Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal
Encyclopedia
The burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal occurred on the night of April 25, 1849. Inaugurated on June 24, 1845, St. Anne's Market building lodging the Parliament of the Province of Canada
was burned down by rioters while the members of the Legislative Assembly were sitting in session.
(or United Canada) was born out of the legislative union of the provinces of Upper Canada
(Ontario
) and Lower Canada
(Quebec
) in February 1841. In 1844, its capital was moved from Kingston
, in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada), to Montreal
, in Canada East
(formerly Lower Canada). St. Anne's Market, located where Place d'Youville
stands today, was renovated by architect John Ostell
to host the provincial parliament.
As part of the moving of the capital, all books in the two parliamentary libraries, as well as those of the Legislative Assembly
and the Legislative Council
were transported by boat on the St. Lawrence.
General elections were held in October 1844. The Tory party won a majority and Governor
Metcalfe had its principal spokesmen enter the Executive Council
. The first session of the second parliament
opened on November 28 of the same year.
passed the Canadian Corn Act, which favoured Canada's exports of wheat and flour on the UK markets through the reduction of duties. The protectionist
policy of Lord Stanley
and Benjamin Disraeli, in continuity with Great Britain's colonial practice during the first half of the 19th century, was overturned in 1846, by the repeal of the Corn Laws and the promotion of free trade by the government of Robert Peel
.
Canada's chambers of commerce feared an imminent disaster. The Anti-Corn Law League
was triumphant, but the commercial class and ruling class of Canada, principally English-speaking and conservative, experienced an important setback. The repercussions of the repeal were felt as early as 1847. The Canadian government put pressure on Colonial Secretary
Earl Grey
to have Great Britain negotiate a lowering of the duties imposed on Canadian products entering the United States market, which had become the only lucrative path to export. A reciprocity treaty
was ultimately negotiated, but only 8 years later in 1854. During the interval, Canada experienced an important political crisis and influential members of society openly discussed three alternatives to the political status quo
: annexation to the United States, the federation of the colonies and territories of British North America, and the independence of Canada. Two citizens' associations appeared in the wake of the crisis: the Annexation Association
and the British American League.
After 1847, the fears of the chambers of commerce in Canada were confirmed, and bankruptcies kept accumulating. Property values were in free fall in the cities, particularly in the capital. In February 1849, the introduction in Parliament of an indemnity bill only aggravated the discontent of a part of the population who had watched d'un mauvais œil the passing of a series of legislative measures by the reformist majority, which took power in beginning of 1848, about a year before.
-Viger
government set up, on November 24, a commission of inquiry into the claims the inhabitants of Lower Canada had sent since 1838, to determine those that were justified and provide an estimate of the amount to be paid. The five commissioners, Joseph Dionne, P. H. Moore, Jacques Viger, John Simpson
and Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry
, submitted their first report on April 1846. They received instructions from the government to distinguish between claims made by persons participating in the "rebellion" and those who had given no support to the insurrectionist party. The total of the claims considered receivable amounted to £241,965, 10 s. and 5d., but the commissioners were of opinion that following a more thorough enquiry into the claims they were unable to make, the amount to be paid by the government would likely not go beyond £100,000. The Assembly passed a motion on June 9, 1846 authorizing a compensation of £9,986 for claims studied prior to the presentation of the report. Nothing further was accomplished on this question until the dissolution of parliament on December 6, 1847.
The general election of January 1848 changed the composition of the House of Assembly in favour of the opposition party, the moderate reformists led by Robert Baldwin
and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
. The new governor, Lord Elgin, who arrived in the colony on January 30, first formed a government that did not have the support of the majority of the members in the House. These withdrew their support of the Executive by a vote of no-confidence on March 3. On March 7, governor Elgin called in Baldwin and Lafontaine, respectively leaders of the majority parties in both sections of the united province, to the Executive Council. On March 11, 11 new ministers entered the Council.
On January 29, 1849, Lafontaine moved to form a committee of the whole House on February 9 to "take into consideration the necessity of establishing the amount of Losses incurred by certain inhabitants in Lower Canada during the political troubles of 1837 and 1838, and of providing for the payment thereof". The consideration of this motion was pushed ahead on several occasions. The opposition party, which denounced the desire of the government to "pay the rebels", showed itself reluctant to begin the study of the question which was on hold since 1838. Its members proposed various amendments to Lafontaine's motion: a first, on February 13, to report the vote by ten days "to give time for the expression of the feelings of the country"; a second one, on February 20, declaring that the House had "no authority to entertain any such proposition" since the Governor General had not recommended that the House "make provision for liquidating the claims for Losses incurred by the Rebellions in Lower Canada, during the present session". The amendments were rejected and the committee was eventually formed on Tuesday, February 20, but the House was adjourned.
The debates that took place between February 13 and 20 were particularly intense and, in the House, the verbal violence of the representatives soon yielded to physical violence. Tory MPPs Henry Sherwood
, Allan MacNab
and Prince attacked the legitimacy of the proposed measure because according to them it rewarded the "rebels" of yesterday and constituted an insult to the "loyal" subjects who had fought against them in 1837 and 1838. On February 15, executive councillors Francis Hincks
and William Hume Blake
retorted in the same tone and Blake even went as far as claiming the Tories to be the true rebels, because, he said, it was they who had violated the principles of the British constitution and caused the civil war of 1837–38. Mr. Blake refused to apologize after his speech, and a mêlée burst out among the spectators standing on the galleries. The speaker of the House had them expelled and a confrontation between MacNab and Blake was avoided by the intervention of the Sergeant at Arms.
The English-language press of the capital (The Gazette
, Courier, Herald, Transcript, Witness
, Punch
) participated in the movement of opposition to the indemnification measure. A single daily, the Pilot, owned by cabinet member Francis Hinks, supported the government. In the French-language press (La Minerve
, L'Avenir
), the measure was unanimously supported.
On February 17, the leading Tory MPPs held a public meeting to protest against the measure. George Moffatt was elected chairman and various public men such as Allan MacNab, Prince, Gugy, Macdonald
, Molson, Rose and others gave speeches. The meeting prepared a petition to the governor asking him to dissolve the parliament and call new elections, or to reserve the assent of the bill for the Queen's pleasure, that is to say, to defer the question to the UK Parliament. The press reported that Lafontaine was burned in effigy that night.
On February 22, Henry John Boulton
, MPP for Norfolk
, introduced an amendment that all persons having pled guilty or having been found to be guilty of high treason should not receive compensation from the government. The government party supported the amendment, but the gesture had no effect on the opposition, which persisted in denouncing the measure as amounting to "paying the rebels". Certain liberal MPPs, including Louis-Joseph Papineau and Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, opposed the amendment because, according to them, it resulted in the recognition, by the government, of the legality of the military court created by former acting governor John Colborne in order to speedily execute the prisoners of 1839.
On March 9, the Legislative Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 47 to 18. MPPs from the former Upper Canada voted in favour, 17 to 14, while those of the former Lower Canada voted 30 to 4 in favour. Six days later, the Legislative Council approved the project 20 to 14. The project having passed both Houses of the Provincial Parliament, the next step was the assent of Governor Elgin, which came 41 days later, on April 25, 1849.
On March 22, a crowd paraded in the streets of Toronto with effigies of William Lyon Mackenzie, Robert Baldwin, and William Hume Blake. When the group neared Baldwin's residence, and in front of that of a Mr. McIntosh on Yonge Street, where Mackenzie was residing after his return from exile, they set the effigies on fire and threw rocks through the windows of Mr. McIntosh's house.
and the new law needed to be in force in order to tax its merchandise. The governor left his residence and went to the Parliament the same day.
At about 5:00 PM, the governor gave the royal assent to the bill in the Legislative Council room, in the presence of members of both houses of Parliament. Since he was already in town, the governor decided to also give assent to some forty one other bills passed by the houses and awaiting to be assented. Among those bills was the Rebellion Losses Bill. The assent of this law seemed to take some people by surprise, and the galleries where some visitors were standing became agitated.
When the governor exited the building at around 6:00 PM, he found a crowd of protesters blocking his path. Some of the protesters began throwing eggs and rocks at him and his aides and he was forced to climb back into his carriage in haste and return to Monklands at gallop speed, while some of his assailants pursued him in the streets.
Not long after the attacks on the governor, alarm bells sounded throughout town to alert the population. A horse-drawn carriage traveled through the streets to announce a public meeting to denounce the governor's assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill. The editor in chief
of The Gazette, James Moir Ferres
, published an Extra which contained a report of the incident involving Lord Elgin, and invited the "Anglo-Saxons" of Montreal to attend a mass meeting to be held at 8:00 PM on Place d'Armes
. The Extra read:
Between 1,200 and 1,500 were reported to have attended the meeting (which in the end took place on Champ-de-Mars
) to hear, by the gleam of torch light, the speeches of orators protesting vigorously against Lord Elgin's assent to the bill. Among the speakers were George Moffat, Colonel Gugy and other members of the official opposition. During the meeting it was proposed to address a petition to Her Majesty asking her to recall governor Elgin and disavow the indemnification act. In the 1887 account he gave of his participation to the events, some 38 years later, Alfred Perry
, the captain of a volunteer corps of firemen, asserted that on that night he stepped on the hustings to speak to the crowd, put his hat on the torch lighting the petition, and exclaimed: "The time for petitions is over, but if the men who are present here are serious, let them follow me to the Parliament Buildings."
The crowd then followed him to the Parliament Buildings, breaking the windows of the offices of the Montreal Pilot, then the only English-language daily then supporting the administration, which were on the route to the Parliament.
When they arrived on site, the rioters broke the windows of the House of Assembly, which was still in session despite the late hour. A committee of the whole House was at that time debating a Bill to Establish a Court having jurisdiction in Appeals and Criminal matters for Lower Canada. The last entry in the journal of the House on April 25 reads:
After breaking the windows and the gas lamps on the outside, a group entered the building and committed various acts of vandalism. According to Perry's account, he, together with Augustus Howard and Alexander Courtney, broke into the building after a first unsuccessful attempt to open the locked doors. Someone ordered a fire truck brought over, and then Perry and a notary, John H. Isaacson, used the truck's 35-foot ladder as a battering ram
to break down the doors. He entered with a few followers and reached the House of Assembly. A certain O'Connor attempted to block their entry, but Perry knocked him down with the handle of the axe he was carrying. The mob took control of the room despite the resistance of a few MPPs (John Sandfield Macdonald
, William Hume Blake, Thomas Aylwin, John Price) and sergeant at arms Chrisholm.
One of the rioters sat in the Speaker's chair where Morin had been sitting only a few minutes before, and declared the dissolution of the House. The room was turned upside down while other men entered the room of the Legislative Council. The acts of vandalism that were reported included the destruction of the seats and desks, stamping on the portrait of Louis-Joseph Papineau, that had been hanging on the wall next to that of Queen Victoria. Perry claimed to have set fire to the room himself when he hit the gas chandelier suspended on the ceiling with a brick, aiming for the clock that was directly above the Speaker's chair. The clock, whose ticking apparently got on his nerves, was, according to his account, showing 9:40 PM when it happened. Other sources, including newspapers of the time, believed the fire to have been started when rioters outside the building started throwing the torches that some of them had carried from the Champ-de-Mars meeting.
Since gas pipes were broken both inside and outside the building, the fire spread rapidly. Perry and Courtney ran out of the building with the ceremonial mace
of the House of Assembly which was lying on the clerk's desk in front of the Speaker's chair. The mace was afterwards brought to Allan MacNab who was then at Donegana Hotel.
The St. Anne's Market building burned very rapidly, with the fire propagating to adjacent buildings, including a house, some warehouses, and the general hospital of the Grey Nuns
. The mob did not allow firefighters to fight the flames devastating the parliament buildings, but did not intervene against those who were trying to save the other structures.
. Four people, Colonel Wiley, a Scotsman named McGillivray, an employee of the parliament, and the uncle of Todd, who was responsible for the libraries, and Sandford Fleming
, who later became a renowned engineer, saved the portrait of Queen Victoria hanging in the hall leading to the lower house. The canvas of the painting without the frame was transported to the Donegana Hotel. The market buildings and all it contained were insured for £12,000; the insurers refused to pay because of the criminal origin of the fire.
The two libraries and the public archives had been kept in the Parliament buildings since 1845. At the beginning of the session of 1849, the library of the Legislative Assembly counted more than 14,000 volumes and that of the Legislative Council more than 8,000. The collections were those of the libraries of the old provincial parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada, which were merged into a single parliament through the Act of Union in 1840. The parliament house of the province of Upper Canada, founded in 1791 and seated in York, had been burned down by the American army during the War of 1812
. The parliament remained itinerant between 1814 and 1829, and a permanent building did not re-open before 1832. Consequently, its libraries were not considerable and only provided a few hundreds of books to the new united legislature. Most of the books came from the Parliament of Lower Canada's libraries, particularly that of the Legislative Assembly, which comprised many thousands of books and was opened to the public in 1825. The losses were estimated at over $400,000 CAD.
Looking to rebuild the parliamentary library, the government sent bibliographer Georges-Barthélemi Faribault
to Europe, where he spent £4,400 purchasing volumes in Paris and London. About two years after its partial reconstruction, the library of the Parliament of United Canada was lost again to a fire, on February 1, 1854. This time, the flames destroyed half the 17,000 volumes of the library, which had been in the new Parliament Buildings of Quebec City since 1853.
The parliamentary agenda was obviously affected by the events of April 25. The day after the fire, a special meeting of the members of the Legislative Assembly was convened to meet at 10:00AM in the hall of the Bonsecours Market
, under the protection of British soldiers. On that day, the MPPs accomplished nothing other than appointing a committee responsible to report on the bills that were destroyed. Their report was presented to the House a week later on May 2. Lafontaine was not present that morning, because he assisted to the wedding of lawyer Amable Berthelot
, his associate in law, who was marrying the adoptive daughter of judge Elzéar Bédard
. The Legislative Assembly kept meeting at Bonsecours Market until May 7, after which date the parliament was convened in a building owned by Moses Judas Hayes on Place Dalhousie.
The Legislative Council's first meeting after the fire was held in the sacristy
of the Trinity Church on April 30.
, editor in chief and principal owner of The Montreal Gazette, William Gordon Mack, lawyer and secretary of the British American League, Hugh E. Montgomerie, trader, Augustus Heward, trader and courtier, as well as Alfred Perry
, five persons in total, were arrested and charged with arson early in the morning of April 26 by the police superintendent William Ermatinger. A crowd gathered around the police station at the Bonsecours Market in protest. Perry, who was arrested last, was transferred to the prison of the faubourg de Québec at 12:00PM, escorted by a company of soldiers, and pursued by the crowd. Once in prison, he was put in the same cell with the other four.
Lafontaine, exercising his role as Attorney General, advised Ermatinger to release the prisoners. On Saturday April 28, they were released on bail. A procession of omnibuses
and cab
s transported them in triumph from the prison to the front door of the Bank of Montreal
, on Place d'Armes, where they addressed their partisans and thanked them for their support.
, at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Petite Saint-Jacques.
A group of Tory leaders including George Moffatt and Gugy convened a new public meeting of the "Friends of Peace" on Champ-de-Mars on Friday April 27 at 12:00PM. There they tried to calm their followers down and proposed the resumption of peaceable means to resolve the crisis. It was resolved to submit a petition praying the Queen to relieve Elgin from office and disavow the Rebellion Losses Act.
Confronted with riots threatening the lives of citizens and damaging their properties, the government took the decision to raise a special police force. On the morning of April 27, the authorities informed the population that men who would show up at 6:00 PM in front of the dépôt de l'ordonnance on rue du Bord-de-l'Eau would receive arms. Some 800 men, principally Canadians from Montreal and its suburbs and some Irish immigrants of Griffintown
, presented themselves and between 500 to 600 constables were armed and barracked near the Bonsecours Market. During the arms distribution, a group of men showed up and attacked the new constables by firing on them and throwing rocks at them. The newly armed men fought back and wounded three of their assailants.
During a public meeting on Place du Castor on that night, general Charles Stephen Gore
stepped on the hustings and dispersed the crowd by swearing on his honour that the new constables would be disarmed by morning. This is indeed what occurred, as the new force supposed to act under the orders of Montreal's justices of the peace was demobilized less than 24 hours after being armed.
A part of the 71st regiment equipped with two cannons was mobilized to repel a group of armed men marching toward the Bonsecours Market. The soldiers blocked rue Notre-Dame near the Jacques Cartier Market. Colonel Gugy intervened and dissuaded the rioters from attacking the Bonsecours Market.
On Saturday April 28, the representatives present at the Bonsecours Market appointed a special committee to prepare an address to the governor by which the Legislative Assembly deplored the acts of violence of the past three days, especially the burning of the Parliament Buildings, and gave its full support to the governor to enforce the law and restore public peace. The representatives voted for the address 36 to 16.
While not necessarily supportive of the acts of violence shaking the town of Montreal, the conservative circles of British Canada publicly expressed their contempt for the representative of the Crown. The members of the Thistle Society met and voted to strike Governor Elgin's name from the list of benefactors. On April 28, the Saint Andrew's Society
also struck him from its list of members.
On Sunday April 29, the day of the Christian
Sabbath, the town of Montreal was at rest and no incidents were reported.
On Monday April 30, the governor and his dragoon escort left his suburban residence of Monklands for the Government House, then lodging in the Château Ramezay
on rue Notre-Dame in downtown Montreal, to publicly receive, at 3:00PM, the address of the House of Assembly voted on the 28th. When the governor entered rue Notre-Dame toward 14:30PM, a crowd of protesters threw rocks and eggs and other projectiles against his carriage and the armed escort protecting him. He was hooted at by some, applauded by others along the way. The representatives, also protected by an armed escort, arrived at the meeting with the governor in the Bonsecours Market by way of the ruelle Saint-Claude.
After the ceremony for the presentation of the address, the governor and his escort returned to Monklands by taking rue St-Denis in order to avoid conflict with the crowd still demonstrating against his presence. The stratagem did not work and the governor and his guards were intercepted at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Sherbrooke by rioters who again pelted them with rocks. The brother of the governor, colonel Bruce, was seriously injured by a rock that hit his head; Ermatinger and captain Jones were also injured.
On that day, Elgin wrote to Colonial Secretary Earl Grey to suggest that if he [Elgin] failed "to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties" that he had strived to maintain, that it might be in the interest of the metropolitan government to replace him with someone who would not be personally obnoxious to an important part of Canada's population. Earl Grey, to the contrary, believed that his replacement would be harmful and would have the effect of encouraging those who violently and illegally opposed the authority of his government, which continued to receive the full support of the Westminster cabinet.
On May 10, a delegation of citizens from Toronto, who had come to Montreal to deliver an address in support of the Earl of Elgin, were attacked while in the Hôtel Têtu.
The former colonial secretary, William Ewart Gladstone
, of the Tory Party, sided with the Canadian opposition and exercised all his influence in its favour. On June 14, John Charles Herries
, a Tory member of the House of Commons for Stamford, presented a motion to disavow the Rebellion Losses Act assented by the Earl of Elgin on April 25. But the governor of British North America received the support of both John Russell, the Whig Prime Minister as well as the Tory leader of the opposition Robert Peel. On June 16, the House of Commons rejected Herries' motion by a majority of 141 votes.
On June 19, Lord Brougham introduced a motion in the House of Lords to suspend the Rebellion Losses Act until it is amended to insure that no person who participated to the rebellion against the established government be compensated. The motion was defeated 99 to 96.
to the prison was a repeat of Perry's transfer on April 26. A crowd, determined to deliver up Courtney, attacked the military escort protecting his car, but were pushed back at the points of bayonets.
A gathering formed at dusk (after 8:00PM), in front of the Orr Hotel, on rue Notre-Dame. Men endeavoured to raise barricades of three to four feet in height using the paving stones of the Saint-Gabriel and Notre-Dame streets. The authorities were informed of what was going on and a detachment of the 23rd regiment was sent to undo the work before the barricades could be armed. Some of the men who ran off when the army showed up regrouped and decided to attack the houses of Lafontaine and the boarding house where Baldwin was residing.
At around 10:00 PM, some 200 men attacked the residence of Lafontaine, who was at home and without a guard. It was around 5:00 PM when he learned of a rumour circulating in town saying that his house was going to be attacked. At around 6 or 7:00 PM, he sent a note to captain Wetherall
to tell him about the rumour. Around the same time, some friends who had heard the rumour arrived on their own to help him defend his life and his property. Among them were Étienne-Paschal Taché
, C.-J. Coursol, Joseph Beaudry, Moïse Brossard, and Harkin. Guns were fired on both sides. The attackers retreated with seven wounded, including William Mason, the son of a blacksmith living on Craig street, who died of his wounds the following morning. The cavalry commanded by captain Sweeney which Wetherall had sent to protect Lafontaine arrived later and missed the entire action.
The Tory press gave great coverage of the death of Mason, and, on the 18th of August, a grand funeral procession marched on Craig, Bonsecours and Saint-Paul street, as well as on Place Jacques-Cartier, before going toward the English cemetery.
An enquiry of the circumstances of Mason's death was opened by coroners Jones and Coursol. Lafontaine was called in to testify before the jury in the Cyrus Hotel, on Place Jacques Cartier, on August 20 at 10:00 AM. While the co-premier was inside the hotel, some men spread oil in the front staircase and set it on fire. The building was evacuated and Lafontaine exited under the protection of the military guards.
Unlike Montreal, Toronto was a homogeneous town at the linguistic level; English was the common language of all main ethnic and religious groups inhabiting it. By comparison, the Montreal of the time of governor Metcalfe (1843–45) counted 27,908 Canadians, the majority French-speaking, and 15,668 immigrants from the British Isles. The statistics were similar when looking at the whole county of Montreal.
Parliament of Canada
The Parliament of Canada is the federal legislative branch of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in the national capital, Ottawa. Formally, the body consists of the Canadian monarch—represented by her governor general—the Senate, and the House of Commons, each element having its own officers and...
was burned down by rioters while the members of the Legislative Assembly were sitting in session.
Parliament moved to Montreal
The Province of CanadaProvince of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...
(or United Canada) was born out of the legislative union of the provinces of Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
(Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
) and Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
(Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
) in February 1841. In 1844, its capital was moved from Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, in Canada West (formerly Upper Canada), to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, in Canada East
Canada East
Canada East was the eastern portion of the United Province of Canada. It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day Canadian Province of Quebec, and was primarily a French-speaking region....
(formerly Lower Canada). St. Anne's Market, located where Place d'Youville
Place d'Youville
The Place d'Youville in Old Montreal is a historical landmark in Montreal. It was named after Marguerite d'Youville. The roads from the Place Royale and McGill Street meet at this point.- History :...
stands today, was renovated by architect John Ostell
John Ostell
John Ostell architect, surveyor and manufacturer, was born in London, England and emigrated to Canada in 1834, where he apprenticed himself to a Montreal surveyor André Trudeau to learn French methods of surveying. In 1837 he married Eleonore Gauvin a member of a prominent French Catholic family...
to host the provincial parliament.
As part of the moving of the capital, all books in the two parliamentary libraries, as well as those of the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the...
and the Legislative Council
Legislative Council of the Province of Canada
The Legislative Council of the Province of Canada was the upper house for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper Canada, then known as Canada West and later the province of Ontario...
were transported by boat on the St. Lawrence.
General elections were held in October 1844. The Tory party won a majority and Governor
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...
Metcalfe had its principal spokesmen enter the Executive Council
Executive Council of the Province of Canada
The Executive Council of the Province of Canada had a similar function to the Cabinet in England but was not responsible to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from its inception in 1841 to 1848....
. The first session of the second parliament
2nd Parliament of the Province of Canada
The 2nd Parliament of the Province of Canada was in session from November 28, 1844 to December 1847. Elections were held in the Province of Canada in October 1844...
opened on November 28 of the same year.
Economic crisis
In 1843, the Parliament of the United KingdomParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
passed the Canadian Corn Act, which favoured Canada's exports of wheat and flour on the UK markets through the reduction of duties. The protectionist
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
policy of Lord Stanley
Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, PC was an English statesman, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and to date the longest serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley...
and Benjamin Disraeli, in continuity with Great Britain's colonial practice during the first half of the 19th century, was overturned in 1846, by the repeal of the Corn Laws and the promotion of free trade by the government of Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
.
Canada's chambers of commerce feared an imminent disaster. The Anti-Corn Law League
Anti-Corn Law League
The Anti-Corn Law League was in effect the resumption of the Anti-Corn Law Association, which had been created in London in 1836 but did not obtain widespread popularity. The Anti-Corn Law League was founded in Manchester in 1838...
was triumphant, but the commercial class and ruling class of Canada, principally English-speaking and conservative, experienced an important setback. The repercussions of the repeal were felt as early as 1847. The Canadian government put pressure on Colonial Secretary
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
The Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was a British cabinet level position responsible for the army and the British colonies . The Department was created in 1801...
Earl Grey
Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey
Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey , known as Viscount Howick from 1807 until 1845, was an English statesman.-Background:Grey was the eldest son of Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, by his wife the Hon...
to have Great Britain negotiate a lowering of the duties imposed on Canadian products entering the United States market, which had become the only lucrative path to export. A reciprocity treaty
Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty
The Canadian American Reciprocity Treaty, also known as the Elgin-Marcy Treaty, was a trade treaty between the colonies of British North America and the United States. It covered raw materials and was in effect from 1854 to 1865...
was ultimately negotiated, but only 8 years later in 1854. During the interval, Canada experienced an important political crisis and influential members of society openly discussed three alternatives to the political status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
: annexation to the United States, the federation of the colonies and territories of British North America, and the independence of Canada. Two citizens' associations appeared in the wake of the crisis: the Annexation Association
Montreal Annexation Manifesto
The Montreal Annexation Manifesto was a political document dated September 14, 1849 and signed in Montreal, Quebec, calling for Canada's annexation by the United States....
and the British American League.
After 1847, the fears of the chambers of commerce in Canada were confirmed, and bankruptcies kept accumulating. Property values were in free fall in the cities, particularly in the capital. In February 1849, the introduction in Parliament of an indemnity bill only aggravated the discontent of a part of the population who had watched d'un mauvais œil the passing of a series of legislative measures by the reformist majority, which took power in beginning of 1848, about a year before.
Rebellion Losses Bill
In 1845, the DraperWilliam Henry Draper
William Henry Draper was a lawyer, judge, and politician in Upper Canada later Canada West.-Personal life:...
-Viger
Denis-Benjamin Viger
Denis-Benjamin Viger was a 19th century Lower Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, and Patriote movement member.Viger was part of the militia in the early 19th century and then a captain in the War of 1812...
government set up, on November 24, a commission of inquiry into the claims the inhabitants of Lower Canada had sent since 1838, to determine those that were justified and provide an estimate of the amount to be paid. The five commissioners, Joseph Dionne, P. H. Moore, Jacques Viger, John Simpson
John Simpson (Quebec politician)
John Simpson was a government official and political figure in Canada West.He was born in England in 1788 and came to Augusta Township in Upper Canada in 1815. In 1819, he became a private secretary for Lord Dalhousie. He was appointed customs inspector at Coteau-du-Lac in 1822...
and Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry
Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry
Joseph-Ubalde Beaudry was a jurist and author from Montreal.Beaudry was educated at the college of Montreal where he was highly proficient in languages and the exact sciences. He entered the legal field as a law clerk for Côme-Séraphin Cherrier and became a lawyer in 1838...
, submitted their first report on April 1846. They received instructions from the government to distinguish between claims made by persons participating in the "rebellion" and those who had given no support to the insurrectionist party. The total of the claims considered receivable amounted to £241,965, 10 s. and 5d., but the commissioners were of opinion that following a more thorough enquiry into the claims they were unable to make, the amount to be paid by the government would likely not go beyond £100,000. The Assembly passed a motion on June 9, 1846 authorizing a compensation of £9,986 for claims studied prior to the presentation of the report. Nothing further was accomplished on this question until the dissolution of parliament on December 6, 1847.
The general election of January 1848 changed the composition of the House of Assembly in favour of the opposition party, the moderate reformists led by Robert Baldwin
Robert Baldwin
Robert Baldwin was born at York . He, along with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, led the first responsible ministry in Canada, regarded by some as the first truly Canadian government....
and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine
Sir Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine , 1st Baronet, KCMG was the first Canadian to become Prime Minister of the United Province of Canada and the first head of a responsible government in Canada. He was born in Boucherville, Lower Canada in 1807...
. The new governor, Lord Elgin, who arrived in the colony on January 30, first formed a government that did not have the support of the majority of the members in the House. These withdrew their support of the Executive by a vote of no-confidence on March 3. On March 7, governor Elgin called in Baldwin and Lafontaine, respectively leaders of the majority parties in both sections of the united province, to the Executive Council. On March 11, 11 new ministers entered the Council.
On January 29, 1849, Lafontaine moved to form a committee of the whole House on February 9 to "take into consideration the necessity of establishing the amount of Losses incurred by certain inhabitants in Lower Canada during the political troubles of 1837 and 1838, and of providing for the payment thereof". The consideration of this motion was pushed ahead on several occasions. The opposition party, which denounced the desire of the government to "pay the rebels", showed itself reluctant to begin the study of the question which was on hold since 1838. Its members proposed various amendments to Lafontaine's motion: a first, on February 13, to report the vote by ten days "to give time for the expression of the feelings of the country"; a second one, on February 20, declaring that the House had "no authority to entertain any such proposition" since the Governor General had not recommended that the House "make provision for liquidating the claims for Losses incurred by the Rebellions in Lower Canada, during the present session". The amendments were rejected and the committee was eventually formed on Tuesday, February 20, but the House was adjourned.
The debates that took place between February 13 and 20 were particularly intense and, in the House, the verbal violence of the representatives soon yielded to physical violence. Tory MPPs Henry Sherwood
Henry Sherwood
Henry Sherwood, QC was a lawyer and Tory provincial politician, moved to municipal politics and was alderman of St. David's Ward when chosen as Toronto's 7th mayor from 1842 to 1844. Sherwood was appointed QC on 23 January 1838...
, Allan MacNab
Allan MacNab
Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet was a Canadian political leader and Premier of the Province of Canada before Canadian Confederation .-Biography:...
and Prince attacked the legitimacy of the proposed measure because according to them it rewarded the "rebels" of yesterday and constituted an insult to the "loyal" subjects who had fought against them in 1837 and 1838. On February 15, executive councillors Francis Hincks
Francis Hincks
Sir Francis Hincks, KCMG, PC was a Canadian politician.Born in Cork, Ireland, he was the son of Thomas Dix Hincks an orientalist, naturalist and Presbyterian minister and the brother of Edward Hincks orientalist, naturalist and clergyman.He moved to York in 1832 and set up an importing business...
and William Hume Blake
William Hume Blake
William Hume Blake, QC was a Canadian jurist and politician. He was the father of Edward Blake, an Ontario Premier and federal Liberal party of Canada leader....
retorted in the same tone and Blake even went as far as claiming the Tories to be the true rebels, because, he said, it was they who had violated the principles of the British constitution and caused the civil war of 1837–38. Mr. Blake refused to apologize after his speech, and a mêlée burst out among the spectators standing on the galleries. The speaker of the House had them expelled and a confrontation between MacNab and Blake was avoided by the intervention of the Sergeant at Arms.
The English-language press of the capital (The Gazette
The Gazette (Montreal)
The Gazette, often called the Montreal Gazette to avoid ambiguity, is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with three other daily English newspapers all having shut down at different times during the second half of the 20th century.-History:In 1778,...
, Courier, Herald, Transcript, Witness
Witness
A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about an event, or in the criminal justice systems usually a crime, through his or her senses and can help certify important considerations about the crime or event. A witness who has seen the event first hand is known as an eyewitness...
, Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
) participated in the movement of opposition to the indemnification measure. A single daily, the Pilot, owned by cabinet member Francis Hinks, supported the government. In the French-language press (La Minerve
La Minerve
La Minerve was a newspaper founded in Montreal, Lower Canada by Augustin-Norbert Morin to promote the political goals of Louis-Joseph Papineau's Parti patriote. It was notably directed by Ludger Duvernay in its earlier years. It existed from 1826 to 1837, and again from 1842 to May 27, 1899...
, L'Avenir
L'Avenir
L'Avenir is a daily newspaper published in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company is part of the Groupe L'Avenir, a media group of the DRC. The content of the paper is primarily French, and includes content written in Lingala and Swahili...
), the measure was unanimously supported.
On February 17, the leading Tory MPPs held a public meeting to protest against the measure. George Moffatt was elected chairman and various public men such as Allan MacNab, Prince, Gugy, Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
, Molson, Rose and others gave speeches. The meeting prepared a petition to the governor asking him to dissolve the parliament and call new elections, or to reserve the assent of the bill for the Queen's pleasure, that is to say, to defer the question to the UK Parliament. The press reported that Lafontaine was burned in effigy that night.
On February 22, Henry John Boulton
Henry John Boulton
Henry John Boulton, QC was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born at Little Holland House, Kensington, England, the son of D’Arcy Boulton, in 1790. Some time later, the family settled in New York state and then moved to Upper Canada around 1800. He studied law at York ...
, MPP for Norfolk
Norfolk County, Ontario
Norfolk County is a rural city-status single-tier municipality on the north shore of Lake Erie in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Bloomsburg is a small town located in Norfolk County and is the hometown of David Slater. The county seat and largest community is Simcoe...
, introduced an amendment that all persons having pled guilty or having been found to be guilty of high treason should not receive compensation from the government. The government party supported the amendment, but the gesture had no effect on the opposition, which persisted in denouncing the measure as amounting to "paying the rebels". Certain liberal MPPs, including Louis-Joseph Papineau and Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, opposed the amendment because, according to them, it resulted in the recognition, by the government, of the legality of the military court created by former acting governor John Colborne in order to speedily execute the prisoners of 1839.
On March 9, the Legislative Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 47 to 18. MPPs from the former Upper Canada voted in favour, 17 to 14, while those of the former Lower Canada voted 30 to 4 in favour. Six days later, the Legislative Council approved the project 20 to 14. The project having passed both Houses of the Provincial Parliament, the next step was the assent of Governor Elgin, which came 41 days later, on April 25, 1849.
On March 22, a crowd paraded in the streets of Toronto with effigies of William Lyon Mackenzie, Robert Baldwin, and William Hume Blake. When the group neared Baldwin's residence, and in front of that of a Mr. McIntosh on Yonge Street, where Mackenzie was residing after his return from exile, they set the effigies on fire and threw rocks through the windows of Mr. McIntosh's house.
Mob attacks parliament
On April 25, the cabinet sent Francis Hinks to The Monklands, the governor's residence, to request that Governor Elgin quickly come to town in order to assent a new tariff bill. The first European ship of the year had already arrived in the Port of QuebecPort of Quebec
The Port of Quebec is an inland port located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest port in Canada, and the second largest in Quebec after the Port of Montreal.-History:...
and the new law needed to be in force in order to tax its merchandise. The governor left his residence and went to the Parliament the same day.
At about 5:00 PM, the governor gave the royal assent to the bill in the Legislative Council room, in the presence of members of both houses of Parliament. Since he was already in town, the governor decided to also give assent to some forty one other bills passed by the houses and awaiting to be assented. Among those bills was the Rebellion Losses Bill. The assent of this law seemed to take some people by surprise, and the galleries where some visitors were standing became agitated.
When the governor exited the building at around 6:00 PM, he found a crowd of protesters blocking his path. Some of the protesters began throwing eggs and rocks at him and his aides and he was forced to climb back into his carriage in haste and return to Monklands at gallop speed, while some of his assailants pursued him in the streets.
Not long after the attacks on the governor, alarm bells sounded throughout town to alert the population. A horse-drawn carriage traveled through the streets to announce a public meeting to denounce the governor's assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill. The editor in chief
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
of The Gazette, James Moir Ferres
James Moir Ferres
James Moir Ferres was a journalist and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1813 and studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen. Ferres came to Montreal in 1833 and taught at Edward Black's school there. He then became director of the academy at Frelighsburg in the...
, published an Extra which contained a report of the incident involving Lord Elgin, and invited the "Anglo-Saxons" of Montreal to attend a mass meeting to be held at 8:00 PM on Place d'Armes
Place d'Armes
Place d'Armes is a square in Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:Place d'Armes is the second oldest public site in Montreal, it was called Place de la Fabrique when it was first developed in 1693, at the request of the Sulpicians, then later renamed Place d'Armes in 1721 when...
. The Extra read:
Between 1,200 and 1,500 were reported to have attended the meeting (which in the end took place on Champ-de-Mars
Champ de Mars, Montreal
Champ de Mars is a public park in Old Montreal quarter of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Formerly a military parade ground, the park had previously been the site of Montreal's fortifications, which were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century soon after Montreal City Hall and the old courthouse...
) to hear, by the gleam of torch light, the speeches of orators protesting vigorously against Lord Elgin's assent to the bill. Among the speakers were George Moffat, Colonel Gugy and other members of the official opposition. During the meeting it was proposed to address a petition to Her Majesty asking her to recall governor Elgin and disavow the indemnification act. In the 1887 account he gave of his participation to the events, some 38 years later, Alfred Perry
Alfred Perry
Alfred Perry was a prominent Montrealer and fire marshal who, with a group of Protestant clergy and Montréal citizens, founded the Douglas Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 19, 1881....
, the captain of a volunteer corps of firemen, asserted that on that night he stepped on the hustings to speak to the crowd, put his hat on the torch lighting the petition, and exclaimed: "The time for petitions is over, but if the men who are present here are serious, let them follow me to the Parliament Buildings."
The crowd then followed him to the Parliament Buildings, breaking the windows of the offices of the Montreal Pilot, then the only English-language daily then supporting the administration, which were on the route to the Parliament.
When they arrived on site, the rioters broke the windows of the House of Assembly, which was still in session despite the late hour. A committee of the whole House was at that time debating a Bill to Establish a Court having jurisdiction in Appeals and Criminal matters for Lower Canada. The last entry in the journal of the House on April 25 reads:
After breaking the windows and the gas lamps on the outside, a group entered the building and committed various acts of vandalism. According to Perry's account, he, together with Augustus Howard and Alexander Courtney, broke into the building after a first unsuccessful attempt to open the locked doors. Someone ordered a fire truck brought over, and then Perry and a notary, John H. Isaacson, used the truck's 35-foot ladder as a battering ram
Battering ram
A battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times and designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates...
to break down the doors. He entered with a few followers and reached the House of Assembly. A certain O'Connor attempted to block their entry, but Perry knocked him down with the handle of the axe he was carrying. The mob took control of the room despite the resistance of a few MPPs (John Sandfield Macdonald
John Sandfield Macdonald
John Sandfield Macdonald, QC was the first Premier of the province of Ontario, one of the four founding provinces created at the confederation of Canada in 1867...
, William Hume Blake, Thomas Aylwin, John Price) and sergeant at arms Chrisholm.
One of the rioters sat in the Speaker's chair where Morin had been sitting only a few minutes before, and declared the dissolution of the House. The room was turned upside down while other men entered the room of the Legislative Council. The acts of vandalism that were reported included the destruction of the seats and desks, stamping on the portrait of Louis-Joseph Papineau, that had been hanging on the wall next to that of Queen Victoria. Perry claimed to have set fire to the room himself when he hit the gas chandelier suspended on the ceiling with a brick, aiming for the clock that was directly above the Speaker's chair. The clock, whose ticking apparently got on his nerves, was, according to his account, showing 9:40 PM when it happened. Other sources, including newspapers of the time, believed the fire to have been started when rioters outside the building started throwing the torches that some of them had carried from the Champ-de-Mars meeting.
Since gas pipes were broken both inside and outside the building, the fire spread rapidly. Perry and Courtney ran out of the building with the ceremonial mace
Ceremonial mace
The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon...
of the House of Assembly which was lying on the clerk's desk in front of the Speaker's chair. The mace was afterwards brought to Allan MacNab who was then at Donegana Hotel.
The St. Anne's Market building burned very rapidly, with the fire propagating to adjacent buildings, including a house, some warehouses, and the general hospital of the Grey Nuns
Grey Nuns
The Order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Order of Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian order of Roman Catholic religious sisters...
. The mob did not allow firefighters to fight the flames devastating the parliament buildings, but did not intervene against those who were trying to save the other structures.
Damages
The St. Anne's Market building was completely devastated. The fire consumed the parliament's two libraries, parts of the archives of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, as well as more recent public documents. Over 23,000 volumes, forming the collections of the two parliamentary libraries, were lost. Only about 200 books, along with the portrait of Queen Victoria, were saved, thanks to James CurranJames Curran
Doctor James R. Curran is a computational linguist and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney.-Research:Curran's research focuses on natural language processing , making him one of the few Australian computational linguists. Specifically Curran's research has focused on the area of natural...
. Four people, Colonel Wiley, a Scotsman named McGillivray, an employee of the parliament, and the uncle of Todd, who was responsible for the libraries, and Sandford Fleming
Sandford Fleming
Sir Sandford Fleming, was a Scottish-born Canadian engineer and inventor, proposed worldwide standard time zones, designed Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, and was a founding...
, who later became a renowned engineer, saved the portrait of Queen Victoria hanging in the hall leading to the lower house. The canvas of the painting without the frame was transported to the Donegana Hotel. The market buildings and all it contained were insured for £12,000; the insurers refused to pay because of the criminal origin of the fire.
The two libraries and the public archives had been kept in the Parliament buildings since 1845. At the beginning of the session of 1849, the library of the Legislative Assembly counted more than 14,000 volumes and that of the Legislative Council more than 8,000. The collections were those of the libraries of the old provincial parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada, which were merged into a single parliament through the Act of Union in 1840. The parliament house of the province of Upper Canada, founded in 1791 and seated in York, had been burned down by the American army during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. The parliament remained itinerant between 1814 and 1829, and a permanent building did not re-open before 1832. Consequently, its libraries were not considerable and only provided a few hundreds of books to the new united legislature. Most of the books came from the Parliament of Lower Canada's libraries, particularly that of the Legislative Assembly, which comprised many thousands of books and was opened to the public in 1825. The losses were estimated at over $400,000 CAD.
Looking to rebuild the parliamentary library, the government sent bibliographer Georges-Barthélemi Faribault
George-Barthélemy Faribault
George-Barthélemy Faribault was a Canadian archaeologist, born in Quebec.Faribault was a first cousin of Jean-Baptiste, father of Alexander, founder of the city of Faribault, Minnesota, U.S.A....
to Europe, where he spent £4,400 purchasing volumes in Paris and London. About two years after its partial reconstruction, the library of the Parliament of United Canada was lost again to a fire, on February 1, 1854. This time, the flames destroyed half the 17,000 volumes of the library, which had been in the new Parliament Buildings of Quebec City since 1853.
The parliamentary agenda was obviously affected by the events of April 25. The day after the fire, a special meeting of the members of the Legislative Assembly was convened to meet at 10:00AM in the hall of the Bonsecours Market
Bonsecours Market
Bonsecours Market , at 350 rue Saint-Paul in Old Montreal, is a two-story domed public market. For more than 100 years, it was the main public market in the Montreal area. It also briefly accommodated the Parliament of United Canada for one session in 1849....
, under the protection of British soldiers. On that day, the MPPs accomplished nothing other than appointing a committee responsible to report on the bills that were destroyed. Their report was presented to the House a week later on May 2. Lafontaine was not present that morning, because he assisted to the wedding of lawyer Amable Berthelot
Amable Berthelot
Amable Berthelot was a Quebec lawyer, author and political figure.He was born in Quebec City in 1777, the son of Michel-Amable Berthelot Dartigny, and studied at the Petit Séminaire de Québec. He articled in law with Jean-Antoine Panet, was admitted to the bar in 1799 and set up practice at...
, his associate in law, who was marrying the adoptive daughter of judge Elzéar Bédard
Elzéar Bédard
Elzéar Bédard was a lawyer and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada. He later became a judge.He was born at Quebec City in 1799, the son of Pierre-Stanislas Bédard...
. The Legislative Assembly kept meeting at Bonsecours Market until May 7, after which date the parliament was convened in a building owned by Moses Judas Hayes on Place Dalhousie.
The Legislative Council's first meeting after the fire was held in the sacristy
Sacristy
A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...
of the Trinity Church on April 30.
First series of arrests
Four of the speakers of the Champs-de-Mars meeting, James Moir FerresJames Moir Ferres
James Moir Ferres was a journalist and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1813 and studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen. Ferres came to Montreal in 1833 and taught at Edward Black's school there. He then became director of the academy at Frelighsburg in the...
, editor in chief and principal owner of The Montreal Gazette, William Gordon Mack, lawyer and secretary of the British American League, Hugh E. Montgomerie, trader, Augustus Heward, trader and courtier, as well as Alfred Perry
Alfred Perry
Alfred Perry was a prominent Montrealer and fire marshal who, with a group of Protestant clergy and Montréal citizens, founded the Douglas Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 19, 1881....
, five persons in total, were arrested and charged with arson early in the morning of April 26 by the police superintendent William Ermatinger. A crowd gathered around the police station at the Bonsecours Market in protest. Perry, who was arrested last, was transferred to the prison of the faubourg de Québec at 12:00PM, escorted by a company of soldiers, and pursued by the crowd. Once in prison, he was put in the same cell with the other four.
Lafontaine, exercising his role as Attorney General, advised Ermatinger to release the prisoners. On Saturday April 28, they were released on bail. A procession of omnibuses
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
and cab
Cabriolet (carriage)
A cabriolet is a light horse-drawn vehicle, with two wheels and a single horse. The carriage has a folding hood that can cover its two occupants, one of whom is the driver. It has a large rigid apron, gracefully upward-curving shafts, and usually a rear platform between the C springs for a groom...
s transported them in triumph from the prison to the front door of the Bank of Montreal
Bank of Montreal
The Bank of Montreal , , or BMO Financial Group, is the fourth largest bank in Canada by deposits. The Bank of Montreal was founded on June 23, 1817 by John Richardson and eight merchants in a rented house in Montreal, Quebec. On May 19, 1817 the Articles of Association were adopted, making it...
, on Place d'Armes, where they addressed their partisans and thanked them for their support.
Continuation of violence until May
On the night of April 26, a group of men vandalized the residences of reformist MPPs Hinks, Wilson and Benjamin Holmes at Beaver Hall. The men then proceeded to the house of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, on rue de l'Aqueduc in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, vandalizing it and setting his stable on fire. The fire propagated to his house, however no one was inside at the time. The fire was extinguished by a detachment of soldiers, but not before it had caused significant damage to Lafontaine's private library. Returning toward downtown Montreal, the men broke windows on the boarding house where Baldwin and Price resided as well as those of McNamee's Inn, two buildings forming the corner of the Catholic Cemetery street. They also attacked the residences of Solicitor General Mr. Drummond on Craig street and that of Dr. Wolfred NelsonWolfred Nelson
Wolfred Nelson, was from 1854 to 1856 the mayor of Montreal, Quebec.- Biography :Nelson was born in Montreal the son of William Nelson, an immigrant to Colonial America from Newsham, North Yorkshire, England...
, at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Petite Saint-Jacques.
A group of Tory leaders including George Moffatt and Gugy convened a new public meeting of the "Friends of Peace" on Champ-de-Mars on Friday April 27 at 12:00PM. There they tried to calm their followers down and proposed the resumption of peaceable means to resolve the crisis. It was resolved to submit a petition praying the Queen to relieve Elgin from office and disavow the Rebellion Losses Act.
Confronted with riots threatening the lives of citizens and damaging their properties, the government took the decision to raise a special police force. On the morning of April 27, the authorities informed the population that men who would show up at 6:00 PM in front of the dépôt de l'ordonnance on rue du Bord-de-l'Eau would receive arms. Some 800 men, principally Canadians from Montreal and its suburbs and some Irish immigrants of Griffintown
Griffintown
Griffintown is the popular name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Quebec, which existed from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants....
, presented themselves and between 500 to 600 constables were armed and barracked near the Bonsecours Market. During the arms distribution, a group of men showed up and attacked the new constables by firing on them and throwing rocks at them. The newly armed men fought back and wounded three of their assailants.
During a public meeting on Place du Castor on that night, general Charles Stephen Gore
Charles Stephen Gore
Sir Charles Stephen Gore KH GCB was a British general.He served in Canada and fought in the Battle of Saint-Denis.The community of Gore, Nova Scotia is named after him when he served in Nova Scotia....
stepped on the hustings and dispersed the crowd by swearing on his honour that the new constables would be disarmed by morning. This is indeed what occurred, as the new force supposed to act under the orders of Montreal's justices of the peace was demobilized less than 24 hours after being armed.
A part of the 71st regiment equipped with two cannons was mobilized to repel a group of armed men marching toward the Bonsecours Market. The soldiers blocked rue Notre-Dame near the Jacques Cartier Market. Colonel Gugy intervened and dissuaded the rioters from attacking the Bonsecours Market.
On Saturday April 28, the representatives present at the Bonsecours Market appointed a special committee to prepare an address to the governor by which the Legislative Assembly deplored the acts of violence of the past three days, especially the burning of the Parliament Buildings, and gave its full support to the governor to enforce the law and restore public peace. The representatives voted for the address 36 to 16.
While not necessarily supportive of the acts of violence shaking the town of Montreal, the conservative circles of British Canada publicly expressed their contempt for the representative of the Crown. The members of the Thistle Society met and voted to strike Governor Elgin's name from the list of benefactors. On April 28, the Saint Andrew's Society
Saint Andrew's Society
The Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York is the oldest charitable institution in the state of New York. The organization was founded in 1756 by Scotsmen in New York City who were looking to "relieve the distrssed." It was named for the patron saint of Scotland, Saint Andrew...
also struck him from its list of members.
On Sunday April 29, the day of the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
Sabbath, the town of Montreal was at rest and no incidents were reported.
On Monday April 30, the governor and his dragoon escort left his suburban residence of Monklands for the Government House, then lodging in the Château Ramezay
Château Ramezay
The Château Ramezay is a museum and historic building on Notre-Dame Street in Old Montreal, opposite Montreal City Hall.Built in 1705 as the residence of then-governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay, the Château was the first building proclaimed as a historical monument in Quebec and is the...
on rue Notre-Dame in downtown Montreal, to publicly receive, at 3:00PM, the address of the House of Assembly voted on the 28th. When the governor entered rue Notre-Dame toward 14:30PM, a crowd of protesters threw rocks and eggs and other projectiles against his carriage and the armed escort protecting him. He was hooted at by some, applauded by others along the way. The representatives, also protected by an armed escort, arrived at the meeting with the governor in the Bonsecours Market by way of the ruelle Saint-Claude.
After the ceremony for the presentation of the address, the governor and his escort returned to Monklands by taking rue St-Denis in order to avoid conflict with the crowd still demonstrating against his presence. The stratagem did not work and the governor and his guards were intercepted at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Sherbrooke by rioters who again pelted them with rocks. The brother of the governor, colonel Bruce, was seriously injured by a rock that hit his head; Ermatinger and captain Jones were also injured.
On that day, Elgin wrote to Colonial Secretary Earl Grey to suggest that if he [Elgin] failed "to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties" that he had strived to maintain, that it might be in the interest of the metropolitan government to replace him with someone who would not be personally obnoxious to an important part of Canada's population. Earl Grey, to the contrary, believed that his replacement would be harmful and would have the effect of encouraging those who violently and illegally opposed the authority of his government, which continued to receive the full support of the Westminster cabinet.
On May 10, a delegation of citizens from Toronto, who had come to Montreal to deliver an address in support of the Earl of Elgin, were attacked while in the Hôtel Têtu.
Case before Westminster
The Tories sent Allan MacNab and Cayley to London in early May to bring their petitions to the Imperial Parliament and lobby their case with the Colonial Office. The government party delegated Francis Hinks, who left Montreal on May 14, to represent the point of view of the governor, his Executive Council, and the majority of the members in both Houses of Parliament.The former colonial secretary, William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
, of the Tory Party, sided with the Canadian opposition and exercised all his influence in its favour. On June 14, John Charles Herries
John Charles Herries
John Charles Herries PC , known as J. C. Herries, was a British politician and financier and a frequent member of Tory and Conservative cabinets in the early to mid 19th century.-Background and education:...
, a Tory member of the House of Commons for Stamford, presented a motion to disavow the Rebellion Losses Act assented by the Earl of Elgin on April 25. But the governor of British North America received the support of both John Russell, the Whig Prime Minister as well as the Tory leader of the opposition Robert Peel. On June 16, the House of Commons rejected Herries' motion by a majority of 141 votes.
On June 19, Lord Brougham introduced a motion in the House of Lords to suspend the Rebellion Losses Act until it is amended to insure that no person who participated to the rebellion against the established government be compensated. The motion was defeated 99 to 96.
Second series of arrests
On the morning of August 15, John Orr, Robert Cooke, John Nier, Jr., John Ewing and Alexander Courtney were charged with arson and arrested by justices McCord, Wetherall and Ermatinger. All were released on bail except for Courtney. The transfer of the accused from the Court HousePalais de justice de Montréal
The Palais de justice de Montréal at 1 Notre-Dame Street East in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was completed in 1971. Though located in the Old Montreal historic district, it is a modernist structure, featuring the outdoor sculpture Allegrocube. The black metal and granite building is adjacent to the...
to the prison was a repeat of Perry's transfer on April 26. A crowd, determined to deliver up Courtney, attacked the military escort protecting his car, but were pushed back at the points of bayonets.
A gathering formed at dusk (after 8:00PM), in front of the Orr Hotel, on rue Notre-Dame. Men endeavoured to raise barricades of three to four feet in height using the paving stones of the Saint-Gabriel and Notre-Dame streets. The authorities were informed of what was going on and a detachment of the 23rd regiment was sent to undo the work before the barricades could be armed. Some of the men who ran off when the army showed up regrouped and decided to attack the houses of Lafontaine and the boarding house where Baldwin was residing.
At around 10:00 PM, some 200 men attacked the residence of Lafontaine, who was at home and without a guard. It was around 5:00 PM when he learned of a rumour circulating in town saying that his house was going to be attacked. At around 6 or 7:00 PM, he sent a note to captain Wetherall
George Augustus Wetherall
General Sir George Augustus Wetherall was a British General.-Military career:He was the son of General Sir Frederick Wetherall and was educated in the senior department of the Royal military college, and entered the army in 1803...
to tell him about the rumour. Around the same time, some friends who had heard the rumour arrived on their own to help him defend his life and his property. Among them were Étienne-Paschal Taché
Étienne-Paschal Taché
Sir Étienne-Paschal Taché was a Canadian doctor, politician and one of the Fathers of Confederation.Born in St. Thomas, Lower Canada, in 1795, the third son of Charles Taché and Geneviève Michon, Taché studied at the Séminaire de Québec until the War of 1812 when he joined the 5th battalion of the...
, C.-J. Coursol, Joseph Beaudry, Moïse Brossard, and Harkin. Guns were fired on both sides. The attackers retreated with seven wounded, including William Mason, the son of a blacksmith living on Craig street, who died of his wounds the following morning. The cavalry commanded by captain Sweeney which Wetherall had sent to protect Lafontaine arrived later and missed the entire action.
The Tory press gave great coverage of the death of Mason, and, on the 18th of August, a grand funeral procession marched on Craig, Bonsecours and Saint-Paul street, as well as on Place Jacques-Cartier, before going toward the English cemetery.
An enquiry of the circumstances of Mason's death was opened by coroners Jones and Coursol. Lafontaine was called in to testify before the jury in the Cyrus Hotel, on Place Jacques Cartier, on August 20 at 10:00 AM. While the co-premier was inside the hotel, some men spread oil in the front staircase and set it on fire. The building was evacuated and Lafontaine exited under the protection of the military guards.
Capital moves to Toronto
On May 9, Sherwood, MPPs for Toronto, proposed to move the capital alternatively to Toronto or Quebec City. After a debate in which other cities were thrown in, Sherwood's proposal to relocate to Toronto was approved 34 to 29. On May 30, the provincial parliament was prorogued until August 9 by general William Rowan in place of governor Elgin who no longer wanted to leave Monklands. A proclamation by the governor announced the move on November 14. The Parliament stayed prorogued until it reconvened in Toronto on May 14, 1850.Unlike Montreal, Toronto was a homogeneous town at the linguistic level; English was the common language of all main ethnic and religious groups inhabiting it. By comparison, the Montreal of the time of governor Metcalfe (1843–45) counted 27,908 Canadians, the majority French-speaking, and 15,668 immigrants from the British Isles. The statistics were similar when looking at the whole county of Montreal.
Works, articles
- Jean-Paul Bernard. "Montreal Riots", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008.
- David Mills. " Rebellion Losses Bill", in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, 2008.
- Josephine FosterJosephine FosterJosephine Foster is an American modern folk and psychedelic rock singer-songwriter and musician from Colorado. As an adolescent she worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer...
. The Montreal Riot of 1849, Canadian Historical Review, 32, 1 (March 1951), pp. 61–5. - William Henry Atherton. Montreal, 1535–1914, Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1914, volume II.
- Stephen Leacock Baldwin, Lafontaine, Hincks: Responsible Government (Chapter X), Toronto: Morang & Co., 1907, pp. 305–34.
- George McKinnon Wrong. The Earl of Elgin, Londres: Methuen & Co., 1905, pp. 21–88 (Chapter II).
- J. Jones Bell. "Burning of the Parliament Buildings at Montreal in 1849", in Canadian Magazine, vol. XX, n° 6, April 1903, pp. 501–7.
- John Douglas Borthwick. History of the Montreal prison from A.D. 1784 to A.D. 1886: Containing a Complete Record of the Troubles of 1837–1838, Burning of the Parliament Buildings in 1849, the St. Alban's Raiders, 1864, the Two Fenian Raids of 1866 and 1870 […], Montreal: A. Periard, 1866, pp. 174–83 (Chapter XIV).
- Joseph Edmund Collins. Life and Times of the Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald, Toronto: Rose Publishing Company, 1883, pp. 114–34 (Chapter VII).
- Alexander Mackenzie. The Life and Speeches of Hon. George Brown, Toronto: Globe Printing Company, 1882, pp. 18–21 (Chapter III)..
- William Henry WithrowWilliam Henry WithrowWilliam Henry Withrow was a Canadian Methodist minister, journalist, and author.Born in Toronto, Upper Canada, Withrow received his education at Toronto Academy, Victoria College, Cobourg, and University of Toronto, graduating from the latter with the degree of B.A. in 1863...
. A Popular History of the Dominion of Canada, Boston: BB Russell, 1878, pp. 406–412.
Witnesses and press coverage
- James Bruce Elgin and Theodore Walrond. Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin, Londres: John Murray, 1872, pp. 70–99, Google.
- James Bruce Elgin and Henry George Grey. The Elgin-Grey Papers, 1846–1852, JO Patenaude, Printer to the King, 1937
- Alfred PerryAlfred PerryAlfred Perry was a prominent Montrealer and fire marshal who, with a group of Protestant clergy and Montréal citizens, founded the Douglas Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 19, 1881....
. "A Reminiscence of '49. Who burnt the Parliament Buildings?", in Montreal Daily Star. Carnival Number,, February 1887 (online) - William Rufus Seaver. "Rev. Wm. Seaver to his wife, 25–27 April" in Josephine Foster. "The Montreal Riot of 1849", Canadian Historical Review, 32, 1 (March 1951), pp. 61–5
- James Moir FerresJames Moir FerresJames Moir Ferres was a journalist and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1813 and studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen. Ferres came to Montreal in 1833 and taught at Edward Black's school there. He then became director of the academy at Frelighsburg in the...
. April 25, 1849 Extra of daily The Montreal Gazette. - The Montreal Pilot. The Montreal Pilot Extra: Speeches and Papers Relating to Rebellion Losses, Montreal 26 February 1849, Montreal: The Pilot, 1849, 38 p.
- Portraits of Five Gentlemen: Who Were Unjustly Imprisoned by an Arbitrary Administration in Consequence of Presuming, at a Public Meeting, to Express Their Disapprobation of that Administration's "Indemnity Act," for Rewarding Traitors, and Putting a Premium on Rebellion, 1849.
Parliamentary documents
- James Bruce Elgin. Canada, Papers Relating to the Removal of the Seat of Government, and to the Annexation Movement Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, 15 April 1850, London: W. Clowes and Sons, 1850, 24 p.
- Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. An Act to provide for the Indemnification of Parties in Lower Canada whose Property was destroyed during the Rebellion in the years 1837 and 1838, 1849.
- Province of Canada. onlineFirst Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Losses occasioned by the Troubles during the Years 1837 and 1838, and into the Damages arising therefrom, 1846.
- Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. Debates of the Legislative Assembly of United Canada, 1841–1867, Montreal: Presses de l'École des hautes études commerciales, 1970, volume 8 (1849).
- United Kingdom Parliament. Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Volume CVI (June 12 to July 6), London: G. Woodfall & Son, 1849, pp. 189–283.
- British Debate on the Rebellion Losses Bill of Canada
- Rebellion Losses Bill (Hansard)
Others
- Unknown. "The Canadas: How Long Can We Hold Them?", in The Dublin University Magazine, Volume XXXIV, No. CCI (September 1849), pp. 314–30 (online)
- A Canadian Loyalist. The Question Answered, "Did the Ministry Intend to Pay Rebels?": In a Letter to His Excellency the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, K. T., Governor General of British North America, &c. &c. &c., Montreal: Armour & Ramsay, 1849, 24 p. [attributed to Hugh E. Montgomerie and Alexander Morris in A Bibliography of Canadiana, Dent. The Last Forty Years, vol. 2, p. 143.]
- Cephas D. Allin and George M. Jones. Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity; An Outline of the Canadian Annexation Movement of 1849-50, with Special Reference to the Questions of Preferential Trade and Reciprocity, Westport, Conn.: Greenwod Press, 398 p. (online)
Works, articles
- Jean-Paul Bernard. "Émeutes de Montréal", in L'Encyclopédie canadienne. La fondation Historica, 2008.
- David Mills. "Bill des indemnités", in L'Encyclopédie canadienne. La fondation Historica, 2008.
- Éric Coupal. "Le Parlement brûle !", Centre d'histoire de Montréal, Ville de Montréal, 11 avril 2006
- Alain Roy. Le Marché Sainte-Anne, le Parlement de Montréal et la formation d'un état moderne : un lieu d'échanges, des événements marquants, une époque charnière : étude historique, Montréal: Direction de Montréal, 93 f. [report presented to the Institut d'histoire de l'Amérique française for the Ministère de la culture et des communications du Québec, Direction de Montréal]
- Kirk Johnson, David Widgington. Montréal vu de près, XYZ editeur, 2002, 156 p. (ISBN 978-2-89261-327-8) (preview)
- J.-Jones Bell. "L'incendie de l'Hôtel du Parlement en 1849", in Bulletin de la bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale, volume 28, numéro 1-2, avril 1999, (online) [translation of an article in Canadian Magazine,vol. XX, n° 6, April 1903, p. 501-507 by Marie Auger]
- Jean Chartier. "L'année de la Terreur", in Le Devoir, 21 avril 1999 (online)
- Jacques Lacoursière Histoire populaire du Québec. de 1841 à 1896. Tome 3, 1995 pp. 41–58 (preview)
- Gilles Gallichan. « Notre désastre d'Alexandrie », in Livre et politique au Bas-Canada, 1791-1849, Sillery: Septentrion, 1991 p. 318 (preview)
- Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849, Sillery: Les éditions du Septentrion, 1990, pp. 160 (preview)
- Jacques Lacoursière, Claude Bouchard et Richard Howard. Notre histoire. Québec-Canada. Vers l'autonomie intérieure. 1841-1864, volume 6, 1965, pp. 507–514 online.
- Lionel GroulxLionel GroulxLionel-Adolphe Groulx was a Roman Catholic priest, historian and Quebec nationalist. -Early life and ordination:Groulx was born at Chenaux, Quebec, Canada, the son of a farmer and lumberjack, and died in Vaudreuil, Quebec. After his seminary training and studies in Europe, he taught at Valleyfield...
. "L'émeute de 1849 à Montréal", in Notre maître, le passé : (troisième série), Montreal: Librairie Granger frères limitée, 1944, 318 p. [first published in Ville, ô ma ville in 1942] - Joseph Royal. Histoire du Canada, 1841-1867, Montréal: Beauchemin, 1909. 525 p.
- Louis-Philippe Turcotte. Le Canada sous l'Union, 1841-1867, Québec: Presses du Canadien, p. 92-1xx chap. II (online).
Witnesses and press coverage
- Amédée PapineauAmédée PapineauLouis-Joseph-Amédée Papineau, or Amédée Papineau the founder of the Société des Fils de la Liberté. He was the son of Louis-Joseph Papineau....
. Journal d'un Fils de la liberté, 2007, p. 781-801 [diary dates: April 29 to August 21, 1849] [reproduced in Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849, pp. 135–151] - Hector BerthelotHector BerthelotHector Berthelot was a lawyer, journalist and publisher who was born in Trois-Rivières. He was not married and died in Montreal....
and Édouard-Zotique Massicotte. "Exploit des tories en 1849 — La mort de Mason — Incendies", in Le bon vieux temps, volume 2, Montréal: Librarie Beauchemin, 1924, pp. 87–91 [first published March 11, 1885 in La Patrie] (online) [reproduced in Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849] - Alfred PerryAlfred PerryAlfred Perry was a prominent Montrealer and fire marshal who, with a group of Protestant clergy and Montréal citizens, founded the Douglas Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 19, 1881....
. "Un souvenir de 1849 : Qui a brûlé les édifices parlementaires?", in Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849, pp. 105–125 [translation of "Who burnt the Parliament Buildings?", in Montreal Daily Star. Carnival Number,, February 1887] - William Rufus Seaver. "Les confidences du marchand Seaver à son épouse", in Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849, pp. 127–134 [translation of a letter dated April 25, 1849, transcribed in Josephine Foster. "The Montreal Riot of 1849", Canadian Historical Review, 32, 1 (March 1951), p. 61-65]
- James Moir FerresJames Moir FerresJames Moir Ferres was a journalist and political figure in Upper Canada.He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1813 and studied at Marischal College in Aberdeen. Ferres came to Montreal in 1833 and taught at Edward Black's school there. He then became director of the academy at Frelighsburg in the...
. Extra du 25 avril 1849 of The Montreal Gazette, [translated to French in Joseph Royal. Histoire du Canada, 1841-1867, Montréal: Beauchemin, 1909, p. 308-310] [reproduced in Gaston Deschênes. Une capitale éphémère. Montréal et les événements tragiques de 1849, pp. 101–104]
Parliamentary documents
- Province du Canada. Premier rapport des commissaires nommés pour s'enquérir des pertes occasionnées par les troubles durant les années 1837 et 1838, et des dommages qui en sont résultés, 1846 (online)
- Assemblée législative de la Province du Canada. Debates of the Legislative Assembly of United Canada, 1841-1867, Montréal: Presses de l'École des hautes études commerciales, 1970, volume 8 (1849).
Others
- Ville de Montréal. "Place D'Youville", in Site Web officiel du Vieux-Montréal. Ville de Montréal, 30 décembre 2005
- Inconnu. "Montréal 1849 : le parlement brûle !", in Les Patriotes de 1837@1838, 30 avril 2003
- Pierre Turgeon. Jour de feu;;, Montréal: Flammarion, 1998, 270 p. (ISBN 2-89077-183-0) [novel].
- Georges-Barthélemi Faribault. Notice sur la destruction des archives et bibliothèques des deux chambres législatives du Canada, lors de l'émeute qui a eu lieu à Montréal le 25 avril 1849, Québec: Impr. du Canadien, 1849, 11 p.
- McCord Museum. "L'incendie du Parlement à Montréal", in McCord Museum Web site [painting attributed to Joseph Légaré]