entury. The
year 1837 saw two revolutions, one in Upper, the other in Lower,
Canada, though neither of them amounted to more than a flash in the
pan. As might be expected, there were not a few Irish among the
disaffected spirits who fostered these revolutions. Their experience
at home led them to know how little oppressed people were likely to
obtain from the British Government except by a demonstration of
force. There were serious abuses, especially "the Family Compact",
the lack of anything approaching constitutional guarantees in
government, and political disabilities on the score of religion.
However, most of the Irish in Canada were ranged on the side of the
government. Sir Richard Bonnycastle, writing in 1846, said "The
Catholic Irish who have been long settled in the country are by no
means the worst subjects in this transatlantic realm, as I can
personally testify, having had the command of large bodies of them
during the border troubles of 1837-8. They are all loyal and true."
Above all Bonnycastle pledged himself for the loyalty of the Irish
Catholic priesthood.

One of the Irishmen who came into prominence in the rebellions of
1837 was Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan, the editor of the _Vindicator_,
the newspaper by means of which Papineau succeeded in arousing much
feeling among the people of Lower Canada and fomented the Revdlution.
O'Callaghan escaped to the United States and settled at Albany, where
he became the historian of New York State. To him, more than to any
other, we owe the preservation of the historical materials out of
which the early history of the State can be constructed. Rare volumes
of the Jesuit Relations, to the value of which for historical
purposes he had called special attention, were secured from his
library for the Canadian library at Ottawa.

Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, when the population of
Ireland reached its highest point of over 8,000,000, the pressure on
the people caused them to emigrate in large numbers, and then the
famine came to drive out great crowds of those who survived. In
proportion to its population Canada received a great many more of
these Irish emigrants than did the United States. Unfortunately the
conditions on board the emigrant sailing vessels in those days cost
many lives. They were often becalmed and took months to cross the
ocean. My grandmother coming in the thirties was ninety-three days in
crossing, landing at Quebec after seven weeks o