Sir John Beverley Robinson: Bone and Sinew of the Compact

344 Pages·1984·18.927 MB·English

by  Patrick Brode

SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON
Bone and Sinew of the Compact
John Beverley Robinson (1791-1863) was one of Upper Canada's foremost
jurists, a dominating influence on the ruling elite, and a leading citizen of
nineteenth-century Toronto who owned a vast tract of land on which
Osgoode Hall now stands.
The loyalists had founded a colony firm in its devotion to the Crown,
with little room for dissent. As a true loyalist son, educated by John
Strachan, Robinson attempted to steer Upper Canada toward emulation
of what he perceived to be Britain's ideal aristocratic society.
As a young ensign in the York militia he defended his sovereign at
Queenston Heights, and as acting attorney-general he prosecuted traitors
who threatened to undermine the colony. Later, as attorney-general and
de facto leader of the assembly during the 18205, he tried to mould the
government to the British form. But factors he never understood - the
influence of American democracy and liberalism in the Colonial Office -
ensured that Upper Canada would never be a 'new Albion.'
Robinson was appointed chief justice in 1829, and his judicial career
spanned thirty-three years. During his tenure, he insisted the courts were
subservient to the legislature; precedents were established which made it
clear that their role should be limited to the enforcement of existing laws,
with no independent creative function. Robinson's long service on the
bench represented both a preservation and a strengthening of the British
tradition in Canadian law.
In this biography early Toronto comes alive through the eyes of a
powerful man - firm in his beliefs, attractive to women, respected by his
fellows - who sought to mould society to his own ideals. For historians,
lawyers, and students of jurisprudence who seek an understanding of the
roots of legal practice in nineteenth-century Ontario, it is essential
reading.
PATRICK ERODE practises law in Windsor, Ontario.
The Honourable J.B. Robinson, Chief Justice, C.W.,
painted and drawn on stone,
Scobie & Balfour, Lith., signed G.T. Berthon
Sir John
Beverley Robinson
Bone and Sinew
of the Compact
PATRICK BRODE
Published for The Osgoode Society by
University of Toronto Press
Toronto Buffalo London
©The Osgoode Society 1984
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-3406-3 (cloth)
ISBN 0-8020-3419-5 (paper)
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Erode, Patrick, 1950-
Sir John Beverley Robinson
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-3406-3 (bound). - ISBN 0-8020-3419-5 (pbk.)
i. Robinson, John Beverley, Sir, 1791-1863.
2. Judges - Ontario - Biography.
3. Ontario - Politics and government - 1791-1841.*
4. Family Compact.*
i. Osgoode Society, n. Title.
FC3O71.1.R6B76 1984 971.3'02'0924 084-098723-4
F1058.R6B76 1984
Picture credits: The Three Robinson Sisters - Art Gallery of Ontario, lent by Mr and
Mrs J.B. Robinson, 1944; Sir John Beverley Robinson, portrait of five judges,
lithograph of Robinson as chief justice - by permission of the Law Society of
Upper Canada; Beverley House - by permission of Mrs John Strachan Robinson;
Robinson in 1816, Robinson in the 18505 - from Major-General C.W. Robinson,
C.B., Life of Sir John Beverley Robinson (Toronto 1904)
Contents
FOREWORD Vll
PREFACE ix
1 The Loyalist Tradition 3
2 This Outpost of England' 13
3 Gentleman of Lincoln's Inn 28
4 Public Life 38
5 Parliamentary Life 61
6 An Advocate in England 77
7 'He Serves the King, Sir' 100
8 The Alien Debates 118
9 'Politics I Am Not Fond Of' 142
10 Tory Twilight 153
11 A Love of Order 166
12 Chief Justice, Speaker, and Confidant 179
vi Contents
13 Rebellion and Reaction 188
14 The Canada Debate 208
15 Lord Chief Justice 227
16 'If I Am Right, Thy Grace Impart' 250
EPILOGUE 270
ABBREVIATIONS 277
NOTES 279
INDEX 315
Foreword
THE OSGOODE SOCIETY
The purpose of The Osgoode Society is to encourage research and writing
in the history of Canadian law. The Society, which was incorporated in
1979 and is registered as a charity, was founded at the initiative of the
Honourable R. Roy McMurtry, Attorney-General of Ontario, and officials
of The Law Society of Upper Canada. Its efforts to stimulate legal history
in Canada include the sponsorship of a fellowship and an annual
lectureship, research support programs, and work in the field of oral
history. The Society will publish (at the rate of about one a year) volumes
that contribute to legal-historical scholarship in Canada and which are of
interest to the Society's members. Included will be studies of the courts,
the judiciary, and the legal profession, biographies, collections of
documents, studies in criminology and penology, accounts of great trials,
and work in the social and economic history of the law.
Current directors of The Osgoode Society are Brian Bucknall, Archie G.
Campbell, Martin Friedland, Jane Banfield Haynes, John D. Honsberger,
Kenneth Jarvis, Laura Legge, Allen M. Linden, James Lisson, R. Roy
McMurtry, Brendan O'Brien, and Peter Oliver. The Annual Report and
information about membership may be obtained by writing The Osgoode
Society, Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, M5H 2N6. Members receive the annual volumes published by the
Society.
It is appropriate that Patrick Brode's biography of Sir John Beverley
Robinson should be published in the year that marks the zooth anniver-
sary of the coming of the loyalists to British North America. Robinson, as
viii Foreword
Patrick Erode demonstrates, embodied much of the loyalist tradition and
worked to give form to important aspects of that tradition in the body
politic of Upper Canada. In many respects, Erode argues, Robinson's
achievements in this regard fell short of his aspirations; yet the efforts of
Robinson and of like-minded Upper Canadians had important conse-
quences for the future development of Canadian institutions in general
and the nation's legal heritage in particular.
John Beverley Robinson was, arguably, the greatest Upper Canadian,
and Patrick Erode offers a thoughtful and effective study of a career that
had few if any parallels in the societies of British North America. The
Osgoode Society is pleased that this book has involved the participation
of a practising member of the legal profession in the writing of Canadian
legal history, and it is hoped that other members of the profession may see
fit to emulate Patrick Brode's example.
Brendan O'Brien
President
Peter Oliver
Editor-in-Chief
14 April 1984
Preface
In an annex to Queen's Park, several rooms are devoted to exhibits
illustrating the growth of parliamentary democracy. The display begins
with Magna Charta and continues through Upper Canadian times with
copies of the Colonial Advocate and other voices of reform. The exhibits
give the impression that in the early nineteenth century Ontario escaped
from the oppression of Family Compact rule and entered into that best of
all possible worlds, liberal democracy. If it is true that governments need
some myth to act as the foundation for their authority, then this memorial
to responsible government in Queen's Park is a superb manifestation of
the prevailing myth. Myths are, of necessity, simple; even worse, they
imply an inevitability of events that may not have existed. The complexi-
ties of political growth are not easily explained by myths, and the persons
who took part in that growth were certainly not simple people.
Undertaking a study of the life of a major Upper Canadian historical
figure is difficult. There is a tendency in such works to raise up the humble
or beat down the proud. My intention in this biography is to view John
Beverley Robinson simply as a child of his time. He was guided by the
thoughts of revolution - American and French (which he detested) and
Glorious (which he revered) - and also by the ideas that had arisen in
reaction to those revolutions. Upper Canadians were inheritors of
opposing views on the rights of the people to direct their government.
John Beverley Robinson saw the world of the United Empire Loyalists
succumb to the ideas he hated most - democracy and secularism. The story