Child Letters: Public and Private Life in a Canadian Merchant-Politician's Family, 1841-1845 9780773565142

Table of contents :
Contents
Acknowledgments
Photographs and Maps
Chronology
Characters
Introduction
Correspondence
Notes
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
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P
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S
T
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W

Citation preview

The Child Letters Public and Private Life in a Canadian Merchant-Politician's Family, 1841—1845

Marcus Child, who came to Lower Canada from Massachusetts in 1812, made his fortune as a smuggler during the war of 1812. He later became a merchant and druggist and then entered politics, serving as ML A for Stanstead County. This volume collects the almost daily correspondence between Child and his family during the early 18405 while Child was attending legislative sessions in Kingston. The Child letters provide an intimate glimpse into the daily life of an MLA in the town of Kingston during an era of rapid political evolution. A long-serving, liberal-minded politician, Child became increasingly conservative after the Rebellions, a change that reflected in part the changing opinons of his constituency. His major contribution was in the area of education, but his letters comment upon other issues of the time, from railways to roads to wildlife preservation. The Childs also touch on a number of nonpolitical issues in their letters: religion and moral reform, daughter Elizabeth's search for a husband, local life in Stanstead village, and vignettes of social life among MLAS in Kingston. The Child letters present the first detailed history of Eastern Townships politics during post-Rebellion era, providing increased insight into the important constitutional crises of the early 18405 and exposing readers to the thoughts of a nineteenth-century Canadian family outside the well-known but small British-born elite. Breaking the public/private divide, the letters show how family and politics are linked and reveal the family support which underpinned the rise into political prominence of men such as Child. j.i. LITTLE is professor of history, Simon Eraser University

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The Child Letters Public and Private Life in a Canadian Merchant-Politician's Family 1841-1845 J . I . LITTLE

McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo

© McGill-Queen's University Press 1995 I S B N 0-7735-1260-8

Legal deposit second quarter 1995 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding has also been received from the Belanger-Gardiner Trust of Bishop's University McGill-Queen's University Press is grateful to the Canada Council for support of its publishing program.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Little, J.I. (John Irvine), 1947— The Child letters: public and private life in a Canadian merchant-politician's family: 1841-1845 Includes bibliographical references and index. I S B N 0-7735-1260-8

i. Child, Marcus - Correspondence. 2. Politicians — Canada - Correspondence. 3. Canada - Politics and government - 1841-1867. I. Title. FC2945-s83Z48 1995 97i.o4Vo92 094-900725-0 F1054.S7L48 1995

For Andrea

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Contents

Acknowledgments ix Photographs and Maps xi Chronology xiii Characters xv Introduction Correspondence Notes 151 Index 175

3 41

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Acknowledgments

This publication is the product of a joint effort. Howard Dresser of Coaticook completed the arduous task of transcribing the cramped hand-writing of Marcus Child before the collection came to my attention. After Anita Mahoney word processed this transcript, research assistant Stephen Moore painstakingly checked the resulting draft against the original documents. Also invaluable to one so far removed from the sources was the intermediary role played by Monique NadeauSaumier of the Eastern Townships Research Centre. The enthusiasm and kindness of these individuals ensured that my work on this project would be a genuine pleasure, as did the fact that my mother and extended family in the Townships once again provided me with a home away from home. I would also like to express my appreciation to Pierre Jean, Director of the Musee Beaulne, for granting access to the Child letters as well as permission to publish them; to Pamela Miller for allowing me to research the Hale Papers while the McCord Museum was closed for renovations; to Helen Colby of Stanstead for graciously opening the family's ancestral home and archives to me; and to the Stanstead Historical Society for permission to photograph Marcus Child's portrait. Also unfailingly courteous and helpful were the staff of the National Archives in Ottawa, the Archives Nationale branches at Sherbrooke and Quebec, the Eastern Townships Collection and United Church Archives in the Bishop's University Library, and the Stanstead and Sherbrooke Registry Offices. My thanks as well to Jan Noel, Joy Parr, Ruth Sandwell, and Peter Ward for their helpful advice and comments and to Frances Rooney for her skilful editing. The research was funded largely by a grant from the Social Sciences Research Council administered through Simon Eraser University. Additional funds for research and publication were generously provided by the

x

Acknowledgments

Belanger-Gardner Trust of Bishop's University. Finally, once again, my gratitude goes to Andrea, Mark, and Brett for their patience and understanding.

List of Photographs and Maps

PHOTOGRAPHS

Kilborn's Mills, Stanstead

xviii

Legislature Building, Kingston xix Marcus Child

xx

MAPS

i 2

Stanstead County, 1829-1853 7

The Extended World of the Child Family 43

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Child Family Chronology

1792 1795 1812 1819 1821 1822 1828 1829 1830 1833 1834 1838 1841 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1851 1852

Marcus Child born, West Boylston, Massachusetts Lydia F. Chadwick born, Worcester, Massachusetts Marcus moves to Stanstead Marcus and Lydia marry daughter Elizabeth born Marcus becomes a trustee for Stanstead's Royal Institution of Learning school son George born Marcus elected to Legislative Assembly Marcus becomes a trustee of Stanstead Seminary Marcus becomes postmaster and commissioner of the peace Marcus declines to run in provincial election Marcus declared loser in Stanstead by-election; Assembly supports his appeal in February 1834 Marcus retains seat in provincial election Marcus flees to Vermont after dismissal as postmaster and magistrate Marcus and Horace Cutting open Coaticook's first store, pearlash factory, and carding mill Marcus elected to the Legislative Assembly Marcus defeated in provincial election George enrols in High School of Montreal Marcus becomes senior magistrate for Stanstead Township and chair of Stanstead Township school commission Elizabeth marries Lewis Sleeper (or earlier) the Child family converts from Methodism to Anglicanism Marcus defeated in provincial election Marcus appointed school inspector for St Francis District

xiv

1855 1858 1859 1878 1900

Child Family Chronology

Marcus and Lydia move to Coaticook Elizabeth dies Marcus dies Lydia dies George dies

Characters

RELATIVES

Ann - last name unknown. Member of the Child household and apparent niece of Lydia. Worked as a teacher. Not to be confused with Ann Burke (see Acquaintances below). Andrus, Susan - Marcus married sister (b. 1809) who lived in Derby, Vermont. Bigelow, Lawrence - son of Levi and therefore a cousin of the Childs. For details see the introduction. Bigelow, Levi - Marcus' original patron and maternal uncle of both Marcus and (apparently) Lydia. For details see the introduction. Chamberlain, Nancy S. - referred to Lydia as her sister, but must have been a half sister or step sister. She was an unmarried teacher who lived with her mother in Worcester, Massachusetts. Not to be confused with the Nancy who is referred to as the daughter of Levi Bigelow. Child, Annis - Marcus' brother (b. 1805) who lived in Derby, Vermont. Child, David Lee - Marcus' New York brother (b. 1794). For details see the introduction. Child, Levi B. - Marcus' brother (b. about 1792). The letter from Lydia's mother dated 28 December 1843 suggests that he lived in the Derby-Stanstead area, but there is no other reference to him in the correspondence; nor is his deathplace recorded in the genealogy. Child, Lydia B. - Marcus' sister (b. 1807), who became a Millerite and remained in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Note that there were three other Lydia Childs - Marcus' wife, his mother, and his sister-inlaw (David's wife). Unless otherwise indicated, references to Lydia are to Marcus' wife. Child, Thomas - cousin and former suitor of Elizabeth.

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Characters

Child, Walter - Marcus' brother. The genealogy claims that he was born in 1803 and died in Watertown, Massachusetts, but the correspondence suggests that he was older and lived in Stanstead County. See the introduction. Howe, Mrs - presumably Annis Child's mother-in-law, since he married a Howe. Apparently from West Boylston, she was referred to by Lydia's mother as "sister" Howe, though Lydia does not refer to her as aunt. FAMILY ACQUAINTANCES

Baxter, Portus - Stanstead merchant who built a store in the village during the later 18305 and sat as one of Stanstead's MLAS from 1830 to 1834. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 35; Kesteman, "Une bourgeoisie," 693). Burke, Ann - friend and former school mate whom Elizabeth visits at her parental home in Newport, New Hampshire. Recently married to a u.s. Congressman. Brock, Mr and Mrs - the Reverend James Brock succeeded Dr Cooney as the Methodist minister for Stanstead in 1843. He served there until 1846. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 87). Chamberlain, John - the correspondence suggests that Marcus felt he had some political influence locally, but there is no reference to him in Hubbard's Forests and Clearings. On 26 November 1843 Lydia writes that he is about to move to Montreal to keep a hotel with his son, Nelson. Colby, Dr Moses French - prominent Stanstead physician and Tory MLA in 1837—38. For details see the introduction. Cooney, Rev. Dr Robert and Mrs - close friends of the Childs. He was Methodist minister at Stanstead from 1839 to 1843, then moved to Montreal. See the introduction. Cutting, Horace - Marcus' partner in Coaticook who became that town's first post-master in 1844. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 57). De Goto, Thomas - the Childs' discontented farm hand. Dickerson, Silas H. - born in 1799 in New Jersey, and moved from oo Upper Canada to Stanstead in 1823 to oo establish the British Colonist. A political exile during and after the Rebellion of 1837—38, he became collector of customs for Stanstead in 1854, and mayor of Stanstead Plain in 1857. (Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, 221). See the introduction. Everet - no last name given. Employee of the Childs. Fox, Amos K. - born in Stanstead in 1824, he managed Child's store in Coaticook during the early 18408. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 57' 175! Coaticook 1864—1964, 14.

Characters

xvii

Grannis, Mrs - neighbour and friend of Lydia; apparent widow of William Grannis. See the introduction for details. Kilborn, Charles - store clerk and member of the founding family of Rock Island. See the introduction. Knight, Albert - born in Waterford, Vt in 1817, he opened a store in Stanstead Plain in 1837, and would become MPP for the county in 1861. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 132-3). McLellan, Miss - identity unknown. There was no MPP in Kingston of that last name in 1843. Frequent references to her by Marcus suggest that she was a friend of Elizabeth, though she may have been somewhat older and was certainly considered to be a model of sophistication. Meigs, Mr - presumably Dr John Meigs, who was born in Wheelock, Vermont, in 1810, and commenced practicing medicine in Stanstead in 1836. He married the daughter of Mrs William Grannis in 1843. (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 147). Patton, Andrew - born in Paisley, Scotland in 1780, and settled in Stanstead in 1804 (Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 120), Patton was later employed by Robert Hoyle as an assistant customs officer. On the customs patronage issue, see the introduction. Pomroy, Benjamin - son of Selah, born in Stanstead in 1800, and apprenticed as clerk for Ichabod Smith before beginning a mercantile business in Sherbrooke in 1823. Eventually moved to Compton village where he became a highly successful entrepreneur, involved with the establishment of Sherbrooke's Eastern Townships Bank and Paton Woolen Mills, as well as the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railway (future Grand Trunk). (Channell, A History of Compton, 172-3). Pomroy, Selah - born in Massachusetts in 1795, and a pioneer of Stanstead Plain in 1798. Politically conservative and no apparent relation to Lydia, though she called him Uncle Selah in one of her letters. Sleeper, Lewis - Elizabeth's future husband. See the introduction for details. Smith, Mr - probably refers to Ichabod Smith, who was born in Surry, N.H. in 1788, and opened a store in Stanstead with William Baxter and Wilder Pieice in 1813. They subsequently established separate businesses. Smith retired in 1836, selling his large brick store at the north end of the village, but he remained active in public life. Like Child, he was a founder of the Stanstead Bible Society and the Stanstead Seminary. Sophie - no last name given. Family servant whose indigent family became a problem for the Childs after she was dismissed for stealing.

Kilborn's Mills, Stanstead, Lower Canada and the United States Settlements, 1836. Drawn by Joseph Bouchette, the surveyor-general, and published in British American Land Company Views in Lower Canada, 1836, this print illustrates the border between what became known as Rock Island and Derby Line, Vermont. It gives little indication, however, that there were a paper mill, a tannery, a saw mill, a grist mill, and a clock and chair factory located here on the Tomifobia River. Charles P. de Volpi and P.H. Scowen, The Eastern Townships. A Pictorial Record (Montreal: Dev-Sco Publication, 1962), plate 4

The Legislature met in this building, originally intended as a charity hospital for the poor. The abandoned blockhouse which had served this purpose burned down in 1834, but there was no money for equipment, maintenance, or staff after the new building was completed in 1835. Its availability in 1841 influenced Lord Sydenham's decision to choose Kingston as the capital of the new province. The wings shown here were apparently added at a later date. National Archives of Canada, 05494

Marcus Child, artist and date unknown. Stanstead Historical Society, Stanstead, Quebec

The Child Letters

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Introduction

More than a decade ago, Peter Ward observed, "In their quest for the history of common men and women the new social historians of Canada have largely ignored family papers."1 Most family historians continue to employ a structural methodology, but Canadians have finally begun to adopt the sentiments approach as well, examining popular attitudes toward family, community, love, marriage, death, religion, and other aspects of daily life.2 Of particular significance, because they largely define the general perspective of each family member, are the inter-related concepts of class and gender. Feminist historians have argued that from the late eighteenth century onward the rising middle class "molded its distinctive identity around domestic values and family practices."3 While husbands and fathers became more intimately associated with the daily lives of their families, masculine identity was nevertheless increasingly linked to the concept of "occupation." Women, on the other hand, "remained within a familial frame," making the middle-class view of the world a heavily gendered one.4 There are many published volumes of memoirs and correspondence which could serve as raw materials for similar analyses in Canada, though most of them emanate from British settlers of the gentry class.5 Masterfully written and insightful as the collections by authors such as Susannah Moodie and her siblings may be, they represent the views and experiences of a rather narrow segment of society.6 Indeed, these relative newcomers generally held in disdain the majority of the population who were Americans or descendants of American pioneers of a less-elevated social status. One can only speculate as to why so few accounts by these Americans have been published, but reasons presumably include their lack of literary accomplishment or aspiration as well as the fact that guides to col-

4

The Child Letters

onization were generally considered unnecessary when physical frontier conditions were much the same on either side of the border. There must nevertheless be numerous collections of letters by pioneer families from the United States collecting dust in attics and archives. The letters published in this volume were, for example, only recently donated by an American descendant of Marcus and Lydia Child to the Musee Beaulne of Coaticook, a town Child was instrumental in founding.7 The Child family's letters deserve a wider audience if only because the family were members of two crucially important but historically neglected groups, the post-Loyalist settlers and the pre-industrial middle class.8 The Childs may have moved to the Eastern Townships rather than the more popular destination of Upper Canada, but the fact that relatively little historical research has been done on the Americansettled communities in this unique Quebec region simply adds to the value of their correspondence.9 And, national origin and geographic location aside, these letters do provide an unusually detailed and intimate view of a village merchant-politician's family at the dawn of the industrial era. The Child correspondence is also of interest to the political historian because Marcus Child was sitting in the provincial Legislature as representative for the Township of Stanstead when he wrote his lengthy despatches on an almost daily basis. Admittedly, the letters of Edward Hale, Child's Tory colleague from the neighbouring constituency of Sherbrooke, shed more light on the exercise of provincial power because of his privileged social and political status.10 Furthermore, while there are no survivals from the four or five letters Child wrote each day to his constituents while he was in Kingston, Hale could afford to have copies transcribed of all his outgoing correspondence. But Child's letters provide a more detailled account of his activities in the Assembly, if only because he remained essentially a political outsider who had no local newspaper to keep his constituents informed of his activities. While a number of comprehensive studies have focused on the leading political figures of this transitional era, relatively little has been written about the lives and motivations of the majority who were at the margin of power.11 The Child letters provide considerable insight into the delicate balance between local demands and party loyalties during this crucial period of political realignment. Child's letters are also more interesting than Hale's to the social historian because the village merchant was both more dependent on his wife to operate the family business and more fascinated by the fashions and social rituals of the provincial capital. As someone whose primary occupation was only at the marginally respectable level, Child was par-

Introduction

5

ticularly sensitive to the social graces needed to achieve status, even if he did not approve of the decadent lifestyle of the provincial elite.12 His letters are therefore a small step to filling the lacuna recently noted by Gilles Galichan concerning the representatives' lives during the legislative sessions: "Leurs activites politiques extra-parlementaires, leurs amities, leurs rivalries, leurs loisirs, leur vie sociale, intellectuelle, affective et religieuse."13 But perhaps the greatest value of the Child letters lies in their combination of politics with family, not in the nepotistic sense as with the influential Edward Hale, but in everyday life. According to Joan Scott, gender has been seen as antithetical to the real business of politics, and political history has been the stronghold of resistance to the inclusion of material or even questions about women and gender.14 Nowhere is this more true than in Canada, despite Joy Parr's call in 1985 to "break down this male-public, female-private divide" in order to appreciate "the extent to which the private forms, informs, constrains and directs" men's relation to work and political life.15 The Child letters challenge us to follow the recent example of Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, who in their monumental Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780—1850 "move beyond this public/private divide to show how middle-class men who sought to be 'someone,' to count as individuals because of their wealth, their power to command or their capacity to influence people, were, in fact, embedded in networks of familial and female support which underpinned their rise to public prominence."16 MERCHANT

The Child family's home village of Stanstead lies on what was once the main stage route from Quebec to Boston, in a hilly but fertile agricultural zone about three kilometres north of the Vermont border. The town was one of the leading centres of business in the Eastern Townships when Robert Hoyle arrived to take up his position as the custom's officer in 1834. Hoyle reported to his wife that the village consisted of a single street, about three quarters of a mile in length, "on which there are about 45 to 50 Buildings, 8 or i o of Brick, the rest frames 8c clap boarded and mostly painted white, 2 Brick meeting Houses & an academy of Brick."17 The British-born official was favourably impressed with the appearance of the village which "nothing I have ever seen in either Upper or Lower Canada will begin to compare with, and if you was only here I could I think be happy, but without you I shall soon get tired of viewing the very neat and in many instances elegant Buildings."18

6

The Child Letters

As the architecture of the older buildings reveals, Stanstead (also known as Stanstead Plain) originated as part of the New England frontier's northward expansion.19 The village's first settler arrived from Newbury, Vermont in 1796, four years after the Eastern Townships region was officially opened to settlement. Most of the mountainous seventy miles between Newbury and the Lower Canadian border were wilderness at this time, and in 1807 there were still only three houses within the future limits of Stanstead village. A year later, however, a road was finally cut through the forest along the line of the present main street, and in 1809 the first merchants began to arrive.20 A recent analysis of the numerous pioneer family histories included in R.H. Hubbard's Forests and Clearings reveals that the greatest source area for Stanstead Township was the densely settled Merrimack Valley of southern New Hampshire. There was also a significant influx from the Connecticut Valley stretching from the Williamsburg area of western Massachusetts to the northern New Hampshire-Vermont border. Hubbard's family histories suggest as well that the annual migration peaked at over forty families in 1800, then declined markedly after 1806. The only significant influx thereafter (until the French Canadians began to arrive late in the century) was a small group of Scots who immigrated in 1829—32. 21 Marcus Child does not fit the general pattern of Stanstead's New England pioneers. First, his native town was West Boylston in central Massachussetts, outside the two major source areas; second, the influx had slowed to a trickle by 1812 when he crossed the border into Lower Canada. The Child genealogy records Marcus as the eldest of nine offspring from a long-established New England family. His father, Zachariah, had fought against the British in the Revolution, and two of his brothers enjoyed particularly successful careers. David became a lawyer and well-known journalist who for a time edited the Massachusetts Journal in Boston. He and his wealthy, much-published wife, Lydia Medford, later became joint-editors of New York City's AntiSlavery Standard. Another brother, John, was a civil engineer and active railway builder who had graduated from West Point.22 At the age of twenty-one in 1812, Marcus was beginning his career at a less respectable level. His move to Stanstead was apparently motivated by the opportunity to act as agent in the war-time smuggling trade for his merchant uncle, Levi Bigelow, of nearby Derby Line, Vermont.23 Customs Officer Hoyle later reported that Child was among the small village elite who had "made their fortunes last War."24 The American government did its best to discourage the cross-border trade, but Bigelow had obtained permission from Governor Prevost to continue his business in Quebec during the war.25 According to Hubbard, not

Introduction

7

Map i Stanstead County, 1829-1853

only did Bigelow's operations extend into Stanstead, but during the war the inhabitants of Stanstead and Derby "maintained a strict neutrality and continued their previous friendly relation to each other." The smuggling carried on by parties on both sides of the line failed to "disturb the quiet and harmony of the two towns."26 Two other brothers of Marcus, Walter and Annis, had moved to Derby by 1812, when their mother informed Walter that a report was circulating that he had sold tainted beef in Boston, thereby causing several deaths.27 In 1814 Marcus wrote to Walter that their uncle Levi wished him to investigate the market for their gin upriver from Montreal. If it should prove unpromising "you must make the best sale you can in the markets at Montreal and return immediatly home to plan some business for the season."28 Due to economic isolation, low bulk products such as liquor long remained vital trade commodities in the Eastern Townships; as late as 1834 a loaded team of horses required eight days to travel from Stanstead to Montreal and back.29 According to Hubbard, at one time Stanstead boasted "not less than twenty-six distilleries" which produced a minimum of 3000 gallons annually for the Montreal market.30 Smuggling also continued to be an economic mainstay for the local merchants, particularly those who lived in neighbouring Rock Island on the Vermont border. In 1841 Robert Hoyle reported to his wife that one suspected informer was warned by a Rock Island merchant "that he would give $ i oo to have any informer murdered or lynched if the information was against themselves or their neighbours." This merchant

8

The Child Letters

was backed by another across the border in Derby Line who "declared that he would turn out, and strip to his shirt to rescue any man that should be stopped or taken when smuggling." Under these circumstances the sixty-year-old Hoyle, who had become a lieutenant-colonel during the 1837—38 Rebellion, was content to remain in his office and leave the risk-taking to his young assistant: "You will recollect that my bump of caution is large."31 After the War of 1812, Levi Bigelow shifted his attention to his extensive holdings in Buckingham Township on the Ottawa River, finally moving there in iSs/j..32 Marcus Child remained in Stanstead, marrying Lydia Chadwick of Worcester, Massachusetts in 1819, and assuming the role of druggist and village merchant while his brother became a tavern keeper and farmer.33 No store inventory has been found, and Child never advertised his goods in the local press, but commercial items mentioned in the family correspondence include pearlash, which was manufactured from wood ash (23 September 1842), cloth, Essex glass, nails (9 October 1843), starch, and indigo (25 October 1843). While Hubbard states that Child "succeeded in acquiring a large property,"34 the local notary and registry records do not suggest that he became a land holder on an exceptionally large scale. He is recorded as making seventeen purchases of village and rural lots for $3284 prior to 1834, while land sales-most of which were in the post-i842 periodtotalled $5025 in value. No more than a score of mortgages are recorded in Child's name (apart from those on land he sold) in the official records, and he only summoned five delinquents before the Stanstead Circuit after i844-35 The notary records alone reveal a much more active commercial career on the part of Child's fellow Americanborn merchant-politician, Samuel Brooks.36 Part of the reason may have been that Child remained in Stanstead until the 18408, while Brooks sold his Stanstead tavern and established himself as a merchant near Sherbrooke in 1824. With approximately 500 residents in 1844, the community of Stanstead and Rock Island was still nearly as large as Sherbrooke with its population of 600, but Stanstead customs inspector Hoyle had written a decade earlier that economic opportunities were limited in the border community despite the prosperous air of the village and surrounding countryside.37 The Child letters indicate that merchants were still obliged to accept payment in farm produce such as wheat and ashes. While there were a paper mill, tannery, saw mill, grist mill, and clock and chair factory on the Tomifobia River in Rock Island, industrial expansion to serve more than local needs would depend upon a railway link.38 As early as 1835 Hoyle and Child drafted the resolutions for a public railway meeting in Stanstead, but the growing political crisis ensured

Introduction

9

that no concrete action would be taken in the immediate future.39 Meanwhile, Hoyle claimed that Stanstead residents were "all, with few, very few exceptions, only awaiting for offers to purchase their property and most will accept, and then off, to the 'Far West'."40 In the spring of 1836 several prominent residents accumulated more than $20,000 in the local area to invest in land and building lots in and around Chicago.41 Conditions were no better by 1841 when the American tariff of 20 percent made a particularly strong impact on the Eastern Townships.42 Hoyle wrote to his wife late in March of the following year: "Money was never known to be so scarse [sic], as at present, here, and the merchants are all settling and taking notes on interest of their customers, and great distress is expected to follow."43 In December he noted the bankruptcy of four drovers who had been buying cattle on credit from local farmers and merchants: "Many of the merchants must go by the board."44 As Hoyle predicted, 1843 brought the failure of such prominent merchants as A.G. Woodward, who owed $28,000 to his Montreal and Boston creditors.45 Child appears to have survived this critical period financially intact, though he was wisely shifting his investments to the more promising industrial site of Coaticook, thirty kilometres to the east of Stanstead. Here, in 1841, he and a partner, Horace Cutting, opened the village's first store, pearlash operation, and carding mill, presumably on the basis of the location's impressive water power potential.46 This decision would prove to be fortuitous largely for another reason-in 1853 the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railway was extended from Sherbrooke through Coaticook rather than Stanstead, thereby ensuring the pioneer village's future as a manufacturing centre. While Child had sold his Stanstead store by 1847, he remained several years longer in the community where his remaining property was later valued at £1200 ($4800).47 In 1852 Child supported construction of a railway link from Stanstead Plain to the St Lawrence and Atlantic line.48 In the end the Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly Railway never came near the border township, and in 1855 Child finally moved with his wife to Coaticook where the main street still carries his name.49 Here Child would spend his few remaining years confident in his family's financial security.50 While Child's correspondence with his family mentions few details of his business transactions, it does reveal the cautious and diligent nature of his character, attributes he shared to a certain extent with all members of the rising middle class. Aphorisms Child favoured, such as "Good habits produce a wonderful deal of hap[p]iness,"&1 suggest how he became modestly successful in business, but also indicate that he was

10

The Child Letters

not interested in wealth for its own sake. Child's political career took him away from home for extended periods of time, forcing him to neglect his business while competitors filled their stores with new goods. The result, as his wife complained, was that "there is a good deal of running to those places and they pass by our establishment."52 Perhaps by 1842—43 Child's main business interests already lay in Coaticook, where he could leave most decisions to his partner, but his family letters certainly suggest that he was more preoccupied with politics and day-to-day family matters than the operation of the Stanstead store. POLITIC IAN

Marcus Child may have helped to found two regionally important communities, but it was as a long-serving liberal-minded politician rather than as an entrepreneur that he made his most important mark in local history. He is best known as a supporter of the radical Parti Patriote prior to the Rebellion of 1837-38, but his chief contributions were at the local level, particularly in education. Child served as a school visitor from 1815 without interruption until 1840, and in 1822 he became a trustee of the local school sponsored by the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. In 1829 Child was able to take advantage of his brief initial tenure as member of the Legislative Assembly to acquire a grant for the founding of Stanstead Seminary and Charleston Academy. These were the two first schools in the Eastern Townships to offer an education at the secondary level.53 During the 18305 Child served as a trustee and secretary of the Methodist-controlled seminary (today's Stanstead College) and secretary of the county's Bible society.54 According to Davidoff and Hall, it was through such local associations that middle-class men were able to redefine civil society, create new areas of social power, and acquire the confidence to demand more political power.55 After returning to the Assembly in 1834, Child was appointed to the Permanent Committee on Education and Schools established to inquire into the state of education in the colony. The constitutional crisis and the rivalry between the Catholic Church and the Assembly for control of the schools were too intense by this time for any concrete reforms to be passed.56 However, Child did eventually "benefit" directly from the increased role of the state in the post-Rebellion era by being named the first inspector of schools for the St Francis District in 1852. He held this rather arduous position at a time when one might have expected him to devote full attention to his new enterprises, presumably because of the status it conferred and perhaps out of a sense of duty, until his death in i85g.57 Like many of the English middle-class par-

Introduction

11

ents Davidoff and Hall studied, Child obviously felt that his children's chief inheritance should be their education and religious principles.58 Child's appointment as schools inspector would mark the effective end of a political career which had lasted on and off since the Eastern Townships first gained seats in the Legislative Assembly in 1829. At that time local resentment was running high against the years of administrative neglect, as well as the imposition of a high-handed clique of British officials on the region,59 and Child was among those who reaped the advantages of Governor Kempt's precautionary pre-election tour of the region. However, his appointment as commissioner of small causes and village post-master failed to win the administration his support during the ensuing contest.60 A political convention held in Lennoxville to nominate candidates for the new counties of Sherbrooke, Shefford, and Stanstead reportedly "declared in favour of the French Canadians, and of a redress of grievances,"61 though partisan lines were yet to be tightly drawn. To run in Stanstead, the convention chose Child and the young Sherbrooke lawyer, Ebenezer Peck,62 but they would face opposition from two opposing ends of the political spectrum. Stanstead's pioneer merchant, Wright Chamberlin, was a staunch Tory supporter throughout his career, while local newspaper publisher Silas Dickerson had been radicalized by his struggle against Sherbrooke's arrogant and arbitrary Judge John Fletcher. Perhaps Dickerson threw his hat into the ring because Peck was an absentee, but he dropped out after receiving only five votes during the first five days of the protracted election. The poll book reveals that most voters from Stanstead township and the westernmost townships of Bolton and Potton supported both Child and Peck, but many from Hatley and Barnston voted for Chamberlin instead of Child. What's more, they did so after Child had established an overwhelming lead over Chamberlin while the poll was at Georgeville on Lake Memphremagog. Why Child lost control of the poll after it moved to the village of Charleston where the Hatley and Barnston residents voted is not clear. Presumably, Chamberlin exerted a good deal of influence over the eastern part of the county, and/or the government party rallied behind him in a last-ditch effort to defeat Child. The poll book reveals that electors tended to vote in groups, with Child supported by forty-two of the first forty-five voters in Charleston, then the trend swinging increasingly to Chamberlin until the third and fourth days when Child dominated once more. There was a strong movement back to Chamberlin from day five until the poll was closed on day eight, but relatively few votes were cast towards the end of the election. Whatever the reason for the shift in voting pattern, Child was elected

12

The Child Letters

with 533 votes, while his running mate, Peck, received 722 and Chamberlin only 239. Peck dominated not only the farm vote, which was 85 percent of the total, but also the trades and professions. Child's support was quite broadly based as well, including sixty-eight votes from the artisans and members of the petty bourgeoisie to only forty for his conservative rival, Chamberlin.63 But despite his apparent popularity, Child's initial experience as MLA was short-lived. Foreshadowing the emotional attachment to hearth and kin revealed in the correspondence published in this volume, Child declared that he would not be defending his seat in the general election of 1830 in order to avoid further lengthy absences from his young family.64 After a three-year hiatus, however, Child was back on the hustings contesting Stanstead's February by-election. Harsh economic conditions favoured the opposition party then as elsewhere in the province. The Methodist minister reported that "there is a great want of food among the people,-it is not to be had for money,-owing to the failure of last year's crops. The coming harvest is expected to be even more deficient from the failure of Indian corn, which is the principle dependence here. Our houses are nightly searched by thieves in quest of food. I once lost all the meat I had; and no wonder, while some of the poor people are living on potato tops."65 Under such conditions it is not surprising that the election results would reveal a political cleavage along socio-economic lines, but the unorthodox approach of Stanstead's returning officer, notary William Ritchie, made that cleavage particularly apparent. Rather than turn away the unqualified, Ritchie accepted all votes while classifying the voters as proprietors, occupiers, and tenants. Subsequently, even though he recorded 901 votes for Child to 831 for opponent Wright Chamberlin, he declared the official result to be 551 to 495 in Chamberlin's favour.66 The Assembly eventually over-ruled Ritchie's decision, but the session was nearly over before Child was allowed to reclaim the seat.67 He did have time, however, to vote for the radical Ninety-Two Resolutions before the Legislature was dissolved in March 1834. It is possible that without this delay, and the debt owed to the Patriote majority for his seat, Child might have joined his fellows from the 1829 reform slate in deserting Papineau by this time.68 Public meetings throughout the county nevertheless expressed continuing support for the reform cause. 9 In April 1834 Child delivered a carefully reasoned speech defending his radical stand at one such meeting held at Stanstead North's Union Meeting House. This address to the reformers summoned from Stanstead, Hatley, and Barnston Townships has survived in the form of a political pamphlet. Throughout, Child was careful to present himself

Introduction

13

not as an American-style republican but as a supporter of British rights and liberties. He began on a concrete level by describing how as taxpayers the members of his audience were ill served by the executive's lack of accountability. Thus the late receiver general had been found in default of £156,000 currency; "monies paid by the people of this Province and applied to the private use of that Gentleman." Child drove the point home: "Is this right? Is it not a grievance? Are your Representatives right in looking after what their constituents pay, and seeing that it is not squandered, but applied to its proper uses-the support of the Civil Government, the Administration of justice, a relief of the indigent, sick, and insane among us and the public improvements of the country, Education, Navigation, Roads, etc." The second grievance was the rejection of the Assembly's bills by the Legislative Council. Child claimed that he and his fellow supporters of the Ninety-Two Resolutions did not question the necessity of an upper house or its right to veto their bills, "but it is against the abuse of that power that they and the country complain." Thus, for ideological reasons, the Legislative Council had in the last session turned down a bill to authorize local taxation for the repair of school houses, and another to grant more powers of local self-government. The members of the upper house were accountable neither to the king who appointed them nor to the people "for whose benefit they are appointed." Election to office was the obvious solution, but not "precisely in the same manner as the Members of the House of Assembly are, for in such case they would be a mere counterpart to that body." The procedure could be left to the imperial parliament, which "in its justice and wisdom, will easily devise some means by which it may be effected to the satisfaction of (the) Colony." Echoing the moderate Robert Baldwin of Upper Canada, Child also argued that the Executive Council should be responsible to the popularly elected body, as in the mother country: "If the principles of the British Constitution were in full operation in this Colony, instead of the Governor-in-Chief, it would be the Ministers, his advisers, that would be impeached; but they are beyond responsibility, and yet, we find these Ministers, advisers, filling all situations in the Executive, the Legislative and Judicial departments of the government." The Assembly had attempted to limit individuals to one salaried office, but at present "you might go from one of their departments to the other, and you would see the same individuals filling the same seats, and discharging his omnigenous duties, and always beyond any responsibility to any power in this colony." Child took considerable pains to refute Governor Aylmer's charge that he and the other Patriotes were advocating revolution: "Does it be-

H

The Child Letters

come us who owe allegiance to his Majesty to join in perpetuating these abuses, that have and do so [sic] discord and discontent among His Imperial subjects? Surely, Sir we could not violate that sacred obligation by tamely looking on, but are acting in accordance with the true principles of attachment to His Majesty's Crown, dignity and laws, when we honestly make known our grievances to him and his Parliament, by our honorable Petitions." Without referring directly to the governing elite's mistrust of the Americans in the Eastern Townships, Child declared that "this is the land of our adoption and choice, and as properly ours as though it were the land of our birth; its chartered rights are ours, and it is to our political happiness and prosperity to join its ancient inhabitants in supporting and improving what they have obtained by their birth and blood, 'civil and religious liberty'." Child closed with an appeal against the attempt to set the English-speaking population "against the ancient French inhabitants of the country," and to "sow the seeds of dissention between Englishmen and the sons of Erin and Scotia; and they in turn against each other, and all these against those they call Americans." Such tactics might succeed in the short run, "but the day is not far distant when truth will take place of error, when justice will cause the innocent to rejoice, and the guilty to fear and tremble; when peculators, defaulters, and sinecurists will not be allowed to fatten on the vitals of the body politic, when the truth and justice of the 92 Resolutions of the House will not be questioned."70 These were stirring words from someone whom a friendly newspaper claimed to be "by no means a polished orator, or calculated to shine in debate."71 Nevertheless, as Gordon Stewart argues for the Lower Canadian reform movement in general, Child was not articulating an anti-statist "country" style critique of the highly centralized "court"style government, but simply demanding greater public access to government office.72 The Stanstead North meeting established a solid organizational base by launching correspondence committees of six members for each of the three townships represented.73 A similar meeting was held two weeks later by the reformers from the county's two remaining townships, which lay west of Lake Memphremagog. Among their resolutions was one vowing their support for Papineau and the Assembly in the struggle against "self-interested individuals, high-minded Tories, cringing sycophants, and overbearing aristocrats, bent upon despoiling the people, and aggrandizing themselves."74 The Tories also held local meetings, and Stanstead was the only constituency in the region to have candidates for the fall election who supported the Ninety-Two Resolutions, but Child and his running mate-a Hatley Township

Introduction

15

farmer named John Grannis-soundly defeated their opponents, Chamberlin and Elisha Gustin.75 Gustin had posed as an independent, but the poll book reveals that, in contrast to the 1829 election, only one individual split his votes between the two teams. The electors were evenly divided in Stanstead Township, but the reformers dominated the rest of the county, carrying the election by 225 votes for Child, 224 for Grannis, 84 for Gustin, and 83 for Chamberlin. The farmers voted decisively for Child and Grannis, while their opponents were supported by all ten merchants and a slight majority of the tradespeople and professionals. To celebrate the victory, the county correspondence committee held a public dinner for over 500 persons at a hotel in Stanstead Plain, hosting Louis-Joseph Papineau, Mayor Jacques Viger of Montreal, Edmund O'Callaghan, and several other Patriote MLAS, as well as reform leaders from neighbouring counties and invited guests from Vermont and New Hampshire.76 No doubt buoyed by such attention from the Patriote leadership, Child remained an active Papineau supporter during the following session. He headed an inquiry which condemned the conduct of Sheriff Charles Whitcher, who was a member of the Tory Felton clique in Sherbrooke, and he also attacked the government's entrenchment of a land monopoly in the region through the sale to the British American Land Company of 850,000 acres in crown lands.77 Unfortunately for Child, however, the region's ardour for the Patriotes cooled as the party became more militant. Furthermore, in 1835 the Assembly refused to consider a petition for a vital project which Child himself had been promoting-a railway from Boston through the central Eastern Townships to Montreal.78 Papineau's reported pronouncement at a Townships meeting that the seigneurial system should be extended into the region was an even greater political faux pas. Even though the Patriote leader emphasized that this would effect only the crown lands, presumably meaning the land to be reclaimed from the British American Land Company, the Tory press predicted the seizure of mill sites by seigneurs, as well as the levy of seigneurial dues and ecclesiastical tithes upon Anglo-Protestant farmers.79 With the Land Registry Offices Act about to expire due to a balky Assembly, and the Tory press constantly appealing to ethnic prejudices and fears, residents of the Townships became increasingly uncomfortable with the prospect of growing dependency upon the Frenchspeaking, Catholic majority.80 Perhaps this feeling of political vulnerability helps to explain how a planned four-day Methodist meeting in Stanstead spontaneously turned into a forty-day religious revival

i6

The Child Letters

in i835-81 Certainly, Lord Gosford was making an astute observation when he stated that the "radical" representatives of Stanstead and Missisquoi were not elected to defend the "feudal system" and the French language or to object to the establishment of registry offices. The voters were simply reacting against a government "which neglects or regards with disfavour" settlers from the United States.82 Likewise, Thomas Storrow Brown, who would become one of the rebel leaders, wrote in the New York Daily Express in the spring of 1837 that the Townships reformers were "democrats in habits and feelings," but they feared the idea of a "French republic." "The news of the peaceable and bloodless revolution of the 'three glorious days,' has not yet reached them-their dates are only to the carnage of lygo."83 In January 1837 a by-election was held to replace Grannis, and a devout Methodist farmer named Elias Lee ran as the radical candidate.84 Despite the unpopularity of the executive's land policies and assurances by Patriote spokesman Edmund O'Callaghan that most French Canadians were opposed to the seigneurial system, Lee received only 195 votes to 269 for Stanstead physician Moses French Colby. Educated at Yale, Dartmouth, and Harvard, Dr Colby had moved from nearby Derby, Vermont only five years earlier, and he denied that he was a Tory.8s He argued, however, that true liberty was insured by the British constitution: Under its parental care these Provinces have enjoyed privileges never surpassed in the history of the world. Protected by the strong arm and immense resources of the home Government, we have been exempted beyond precedent from taxation, while the small revenue arising from imports has returned to us for the purpose of internal improvements and the support of schools.

Colby was an enthusiastic promoter of economic progress and a sharp critic of what he felt was the archaic legal system of Lower Canada, a system which "foreclosed every avenue to public enterprize." By sustaining the constitution, electors would find in the concentration of foreign capital among us increased means for accomplishing those projects of internal improvement we so ardently desire. Our lakes and rivers will soon be chained together by Railways, and our vallies intersected by Canals. The invincible power of steam will impart new life and vigor to every department of labor and every enterprize of trade, and thus an incalculable benefit will accrue to the agricultural, commercial and mechanical interests of the community.

In this vein Colby proceeded to defend the controversial British American Land Company on the basis that "the valid objections to

Introduction

17

chartered monopolies" were "but trifling in view of the splendid results, to be expected from well directed labor and capital."86 Commenting on the election results, the conservative editor of the Fanners'Advocate of Sherbrooke declared: "The people have, by a noble effort, wiped off the stain which for a time shaded their political character, and the tie which was supposed to link them to the enemies of British institutions has been severed forever. Stanstead can no longer bear the name of being the strong hold of disaffection, nor can her people submit to be dictated to by French charlatans."87 Child failed to honour his pre-election pledge to consider the vote a test of confidence, but his political allegiance to the Patriotes clearly stopped short of armed resistance. Unlike those of most other Lower Canadian counties, the reform leaders of Stanstead apparently did not meet to denounce Russell's Ten Resolutions which authorized the governor to pay arrears in civil service salaries without the Assembly's consent.88 After the hostilities broke out, Child was reported to have assisted some Patriote fugitives to flee across the border, though he later denied any involvement with "those perfidious men."89 The journal kept by Amedee Papineau, son of the Patriote leader, records how Child spoke out on his behalf when he was stopped for questioning while attempting to cross the border at Stanstead; however, it appears that Child himself was unaware of the young man's identity.90 The rebellion nevertheless ensured that the Stanstead MLA'S long affiliation with the Patriotes would make him politically vulnerable. When Child protested to the deputy post master general that his position as local post master was being threatened without just cause, T.A. Stayner first assured him that "no officer under the British Government in this favoured age of well defined and equally balanced rights can oppress those who happen to be placed under him with impunity." Then Stayner quite blatently resorted to blackmail. Referring to the financial claim which was in dispute between them, he concluded: 'Your behaviour towards me in relation to this money is not calculated to add force to any appeal that circumstances have induced you to make to my private sentiments towards you. Your treatment of this letter will influence my mind in no small degree in deciding upon your recent appeal to me."91 Within a week Child had dutifully paid the $215.93 in question, but the issue had already gone beyond Stayner to Governor Colborne who peremptorily dismissed the Stanstead post master.92 W.F. Griffin, post office surveyor for Lower Canada, delivered the official rationale: "No specific imputation is against your character and no supposition that you have taken any active part in the treasonable attempts recently discovered," but the Stanstead MLA had "until the very eve of the rebellion given your aid to the inflammatory measures which have resulted in so

i8

The Child Letters

great a calamity." Child was clearly not inclined to be defiant, for Griffin continued: "If as you gave me to understand this morning, you regret the course you have pursued, were ignorant of the tendency of the measures you advocated, I shall gladly be the bearer of such a communication to His Excellency."93 Child's ambivalent attitude was noted by one of the rebel organizers who wrote in January 1838, when plans were being made for crossborder raids from the United States: "He worships his property too much to jeopardize his safety by doing anything or even saying anything to advance the interests of the sacred cause."94 Child nevertheless refused to swear the oath of allegiance on the grounds that he had already done so in the fall.95 This was an uncharacteristically foolhardy position for him to take when discontented local residents were gathering in Vermont to attack his home village and other nearby communities. The militia volunteers were numerous enough to discourage any attempt at a full-scale raid, but Child was accused by the local oaths commissioner, William Ritchie, of being an active promoter "of the troubles that this County is now involved in."96 After being summarily dismissed as commissioner of the peace, Child took the precaution of fleeing across the border to Vermont.97 Child's exile was lengthened by the renewal of armed conflict in the fall of 1838, when both a cavalry and an infantry company were stationed in the village of Stanstead. Two officers narrowly escaped with their lives one night after their foiled attempt to capture two suspects in neighbouring Barnston Township, said to be a hot-bed of rebel activity.98 Among the men eventually arrested was Elias Lee, the candidate whom Child had supported in the 1837 by-election.99 The strong military presence, and the concentration of the American-based rebel forces to the south of Montreal, ensured once again that there would be no actual fighting in the Eastern Townships. However, isolated incidents of sniping and barn burning were reported along the international border even after the rebellion had been crushed.100 Child had returned to Stanstead by 1839 when he began to protest his loss of the local post office. He informed Governor Charles Poulett Thomson (later Lord Sydenham) that as MLA he had simply acted "in accordance with the expressed wishes of his constituents as well as his own convictions of duty." His accusers had taken advantage "of the unhappy domestic broils" in order to "gratify party and private resentment." After categorically denying once again that he had taken part in "any public or private meeting or measures to influence the populace to revolt or violence," Child asked the governor to furnish copies "of any and all complaints" against him.101 Child's protests were in vain, but this did not prevent him from contesting the first post-union election in 1841. His opponent in what was

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19

now a single-member constituency was Dr M.F. Colby, who had won the local 1837 by-election. Once again the young physician took pains to reassure the electorate of his liberalism: "I am an advocate for the free and unfettered exercise of the Elective franchise, and of all the rights delegated by the Constitution to the popular branch of the Government, and will, on all occasions sustain their rights against any and every encroachment, from whatever source ... I am opposed to all taxation without the consent of the people as legitimately expressed through their representatives; and I am equally opposed to the multiplying of offices of profit in the same individual."l02 Colby was handicapped, however, by disunity among the "loyalists," and by the expense of a £2500 law suit instigated in 1839 by the rebel leader, Dr Robert Nelson.103 The charge appears to have been politically motivated, for Colby was accused of causing the mental derangement of a Mrs William Nelson of Derby, Vermont by confining her in splints after she had injured her thigh.104 Lord Sydenham refused to offer Colby assistance with his legal expenses, but Child later wrote that the governor had sent money "to corrupt the electors of Stanstead."105 Certainly he had done so elsewhere in the province.106 The region's leading Tories expressed shock and chagrin when Child narrowly won the election despite the conservative sweep in the other English-speaking constituencies of Canada East. The main explanation could well lie with the tactical skills of the Stanstead Reformers, for Child had a reputation among his political enemies as a cunning and devious opponent. The defeated party's bitter complaints of irregularities in this election may have been standard fare, but it is probably significant that Child's former running mate, Ebenezer Peck, was by this time teaching the "Canadian" theory and practice of party organization to the Illinois Democrats.107 Whatever the reasons for Child's surprising victory, the Tory leaders regretted not having pulled out all the stops against him. One Montreal organizer accused the Conservative press in Sherbrooke of being too soft on the former Patriote: It is a disgrace to the party, the Loyalists I mean that such [a] political weathercock as Marcus Child should represent the County. I confess I should have been better pleased if Mr Walton [editor of the Sherbrooke Gazette] had poured in red-hot shot against the Child party, and come out decidedly and strenuously on the Loyal side. It serves no purpose to temporize with such radicals;-it strikes me that even in a £, s, & d view a paper that speaks its sentiments openly and calmly will have a better chance of success "in the long run" than one which says little and calls itself neutral. I advised Mr Walton to come out thus, and certainly he has done Mr Colby justice on several occasions. But in the melee, when the fight was at the fiercest, had it been proclaimed loudly

20

The Child Letters

and boldly, that those who voted for Child were, as they many and most of them are, enemies to the Government & rebels at heart, I am sure that many a well meaning man would have hesitated to incur the reputation [?], and would have either voted for Colby or staid [sic] at home.108

Perhaps editor Walton realized that the loyalty cry would have little impact in a county where the most prominent militia family, the Kilborns, were sworn enemies of Dr Colby.109 Child had presumably parted company with his former Patriote allies on the key issue of provincial union (as the "political weathercock" reference suggests), given the attraction that any measure aimed at undermining French-Canadian nationalism would have had for his English-speaking constituency. Certainly the Stanstead representative's rather tortured reasoning on the union issue in the new Assembly suggests that expediency had begun to overshadow principle: I am fully persuaded ... that no hon. member in this house, or out of it, will undertake to defend the Act on the grounds of justice-I believe that is impossible. The authors and greatest supporters of it, do not pretend it is, in its details, just. These details are only justified by its authors on the grounds of expediency alone ... As far as the people I have the honor to represent are concerned [t]hey do not oppose the Union-the principle they are willing and prepared to support. They do not agree to some of the provisions of the Union ... I do not consider this a proper time to attack the provisions of the Union Act ... When I deem it proper and timely to do so, I wish to do it effectually ... I would not make myself and constituents responsible for its failure by opposing it,-I would not make them nor myself liable for its success by endorsing it-but we will give it a fair trial and yield a passive assent to it, hoping to derive permanent benefit from its success.110

Child found himself in a similarily awkward position when a number of other well-worn issues resurfaced in the Assembly.*11 On the civil list question, he repeated the old Reform argument that "those who pay the taxes should have, and uninterruptedly enjoy, the power to say how much, and when and for what, those resources shall be voted." Nevertheless, he was willing to give the bill which guaranteed officials' salaries "a fair trial and yield a passive assent to it." Child then supported an amendment to the effect that during the first session it was not expedient to discuss the principles upon which the measure was framed. 112 During the Sydenham session, Child voted more or less consistently with the other MLAS from the Eastern Townships-most of whom were Tories-leading Edward Hale of Sherbrooke to write that "the very best

Introduction

21

understanding exists among us."113 The Townships members continued to caucus together during the Bagot and Metcalfe regimes,114 but at the local level they engaged in a bitterly partisan game, one in which patronage appointments were the highly prized stakes. Thus, in July 1841 a concerned Tory complained that the Child party was organizing petitions to have several supporters appointed to the important local position of magistrate.115 The rivalry only intensified with time, for in December 1843 Child confided to his wife: "I am willing to make peace with my Opponents but they must honorably lay down their weapons of warfare and acknowledge me the victor else they cannot even expect honorable notice from me much less favors which my friends only have a right to expect."116 Two former conservative MLAS had recently helped to organize a counter-petition against the four candidates Child supported as commissioners for the trial of small causes. Crossed out of the draft were the direct references to Elias Lee's arrest and Asa Harvey's flight during the Rebellion, but the letter did state that "such men as may and will immediately make every vestige of power which they wield subservient to party or political purposes are unfit for any office."117 Child's response was that he had attempted a compromise by supporting two liberals and three moderates, but that the moderates had rejected the proposal. He added that the first petition "originated off of the plain [Stanstead Village] and has the support of the great body of the yeomanry," while the counter-petition was "got up under the influence of the Lawyers and Bailiffs residing on the plain," that is, officers of the court who should not be allowed to influence its composition.118 Child also did his best to ensure that prominent political rivals received no favours. One of his first targets was William Ritchie, the notary who had kept him from his seat for several months after the 1833 election and who had hounded him in his capacity as the local oaths commissioner during the rebellion. Upon observing that Ritchie was in Kingston during the summer of 1841, Child informed the governor that appointment of his political enemy to any additional office "would weaken instead of strengthening it [the Crown] in the opinions of the people I have the honor to represent."119 Similarity, Child interfered in the arrangement that Dr Colby was attempting to reach with Robert Hoyle, who was anxious to retire from the customs officership in return for a privately negotiated "pension."120 Child wrote to Sydenham that the doctor would not be "a fit and proper person" for the position. His education and habits were professional rather than in business, he was a relatively recent newcomer from the United States, and he was "not acceptable to the great body of the people in that part, or County."121 Edward Hale subse-

22

The Child Letters

quently recommended that Hoyle withdraw his resignation to prevent "some stranger" being named as his successor.122 The following year Hoyle wrote that Child had made it clear to him that "as the Representative of the people, he considered he should have die patronage of the County; and it was understood so at Kingston."123 During the early 18405, rapid advances were made in Canada toward the coalescence of party structures and alliances, advances driven largely by the Reform campaign to make the executive fully responsible to the majority in the Assembly. Sydenham conceded a crucial measure of responsible government by filling his Executive Council with elected representatives, but the governor would not be bound by the advice of his councillors, whom he could dismiss at pleasure. Insisting on the principle of collective rather than individual ministerial responsibility, Robert Baldwin resigned from Sydenham's executive before the first legislature had an opportunity to sit. 124 Sydenham's successor, Sir Charles Bagot, was unable to construct a ministry of all talents without making significant concessions to the Reformers. Despite instructions from the Colonial Office to the contrary, Bagot extended an invitation to Lower Canadian Reform leader Louis-Hyppolite LaFontaine, after his overtures to other FrenchCanadian MLAS had failed. LaFontaine's condition for acceptance was that the remaining four vacancies in the Executive Council should be filled by Baldwin and three other Reformers.125 As Bagot admitted, "Whether the doctrine of responsible government is openly acknowledged or is only tacidy acquiesced in, virtually it exists."126 All the Townships MLAS initially supported the new administration, which Michael McCulloch describes as "an amazing combination of old Tory, new progressive and simple opportunist."127 Cornell again lumps the Stanstead MLA in with the English-speaking Tories of Canada East, but Child was the only representative from the Townships to vote consistently with the first Baldwin-LaFontaine ministry.128 The Stanstead MLA also advocated a stronger role for the Executive Council in the distribution of patronage. No doubt motivated to some extent by a desire for revenge against Stayner, Child argued in the fall of 1842 that the post office should be placed under the direct control of Cabinet. In Child's words, such a step would ensure that "the wishes and interests of the people may not be from year to year trifled with by a gentleman who acknowledges no responsibility to any power in the Province."129 Child clearly felt he was on good terms with the administration, for three months later he asked to be reinstated as magistrate and local postmaster.13° With Bagot's untimely death soon after the end of the first session, Britain's Conservative government prepared to fight a rear-guard

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action against further erosion of the governor's prerogative. Consequently, Sir Charles Metcalfe precipitated a clash with LaFontaine and Baldwin over the control of patronage.131 When the Reform ministers resigned in November 1843, Child was one of only two Townships MLAS who voted with the House majority in support of their stand.132 Furthermore, Child's letters to his family indicate a resolve to face the Stanstead electors on the issue. Shortly before leaving for home (4 December 1843) he wrote to daughter Elizabeth: 'You will see that the reform party hold together and whatever the course the Gov'r Gnl. may take the real power is in the majority as the constitution is now settled and defined." A month later Lennoxville notary C.A. Richardson complained to Metcalfe of Child's boast that the governor "is bound to listen to his recommendation" concerning the appointment of a registrar for Stanstead.133 As if to set the MLA straight, Metcalfe proceeded to appoint Richardson to the post. Child's response was bitter: "If His Excellency and his present cabinet place no weight to our wishes and interests, when expressed, it is a matter of the deepest regret to me and those who have sent me to Parliament so many years."134 It would appear, then, that Child was a good example of how the Metcalfe crisis strengthened the bonds of party by forcing Reformers to enunciate a more coherent defence of parties and the party system.135 With the approach of the fall election, however, Child was running in support of the governor.136 (Cornell once more has it wrong by identifying him as anti-governor.137) The correspondence is unfortunately mute on the reasons for this rather dramatic shift in allegiance, though it does reveal that Child had a high opinion of Metcalfe, whom he felt had been misled by "secret movers ... behind the Throne."ls8 Basically, however, Child appears to have reached the conclusion that he stood no chance to be re-elected as a Reform party supporter. Soon after the resignation of Baldwin and LaFontaine from the Executive Council, Edward Hale wrote to Metcalfe that "Mr Child called a meeting of the Electors of Stanstead to receive their approbation-but it ended in quite a different result, and he now expresses confidence in Mr Viger."139 In July the administration invited the Stanstead MLA to nominate two local postmasters, but the local Tories remained suspicious of his political motives.140 In September Hale wrote to the governor's secretary that Child would probably not desert the Reform ex-ministers in the upcoming election.141 With the onset of the contest itself, Hale remained intransigent: "Child's address would almost bear the inference that he might support the G.G. but, as our Sherbrooke editor says, this is only to pull the wool over the eyes of the Electors."142 The Tories could afford to remain aloof toward the apparently repentant Child,

24

The Child Letters

for they had attracted as their candidate John McConnell, Stanstead's representative on the District Council and an active supporter of Child in the previous election.143 The election results confirmed the conservative trend within Stanstead County. McConnell defeated Child by a vote of 496 to 356, and the Montreal Gazette congratulated Stanstead County for "rejecting one tried and found wanting, notwithstanding specious professions of amendment."144 Even though McConnell was a resident of Hatley, to the north of Stanstead Township, Child's most decisive loss came in his home polling station where he gained only 107 votes to his opponent's 221.145 The village-based petty bourgeoisie had finally triumphed in Stanstead, and their victory would be a long-lived one. Child took little part in provincial politics during the next several years, though he continued the struggle against his political opponents with the municipal election in 1845, and he became chair of the township's school commission in i846.146 After announcing that he would run as an oppositionist in 1847, Child allowed McConnell to win the election unchallenged.147 However, the historic appointment of Baldwin and LaFontaine to the Executive Council a year later gave the political veteran one final opportunity for a political come back. His main weapon was the control of local patronage, which Lord Elgin's official recognition of party-based responsible government fortuitously placed in his hands.148 On being asked to nominate a new post-master for Georgeville, Child replied with gratitude for "the respect thus shown to me by my esteemed and confidential friends."149 When a Tory mob burned the Montreal Parliament buildings in response to the governor's signing of the Rebellion Losses Bill, Child submitted a petition "approving of the firmness and Impartiality of His Excellency's Administration of Responsible Government. God Bless Him and his Advisers, I say."150 Child submitted his own claim to the Rebellion Losses commissioners, but most of the opinion in Stanstead County was clearly against the bill which helped to foster the annexation movement locally as well as in Montreal. A total of 1413 names appeared on petitions from Stanstead demanding union with the United States, leaving McConnell with little choice but to declare his support for the movement in January 1850.151 The shoe was now on the other foot as far as the question of loyalty was concerned, and McConnell was among the many in the region who were dismissed as militia officers and justices of the peace.152 The local officials were apparently not all replaced at once, for shortly before the provincial election two years later, in 1851, Child was asked to nominate seven new magistrates for the western part of the county.153 A political convention professedly organized with the aim of

Introduction

25

democratizing the nomination process subsequently selected him as the local electoral candidate.154 Unfortunately for Child, Stanstead's voters were not about to support an administration which was closely identified with the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railway Company. The company's directors had recently insisted on a trunk route through Sherbrooke to Portland, Maine which would touch only the eastern extremity of Stanstead County. Even the government's affirmation of Child's recommendations for the seven magistrate positions came too late to help prevent his decisive defeat by the Conservative candidate, H.B. Terrill.155 Child filed a protest on the grounds that Terrill had used "illegal means to bribe and corrupt the electors," but his political career was effectively finished.156 The aging veteran's disappointment was assuaged somewhat by his appointment as the St Francis District's first schools inspector in 1852, though he had actually requested the position for his son-in-law.157 The inspectorship was worth $800 per year, but given Child's advancing years, the large territory he had to cover, and the persistence of local resentment to state intrusion, it was no sinecure.15§ In assessing Child's career as a provincial politician, two main questions emerge: to what extent was he a mere opportunist, and what were the reasons for the widespread Conservative swing that encouraged his temporary shift in alliance in 1844? Child's correspondence to his family published in this volume provides considerable insight into these questions. He confessed to his wife Lydia even before leaving Kingston in the fall of 1843 that "the experience of 1837 is a warning to me to be cautious-tho. I am not disported to be less firm to maintain the privileges of the country."159 Indeed, prominent reform representatives such as Denis-Benjamin Viger and John Neilson also supported Metcalfe on the grounds that he was following the principle of responsible government as outlined by Lord Durham.160 The legislative debates reveal that Child was philosophically an agrarian who repeatedly attacked the timber trade as morally debilitating, and who supported the extension of the agricultural frontier by the construction of colonization roads and municipal reform.161 While he was inclined as a liberal and a merchant on the American border to favour free trade, Child responded to the American tariffs of 1842 by joining the other Townships ML AS in demanding protection for Canadian agricultural produce.162 He sponsored the tariff legislation in 1843, and his 1851 platform declared that he had always favoured free trade with the United States, but "should they continue to refuse it, it will be our duty to adopt a self-protective policy."163 Child accepted a limited degree of state regulation in one other area, for he led one of the first government efforts to preserve wildlife when his legislative committee obtained protection for spawning mas-

26

The Child Letters

kinonge and salmon in Stanstead, Sherbrooke, Missisquoi, and Shefford Counties. In launching this committee, the government was responding to the petition of local residents who claimed that the practice of spearing these fish on shoals was threatening their natural increase. This in turn was "highly injurious to the best interests of the people."164 Reflecting Child's ambivalence towards government centralization, however, his legislative committee opted for local initiative rather than the extension of protective legislation to all fresh-water fish in Canada. l65 Also in harmony with his laissez-faire liberal philosophy, Child consistently opposed compulsory taxation for school purposes even though he also supported the abolition of tuition fees for public schools.166 The former position distinguished him from Upper Canada's influential first superintendant of schools, fellow Methodist Egerton Ryerson, but there were a number of basic similarities in the ideological development of these two public school promoters. While Child remained a Patriote supporter after Ryerson had deserted the radical William Lyon Mackenzie, both men backed Metcalfe for pragmatic reasons in i843-167 Echoes of the social control motivation historians have attributed to Ryerson can also be found in Child's address to the district grand jury in 1848: "In a rural and industrious population like ours, little or no crime need or ought to exist, if proper attention is given to the education of the rising generation." Repeating a frequent theme of his, as well as Ryerson's, Child also complained that Canadian-produced and government-approved text books were not being purchased-those in use "are calculated to implant in the minds of our children, the seeds of discontent against the institutions of the country in which it is our happiness to live." Finally, he urged the clergy and other official school visitors to keep a wary eye on the character and abilities of the teachers.168 But such statements are not inconsistent with a liberal-minded belief in the "enlightening" powers of a properly managed schools system. Child's chief preoccupations as schools inspector remained the establishment of a regional normal school in order to improve the quality of the teachers and the increase of the salary of his post beyond the level of a "common labourer's wages." Commenting confidentially on the projected school reforms of 1852, Child wrote: "I do not believe it advisable to alter the law much. Less power to com. [issioners] would be be less abused. I find the Inspector's power to do good is chiefly persuasive. He ought to have a negative to prevent abuses, when they turn up under his Inspection."169 There is little suggestion in this statement or in Child's other correspondence and reports as schools inspector that he felt particularly anxious to promote expansion of the state's au-

Introduction

27

thority. Perhaps Child had been too strongly marked by his many years as a local eductional official to think of himself exclusively as a government agent whose self-interest lay in the centralization of power. 17° Child's liberal political philosophy included some clearly conservative contradictions, however, and as with Ryerson, they can be explained to some extent by the the ambiguity in the teachings of the Methodist Church. In the words of historian Goldwin French, the Methodist "affinity for egalitarianism and the basis for a profound leavening of the social order" were "tendencies held in check by Wesley's respect for the political system and by the ease with which evangelical Christians can mistake selfishness for charity."171 Furthermore, the devout one-time secretary of the Stanstead Bible Society became a member of the Church of England at some point during the later i84os.172 This conversion did not reflect a fundamental ideological shift on Child's part, however, for the American Methodists had left Lower Canada to the more conservative British Wesleyans since 1820. Nor could Child have been attempting to elevate his social status since most of the Stanstead elite were themselves Methodists.173 Rather, it appears that he was embittered by political opposition from his own church. On 29 November 1843 he wrote to his wife: "Perhaps my Church will not go against me & if they do not, hardly any opposition can be expected." Child's political conversion presumably failed to satisfy his fellow Methodists, since he lost the election. Child's embracing of the establishment Anglican Church therefore appears to have been designed as a double slight to his former co-religionists. In the final analysis, Child was basically a moderate reformer whose ambitions tended to be limited to his local constituency. He frequently complained to his family of the obstructions caused by "party feeling" in the Legislature, where he generally limited his own interventions to matters of direct concern to his riding. While he was aware of the constitutional issues and possessed a broader vision of the province and even the empire, Child's approach had become that of a no-nonsense member of the entrepreneurial middle class. The role of representatives was not to engage in sterile debate, but to pass reforms for the more effective functioning of society. Thus, Child wrote to his wife on i October 1843: "Business looks promisingly.-When we get engaged-I shall enjoy myself-now I am only an unsettled looker on-but it is so with all the members till after-the work of the Ministry is laid before us." Before he became fully aware of the political quandary he faced with the Reform ministers' resignation, Child could actually gloat: "The incidents of office are-frequently hostile to sleep, as many of our ex's can testify-and as I am not one who has had it, or expected it, I am left to balmy sleep in the midst of sleepless and disappointed office-

28

The Child Letters

holders and expectants.-I don't care a pinch of snuff, seeing we are likely to secure nearly every measure that I desired to carry, when I left home."174 It is unfortunate that there is a gaping hole in the local newspaper record during the year when Child committed the major inconsistency of his political career. It is clear, however, that the driving force behind his turnabout in favour of Metcalfe in 1844 was the local electorate. The Stanstead voters had been somewhat slow to follow the conservative trend of the remaining region, but follow it they did. The reasons behind that trend are therefore crucial to understanding Child's political evolution during the 18408. The American settlers had held deep-seated grievances against the British officials who dominated the provincial and local administrative posts, but the outbreak of Rebellion brought an abrupt end to further collaboration with the Patriotes who were in any case not particularly well-disposed to the development of the region. Having proved their loyalty during the hostilities, Townships residents held high expectations that the government would finally pay more attention to their economic needs. Basic material considerations were more important in ensuring support for Metcalfe during the constitutional crisis than was the region's fear of losing the British connection, as Ian Forsyth suggested.175 The first priority was a railway, or at least a "plank road" from Chambly to Granby at the western border of the Eastern Townships, and Edward Hale felt a good deal of pressure to deliver government support while he was Sherbrooke's member of the province's Special Council prior to the union. Expectations in the Eastern Townships were raised still higher when the British government promised a £ i ,500,000 guaranteed loan once union of the two provinces was accomplished.176 This projected loan was clearly a powerful incentive for loyalty to the administration, but Lord Sydenham remained rather indifferent to the region's progress. While he admitted that "the Eastern Townships indeed exhibit a healthy & thriving population of British and American settlers," he felt that "the want of Water Communications & the rigour of the climate ... will make their growth slow and set limits to their improvement."177 In Michael McCulloch's words, the governor may have counted on the region to return members committed to the imperial tie, but he was quite prepared to see it remain a backwater in the flow of wheat and timber from Canada West.178 The Townships voters did prove to be loyal, but local entrepreneurs were far from pleased when they learned that the lion's share of the British loan would be devoted to the St Lawrence canals and roads out-

Introduction

29

side their region.179 Fortunately, Metcalfe displayed more concern than did Sydenham for the needs of the Eastern Townships. In his speech from the throne in 1843, Metcalfe referred to "the cry for improved roads for the conveyance of produce to markets," adding that "nowhere was this anxiety more strongly expressed than in the Eastern Townships" when high u.s. tariffs had closed "the market to which the formerly had recourse."180 This sensitivity helps to explain the pressure on Child to support the governor in 1844, but the local elite was nevertheless running out of patience. Prior to the 1844 election Commissioner Alexander Gait of the British American Land Company exacted a pledge from Sherbrooke's two Tory candidates that "so intimately did they consider the railway to be [tied] with the prosperity of the Eastern Townships that they should look upon the refusal of efficient assistance by the Executive as a denial of that just share of the notice of government to which the Townships were entitled, and that they should, except upon important constitutional questions, hesitate to afford their support to any administration which would not enter into their desires on that head."181 The Conservative administration's liberal response to petitions for local roads and schools in the Eastern Townships was no longer enough. As the decade progressed the pro-railway policy of the opposition Liberals helped to establish their credentials in the region.l82 In 1847 Gait wrote to Hale that "I am satisfied a strong feeling of discontent is arising against the present Administration-who-it is assertedhave been merely humbugging the Townships-by the vote for the Maine Road [Montreal-Portland Railway] without any intention of doing the work. I confess I share this feeling myself-as it seems as if everything were tending westward-to the exclusion of Lower Canadian interests."183 Stanstead's Conservative MLA,John McConnell, ran and won on an essentially independent platform in 1848, though this did the constituency little good when Baldwin and LaFontaine formed the new government.l84 As noted above, the St Lawrence and Atlantic line passed far to the East of Stanstead-Rock Island. Consequently, even though McConnell was eased out by local pressure prior to the 1851 election,185 Stanstead County remained in Conservative hands. Liberal fortunes soon rose in the county with the promise of the Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly Railway, but the party made it clear that the services of the old warhorse, Child, would no longer be required. It simply enlisted the new MLA, Timothy Lee Terrill, into its camp.186 Child's ideological trajectory appears quite unremarkable when considered alongside those of contemporaries such as George-Etienne Carrier who became increasingly conservative after the Rebellion. The 18405 had ushered in an era of political accommodation, with brokers

30

The Child Letters

like Francis Hincks ensuring that the middle-class entrepreneurs would gain undisputed control of the governing structures.187 Future political deadlock would stem less from philosophical differences than sectional conflict, a foretaste of which can be found in the Child correspondence. Somewhat surprisingly for an American-born resident of an Englishspeaking border town, the Stanstead MLA contrasted "the polished politeness of our fellow French subjects" with the "coarse and ill bred habits" of the Upper Canadians.188 Child's sense of solidarity with the Lower Canadian ML AS was only heightened by the resentful attitude demonstrated by Kingston's residents toward those who threatened their town's status as the permanent seat of government.l8Q His more conservative colleagues from the Eastern Townships may not have felt the same affinity for the French Canadians, but they too would have experienced the difficult travelling conditions to and from Kingston, as Child's letters described, and they were quite aware that the region's economic interests were tied to Montreal. If sectional and local loyalties continued to play a crucial role in politics, in Child's case an emotional attachment to home and family in turn overshadowed commitment to politics itself. FAMILY

The 16 May 1850 edition of the Stanstead Journal encapsulated the contrasting gender roles and identities of its era when it advised the region's MLAS about to attend the session in Toronto "to be 'good boys,' and act as though you are confident that your maternal relatives are aware of your absence from the parental roof." Such advice would hardly have been necessary for the pious Marcus Child who remained a teetotaller despite his wife's advice to drink a little wine in order to avoid the dysentery-inducing water of the St Lawrence River.190 The Child family lived in a community which had experienced major religious revivals orchestrated by the dominant Methodist Church in 1824-25 and 1835, and Child was a more faithful attendant of Kingston's church services than of its soirees. After all, the middle-class claim to moral superiority lay at the heart of its challenge to an earlier aristocratic hegemony.191 In New England the rise of evangelical Arminianism had already destroyed the old predestinarian Calvinist doctrine of grace stemming from an arbitrary God.192 As a result, in Mary Ryan's words, "It became the duty of parents to educate and sanctify their children,"193 a duty which Marcus Child took to heart. Each day, before or during the sitting of the Assembly, he would write a long epistle to his wife, Lydia,

Introduction

31

describing the previous day's experiences and giving instructions related to the family and the village store. Such assiduousness might suggest an ongoing attachment to the traditional patriarchal family government, which was disappearing in the neighbouring states, but the content of the letters reflects a transition to a more modern domestic sensibility. Child referred to his wife as "queen of all within your dominions"194 and frequendy expressed the hope that the session would end soon so that he could return home. His letters leave the strong impression that Child envisioned political involvement, not as an opportunity to escape the monotony of village life, but as a personal sacrifice of the days and weeks he would have preferred to spend with his family. ^ This attachment to domesticity's central convention, the contrast between the home and the world, was characteristic of the middling ranks of this era. Nancy Cott argues that in New England the idea had its roots in religious motives and rhetoric, and that it tacitly acknowledged the capacity of modern work to desecrate the human spirit.196 Based on their English research, Davidoff and Hall present a slightly different approach. They argue that the fears and anxieties associated with the commitment to new commercial forms resulted in an attachment to "some aspects of traditionalist and paternalist thinking," including a belief in the home as a haven from the market.197 Finally, referring to the Utica, New York area, Mary Ryan argues that "associationalism," which marked the era from the 18208 to the mid-i84os, was replaced by the cult of domesticity due to the enlargement, remoteness, and increasing formality of the public sphere, the economic uncertainty for small producers and retailers, and the increasingly individualized nature of middle-class occupations themselves.198 We have seen that Stanstead and area had not undergone a fundamental economic transformation by the early 18408; nevertheless, Marcus Child was actively attempting to overcome the limitations of his business environment. Furthermore, this was an era of economic uncertainty and political transition, not only with the rise of responsible government at the provincial level but also with the establishment of tax-assessing school commissions and municipal councils at the local level. The 18405 was a decade of constitutional conflict, and Child's political career presented challenges at least as formidable as those from his business activities. We have also seen that he enjoyed little support from his middle-class neighbours in his own village. Whether the result was an intensification of Child's attachment to the cult of domesticity is impossible to say without personal letters from the pre-Rebellion period, but certainly it is not difficult to understand why the correspondence published here reveals a strong attachment to kin and hearth.

32

The Child Letters

Apart from the advice Child proffered in his letters concerning business and family matters, he also wrote detailed accounts of events in the Legislature. These were meant for more than his family's entertainment, for he noted on 17 December 1843: "I have been induced to touch upon these topics, that you may form an idea of things & scenes here-and as a record to which reference may be had by others, to our times." Child referred several times to Lydia's retiring nature, and to his belief that women should remain aloof from the political fray, but he also commented on the influence that politicians' wives could exert behind the scenes. Like Rousseau, Child felt that women played a valuable role by exercizing a temporizing influence over men's passions.1" On a more practical basis, the Stanstead MLA also depended upon his wife to keep constituents informed of his activities in the absence of local newspaper coverage. 20° Becoming immersed in the intricacies of parliamentary politics was clearly not part of the prescribed gender role for the respectable middle-class wife, nor was the operation of a family enterprise during an era when the cult of domesticity had crystallized.201 On the other hand, while American historians Nancy Cott and Mary Ryan attribute the domestic role almost entirely to the wife and mother, it is quite evident that Marcus Child took an active interest in the raising of his children, as well as in mundane household matters. If Child complained constantly that his wife did not reply to his letters regularly enough, it was because he needed to feel reassured that he was not failing in his duty as paterfamilias. While the removal of the father from the middleclass household clearly imposed a greater domestic burden on the mother, it also appears to have heightened the father's anxiety about his family's welfare. The two spheres within middle-class society may not have been quite as separate as feminist analysis has suggested, nevertheless the line of authority in the Child family was always clear. Women's power was never to assume a public and official dimension, but to work through intimate social relations and speak in the meekest tones.202 Thus, after Lydia Child had commented critically on a legislative measure in the Reform-dominated Assembly, she was careful to add, "but I am talking about what I do not understand."203 While American women had played a dominant role in evangelical revivalism, thereby gaining "the right to hold forth on religious subjects from a position of apparent weakness,"204 Lydia Child's letters do not dwell on religion. Nor is there evidence that she copied the example of many of her New England and New York counterparts by playing an active role in the numerous female voluntary associations that flourished south of the bor-

Introduction

33

der, if not in Stanstead. The Dorcas Society, whose exact nature is not specified, is the only one mentioned in the family correspondence. Ironically, Lydia was in the vanguard in this sense, since women's associational life was about to decline in New England and New York, as their roles became increasingly domestic and less social.205 In Canada as well, by the 18305 and 18408, Methodism was becoming a family religion, and mothers were increasingly responsible for the moral and religious training of their children.206 Even if she appears less pious than her husband, however, as a Methodist Lydia Child would have assumed responsibility for her own soul and played a role in the congregational life of her church.207 That church may also have encouraged her to accept her subordinate status without complaint, but a more subservient personality would have apologized, or at least provided an excuse, for not writing to her husband more frequently. Aside from what Marcus called her retiring nature, Lydia undoubtedly had her hands full overseeing the employees during his lengthy absences, as well as managing the household without a servant or help from her daughter for much of the period covered by this correspondence. Lydia's middle-class status did not excuse her from preparing the meals, cleaning the stove-pipes, sewing clothes, bottling preserves, making candles, and deciding when (with her husband's guidance) to have the cows killed for beef. Such activities support Cott's contention that during its early formulation the cult of domesticity directed women not to idleness or superficial gentility, but to a special sort of usefulness.2o8 Lydia's sole indulgence, one that her husband encouraged, was her flower garden.2°9 Perhaps it should not be surprising, then, that Lydia's letters to her husband lack the submissive tone Peter Ward found in those of young Victorian women to their intended spouses.210 Women's historians have argued that the identification of women alone with "the heart" implied that "they would find truly reciprocal interpersonal relationships only with other women," but "emotional stiffness and distance" are not words that could be used to describe the correspondence between Marcus and Lydia Child. 211 There are characteristically few elaborate expressions of endearment in their letters, but there is certainly evidence of a continuing bond of affection after nearly a quarter century of marriage. On 19 November 1843, for example, Marcus teased that he had dined at the home of a councillor, "and the reason might displease you perhaps if I should make it known to you-but I shall tho. and now don't be angry when I tell you that Mrs Shaw is an American wife and mother and is not very much unlike yourself in mind and manners and the rest I will leave for you to imagine."

34

The Child Letters

A week later, the more laconic Lydia expressed the hope that Child would "be able to return home soon for we are quite anxious to see the light of your countenance again."212 It is also worth noting that Lydia's friend, Mrs Grannis, appears to have been the widowed sister-in-law of Marcus' former electoral partner. The Childs were also close friends of the Reverend and Mrs Cooney. As Nancy Osterud has pointed out for the rural society of New York, friendship appears to have been "a relationship between families, not a private affair between individuals of the same gender."213 The situation was different for daughter Elizabeth, who had evidently graduated from a good American female academy. During the fall of 1843, at the age of twenty-two, she travelled unchaperoned down the Connecticut Valley to Newport in southern New Hampshire where she visited a wealthy former schoolmate who had recently married a Congressman. Though she would not marry for another four years, the correspondence makes it quite clear that one of Elizabeth's primary goals was to find a marriage partner herself. While her parents' own families may have played a role in their union, since they were apparently cousins,214 Elizabeth had rejected at least two suitors of her family's acquaintance. Clearly, as Nancy Cott has observed, this was an era when the canon of domesticity and the rise of romantic love "had freighted women's marriage choice with unprecedented meaning."215 In the end, however, Elizabeth would marry Lewis Sleeper, a well-educated and ambitious Stanstead native whom her father had mentioned approvingly as early as i842.216 The correspondence between Elizabeth and Marcus Child is marked by the characteristic intensity of the middle-class father-daughter relationship.217 Child may have avoided the "social whirl," as he called it, but he did take pains to describe for Elizabeth's benefit the appearance and dress of Kingston's more fashionable ladies. To a considerably greater degree than her mother, Elizabeth was prepared for the role of confirming her future family's status through the consumption of material goods and the display of cultural refinement.218 But the type of school Elizabeth had attended focused on more than decorative accomplishments. American female academies were established because of the belief that girls had to be educated to be good mothers if the republic's citizens were to acquire a proper understanding of the principles of liberty and representation.219 As a native American and a political reformer, Child obviously must have shared this belief. While anxious to indulge his daughter's request for fashionable items of clothing, his letters also provided her with detailed lessons on the political scene in Kingston. Child's concern for his daughter's

Introduction

35

welfare while she was away from home was alleviated only by his pride in her social accomplishments and his confidence in her sense of judgment. When Lewis Sleeper asked for Elizabeth's hand in the fall of 1845, Child hesitated only until ensured of his "religious belief."220 The marriage took place in 1847, and Elizabeth died eleven years later, leaving her husband, two children, and her parents "desolate and sorrowful."221 A much greater worry to Child than Elizabeth was his only son, George, who had to be prepared to carry on the family name. 222 It is ironic that while Elizabeth had received a very good education, George's writing skills at the age of fifteen still left much to be desired. Elizabeth certainly had the ability and the time to take charge of the family business during her father's absence, and in 1842 she took the Stanstead clerk's place "when necessary."223 By the following year, however, a somewhat resentful George was left to mind the store and dun his father's debtors. Prescribed class and gender roles dictated that Elizabeth would be judged by her "personal behaviour, dress and language," while George, with his "carnal propensities," would have to learn how to provide for the needs of future dependents.224 In an era when evangelical manhood stressed the "feminine" qualities of self-sacrifice and emotional attachment to the family, work was becoming an increasingly important compensating symbol of male gender identity.225 But Child certainly did not wish to see his son's education neglected any longer than necessary, and prior to the electoral defeat of 1844, George was finally spared to attend the prestigious High School of Montreal.226 Child had written to his wife a year earlier: "I wish George to feel the privileges that are brought within his reach, and if he does, he will not fail to enjoy that place in the world, that the probity [?] and virtue of his parents have provided for him."227 Unfortunately, George does not appear to have adjusted very successfully to life in Montreal, and his report card for the fall term of 1845 records that he was "deficient in emulation & earnest application."228 Little else is known of George Child's life, except that the headstones in Mount Forest Cemetery, Coaticook reveal that he married and lived to the age of sixty-two.229 A female servant and a farm hand, as well as intermittent assistance from a succession of clerks in the Stanstead store, usually helped compensate for the burden Child's extended absences imposed on his family. But such assistance entailed its own responsibilities on Lydia's part, and one of her greatest worries was the persistence in town of an impoverished family whose daughter, Sophie, she had dismissed for petty theft. Lydia was concerned for the welfare of the girl and her aging mother, but also fearful that a male member of the same family named

36

The Child Letters

John would rob the store before being forced by hunger to move on. Despite the recent organization of a district municipal system, village charity was available only on an ad hoc basis to those considered deserving and nonthreatening. Typical of the difficulties women had dealing with adult male servants was Lydia's experience with the rather curmudgeonly farm hand named Thomas. Thomas took the liberty to criticize George for laziness on several occasions and once refused to stable a visitor's horse. 23° Priding himself in his physical labour and farm management skills, Thomas obviously resented both being treated as a servant and taking orders from a boy or a woman. Despite the social gap between the Childs and their employees, there existed a sense of familiarity characteristic of paternalist pre-industrial class relations. Thus, like family members, the servants are identified only by their first names, while surnames are usually provided for friends and social equals, including the store clerk, Charles Kilborn, who came from a prominent pioneer family. Playing a more ambiguous role within the Child household was a woman identified only as Ann, a teacher whom Elizabeth refers to as a companion as well as cousin. A letter from Lydia's mother in Worcester, Massachusetts states: "Give my love to Ann I am pleased to hear she succeeded so well in her school may she be blest in all her ways and visit us as soon as she can." Ann may possibly have been raised by the Childs from an early age, since the 1824 manuscript census (the township's only surviving one prior to 1861) states that there were two girls under the age of six in the household.231 If Ann was effectively a foster daughter, as well as a niece, however, the lack of attention she is paid in the Child letters is remarkable. Essentially, Ann appears to fit the early stereotype of the shy, retiring spinster who attempted to make herself useful without getting in anyone's way.232 The presence of household members outside the immediate family was typical of the middle class during the pre-industrial era, but the Child family also had unmistakably "modern" characteristics.233 There was clearly a strong emotional bond between the spouses and a nurturant attitude toward their offspring, of whom, significantly, there were only two during an era when large numbers of children were still the norm.234 Indeed, Marcus' letters reveal a rather closed, inwardlooking attitude toward the family despite the presence of "outsiders" in the household. Extended kin ties certainly survived, but the women appear to have undertaken most of the visits as well as the correspondence with the American relatives. While both the Child offspring were encouraged to experience the world beyond Stanstead, the village did offer opportunities to engage

Introduction

37

in some of the common social and cultural activities of the middle class. When Stanstead was first visited in 1834 by Eliza Hoyle, the custom's collector's young second wife, she reported that this "beautiful little place" boasted "a remarkably good society."235 By 1841 the residents supported a debating club and two choirs which met weekly in order "to improve and amuse themselves." In addition, Robert Hoyle wrote that the "good folks, particularly the young, appear to enjoy a great deal in riding, some on horseback, which is becoming more fashionable for the ladies."236 The Hoyles had, however, become distinctly less enamoured of Stanstead society in this post-rebellion era. Robert wrote that "jealousy is still alive, some slanders afloat, and the good people have not forgot how [to] detract from the merits of their neighbours."237 Because of Child's political unpopularity with the village notables, his family must have been particularly affected by this hostile atmosphere. Their break with the Methodist Church probably formalized their segregation from much of village "society" and reinforced their attachment to the cult of domesticity. The year 1842, when the Child correspondence begins in a comprehensive fashion, was a particularly gloomy one. The provincial economy was depressed; the weather was terrible, with a keen frost occurring in Stanstead on the morning of the summer solstice; and various contagious illnesses, including erysipelas, were spreading death throughout the Stanstead and Sherbrooke area.238 A year later, winter came early, burying farmers' crops in the snow, and causing Elizabeth Child to exclaim: "Really it is a most miserable scramble for a living here, and my greatest wonder is how such a miserable country should ever have been settled."239 Conditions were ripe for a religious revival, but this time it would not be launched by the Methodist Church. Instead, many Townships residents embraced the Millerite sect which preached that the apocalypse would take place on 14 April i843.24° Indeed, one local doctor suggested a reverse causation, speculating that the renewed outbreak of erysipelas along the Vermont border was due to "the excitement and consequent exposure of the Millerites."241 While the Sherbrooke elite dabbled in the new fad of "tea and mesmerism,"242 the Millerites occupied a church at Derby Line and repaired a meeting hall in Stanstead. According to Robert Hoyle, "some are actually maniacs, and more will soon be if not checked."243 Among the last letters in the Child collection are lengthy pleas from his unmarried sister, Lydia (not to be confused with his wife or his sister-in-law) in West Boylston, begging her relatives to renounce their possessions in anticipation of the end, which had apparently been postponed to the fall of 1844.

38

The Child Letters

Nancy Cott notes that New England's single women were particularly devoted to religion, and speculates that this was because they were constrained from exercizing their full range of moral, intellectual, and physical powers in other ways.244 Davidoff and Hall add that a woman's religious devotion was encouraged because it would serve to "suppress the dangerous parts of her sexuality, which linked her back to Eve."245 In this context, Lydia's references to unrepentant women as "foolish virgins" who would be left behind by Christ the bridegroom must have raised a few eyebrows in the Child household.246 Child's sister had overstepped the bounds of middle-class propriety, and he soothed any misgivings he may have had about his own materialism by "nightly reviewing in the presence of God" his "great amount of gratitude-which His goodness has laid us under."247 These were tumultuous times, yet Marcus Child's letters reveal a surprising degree of equanimity. His destiny, after all, was under firm control, for he had experienced religious grace and established a bulwark of family property and resources. Child's liberal ideology reflected the push by his class and his American-origin group to acquire more political power in the Eastern Townships. Because constitutional principle and party loyalty were simply tools to that end, they could be sacrificed when necessary. Despite the charges against him of opportunism, Child actually clung to the reform cause longer than his pre-rebellion colleagues from the Townships, and there is nothing to suggest that he engaged in politics to further his own business interests. As well-born commentators such as Susanna Moodie frequently emphasized, wealth alone could not ensure middle-class respectability.248 Like any politician, Child was presumably driven by a hunger for social status and influence, but life to him involved more than the "miserable scramble for money and political power and place," which in his view characterized the country of his birth.249 It is somewhat ironic, then, that political partisanship robbed Child of the respect he doubtless felt that he deserved, given his contributions to the economic and educational progress of his constituency. Child's religious faith remained intact, but with his evangelical church no longer providing a refuge from the world, there is little wonder that he so ardently sought strength and support from his wife and children. Even though Child's letters are not deeply introspective, then, they do provide considerable insight into the values and motivations of this rather earnest lover of "order and decorum."250 Child's story, like that of his English contemporaries studied by Davidoff and Hall, "provides clues to the deep connections between religious belief, political practice, commercial activity and family life."251 Child's social status may have been based on his role as a merchant and politician, but religion and family lay at the very root of his middle-class identity.252

Correspondence

Note: Spelling, syntax, punctuation are as in the original. All family letters are included without editing, except to use square brackets to correct some misspellings and to indicate short deletions and possible alternative readings of some words: [...] signifies missing word(s), [.?.] stands in the place of omitted illegible word(s), and [?] following a word indicates uncertainty about that word. Words in round brackets are as in the original correspondence.

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Correspondence 1

ELIZABETH

41

TO M A R C U S

Stanstead My dear Father July i7th 1841 We rec[e]ived your letters dated July nth yesterday by the Sherbrooke mail and are very glad to hear that you are not positively sick. We feel somewhat anxious about your health on account of the bad water and I never drink a glass from our own well but I wish you could enjoy the same privilege. I believe ma advised you in her last letter to take a little wine "for thy stomach's sake and for thine often infirmities." We have all been to church to day save George who spent the morning in pouting and sundry other gentle manly occupations and only came to his senses about noon We have had as usual two beautiful sermons from Mr. Cooney particularly this afternoon from the text "God is Love."1 The subject admitted of some of his most beautifully sounded periods and smoothly flowing sentences and he was not slow to avail himself of the opportunity I could not but think during the sermon what a pity it was that Mr. Cooney's talents should be thrown away upon such a lukewarm and indifferent people as those he has to deal with in Stanstead or at least on the plain Ma read to Mrs. Cooney a portion of one of your letters describing a meeting in Kingston which affected her considerably. She is a good and a pious woman but she does not feel very well toward some of the people here, says "they do not love Methodism or any other ism" The letter from Thomas Child which has formed so important a part of your last letter did not contain an explicit avowal of attachment or rather was not a decided offer of heart and hand but just enough to leave no doubt as to his feelings. I would not willingly slight the affection of any honorable man but it seems to me that I can never entertain any warmer feelings towards him than those of friendship I hope you will soon be able to give me your advice in person if not I must write before you get home. We have had more company than usual last week. Mr. Hopkinson has called twice and Mrs. H. once with Mrs. Chandler They both Mr. H. and wife desired their compliments to you. Mrs. Osgood expressed a great deal of gratitude for the paper you sent her and desires her kind regards as also do Mrs. [.?.] and Elizabeth and Betsey Cushman from whom I received a letter the other day. She is going to visit here in about four weeks and will probably spend some time. I got a letter from Ann Burke last week which amply atoned as her letters always do for her long silence. She tells me that my last epistle to her has been quite a traveller for not reaching Newport until after they left and being directed to Mr. Burke it was forwarded to him at Washington from whence being a truly honorable man he sent it to Stoddard unopened. Ann after reading it and as she

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The Child Letters

says finding it so interesting (it was an account of the events which transpired during the election) sent it back to him and he now has it in his possession. They intend to go to housekeeping in September or as soon as Mr. B. returns and will have the old people and her mother to live with them. She gives a very ludicrous description of a call she had had from Edward Hall and I can not do better than to give it verbatim. "Edward is now in the full tide of successful experiment mounted in a little doctors gig about a foot wide in which he seems suspended midway between heaven and earth he follows in the wake of Doct.r Twitchell visiting all sorts of suffering humanity and talking with most profound wisdom of all the ills which flesh is heir to" Miss Barnes the lady whom you recollect seeing at Miss Wittingtons is going to be married to a brother of Miss Leverett. The party who have gone to the springs from here consisted of Mrs. Peirce and John [...] Kilborn Mrs. Baxter and Miss Smith Mr. (John) Haseltine and Mrs. Martin. Mrs. Osgood is going next month. 2 George went last Saturday and brought home a pig weighing ninety eight pounds. We are very glad to have the matter settled for as often as Saturday has come for the last four weeks it has brought Hugh Cassidy to bother about the pigs. Ezra has not succeeded in finding a Sherbrooke paper yet. Why will you not send on papers to him he is very kind and seems very much interested in your welfare All our friends at the Line are well, we have not heard from Derby of late3 Ma George and Ann send their love to you and unite with me impatient longings to see you once more. O how I wish I could be with you but I do not think I could content my self during a long session at Kingston. All friends here desired to be remembered to you Do be very careful of your health my dear father and believe your affectionate daughter. EH Child 2

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

House of Assembly My Dear Wife Kingston aoth Sepr "42" George will start for home this morning-he has had a long visit here and I hope one that will be useful as well as pleasing to him-I have written this morning by mail the particulars of his journey home and I hope he will arrive without any accident whatever and find you all well I am quite so and am faithfully your Affect, t husband M Child

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Map 2 The Extended World of the Child Family

3

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

My Dear wife Kingston 2Oth Sepr 1842 It is now 17 days since I left home and not a word from you. Mr. Cooney says "all well." I did expect a letter before this time I have written many letters to my constituents upon public matters and have not had so much time to write to you as I have a disposition to improve. George will bring this to you-he sets off from here this morning will reach Ogdensburg about 4 o'clock p.m. and then take the mare and wagon and reach Canton to sleep tonight-tomorrow night he will reach Malone-and the next night Bolton's-and the next morning Plattsburgh-where he will take the steamer "Saranac" and in two hours will land in St. Albans-from thence he will reach Berkshire the next night and the next day drive to South Troy and the following day he will arrive home to Stanstead where I hope he will arrive and safely and find all well at home-He has had a longer stay here than he would have had but for the rainy weather and the probability of an adjournment of the House to meet again in Feb. next. He is not inclined to stay any longer else I should be glad to have him as I shall be lonesome when

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The Child Letters

he has gone.-I have given him strict directions for his guidance on his way home and when he arrives there-he will take Gerry go out to Coaticook-anddd Gerzey4 may be put in the stable and well tended by Everett-and when the days are fine let her out to graze behind the stable in that fresh grass-nailing up the fence to keep her from the Garden-I dont intend to be absent more than 8 weeks-I think the public business will be hastened this Session-tho' there is an unconquerable desire for debating every thing.-My health is now better and the air begins to cool. I think it will continue so-beg of you to write me immediately on George's arrival to relieve my anxiety for his safety-I shall write a line by mail this morning so that should he not reach you in time you might know when he ought to have been home and can take such measures for ascertaining the cause of his detention & also of informing me of it. You will no doubt see him at the appointed time as he is quite competent to manage on the roadWith love and best wishes For You & Elizabeth I remain Your Affect, husband M Child 4

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

House of Assembly My Dear Wife Sept. 2ist 1842 Yesterday George set off for home he engaged to write me from Ogdensburg stating how he found Gerzy and H.-But the Boat has come up and no letter from him. I have not been down to see the captain having come late from the House and Sleeper and Snow called and spent the rest of the evening with me They are going to the falls-the former has engaged again at Quebec as teacher at £250.00 per Ann. which is a fair salary for a young man and I am really glad of his good fortune-They were at the House lack as well as this evening.-Yesterday I witnessed for the first time in my life a Launch-The "Cherokee" a largen [?] steamer-of 200 horse power5-Sir Charles & Lady Bagot and the Misses Bagot and a great multitude of gayly dressed people-military and civil were present; music from a ful band and firing of big guns and hurras of-thousands of human voices marked the moment when She glided down her ways and roled in her native element like a thing of life leaving the gorgeous pavillion, in which were His Excellency family & suite, quite alone-Miss McClellan and Marg.t. Hetherington accompanied me we occupied one of the best positions to witness the whole scene; being but a few feet from Lady Bagot when she broke the bottle

Correspondence

45

of wine and pronounced the usual baptismal name of the noble vessel.-At my request she has made a memo of the ladie's dresses, for your use and Elizabeth's; which I enclose-two temporary masts were raised, on one of which, was the royal colors of old England and on the other floated the Stars and Stripes of a country for which you and I have feelings that are any thing but those of indifference-I could not but feel proud of the Striped banting while I felt that the other was the one under which it was, and is, my pride to live. And now you will be very glad to hear that we have had it announced tonight from the ministry that we shall have a short session and meet again in the winterThe question of location is to be submitted to us this session and there cannot be any doubt, I think of its being established at Montreal-This I have from the highest quartersI feel anxious to hear from You I am sure there has been sufficient time for me to get an answer to my letter-I did not promise to write any but I felt I had better write a few letters to you and more to my constituents- I hope the frost has not killed the flowers I have not as yet looked after any slips to bring home with me-I shall try and find some-and bring them home; but I don't expect to give you such a fine box of them as Mr [.?.] brought from N.H.-this fall to you. I hope all matters go well at the store-write me particularly respecting them-I think Mr Bird will put my potatoes into the cellar as early as they are ripe-and if you need flour send by Rufus Clark to Burlington to get a BB. the freight is already paid-With love to you and Elizabeth and all the family I remain Your Affect husband M Child 5

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

House of Assembly My Dear wife 23d Sepr. 1842 I wrote you this morning and I again this evening hasten to acquaint you with the fact that George has returned this evening and reports the roads to be in such a state in consequence of the heavy and continued rains, that it took him 8 hours to travel 13 miles-he, against such obstacles progressed 18 miles, from Ogdensburg and then retraced his steps and arrived here as above stated; gerzy is at Ogdensburg, I am happy to assure you that both of us are in good health-and as the House will adjourn in 6 or 8 days I have decided on George's remaining here with me and then we shall return together I could not be aware of the depth of mud else I should not have allowed him to start

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The Child Letters

for home. You will now feel perfectly at ease respecting (our) (his) safety. I intend to descend the River to Montreal-and then drive home on our own roads, which I think are not the worst in the world-I shall never attempt driving thro' the same route again The road most of the (time) (way) is muddy and the accommodations are poor and comfortless, except in one or two towns on the route-The people too, are a parcel of "vile sharpers"-! do not hesitate to say it openly-I thought our own, were a bad set of "skinflints" but they are no touch to those Yankey rogues-It is true; I am sorry to bear testimony to the fact-nevertheless.And I have an other matter that has weighed down my spirits and made me peevish-It is now 20 days since I left home & although I have written 20 or more letters to yourself and others, in our county, and send 50 or more papers yet from the whole lot of you, not a word-Mr Cooney-says "all well" and I heartily thank him for this only token of remembrance from home-and that to be sure is saying a great deal and perhaps enough, more than is now true (I hope not tho") but it seems too little where I have expected so much I hope you feel that these rebukes are not uncalled for I am sure you would were you situated as I am-I could not stop here an other 24 hours was it not for my sense of duty to my constituents-and I hope they will realise that I am making great sacrifices for their benefit and allow me due credit for it. I am not sure that I shall get allowed by them all that is my due on this account. But if I get home and steer clear of a fever I shall think myself fortunate. I wish Everett to speak to Mr Eli Bangs and engage him to be in Montreal to carry out some goods on or about the 15 oct.r let him take on (in) two barrels of pear [1] ashbelonging to me at Elijah Parson's-also any that Parsons may (himself) have made ready to send and perhaps that will suffice for him as a small load into Town and I can put him on as much as he can draw back-I did think of writing for Horace6 to meet us at Montreal but that was under the expectation of George's return to take charge of the store in his absence-I shall be glad to have a memorandum from him of such articles as are mostly called for and also from Everett.-You may tell him that I have desired him, in this letter, to attend to & also communicate that part of it, which relates to Horace, to him as soon as you can after you receive this; those memorandums will reach me here, if forwarded at once, but if not, they had better be sent, by Post, to Montreal to remain till called for.-I could buy goods without a memorandum but it is better to have oneWith Affection I remain yours faithfully, M. Child

Correspondence 6

47

M A R C U S TO E L I Z A B E T H

House of Assembly My Dear Daughter Kingston 26 Sepr. (18)42 This evening your letter came to hand. I began to think something extraordinary had happened as the cause of so much delay; as I had written to your mother twice or 3 times-firstly when I arrived here-and once to you, and from your letter it does not appear that one letter or newspaper has even reached you during 18 days & hardly a day has passed without my sending something to you or your [.?.] addressGeorge started for home some time ago but found the roads so very bad that he put about and returned to Stanstead (Kingston) and is now here he enjoys himself very well but had rather go home than to remain-Where he returned. It was the general opinion that the House would adjourn in a few days and then we would return together-You may expect we shall be here only about a week more I expect we shall leave Kingston on or about the 4th octo. and shall return (via) Montreal-I wrote your ma some days ago-giving directions respecting a team-(Eli Bangs) to be in town about the 14th or 15th Octo. I hope there will be no failure to do so-The rain has fallen in abundance since I left home-and it has been cold; it is now fair and much warmer-I can picture to myself the dignified position which you and your mother occupied at [.?.]. I am glad to hear that you have been out and I dont care who you meet provided you come to no personal harm-The position those two occupy is certainly by no means enviable-And they may thank themselves for it-I never did them, nor intended them, any harm, but their efforts to injure me, without just cause, have recoiled upon their own heads with redoubled force, and they may lay under the beast of their infamy till they can by their own confessions restore themselves to the honorable position of personal respect and friendship.-They may sneak away and try to avoid a fair and honorable acknowledgement of designed wrong-and find at last that by doing so they are sinking deeper & deeper under the load of odium their conduct has already called down upon them. I shall never forgive them till they do acknowledge publicly their wrong So they may pout it out as long as they like-and grow fat upon it if they can. I am glad to hear from you & your Mother I did not know but you had both abscondedleaving the dwelling locked up & the key at the store-I did not know but you might be heard of down among the granite hills of N.H. and your ma picking berries among the shrub cuts near holden [Holden]-! am truly glad to find my fears have not been realised-I hope when I come home to find you frying a i o quart pan full of nutcakes and your ma twisting the head off of a chicken-to make us welcome and sundry

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The Child Letters

pairs of woolen stockings, all done and washed to make one warm this winter-I send a memo of the ladies dresses-I suppose it will be of no use to you except amusement-It is not among merits or demerits of Stanstead plain to visit and dress much and my women are quite a pattern of moderation which no doubt is worthily imitated-I hope you will not neglect to write as often as every mail and give me some particulars respecting my business what is doing in the store & what have you heard of Horace has he been out and if so for what? There are matters that I am anxious to know-I have nothing to say of the House that is unusual-Mr. Lafontaine has been and is now sick Since he was made Atty. General East, and none are allowed to speak to him on public matters. The prospect of his recovery is good but not immediate-It retards the business-I think I mentioned in one of my letters that the Seat of Government wont be moved to Montreal before an other session-I am now not quite so certain of that-If it should you could spend a part of the next session in Town and form an acquaintance with the Misses Bagot-Lady B-is not very unlike a certain lady at S-whom you say refuses to write her husband-a little taller but similar bland countenance. She is the mother of a very large family too and on every a/c is very much respected here-uniting with such a station the conjugal and domestic qualities of the good wife and mother-For your kind and affectionate letter and love I feel gratified and also for your news-but I have yet to thank her for 3 or 4 letters she owes me-which I hope she will pay before I come home—I will add my love for her & you and best respects for our good friends-Mr. & Mrs. C. Mrs G & Mr O-and all others that may enquire after your affect father M Child 7

G E O R G E TO L Y D I A

My Dear Mother Kingston 28th 1842 I am under the necessity of writing you a letter as I think it is my duty to do so. I will tell about Kingston it is very dirty every thing is thrown into the streets you can think of it is very limy the water is bad but I think it was intended for a very large nice town but it is altogether different from that the most splendid thing that I have seen yet is the soldiers the Royal Welch [?] was the band they play most beautifully they march to church on every Sunday. Their are very fine buildings of lime stone But I forgot to tell you that I have been to two soldiers funerals march slowly the misic very solemn the drums were covered with black & when we got up there the soldiers that had guns stood each side of the grave Be loaded and fired, the musick beggan on a very high

Correspondence

49

tone and died away slowly the drums beating the same time. I started for home on Tuesday the 2oth and went to Ogdensburg in the Gildersleeve She is a very nice clean boat I pass the thousands islands which was a grand sight & on my way I saw Major Richardson house.7 he is in Kingston now I arrived in Ogdensburg in the afternoon and found every thing wright as a book but when we were going to Kingston father bought a couple pair of braces at Ogdensburg and pa handed the man a five dollars bill he gave back in change two dollars the Agricultural bank Toronto has been down this five years and father handed me the bill and said that I might have if I could get it changed in Ogdensburg I went to get changed the man said he never gave pa such a bill and I could not get it changed & I went Back to the hotel where the mare [?] was and paid my bill and started for home again when I got out of Ogdensburg the roads were so bad that it took from four o'clock until eleven in going 13 miles I got to a tavern there stoped over night in the morning I started on again they told that the roads were good but I found them so bad that I turned a round and went back when I got back to Kingston father said that we would go home in ten or fifteen days. I shall wait until he goes home You write to me in your letter how Gerzy is my horse all are well. I am your son ma G.M. Child 8

M A R C U S TO E L I Z A B E T H

House of Assembly My Dear Daughter Kingston ist Octr. "42" Your letter, kind and affectionate, of the 27th ult. came to me this evening, I can assure you it gave me a great deal of real pleasure to hear that you & your ma and all the rest were well, and that you had reed, my letter explaining George's return trip-and his fruitless attempt to return to Stanstead-we are now well and expect to leave this for home (via) Montreal on the 5th inst.—and you may look for us at S—about the i5th inst-and I hope all safe and sound.You do not say what has called Everett to Barford and left you alone in the store-I am glad to hear that you can supply his place therein when necessary-I am glad to hear that you & your ma are sorry and are willing to acknowledge it too for neglecting I am sure the cause must have been a pleasing one-it has rained here nearly every day and is raining now-I have not been out nor seen much society in consequence since I came here-I have been constantly occupied at the House-Committees from 10 a.m. to i p.m. then come to Town and

5°

The Child Letters

dine-Then back at 3 p.m. and the House sits till 10 to 12 and sometimes till i & 2 morning-and to get up my sleep I can only get up, wash and dress-breakfast & go again at 10 a.m. to the same scene of constant occupation If all I have written, since I came here, was collected it would make up quite a volume (but not very interesting) George has been a comfort to me and a trial too; he is averse to go much into company-is bashful which injures him in the estimation of my friends-I hope he will get over it-I know you are inclined the same way-and it natural-I was and am still so-your mother is, was, and ever will be so-I have made great efforts to conquer this feeling I feel it most in the Assembly-And while I would not chide you nor George I would encourage you to practice self-control [?] over this native diffidence and form a habit in youth of mixing more easily in society. Had I have been as sensible of this at your or George's age I should have ere this overcome much that I now suffer, without the prospect of any relief-I am sorry to lose Mrs. Osgood from our neighbourhood-but I think I shall stop in Sherbrooke with more pleasure now she has gone to be the principal Landlady there, than before-I hope Mrs. Cooney & Mrs. Grannis have been well and are exchanging visits with you; and I am glad to hear that your Aunt [.?.] has been up and spent a night with you-I know you are all the happier for it. I am sorry for poor Hoods-hope he was insuredI have had a letter from Mr Smith in which he says he believes my family are well I have been looking for a letter from Mr Cooney I wish he would write to me and thus furnish his fine thread of discourse and I should be happy to exchange letters with him as often as time would permit. I know I have lost much in not having begun a correspondence with him from my first coming here last year, and have kept it up during this short session his letters would have been highly valued by me, and I now regret that I did not more seriously weight the matter I think I mentioned in my last letter that Sleeper and Snow had been here-they have gone to the falls-while here George accompanied them on board the Steamer Toronto among the "Thousand Islands"-they are or present an extraordinary scene of little wooded Islands varying from the size of dinner table to that of several square miles-few or no inhabitants upon them-woodcutter's huts are to be seen upon the larger ones & small trees and thick brush growing on most all of them forming a good retreat for the Buckaneer-"Bill Johnson" Maj-R [Richardson] has been here-I have met him. Spoke of his books-he appears to me to be a cheerful and agreeable man, looks rather IndianyMiss McClellan obtained his works and read them from my recommending them last year when at the falls-but does not like them-he has published a third work-"War of 1812 First Series"-he

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gave me a copy-I find it interesting-I hope you will visit-Sherbrooke & Compton & Troy-& make yourself happy-George is quite-so he says he sees nothing in the united States to envy-Mr Shaw one of the Common Council of this city says he is a fine British Boy-full of British feelingLast night we rode from Parliament House at a late hour in a cab We came upon a full moon-Oh gracious it seemed as though we were in the clouds, and thunders rolled all round-George says this would be good for Elizabeth-I thought she might be brough in time to like it-I will just add my love for your ma and you with all the best from your affectionate father M. Child 9

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

My dear wife Kingston yth Oct. 1842 It is too bad that your letter should have not reached me till last night at 12 oclock having been written on the 2Qth ult.-I had tried to find an apology for you-but that difficulty is now got over with satisfactorilybut I can not pardon the Post for keeping it 8 days when it should have brought it to me in 4-! am glad to hear from you and that every thing is as well as could have been expected-I regret that Mr. Bird has not paid that attention which I had good reason to expect he would when I left home to the chores.-This must be a short letter as I am just preparing to leave Kingston-George has become very uneasy to go-the novelties of the place have become common place to him and he sighs to see Coaticook again I do not wonder—his habits and inclinations are decidedly good-I fully appreciated the anxiety you must feel when he did not arrive-till my letter should explain the cause and I hastened it on that A / c-I hope we are none of any the worse for these trials-I was so surprised when he came back as to be unable to speak to him for a moment I took him by the hand and led him out of the House in stareing [sic] astonishment-he is quite well we shall leave as soon as we I can be be released-the Session was eked out several days beyond what was expected and may last till monday or Tuesday next-I think it should not adjourn till monday at least, members should not be tempted to break the Sabbath-There is nothing new hereMr Wittington's family are well-I have had but little time to see them and other kind families with whom, I have been intimately acquainted since I came here-It has been a working tho" short Session-I have applied myself for the benefit and information of Stanstead folk-as well as I know how-the best could not do more-we have decided the question as to Kingston being any longer the Seat of the Government-by a

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large majority—41— against and 20 for it over y3 for removing—we may be obliged to come here to hold one Session more as it will require some time to prepare the necessary buildings for our accommodation at the place his excellency shall see fit to move it to-It is the prerogative of the Crown and I have no doubt he will be advised to make Montreal Seat of Government in future; as soon as that is done you & Elizabeth can at little fatigue witness the proceedings of our House and join in the gaieties of a Provincial Court. As yet we have not had any treats but dinners & consequently seen no ladies-I have been freer from illness than last Session-but not without apprehension-small pox has been in Mr. Gordhams family-But we have been safe from its effects by that most valuable preventative "vaccine pox" which my parents were careful to see that all their children were carefully enolulated with, in their youth; and we in our turn have as carefully followed-Mr. Gordham's little boy is an object of human suffering to [.?.] pity from the coldest heart-he took it from some one of the servants, these always have it in their bundles of old duds and it is consequently kept in the city the year round-It would be a good regulation to strip them, when they arrive, and burn every rag they brought and re-clothe them at the public expense-I have no fear now for myself & George-the danger is over & our minds easier one night I was quite fi[d]gety-went out at 12 o'clock at night and got vaccinated-but it had no more effect upon me than so much skim milk put upon my thumb nail-. I paid %. for it tho"-I am truly sorry to hear that our cousin T Child has met with an accident likely to be so serious in its consequences-it is a sad thing for him and I have great fears for his life-I sent a paper to Mr. Sumner some to Eryn Thomas, I have sent off a packet of these [three?] today to your address for several of my friends they will see my defence of them from an attack from Mr. Moffatt of Montreal8 I got cheered from all sides of the House.I shall be glad to get home again but I cannot say when day you may expect me-In the mean time accept my love-you & Elizabeth-in which Geo. joinsYour Affect, husband, M Child

1O

MARCUS TO LYDIA

House of Assembly My dear wife Kingston 8th Octo "42" I wrote you yesterday and I having been a little too late for the boat did not get off myself & George for home we now intend to leave K on

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Tuesday next which will be the 11 th and shall be in Montreal on the 12th at night-where we shall remain a few days to buy goods-I hope the team, I spoke of, will get in about the 15th and the memo-will be found at that-place when I get there-We are in excellent health-George is very uneasy to go home-and to get out to the Coaticook again-I am glad Elizabeth has got out to Compton-I hope she will be willing to go more often than she has done, heretofore. I hope things go right at the store-I am afraid Everett's experience will not be quite equal to every duty-tho" I think he will do his best to keep every thing in its place and not allow any poor fellow to obtain credit that will never pay.-Give my kind love to my sisters-at the line and to H and his wife-I have not written them-if the Session had continued longer I should have done so, but as it is short they must, as I know they will, excuse me. I must till you that yesterday I had an interview with His Excellency-Saw the frost had killed the ladie's flowers, the aide's room was filled with them they looked like a potatoe field in the Townships after a frost-I hope you have escaped such a calamityAccept my love M. Child 11

MARCUS TO MAJOR R I C H A R D S O N , K . S . F . , KINGSTON

Sir Kingston 8th Octr. "42" A desire to give you a more substantial proof of-my approbation of your work entitled "War of 1812" in an other way and place must be my apology for not sooner acknowledging the receipt of a copy of it-which I have read with great pleasure and beg leave to assure you that I believe it cannot fail of being both useful and entertaining to the youth of CanadaI have the honor to be your friend & obt. [.?.] M. Child 12

ELIZABETH TO MARCUS AND LYDIA

My dear Parents Newport Sept i8th 1843 I hardly know how I shall excuse myself to you for my delinquency in writing but visiting is any thing but favorable to the carrying into effect of good resolutions at any rate those regarding punctuality in writing. I shall not be able to palliate the matter in any better way than by giving you a little account of my journeyings to and fro on the face of New

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Hampshire. When I wrote you at Guildhall I expected to leave in a day or two for Littleton and that Betsey would carry me there. I had then made a longer stay than I at first intended on account of Miss Sarah being absent with the chaise. Well after waiting a week longer I at length resolved to go in the stage but Gen Cushman insisted upon my waiting a day or two longer in the hope that there might be some one with whom I might get a ride. But none offered so that I finally came in the stage to Littleton. I found Mr Bellows family pretty well and very glad to see me as well as all my other acquantances there which would have made it very delightful had it not been that the recollection of Miss Bellows would often come over me with the consciousness that something that used to make Littleton so pleasant was wanting. I found very little change otherwise in the family save that Mr William Bellows who used to be in Boston is now in his brothers family and studied law in his office. Moreover they some small additions in the way of olive plants. Master Josiah the eldest is a very strange boy but does not lack intelligence, Stella the second is at Walpole, so I did not see her, but Frances the youngest is the sweetest little fairy I ever saw and yet not a beautiful child. I spent a couple of days with Mrs Ely very delightfully, they do not now reside in the village, but live near the sythe factory in a very neat pretty house which will be pleasantly located when they get the crooked places, straight and the rough places smooth. I spent but a short time at Littleton and was not able to see all my friends that I should like to, I came there on Friday remained during the next week and left the week after on Tuesday. I rode out to Lisbon and found that Saml Bishop had gone to Iowa about a year since and moreover that if I had found him he was too poor to pay any thing. I was at Major Little's who still lives in L. he made many enquiries after you father and both him & Mrs L desired their compliments as did Mr Bellows family & Mr Ely's. I came down to Haverhill in company with William Bellows, through as beautiful a country as I think can be found any where. From Haverhill to Hanover I rode with a Mr. Blaisdell to whom Mr B. introduced me. We arrived at H-about twelve o clock at night and started next morning for Claremont at five. When I reached C-I found that there was no stage for Newport until the next morning and had locked myself up to stay until the stage went when they came and told me that there was a man coming who would bring me over for a dollar, a reasonable price for coming ten miles, but I disdained to beat the creature down as I was rather at his mercy and left him to the delightful consciousness of having cheated me. I found Ann very pleasantly situated and living in very good style. The most enviable part of her establishment is the library which I should like to spend my time in the next six months. I have felt very unhappy whenever I have thought that I ought

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to return home before you left father [.?.] have had quite a struggle between my desire to stay here and finish my visit and my wish to see you before you leave, but do not think it best for me make a visit now that I have come so far and shall probably never visit Newport again? I am afraid you will think I am wanting in affection but I really dread to set out almost immediately after coming here to return home. I hope you will appreciate all my feelings and believe me your affec daughter EH Child Best love to all

1 2A

ENCLOSURE

ELIZABETH TO LYDIA

My dear mother I have this morning written further and have left the letter open for your perusal but I will avail myself of the frank Mr Burke has given me to write you a few words And first let me beg you not to be anxious about me for indeed I am exceedingly comfortable and I shall write what time I shall be at home so that you can worry while I am on my journey but seriously there is no necessity for you giving yourself any uncasing and Ann why do you not like a dutiful niece keep up ma's spirits? I arn rather anxious to make as long a visit as I can for it will undoubtedly be long before I shall enjoy the like again, and I mean after I have paid a short visit at Compton this fall that you shall dismiss Mamselle Sophie and we will try and be independent of meddling mothers or stupid daughters. I suppose it is almost unnecessary to ask you if you succeeded in making the Dahlia blossom the cold weather or frost came on so early, had it not been for that there has been beautiful weather lately for the blossoming of fall flowers. The fruit here was all cut off and I have been unable to satisfy myself with anything but a few pears which were decent and no more. I shall not be able to make a very great collection of plants to bring home but I shall get all I can. I got some crimson and yellow tulip bulbs and snowdrops at Littleton and Ann is to give me a Burgundy Rose (which you know has long been my desire) as well as some slips, no very great additions but every little helps. I expect from what father wrote to be highly delighted with the plants when I get home, and I shall moreover be very glad to see you all again. Father said if I needed more money to send for it and Mr GM [George] Child would honor my bills. I wish that you would send me ten dollars I shall not use it all but I wish to make some little purchases and moreover I wish to feel independent of these sharks and sea serpents otherwise stage-drivers and landlords. I never saw a more worth-

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less miserable set of creatures than such characters generally are. I wish Ann would write me what has transpired of moment since I left Stanstead. Give my love to all who enquire for me and my dear relatives at the line in particular also Mrs Grannis & Elizabeth Wilks [?] a great deal of love to all I am your affec child EH Child Do write when you get this

1 33

MARCUS TO ELIZABETH

My Dear Daughter Stanstead 22th Sep 1843 We were glad to hear from you this morning-your affect, letter of the 18th presents a picture of your peregrinations & while you are enjoying the excellent society of your school friends and acquaintances, altho" we feel anxious for your health and safety-yet are much gratified with your report of the kind reception you have met with-I should have been pleased to see you at home before my departure for Kingston-But however great this pleasure I would not have you cut short your visit-at the same time we advise you not to extend it into cold weather and beyond the limits of propriety-I think it was too long at Guildhall, as you will not, at such rate, get home till Christmas-Our kind friends at Newport will consent to your early return, I have no doubt.—And if you need funds-send home for them-Geo. is head clerk, and will honor your Bills, in my absence. I shall go on the 26th inst. your Mother is as well as usual-Ann came home a few days ago—perfectly independent—!—The buildings of S. Pomroy Esq. with nearly all their contents-the family escaping en chemise-were burnt on the 11 th inst. The work of an Incendiary who was immediately arrested by a party who set off by the light thereof and brought him six miles-before the day broke-your mother and about i oo ladies honored-the Court of Enquiry with their presence and contributed very much to enhance the solemnity of the scene-The Prisoner (Jared F. Blanchard) was assisted in his defence by Messrs. Johnson & Colby of Derby vt.-Mr. B Terrill for the Crown, their arguments were excellent-the fellow was fully committed; and nothing but the Royal mercy can save his neckI shall expect to hear from you at K.-and you will do well to write me there-from Newport-which will keep me informed of your "whereabouts "-In the place of John, I have Thomas de Goto now as a servant man-Sopha, the servant Girl, your mother likes-but not under the control of her mother and as she is troublesome in this way-I think she will be dismissed.

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The plants look splendidly-All our friends are well-and all is wellonly your absence creates anxiety-lest-you might be crushed among the granite rocks. To Mr. & Mrs. B-& her parent & grandparents, present our united & kind regards and our love en mass for yourselfYour Affect father M. Child 14

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

House of Assembly My Dear wife Sept. goth 1843 I am quite happy to be here and in perfect health-yesterday there was nothing done neither is there any meeting of our house today-On Monday next our house will begin the consideration of the answer to the Speech-which has done the Townships the compliment never before rec.d from a Speech from the throne-It says there is no money (a fact which we must enquire into) but if there was-our roads would come in for a good share of itYou will see the Speech in the papers-I am not yet settled in my lodgings-I am expecting them within a few rods of the House at a new establishment called the "Pavilion"-The Seat of government question is the all absorbing topic in this place-poor Kingstonians will mourn its loss I fear-and that not many months hence-I am sure it will go to montreal-before an other Session-and then I shall see you oftener than now-I have only time to say that I am better pleased with the turn business is taking than I expected when I left home—give my love to all my relations-and respect for all who ask after me-with kind love [.?.] to you & Geo & Ann I remain your affect Husband M Child 15

M A R C U S TO L Y D I A

Legislative Assembly My dear Wife ist Octo. 1843I wrote you yesterday-since then I have decided upon my lodgings at the "Royal Pavilion" which is entirely new and is the nearest to the Parliament House of any quarters, so good as it is.-We have a very pleasant and agreeable company of lodgers-Mr Dewitt-Cap. Steele, Mr Williams, Mr. Thorbourn, Mr Thompson, Mr. Judah, Mr Hale and your humble servant.-Thus, you see I am well provided for in case we

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sit late. I shall not walk much farther than, from our house to the Academy,9 and that, on a plank side walk which is kept clean-When I arrived, there was not a full attendance of members-3O absent, however, they will be here shortly-the [.?.] that the Tories intend to make upon the Cabinet, headed by Sir Allen A McNab,10 will bring up the whole of the absent ones-yesterday I attended the debate in the L. council upon the Speech-and the reader of the Cabinet (Mr Sullivan) among many other things which I have not room nor time to mentionstated that a Bill was to be brought in by the Cabinet to impose a duty on American produce-I am thus relieved from a work of great care and labor-as I was pledged to the county to bring in the said bill if the government did not-and now it will be more surely carried and I hope it will be as beneficial to the interests of that great and important class of the population of Canada-It has strong [support] from the "Free Tradeites"-but not all, many of them (& I am one) who wave the doctrine to meet a contingency which cannot, in any other way, be guarded against-(that is u.s. duty on us)-11 The deficiency in our revenue will prevent any grant for the plank road, this year, but the Speech allows that we should have it when we can get the money into the chest-Business looks promisingly.-When we get engaged-I shall enjoy myself-now I am only an unsettled looker on-but it is so with all the members till after-the work of the Ministry is laid before us-I shall turn my attention to giving some written directions to George tomorrow or next day—I am not entirely free from fearthat he may be led into some irregularities by vicious boys-& Stanstead Plain has a good share of them. I hope he will listen to, and obey your kind advice and sober example-The weight of all the responsibility rests on your shoulders, in my absence: and I trust [?] a proper sense of it, will induce in your mind and feelings the most profound sobriety of deportment-"a word to the wise is sufficient"-perhaps you will write to me-nothing can supply that pleasure-so well-my love to you & all the familyI am Affectionately Your M. Child p.s. I saw Mr & Mrs Cooney in montreal and answered their kind enquiries for you & E & G & Ann-was sorry to stay so little there—I had an excellent journey here-reached St Johns before dark-next morning by Ra' Road to montreal-and the following day's-stage to LachineChieftain Steamer to Cascades and stage to Cote des lac (got my cane at the Ceders) and by Highlander Steamer to K-in 26 hours in all, from montreal and weather most excellent all the way-Yesterday went to Gov.t House to pay my respects to Sir Charles-the Governor Generalcalled on Mrs. Hales and Revd. Mr. Ritchie-this morning am going to

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hear him preach-heard from Mr & Mrs Hetherington who are pleased with Toronto and are quite well-Miss McClellan is in K-I am told, have not seen her I hope Elizabeth will, as soon as she comes home, write to her acknowledging her present and apologising for not doing it before-I can send it to her at Toronto if necessary-Dont delay writing me respecting matters at home-for which, I feel anxious-I did not see Charles Kilborne in Montreal-he was out-but I hope he will assist George in the store when necessary It is now meeting time so-good by till tomorrow and I shall write you from my new lodgings-on the margin of Lake Ontario-"Royal Pavilion" Two large turtle from N.T. [.?.] in a vat in front-for the comfort of our tastes-, "Turtle Soup" does not fall to the lot of every one Yours [...] M Child l6

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My dear Wife 3 Oct. "43" Today I am happy to say my health is still good and that I am settled in my lodgings at the "Royal Pavilion" where I am very comfortable-the fare is very much superior to that of "Burk [Brock?] Street"-and I can step out and get my tea now and return and still find the some [sic] pedant speaker-spouting away at what he thinks a great grievance-a public good-I am tired of such prosing nonsense and I think the listeners are and I wish the readers of Reported debates wereLast night we voted an answer to the Speech and today the House will concur in it and after it is presented-we shall get an [?] abundance of Despatches and public accounts-for our examination & on which, with the thousands of petitions which are flowing in, like-swollen mountain streams-we shall found, I hope, many useful measures for the satisfaction of our constituentsI called at Mr. [.?.] and he took Mr. Burk's letter and assured me it should be sent immediately to Miss [.?.] whom I expect to get acquainted with the Kingston folk were never profuse in their civilities, and now less so-as they look on us as the cause of the removal, from them, of the Seat of Government-The weather has been, and is still, warm and windy. Ontario laves its shores incessantly-in my bed, it sounds a constant tho' loud-aid to quiet sleep-I am not yet sufficiently at leisure as to give particular directions respecting business and domestic affairs I expect in a few days that it will come over me and then

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you will soon see what is to be done-in the mean time consult your own judgement and George's great experience-and I shall feel satisfied I think Elizabeth will be at home or I would write her—yet she owes me a letter which I expect every day to receive from N.H.-! send you the "News" have ordered the "Chronicle" for John Chamberlain and hope he will get it regularly and if he does perhaps will oblige you with its reading-There is not much as yet but Routine business and questions of Election and Privilege and these mix up too much angry feelings to please quiet Back-woods folk lik [sic] the Stansteadites. I have had one letter from Hatley and one from George ville and have written many to my constituents-The new commission of the Peace is out before I came here and I have the satisfaction of seeing my name in the place to which I am entitled and the names of my traducers-(during the troubles) struck off altogether and that too from causes entirely and distinctly unconnected with myself or my Knowledge-There is a riteous Providence that rules & brings about its good designs-and causes the Oppressed to go free and the Oppressors to come to naught.-Give my love to all who deserve it & respects Your Affect M CHILD 17

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife 4th Oct "43" I wrote you yesterday under the influence of the feelings consequent upon hearing of the Death of Uncle Levi Bigelow12 I cannot forget him, because he was the means of giving me guidance and support in a course of life at an early & difficult period of youthful life-which has led me to honor and usefulness, and comfort; far above my expectations and deserts; and for which, I look upon his industrious and virtuous example as greatly contributing-I feel it so and thus his death has affected me deeply, and I am sure you will appreciate my feelings because he was as near to you, as to me, by the ties of blood, and but less so in personal good wishes and acts of kindness in early life.-I wrote my own Mother, on the subject, yesterday and sent a paper containing the notice of his death to your Mother-I am pretty well this morningexcept fatigue from long sittings upon the debate respecting the removal of the Seat of Gov.t to Montreal-we sat the 2d inst 8 hours and yesterday we sat 12 hours and we came to a vote which stood~32 & 33-Majority for Montreal,-So we s[h]all now go there next Session,

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and then you will see me coming home during the Session and I shall have the pleasure of seeing my wife or daughter or both among the ladies, who will visit the Provincial Court.-The House has been crowded to the extreme, by Lords and ladies-Bishops, commanders of the forces, and an emense press of the commonality for several days past during the Debate on the Bill to put down Orange & Secret Societies, and the Seat of Gov.t-The former Bill is now passing, the Ladies have invaded and have occupied the back seats in one side of our House and they still occupy them-I wish there were two of them where there is one-their presence modifies the rancour of party feeling in debate, and disposes to public decency & pleasantry from debatersThey are handsome and dignified; mostly french ladies, and I am sure in appearance would grace any assembly.-I have not the pleasure of being acquainted with any one of them, but Mrs. J.S. McDonald;13 whom I spoke of in a former letter.-I have given directions, which will reach you before this does, respecting the Beef-cow-and also those I wish to have fed-The quantity of potatoes you say raised, is far greater than I expected-I hope, as we have no hogs to fatten, that some of these potatoes will be judiciously fed to the cows which have been at my Brother's and also the one we have milked during the summer-I think if provender is brought to the store some of it should be ground and while the same is given to these cows-they should have potatoes at the same time-say-every gd feed should be meal and the other two potatoes-and-give them water each day-and keep them up in bad weather and let them lay out in fine & warm weather I trust Elizabeth has got home and that, immediately, I shall have a letter from her to inform me of her safe return and health and happiness at home-and that, which she has derived from her visit among her school friends My stomach was last night affected by the close and heated air of the House so that I did not feel well till a late hour after I went to my lodgings-Mr. Holmes attempted to go out for fresh air and fell in a fainting fit, he is better this morning-I am quite well and do not feel any pain from last nights' heat-We shall not have another crowd like that which we have had for several nights, as the great questions of this Session will have been disposed of, and no disappointed politician will hardly find ground, on which to place his foot, the remainder of this Session.-The weather is cloudy and cold-ground is frozen-and the leaves are very much fallen from the trees, as to render the face of the country quite wintry-no snow lies long here-this morning 10 sail were at one time in sight-the commerce of Lake Ontario is quite large and is quite active at this season of the year-carrying the products of the soil

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to the hungry Inhabitants of the British and West India Isles, and that commerce is destined to increase to an extent which we can hardly concieve of.-The Gov't. at Montreal will increase the value of our Market and also that of our farms in the eastern Townships more than any thing that has ever yet taken place-And I hope the people will not abuse these advantages-I am not a little amused with opinions which are published and expressed in the E-townships-And really I am quite ashamed of them for such unwise and hurtful opinions-They frequently weaken the influence of their members in the House-And it is a pity they cannot see it. I used to think they were a moderate people but really their opinions as expressed thru certain channels are any thing but creditable to them or useful to their public character or interests Accept my love M Child 1O

M A R C U S TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly 5th Octo. "43" I am happy to inform you that my health has suffered the least from the effect of the bad water in K-The water, where I now board is better than in Brock Street and hope to avoid so much suffering as heretofore The business is now progressing but slowly-the old parties to the Rebellion [...] needs fight over and over for the 101 times their battles and I am heartily sick and I am sure the country is, of the hearing or reading such angry and useless debates-I dined last evening with Sir Charles Metcalfe and found the water good-the wine I presume was—the fish was in usual keeping—soup such as might make an alderman weep for joy-The Mutton of proper age and flavor-the Turkey good-and the Partridges superior-Ice cream-&: fruits-in great profusion-I cannot describe the dinner nor the party-even were I capable of doing so as I have not time nor space-Must leave it to your fertile imaginations.-I hope every thing goes on well at home, that the potatoes are now being harvested-and housed-if you need any advice. I hope to have the pleasure of giving it in answer to your letter which I have not but hope to receive-it every day I cannot say much now as all is bussle and scramble-and my mind is very much occupied in keeping the interests of my County in view-I feel that my position gives me influence within the Cabinet, and hence-many persons-that heretofore-never recognised me or deigned to smile-when they did-now [...] o[b]sequiously I shall keep posession,

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or try hard to do so, of the well earned power that now posess-and do justly-to others as well as myself-Give my kind love to Mr. & Mrs. Brock and my relatives-to Walter & Laura and all at home-yourself firstYour Affection Husband M Child ig

LYDIA TO MARCUS

Stanstead My dear Husband, Oct-8th 1843 The third kind letter from you received last evening, found we all in good health, and very glad to hear that you had a good journey good health and spirits and are comfortably situated in Kingston I hope Mr Gurdham's family do not feel hurt that you have exchanged their quiet place, for the semblance of in name of Royalty, perhaps you may be more comfortable. Parliamentary business is indeed rather a dull subject to us backwoods people I hope it is more interesting to the immediate actors in it. I received a short letter from Elizabeth dated Oct-snd and one for you left open for my perusal; I fully concur with her respecting George, he does tolerably well excepting leaving the store too much he says he is lonesome and I presume he is, as there is very little to do, Charles Kilborne was up Friday and Saturday but I suppose we will not be here much. Thomas does very well about the work, and he and I have tried our strength, and the prospect now seems fair for a comfortable campaign, but how long before there may be another outbreak I know not he was very turbulent and saucy assumed direction over George or to find fault with him for not being in the store which George would not bear and was angry then-Thomas came to me and said if I would pay him he would go I told him he had better not mind what George had said that I would speak to him which I did and could not so much blame George although they were both angry and said what they should not; but the most curious part of the story is to come; the evening of that same day Mr. Sumner came here wishing to see you upon some business but said he could not stop over night, I urg'd him to have his horse put in while he took tea and went to see Mr Terrill he consented and went into the yard himself and asked Thomas to put up his horse, Thomas said there were a great many came here with their horses and they were put in the barn and that was all Mr Child got for it and after some further parley told Mr S. he might put his horse in the barn himself I said nothing to him that night but the next evening George left something in the waggon which he should have brought into the house and Thomas says he leave his things about every

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where and he dont stay at the store he all play he aint nothing nor never will be; well I thought that was a little too much and told him he was medelling with what was none of his business that George did not interfere with his work and he was not left in charge of George or the store and that I not did like his behaviour about the horse that the like never happened before that you was in the habit of having your hired man take the care of your horse or any other that came here, he said a good deal about getting along with the work and that he did not wish to be like a slave at the South that he had got some thing to live on and if I did not like him pay him and he would go away I told him I had no fault to find with his work but I thought he took advantage of your being gone and did as he would not if you was here that you told me [...] you had hired a man to do whatever we wanted and to chop all the wood he could beside, and I came away and left him; this was the early part of the evening, before bedtime he came to the dining room door and said he wanted to speak with me, I said what do you wish to say? He said he was sorry for what he had said and done I told him that was sufficient and I hoped the like would not happen again; and he has been very good since. It seemed as if last week all the vexations had been put together and were shaking out, the day the sewing society met, Ann went into the kitchen bedroom and took up the old shawl and out came a cake of chocolate I enquired of Sophie how it came there, she said it was one Mrs Mar gave Louise, I walk'd in company with Mrs. Mar's sister to Mr Kilborns and asked her if they had given Louise any chocolate she said they had not any in the store and had not had any I then knew that it was taken out of the buttery I charg'd it to her and she denied it until I told what Mrs. M's sister said and I told her if it was not that her mother had more than she could keep from starving I should not keep her another day. she staid until the next night and then took her departure for good Mr Smith's people have sent John away, and what they all live upon I do not know, they expected their father Saturday night but he did not come, Sophie has had the three dollars she seemed to feel badly when she came to take her clothes and I gave her some good advice which I hope she will follow, she's far better than her mother Mrs. Jondreau thinks John intends to come in the night and take store and all Thomas sat up late Saturday night to watch for him; I do not think he will come at present he prefers to have the family living upon the neighbors Monday afternoon, We are all well to-day Thomas has gone to Mr Harvey's for some apples. Yesterday afternoon we had a lecture from Mr Milner Mr Brock was not present, but in the morning gave out that the Sabbath school for the future would be attended at two oclock in the afternoon, preaching at 6 in the evening. Mr Hall and his congregation attended the lecture

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from the agent of the Bible Society Elizabeth requested a little money to be sent her I do not know but she will be obliged to stay until winter George has borrowed money to pay Mr Chandler and he says it is of more consequence to pay that, than to send Elizabeth money, no one has paid money that you expected would do so. I intended to have written something beside grievances but was interrupted and now have only time to say that you must not expect long letters but write us as if you did, when Elizabeth returns you will have a more regular correspondent We have found that Mr [.?.] and Sybby are going to Massachusetts next week Mr. Andros takes them part of the way I hope this will find you well and happy and I wish the little troubles of life did not affect me so much but I must try and rise above them. I know I ought to do so be that as it may I remain as ever your affectionate wife Lydia Child 2O

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My dear Wife 9 Octo. 1843 I have written you several letters and not one has been, as yet, answered-I hope you are not, nor any of the family sick, and thus have been prevented writing me-The proceedings at this place attract attention, now from every part of Canada and you are not the only wife that looks with anxiety for the welfare of a husband neither am I the only husband that writes a multitude of letters home to an affectionate wife-I hope I am the only one that gets no answer-I shall not complain perhaps you are not well or some of the family-Yesterday it rained very hard all day in the evening there was an ordination in our Chapel 6 preachers present-Mr. Hetherington, Mr Booth were of the numberThis morning I took breakfast at Mr Hales [Halls?] at the cottages-Mr. Hetherington, Mr Dome Mr Ritchie were there-Mr. Ritchie is a beautiful preacher and an agreeable, & companionable and learned manToday the message came down from Sir Charles respecting the Seat of Government and it makes a great stir in K-and truly it is hard for them, who have expended so much money in building under the faith of the late Lord Sydenham who it seems led the Kingstonians to believe that it should never be moved-I am not sure it will; but-if it is not, the majority of our house will be greatly disappointed-The question will be taken up in a few days and it will be carried by a majority of-about 13 if all are present-there will be a call of the House and then all must be present that are not sick; many members of the western section com-

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plain that Her Majesty should have declined to fix herself, upon the place-I take Her reference of the question to our House as a compliment that Sovereigns seldom pay to Provincial Commons and if we can please ourselves in its settlement-She will be no doubt greatly pleased and the danger of seeing-a collision arrive again between the Crown & the Commons. I am [...] quite busy in attending to our public interests-the duty on cattle is soon under consideration and will no doubt pass-as the cabinet have consulted a large number of members in Council on the rates-$3-65 on an ox was proposed but I made a grand speech and moved to raise it to $5.00 an ox and carried it-So much for that matter There are so many improvements in the laws now laid before the House that I have not yet had time to read them all with that attention which they require, but I shall tho" for I am not inattentive to any thing that is before the House-I have drunk liberally of the mineral spring and find the water there of beneficial It is near my lodgings and I go early-in the morning-sometimes the first one there-The waters very like Alburgh-only a little more salt and not so much sulphur I have written to George today or rather sent it off today-I really hope he is an obedient and faithful and will make me very happy with his good management in my absence-I am sure he will feel a pleasure in striving to obtain my approbation.Give my love to him and Ann and all the rest and all who enquire after me and for yourself all that love to which you have so just a claim and which I hope you will merit by writing me soon a very long letterThe House was crammed with hearers tonight and among whom were lots of ladies-but none that I knew-And now I must draw to a close or add an other sheet-which will not find patience to read-from your Affect. M Child 21

GEORGE TO MARCUS

Dear Father Stanstead Oct gth 1843 This morning as I have leisure I set down to write you a letter; Their are a great many things which I do not know anything about. First the brick which you had of Mr Clark how much was you to pay him a thousand. You paid him two dollars the day of the circus and I paid two dollars since which he said if it was not wright he would make it so when you come home, another is about Mr Mansue the cloth he got of you last spring if it was not so goode a quality he is to pay the difference. The glass that you sent for has come but it is Vermont glass and Mr Peck was at Stanstead on the 4th of this month stating that the glass

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that he sent was Vermont glass but he did not think but that he was doing wright-until he look at your bill and their found that we had Essex glass and I told him that Essex glass was the kind we wanted and that 1 0 + 1 2 was wanted the most and he expressed great deal for the mistake which had taken place.14 I told him that he must take that back and send the kind we wanted and also he said that if you wo[u]ld buy your nails of him he would put them at 3 ^4 dollars a keg and reckon interest on the money. I received a letter from Boston soon after you left dated the 3Oth Sept from Chamberlin & Whitney concerning the notes of Mr. Case and also a letter from Montreal dated the 25th Sept from L. [?] G. MacKenzie concerning Cussimese. I will send them to you if it is your desire and their is another thing that I wish to know about when shall I get Capt Clemence to come and make repairs on the Barn lay the plank and wright up the Log stable and do all these and if you will be so kind as to write in your letter what you want done to the stable. I want you should get me a Hat in Kingston oil cloth covered if you will. I have nothing more to say than that we are all well and we all send our love to you and O. You do not know how I should like to go to Kingston now. Elizabeth is Newport it she has for more money and I can not get it I have to rais money to pay Mr Chandler because I could not get it of Mr Pomroy or Mr Knight I can not send the money that I get of these persons to you. I shall have to pay it out here and another thing is that you must get when you come home that is a pair of Platform scales for I have a great many times wanted to use them and obly You son George M. Child 22

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife 11 Octo 1843 The weather is most delightfully fair and warm-there is now a full attendance of members and probably will be till after some great questions are settled, among which are-the Seat of Government and Administration of Justice in Canada East and the appropriation for public works-from yesterday's proceedings I am encouraged to expect some success in our provincial road from Chambly to W. Hereford (via) outlet of Lake Memphramagog -This is a grand project and altho' not the first suggester it-yet latterly I am the principal promoter of it, and from my influence with the present Cabinet am inclined to believe shall ultimately carry my point-Mr Jones, member for Missisquoi15

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-will give in his influence if we allow him a branch from this main trunk of Road connecting St Johns and St. Cesaire, and this; also, will ensure the support of my good friend Doc Bouthillier, member for St. Hyacynth[e]-the main line will pass thro the County Shefford, centrally, and consequently-Foster's support will be secured; a branch from the outlet of Lake Memphremagog to Sherbrooke will also secure the support of Mr. Moore and Mr. Hale.l6-I do not place too much confidence in my success for "the best laid schemes of mice & men" you know are often nip'd in the bud-my health is good, never better, and I hope it may continue so-I wish as soon as Elizabeth comes home she would write me-It is very lonesome to be without a letter from you—or George or any one else-My lodgings, as I think I mentioned in a former letter, are very near the House of Parliament-and. the Building which I lodge in is occupied entirely by six members-(viz) Dewitt, Bouthilleer, I.S. McDonal. Holmes-Bolton & myself-and not a disagreeable one among them-our eating Hall is in an other Building distant but a few steps-and altogether I am as well and comfortably situated as I could be in this place-I have nothing of importance to speak of just now routine business is going on in its usual course a good many Bills have been brot in for the time and many of them of-the greatest importance I have not been into the town but once since I came to lodge at the Pavilion, except going to meeting on Sunday-the Chapel is all of a mile distant from me-today I called on some friends in Town-but stopped but a very few minutes. I am better this session that at any previous one-most of our lodgers have been seized with sickness from the water, which it has had but slight effect upon me; and I attribute it to the use of the mineral water which I have drunk about every day-I do not think I shall write you again till I hear from you or George and with that impression I shall bring this to a close by adding loveM. Child 23

LYDIA TO MARCUS

Stanstead, My dear Husband 15th Oct. 1843 Your letter of the 11 th was arrived this morning, George went to the office last night but they said it was past the hour and they should not open the mail last night consequently we were obliged to wait until today I am glad your health continues good. We are quite well except that I feel a bad cold upon my lungs just commencing hope it will not prove very obstinate. I see that the Sherbrooke Gazette is not satisfied

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with the schedule of duties on foreign produce it "falls short of what the agriculturist had a right to expect" I think it should have been equal to the United States duties. He also thinks the "Small Cause Commissioners," should have been allowed a salary; and that allowing minors indiscriminately to collect wages, is offering a premium to boys to run away from their parents or guardians and hire themselves out to others. I should like your opinion upon these subjects; and also to know why a body of men who should comprise the wisdom of the United Provinces can spend their time in foolish and angry debating and calumniating the memory of the dead, and while I am on the grave subject of Legislation What has become of Mr Pattons increase of salary: Mrs Grannis has returned home, and has a great deal of new and interesting matter, such as fashions, the domestic affairs of several families, and many things too numerous to mention however; I was very glad to see her. Elizabeth has not yet returned, but I am expecting her every stage or to hear from her Charles Kilbourne is still in Montreal. George does quite well some of the time but he has times when he says he cannot stay in the store he shall write to Father that he cannot. Albert Knight has filled his store, and Mac, has new goods so there is good deal of running to those places and they pass by our establishment. I do not recollect that you left any directions about the stable and Thomas thinks it ought to be repaired soon, I told him I would write and get your orders about it. The House is banked the sauce all in the cellar except the cabbages Johns family are still here, but say they are going in a few days. Thomas and myself have cleaned the pipe to the large [?] stove to-day and a bad job it was but I was fearful it would burn out, and I found it was quite fill'd Friday morning, all well from your affectionate L Child 24

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife 16 Oct 1843 I was very glad to get the letter your's affords me a picture of your domestic trials and what gives me pleasure is that your authority is acknowledged and that you set enthroned as queen of all within your dominions-The loss of one of your subjects is not, by me, lamented-I had long been suspicious of that family being, all of them pilferers and I hope Thomas, whose submission is likely to be so honorable to him, will look well after them and see that they do not abscond and carry off my store-They will owe me a little rent but I will not mind that if they

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will go at once, before cold weather sets in-I have but little time this morning to write, but shall do so to George and Elizabeth in a day or two-their letters were very acceptable to me and I shall note them particularly-I have sent one no of the "Pictorial Times" and shall send more of-them as a present for George and Elizabeth There is a great press of business on hand-and the measures proposed by our liberal Cabinet extort from the Opposition even praise-!!!-How wonderful -It will be matter of joy to my friends that we have lived to see so perfect an accomplishment of our principles-The Hon. D.B. Viger is Appointed Speaker of the Legislative Council, so says rumor this morning, that body have placed themselves in Opposition to removing the Seat of Gov.'t to Montreal and its Speaker in consequence resigned and my old friend above has been called to fill that high and Hone station-In our House there is likely to be a majority for the removal of the Seat of Gov.t to montreal of over so-Consequently we look to its removal as a thing quite certain-I wish George would write to capt Clements to come and repair my Black Stable-make it warm for the cows-and also get some joiner to put up a board in the dining room where the ceiling is broken and make it as warm as it can be-My health remains good and I enjoy myself pretty well better than I expected when I left home I have not time to add any thing but love to you and all the familyYour Affect. Husband M. Child 2 55

MARCUS TO LYDIA

My Dear Wife Kingston i gth Oct. 1843 You will no doubt be glad to hear from me as often as I have leisure and any thing worthy of notice to communicate-This morning the weather is clear and cold yesterday it stormed and last night when the House adjourned (12)-it was dark and stormy-but while many of our members were groping their way to Town thro.' mud and darkness (Egyptian)-I and my fellow lodgers were quietly, in a good warm room taking our tea and talking over the evening's debates and votes-It was an adjourned consideration of the duties on cattle etc. [?] from the u.s. And altho' I had complained in a former letter of the rate on oxen 2O/-being reduced to i6/-yet last night it was raised unanimously to the 2O/ sterling-For home consumption and what gives me a pleasure I did not expect was no exception is made but for the fisheries and existing contracts with the commissariat; now our farmers will have the

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exclusive privilege of supplying the Canadian Market-including all Government Supplies this fact will give great satisfaction to our farmers and indeed it is a boon-which is to them of the most vital importance and the same will go into immediate operation-a good thing in a very good time-The members from the eastern townships waited on the Governor General this morning to urge the claims for our roads-and we were well received and made to believe that if His Excellency had money at his disposal we should have got what we needed-But he says My Cabinet declare there is no funds, and should none be granted we must be content, but should any be granted to any other section-we should be angry and have good cause to be too-I am quite sure that the Atty. Gen.l (Lafontaine) any grants to Roads founded on the already embarrassed credit of the Province, a position, which does him credit, I must say.-If the revenues of the Colony do not revive under this year's legislation, I am not willing myself to increase our public debt and be at last compelled to direct taxation to save our Character from the odium of Bankruptcy-or what is more immoral "Repudiation"-! hope Elizabeth is at home before this time and that, if not so, Geo. has sent her some funds for that purpose-Tell him to dun the men that owe me money and collect some for such uses-If I had it I would send it to her direct from this place and I hope it is on hand so that no difficulty will be found in supplying as much as she will need for her return home and pay all her engagements during her absence I think the Session will not extend beyond ist Dec.r-Some think it will close sooner, but I do not-We are going on, now, swimmingly, and if no blow up happens, we shall do a great deal of business before that time, as I am sure we shall be very glad to get home before the navigation closes-if not I may return thro" Oswego and perhaps Boston 17-If the debate had been well reported upon the Agricultural duties-it would have been read with deep interest by that class-But Kingston Reporters will report nothing but what relates to their city and members-and so it is with the Montreal reporters-Nothing can be done here without money a £5. down will bring you a pretty good speech tho' you merely rise and utter a few words in the House while those who do not pay, rarlely are mentioned at all in the papers If, however, we can carry our points it matters little what is not said of us-My health continues good-and I am very glad that all are well at home and I hope you will continue so-As the cold weather is setting in you should be careful when you go out.-Make my kind respects to Mr & Mrs Brock and all who ask for me-and love to you & Geo & Ann etc, etc. M. Child

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MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife soth Oct "43" Your kind letter of the 15th came last night, this morning I hasten to answer it-I wrote you yesterday and also George and I hope my expressed wishes and feelings towards him & his welfare, will make a suitable impression upon his mind-I have sent him papers, which ought to engage his attention during leisure hours; and It will give me great pain to find that he has neglected them and has trifled away such opportunities-and spent his time with a class of persons who do not aim to rise to a fitness for any thing in this world, but for the use of a whip & curry comb. I do most deeply feel for his welfare and shall write him again in a few days-his letter was very well written his writing is very good for his age and his style is laconic and very much to the point-And if he improves as he may, will do honor to himself when he arrives at manhood-I am glad things go on better since your domestic commotions. Your Government is now well established and perfect subordination reigns thro' out your dominions-I hope peace and contentment will ever be the effect of your benign and benevolent reign.-The Pictorial Times which I have sent will, no doubt, afford you amusement-the Royal Scenes-the world looks at & dreams-really I was about committing a poetic offence-Against which I must guarde in future and note more particularly the kind enquiries of my friends at S-To them present my best regards-your scolding is deserved-I must confess-The haste in which I am Obliged to write must apologize for the evils you complain of-Our House is perfect Bedlam-Wrangling on all hands in Clamorous tones denies to one calmness and precision-the benefits of which I cannot enjoy unless I go to my lodgings and then I should not be able to improve many moments which I can now catch up in the interests of public duty-The duty is extended to the femenines of the horned race as well and now it is fixed at so/-stg. equal to $4.90 or $5. a head on all meat cattle 4 years old & upwards The conversation to which You refer respecting the poor Frenchproves clearly to me that the statute book is not much read or heeded by the people in the rural districts-I am far from believing that every thing is as well as it ought to be, but until the powers now vested in the hands of the local magistracy are understood and used for the protection of the persons and property and morals of the community-it comes with an ill grace from a conservative leader to complain; and this is what caused me to forget myself and use, not long ago, harsh words towards him-On the other side of the Line they do better, I must allow; and one reason of it is the purveyors of the public peace are

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more intelligent, and the Laws are better understood.-bring those two qualities into our system and then see if the result will not be equally good.I am in perfect health and feel pretty well since the duty was raised to my first proposition—It will now [.?.] stand firmly and I am sure the council will concur in it-The moral aspect of Stanstead is truly gloomy-I pity Mr. Brock-I am sure his task is hopeless, so far as adult hearers is concerned-from the youth he may gather some fruits of the Gospel-but from the other and older classes, he can expect little in this way-for in most instances they have bowed in humble adoration, not to the Throne of the Incorruptable Deity but to that of some inward personal motive, spleen, or passion or revenge-and how can the love of God dwell in such?-It is rank Idolatry-Impious mockery-and borders on the torments of the damned!! Dont let the truth startle your kind and gentle feelings-I would avoid it but honesty compels me to speak out, what is so strongly impressed within.-I have not had the pleasure of seeing Miss Beach-in fact see none of the Kingstonians I seldom go to the city, unless I have business and we lower Canadians are in bad odour with them, because we vote to carry the Seat of Government to Montreal-my love to all the family & friends and neighbours who enquire for Your Affectionate Husband M. Child 27

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife 2 ist Oct "43" Yesterday I wrote you and again this morning a leisure moment cannot be more satisfactorily occupied than in writing you again altho' you have reason to complain that my letters are hardly readable yet I cannot refrain from writing them tho' baren and illegible they may beWhen I begin them I make a good pen & a strong resolution to write them plainly so that you will have pleasure in every way from reading them but when the steam gets up in my cranium my pen becomes racy and irregular and the sheet is full before I am conscious of it and then my leisure will not allow me to review or amend and so you get them in all their primative defects, and at your mercy they lie supplicating consideration of which, I hope they will not be denied nothing new since yesterday-my health continues good and this evening I shall dine with the Speaker I have drunk no wine yet nor beer and shall not unless as a medicine-Mrs DeWitt sent her husband a Box of Apples, of which I have been made a liberal partaker, they are very fine-not even Old

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Bay State [Massachusetts] apples can exceed them in fineness of flavor-I shall try and get some grape vines to bring home with me from Mr. DeWitt's GardenI saw Miss McClellan last week and she told me that the ship, in which she intended to have gone home in had sailed sooner from Quebec than she expected and consequently a school was now her only resort and that she had made preparations to begin in a few weeks. She did not see Mrs Child in N. York last spring could not find her lodgings-she regrets it much & so do I-Our own relative with so much deserved celebrity and cannot be found is quite a pity-I am at a loss to account for itl8-I hope Elizabeth has returned before this as the weather will soon be cold and cheerless then again there is danger in travelling in stages when the roads are muddy and perhaps partly frozen-Today the House does not meet and consequently we have time to work on committees and attend to correspondence with our constituents. Has Dickerson got home yet and if so write me something respecting him what a pity he should not find profitable employment in this Province-I am anxious he should and if any situation offers which he is qualified to fill, I shall use my best endeavours to get it for him if he will apply for it-His long absence is rather against his success, but his family remaining, is in his favor.-Remember me to Walter & Louise and all my relations at Derby-and for You and the family-my love etc. While I remain Your Affect Husband M Child

28

LYDIA TO MARCUS

My dear Husband Stanstead 22nd Oct. 43 Your letter of the i6th was received the 2 ist. is there necessity that letters should be five days in coming from Kingston to this place? We are all well except that my cold hangs on upon my lungs, I have taken freely of Honey and Onions and am not quite as hoarse We have so much wet weather it is impossible not to have colds, we have scarcely had a day of clear sunshine since Oct-came in and to-day the snow has fallen eight inches or more I dont know but a foot deep, if it had not melted some, the ground not being frozen Mrs Howe was here last week and spent a night preparatory to leaving for Mass-tomorrow morning; I doubt if she goes so soon, and perhaps not at all, Elizabeth has not come but Ann received a letter from her last Thursday saying she would be home in a few days I shall expect her this week if the roads are not

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so bad she cannot come. I hope we may have some pleasant weather before winter really comes, but it looks dreary I assure you. George has seen Capt-Clements and he will come next week and repair the stable, the dining room was repaired the same week you left home in the manner you directed. Johns family are still here but I have no communication with them Thomas thinks they will go soon but I have my doubts about their going at all if they can possibly keep from starvation John was here a week ago today I did not see him, said he would come for them in a fortnight. Thomas has spoken about fattening the cow we have milked all summer I told him you left no order with me to that effect but I could know if I wrote you about it; he says she is in good flesh and would fatten easily; we have no other cow and I wish you to write the man who was to let us have one and perhaps he will think to drive her here Mrs. Howe brought two letters written by your sister Lydia last month, a long one to Susan which contained no positive proof of her being a Millerite but expressed great desire for the salvation of her relatives Mrs. Howe's was short but contained a description of the family they were in comfortable health were expecting John in Oct-your brother David and his wife both in N. York, he edits the standard. Lucretia in rather feeble health but Mr. Hoskins well and "on the way to Glory" A thought has come into my mind that I might after your return go to Worcester and spend a few weeks. What do you think of it? please write and let me know. The news came this afternoon that the Horse Boat on Magog Lake sunk yesterday; with great exertions, (when they found the water was coming into the boat) they got so near the shore that nothing was left upon it when it went down and I think it not entirely under water. We have had the most terrible winds I ever knew last Friday afternoon and night it blew a complete hurricane almost; I fear there must have been many shipwrecks. It is now late and I will not seal this until morning as the mail for Mr Gates is not made up or closed until eight oclock I shall have time to say if we are well or not. Charles Kilburn is sick in Montreal so says John Chamberlain who came home to-day Oct-23rd All well this morning the ground covered with snow the eaves just dripping a little. L. Child 29

MARCUS TO LYDIA

My Dear Wife Kingston 2gd Oct. 1843 It is monday morning and all is hurry and bustle every member seeking

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to carry out what he thinks to be the views and interests of his constituents. I say every member-this needs qualification, not more than '/$ of the whole are working members the 2/j merely look on & vote they have a good deal of leizure time-Yesterday I was at chapel Mr Rittchie gave us one of his best sermons-"Come boldly to the House of grace, etc."-The correct view he gave of the relation between us, suppliants, and God (Reconciled) was clear, and to the penitent Soul very encouraging-I could see most clearly, and feel an elevation of hope, which was unusual; when such clear & correct Theological distinctions were drawn.-How often the mind of him, or her, who prays is dark on this point—God is reconciled, ever since the atonement was made & the reason why we do not enjoy a holy access to the Throne of His grace and mercy, is because we are not reconciled to Him; Consequently the great object in Christian warfare and holiness should be to discipline ourselves into a perfect Submission or reconciliation to Him in all things, and then we can with delight sing "My God the Spring of all my joys" the life of my delight" "the glory of my brightest days" and comfort of my nights."-Yesterday it was cold and cloudy.-The past week has been very stormy, but I believe no ships nor boats have been lost on the lakes; tho' some have suffered greatly in stress of weather; from my window I have a view of the Broad Lake-which has been a bounding & foamy billowed surface, on which ships were driven under nearly basepole-There is no mail from here today but this will go tomorrow and perhaps I may write you again before that mail will leaveMrs J.S. McDonal, a Yankee wife to a Highlander,-sat beside your humble servant this morning at breakfast-She is the daughter of a u.s. Senator from Louisiana-speaks french & good english, & is about your size and decent looking and is quite intelligent, as all such are. She says "ladies ought not to espouse the political animosities of their Husbands"-in which sentiment, I concurred, and spoke of the good I had derived from practices of this kind-that my wife poured oil on the troubled waters of political strife and thus saved me a good deal of toil, if not from going to pieces on a lee shore.-She took my arm from the table, and I went to my daily task and she to hers-The husband sat lower down and was much engaged in conversation during the breakfast.-My place, being at the head of the table, imposed this agreeable society of the fair American wife, and not to my disliking, I can assure you.-I ought to be the last man to be displeased with them-It gives me great pleasure to see them excel in all that is virtuous and social and well bred-Our table De Hote is now filled; upwards of 2o-and all select members, no noisy or ill mannered,-some-very highly pollished-They are merchants, bankers, Lawyers and gentlemen farmers-We have all the sects too.-Roman Catholics-Episcopalians-Methodists-(British)

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Presbyterians-and Baptists,-On Sunday each quietly takes his way to offer to his maker and Redeemer his humble worship in his own wayand feel that there is none to molest &c. I am obliged to write so fast that you will hardly read my letters, but I hope you will pardon me, it is better to write them so, than not at all-Yesterday evening I read thro' nearly one volume of the French Revolution and tho' my [.?.] was deeply impressed with the butcheries committed in "place Louis XV" yet I slept in perfect soundness during the whole night & did not wake up till the boy came to make a fire in my stove-I am now several days without any news from you and shall feel anxious till I get some-And now with love to you and all the family & friends I draw to a close M. Child 30

MARCUS TO LYDIA

My Dear Wife Kingston 24th Octo. 1843 Yesterday I wrote you in a hurry and since that time, not much has transpired that is worthy of your notice. Last evening the House went thro with the orders of the day besides doing a good deal of business in receiving petitions, giving notices, reports of committees (which now begins to be frequent) and motions etc etc.-Among other things an Election committee was struck for the trial of a contested election for the county of Russel[l]-When it is again, for the 4th time during this Parliament, my lot to be on the committee, and I find many of my old colleagues on former committees-on this, and now we are obliged to meet preciseely at 11 oclock am, Sundays and holidays excepted, & how long we shall be occupied with the enquiry, I am not able to sayprobably some day, after this the House went again into committee on the agricultural duties Bill and reported it almost unanimously without amendment-the yeas & nays being taken on Mr Blacks motion to read the same that day 3 months, which would have the effect, if carried, to put the Bill aside forever; but only 5 or 6 stood up for such a courseand the friends of Agriculture have the satisfaction of seeing-the government his ex. council.-, and the vast majority of the House, supporting their interests. Stanstead will be for roasting an ox on the occasion, I suppose-they may well do it-after this the House took up the Bill for the suppression of Orange Societies and this brought out a long debate, in which I was induced to be a part.19 (I will send you the paper when the debate is published) I seldom speak in the house, and when I do, it is with the utmost reluctance-I regret the debate on the duties Bill for agriculture, was so poorly reported I send you the "News" in which you will find a few remarks, I had the honor to make

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on that occasion-but my speech on a previous sitting-upon the protection duties scale, was my greatest effort-and hardly a word of it was reported at all-I regretted it, because the constituency ought to see what is said and done by their member-We adjourned at an early hour and last night I had a most excellent nights rest, this morning have been to the mineral spring-taken a bath which I found to be a great luxury, also a drink of the mineral water-and now it is nearly the hour for the meeting of our Election Committee and I must hasten to a close-I have not written yet to Elizabeth as I supposed she would be at home soon, and then, I should write to her-perhaps I may do so today in anticipation of her early return-The ground, this morning, was frozen hard.perhaps you have snow at Stanstead-really the cold weather is settling in early-the new duties Bill is to take effect immediately. The Diocesian College at Lennoxville is now under progress and very little if any opposition is looked for to it20-in fact, there is no intolerance in our House-and I hope never will be-All sects are treated alike and as soon as they are able to support the institutions of the Gospel and schools of literature and Theology-they are sure to come in for their proper share of aid from the public funds and protection (from) under the Laws; if it were not so, we might look for a little "St-Bartholimew" in this country-I see that our Church have in England taken steps, by addressing their members thro'ought the realm, to guard against the effects of "Puesyism"21-! Am glad to see them enforcing those practices which have been, heretofore, so much blessed in building up so large and spiritually prosperous a Society of Christians, as Wesleyan Methodism comprises under its name, in Europe and America. I am in perfect health and with much anxiety wish to hear from home, as some days have elapsed since your last letter-I am sure you will be satisfied with the frequency of my letters if not with their readableness-and barrenness-With love to you, and all the family I am Your Affect' husband M. Child 31

E L I Z A B E T H TO LYDIA

My dear mother Newport Oct. 24^-43 I will just write half a dozen words that you may not be alarmed at my non-appearance as I intended when I wrote last, but an unfortunate fall of snow has detained me just as I had my trunk packed and was ready for a start. I shall now leave so as to be at home by the end of the week

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be the roads what they may. I have been absent now a long time but I hope soon to see you in good health and spirits Your affec EH Child 32

MARCUS TO LYDIA

Legislative Assembly My Dear Wife 25th Oct "43" This morning I have the pleasure (and such I assure you it is true) to read your letter of the 15th inst-(io days reaching me when it should have been only 5 and it might be brought in about 3 1A] there delinquencies are too bad-I have always fell afraid of these colds of yours and the effect they have upon your lungs-and now I shall feel anxious till I hear that you are relieved from it-I must urge you to avoid exposure & immediately take in a defuse state the Fort. Aut. either in water as heretofore-3 grains to a pint and a little ucoluptes in your wine of antimony and while taking it by no means expose yourself to the cold air-The complaints in our quarter that the duty falls short of what they expected are not without foundation-I have done my best to have it acceptable to my constituents and I hope they will give me credit for that while they deplore the deficiency in the duty-But the news from our section this week puts a different aspect on the matter-The Sherbrooke paper publishes the fact (but their facts are not too relied upon) that droves of cattle have been within a few days entered at Derby, and only an average of 2/ 294~5- The previous MLA, James Baxter (elected in 1830) had been elevated to the Legislative Council. St Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, 2 Oct. 1834; Joseph Desjardins, Guide Parlementaire Historique de la Province de Quebec, 1792 a 1902 (Quebec: 1902), 154. 68 St Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, 2 Oct. 1834. 69 Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal dans les comtes de Missisquoi, Shefford, et Stanstead, 1834—1837" (MA thesis, Departement d'histoire, Universite du Quebec a Montreal, 1990), 44-6. 70 The contents of the pamphlet are reproduced in "An Address by Marcus Child," SHS, Journal 6 (1975): 16—24. 71 St Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, 2 Oct. 1834. 72 Gordon T. Stewart, The Origins of Canadian Politics: A Comparative Approach (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1986), 27. 73 Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 46. 74 The Vindicator and Canadian Advertiser (Montreal), 20 May 1834. Quoted in Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal,"

4975 The Vindicator and Canadian Advertiser (Montreal), 10 Oct. 1834, 14 Nov. 1834; St Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, 2 Oct. 1834. Child

158

76 77

78

79 80 81

82 83 84

85 86

87 88

89

90

Notes to pages 15-17 and Grannis, a member of Hatley's correspondence committee, had been nominated by the county committee in September. See BeaugrandChampagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 50—4. Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 65—6. Legislative Assembly, Lower Canada, Journals, 45, 384—5, 23 Jan. 1836; 630, 3 March 1836; Missisquoi Standard (Frelighsburg), 23 Feb. 1836. For details on the British American Land Company, see J.I. Little, Nationalism, Capitalism, and Colonization: The Upper St Francis District (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989), chapter 2. On Whitcher and the Felton clique, see Little, "British Toryism." Missiskoui Standard, 13 Oct. 1835, i Dec. 1835, 15 Dec. 1835, 26 July 1836; H.W. Millar to L.J. Papineau, 24 Aug. 1835, no. 1972, Papiers Papineau, MG24 B2, NA; Thibeault, Samuel Brooks, 81—2. Missiskoui Standard, 21 July 1835, 28 July 1835. See, for example, Missiskoui Standard, 28 July 1835, 8 Dec. 1835. Carroll, Case and His Cotemporaries, vol. 3, 495—6; Francoise Noel, Competing for Souls: Missionary Activity and Settlement in the Eastern Townships, 1784—1851 (Departement d'histoire, Universite de Sherbrooke, 1988), 143. Missiskoui Standard, 9 May 1837. Quoted in Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 161. Describing the religious revival of 1835 in Stanstead, an observer wrote: "Among those who addressed the congregation was Bro. Elias Lee, the venerable father of the Rev. Daniel, and brother to the Rev. Jason Lee, our worthy missionary to the West." Quoted in Carroll, Case and His Cotemporaries, vol. 3, 495. Marion L. Phelps, "Moses French Colby," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9. M.F. Colby, "Electors of the County of Stanstead," 26 Dec. 1836, M.F. Colby Papers, Political Tracts, 1836—51, SHS. See also Farmer's Advocate, 16 Jan. 1837, fragment in M.F. Colby Papers; and BeaugrandChampagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 95—6. See also Farmers' Advocate, 16 Jan. 1837, fragment in M.F. Colby Papers, SHS; and Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 97. Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 104; Fernand Ouellet, Lower Canada 1791—1840 Social Change and Nationalism (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1980), 273. Marcus Child to T.A. Stayner, Stanstead, 2 Dec. 1837 (enclosure), Civil Secretary's Correspondence, no. 130, 1839, pp. 4156-7, RG4 ci, NA. Child's assistance at the border is mentioned in Aegidius Fauteux, Patriotes de 1837—1838 (Montreal: Les Editions des Dix, 1950), 179. Amedee Papineau, Journal d'un Fils de la Liberte, refugie aux Etats-Unis,

Notes to pages 17-20

159

par suite de I'Insurrection Canadienne, en 1837, vol. i (Montreal: Rendition Quebec, 1972), 106—8. 91 T.A. Stayner to Marcus Child, 7 Dec. 1837 (enclosure), no. 1074, 1839, p. 4158, RG4 ci, NA. 92 Marcus Child to T.A. Stayner, 10 Jan. 1838 (enclosure), ibid., p. 4160; Missiskoui Standard, 26 Dec. 1837. 93 W.N. Griffin to Marcus Child, Stanstead, 14 Dec. 1837 (enclosure), no. 1130, 1839, pp. 4154-5, RG4 ci, NA. 94 J.B. Ryan to Louis Perreault, 22 Jan. 1838, no. 2583, MG24 B 2 > NA 95 J.B. Ryan to Louis Perreault, 26 Jan. 1838, no. 2595, MG24 B 2 > NA 96 William Ritchie to W.P. Christie, Stanstead, 8 March 1838, vol. 532, 1838, p. 30, Governor General's Correspondence (incoming), RG4 AI, s Series, NA. See also Ritchie to S. Walcott, Stanstead, 27 Jan. 1838, vol. 530, p. 251, RG4 A I , s Series, NA. For a first-hand account of the January events by one of the militia volunteers, see Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 12—14. 97 William Ritchie to Civil Secretary, Stanstead, 15 Nov. 1838, vol. 554, pp. 381—2; P. Hubbard, Jr, to A. Buller, Stanstead, 30 Nov. 1838, vol. 556, p. 329, RG4 A I , s Series, NA. 98 See Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 14—16.

99 Gazette (Montreal), 20 Nov. 1838. 100 Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 15; Gazette (Montreal), 17 Nov. 1838, 6 Dec. 1838; Missiskoui Standard, 2 April 1839. 101 Memorial of Marcus Child to Governor Thomson, [n.d.], no. 1130, 1839, pp. 4148—52, RG4 ci, NA. 102 "To the Electors of Stanstead,"Stanstead, 27 Nov. 1840, M.F. Colby Papers, SHS. 103 P. Hubbard to Thos. Austin, Stanstead, 17 Feb. 1841, M.F. Colby Papers, SHS. 104 Edward Hale to P. Hubbard (copy), Sherbrooke, 19 March 1840; P. Hubbard to Edward Hale, Stanstead, 8 June 1840, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. Details are in the M.F. Colby Papers, SHS. 105 See Child's letter to Lydia for 25 Oct. 1843; and Provincial Secretary to Thos. Austin, Montreal, 10 March 1841, M.F. Colby Papers, SHS. 106 See Irving Martin Abella, "The 'Sydenham' Election of 1841," Canadian Historical Review 47 (1966): 326—43. 107 Peck later became a friend of Abraham Lincoln and a founder of the Republican Party in Illinois. Lambert, "Ebenezer Peck," 51—3. 108 Andrew Robertson to Edward Hale, Montreal, 5 April 1841, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. Sydenham is said to have made the contest in most of Canada East's constituencies "a struggle between loyalty and rebellion with the Union as the central issue." McCulloch, "EnglishSpeaking Liberals," 105, 124, 129.

160

Notes to pages 20—1

109 O. Morrill to M. Child, Stanstead, 18 July 1841, no. 1329 ^ p. 5160; C.A. Kilborn to M. Child, Stanstead, 26 July 1841, p. 5490—2, RG4 c i , NA; P. Hubbard to Thos. Austin,Stanstead, 17 Feb. 1841, M.F. Colby Papers, SHS. Captain Alexander Kilborn, who was the son of the Loyalist founder of Rock Island, commanded the volunteers in Stanstead early in 1838, as well as the infantry company stationed there the following fall. C.A. Kilborn was a lieutenant in the same company. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 12—14; Marie-Paule LaBrecque, "Charles Kilborn," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6. no Quoted in Ian Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships, 1841 — 1848: A Study in Political Regionalism" (MA thesis, McGill University, 1980), 37—8. Child apparently voted with the government on two amendments to the union bill. McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 135. in Child was reportedly one of the few prominent figures in the Eastern Townships to oppose the union proposal in 1822. St Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, 2 Oct. 1834. 112 Debates of the Legislative Assembly of United Canada (hereafter Province of Canada, Debates), ed. Elizabeth Nish, vol. i, 863, 8 Sept. 1841. 113 Edward Hale to Eliza, Kingston, 14 June 1841, Hale Papers, McCord Museum; Paul G. Cornell, The Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1843—1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), 94; McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 136—8. 114 E. Hale to Eliza, Kingston, 15 Oct. 1843, 7 Oct. 1843, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 115 P. Hubbard to Edward Hale, Sherbrooke, 8 July 1841 (confidential), Hale Papers, McCord Museum. See also John Bellows to E. Hale, Barnston, 12 March 1842, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 116 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Kingston, 13 Nov. 1843. 117 Wright Chamberlin, M.F. Colby, Wilder Peirce, and Francis Judd to Edward Hale, Stanstead, 22 Dec. 1843, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 118 M. Child to E. Hale, Stanstead, 3 Jan. 1844, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. Despite Child's objection that MLAS should not interfere in counties which they did not represent, Hale threw his support behind the Stanstead Conservatives. E. Hale to Ch. Dunkin, Sherbrooke, 15 Jan. 1844, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 119 M. Child to D. Daly, Kingston, 22 July 1841, no.1329*4, 1840-1, p. 5161, RG4 c i , NA. See also Child to Daly, Kingston, 2 Aug. 1841, no. 1419, pp. 5488—9, RG4 c i , NA. 120 Robert Hoyle to Eliza, 19 Sept. 1841, 26 Dec. 1841, 27 March 1842, MG24

B1

4 1 , NA.

121 M. Child to D. Daly, Kingston, 24 July 1841, no. 1321 '/a, 1841, R&4 c i , NA.

Notes to pages 22-3

161

122 E. Hale to Dear Sir (M.F. Colby], Kingston, 24 Aug. 1841 (copy), Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 123 Robert Hoyle to Eliza, Stanstead, 10 April 1842, MG24 B 1 4 1 ' NA Child also "volunteered" to distribute the provincial schools grant in his county in 1843. M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead, 6 Sept. 1843, Lettres recues, no. 200, 1843, £13, ANQQ. 124 See S.J.R. Noel, Patrons, Clients, Brokers: Ontario Society and Politics, 1791—i8cj6 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 131, 135, 138, 150; and Phillip A. Buckner, The Transition to Responsible Government: British Policy in British North America, 1815-1850 (Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 262—3. 125 William Ormsby, The Emergence of the Federal Concept in Canada, 1839—1845 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 108—11; Monet, The Last Cannon Shot, 103—6. 126 Quoted in Buckner, The Transition to Responsible Government, 267. 127 McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 167. 128 Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 43—48; McCulloch, "EnglishSpeaking Liberals," 173; Cornell, The Alignment of Political Groups, 95. 129 M. Child to D. Daly, Kingston, 28 Sept. 1842, no. 2532, 1842, pp. 18408—9, RG4 c i , NA. 130 M. Child to D. Daly, Stanstead, 8 Dec. 1842 [no no.], pp. 20048—9, 1842, RG4 c i , NA. 131 Monet, The last Cannon Shot, 139—44. 132 Cornell, The Alignment of Political Groups, 12, 97; McCulloch, "EnglishSpeaking Liberals," 210—11; Forsyth, "The Eastern Townsnips," 56. 133 C.A. Richardson to D. Daly, Lennoxville, 18 Jan. 1844, no.2709, 1843, pp. 10439-43, RG 4 c i , NA. 134 M. Child to D. Daly, Stanstead, 10 March 1844, no. 1050, 1844, pp. 3518—19, RG4 c i , NA. 135 Buckner, The Transition to Responsible Government, 269. 136 Gazette (Montreal), 9 Nov. 1844. 137 Cornell, The Alignment of Political Groups, 16. 138 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 3 Dec. 1843. 139 Edward Hale to Capt. Higginson, Sherbrooke, 27 Feb. 1844, Governor General's Correspondence, 7361, RG7 014, NA. D.B. Viger had replaced LaFontaine as the French-Canadian leader in the Executive Council. 140 T.A. Stayner to D. Daly, Montreal, 10 July 1844, no. 2434, 1844, p. 8880; M. Child to Christopher Dunkin, Stanstead, 8 Aug. 1844, p. 8882; M. Child to D. Daly, Stanstead, 27 Aug. 1844, no. 2514, p. 9196, RG4 c i , NA. 141 E. Hale to Capt. Higginson, Sherbrooke, 13 Sept. 1844, Hale Papers, McCord Museum.

162

Notes to pages 23-5

142 E. Hale to Capt. Higginson, Oct. 1844, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 143 McConnell was born in 1799, the son of a New Hampshire immigrant who apparently abandoned his young family. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 273. Francis Hincks stated that McConnell had "always been a Reformer" (quoted in McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 263), and Child called him a "pefidious friend" (Marcus Child Papers, no letterhead), but the poll book for the 1829 electeurs reveals that he voted against Child that year. Listes d'electeurs (poll book), Comte de Stanstead, 1829, 103—11/01—04, ANQM. 144 Gazette (Montreal), 7 Nov. 1844. 145 Gazette (Montreal), 9 Nov. 1844. 146 P. Hubbard to E. Hale, Stanstead, 21 Jan. 1845, Hale Papers, McCord Museum; M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead, 17 Aug. 1846, no. 989, 1846, Lettres recues, £13, ANQQ. 147 McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 352—3. 148 Stanstead Journal, 4 Dec. 1851. 149 M. Child to Provincial Secretary, Stanstead, 19 March 1849, no. 708, 1849, RG4 ci, NA. 150 M. Child to James Leslie, Stanstead, 21 May 1849, no. 1671, 1849, RG4 C l , NA.

151 For details, see J.I. Little, "The Short Life of a Local Protest Movement: The Annexation Crisis of 1849—50 in the Eastern Townships," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 1992, 35—49. A list of the names is printed in Joan MacDonald, "Requisition to John McConnell, M.P.P. From the Inhabitants of Stanstead County, December 26th, 1849 re Annexation," SHS Journal 9 (1981): 53—61. 152 Adjutant-General's Office, Montreal, 30 Oct. 1849, no. 2892, 1849, RG4 ci, NA. As McCulloch ("English-Speaking Liberals," 431—7, 452) points out, however, not all the officials dismissed for signing the annexation petitions were Tories. 153 M. Child to A.N. Morin, Stanstead Plain, 3 Dec. 1851; Draft reply to Child, Quebec, 8 Jan. 1852, no. 2274, 1851, RG4 ci, NA. 154 Stanstead Journal, 18 Sept. 1851, 2 Oct. 1851, 30 Oct. 1851. 155 Terrill, who was a Stanstead lawyer, gained 743 votes to Child's 358. Stanstead Journal, 4 Dec. 1851, 11 Dec. 1851, 18 Dec. 1851. For details on the election, see McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 516—17. 156 Election Records, Lower Canada and Canada East, 1792—1866, vol. 26, pp. 4324—5, RG4 672, NA; Stanstead Journal, 18 Dec. 1851. 157 M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead Plain, 16 Jan. 1852, no. 93; M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead Plain, 3 May 1852, no. 586, 1852, Lettres recues, £13, ANQQ. 158 P.J.O. Chauveau to H. Hubbard, Montreal, 27 Dec. 1859, no. 735, 1859, Lettres recues, £13, ANQQ.

Notes to pages 25-7

163

159 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 30 Nov. 1843. 160 See Jacques Monet, "La Crise Metcalfe and the Montreal Election, 1843—1844," Canadian Historical Review 44 (1963): 2—4; and Stewart, The Origins of Canadian Politics, 47—50. 161 Province of Canada, Debates, vol. 2, 291, 3 Oct. 1841; vol. 3, 544—5, 31 Oct. 1843; "Electors of Stanstead," Child Papers, Stanstead County Historical Society. On the link between the two latter themes, see J.I. Little, "Colonization and Municipal Reform in Canada East," Histoire sociale-Social History 14, no. 27 (1981): 93—120. 162 Province of Canada, Debates, vol. i, 805—6, 4 Sept. 1841; 824—5, 835, 6 Sept. 1841; vol. 2, 208,29 Sept. 1842^01.3,350, 18 Oct. 1843^01.3, 429, 25 Oct. 1843; E. Haleto Eliza, Kingston, 3 Oct. 1842, Hale Papers, McCord Museum; Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 45-7, 51-2. 163 "Electors of Stanstead," Child Papers, SHS. On the tariff issue in the Townships, see McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 123—4, 172, 204-5. 164 Petition of inhabitants of Stanstead to Governor General Metcalfe, 29 Sept. 1843, no. 1906, 1843, p. 6998, RG4 ci, NA. 165 Province of Canada, Debates, vol. 3, 524, 31 Oct. 1843. On this issue, see Yolande Allard, "Preservation ou developpement: le cas de saumon atlantique et la riviere Saint-Frangois avant 1900" (MA thesis, History Department, Bishop's University, 1988). 166 Beaugrand-Champagne, "Les mouvements patriote et loyal," 145; Province of Canada, Debates, vol. 3, 934—5, 940, 23 Nov. 1843; M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead, 25 Aug. 1846, no. 1056, 1846; M. Child toJ.B. Meilleur, Stanstead, 12 Jan. 1847, no. 81, 1847, Lettres recues, £13, ANQQ; Stanstead Journal, 4 Dec. 1851. On the widespread opposition in the region to school taxes and centralization of authority over education see McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 327—9. 167 Bruce Curtis, Building the Educational State: Canada West, 1836-1871 (London, Ont: Althouse Press, 1988), 98—100. 168 Stanstead Journal, 14 Sept. 1848. This report is also in NA, RG4 ci, 1848, no. 2605. Other references to American texts can be found in Province of Canada, Debates, vol. 3, 741, 9 Nov. 1843; Waterloo Advertiser, 22 Jan. 1858, 12 Feb. 1858. On the social control theme, see Neil McDonald, "Egerton Ryerson and the School as an Agent of Political Socialization," in Egerton Ryerson and His Times, edited by Neil McDonald and Alf Chaiton (Toronto: Macmillan, 1978); and Alison Prentice, The School Promoters: Education and Social Class in Mid-Nineteenth Century Upper Canada (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977). 169 M. Child to J.B. Meilleur, Stanstead, 18 July 1852, Lettres regues, £13, ANQQ. 170 Child contrasts in this sense to the position attributed by Bruce Curtis to his thirty-seven counterparts in Canada West. See Bruce Curtis, True

164

Notes to pages 27-9

Government by Choice Men ? Inspection, Education, and State Formation in Canada West (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992). I plan to write an article on Child's role as schools inspector in the future. 171 Goldwin S. French, "Egerton Ryerson and the Methodist Model for Upper Canada," in McDonald and Chaiton, Egerton Ryerson, 50. 172 Hubbard's Forests and Clearings (145) mentions the conversion without giving the date, however Child's daughter was married by an Anglican minister in 1847 (Stanstead Journal, 12 Aug. 1847), and Child's withdrawal from the Methodist Church is recorded in the 18 Dec. 1848 entry of the "Minute Book, Trustee Board, Weslyan Chapel, Stanstead Plain, 1833-4 to May 1861," United Church Archives, Bishop's University. There are no minutes recorded between 1846 and 1848. 173 With more than one third of Stanstead's population, the Methodists had considerable political clout in Stanstead. Noel, Competing for Souls, 123-7. 174 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 28 Nov. 1843. 175 Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 59. 176 Ormsby, The Emergence of the Federal Concept, 54, 96, 105—6. 177 Quoted in McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 125. 178 McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 125—6. The public improvment bill provided for £764,000 in expenditures for Canada West, but only £75,000 for Canada East. E. Hale to Eliza, 28 Aug. 1841, Kingston, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 179 "Memoranda of Arguments in favour of the Eastern Townships Railroad," enclosed in Lt Col William Morris to Governor General, Sherbrooke, 20 Feb. 1843, Records Put-By, 1839—67, vol. i, RGI £5, NA; J.M.S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas: The Growth of Canadian Institutions, 1841—1857 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967), 72. 180 Quoted in K.D. Hunte, "The Development of the System of Education in Canada East, 1841-1867, an Historical Survey" (MA thesis, McGill University, 1962), 95. See also Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 49-5°' 54-5181 E. Hale to Gait (draft), 1844, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. Also quoted in Oscar Douglas Skelton, Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Gait (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966), 60-1. See also Thibault, Samuel Brooks, 82—4, 100—i; Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 60. 182 McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 326—7; Forsyth "The Eastern Townships," 86, 97, 108—9. Forsyth (81, 97—8, 109—10) notes that the pro-government solidarity of the Townships ML AS began to disintegrate in 1845, though it solidified again in the crisis session of 1847. 183 A.T. Gait to E. Hale, Sherbrooke, 14 June 1847, Hale Papers, McCord Museum.

Notes to pages 29-32

165

184 McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 353, 361, 377—8; Forsyth, "The Eastern Townships," 114, 117. 185 Q. McConnell] to My Dear Sir, Hatley, i Oct. 1851, Colby Papers, Stanstead. 186 T. L. Terrill had been elected by acclamation in 1852, after his brother died of cholera. McCulloch, "English-Speaking Liberals," 544-9, 612—13. 187 See Young, George-Etienne Cartier, chapter 3; and Noel, Patrons, Clients, Brokers, chapter 7. 188 M. Child to My Dear wife, Kingston, 7 Nov. 1843. 189 On this issue, see Ormsby, The Emergence of the Federal Concept, 106, 112—13, 115—17; and Brian Osborne and Donald Swainson, Kingston: Building on the Past (Westport, Ont: Butternut Press, 1988), 87—91, 96-111. 190 See Eric Ross, The Canadas in 1841: Full of Hope and Promise (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1991), 94. On accommodations for the deputies in Kingston, see ibid., 38. 191 Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 30; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 92. 192 For a useful recent survey of the literature, see Curtis D.Johnson, Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, ijc)o—i86o (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), chapter 3. 193 Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 68. 194 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 16 Oct. 1843. 195 Note the parallels with Robert Baldwin, though certainly not with George-Etienne Cartier or the John A. Macdonald of Donald Creighton. Cross and Fraser, "The waste that lies before me'"; Young, GeorgeEtienne Cartier; Barbara Roberts, "'They Drove Him To Drink' ... Donald Creighton's Macdonald and his Wives," Canada, An Historical Magazine 3, no. 2 (Dec. 1975): 51—64. 196 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 64—7, 97. 197 Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 20, 28. 198 Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 147—53. 199 Allan Greer, "La republique des hommes: les Patriotes de 1837 face aux femmes," Revue d'histoire de I'Amerique franfaise 44 (1991): 510-11. 200 The Stanstead Journal did not begin publication until 1845, and Child did not receive much coverage from the Conservative Sherbrooke Gazette, whose anonymous correspondent was none other than the Sherbrooke MLA, Edward Hale. E. Hale to Eliza, Kingston, 21 Sept. 1842, 12 Nov. 1843, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. While he was MLA for L'Acadie in 1830-34, Robert Hoyle would send his wife copies of the Quebec Mercury rather than comment at length on politics. Noel, " 'My Dear Aliza,'" 130.

i66

Notes to pages 32-4

201 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 8; Russell, Attitudes to Social Structure, chapter 4. 202 Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 190. See also Ward, Courtship, Love, and Marriage, 155—6; and Greer, "La republique des hommes." Gail G. Campbell has demonstrated how New Brunswick women nevertheless resorted to petitions in an attempt to exert influence in issues related to their families and moral reform. See her "Disfranchised But Not Quiescent: Women Petitioners in New Brunswick in the Mid-Nineteenth Century," in Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women's History, Veronica Strong-Boag and Anita Clair Fellman (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1991), 81-96. 203 L. Child to Dear Husband, Stanstead, 7 Nov. 1843. 204 Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 87—8; Johnson, Islands of Holiness, chapter 4. 205 Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 88—91, chapter 3, 191. 206 Marguerite Van Die, Nathanael Burwash and the Methodist Traditions in Canada, 1839—1918 (Kingston, Montreal, London: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989) 25—6. 207 Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 117; Osterud, Bonds of Community, 263-6. 208 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 71. See also Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 199—201; and Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 29—30, 32, 362. 209 On the garden as extension of the middle-class home, see Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 370—4. 210 Ward, Courtship, Love, and Marriage, 155—6. 211 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 168; Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 196—7. The latter phrase is from Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America," Journal of Women in Culture and Society i, no. i (1975): 28. 212 L. Child to My dear Husband, Stanstead, 26 Nov. 1843. Similar expressions of spousal sentiments can be found in Gwyn, The Private Capital; ]. K. Johnson, ed., Affectionately Yours: The Letters of Sir John A Macdonald and his Family (Toronto: Macmillan, 1969). 213 Osterud, Bonds of Community, 247. John and William Grannis were early settlers in Hatley. William married Nancy M. Dustan, of Claremont, New Hampshire (b. 1791). They moved to Hatley in 1816, then to Stanstead in 1829. He died in 1833. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 49, 147. 214 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 4 Oct. 1843. 215 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 80. 216 M. Child to My Dear Wife, House of Assembly, 21 Sept. 1842. Lewis Sleeper taught school in Quebec City from 1842 to 1845 at a salary of £250, but he was about to become a prominent railway and copper

Notes to pages 34—6

217

218 219 220 221

222

223 224 225 226

227 228 229

230 231

232

167

mine promoter, and later the owner of several manufacturing industries in Coaticook. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 344—5; Kesteman, "Une bourgeoisie," 183, 219, 226, 236, 258-9, 611-12. Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 346—7. The limited evidence provided by this correspondence does not suggest the exclusively intimate mother-daughter relationship which, according to Smith-Rosenberg ("The Female World," 15), "lay at the heart of the female world." Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 29-30, 32, 362; Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 199-201. Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 104, 118. M. Child to Lewis Sleeper, Stanstead, 11 Nov. 1845. M. Child to Sir, Coaticook, 3 July 1858, no. 1343, 1858, Lettres recues, £13, ANQQ; Stanstead Circuit Court-Registry of Insinuations, 1850-69, vol. 2, no. 29, pp. 114-16, 28 June 1859, ANQS. Davidoff and Hall (Family Fortunes, 332) state that "early training in docility and their potentially weaker economic position meant that daughters did not arouse as much anxiety as sons." See also Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, 193—4. M. Child to My Dear Daughter, House of Assembly, i Oct. 1842. Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 17, 398. Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 111 — 12, 329. On the elite nature of this school, see Margaret W. Westley, Remembrance of Grandeur: The Anglo-Protestant Elite of Montreal, 7900—1950 (Montreal: Libre Expression, 1990), 64—5. M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 25 Oct. 1843. Report card for G. Childe [sic] from High Scool of Montreal, 26 Oct. 1844, Marcus Child Papers, Musee Beaulne. Shortly before his death, Marcus Child transferred the ownership of a 200 acre farm in Barnston "for and in consideration of his paternal desire for the well being and prosperity of his only son." Register B, vol. 8, p. 310, no. 274, Stanstead Registry Office. Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 393; Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 29-30, 40. Apart from Marcus, Lydia, and the two young girls, the Child household consisted of another girl between the ages of six and fourteen, an unmarried female between fourteen and forty-four, and a male between the ages of forty and fifty-nine. The status of these individuals is not recorded, but at least two were probably servants. Lower Canada, manuscript census, 1824. See Katherine MJ. McKenna, "Options for Elite Women in Early Upper Canadian Society: The Case of the Powell Family," in Historical Essays on Upper Canada: New Perspectives, ed. J.K. Johnson and Bruce G. Wilson (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1989), 401—24.

i68

Notes to pages 36-8

233 Michael B. Katz, The People of Hamilton, Canada West: Family and Class in Mid-Nineteenth-Century City (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975), 232-6; Lawrence Stone, "Family History in the igSos: Past Achievements and Future Trends," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 12 (i9 S l ): 73-4234 Hubbard (Forests and Clearings, 145) indicates that there were other births by noting that Elizabeth and George were the only two to survive to maturity. 235 Eliza Hoyle to Ruth, Stanstead, 31 Aug. 1834, MG24 B 1 4 1 > NA 236 Robert Hoyle to Eliza, Stanstead, 12 Dec. 1841, MG24 6141, NA. 237 Robert Hoyle to Eliza, Stanstead, 19 Sept. 1841, MG24 6141, NA. 238 In July Hoyle reported thirteen deaths in and near the village. (Robert Hoyle to Eliza, 27 March 1842, 4 April 1842, 10 April 1842, 26 June 1842, 3 July 1842, 20 Nov. 1842, 18 Dec. 1842, MG24 B1 4!> NA.) Edward Hale's six-year-old daughter died of erysipelas after ten members of the household contracted the disease. Draft reply to Aunt Amelia, 6 May 1842, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. Erysipelas is defined as "a febrile disease characterized by inflammation and redness of the skin and subcutaneous tissues." Benjamin F. Miller and Claire Brackman Keane, Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medecine and Nursing (Toronto: W.B. Saunders, 1972), 331. 239 E.H. Child to My dear Father, Stanstead, 12 Nov. [1843]. 240 For a useful discussion of Millerism in Upper Canada, see William Westfall, Two Worlds: The Protestant Culture of Nineteenth Century Ontario (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989), 167-80. 241 Dr James Johnson to E. Hale, Sherbrooke, 9 Feb. 1843, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 242 Andrew Robertson to E. Hale, Montreal, 11 March 1843, Hale Papers, McCord Museum. 243 Robert Hoyle to Eliza, 13 Nov. 1842, 2 Dec. 1842, MG24 B1 4!> NA For a brief discussion on the Millerites in the Eastern Townships, see Noel, Competing for Souls, 143—4, 156—61. 244 Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, 138. The Millerites attacked the restriction most other denominations had against women preaching. Johnson, Islands of Holiness, 68. 245 Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 114. 246 L.B. Child to My Dear Dear Bro., W. Boylston, 25 Sept. 1844. 247 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Kingston, 8 Nov. 1843. 248 Moodie, Life in the Clearings, 39—44. 249 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Legislative Assembly, 17 Nov. 1843. 250 M. Child to My Dear Wife, Kingston, 8 Nov. 1843. 251 Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes, 14.

Notes to pages 38—58

169

252 In "'The waste that lies before me,'" Cross and Fraser make the same point for Child's Upper Canadian contemporary, Robert Baldwin, though he was an Anglican of a more elite social background and a more troubled psychological nature. CORRESPONDENCE

1 The Reverend Doctor Robert Cooney was a former Catholic priest who became the Wesleyan Methodist minister for Stanstead in 1839, after serving at Odeltown for two years during the Rebellion. John Carroll, Case and His Cotemporaries, vol. 4 (Toronto: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1874), 283-5* 4i52 This is probably a reference to Saratoga Springs, New York, though Child later referred to the mineral water at Alburgh, a small community in the northwest corner of Vermont. The only substantial Canadian spa at this time was Caledonia Springs, about fourteen kilometres inland from the Ottawa River at 1'Original. For details, see Eric Ross, The Canadas in 1841: Full of Hope and Promise (Montreal and Kingston: McGillQueen's University Press), 105—7. On the rise of the health reform movement during this era, see Ronald L. Numbers, Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White (New York: Harper and Row, 1976), chapter 3. 3 The "Line" would appear to be a reference to Derby Line; there was also a Derby, Vermont, a few kilometres further south. 4 Gerry [also spelled Jerry] and Gerzey were the Childs' two horses. 5 For a description of steamboat navigation of the St Lawrence River at this time see Ross, Full of Hope, chapter 3. 6 This is a reference to Horace Cutting, Child's Coaticook partner. 7 This is a reference to John Richardson, author of Wacousta (1832), a novel set at the time of Pontiac's uprising, and The War 0/1812 (1842). 8 George Moffatt was a very prominent Montreal merchant and the head of the Tory party in Lower Canada/Canada East. Jacques Monet, The Last Cannon Shot: A Study of French-Canadian Nationalism, 1837—1850 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969, 75. 9 The reference is to the Stanstead Academy or Seminary, today's Stanstead College. 10 Described by Monet (The Last Cannon Shot, 198) as a "Tory of the Tories," Sir Allan MacNab was a former member of the Family Compact who represented Hamilton in the Legislative Assembly and who would soon become a leading railway promoter. 11 The government had already imposed a duty on American wheat entering Canada. More crucial to the interests of Townships farmers, the bill passed in December 1843 included other agricultural products such as livestock, meats, cheese, butter, and coarse grains. According to

170

Notes to pages 60—71

Jones, this tariffs failure to shut out much livestock led to demands by Montreal merchants that it be repealed. Robert Leslie Jones, History of Agriculture in Ontario, 1613—1880 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1946, reprinted 1977), 132—4. 12 Bigelow would not, in fact, die until October 28, in Burlington, Vermont. Although the cause of the confusion here is unclear, it does point out the uncertainties of long-distance communication in that era. 13 John Sandfield Macdonald, MPP for Glengarry, defeated the Reform candidate in 1841, but supported the Reform-oriented ministry appointed by Bagot. His wife, Marie Christine Waggaman, was the daughter of a Whig Senator from Louisiana and a member of that state's old French aristocracy. She eloped from her French finishing school in Baltimore to marry Macdonald in 1840. Bruce W Hodgins, "John Sandfield Macdonald," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, 462. 14 Exactly what George meant by Vermont glass and Essex glass is unclear, but Essex County was in Vermont, as was Essex Junction, and the context suggests that he was referring to different kinds of window glass. The economic expansion of the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century had resulted in a tremendous expansion of the glass industry as methods of mass production were perfected. American invention of the pressing machine in 1825 or 1826 allowed the rapid production of more complex shapes and decoration, and greatly increased the use of glass. Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, vol. 12 (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1989), 800—1. 15 A former member of the Legislative Council, Robert Jones had defeated Sydenham's candidate in 1841, and supported the more liberal Executive Council appointed by Bagot in 1842. McCulloch, "EnglishSpeaking Liberals," 127-8; Monique Choquette-Habel, "Edward Hale, un des fondateurs de la premiere societe organisee de Sherbrooke, 1801-1875" (MA thesis, Universite de Sherbrooke, 1985), 71-2. 16 John Moore, generally referred to by Child as Captain Moore, had been elected the British American Land Company's Tory candidate for Sherbrooke in 1831, but he was forced to retire from politics in 1844 after he became too closely identified with the Reformers. (Michael McCulloch, "English-Speakings Liberals in Canada East, 1840—1854" [Ph.D. diss., University of Ottawa, 1986], 180—1, 210, 226 263; Charlotte Thibault, Samuel Brooks, entrepreneur et homme politique de Sherbrooke, 1793—1849 [Departement d'histoire, Universite de Sherbrooke, 1985], 63-4, 107-9. 17 Child presumably contemplated visiting his relatives in West Boylston and Worcester, near Boston, since this route would have taken him far south of Stanstead.

Notes to pages 74—91

171

18 The reference is to Lydia Child, wife of Marcus' brother, David. In addition to her journalism, she published numerous historical romances and books aimed at a female audience. Examples are The Frugal Housewife, The Girls' Own Book, and A History of the Condition of Women in all Ages. Upon her death in 1880, the North American Review declared, "We are not sure that any woman in our country outrank Mrs Child ... Few female writers, if any, have done more or better things for our literature in its lighter or graver depths." Child family genealogy, 557—8, Musee Beaulne. 19 On October 23 Child spoke in support of a bill to restrain "party processions." He favoured including national societies within its terms. (Province of anada, Debates, vol. 3, 398—406). The Reformers introduced two bills against the Tory-sympathizing Orange Order, one directed against its processions and the other against secret societies in general. The Order was saved by the Metcalfe crisis and the governor's realization that he would benefit from its support in the upcoming election. Hereward Senior, Orangeism: The Canadian Phase (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1972), 42—3. 20 On the origins of Bishop's University, see B.C. Masters, Bishop's University. The First Hundred Years (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin, 1950), 9—17. 21 Many Canadian clergy, including the first principal of Bishop's, Jasper Nicolls, had attended Oxford and been influenced by Tractarianism. In 1840 Pusey wrote that this movement embraced "regard for the visible part of devotion, such as the decoration of the house of God, which acts insensibly on the mind," and "regard for ordinances ... such as daily public prayers, fasts and feasts." The concern expressed by many was that this Oxford Movement would lead to Roman Catholicism. Christopher F. Headon, "Developments in Canadian Anglican Worship in Eastern and Central Canada, 1840—1868," Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 8 (1975): 27. 22 Formerly a leading member of the Family Compact, J.S. Cartwright had refused Bagot's offer of the solicitor-generalship (Canada West) in 1842 because Francis Hincks had also been offered a position in the Executive Council. J.M.S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas: The Growth of Canadian Institutions, 1841—1857 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967), 64. 23 A. Turgeon was elected in Bellechasse as a follower of LaFontaine in June 1842. Paul G. Cornell, The Alignment of Political Groups in Canada, 1843—1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), 9. 24 Charles Hales was a prominent Kingston merchant. Brian S. Osborne and Donald Swainson, Kingston: Building on the Past (Westport, Ont.: Butkrnut Press, 1988), 88. 25 Richard Mentor Johnson (1781 — 1850) was a Kentucky-born

172

Notes to pages 94-9 Jacksonian Democrat. His fame was based largely on his service during the 1812 war at the head of a body of mounted Kentucky riflemen; he killed an Indian chief, possibly the shawnee leader Tecumseh, at the Battle of the Thames in October 1813. He then served in the Congress for three decades, and became u.s. vice-president in 1836. A life-long bachelor, he had three black or mulatto mistresses while he was vicepresident and left the capital one summer to manage an inn. He retired to Kentucky in 1841, but remained active in politics. Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, vol. 16 (Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1989),

!3926 Rene-Edouard Caron, Mayor of Quebec and Member of the Legislative Council, was appointed by Metcalf to the speakership without consulting LaFontaine, a practice which would ultimately lead to the Executive Council resignations. Monet, The Last Cannon Shot, 143—4. 27 Child proposed a two-fold solution to the joint problem of French Canadians emigrating to New England, and British immigrants "hanging about our towns and cities" or "pining away" in the forests. The government should open good roads to he more thinly settled townships, and it should make agriculture more profitable by protecting the markeet with tariffs and reducing the expenses of transportation and shipment. Farmers would then employ immigrants as labourers, giving them the experience they needed to become successful settlers. Province of Canada, Debates, vol. 3, 544—5, 31 Oct. 1843. 28 The Beauport Asylum, which opened its doors in 1845, has generally been recognized as the first such institution for Lower Canada/Canada East, but Governor Thomson (Lord Sydenham) had already established the Montreal Lunatic Asylum in 1839. Meant to be a temporary institution, it was located in the Montreal jail, and quickly became overcrowded with British (mostly Irish) immigrants. See Andre Cellard and Dominique Nadon, "Ordre et desordre: le Montreal Lunatic Asylum et la naissance de 1'asile au Quebec," RHAF 39 (1986): 345—68. 29 Lawrence Bigelow had renounced any interest in assisting his father with the lumbering business in order to devote his attention to anti-slavery activities in the United States. Pierre-Louis Lapointe, In the Heart of the Lower Lievre District, The City of Buckingham, from Its Earliest Beginnings, 1824—1900 (City of Buckingham, 1990), 49. 30 Denis-Benjamin Viger, a member of the Papineau clan, was the leader of the nationalist opposition to LaFontaine during the 18408. He would accept Metcalfe's invitation to join the Executive Council after LaFontaine's resignation. See Monet, The Last Cannon Shot, for details. 31 A leading Lower Canadian Tory, Peter McGill was mayor of Montreal and president of the Bank of Montreal at this time. Careless, The Union, 23-

Notes to pages 106—26

173

32 This reference suggests a clause which would have allowed Americans to ship agricultural products through Canada to Britain duty free. There was already such a provision for American wheat, but it had to be processed in Canada before proceeding to the British market. Vernon C. Fowke, Canadian Agricultural Policy: The Historical Pattern (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1946), 92—3. 33 Due to the political crisis, neither the school bill nor the municipal reform bill would pass in 1843. The next legislation was enacted in 1845. See Keithe D. Hunte, "The Development of the System of Education in Canada East, 1841-1867, an Historical Survey" (MA thesis, McGill University, 1962), chapter 2; and J.I. Little, "Colonization and Municipal Reform in Canada East," Histoire sociale-Social History, 14 (1981): 93-7. For details on Child's position concerning public schooling, see the introduction to this volume. 34 Jacob DeWitt was a wealthy Montreal hardware merchant and steamship operator who helped found the Banque du Peuple in 1835. First elected as a pro-Patriote MLA in 1830, he became a leading LaFontaine supporter after the Rebellion. Jean-Claude Robert, "Jacob DeWitt," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 8, 219—20. 35 Joseph S. Walton became editor of the Tory Sherbrooke Gazette in 1839, shortly after it had been purchased as a political mouthpiece by a local group of prominent businessmen. Thibault, Samuel Brooks, 84—5. 36 The conciliatory Kempt had served as governor-general 1828 to 1830. 37 Elizabeth Aylwin was the daughter of William Bowman Felton of Sherbrooke, the most powerful political figure in the region prior to his fall from official favour and death in 1837. Her husband was Thomas Gushing Aylwin of Quebec, a former Tory who became a LaFontaine supporter and solicitor-general (Canada East) in 1842 . 38 A cardinal was "a feminine shoulder cape with hood resembling the bishop's mozetta of scarlet cloth." It is associated principally with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. R. Turner Wilcox, The Dictionary of Costume (London: B.T. Botsford, 1969), 63. 39 Careless (The Union, 59) describes Baron Stanley (Lord Derby), the Tory-appointed colonial secretary, as "moderate-minded and intelligent," but also inclined "to treat his official role as an aristocratic avocation rather than a full-time career in itself." In 1843 Stanley advised Metcalfe that as long as he could keep control of "the patronage of the Crown ... and refuse to apply it exclusively to party purposes, it will be felt that you have really substantial power." Quoted in Careless, The Union, 80. 40 In Careless' words (The Union, 13), William Henry Draper of Toronto was "a handsome, urbane lawyer of English origin and noted parliamentary skill; an open-minded conservative who was far from being one of the

174

Notes to pages 134-47 old Compact tory element." He was appointed attorney-general (West) by Sydenham, but willingly stepped down so that Bagot could attract French Canadians to the Executive Council. The rumour Child refers to proved to be wrong, because Draper formed a minsistry with D.B. Viger shortly after the Baldwin-LaFontaine resignation. Careless, The Union, 69,

73' 84-

41 The first case probably refers to an accident related to drinking, while Adam Noyes lived in Georgeville at this time and clearly died of natural causes. Born in Acton, Massachusetts, in 1774, he had first moved to Stnstead Plain in 1812. Hubbard, Forests and Clearings, 137. 42 Since Lydia's maiden name was Chadwick, this letter suggests that her mother had remarried. Nancy Chamberlain, who wrote the addendum, would then be a half sister of step sister. 43 Lydia's mother is here referring to the apparent mothers-in-law of Marcus' two Derby siblings, thereby revealing how marriages strengthened ties between families through their female members. 44 This reference suggests that Levi Bigelow was Lydia Child's maternal uncle. Furthermore, the Bigelows were from Worcester, Massachusetts as was Lydia's parental family. Since Bigelow was also Marcus' uncle, Lydia and Marcus probably were first cousins. The preceding reference to "Brother Levi" must be to Marcus' brother. Child family genealogy, 556, Musee Beaulne. 45 According to Hubbard (Forests and Clearings, 131) Child's old political rival, Wright Chamberlin, "received his first military appointment in 1809 and was promoted successively to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel." 46 The violence of the Montreal spring bi-election was repeated in the fall contest, but with the Irish canal workers on the Tory side this time. Monet, The Last Cannon Shot, chapter 11.

Index

Note: Because they are so numerous, this index does not include most references to family members, acquaintances, etc., found in the correspondence. Child, Annis, 7 Child, David, 6 Child, Elizabeth, 34—5; her courtship, 41; journey to Newport, New Hampshire, 53-4, 90 Child, George, 35-6 Child, John, 6 Bagot, Lady, 44, 48 Child, Lydia (sister of Bagot, Sir Charles, 22, 44 Marcus), 37-8 Baldwin, Robert, 22, 23 Child, Lydia Chadwick, 8, Barnston Township, 18 Bigelow, Levi, 6-7, 8, 60, 32-3. 35 Child, Lydia Medford, 6, 106, 113, 136 74, 171 n.i8 British American Land Child, Walter, 7, 8 Company, 15, 16-17, Child, Zachariah, 6 29 Church of England, 78 British gentry, 3 Civil list question, 20 Brooks, Samuel, 8 Brown, Thomas Storrow, 16 Class roles, 35, 38 By-election: of 1832, 12; of Coaticook, 4, g, 10 Colborne, Governor, 17 1834, 16 Colby, Dr Moses French, 16, 19-20, 21, 80 Carder, George-Etienne, 29 Commercial transactions, Chamberlin, Wright, 46, 49, 98. See also Debt 11-12, 15, 142 collecting Charity and paupers: in Commissioners of the Stanstead, 36, 69-70, peace (also of small 75- 83,95,96, 107, 113, causes): appointment of, 117, 121-2, 132; in 21; Child as, 11, 18, 22, Kingston, 108, 115 60; bill to reform, 69, Charleston Academy, 10

American settlers, 3—4 Ann, 36 Annexation movement, 24 Aylmer, Governor, 13 Aylwin, Mrs T.C., 115, J 73 n-37

72-3, 79, 87 Constitutional crisis of 1843, 23, 25, 27-8, 122—35 passim Contested elections, 12, 100, 101 Cornell, Paul, 22, 23 Correspondence committees, 14 Cott, Nancy, 31 —4 passim, 38 Credit, store. See Debt collecting, Financial transactions Crime, 56, 64, 69 Customs bill, 112 Cutting, Horace, 9 Davidoff, Leonore and Catherine Hall, 5, 10-11, 31, 38 Debt collecting, 35, 53, 54, 67, 81, 103, 121; and the courts, 134 Derby, Vermont, 7, 16 Derby Line, Vermont, 6, 8 DeWitt, Jacob, 109, 142, 146 Dickerson, Silas, 11, 74 Disease, 37, 52, 120; cold remedy, 79

176 Distilleries, 7 Domesticity, cult of, 31, 33, 37 Dorcas Society, 33, 113, 117

Index

Hale, Edward, 4—5, 152-3 n.io, 20-1, 28, 29, 68; and the constitutional crisis, 23, 126, 131 Hales, Charles, 87 Eastern Townships, people Harvest, 61,104, 113 of, 62 Harvey, Asa, 21 Economy, Eastern High School of Montreal, Townships, 9, 12, 37, 35 62, 101. See also Financial Hincks, Francis, 30, 118 transactions Hoyle, Eliza, 37 Education, Child's role in, Hoyle, Robert, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 24, 25; position on, 21-2, 37 26-7. See also School bills Hubbard, R.H., 6-7, 8 Election: of 1829, 11-12; Immigration, 88-9, 95, 97, of 1834, 14-15; of 1841, 18-20; of 1844, 99, 172 n.27 Insane, care of, 95 23-4, 144, 145; of 1847, 24; of 1851, 24-5, 29. See also By-elections Johnson, Colonel R.M., 91, of 1832 and 1834 i72-3n.25 Jones, Robert, 67-8, Elgin, Lord, 24 170 n.i 5 Emigration, see Immigration Judicature Bill for Lower Canada, 84, 89, 97, Erysipelas, 37 108, 122, 134. See also Exile, Child's, 18 Commissioners of the Family structure, 36 peace Fashions: men's, 149; women's, 114-15, 117, 119, Kempt, Governor, 11, 114 Kilborn family, 20, 36 132, 133. H7 Fishery protection. See Kingstonians, 57, 59, 65, Wildlife preservation 73, 80, 85, 86-7, 112 Fletcher, Judge John, 11 Kin ties, 36 French, Goldwin, 27 French Canadians, Child's LaFontaine, LouisHyppolite, 22, 23, 48, attitude toward, 30, 85, 71, 80, 125-6 97 LaFontaine, Mrs, 114 Landed property, Child's, Galichan, Gilles, 5 8-9, 156 n.50 Gait, Alexander T., 29 Gardening, 33, 45, 53, 55, Lee, Elias, 16, 18, 21 57, 74, 120, 129, 138-9 Lodgings in Kingston, 57-8, 59, 62-3, 68, 70, Gender identity: female, 76-7,83-4,85, 107, 108 31-5, 38; male, 30, 35 Gosford, Lord, 16 McConnell, John, 24, 29, Grannis, John, 15, 16 Griffin, W.F., 17 146, 162 n.143 McCulloch, Michael, 22, 28 Gustin, Elisha, 15

Macdonald, MrsJ.S., 61, 76, 99, 170 n.i3 MacNabb, Sir Allen, 85, 89, 95, 112, 115, 134 Magistrates. See Commissioners of small causes Mercantile business, 10. See also Store inventory Metcalfe, Sir Charles, 58, 62, 99, 103, 112, 115, 129, 131; and Eastern Townships development, 29, 71. See also Constitutional crisis Methodist Church, 15-16, 27. 3°. 33- 37 Millerism, 37—8, 139—42 Mineral springs, 42, 66, 78, 169 n.2 Moffatt, George, 52, 89 Moodie, Susanna, 3, 38 Moore, John, 68, 84, 170 n.i6 Neilson, John, 25, 134 Nelson, Dr Robert, 19 Newspaper coverage, 68-9, 71, 77-8, 79, 87, 93, 95, 97, 102, 113 Ninety-two Resolutions, 12-14 O'Callaghan, Edmund, 15, 16 Orange Lodge. See Secret societies Osterud, Nancy, 34 Papineau, Amedee, 17 Papineau, Louisjoseph, 15 Parent-offspring relations, 3°. 34-5 Parr, Joy, 5 Parti Patriote, 10 Patriotism, Child's, 45. See also United States, Child's attitude toward Patronage, 13-14, 21-5 passim, 102, 107

177

Index Pearlash, 46, 98 Peck, Ebenezer, 11-12, 19 Political history, 5 Political principles, Child's, 25-30' 38 Political transition, in the Eastern Townships, 28-9 Pomroy, Selah, 107 Postal communications, 47, 51, 74, 79, 83, 117 Post office, Child's dismissal, 17-18, 22 Prevost, Governor, 6 Provincial union, Child's position on, 20. See also Sectional conflict Railways, 8, 15, 16, 28; St Lawrence and Atlantic, g, 25, 29; Stanstead, Shefford, and Chambly, g, 29. See also Transportation Rebellion Losses Bill, 24 Rebellion of 1837—38, 10, 17-18 Registry offices, 15-16 Religion: in New England, 30; in Stanstead, 41, 73 Religious principles, Child's, 10—11, 27, 37, 78 Religious revivals, 15-16, 30, 37-8 Responsible government, 13, 22, 24. See also Constitutional crisis Richardson, C.A., 23 Richardson, Major John, 49. 50-1- 53 Ritchie, William, 12, 18, 21 Road construction, promotion of, 28, 57, 58, 67, 71 Rock Island, 7, 8-9 Romantic love, 34. See also Elizabeth Child's courtship

Ryan, Mary, 31, 32 Ryerson, Egerton, 26—7 School bills, 108-9, 113> 118, 119, 122 Schools inspector, 25 Scott, Joan, 5 Seat of government question, 45, 48, 51-2, 57, 60-1, 65-6, 70, 82, 85, 87-8,

99, 1OO-1, 1 1 2

Secret societies, bill to put down, 61, 77, 171 n.ig Sectional conflict, 30, 110-11, 120 Servants, relations with, 35, 55, 56, 63-4, 6g, 72, 8 3> 95-6. 105-6, 113, 144, 146 Sherbrooke, 8 Sleeper, Lewis, 34, 44, 50, 166-7 n.2i6 Small pox, 52 Smuggling, 6—8 Social events: in Kingston, 44-5, 84-5, 89, 101, 103, 114—16; in Stanstead, 113, 117, 124, 132 Spousal relations, 33—4 Stanstead, village of (Stanstead Plain): description of, 5—6; economy, 8-g; population size, 8; society, 36—7, 104. See also Social events Stanstead Seminary, 10 Stayner, T.A., 17, 22 Stewart, Gordon, 14 Store inventory/purchases, 8, 66-7, 8l Sydenham, Lord, 18, 19, 22, 28, 80

Tariffs: Child's policy re, 25, 82, 106; bill, re cattle imports, 58, 66,

6

9-73 passim, 77, 79, 82-3, 122, 169-70 n.n; Eastern Townships reaction to bill, 69, 79, 87, g6, 106, 113, 146; U.S., on Canadian goods, g, 29, 79, 82 Ten Resolutions, Lord Russell's, 17 Terrill, H.B., 25 Terrill, Timothy Lee, 29, 165 n.i86 Thomson, Charles Poulett: see Sydenham, Lord Thousand Islands, 50 Transportation, 28-g. See also Railways, Road construction, Travel Travel: conditions, 30, go; Kingston-Montreal, 43, 46, 49, 58, 71 Turgeon, A., 85 United States, Child's attitude toward, 38, 45, 72-3, 86, 111, 133 Upper Canadians, Child's attitude toward, 30, 85, gi-2, g7, 100, 101 Viger, Denis-Benjamin, 25 Walton, Joseph S., 19 War of 1812, 6 Ward, Peter, 3, 33 Water quality, 62. See also Mineral springs. West Boylston, Massachusetts, 6 Whitcher, Sherriff Charles, 15 Wildlife preservation, 25-6, 89, 109 Women and politics/ parliament, 76, 99