Burning of the Montreal parliament building (1849)

When Lord Elgin gave royal assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill on 25 April 1849, a mob broke into the parliament building in Montreal and set it afire. The bill, which granted the rebels of 1837–38 compensation equal to that received by the loyalists for losses suffered during the uprising, offended loyalists; they claimed that it was a bill to pay “rebels.” The fire destroyed the libraries and archives of the two legislative houses, and a period of unrest followed the incident.