Joseph Hume’s Commentary on the Rebellion, the Celebrated Letter of Joseph Hume

Hume, Joseph

[Joseph Hume penned the typical point of view radicals held of the events in Upper Canada.]

To William Lyon Mackenzie, Esq., Toronto, Canada. My dear Sir:—I have just seen in a Canada newspaper that you are a candidate for a seat in the Assembly of that province.

I was a witness to your indefatigable labours, when you were a Member of the Assembly in Upper Canada, and could bear testimony to your persevering exertions in this country, when deputed to explain to His Majesty’s Ministers the real situation of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.

I attended you to the Colonial Minister, that he might learn from you the misrule that existed in Canada, by the family clique which then enjoyed the confidence of Downing Street, where every statement, from any other quarter than the government and family clique, was repudiated and disregarded.

The influence you possessed in the House of Assembly, and the industry which you bestowed on explaining fully the grievances of the Canadians, entitled you to more attention from the Colonial Minister than you received; and I can fearlessly state that if the representations you then made of the general discontent of the Canadians—(that discontent caused by very gross misconduct of the officials in that province, and by the neglect of the government at home to the repeated and powerful petitions for redress from both provinces)—had been listened to, the misfortunes and rebellion in Canada would have been avoided and prevented.

You have been the scape-goat on the occasion, and have been always reviled and abused as the cause of the rebellion.

But I have stated in my place in Parliament and elsewhere, that you had exerted yourself for years most zealously to prevent rebellion, as the public records will prove; and that the true cause of the discontent and rebellion were His Majesty’s Ministers and their executive government in Canada, who rejected your excellent advice and wise councils, offered to them at the request of a large majority of the inhabitants of Canada.

The House of Assembly in Upper Canada petitioned Parliament and His Majesty for responsible government there—that you might have the management of your own affairs, and especially to obtain possession of the Clergy Reserves of the wild lands of the province, etc., etc., for public purposes—but Lord Melbourne and his Cabinet rejected those petitions, and we have had to deplore the consequences.

Affairs in Canada were thrown back for years; and, besides the loss of life and the miseries that Canada suffered, the people of England had to pay many millions sterling, as the expense of the warfare.

We may state as a triumphant proof that the people of Canada were then right; and that the government in Downing Street of that day were wrong, as the letter of Lord John Russell to Lord Sydenham first conceded the principle of responsible government for the province of Canada; and Earl Grey has, of late years, "bit by bit", granted all the reforms that you and I advocated for Canada twenty years ago.

Sound policy and the best interests both of the Mother Country and the provinces of Canada; required at that time, all those reforms which have now been made; and those persons who had the power to grant, but refused to yield all these just demands of the Canadians, ought now to be ashamed of their past conduct, and take upon themselves the cause of the rebellion that took place.

It is better late than never; and the despatch of Earl Grey, of the 14th of March, 1851, to the Earl of Elgin, must be taken as the close of the struggle.

I hope the electors, whose suffrages you are requesting, will take your past services into consideration, and send you to the House of Assembly, in the same spirit as the electors of your native town of Dundee did to my old friend Mr. George Kinloch, as their first act after the reform Bill in 1832.

Mr. Kinloch was, as you know, a zealous reformer, and, for his advocacy of parliamentary reform at a public meeting at Dundee, was outlawed by the Tory government of the day; and the citizens of Dundee,

as soon as they obtained the power to elect, sent the persecuted object of Tory spite as their representative in the House of Commons.

You have had your share of persecution for having demanded reforms; and now that all these reforms have been obtained, it will be to the honour of the electors to send you as their representative in the Canadian Assembly. Wishing you success,

I remain, yours sincerely,

JOSEPH HUME.