The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion, Volume 1   By: John Charles Dent (1841-1888)

[Illustration: Yours truly, John Rolph]

THE STORY

OF THE

=UPPER CANADIAN REBELLION=

JOHN CHARLES DENT

AUTHOR OF "THE LAST FORTY YEARS" &C.

VOL. I.

[Illustration]

TORONTO.

PUBLISHED BY C. BLACKETT ROBINSON

1865

New York

THE STORY

OF THE

UPPER CANADIAN REBELLION;

LARGELY DERIVED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES AND DOCUMENTS.

BY JOHN CHARLES DENT,

Author of "The Last Forty Years," etc.

"Well, God be thanked for these rebels." I Henry IV. , Act iii, sc. 3.

"Truth is not always to be withheld because its expression may wound the feelings of public men, whose official acts have subjected them to public censure. If it were, history and biography would cease to be guiding stars, and, above all, would offer no wholesome restraint to the cruel, or corrupt, or incompetent exercise of authority." Tupper's Life and Correspondence of Major General Sir Isaac Brock.

"We rebelled neither against Her Majesty's person nor her Government, but against Colonial mis government.... We remonstrated; we were derided.... We were goaded on to madness, and were compelled to show that we had the spirit of resistance to repel injuries, or to be deemed a captive, degraded and recreant people. We took up arms, not to attack others, but to defend ourselves." Letter to Lord Durham from Dr. Wolfred Nelson and others, confined at Montreal, June 18th, 1838.

=Toronto:=

C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, 5 JORDAN STREET.

1885.

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1885, by C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, in the office of the Minister of Agriculture.

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO MY ESTEEMED FRIEND,

GEORGE STEWART, JUN'R.

OF QUEBEC:

WHOSE RESEARCHES IN A KINDRED DIRECTION WILL ENABLE HIM TO

DO FULL JUSTICE TO WHATEVER IS MERITORIOUS IN IT; WHILE

HIS GENEROUS APPRECIATION OF THE EFFORTS OF HIS

LITERARY BRETHREN WILL RENDER HIM

INDULGENT TO ITS DEFECTS.

JOHN CHARLES DENT.

Toronto, 1885.

[Transcriber's Note: Obvious printer errors, including punctuation, have been corrected. All other inconsistencies have been left as they were in the original.]

CONTENTS.

PAGE. CHAPTER I. THE BANISHED BRITON 9

CHAPTER II. A BILL OF PARTICULARS 46

CHAPTER III. THE FAMILY COMPACT 71

CHAPTER IV. FATHERS OF REFORM 96

CHAPTER V. A "FREE AND UNFETTERED" PRESS 122

CHAPTER VI. THE CASE OF CAPTAIN MATTHEWS 144

CHAPTER VII. THE NIAGARA FALLS OUTRAGE 151

CHAPTER VIII. THE "AMOVAL" OF MR. JUSTICE WILLIS 162

CHAPTER IX. THE CASE OF FRANCIS COLLINS 195

CHAPTER X. LIGHTS OLD AND NEW 213

CHAPTER XI. PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE 231

CHAPTER XII. DISENFRANCHISEMENT 253

CHAPTER XIII. MR. HUME'S "BANEFUL DOMINATION" LETTER 264

CHAPTER XIV. "SEE, THE CONQUERING HERO COMES!" 282

CHAPTER XV. "A TRIED REFORMER" 296

CHAPTER XVI. THE TRIUMPHS OF A TRIED REFORMER 324

CHAPTER XVII. REACTION 342

CHAPTER XVIII. THE FORGING OF THE PIKES 354

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

John Rolph Frontispiece

David Gibson 284

THE STORY

OF

THE UPPER CANADIAN REBELLION.

CHAPTER I.

THE BANISHED BRITON.

[Sidenote: 1819]