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Poetic Justice: Corruption in Lambton County, Canada West, 1854-1858

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Poetic Justice: Corruption in Lambton County, Canada West, 1854-1858 Document generated on 09/30/2021 7:57 p.m. Ontario History Poetic Justice Corruption in Lambton County, Canada West, 1854-1858 Gregory Stott Volume 105, Number 2, Fall 2013 Article abstract Beginning in 1855 Lambton County merchant, postmaster, poet, Orangeman URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1050732ar and moderate conservative Robert McBride (1811-1895) saw himself as a DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1050732ar victim of a conspiracy launched by scheming Reform-minded politicians and their cronies. In books of poetry, particularly his hefty Poems Sentimental & See table of contents Satirical On Many Subjects Connected with Canada, and drawing on his own experiences, he outlined the malfeasance of the judiciary, the ‘land jobbing’ class, and others associated with the Reform movement in Canada West who, Publisher(s) he claimed, were undermining and corrupting the British foundations of the province. McBride’s poetry and other contemporary documentation about his The Ontario Historical Society legal travails help us understand the complex connections that existed among colonial administrators at the local level in Canada West in the 1850s. ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Stott, G. (2013). Poetic Justice: Corruption in Lambton County, Canada West, 1854-1858. Ontario History, 105(2), 160–182. https://doi.org/10.7202/1050732ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2013 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 60 ONTARIO HISTORY Poetic Justice Corruption in Lambton County, Canada West, 1854-18581 by Gregory Stott n 2 January 1856 the Court of quent investigators, McBride believed General Quarterly Sessions and that his downfall had been orchestrated the Lambton County Court by various representatives of the colo- Omet at the Sarnia courthouse before his nial government and administration in Honour Judge Charles Robinson, as- the Province of Canada. For McBride sisted by W.E. Wright, Alfred Fisher, and these apparent transgressions were ex- Froome Talfourd. The fifth case brought tremely personal, and yet, he felt, they before the County Court was an action were symptomatic of a pervasive cancer of Tort against Port Franks’ merchant that was undermining Upper Canadian and postmaster Robert McBride by Wid- society. McBride also believed that these der merchant Robert Rae.2 outrages were subverting the founda- While the case of “Rae verses Mc- tion of British values upon which he Bride” received a modicum of coverage felt the colony and its society had been in the local press, like many other simi- built. This was leading to the colony’s lar cases, it quickly faded from the public degradation and was forcing many of its consciousness. It did not, however, fade “best sons” to find greener pastures in the from the memory of the defendant who United States. The Act of Union of 1841 remained convinced that he was a victim had been foisted upon an unhappy and not only of a miscarriage of justice, but unwilling colonial population still grap- also of a deliberate conspiracy. However pling and reeling from the effects of two dubious the claims may seem to subse- separate rebellions against the established 1 A much earlier version of this paper was presented in the History Department Seminar Series at Nipissing University on 8 October 2008. Special thanks to members of Nipissing’s Department of His- tory for their help and input and also to Michelle Vosburgh of Brock University, Sandra Barber of Univer- sity College of the North, Beth McAuley of Toronto, and the paper’s anonymous reviewers. 2 Sarnia Observer, 10 January 1856. Charles Robinson was born in Ireland in about 1817. Local ‘In- dian Agent’ Froome Talfourd was a native of England, born in 1809, while Sarnia’s postmaster Alfred Fish- er was born in England in about 1820. Canada Census, 1861, Sarnia Town. For a detailed examination of Upper Canada’s legal system in the first half of the nineteenth century see David Murray.Colonial Justice: Justice, Morality, and Crime in the Niagara District, 1791-1849 (Toronto: University of Toronto, 2002). Ontario History / Volume CV, No. 2 / Autumn 2013 inside pages autumn 2013.indd 160 2018-03-03 10:38:10 PM corruption in lambton county, 854-58 6 authorities. While the rebellions had gained little support, at least in Upper Canada, the Union of Abstract the Canadas, which linked the Beginning in 1855 Lambton County merchant, post- predominantly Francophone- master, poet, Orangeman and moderate conservative Catholic Lower Canada with Robert McBride (1811-1895) saw himself as a victim the more generally Anglophone- of a conspiracy launched by scheming Reform-minded politicians and their cronies. In books of poetry, particu- Protestant Upper Canada, had larly his hefty Poems Sentimental & Satirical On Many just as little in the way of sup- Subjects Connected with Canada, and drawing on his port. It was a difficult union that own experiences, he outlined the malfeasance of the ju- stumbled along through sectar- diciary, the ‘land jobbing’ class, and others associated with the Reform movement in Canada West who, he ian, representational, economic, claimed, were undermining and corrupting the British and political squabbles. The foundations of the province. McBride’s poetry and other troubles facing this union would contemporary documentation about his legal travails ultimately have much to do in help us understand the complex connections that existed initiating discussions that result- among colonial administrators at the local level in Can- ada West in the 1850s. ed in Confederation in 1867.3 The colony’s internal dif- Résumé: A partir de 1855, Robert McBride (1811- ficulties and problems aside, 1895), commerçant et receveur des postes dans le comté de Lambton, poète, Orangiste, et conservateur modéré, commentators at the time and s’est considéré comme victime d’une conspiration organ- many historians since have fre- isée par des politiciens réformateurs intrigants et leurs quently lauded the fact that by amis. Dans ses livres de poésie, particulièrement ses Po- the end of the 1840s the Union ems Sentimental & Satirical On Many Subjects Con- of the Canadas had managed to nected with Canada, se basant sur son expérience person- nelle, il a décrit les agissements coupables des juges, de la achieve entrenched responsible classe des spéculateurs terriens, et autres personnes liées government, which in practice au mouvement réformiste du Haut-Canada, qui, d’après and spirit matched the full po- lui, sapaient et corrompaient les bases britanniques de la tential and rights of the colo- province. Les poèmes de McBride, et autres documents concernant ses difficultés légales, nous aident à compren- nists under what was ostensibly dre les liens compliqués qui existaient parmi les adminis- a British constitution and for trateurs coloniaux au niveau local dans le Haut-Canada the most part laid aside the di- des années 1850. visive issues of race and religion to create a particularly Canadian democracy. It seemed to put behind the ily Compact” of the pre-rebellion period colonies the old corruptions and abus- when cronyism had a stranglehold on pa- es of the apparently notorious “Fam- tronage and power.4However, McBride 3 J.M.S. Careless. The Union of the Canadas: The Growth of Canadian Institutions 1841-1857(To - ronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967), 222-23. S.J.R. Noel. Patrons, Clients, Brokers: Ontario Society and Politics, 1791-1896 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 130-33. 4 John Edwin Hodgetts. Pioneer Public Service: An Administrative History of the United Canadas, inside pages autumn 2013.indd 161 2018-03-03 10:38:11 PM 62 ONTARIO HISTORY Robert McBride’s Poems Satirical and Sentimenal, published in 1869, was his way of striking out at his many adversaries. opionion, had seriously jeopardized the rights and values of what he saw as the core British nature of the predominantly Prot- estant Upper Canada or Canada West and threat- ened the underpinnings of its society. In the preface to his hefty volume of po- etry, Poems Sentimental & Satirical On Many Subjects Connected with Canada, in which he recounted his troubles and outlined the problems facing Canada West, McBride noted that the haemorrhaging of peo- ple had two causes “It is the land jobbing craft and the land jobbing craft; these are the principal actors. I have watched them for over thirty years. Previous felt differently. In fact he believed that if to the union with the French, they were anything the situation had grown worse harmless; since then, they have got power under the new order and he felt that his they never had before, and have grown own experiences and observations proved into monster leeches. These have pro- this point. Far from promoting the inter- duced a boil, into which, if a probe was ests of the colonists, the Union, in his sent to the bottom, the pus that would 1841-1867 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955), 20, 46-47, 162-63; Noel, Patrons, Clients, and Brokers, 155-56. Certainly there was much anxiety over the control that the Reformers had over patronage under Robert Baldwin and Louis LaFontaine and the manner in which it was dispensed caused anger both within the ranks of the Reform movement as well as within the ranks of the more conservative opposition. John Clarke. Land, Power, and Economics on the Frontier of Upper Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), 449-55; John Ralston Saul.
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