BRITISH COLONISTS AND IMPERIAL INTERESTS IN LOWER CANADA 1820 to 1841
Abstract
Lower Canada occupied a strategic position in Britain's
policies for the defence, trade and settlement of British
North America. The smooth development of these three
interests was threatened by the autonomist ambitions of the
colony's French-speaking (Canadien) leaders. Between 1820
and 1841 British policy had to cope with the collapse of
traditional canadien elites as reliable supporters of
imperial interests, the persistent hostility of the new
canadien leadership towards commerce and immigration, and the
increased restlessness of the growing minority of English speaking
colonists.
During the 1820s, the Governor alienated the bureaucracy,
the traditional social leaders of French Canada, and the
elected Assembly by his encouragement of diverse efforts to
anglicize the colony's administration, institutions and civil
law. The political divisions of the British colonists encouraged
the Canadiens to seek greater autonomy for tie colony, tb
and British policy after 1828 favoured concession e the
Canadiens as the best way to smooth out political obstacles
to social and economic change. But increased immigration
alarmed the Canadiens, created a larger and more complex
British community in the colony, and made the imperial
government more anxious to conciliate the British than the
French colonists after a few of the latter revolted in 1837-38.
Economic and demographic pressures were important but
the debate over political legitimacy was a major element too.
Belief in prescriptive legitimacy faded during the 1820s;
the growth of liberal attitudes in the British part of the
population brought impatience towards the colony's antiquated
civil law and hastened the creation of suitable conditions
for the growth of a modern commercial state. Britain imposed
a new constitution giving greater powers to the fast-growing
colony of Upper Canada and to the British merchants and
settlers of Lower Canada.
Authors
Goldring, PhilipCollections
- Theses [4125]