Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the CanadasLizars, Robina
History
Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the Canadas
Lizars, Robina
Canada -- History -- Rebellion, 1837-1838
much--except with the other side. I believe that the prediction of that
man Bourgeoi will be accomplished, which is that the province will be
all covered with blood and dead bodies.” A Montreal newspaper deplores
“the fattening of Nelson for the gallows,” and considered that “death
on the scaffold was the best example such a father could give to such
a child.”
And yet Dr. O’Callaghan could write from over the border, “If you are
to blame for the movement, blame then those who plotted and continued
it, and who are to be held in history responsible for it. We, my
friends, were the victims, not the conspirators; and were I on my
deathbed I could declare before heaven that I had no more idea of a
movement of resistance when I left Montreal and went to the Richelieu
River with M. Papineau than I have now of being bishop of Quebec. And I
also know that M. Papineau and I secreted ourselves for some time in a
farmer’s house in the parish of St. Marc, lest our presence might alarm
that country and be made a pretext for rashness.... I saw as clearly as
I now see the country was not prepared.” Dr. O’Callaghan, the _fidus
Achates_ of Papineau, the editor of the _Vindicator_, was not likely to
have been as innocent as he afterwards remembered himself.
Another who managed to hide safely but nearer home, after the battle
of St. Charles, was George Cartier. With his cousin Henri he passed
the winter at the house of Antoine Larose, in his native village of
St. Antoine, and the person destined to be his father-in-law was in
hiding not far off. The future Sir George, to make sure of a quiet
resting-place, wrote, and had published in a Montreal newspaper:
“George E. Cartier, advocate, a young man of great ability and talent,
was found frozen in the woods by his father. He might have served his
Queen in the highest councils of his country had he not been brought
up in a line of politics which led to his untimely end.” He read his
self-description and epitaph, and handed it to his cousin, remarking,
“At present, my dear Henri, we can sleep tranquil.” But he reckoned,
not without his host, who was incorruptible, but without his host’s
servant-maid. The maid had an admirer, and the admirer grew jealous
of the two young men who enjoyed advantages superior to those granted
him, made a scene with his fiancée, threatened to inform on them and
to denounce M. Larose to the authorities for harbouring rebels. So the
two young men, nephews many times removed of the celebrated Jacques,
had to decamp to the less confined neighbourhood of les États Unis. In
after years, when Mackenzie with questionable taste treated the episode
of the rebellion as a comedy, he met M. Cartier, in parliamentary
obstructive debate, and twitted him that they had both been “out” on
the wrong side, and that the Government had shown its appreciation of
the comparative values of their heads. He referred to the price of a
thousand pounds set on his own, and only three hundred on that of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account