The Last Laird of MacNab Part 10

Such were the effects of the trial upon the public mind that Mr.

Hincks, who was then member for Oxford, was six weeks afterwards gazetted as "Inspector-General," and he himself became a member of the Executive. The Chief returned from Toronto quite jubilant. He called his friends together, had a _symposium_ over the victory, impressed his few adherents with the idea that he would be yet victorious, and that he would still punish the leaders of the people who had emanc.i.p.ated them from his thraldom. He made preparations for building a stone grist mill, and in spite of all former warnings began to build it on the concession line adjoining his saw mill. It reached to the height of one storey when its further construction was stopped, as will be detailed in the succeeding chapter. In the fall of this year he caused fresh boards and planks to be nailed on the dam to prevent the water, which was very low, from going over in order again to prevent Mr. Paris from grinding any corn during the ensuing winter, and eventually drive him away altogether. During the whole winter Mr. Paris's mill was inoperative for the want of water. All remonstrances were in vain; McNab was inflexible.

Neither he nor Yuill would open a sluice. Mr. Paris suffered immense loss, and the settlers were put to incalculable inconvenience and expense. They were forced still to go to Pakenham with their grists.

CHAPTER XIX.

1843--TRIUMPH OF MR. PARIS--UTTER DISCOMFITURE OF THE CHIEF.

Driven almost to desperation, Mr. John Paris at length resolved to inst.i.tute legal proceedings for redress. To submit to this oppression was criminal. To apply to the courts for protection would entail enormous expense; but no alternative presented itself. Remonstrance had been used repeatedly and ineffectually. Every pacific effort had been tried in vain. The Chief was obdurate. A narration of the whole transaction, from first to last, had been prepared by the writer. Mr.

Paris went to Perth and applied to Mr. Radenhurst and some of the veteran pract.i.tioners, who advised unfavorably as to the commencement of legal proceedings. As a last resort he consulted Mr. W. O. Buell, then a new beginner. Mr. Buell took time to reply. He studied the case profoundly in all its bearings, and found it was practicable to obtain ample redress. Hitherto, actions had been brought for damages done by back water. None had ever been tried in our courts for withholding and purposely stopping the natural flow of water down stream. Mr. Buell reported favorably on all points, and advised immediate legal proceedings. The Laird's mill and part of his dam were erected on the concession line, thus blocking up Her Majesty's highway. This was a public nuisance. This was a salient point of attack. It was resolved to proceed criminally on this point, by indictment. _Actions on the case_ were also commenced against McNab and Wm. Yuill. At the Spring a.s.sizes in May, 1843, Mr. Paris, attended by Daniel McIntyre (Dancie), Mr. James Headrick, Sr., and a number of witnesses, having proceeded to Perth, laid the matter before the Grand Inquest of the Bathurst District. A Presentment was brought into court indicting the Chief for erecting nuisances on the public thoroughfare of the towns.h.i.+p. Mr. Thomas M.

Radenhurst was Crown Officer, and immediately prepared a formal Bill of Indictment. It was brought into court by the Grand Jury endorsed a "True Bill." The Chief, then in court, was immediately arrested, and being arraigned pleaded "Not Guilty." On motion of Mr. McMartin the trial was put off till the Autumn a.s.sizes, and the Chief admitted to bail. The civil suits were also on affidavit postponed by McNab.

To weary out, to cause useless expense, and still further to hara.s.s Mr.

Paris was now the object of the defendant. He imagined that Mr. Paris could not enter upon or keep up a protracted legal contest--that Mr.

Paris, being a new beginner, could not furnish or procure the necessary funds to resume proceedings in the fall. He was mistaken. The friends of the latter, among whom was the writer, advanced all that was required.

The Fall a.s.sizes came on at the appointed time. Mr. Robert Hervey, of Ottawa and Mr. Buell, together with the late Mr. T. M. Radenhurst, appeared for the prosecution. The nuisance case was first proceeded with. A verdict of "Guilty" was p.r.o.nounced. The Chief was fined, the mill ordered to be removed, and the dam demolished. This was immediately done. The order of the court was at once carried out. The water in its downward rush nearly swept away the mills of Mr. Paris. The Chief's saw-mill was moved further down the stream, and was afterwards the property of Mr. William Lindsay, who purchased it and a large portion of the White Lake property from the late Allan McNab. The walls of the grist mill having never reached further than one storey, still remain in ruins on the concession line, near the spot where the saw-mill once stood, a monument of the Chief's folly and futile revenge. The traveller, unacquainted with the history of this transaction, is struck with the mournful aspect of the ruins so close to the bridge, and wonders what was the builder's intention. It is there a memorial of the past, and its ruins are a fitting memento of the downfall of attempted feudalism.

Mr. Paris was equally successful with his civil suits. The law was admirably laid down by Mr. Jonas Jones, who presided at the trial.

Verdicts were returned by the jury for the plaintiff. The damages against Yuill were 79, and against the Chief they were found and fixed at 35. No point of law was reserved. McNab was compelled to pay the verdict with costs, but Wm. Yuill, having absconded soon after, has never paid a farthing to this day. The victory, however, was complete and effectual. It settled the question of water stoppage forever. It was the final culmination of the defeat of McNab's power. It was the last lawsuit with the Chief to establish any of the settlers' rights, and it was the most effectual and triumphant. It was the termination of the final struggle of right against might. As Mr. Daniel McIntyre (Deil) was the first who had the moral courage and boldness to defeat the Chief in a court of law, so Mr. John Paris was the last to gain the crowning triumph, and though seriously r.e.t.a.r.ded and embarra.s.sed for many years, yet by a course of persevering industry he overcame his difficulties and embarra.s.sments, rose to a high position among the people, was for many years Reeve of the Towns.h.i.+p, and in middle age, surrounded by a numerous family, and in the midst of prosperity, looked back to the struggles of his youth, and the oppressions of the Chief as a dream which has vanished like the evanescent shadow of a disagreeable vision and is buried in the past forever. Soon after these verdicts the Laird left the towns.h.i.+p forever. Four years before he was in the height of power, had the ear of the Government, and could outrage the law with impunity; but a revolution had taken place, bloodless, it is true, but effectual and beneficial. Now forced to abandon a towns.h.i.+p where he might have lived happily and respected, venerated and beloved; and with the advantages he possessed might have redeemed his ancestral estate, and ended his days in the midst of wealth and affluence.

CHAPTER XX.

"LAST SCENE OF ALL--1843-60-70--THAT ENDS THIS STRANGE, EVENTFUL HISTORY."

Soon after the suits with Mr. Paris the Chief left the towns.h.i.+p forever, and for a few years lived in the city of Hamilton, in a small cottage purchased from Sir Allan McNab. In 1843 he left Hamilton for Scotland, having come into a small estate in the Orkneys. His enjoyment of the estate was of short continuance. Running through the property in a few years by lavish and profuse expenditure, he, in 1859, retired to France, living on a small pittance granted to him by his lady, from whom he had separated in 1819. On the 22nd of April, 1860, the Laird of McNab--the last legitimate Chief of the Clan McNab--was summoned before his Almighty Judge. He died at Lanion, a small fis.h.i.+ng-village near Boulogne, in the 82nd year of his age. Twenty-eight years have rolled away since his death. Forty-seven years have pa.s.sed over since he finally quitted the towns.h.i.+p, and what a change! After the final victory obtained by Mr. Paris, the people set to work with energy and vigor. New settlers flocked to the towns.h.i.+p. Left to the management of their own affairs by the Munic.i.p.al Act of Mr. Baldwin, roads began to be improved and bridges erected. In 1855 a new bridge was constructed over the Madawaska River at Balmer Island, through the energy and exertions of Mr. Paris, the Reeve, and the a.s.sessed value of the towns.h.i.+p was yearly increased. In 1848 the dispute between the Presbyterian Churches in Scotland reached the Scottish towns.h.i.+ps on the Ottawa, and McNab, among the rest, was affected with the religious epidemic. A large portion of the people broke off from Mr. Mann's congregation. Two new congregations were formed at Burnstown and White Lake, and in 1849 the Rev. S. C. Fraser was inducted as the new pastor. This charge he held until the spring of 1868, when he resigned.

In 1852 Arnprior, which had been a dilapidated scene of log-house ruins, began to revive under the auspices of Mr. Daniel McLachlin, who that year purchased the property from the Messrs. Middleton, of Liverpool.

When it came into his possession it wore a most dreary aspect. The dam built by the Buchanans had been torn down--the grist-mill had entirely disappeared--the saw-mill was a shattered ruin, and all that stood was the tavern then occupied by Mr. James Hartney. The property was surveyed into town lots. The dam was rebuilt for Mr. McLachlin by the Hincks Government in 1853, and the saw-mill was renovated and put into operation. A stone grist-mill was erected--mechanics, operatives, and laborers were encouraged to settle by the most alluring prospects--and in 1854 the sound of workmen's implements, the blows of the axe clearing the surrounding forest, the hammering of the carpenters and the ringing strokes of the blacksmiths' sledges on the various anvils reminded one of the cla.s.sic days of Queen Dido when busily occupied in the building of ancient Carthage, so beautifully described in the aeneid of Virgil.

Now Arnprior may boast of its three thousand inhabitants. Then only two families occupied the neglected waste. A few short years has effected this prosperous change, and Mr. McLachlin's stone mansion is situated on the terraced banks of the majestic Ottawa, on the very site of Kennell Lodge, where the Chief of McNab once ruled a supreme despot, unchecked and uncontrolled. Then an order from the Chief was tantamount to a law and was obeyed with alacrity. Then the towns.h.i.+p of McNab was thinly peopled, having only 102 inhabitants all told; now, including Arnprior, it can number upwards of 6,500. Then the people were poor, struggling for a miserable existence, ground down by oppression; now the great majority are independent, and many are in affluent circ.u.mstances. Then McNab was the poorest and most miserably wretched towns.h.i.+p on the Ottawa; now its a.s.sessed value is by far the greatest of any munic.i.p.ality in the County of Renfrew. It may be said to be the empire towns.h.i.+p of the County. Had the contemplated feudal system been carried out--had the attempt and the actual existence of the tenure not been resisted, and resisted too by the most heroic struggle ever carried on by an impoverished people against wealth and power--it would have been in the same languis.h.i.+ng condition as the most besotted portions of degraded Spain, or in the same wretched state as those parts of Ireland where oppression has not been tempered by law or justice, and where Fenianism has taken the place of order to redress grievances which const.i.tutional measures alone can remove.

In 1838 the first school was established in the towns.h.i.+p; now we have numerous educational establishments and a Grammar School--all of a high order. In 1839 the first Presbyterian congregation was formed.

Our history has now drawn to a close. We have endeavored, without partiality or bias, to give a true record of what has taken place, and we trust we have done so to the satisfaction of our readers. At great pains to select doc.u.ments to substantiate matters of fact, we grudge not the labor, so that we have made this history interesting as well as instructive--interesting as a memento of the past; instructive as tending to impress upon our legislators caution in the opening up of new country, and in the formation of new settlements. Now that the great North-west is being opened up for immigration, the Government may take warning from the past, and not entrust the power which the Chief of McNab at one time wielded, to any single individual. Canada is too powerful, too great, too const.i.tutional in the genius and intelligence of her people, ever again to permit a Family Compact to reign over them--an oligarchy which for years governed Canada so badly that our beloved sovereign, the great and beneficent Victoria, herself generously interfered, and sent statesmen that uprooted this abominable autocracy that for years had been bane to the progress of the country, and a drag on the prosperity of Canada; yet by carelessness grievances may creep in, but if they do, this history will at all events teach statesmen to listen to and investigate the slightest complaint from individuals, however humble and poor, lest the disgrace which overwhelmed the Family Compact in their dealings with the Laird of McNab be their fate, and their political destruction be p.r.o.nounced by the fiat of public opinion which has changed the destinies of empires, and sealed the fate of the most powerful dynasties in the world.

[THE END.]