AN ORATOR IN HUMBLE LIFE.

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loyalists, need not be dwelt on, nor the further stages of the miserable rebellion. The Irish throughout the country, Protestant and Catholic, turned out from lonely shanty and city home. Fitzgibbon, by his precautionary measures, saved many lives and much money for the country. Thrice the Council generously voted him five thousand acres of land, and thrice was the vote magnanimously disallowed. The Provincial Parliament passed a vote of thanks to him, and presented him with a sword and some money. In 1850, in recognition of his military services, Her Majesty created him a Military Knight of Windsor, and in England, therefore, he passed away the evening of his days. There can be no doubt of the numbers of Irish who turned out, in 1837, for the flag; but it is only fair to state that in the list of those arrested on weak or good grounds, there occur a good many Irish names.

In Lower Canada an important part was played by a comparatively humble man. At the time of the outbreak there was in Que bec something like the same proportion of Irishmen, or men of Irish blood, to the mass of the French Canadians, as there is to-day, and the former were thought likely to join the rebels. Most of them were Catholics who had fled from a land for whose tenants no Gladstone had yet arisen, and when the voice of O'Connell was thundering against England. But though they had not had great advantages in schooling, their mother wit told most of them that there was no excuse for bringing to a new country the quarrels of the old, that here they had all the freedom man could covet, and that it was imperative on them to play a patriotic part, and swell the ranks of the volunteers. There were a few waverers in Quebec, and their numbers were exaggerated in reports to the Government. It would be a serious thing if the Irish swelled the Gallic stream. The moment was critical. In this crisis, distinguished and noble service was rendered to the country by a Catholic Irishman, John Molloy, who, though belonging to humble life, had an influence akin to that of a veritable leader with his countrymen. Molloy was born in Queen's County, and came to Canada in 1822. His character was not unobserved, and when there appeared to be danger that Papineau's misguided ranks would be reinforced by that valour which had won for itself the highest place on the battlefields of Europe, Sir James Stuart sent for Molloy and said he

must address his countrymen, and urge them to strengthen the volunteers.

It is a vulgar error to suppose that Irishmen are not modest, but it is one which it would, probably, be a waste of time to seek to uproot. There is, however, a universe between clumsiness and modesty, while a diffident character, clothed with versatility, and instinct with nicety of perception, may act in a manner which would prevent observers for ever from reflecting that beneath the bright and strong armour, beats a heart too large not to think lowly of itself. Be the truth about Irish modesty what it may, when Sir James Stuart said: "Molloy, you address your countrymen and urge them to strengthen the volunteers;" the reply he received was: "Sir James, this is no time for joking. You would not ask a man of my humble rank of life to take a prominent part at such an hour." Sir James replied: "Molloy, you are the man we want." Molloy accordingly attended a large meeting of his countrymen, which was called for that evening, and when he came forward to address them grew nervous as even experienced orators will, as indeed Cicero says, the true orator is sure to do for the first few moments. The audience cheered, and Molloy recovered his self-possession, and spoke as follows: "My fellowcountrymen and fellow-citizens, you must not expect refined language from me. Neither must you expect much dignity. But what we want now is reality. It is, indeed, an unexpected thing that a man such as I am should be called on to address"— and here he looked around him-" such an assembly as this, at a time when it is of the most vital importance I should counsel what is right. But I have been called upon. I have obeyed that call, and may the Providence who has found for us Irishmen a happy home on this side of the Atlantic give me fit speech.

When I arrived in Canada more than thirteen years ago, a total stranger, before I was three days in Quebec, my ears became familiar with expressions which are insults to you. But notwithstanding such expressions of the French Canadians, from English and Scotch I met with the greatest kindness. By George! one day I dined with an Englishman, and we had the roast beef of Old England and French pudding, and the next day I dined with a Scotchman, and we had equally good fare."

AN EFFECTIVE PERORATION.

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The reader will perceive how truly an crator was this comparatively untutored man. He plays on the sensitive pride of a people, easily touched by kindness or moved to resentment by contumely. He had been a good deal about the world and had used his eyes and ears; what he lacked in letters he made up by observation. He proceeds:

"Sir James, if they would travel other countries as I did and see constitutional principles, see the despotism of France and Spain; the contempt in which the poor man is held by the German aristocrat, the tyranny of Roosha,' they would come back to the British isles from whose escutcheon I hope the stains of tyranny and the blots of penal enactment will soon be wiped away and they would say: 'Oh British isles, we love you with all your faults.' I now take upon myself to assert boldly that Pompey never entered Jerusalem with greater hate and determination to uproot the Jews than the present Clique are to exterminate us from this country."

Now here with historical allusions which the scholar would not make, and which are in some respect at fault, how effective is the rhetoric.

"But" he went on, "they never will do this. They would drive Englishmen, Scotchmen, Irishmen out if they could. Well, let me remind you that united we stand and divided we fall, or as somebody before me has expressed it in a nobler

manner,

'United and happy at liberty's shrine,

May the rose and the thistle long flourish and twine,

Round the sprig of Shillalah

And shamrock so green.""

Copies of the speech were struck off and circulated in thousands over the lower province and it had a great effect.

Molloy, who had had some military experience, soon joined the volunteers as sergeant. He was then sent on a mission to London where he had interviews with the Duke of Wellington, the late Lord Derby and other leading men.

A very different class of man so far as birth and station go was Colonel G. Hamilton, a native of Meath, who died in consequence of a cold he took while reviewing the reserve company of the

Plantagenet township in the December of 1838. Another Irish name connected in a distinguished manner with Canada at this time is that of Sir W. Rowan, who was military secretary to Lord Seaton, and who ultimately commanded the forces in this country from 1849 to 1855, and administered the government during the absence of Lord Elgin in England.

Sir Francis Head was succeeded by Sir George Arthur, during whose government the American sympathisers kept the whole population, but especially those who resided on the frontier, in a constant state of excitement. The Earl of Durham's mission which was suddenly terminated, the invasions at Windsor, Niagara, Prescott, and in Lower Canada, and the numerous executions in both provinces were events which followed in rapid succession, and which caused great anxiety to the members of the Executive Council.

At this time the condition of the whole of British North America was eminently unsatisfactory. The most serious discontent had hardly yet been calmed in Prince Edward Island; the troubled waves had barely subsided in New Brunswick; the Government was in a minority in the Lower House in Nova Scotia; violent dissensions raged in Newfoundland; in Canada, the representative body was hostile to the Government. It would have been no exaggeration to say that the natural state of government in all these colonies was chronic collision between the Executive and the elected of the people. In all of them the administration of public affairs was habitually confided to those in whom the Assembly would not confide. Constantly the Government was proposing measures which the majority of the Assembly forthwith rejected; as constantly assent was refused to bills which that body had passed.

Such collisions showed a deviation from sound constitutional principles. The present century was born and had learned to use its legs before the people of Lower Canada began to understand the representative system. In time constitutional principles were grasped. But the moment the Assembly sought to put forth its powers, it found how limited those powers were. Then the struggle commenced. From that moment the Assembly was determined to obtain that authority which reason and analogy proclaimed in

EARLY STRUGGLES FOR LIBERTY.

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herent in representative bodies. The first incident in the struggle was discouraging. The freedom of speech of the members offended the Governor. The principal leaders were thrown into prison. As in the history of England, so in Lower Canada, the purse was the lever which the Parliament could wield with most effect. In the course of time the Government was led by its necessities to accept the Assembly's offer, to raise an additional revenue by fresh taxes, and the Assembly thus acquired a certain control on the levying and appropriation of the public revenue. From that time until the final abandonment, in 1832, of every portion of the reserved revenue, excepting the casual and territorial funds, the contest was carried on. Every inch the Assembly gained it made use of to gain an ell. Wave by wave it reached the high-water mark of complete control over the revenue of the country.

A cause of contest still remained. The Assembly having obtained entire control of the revenue still found itself deprived of all voice in the choice or even designation of the persons entrusted with the administration of affairs. Public functionaries were independent of it. A body of office-holders entirely independent of the representatives of the people must infallibly acquire a power not short of despotic over a Province, and destroy the usefulness of a Governor and even limit his power. For what happens? A Governor arrives who knows little of the colony, less of the state of parties, nothing of the character of individuals. He has no choice but to place himself in the hands of the officials whom he finds in place and power. From that moment he is at their mercy.

These remarks apply to Upper as well as to Lower Canada, with the difference that from the first the English-speaking settlers in the Upper Province had clear constitutional ideas on the subject of government.

When Lord Durham came here, one of the most versatile men Ireland has given to Canada—the Montague of Canadian Finance -Mr. (now Sir Francis) Hincks commenced the publication of the Examiner in Toronto, and by the vigour and incisiveness of his style attracted so much attention that he was invited to stand at the next general election as the Liberal candidate for the County of Oxford. The Examiner was the exponent of Responsible Gov