The
Report on the Affairs of British North America, commonly known as
The Durham Report, is an important document in the history of
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
.
The notable British
WhigThe Whigs are often described as one of the two original political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
politician John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, was sent to
the CanadasThe Canadas is the collective name for Upper Canada and Lower Canada, two British colonies in Canada. They were both created by the Constitutional Act of 1791 and abolished in 1841 with the union of Upper and Lower Canada....
in 1838 to investigate and report on the causes of the
rebellions of 1837-38The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.-Rebellions:...
. Durham arrived in
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
on 27 May. He had just been appointed
Governor GeneralThe Governor General of Canada is the viceregal representative in the federal jurisdiction of the Canadian monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, but resides predominantly in her oldest realm,...
and given special powers as high commissioner of
British North AmericaBritish North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783....
.
Durham had spoken to merchants in Britain who wanted greater British control over the Canadas, as they felt the French Canadians' presence in
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
undermined their economic interests.
In Canada, he formed numerous committees consisting of essentially all the opponents of the Patriotes and made many personal observations of life in the colonies.
The
Report on the Affairs of British North America, commonly known as
The Durham Report, is an important document in the history of
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
.
The notable British
WhigThe Whigs are often described as one of the two original political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
politician John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, was sent to
the CanadasThe Canadas is the collective name for Upper Canada and Lower Canada, two British colonies in Canada. They were both created by the Constitutional Act of 1791 and abolished in 1841 with the union of Upper and Lower Canada....
in 1838 to investigate and report on the causes of the
rebellions of 1837-38The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.-Rebellions:...
. Durham arrived in
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
on 27 May. He had just been appointed
Governor GeneralThe Governor General of Canada is the viceregal representative in the federal jurisdiction of the Canadian monarch and head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, who is equally shared with 15 other sovereign nations in a form of personal union, but resides predominantly in her oldest realm,...
and given special powers as high commissioner of
British North AmericaBritish North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783....
.
Durham had spoken to merchants in Britain who wanted greater British control over the Canadas, as they felt the French Canadians' presence in
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
undermined their economic interests.
Enquiry
In Canada, he formed numerous committees consisting of essentially all the opponents of the Patriotes and made many personal observations of life in the colonies. He also visited the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Durham wrote that he had assumed he would find that the rebellions were based on
liberalismLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
and economics, but he eventually concluded that the real problem was the ethnic conflict between French and English. According to Durham, the French culture in Canada had changed little in 200 years, and showed no sign of
progressSocial progress is defined as the changing of society toward the ideal. The concept of social progress was introduced in the early, 19th century social theories, especially those of social evolutionists like August Comte and Herbert Spencer...
like British culture had. His report contains the famous assessment that Canada consisted of "two nations warring within the bosom of a single state." (1838)
Recommendations
Durham recommended that
UpperThe Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario...
and
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
be united into one province, which would give British Canadians a slight advantage in population. He also encouraged immigration to Canada from Britain, to overwhelm the existing numbers of French Canadians and hopefully assimilate them into British culture. The freedoms granted to the French Canadians under the
Royal Proclamation of 1763The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
and the
Quebec ActThe Quebec Act of 1774 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain setting procedures of governance in the Province of Quebec...
of 1774 should also be rescinded; according to Lord Durham this would eliminate the possibility of future rebellions. The French Canadians did not necessarily have to give up their religion and language entirely, but it could not be protected at the expense of what Durham considered a more progressive British culture.
The proposed merger would also benefit Upper Canada as the construction of canals led to a considerable debt load; while access to the former Lower Canada fiscal surplus would allow that debt to be to erased. He also recommended responsible government, in which the governor general would be a figurehead and the legislative assembly would hold a great deal of power. In the responsible government, the legislative assembly would be elected by the people. The party with majority would hold power and as long as they held support, they would keep power. However, this recommendation was not accepted and the Province of Canada would not get responsible government for another decade.
Reactions
In exile in France,
Louis-Joseph PapineauLouis-Joseph Papineau , born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the seigneurie de la Petite-Nation. He was the leader of the reformist Patriot movement before the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838...
published the
Histoire de la résistance du Canada au gouvernement anglais (History of the resistance of Canada to the English government) in the French
La Revue du Progrès in May 1839. In June, it appeared in Canada in
Ludger DuvernayLudger Duvernay was born in Verchères, Quebec, Canada.He was a printer by profession and published a number of newspapers including the Gazette des Trois-Rivières, the first newspaper in Lower Canada outside of Quebec City and Montreal, and also La Minerve, which supported the Parti patriote and...
's
La Revue canadienne as
Histoire de l'insurrection du Canada en réfutation du Rapport de Lord Durham (History of the insurrection of Canada in refutation of the Report of Lord Durham).
The assertion that the so-called "French" Canadians had no history and no culture and that the conflict was primarily that of two ethnic groups evidently outraged Papineau. It was pointed out that many of the Patriote leaders were of British or British Canadian origin, including among others
Wolfred NelsonWolfred Nelson, was from 1854 to 1856 the mayor of Montreal, Quebec. Nelson was born in Montreal the son of William Nelson, an immigrant to Colonial America from Newsham, North Yorkshire, England...
, hero of the
Battle of Saint-DenisOn November 23, 1837, three hundred British from the 24th, 32nd and 66th Regiments of Foot, under the command of Colonel Charles Gore, marched into the Richelieu Valley. They expected to make quick work of the rebels. Opposing the British was a Patriote force of 800 being led by Dr...
; Robert Nelson, author of the
Declaration of Independence of Lower CanadaThe Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada was written in French by the patriot rebel Robert Nelson on February 22, 1838, while in exile in the United States, after the first rebellion of 1837....
, who would have become President of Lower Canada had the second insurrection succeeded; journalist
Edmund Bailey O'CallaghanEdmund Bailey O'Callaghan, was a doctor and journalist.Born in Mallow, County Cork, Ireland, he studied medicine in Paris and immigrated to Lower Canada in 1823 where he became involved in the political reform movement of the Parti patriote...
; and
Thomas Storrow BrownThomas Storrow Brown was a journalist, writer, orator, and revolutionary in Lower Canada .- Biography :...
, general during the Battle of St-Charles. It was also pointed out that an uprising had occurred in Upper Canada where there was only one "race". According to Papineau and other Patriotes, the analysis of the economic situation of French Canadians was biased. Indeed, from 1791 to the rebellions, the elected representatives of Lower Canada had been demanding the control over the budget of the colony.
Impact outside of Canada
The general conclusions of the report ("Report on the Affairs of British North America") that pertained to self governance were enacted in Australia and New Zealand and other mostly ethnically British colonies. The report became a sort of Magna Carta for representative self government even for remote places like Saint Helena. The parallel nature of Government organization in Australia and Canada to this day is an ongoing proof of the long enduring effects of the reports recommendations.
The report did not see any of its recommendations come into force in the African and Asian colonies, but some limited democratic reforms in India became possible that would not have otherwise become possible.
Conclusion
Durham resigned on 29 September and was soon replaced by
Charles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron SydenhamCharles Poulett Thomson, 1st Baron Sydenham, PC was a British politician and the first Governor of the united Province of Canada.-Background:...
, who was responsible for implementing the
Union of the CanadasThe Province of Canada or the United Province of Canada 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 1837.The Province of...
. The report of Durham was published in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
in February 1839.
See also
- Rebellions of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government.-Rebellions:...
- Charles Buller
Charles Buller , English politician, son of Charles Buller , a member of a well-known Cornish family , was born in Calcutta; his mother, Barbara Isabella Kirkpatrick, a daughter of General William Kirkpatrick, was an exceptionally talented woman.He was educated at Harrow, then privately in...
- Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonization of South Australia, and later New Zealand. Wakefield, who in 1816 married Eliza Pattle , was the eldest son of Edward Wakefield and Susanna Crash...
- Richard Hanson (Australian politician)
Sir Richard Davies Hanson , was the fourth Premier of South Australia, from 30 September 1857 until 8 May 1860, and was a Chief Judge from 20 November 1861 until 4 March 1876 on the Supreme Court of South Australia, which is the highest ranking court in the Australian State of South...