76 



BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 



part recrossed the river into the United States. 

 A barge filled with Fenians was captured by 

 the United States steamer Michigan, which had 

 been, stationed off Black Rock to intercept 

 them, but they were soon afterward released. 

 General Grant, U. S. Army, was at Buffalo at 

 this time, on his way westward, and took steps 

 to prevent any more Fenians crossing. Major- 

 General Meade, U. S. Army, proceeded to Og- 

 densburg, and exerted himself to prevent reen- 

 forcements or arms from entering Canada from 

 that direction. On the Vth of June the Fe- 

 nians, reported from 1,000 to 1,200 strong, 

 under General Spear, crossed the line from 

 Franklin, Vt., to St. Armand, and proceeded to 

 plunder the surrounding country. They were 

 driven out on the 9th by the Canadian volun- 

 teers, and fifteen of their number captured. 

 In the mean time, President Johnson had issued 

 a proclamation for the maintenance of neutral- 

 ity; General Sweeney and staff had been ar- 

 rested by the United States authorities at St. 

 Albans, Vt., Roberts, the Fenian President, in 

 New York, and three Fenian colonels in Buf- 

 falo. Two car-loads of Fenians, on their way 

 North, were put off the train at Watertown by 

 order of General Meade. No other Fenian in- 

 vasion occurred during the year. The trial of 

 a number of Fenian prisoners took place in 

 Toronto, in October. About half of the pris- 

 oners had already been set free, the evidence 

 as to identity being insufficient. Two of those 

 tried Lynch and McMahon were sentenced 

 to death, but afterward respited. Other trials 

 were held in Sweetsburg, in December. Three 

 were sentenced to death, and three to seven 

 months' imprisonment. The prisoners reaped 

 the advantage of the fact that the law applying 

 to foreign invaders was only passed on the 8th 

 of June, and nearly all the acts of a warlike 

 nature occurred in the two previous days. 

 After indictment, therefore, the Governor-Gen- 

 eral instructed the crown-officer to enter a 

 nolle prosequi against those indicted for acts 

 performed on the 6th and 7th. (See FENIANS.) 

 The Canadian Parliament. Early in the 

 session acts were passed to facilitate the trial 

 of the Fenians in Lower Canada, by extending 

 an Upper Canada act respecting foreigners in- 

 vading the country to the eastern Province, 

 and also to facilitate arrests of any seditious 

 persons by the suspension of the habeas corpus 

 act. (The Parliament of New Brunswick also 

 suspended that act on the first day of its session 

 after the general election.) The indemnity 

 asked by the Government for the unauthorized 

 expenditures for the militia was readily voted. 

 A proposition by the finance minister to assim- 

 ilate the tariff in some respects to those of the 

 Lower Provinces, and in other respects to that 

 of Great Britain, was, in its principal recom- 

 mendations, approved and adopted. A bill re- 

 lating to education in Lower Canada, designed 

 to secure to the Protestants of that Province 

 necessary instruction apart from the Catholics, 

 who were a majority in the local Legislature, 



was defeated ; and Mr. Gait, the finance min- 

 ister, who had framed the bill, felt therefore 

 bound to resign. With regard to the local 

 constitutions, provision was made against al- 

 tering the boundaries of counties returning 

 English-speaking members without their own 

 consent. The new civil code of Lower Canada 

 was passed, and went into force on the 1st of 

 August. 



On the 15th of August, Parliament was pro- 

 rogued. In the course of his address to the 

 Govern or- General on that occasion, the Speaker 

 of the Legislative Assembly said: 



Immediately upon the opening of the present ses- 

 sion, the attention of the Legislature was directed by 

 your excellency to the outrages which had been 

 committed upon the soil of Canada by a lawless band 

 of marauders, who had crossed the frontier at various 

 points from the neighboring States, and assailed the 

 lives and property of our peaceable citizens. The 

 formidable aspect of this invasion had compelled 

 your excellency, by the advice of your ministers, 

 to call out for active service a large portion of the 

 volunteer militia force of the Province, and to incur 

 considerable expense in defending the frontier from 

 aggression. No sooner had we returned from your 

 excellency's presence, than, with an alacrity and 

 unanimity unprecedented in the history of Parlia- 

 ment, the bills were passed through all their stages, 

 conferring upon your excellency the necessary powers 

 for dealing summarily with all those misguided per- 

 sons who had been or might be hereafter concerned 

 in the senseless movement which is known by the 

 name of Fenianism, and empowering the Govern- 

 ment to act with the utmost promptness in the main- 

 tenance of law and order throughout the land. 



In view of the approaching change in the political 

 condition of British North America, our attention 

 has been seriously directed to the formation of the 

 local governments of Upper and Lower Canada to 

 be connected hereafter by a federative union with 

 the maritime Provinces. Resolutions embodying 

 the opinions of the Legislature upon this momentous 

 question have been matured, agreed upon, and trans- 

 mitted to your excellency, to be forwarded for the 

 consideration of the Imperial Government. The 

 gradual but decided change of public opinion in New 

 Brunswick and Nova Scotia on behalf of a closer alli- 

 ance with Canada, the favor with which the scheme 

 of confederation has been received by the most emi- 

 nent statesmen in the mother country, and the satis- 

 faction evinced throughout these Provinces at the 

 prospect of political union with those who are al- 

 ready so nearly connected with us by ties of interest 

 and friendly intercourse, agree in encouraging the 

 hope that we are about to enter upon a new era, 

 wherein the British colonies in North America will 

 become a great, powerful, and wealthy nation, cleav- 

 ing the closer to the parent state because of the free- 

 dom we enjoy under the beneficent rule of our be- 

 loved queen. 



Lord Monck, in his speech from the throne, 

 alluded to several of the most important events 

 of the half year, as follows : 



It must be a source of satisfaction to you to feel 

 that the credit of the Province will be strengthened, 

 and her commercial operations will be extended by 

 the changes which have been made iu the duties on 

 imports, and other financial alterations tending to 

 reduce the cost of living in Canada. 



We may confidently expect that the effect of the 

 tariff which you adopted will be to provide for the 

 public wants without opening new sources of tax- 

 ation, and to increase the available resources of the 

 countrv by enlarging the markets for the industry 



