While Montgomery's invasion is an exciting and critical episode, the Revolution affected Canada still more profoundly by causing the emigration of the United Empire Loyalists (see AMERICAN LOYALISTS). Into the nature of their differences with the American patriots it is not necessary to go, beyond stating that each party represented a definite point of view and was separated from its opponents by the wide gulf of contrasted ideals. The Loyal ists represent the conservative element in the 13 colonies and undoubtedly embraced within their ranks a large proportion of dis tinguished, educated men. Including those who left their homes while the war was in progress and those who came northward after its dose, we may place the total number of Loyalist emi grants in British North America at nearly 40,000. More than half of these newcomers settled in the neighborhood of the Bay of Fundy, particu larly in the region which now forms the prov ince of New Brunswick, but at least 10,000 of them made their way to Canada. It is at this period that important settlements are first estab lished upon the northern shore of Lake On tario, where a population exclusively English possessed itself of lands which the French had explored but never colonized. The population of Canada was further modified between 1783 and 1800 by the opening up of the Eastern Townships, a district situated on the northern border of New Hampshire and Vermont, with a short frontier on the northeastern corner of New York. Here the original settlements were made in part by Loyalists but more largely by emigrants from New England who moved north in quest of cheap land. At the close of the Revolution, then, the race question in Canada begins to assume a very different aspect from that which it had worn before the passage of the Quebec Act. Then the English population con stituted a mere handful. Now, through the steady influx of immigrants from the United States fresh portions of the country are de veloped and a nucleus is formed round which later accessions of English-speaking colonists will range themselves. As the bulk of the new population professed the deepest affection for Great Britain, a separatist movement was not to be thought of, but it was equally certain that disagreement would arise within Canada over the issue of legal and ecclesiastical institu tions. As early as 1785 the Loyalists resident on and near Lake Ontario sent a petition to England praying that they might enjoy the blessings of Bntish laws and British govern ment and of exemption from French tenure of property.• Carleton, now Lord Dorchester, was eminently suited to effect an arrangement be tween the Loyalists and the French Canadians, toward both of whom he was drawn by feelings of strong sympathy. After establishing in 1788 special regulations for the administration of districts inhabited by Loyalists, he assisted in the preparation of the Constitutional Act (1791), a measure which was designed to do away with the grievances of the Loyalists without creating a sense of grievance among the French. Under the Constitutional Act, which in the British Par liament received support from Pitt and Burke, a division was made between Upper and Lower Canada. For each of these provinces the act created a legislative council and an assembly, but no independent power with respect to tariff legislation was granted. Clergymen of what ever denomination were declared ineligible to sit either in the council or the assembly, but freedom of worship was guaranteed to the Catholics in perpetuity and the Protestant clergy received as an endowment one-seventh of all waste lands belonging to the Crown. Sonic idea of the relative importance of the two provinces at this date may be gathered from the fact that in Lower Canada the legislative council was to consist of not less than 15 members, while in Upper Canada the minimum number was placed at seven. A still greater disproportion existed between the number of members in the assem bly— the minimum of 50 in Lower Canada as opposed to a minimum of 16 in the other prov ince. Although grave troubles afterward arose under the operation of the Constitutional Act, the measure seems to have encountered little opposition in Canada save from the English minority in Quebec, whose leaders looked• for ward with discontent to the prospect of political inferiority. No tests excluded Roman Catholics
from the council or the assembly, and after the elections of 1792 the latter body in Lower Canada contained 34 French as against 16 English members.
Within six months from the day when the first Canadian legislature met, Great Brit ain joined Austria and Prussia in their war against revolutionary France. While British North America was not drawn into the vortex of England's contest with the Convention, the Directory and the Napoleonic empire, it felt the influence of that long struggle in more ways than one. Besides Canada's part in the War of 1812, which was a by-product of the larger strife, one must mention the attempt of French republicans to make trouble for England in Lower Canada, and a certain neglect of Cana dian issues by the home government which may be ascribed to the pressure of more"critical questions in Europe. At about the same time when Genet was endeavoring to raise the United States against Great Britain, agents of the National Convention sought to provoke a disturbance among the habitants of Quebec. The execution of McLane and the imprison ment of Frechette for life are the chief inci dents in this abortive undertaking. Of much more consequence was the failure of the colo nial office to watch the working of the Consti tutional Act in Lower Canada. The council, whose members were appointed by the gover nor, speedily became a stronghold of 'English interests. The assembly, whose members were chosen by popular vote, assumed no less speed ily a French complexion. As the council con sidered itself to represent the dominant •power and was quite free from the control of the assembly, it tended to assume a tone which was extremely offensive to the French majority in the other house. The Constitutional Act gave representation but did not recognize the principle of ministerial responsibility to the popular branch of the legislature. In an age of mounting democracy, this type of govern ment was open to fierce attack, especially when the question was complicated by racial preju dice. Between 1791 and 1812 the most mala droit governor of Lower Canada was Sir James Craig, who for three years (1808-10) carried on open strife with the assembly and finally had recourse to a coup d'itat. In his assault upon the Candies, a Nationalist newspaper, he unwarrantably arrested Bedard as the pub lisher of treasonable articles, dismissed Panet, the speaker of the assembly, from the militia, and eventually imprisoned six of the leading members of the assembly. Craig's action was due to a sincere belief that the French Cana dians were disloyal because they criticized the council, but the effect of his measures, was most unfortunate, since the Colonial Office could not 'fail to be identified with than in the public mind. The political life of Upper Canada during the same period was unmarked by notable dissensions. Through no fault of her own, and simply by virtue of being a British possession, Canada was drawn into the War of 1812 (see Warm STATES TEE WAR OF 1812). Among the causes of the war, the only one which concerned her directly was the ill-founded contention that English officials were trying to stir' up an Indian attack upon the American colonists in the West. From the outbreak of hostilities till the conclusion of peace Canadians of both provinces con ducted the defense of their country in a truly patriotic spirit. The Loyalists were stimulated by the memory of their expatriation and fought enthusiastically for the British cause under Brock and Sheaffe. The French Canadians guided by Bishop Plessis (see Pussis, Joseex IftrAvE) of himself the descendant of a New England captive, displayed an attachment to England which had not been so clearly appar ent at the time of Montgomery's invasion. De Salaberry's victory at Chateauguay showed that the French peasants had not lost their ancestral courage or their knowledge of the methods to be pursued in guerilla warfare. At Queens town Heights (see QueessrOwsr) and Lundy's Lane (see LUNDY'S LANE, Emma or> the Loy, alists acquitted themselves well in the open field. The War of 1812 contributed much to the formation of a patriotic sentiment which was independent of provincial bounds.