Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/200

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legislative council of Lower Canada, then nominated by the governor, should be made elective. This being refused by the home government, the legislative assembly of Lower Canada retaliated by refusing supplies. Papineau eagerly joined in the cry for an elective council. In November 1835 he held a conference at Quebec with William Lyon Mackenzie [q. v.], the head of the Upper Canadian reformers, and made arrangements for regular correspondence and co-operation between the advanced parties in each province. In 1835 the English government had sent out a commission, presided over by Lord Gosford, the new governor of Lower Canada, to examine into the grievances of the colonists. The commissioners were distrusted, and the legislative assembly of Lower Canada refused to grant supplies or discuss any compromise. At length, in March 1837, the English government finally declared an elective upper house to be impossible, and authorised the governor of Lower Canada to pay the expenses of his government, now greatly in arrear, out of the public money in his hands. The news of this decision brought matters in Lower Canada to a crisis. In June 1837 Lord Gosford issued a proclamation warning the people against agitators. Papineau answered this by making a progress through the province, denouncing the government in violent speeches. On 18 Aug. 1837 the Lower Canadian legislature assembled. On its refusal to grant supplies, the assembly was at once prorogued. Papineau was now deprived of his captaincy in the militia. He still continued his attacks on the government, and on 23 Oct. 1837 attended, in company with Dr. Wolfred Nelson [q. v.], the celebrated meeting of delegates from ‘the six counties’ of Lower Canada, held at St. Charles, where armed rebellion was finally decided on. Papineau, however, whose talents were little fitted for decisive action, seems at this point to have grown suddenly pacific. He began to suggest, instead of an appeal to arms, some form of negotiation, accompanied by a threat to give up the use of British manufactures. His colleague, Dr. Nelson, however, carried the people with him, and rebellion was resolved upon. Warrants for the arrest of Papineau and Nelson on a charge of high treason were now issued. But Papineau, instead of joining Nelson and the other rebels at St. Denis, fled across the frontier to United States territory. His apparent pusillanimity brought upon him a storm of derision from English writers (e.g. footnote in Bell's translation of Garneau's Histoire de Canada; and see discussion of the point in a pamphlet published in 1848 at Montreal, Papineau et Nelson, Blanc et Noir).

During the whole of the Canadian rebellion Papineau remained on American soil, a proclamation having been issued in June 1838 by the new high commissioner, Lord Durham, threatening him with death if he returned to Canada. This proclamation was rescinded by the home government the same year. Papineau tried vainly to bring about American intervention in the Canadian struggle. In 1839 he made his way to Paris, where he remained till 1847. An amnesty was now issued for all concerned in the Canadian troubles, and Papineau returned to Canada. He entered the lower house of the now united Canadian legislature, and remained there till 1854. He succeeded in obtaining a grant of 4,500l., arrears of his salary as speaker. During his latter years he advocated the revival of the old system of division into Upper and Lower Canada, but with no effect. In 1854 he retired into private life. He died at his residence of Montebello on 2 April 1871.

[David's Vie de Papineau; Lindsey's Life of William Lyon Mackenzie; Morgan's Sketches of Celebrated Canadians; Rose's Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography; Histories of Canada by Bryce, Garneau; and Withrow; Canadian Parl. Reports; English Parl. Reports; Ann. Reg. 1836–7; see also Spencer Walpole's Hist. of England, iii. 413–28.]

G. P. M-y.

PAPWORTH, EDGAR GEORGE (1809–1866), sculptor, born on 20 or 21 Aug. 1809, was only son of Thomas Papworth (1773–1814), ‘builder, plasterer, and architect,’ who conducted the last stucco and plastering works carried on in London on a large scale. These works were founded by Thomas's father, John Papworth (1750–1799), and were situated in Great Portland and Newman Streets. John Papworth was ‘master-plaisterer’ at St. James's and Kensington Palaces from 1780, and executed much stucco and plastering at the palaces, at Somerset House, and at Greenwich Chapel.

Edgar early exhibited talents for drawing, modelling, and design in sculpture, and at an early age was placed as a pupil with Edward Hodges Baily, R.A. [q. v.] He was living at the time at the house of his uncle, John Buonarotti Papworth [q. v.], architect. He was entered, 15 Dec. 1826, at the age of seventeen, as a student of the Royal Academy of Arts; in December 1829 he obtained the silver medal for a model from the antique; in December 1831 another silver medal for a figure; December 1833 the gold medal for a group of Leucothea presenting the scarf to Ulysses; and in 1834 he was elected to the