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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mtthode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 LETTER v> ON TH? MINISTERIAL CRISIS. BT THE ,OLD MONTREAL CORRESPONDENT OP THB Colonial Gazette^ OF i^ONDON* KINGSTON 1843. f AFFAirvS OF CANADA. TO THE EDITOR OF THE COLONIAL GAZETTE. Kingston, 11th December, 1843. Acounts will reach you by this mail, calculated to make a very false impression with respect to the state of affairs here. It will appear to yon that Sir Charles Metcalfe has entered upon a violent quarrel with the Assembly j that he has no chance of gaining the victory in this contest with the repre- sentatives of the people; that we have suddenly reverted to the old system of collision between the Executive and the popular branch of the Legisla- ture ; that the Union wonH work ; and that the Mother-country has now to determine whether she will alter the Provincial constitution, and rule the Colonists by force, or have done with troublesome Canada for ever. Do not believe a w^ord of it. Nothing more has happened than one of those Mi- nisterial crises or changes of Ministry, which must 1)0 frequent under the British Constitution wherever it may be established, and which, all experience tells us, instead of proving fatal to the Constitution itself, are the mam cause of its stability : Montesquieu must have had these in iew when he spoke of the English King as " un roi toujours ckangdant sur tin trdne inebranlable,'^'' Nothing more, I say, has happened than one of those political storms which •m 8 have the effect of clearing the atmosphere and im- proving the weather under a free Constitution. You will agree with me after having attended to the fol- lowing narrative of recent events. Sir Charles Da^ot's determination to admit the French Canadians to a share in the government of their country, produced an Administration enjoying the confidence of a very large majority of the people of United Canada ; a majority which at the opening of the Session of Parliament just closed was repre- sented by more than 60 of the 84 members com- posing the Assembly. Lord GnEY's administration in 1833 was hardly so strong as respects the consti- tuencies, whilst the cordial adoption of Sir Charles Bagot's policy by Sir Charles Metcalfe gave a degree of security to the Lafontaine — Baldwin Ministry on the side of the Crown, which Lord Grey never enjoyed after 1832. Most people said of this Provincial Administration, " How strong it is !" : only a few expressed some vague fear of its being in dangar, by asking whether it was not a little too strong. Such was the as])ect of our politics when the late Session cnemmericed. The Opposi- tion in the Assembly, numbering hardly 20 votes, were manifestly without a policy either for the country or for themselves as a party : their utmost efforts were confined to a muttered repetition of old stories about disaffection and loyalty : and the Go- vernment introduced a T^rjts of legislative measures, with every prospect vc'. Slaving its own way with resp?ct to iliemj and indeed with respect to every thing besideb'. Yet even then there were not wanting careful observers who saw the possibility of the very shock which has occurred. I am speaking now of those ivho said, that perhaps the Ministry was " a little too strong." These, while they acknowledged that the bulk of the measures promised by the Ministry were likely to be of service to the country and agree- able to the people, perceived nevertheless that some of them had been prepared without regard to cir- cumstances of great importance which no statesman would have overlooked. Believing that the down- fall of the Lafontaine — Baldwin Ministry has been mainly occasioned by their disregard of these circumstances, I would draw your particular atten- tion to them. The Union of the two Canadas has brought under the control of one Legislature two nations, so to speak, which widely differ in origin, language, laws, customs, and habits of thought. One law for these two different races would be as unjust and intolera- ble, as two different laws for one and the same peo- ple. It follows that in order to content the whole people of Canada, legislation under the Union must for a long while be carried on in that federal spirit, which has marked the proceedings of the Parliament of Great Britain as respects England and Scotland since the legislative union of those differing countries. Of this all-important principle the late Canadian Ministry appears never to have had any clear view, or even a glimpse. For, though what may be termed a practical necessity obliged them to frame some of their measures, not for the ■ i l ^i l »l » I H whole Province, but for one or other of its recent divisions exclusively — to propose this law for what was formerly Upper Canada, and that for what was formerly Lower Canada — yet they had the incon- ceivable folly to depend upon their Lower Canadian majority as a means of carrying through Parliament measures for Upper Canada alone, which were re- pugnant lo the Upper Canada majority. The case is the same as if the Ministry at home, in proposing measures applicable to Scotland alone, should dis- regard opinion in that part of the United Kingdom, turn a deaf ear to the remonstrances of the Scottish Members of Parliament against such measures, and carry those measures through by means of English members no less ignorant than careless of the pecu- liar wants and wishes of Scotland. This is what the Lafontaine — Baldwin Ministry attempted with respect to an Assessment Bill for Upper Canada alone, which that part of the Province greatly dis- liked, and which was opposed by a majority of the Representatives of Upper Canada in the Assembly. They attempted this ; but in vain, because a good ma- ny of the members for Lower Canada, perceiving the extreme in policy of the Ministers in this respect, threatened to vote with the Upper Canada majority ; and the obnoxious Bill was accordingly withdrawn. This was a deep mortification to Mr. Baldwin, as you will better understand when I shall come to speak of certain peculiarities in his character. It was probable that other measures of a like nature would share the same fate. In particular, there was a Bill for the establishment of a University in Upper Canada, which interfered with endowments and chartered rights in that part of the Province, and which the French Canadian members, accord- ingly, who are strongly disposed to preserve such property and privileges, would probably have declin- ed 10 support. This measure was Mr. Baldwin's own, and a great favorite : he would probably have been compelled to withdraw it on the Monday after the Sunday on which he resigned. You must now comprehend that there were reaFons for his resig- nation besides those which have been told to the public. In fact it was a common saying, just before the resignation took place, that the Administration might perhaps not last through the Session. This doubt of their stabilty was founded on a variety of circum- stances besides those to whi^'h I have already ad- verted. In the first place, Mr. Lafontaine had been successfully opposed by a body of his own especial adherents in the Assembly, led by Mr. ViGER, whose experience, patriotism, and political accomplishments give him great weight with his countrymen. This opposition was directed against one of the most important features of a set of Bills for the improvement of the Judicature of Lower Canada, on which Mr. Lafontaijne had bestowed uncommon pains, and for which he felt the affection of a parent ; and its success, by an open vote in the Assembly, could not but have annoyed him exceed- ingly. Secondly, it was town-talk dow^n to the day of the Ministers' resignation, that they had offended their adherents in Parliament by a degree of reserve ents nee, ord- 5uch rm's with respect to contemplated measures, and of arrogance in personal intercourse, which nothing could excuse ; nor any thing explain, save the sup- position that they were intoxicated by the novel enjoyment of ahnost unlimited power. Tliirdly, one of the Members of the Government, Mr. Hincks, had managed to render himself so very unpopular by a curiously offensive method of exercising au- thority, that the Assembly could no longer listen to him with patience. Fourthly, this Ministry had received " a severe blow and greater discourage- ment " in the defeat of an attempt, which they appeared to view with favour, to fix upon one of their colleagues, Mr. Daly, a charge of peculation and gross delinquency, which a Select Committee of the Assembly declared to be utterly without foun- dation. And lastly, the secession of a number of Upper Canadian Members of the Legislative Coun- cil (or Upper House) occasioned, as it would be easy to show, by a course of general disrespect towards that House on the part of the Executive, and by particular bungling and intemperance towards them displayed by the only Member of the Executive having a seat there, had brought matters to such a pass in this branch of the Legislature, that all mea- sures, not excepting those relating exclusively to Upper Canada, were assented to by not more than three Upper Canada Members, the remainder being nearly all French Canadians ; while there was every prospect that Legislation would be stopped by the failure of a quorum. Put all these things together, in addition to the Upper Canada difficulties in the 1 \ 8 Lower House, and it will be plain to you that a quarrel with the Governor General was by no means necessary in order to upset the Lafontaine- Baldwin Ministy before the close of the Session. If you have any doubt on the subject, be so good as to recur to the Seat of Government question, the decision of which against Upper Canada, however just and politic as regards the whole Province, had occasioned a state of feeling in this section of it, which would have induced a wise administration to exercise the utmost prudence, forbearance, and even gentleness, in the treatment of every other matter relating to Upper Canada, These, however, are not the only grounds on which I imagine that the difference with the Governor General, on which the ex-Mlnisters resigned, was sought by them as a way of esca- ping from insurmountable difficulties in Parlia- ment. The demand made upon the Head of the Government was of such a nature, was so thorough- ly unconstitutional and absurd in itself, that those who npiade it must have been sure beforehand of the Governor's positive refusal to comply with it. Nor, accordingly, has any one of them ever pretend- ed that they had the least hope of his yielding the point to them. They went to him with the cer- tainty that their visit would end in his acceptance of their resignation. The evil consequences for the Province were manifest : a Session of Parliament unexanxpled in this country for the amount and to portance of the measures in hand, would comeim- an end at the most critical moment ; nearly the whole of its past labours would be wasted ; and the people would be bitterly di^sappointed. Why did not Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin postpone for a few weeks their quarrel with the Governor General, so as to let the more important measures of the Session pass into law? The true answer is obvious : because whatever had come of the mea- sures, their Ministry was in great danger of a blow from Parliament, which would have left those in- competent leaders without a party in the countrj' : they retired from office, in order to save themselves from being turned oui: however blinded previously by having been " too strong," they discovered their danger in the nick of time, and averted the mortifi- cation ol sinking for want of popular support, by forcing upon the Governor General a quarrel in which they expected all the popular sympathies to be on their side. Mr. Baldw^in has often boasted that he is a strong party man, and now he has proved it effectually. This view of the subject is confirmed by another consideration. Mr. Baldwin's political character is composed almost entirely of self-esteem, so sincere as to be properly termed honest or conscientious, and perfectly inordinate in degree. Every body believes him when he says, that he cares little for power, and nothing at all for office. Now, this gentleman's position in the late ministry was by no means an agreeable one for a man of his peculiar temperament. He was brought into power in Sep- tember, 1842, not as a leader of an important party ill Upper Canada, (for at that time he led an op- 10 position in the Assembly composed of four members including himself,) but as a gentleman who had conferred obligations on the French Canadians by- taking part with them against Lord Sydenham, and whom their strong sense of political honor led them to repay, by refusing Sir Charles Bagot's proposal of office except on condition that this Upper Canadian friend were admitted to power along with them. Politically, therefore, Mr. Bald- win was a French Canadian Member of the late administration, and he, necessarily, in the estimation of the public, played second fiddle to Mr. Lafontaine. To such a man as Mr. Baldwin such a position must have been perpetual wormwood. Even the ascen- dancy which he acquired over Mr. Lafontaine in the Executive Council, thought it gave him the opportunity of carrying out his own views of policy for Upper Canada by means of French Canadian votes, was but poor compensation for the want of that prominence, that first and highest place among one's associates and in the public eye, which is always the desire of excessive self-esteem. JHis position at this moment must be far more agrdable to him. The late Government was formed on the principle of" justice to the French Canadians : '^ Mr. Baldwin has broken it up on that 6f " res- ponsible government," which is almost his one idea in politics, and of which he now figures as the martyr. His particular subject is now in every body's mouth : he is now the observed of all ob- servers. The Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry has 11 become the Balbwin-Lafontaine Opposition ; and Mr. Baldwin's smiling countenance in the Assembly has expressed his satisfaction at the change. But the main reason of all for believing that the ex-ministers went out of their way to pick a quar- rel with the Governor General, is to be found in the dispute itself. According to their own statement of the facts, (see the written communications between them and Sir Charles Metcalfe) there existed at the time no one subject of difference between the Head of Government and themselves — no case of an appointment just then made without their advice — no project of an appointment against which they protested : but in consequence of some past diffe- rences with the Governor respecting appointments, which at the time they had not deemed it of sufficient importance to call for their resignation, they went to him one fine morning, and tendered their resignation because he refused to give them any assurance as to the future disposal of appointments under the Crown. Imagine Sir Robert Peel or Lord John Russell, going on such an errand to the Queen, and coming back to tell the House of Commons that he had resigned because he found Her Majesty unwilhng to proclaim the Crown subordinate to the Cabinet ! Would not all the world believe in that case, that the MinisteHiad other reasons for wishing to retire from office, and had made an utterly inadmissible proposal to the Crown for the purpose of retiring on the ground of its rejection ? I cannot doubt, however, that Messrs, Baldwin 12 I & Lapontaine had managed to get upon bad terms with the Governor some time before their resigna- tion. No Governor of a Colony, most assuredly, ever carried out the principle of ^< Responsible Government, " so far as Sir Charles Metcalfe has done in Canada ; nor was there ever before in any Colony a " Provincial Administration," which, while they possessed on the one hand the confidence of the Representative-body, enjoyed on the other so much executive power — had their own way so entirely in their capacity of Ministers — as this said Lafontaine-Baldwin Administration, Yet it appears by all accounts, that the two leaders were not content with substantial power, but also wanted to play the part of masters over the Governor ; that they carried on their whole intercourse with him in an exacting domineering spirit ; that they perpe- tually whipped and goaded the willing horse. Such monstrous impolicy may be accounted for in Mr. Baldwin by reference to his boundless good opi- nion of himself : in Mr. Lafontaine it, probably arose, in part from a habit of suspicion and opposi- tion engendered by the long subjection of his people to every species of injustice, but still more from a haughty and overbearing temper which is matter of complaint against him even among his part'cular followers. Be this, however, as it may, there can be no doubt of the fact, that these two Members of the Executive Council did to Sir Charles Met- calfe what is vulgarly called " stroking the dog the wrong way of the hair." The sang-froid drnd wariness of the veteran Governor prevented him from repay- iilViiniiiimiif'iiipi 13 ing such caresses with an inopportune bite, but his growl was often heard in the Council Room. So the ex-Ministers themselves have told us, by their use of the word " antagonism. " It follows that they had not the least prospect of being assisted by the Governor if the Parliament should frown upon them. And the final conclusion is, that, upon the whole, their resignation upon a gronnd which was sure to obtain for them much popular sympathy, was about the most politic of their Ministerial acts. This popular sympathy they have spared no pains to secure. They represent Sir Charles Metcalfe as an old Indian, disliking and incapable of understanding free institutions. They paint him mounted on an elephant, the despotic ruler of orien- tal slaves.* They boldly assert that he is a foe to " Responsible Government"; and then, forgetting their oath of secrecy as Executive Councillors, they tell in the Assembly a variety of stories about ap- pointments to office, which he has no means of contradicting, and which go to make out that he systematically endeavoured to dispose of the pa- tronage of the Crown without consulting his respon- sible advisers. Because a new administration is not instantly formed, they assert that we have re- verted to the old plan of irresponsible rule ; and Mr. Lafontaine enforces the complaint, by pettishly at- tacking the Governor's Civil Secretary for wearing his official uniform when he delivers a message to the Assembly from the Head of the Government. In a ^'1 * See Mr. Hincks' Toronto Examiner of the 6th Inst 14 i: I S ' 1 i .' woru, the whole aim of the ex-ministers since their resignation seems to have been, in utter defiance of those constitutional notions which they profess un- der the name of attachment to " Responsible Go- vernment," to excite fear, and jealousy, and dislike of the Governor General personally, and to persuade the Country that unless Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontalne be supported against Sir Charles Metcalfe, this Colony will be deprived of the proper consequences of its representative system. And further, the doers of dirty work for the party (all parties have instruments suitable for such work) have been indefatigable in spreading reports to the effect, that Sir Charles Metcalfe is unwell and tired of Canada ; that his once-powerful intellect has succumbed to climate and labour ; that he is timid and incapable of resisting a vigorous assault ; that the ex-ministers resigned with a certainty of getting into office again vs^ith more power than ever ; and that overtures have already been made to them with a view of iheir returning to office on their own terms. By these and such like tales, added to the misre- presentations described in the last paragraph but one, a large majority of the Assembly (including most of my old friends, the " loose fish," who al- ways swim with the stream), were hurried into sup- porting the ex-ministers by a vote of confidence. Most people thought it was all over with the Go- veriior Gfeneral, and that he would either retire from Canada, or convulse the Province like Sir FiiArfCis Head by throwing himself into the arms 15 of the opponents of the late Ministry. It is evi- Ident that he has never for a moment contemplated [any thing of the sort. His personal demeanour throughout this " Ministerial crisis" has been smgu- larly calm, patient, and good-humoured. Instead of liscarding " responsible government" as impracti- Icable, he emphatically declares to the Assembly that no other system is prati cable in this colo- ny : instead of denouncing the Upper Canada Reformers, who hastily voted against him, he (invites them to assist in forming a new administra- Ition as liberal as the last : instead of encouraging [the Upper Canada Conservatives to get intoji la passion of loyalty, he begs of them to avoid ex* | (treme courses, and to support him with only a mo- Iderate zeal : instead of quarrelling with the French [Canadians, he proclaims the justice and wisdom of giving them a due share in the executive govern- lent of their country, and pledges himself to form 10 permanent administration without offering power to several of the most prominent of their leaders. \bove all, he has intimated, by his Speech when proroguing the Parliament, that he has no thought ►f retreating from the difficulties of his position, ^he natural fruits of such presence of mind and leliberation of purpose are already beginning to ap- pear. Men of all parties, with the exception of the late Ministers and their immediate partizans, ask "^hat the quarrel has been about, and talk of the possibility of formi^ig a Government supported by a lajority of the present Assembly. Mr. Viger, ^ho in the absence of Mr. Pa pine au may be deem- M ;r 'M 16 i .n ■ >l ed the leader of the French Canadians, ic understood to have overcome his repugnance to the troubles and responsibilities of office, and to have accepted the first place in a new Administration. It is expected that to-morrow will not pass over without the ac- ceptance of office by several other leading members of the Assembly and Legislative Council* In less than a month, probably, a strong Administration will be completed^ likely to enjoy the confidence of both Houses of Parliament, and qualified to carry into effect a popular system of government without ofien- eive arrogance towards the Governor General or any / body else, and without falling into any of the other * errors of Messrs. Baldwin and Lafontaine. This is my own expectation. Should it be realized, tb public voice will pronounce that the incompetence 'oj^ its leaders was the true cause of the downfall of th4 !ate Ministry, and that tl\.e shock which their resignal tion occasioned was but one of those evils out o\ which good cometh in abundance. il^ •I > ■ i ■ iiiH mmmm-' stood sand dthe ected e ac- nbersl n less ration ice of y into offen- »r any / other 9 This a, tb nee 'o^ ofthi signaj out ol /j " f' IWNBr ^^*