and the money applied to recruiting. The corps was to be sent to Canada, and the men were to be employed two days in the week on the Public Works, two in Military exercises and two for their private advantage—the land they should thus clear should be sold at a stipulated price to emigrants and thus the pay of the soldier increased; and “when he should be dismissed he would acquire that Habit of Industry which instead of a Burden as is too generally the case at present would render him highly useful to the community”^[15]. The scheme, as we shall see, was afterwards elaborated.

The House met, November 25, 1790, and after the formal debate on the Address, the first matter taken up was the Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Simcoe made his only reported speech, December 23, on the question of the state in which the Impeachment was left at the dissolution of the late Parliament; he supported Pitt and rebuked Burke—a rebuke to which Burke made an immediate, trenchant and effective reply^[16].

It cannot be said that Simcoe made any impression on the House: and, indeed, it appears that he was not versed in the arts of persuasion—he was a soldier and believed rather in force.

Mrs. John Graves Simcoe in Welsh Dress

(From a Miniature)

Simcoe, bearing in mind the condition of the Colony, wrote, December 24, 1790, to Lord Grenville, Secretary of State, asking him to instruct Nepean, the Under-Secretary, to furnish “a Canvas House similar to that sent with the Governor of Botany Bay”, as it “might be highly convenient, if not necessary, in the various expeditions ’twill be proper that I should make in order to be an eye witness of the situation of the new proposed Government and a faithful reporter to Your Lordship thereon”^[17].

Already the scheme had been decided upon to form two Provinces out of the enormous territory made into the Province of Quebec by the Quebec Act of 1774; but it was not till February 25, 1791, that the Royal Message of His Majesty’s intention to divide Quebec into two provinces was presented by Pitt to the House of Commons^[18], and the Order in Council actually forming the two Provinces was passed, August 24, 1791^[19]. Simcoe could not be formally appointed to the Lieutenant-Governorship of the Province of Upper Canada until this Order in Council, and he waited somewhat impatiently for all arrangements to be completed that he might sail during that year. At length everything that prevented his sailing was arranged, and, Monday, September 26, he set sail from Weymouth in the Frigate Triton, 28 guns, with Mrs. Simcoe, their youngest daughter Sophia and their four months old son Francis^[20].

The voyage was uneventful, but there was considerable apprehension that it would not be possible for the ship to reach Quebec; as it was so late in the season, it was feared that the river would be closed by ice and the Triton be compelled to sail for the Barbadoes. Simcoe seems to have been sanguine throughout, and he was not disappointed: October 28, the Triton made Sable Island; two days afterwards, Louisbourg was passed; November 1, the Magdalen Islands were sighted and, Friday, November 11, at one o’clock in the morning the Triton anchored at Quebec^[21].

Simcoe was disappointed at not seeing the Harbour of Louisbourg “so often mentioned in his father’s papers” and at not seeing the Gut of Canso “as his father ..... proposed to the Admiralty to carry large ships through it and would have gained much time in so doing”. He had hoped to sail through this passage and proposed to the officers to do so, but they objected as they were afraid to take the risk^[22].

It is now time to say something of the country to which Simcoe came and of the problems and difficulties before him.