the
author.

{357}

Soon after the departure of Lord Durham, who died a few months later, Sir
John Colborne became governor-general. He was called upon to put down
another rebellious movement led by Robert Nelson, brother of Wolfred
Nelson, then in exile. At Caughnawaga, Montarville Mountain,
Beauharnois, and Odelltown the insurgents made a stand from time to time,
but were soon scattered. Bands of marauders inflicted some injury upon
loyal inhabitants near the frontier, but in a few months these criminal
attempts to disturb the peace of the province ceased entirely. The
government now decided to make an example of men who had not appreciated
the clemency previously shown their friends. Twelve men were executed,
but it was not possible to obtain a verdict from a jury against the
murderers of Weir and Chartrand--the latter a French Canadian volunteer
murdered under circumstances of great brutality while a prisoner.

The rebellion opened the eyes of the imperial government to the gravity
of the situation in Canada, and the result of Lord Durham's report was
the passage of an imperial act reuniting the provinces into one, with a
legislature of two houses. The constitutional act of 1791, which had
separated French and English, as far as possible, into two sections, was
clearly a failure. An effort was now to be made to amalgamate, if
possible, the two races. The two provinces were given an equal
representation in one legislature, and the French language was placed in
a position of inferiority, compared with English in parliamentary and
official {358} proceedings and documents. At the same time the British
Government recognised the necessity of giving a larger expansion of local
self-government.

[Illustration: Judge Haliburton ("Sam Slick").]

During the period of which I am writing Canada had given evidences of
material, social, and intellectual progress. With the close of the War
of 1812, and the downfall of Napoleon, large bodies of immigrants came
into the province and settled some of the finest districts of Upper and
Lower Canada. Scotch from the highlands and islands of Scotland
continued until 1820 to flock into Nova Scotia and other maritime
provinces. Although the immigration had been naturally stopped by the
troubles of 1836 and 1838, the population of Canada had increased to over
a million of souls, of whom at least four hundred and fifty thousand were
French Canadians. The Rideau, Lachine, and