PAPINEAU, Lot•Is JOSEPH (1789 1871). A Canadian orator and political agitator. He was born at Montreal, and received his edu cation at the Seminar• of Quebec, and then en tered upon the study of law. In 1809 he was elected to represent the constituency of Kent in the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, and in 1811 was chosen to sit for one of the districts of Montreal. During the War of 1812 he was the commander of a company of militia, but saw little active service. In 1817, as the leader of the French-Canadian Party, he was chosen Speaker, and continued to hold that position until 1837. He had frequent conflicts with the royal Governors, and in 1827 Lord Dalhousie refused to accept him as Speaker, but the As sembly insisted and Dalhousie resigned. In an effort to force the home Government to make the Provincial Council elective instead of ap pointive, the Assembly under his lead refused to grant supplies to the Governor, and in 1834 transmitted to England the famous `Ninety-two Resolutions.' Affairs now became more and more critical, and in 1835 Papineau arranged with William Lyon Mackenzie, the leader of the Revo lutionary Party in Upper Canada, for eoiipera tion between their followers. In March, 1837, the English Government finally declared that an elective Council could not be granted, and au thorized the Governor, since the Assembly still refused to vote supplies, to use the money in the treasury. A proclamation was issued warning
the people against agitators, and, because of Papineau's violent harangues to the people, he was deprived of his captaincy in the militia. In October, 1837, he attended a meeting which decided upon revolution, though there has been much dispute as to whether he favored this action. Certain it is, however, that when the re bellion, the way for which he had prepared, broke out, he fled to the United States, where he remained for two years. He then went to France, hut in 1847 took advantage of a general amnesty and returned to Canada. He was soon afterwards elected to a seat in the Lower House of the now united Canadian Parliament. but found that his old influence had departed. He retired from the public service in 1854, and spent the remainder of his life in seclusion at his residence of Montebello on the Ottawa River. Consult: Kingsford, History of Canada (Toronto, 18S7-98) ; Christie. History of the Late Prorinec of Lower Canada (Quebec, 1848-5.5) ; and Read, The Canadian Rebellion of 18.37 (Toronto, 1896).