Public-domain ebook
by Lizars, Robina; Lizars, Kathleen Macfarlane
Language: en842 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: History - Other·History - American·History - British
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #55260.
The opening · free to read
Authors of “In the Days of the Canada Company: the Story of the Settlement of the Huron Tract.”
“The humours are commonly the most important and most variable parts of the animal body.”
TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS, WESLEY BUILDINGS.
C. W. COATES, MONTREAL. S. F. HUESTIS, HALIFAX. 1897.
Entered, according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven, by KATHLEEN MACFARLANE LIZARS, at the Department of Agriculture.
PREFACE.
The title of this book is built upon the assumption that humour is a sense of incongruity, not that there was anything specially humorous in the affairs of ’37 beyond that which arose from the crudeness of the times.
A medium between the sacrifice of detail attendant on compilation, and the loss of effect in a whole picture through too close application of the historic microscope, has been attempted. True proportion is difficult to compass at short range, yet the motives, ideas and occurrences which produced the animosities leading to the Rebellion were the inheritance, the special property, of the men who lived then; and of them few remain. To those who do and who have so kindly given their reminiscences special thanks are due. The works of the documentary and the philosophic historian lie on the shelves ready to one’s hand; but those who were “Loyalist” and “Rebel” are quickly dropping into that silence where suffering and injustice, defeat and victory, meet in common oblivion.
Like lichens on rocks, myths have grown about that time; but the myth is worth preserving for the sake of the germ of truth which gave it birth. Historians sometimes tell the truth, not always the whole truth, certainly never anything but the truth, and nothing is to be despised which gives a peep at the life as it really was. For complexion of the times, the local colour of its action, there can be nothing like the tale of the veteran, of the white-haired, dim-eyed survivor, whose quaking voice tells out the story of that eventful day. A page from Pepys or Bellasys lifts a curtain upon what really took place when the historic essence fails; then some morsels of secret history come to light, and motives and actions hitherto puzzling stand revealed.
Were all contributed sentences herein to have their rights in inverted commas the publisher’s stock would be exhausted. The prejudice in favour of Italics has not been observed in certain cases. “A bas les prejudices;” in Canada French is not a foreign language.
It is also assumed that every Canadian is familiar with Canadian history, and that some one or other of its masters is well fixed in school memories. To those masters, and to many others, an apology is tendered for wholesale appropriation of their matter. If every statement made herein were substantiated by the customary foot-note many unsightly pages would be the result; therefore, as no statement has been made without due authority, we commend our readers to the writings of Parkman, Garneau, Dent, McMullen, McCarthy, Macaulay, Michelet, DeGaspé, LeMoine, David, Morgan, Carrier, Bonnycastle, F. B. Head, George Head, Macgregor, Bender, Lindsay, Rattray, Scadding, Thompson and others; to the writings and biographies of the statesmen and governors quoted; to Governmental Journals and House of Commons Debates; for the record of events as they daily took place to innumerable manuscripts, pamphlets and newspapers, written or published between Sarnia and Quebec and in many American cities, covering in particular the years ’36, ’37, ’38, ’39, ’40; and to various sources where Canada is treated as a side issue and not as a main point. Theller and McLeod have been used where the corroborative testimony of others warrants a transcription of their humours.
“Whether an eagle or ant in the intellectual world seems to me not to matter much,” says Joubert. The work of the humble ant is to gather fragments, and, as the humblest in the tribe, the collectors of the data from which this mélange has risen offer it to the public, and as humbly hope they have come within the same writer’s further observation: “A small talent, if it keeps within its limits and rightly fulfils its task, may reach the goal just as well as a great one.”
STRATFORD, October, 1897.
Several score of authorities, known or comparatively unknown, have been drawn on in the compilation of Gallows Hill. Bill Johnston and Colonel Prince, as they appear here, are derived from twenty-one and twenty-six authorities respectively. Therefore when the hundredth, and the twenty-second, and the twenty-seventh, shall arise to contradict, or disagree with, each and every word herein, the authors beg to be allowed to see nothing but a humour in the situation.
[We are indebted to Miss FitzGibbon for a copy of the Cobourg Star of February 7th, 1838, in which appears, under the above title, an epitome, from one point of view, of Rebellion events. Its humours make it a fitting introduction for the papers which follow.]
“_Now puny discord first broke out, And fools rebelled; but what about They could not tell._”
There lived in famed Toronto town A man not very big, A belted knight was he likewise,-- Knight of the old bay wig.
Mackenzie was this hero called, From Scotia’s land he came, To sow and reap--if e’er he could-- The seeds of future fame.
Well taught was he to broil and scold, To slander and to lie, The good to libel--but the bad Around him close to tie.
A precious clan this hero got To join him in the cause Of Freedom, which but truly meant Upturning of our laws.
He travelled all the country round, With grievances his cry; Then off to father John, at home, Right quickly did he hie.
And then he told so many lies That John began to stare; And eke he talked so very large That John began to swear.
Then out Mackenzie pulled the roll Of those who did complain; And for redress of grievances He bawled with might and main.
Now John a so-so clerk had got-- A Janus-looking elf, Who cared for nothing else of earth But sleeping and himself.
Glenelg was snoring in his chair His custom every day-- Then up he got and rubbed his eyes To brush the sleep away.
Said he, “Rebellion is our love, In it we do delight; So now you may go back again, We’ll soon set things to right;
“For you and all the world must know, By it our place we keep.” But scarcely had he spoke these words When he was fast asleep.
And when he’d slept ten months or so, He called him for a pen; But long before it ready was He’d sunk to sleep again.
Now goodman Stephen in his ear In whispering accents said-- “Both pens and paper now, my Lord, Are on your table laid.”
So quick he took the gray goose-quill, And wrote a neat despatch; Says he, “I think that that, at least, Their Tory wiles will match.
“Just as my name, it may be read Whichever way you like, Or Whig or Tory, as may best The reader’s fancy strike.
“So And me now Sir Francis Head,-- A learned knight is he,-- Successor to the brave Sir John I vow that man shall be.”
Sir Francis came, but long declined The proffered post to take, Until convinced by Lord Glenelg ’Twas for Reform’s sake.
“Now take this book,” his Lordship said, “And in it you may see The many wrongs that do oppress A people blest and free.
“And take you also this despatch, And read it over well; But to the people you need not Its whole contents to tell.”
Sir Francis bowed, and off he came In hurry to be here; And rabble shout and rabble praise Fell thick upon his ear.
But full amazed was he to see The good Sir John depart; For blessings flowed from many a lip And sighs from many a heart.
“Good lack!” quoth he, “but this is strange Which I do now behold, For that Sir John most hated was In England we were told!”
And then he made a little speech, And said he’d let them know, What his instructions fully were He meant to them to show.
It happened then our worthy knights Were met in Parliament, And unto them a copy neat Of the despatch he sent.
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
