CANADA UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION Of LOED LOENS. looses' €aiuibiaii^ationitl §encB I. CANADA UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE EARL OF DUFFEIjlIN. By Geo. Stew- art, jr. II. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN A. MACDONALD. By J. E. Collins. III. CANADA UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. By J. E. Collins. All published uniform with this volume. Price iJB 00 cloth ; $4.50 half morocco, Library style. $6.00 full morocco, gilt edges. ROSE PUBLISHING CO., TORONTO. t%- ROSES' CANADIAN NATIONAL SERIES III. A ]Sr A D A UNDEK THE ADMINISTEATION OP LOED LOENE BY J. E. COLLINS, AUTHOR OF "the LIFE AND TIMES OK THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIRJOUN A. MACDONALD. KOSE PUBLISHING COMPANY MDCCCLXXXIV. SOLD BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY. 61550 C o LL) Nro- cession moved briskly shoreward, while the air was boisterous- with the cheering of the thousands gathered near the landings. The disembarkation was made with pompous form, and as the distinguished pair touched foot on the richly- carpeted passage THE A RRl VA L IN CANADA. / 27 leadinij up from the lauding, the great guns in the citadel be- gan to boom, announcing that the event of tlie day had been consummatod, A group of pretty young women met the prin- cess as she stepped on shore and presented her with a bunch of flowers ; but more pleasing to the hidy than the floral tribute must have been the delicate roses in the maidens' cheeks, bom of our wholesome Cana^lian clime. Having received th(^ greet- ings of the naval and military authorities, lieutenant-governor Archibald, Right Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, Dr. Tupper, Hon. J. C. Aikins, Hon. James Macdonald, Hon. L. R. Masson, Hon. Mackenzie Bowell, Hon. L. F. G. Baby, Hon. W. B. Vail, Senators Botsford, McLelan, Mayor Tobin of Halifax, and others, were informally presented to their excellencies. Close pursued by the crowd which maintained a perpetual cheering- din, the party passed through the city and halted at the provin- cial buildings. Here, in the as.sembly room, the oath of office was administered to his Lordship by the acting honourable (now Sir) Chief Justice Ritchie ; and at the close of the cere- mony the pealing of bells from every city steeple, and the booming of seventeen guns, announced that Canada's new governor-general had been installed.* The closing sentence • The foUowinsj w the oath of oflSca subscribed to by the Marquis : " I, Sir John Douijlas Sutherland Campbell, commonly called the Marquis of Lome, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend her to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatever which shall be made against her person, crown or dignity, and I will use my utmost endeavours to disclose and make known to her majesty, her heirs and survivors, all treason and treacherous conspiracies which may be formed against her or them. And I do faithfully promise to maintain, support and defend to the utmost of my power, the succession to the crown, .vhich succession by an Act en- titled " An Act for the limitation of the crown and better securing of the rights and liberties of the subject," is, and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress 28 THE ADMIMSTIUTION OF LORD LOllNE. of the oath has the flavour of the olden days : " And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority or authority, gubernatorial or spiritual within the realm ; and I nuike this declaration upon the true faith of a christian. So lielp me God." The burthen of this scare-crow clause, for it will be seen that it is in part a recommendation, nut an ol)ligation, is an ( fhcial repudiation of popery; and .several Roman catholics duly appreciating the insult, and totally misunderstanding the force of the proviso raised a loud cry against " intolerance " and " partiality." Strange to say there is no anti-witch clause in the oath, though it is well- known that there is in the written English law unrepealed provision fur the suppres.sicn of all old women convicted of blasting oi- otherwise devili.shly injuring by dark arts either man or beast, or of " witching a chuin or dairy pan." The curfew, also, if the writer is not mistaken, still exists in the (statute leaves, though as will be seen in the text of the oath there is no provision for putting out fires at any stated hour in tlie governor's charter. Sensible people will therefore only laugh at the provision against the papacy, as they do at the. measures for the circumvention of witches ; but they will not be able to believe that that watchfulness which keeps such a corpse above ground now, is either wisdom or good taste. This of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, being protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any obedience or allegiance unto any other person clairoing or pre- tending a right to the crown of this realm. And I do declare that no foreign prince, person, i)relate, state or potentate, hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superioiity or authority, gubernatorial or spiritual within the realm, and I make this declaration.upon the true faith of a christian. So help rae God." THE A RRI VA L IN CA AM DA. 29 is an asfo of enli^'htcnmont and lihjrby ; it is not an ago of persecution and creeds. But while there is the ridiculous side to the let,'islation against " foreign " ecclesiastics, there is the genuine rack and thutnb-screw air about tlio asseveration, " on the true faith of a Christian." To tliis writer it seems as intolerable and as unjust to require the pledge, " on the true faith of a Christian," as on the true faith of an episcopalian, or on the true faith of a methodist. The candidate for gover- norship may be a Jew, or a Buddhist, or he may not find him- self able to believe that there is a God ; but if he be a good man, a wise man, a just man, why ought such a balief or dis- belief disable him for office ? But that levity is out of place in the face of intolerance so primeval it could be asked, what is there more reasonable in the text than to swear "on the true faith of a dark-haire8 Anderson, white gros grain silk, with real lace and flowers ; Miss Ellen Connell, French grey brocade silk, with lace flounces, flowers to match ; Miss Alice Connell, white silk and crimson velvet, with real lace and flowers ; Miss McGillan, ecru silk and crimson satin, flowers and ornaments to correspond ; Mrs. Judge Weatherbee, pale blue satin dress, trimmed with honiton lace and swansdown ; Mrs. Keating, black brocade silk and satin, with lace flounces ; Mrs. Henry P. Almon, blue satin petticoat with black silk velvet overskirt and honiton lace ; Mrs. Frederick Allison, black silk velvet- with Brussels lace ; Miss Keating, salmon coloured silk petticoat, Organdy muslin, and Valenciennes lace ; Mrs. Capt. Welch, green brocade silk, trimmed with green velvet ; Miss J. J. Hunt, white silk with flowers ; Mrs, Capt. Clarkson, whit-* satin trimmed with Brussels lace and pearls ; Mrs. Vail, black velvet trimmed with white satin and Brussels lace ; Miss McMillan, ecru 8ilk,with draperies of crimson satin, lace and flowers ; Mrs. Johnson Hunt, gros grain silk, trimmed with Axminster lace and white flowers, blue head-dress, blue gloves, and gold jewel- lery ; Mrs, Daly, old gold satin, trimmed with the same : Miss Minnie Welch, black satin, trimmed with folds of the same ; Miss Retallick, white satin, and Brussels net ; Mrs. Dwyer, a seal brown velvet and satin, richly trimmed in the same colour ; Miss Jennings, a very pretty costume of pink silk, handsomely trimmed with satin of the same shade ; Mrs. Sawbey, of Charlottetown, a momie cloth dress, trimmed with satin, Maltese 'ace, and wax beads ; Miss Sawbey, a pink and white aatin robe ; Mrs. Arnold, ccru-coloured silk and satin, trimmed with tulla and orange blossoms ; Misa McLeod, pale blue silk, trimmed with satin of the same colour and lace ; Miss Gossett, pale blue silk robe trimmed with flounces of the same, headed with silver braid and silver fringe and a handsome sash of silver braid and fringe ; Miss Jennings, white satin, trimmed with swansdown and white lace. 34 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. During the next day addresses were presented by the exe- cutive council of Nova Scotia, the judiciary of Halifax county, the diocesan clergy of the church of England, the presbyterian church, the municipalit}'^ of Dartmouth, Halifax university, the undergraduates of King's College, the North British Society, the Irish Charitable Society, St. f^eorge's So- ciety, the Caledonia Club and Highland Sr" ds the Sons of Temperance, the Nova Scotia YacV' .'j, and the Micmac Indians, to each of which his excellency deilvrred a short but pointed reply. At 11 the following morning the party left Halifax. At Truro and Amherst addresses were presented to which the governor replied briefly, thanking the people for their gene- rous welcome and the terms of loyalty towards the govern- ment and throne in which they had couched their greetings. Late in the afternoon the train touched the skirt of that vast ■expanse of fertile low-land known as the Westmorland Mar- shes. These bear a heavy coat of grass, and in the summer present a wide expanse of rich, waving green, the mirror of clouds that skurry over them, and of the bird that flies up from or down to the distant ba}'. Through the .summer, too, they are lit by clumps of wild flowers, pea blooms, roses and convolvuli, that fire the spot whei'e they cluster, and which make the air heavy with their perfume. Tlie Tantramar marsh is the largest of the group, and extends over an area of About thirty miles square. The marshes are composed of an extremely rich alluvial soil, and are capable of producing abundant crops of luxurious grasses for nearly seventy years without showing any decrease of producing power. They are THE ARBIVAL IN CANADA. 35 protected from inundation during the summer by a frontier of dykes, but after the crops have been removed to the up- land barns the gates are opened and the sea is allowed to wander in and cover the wide expanses, leaving with the ebb-tide a heavy fertilizing deposit. But the glory of the summer had departed now as the train sped through the marshes' marge and the skirt of the uplands, and there was only to be seen a vast expanse of sad-brown meadow dotted with hay-stacks, and pierced by muddy streams that make their waj' through the red, clay channels to the distant Bay of Fundy. That which most surprised the governor and princess was to see at various points as the train darted past men em- ployed building, in their back yards, sea-going schooners of heavy draught, with no means of floating them away when built save a little muddy stream trickling through its deep, slimy banks. Enquiry revealed, however, that a little later in the year the robust salt-scented sea admitted at the gates of the dykes, comes surging up here, filling the deep gully-bed to the level of the marsh, and that then the new craft *i3 taken down through the meadows to the bay. Spread out under a late autumn sunset these marshes, low, monotonous and dismal, are not less striking to the imagination than in the summer when clothed in all their riches and beauty, or in the winter when bitter winds wail across their shelterless breast, or more fierce tempests laden with rain or snow rave as if a world of angry spirits had been loosed upon the blast. I have found in a late number of The Continent magazine in a subtle, vigorous, and picturesquely-wrought novelette " The C. C. Rawdon," by our Canadian poet Mr. Roberts, a description of 98 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. these marshes in th3 summar, which I cannot forbear quoting*, so life-like and rich are the touches. Mr, R )berts spent his boyhood here in his father's parsonage, and gives us the picture as he saw it with the fervent, loving eyes of a boy. The passage relates to Marjorie's walk through the marshes. " She thirsted for the solitude of her path along the dykes. The road she was now traversing ran its devious but level way between two narrow black ditches, of which the farther sides, where the soil had been thrown up into a low ridge, were clothed with a matted luxuriant (jrowth of wild-roses, and scented flowerinor shrubs. About a stone's-throw to the right, at the bottom of a deep grassy channel, whose windings the road pursued, a slow stream stole on throuT^h mutflino; water-weeds and beds of wild ii'is. Here and there the green banks stood wider apart, and the quiet current dividing its meagre tide flowed round a little intervale island, whereon a crop of tall grass rose straight and still, unswayed in its sheltered seclusion ; the while the winds were racing ceaselessly aci'oss the va^t marsh- levels. This, before the dykes were built had been a tidal river, and these green banks at low tide a slippery chasm of red mud. * * * The only things unmoved by all the stir and hushed tumult which were sending her hair and hat- strings into confusion seemed the far-otf white cottages on the upland, a few scattered gray baras with red doors, and near by a single brown hay-stack. But at her feet the mass of wild- roses, wild-peas and convolvuli that lined the inner slope of the dyke, the wind rushing by above their heads, the broad sun resting drowsily upon them — these were all unmoved though in the wind's very teeth. Noting all this minutely, THE ARRIVAL IN CANADA, 8? even to the difFeienees between the bumble-bees which droned amoner the vetch-blossoms — for while all were booming about and alike engrossed in their business, some were giants and others dwarfs, some black and pale-grayish gold, and others black and deep orange or rusty-red, — noting these things she succeeded in banishing introspection and miserable thought." In the early spring and through the autumn come the black ur to ask your ex- cellency for a general permission to submit to the juse measures con- cerning money matters which your excellency gave me with your ordi- nary courtesy. That permission, I may say, had always been granted me by your predecessor, the lamented M. Caron. I must admit that, with that permission, and being convinced that your excellency had read the trea- surer's speech, in which he announced the taxation subsequently proposed, I considered myself authorized to tell my colleagues that I had your per- mission for all money measures. I beg your excellency to believe that I never had the intention of assuming the right of having measures passed without your approbation ; and that in this case having had occasion to confer with you with regard to the law respecting the provincial railway, and not having orders to suspend it, I did not think your excellency would see in that measure any intention on my part of disregarding your preroga- tives, which nobody is more disposed to respect and uphold than myself. " This letter M, de Boucherville brought in person and deliv- ered to the governor who admitted that the unauthorized actions of the premier, of which he had complained, had, it was now clear to him, been in good faith. Then rising he said with an effort : " The only difference remaining between us now is the question of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental railway, and on this I will give you an answer to-morrow." Not liking something he saw " in the governor's face," the premier became anxious, and in the afternoon brought to Spencer Wood, his honour's official residence, the documents relating to t h jailway. After a short conversation in which there was a strain of embarrassment, the prime minister rose to go, and as he did so, asked : " Will your honour soon be able to give me your decision ?" After some hesitation M. Letellier answered that he wouid probably give it to him on the following day. " If," . LETELLIER. 61 said M. de Boucherville, as he turned to go, " I understand you rightly, you are hesitating between giving your sanction to the railway bill and reserving it," The governor replied, " That is it." On the following day the lieutenant governor wrote a letter to M, de Boucherville admitting that '' there was no intention on the part of the premier to disregard the prerogatives of the crown," and that there had been on his part " only an error in good faith." Though having made this ad- mission, he pointed out that while there was no intention on the prime-minister's part to disregard the prerogatives of the re- presentative of the crown, " the thing exists," and that the fact that the " intention of disi'egarding his prerogatives did not exist, does not the less constitute one of those false posi- tions which places the representative of the crown in a critical and difficult situation with regard to the two houses of the legislature." He also observed that the asserted general authorization claimed by the prime-minister could not have applied to the government's railway bill, " for the interview took place on the 19th of February, and the bill was before the legislature several days previous to that date, without the lieutenant-governor having been in any way informed of it by his advisers." He reminded him that although he had pro- tested against such legislation as unwise and extravagant, the measure had nevertheless been passed through all its stages. From time to time, the governor claimed, be iiad re- monstrated with his advisers on their several acts of policy, and drawn their attention (1) to the enormous expenditure occasioned by very large subsidies to several railways while the province was burthened with the construction of the great 62 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. railroad fiom Quebec , u Ottawa, which should take precedence of the others; that tbo policy was adopted in the face of finan- cial straits and while the province found it necessary to make overburthening loans ; (2) to the advisability of retrenchment instead of an increase of taxation, and the untimeliness of increasing the salaries of civil-service employes when the government was asking from the Bank of Montreal a loan of half a million. Then his honour charges the premier with hav- ing concealed from him the real state of the provincial finances, with having ignored " his many recommendations in his qual- ity as representative of the crown" on "different subjects of public interest," and having undertaken a course of adminis- trative and legislative action contrary to such recommendations. He thus concludes: ^ The lieutenant-governor after having maturely deliberated cannot accept the advice of the premier with regard to the sanctioning of the Railway Bill entitled An Act respecting the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway. For all these causes the lieutenant-governor cannot conclude this memorandum without expressing to the premier the regret he feels at being no longer able to continue to retain him in his position, contrary to the rights and prerogatives of the crown. On the afternoon of the following day the premier waited on his honour at Spencer Wood, and having exchanged saluta- tions remarked that he understood he was dismissed from office. To this the governor replied that M. de Boucherville was to put his own interpretation upon the letter. There are many forms of French politeness, and this was one of them. Another was when the French marshal at Fontenoy galloped to the front before the engagement, and doffing his hat said, " Gentlemen of the English Guards please fire first." Having LE TELLIES. 68 C()olly cut the head ofFof M. de Boucherville and then treated him to a glass of liqueur, which he vouched came from the cellars of the Benedictines, the governor requested the premier to name to him the gentlemen whom he ought to admit to his confidence as advisers. This was, surely, as peculiar an act of politeness as to ask the premier to put his own construction upon a note of dismissal, or to request the English Guards to " fire first," when it will be remembered that the ministers had just been removed because the governor could not take their advice. It was about as consistent as for the pope, after having excom- municated Luther, to have asked that great reformer, before going into outer darkness, to draw up for the guidance of Holy Church a draft bull on the Immaculate Conception. Poor De Boucherville cast down by his dismissal, and dumbfounded by the Benedictine and the condescension, was only able to stammer out uuat he could not advise his honour on a choice of succes- sors since he was supported by a majority in the legislature, a,nd was therefore in a different position from a nynister who had been beaten in the house. Then he took his leave, and subsequently wrote a note to the governor accepting the dis- missal and avowing his profound respect for the rights and privileges of the crown, and his devotion to the interests of the province. When Louis XI V. wished to advance the fortunes of a favourite at court, he studiously ignored him for a season, thus turning the popular scent away from his motives. For five days after the dismissal of De Boucherville the governor con- spicuously ignored the very man for whose shoulders he had been preparing the mantle during many months. On the 7th of March, however, the limit to the interregnum came, and M. THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. Joly was called upon to form an administration. Amidst a general uproar, and in the face of an adverse majority in the assembly, that gentleman undertook the task assigned him. No fewer than five resolutions expressing want of confidence in the lieutenant-governor's new advisers and censuring thfe course of his honour were immediately passed by the house of assembly. A resolution with the same burthen was also passed by the legislative council. On the following day parliament was prorogued. • On the 22nd of March the correspondence on the question was laid upon the table of the Canadian house of commons, and light was let upon many phases of the embroglio which had been exaggerated and distorted in the party newspapers. It appeared, from a statement made by M. Letellier to the governor-general, that among other slights to his honour's dignity and prerogative, in the previous JNoveraber there had been published in the Official Gazette purporting to be under the lieutenant-governor's signature, two proclamations — one calling the legislature together for business, and the other appointing a Thanksgiving Day — neither of which he had signed, and the latter of which he had not even seen. There al o appeared the statement upon which, in the eyes of those who do not consider formality necessary to an im- peachment, M. Letellier's case must rest, namely, that the De Boucherville ministry had been under the influence of railway " rings," that the governor had advised his councillors to shake off the incubus, and that it was upon their failure to do so, and only after the adoption of the measures intended to meet the demands of these baneful combinations, that he felt he could LETELLIER. 65 no longer retain them as his advisers, and that the best inter- ests of the province required that they should make way for other men.'* In reply to the lieutenant governor's " explanatory case," M. de Boucherville drew up a defence of the ministry' ander ten heads, contending among other things that it was the duty of responsible ministers to advise the lieutenant-governor not to act upon his advice; he denied that the name of the lieu- tenant-governor had been used to sign documents which his Itonour had not seen, and contended that he was justified by the * Among other things says his honour : " From the conversations which I have lield with M, de Boucherville, there results a fact, which if it were known, would of itself have sufficiently justified me in believing that he did not possess the con- fidence of the people of this province. On two different occasions sometime after the session of 1876, I pointed out to him that millions had been voted to aid rail- ways in general, at a time when our finances did not appear to be in a condition to warrant, all at once, a lavish expenditure in subsidizing these numerous undertak- ings, particularly as, apart from that, our credit was so heavily pledged towards the building of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental railway. He very frankly avowed that these grants, though they were for the development of the province, had been necessitated by political considerations ; that without them, the support of the members whose counties were traversed by those railways would cease to be secured to government ; that there would be no means of having a ma- jority ; that these members formed combinations — " Rings " to control the house. . . . I thereupon told him that it was better to save the province than a gov- ernment, and that if his administration was not strong enough to resent those influences, it would be better for him to form a combination of hone it and well- meaning men, from both sides of the house, rather than submit to the dictation of those rings, and to the control of those combinatiocs. When he made no attempt to escape from that deleterious influence after his own avowal that the legislature was controlled by those " Rings," when by his legislation he sought to favour them anew during the last session without having previously advised with me, had I not tlie right;, as the representative of my Sovereign, to believe and be convinced that M. de Boucherville did not possess a constitutional majority in the Legislative Assembly. . . , Without having advised me and without having received au- thorisation of any sort whatever from me, the government of M. de Boucherville proposed to the legislature a measure of almost general taxation upon the ordinary contracts and transactions of life, transfer of bank stocks, Ac. , while no message from me had been asked for this object, nor signed by me to authorise its projio- sitioa to the houses. 06 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. lieutenant-governor's authorization of the resolutions respecting finance in sulniiitiing the measures concerning the failure of municipalities to pay the bonuses they had voted to the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental railway. He pointed out that at any rate the governor had accepted the explanations made to him on these questions, and had absolved the minis ers of all imputation of intentional discourtesy. There is a good deal of other valueless statement to the same purpose. Any- thing more foolish than a lieutenant-governor giving as side reasons for the dismissal of his ministry that they treated him discourteously, after he liad over his own name stated that they were not guilty of this offence intentionally, does not appear in Canadian annals, unless it be when we see the same ministry endeavouring to prove that in this respect they were innocent after his honour had admitted that they were not guilty. The fact is M. Letellier brought the expurgated offences into court for the same reason that his ministry paraded them there — he had a poor case, and they had not a good defence. The question not being one of justice or constitutional right in a genuine sense, it at once became the pi'operty of party, and was taken to Ottawa where it was fluncj down as a football is betwee!! two contending parties. Naturally the interest in the football is little, each party being absorbed only in winning the game. That Canadians may not forget, and that English- men across the water may know, liow largely the judicial ele- ment enters here into our deliberations on party questions, it may be necessary to state once again that M. Letellier, the lieutenant-governor of Quebec, was a Reformer, or Rouge. The gentlemen whom he called to the government after dismissing LETELLIER. 07 M. de Boucherville were also Rouges ; but those whom he dis- missed, as well as those who siijjported the discarded advisers, were Conservatives or Bleus. The^Rouges to a man declared the dis aissal to have been wholesome, wise and expedient ; the Bleus, with tire same unanimity, maintained that it was atro- cious and unparalleled. The same impartial considerations pre- vailed at Ottawa. The Reformers there promptly declared* that the action of M. Letellier was eminently proper; the Conserva- tives affirmed that it was disgraceful beyond all measure. On the 11th of April the question came formally before the house on a motion by Sir John Macdonald to the effect that " the recent dis- missal bj' the lieutenant-governor of Quebec of his ministers was, imder the circumstances, unwise and subversive of the position accorded to the advisers of the crown since the concession of the principle of responsible government to the British North Ameri- can Colonies." Sir John was the leader of the Conservative party, the most astute statesman in the house of commons, and one of the ablest constitutional lawyers in the Dominion. Upon the question his argument was his party's argument, his opinion guided the discussion on his side of the house ; while for the same judicial reason the views of the Reform leader became the views of the Reform party ; and the question was fought out with just such intellectual impartiality as the game of football. • There is one exception, however, recorded to promptitude of opinion on the iiuestion. It is related that shortly after the dismissal of De Boucherville several members were in the smoking-room discussing the question, and one of the num- ber appealed to a member who had just come in, saying, " I leave it now to your sense of justice to state whether you think M. Letellier was justified in what he did ? " The member became confused, and stammered that he did not understand the question. He turned, however, to a member of his own party, and whispered, " Is Letellier on our side ?" and on being told " no," promptly declared that the action of the lieutenant-governor " menaced our constitutional rights." <)8 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. For these reasons it would not be well that the reader should suffer his judgment to follow blindfold the lead of Reformer or Conservative. The arguments on tlie question are rather the strife of advocates than the declarations of judges. Sir John made a speech that lasted three hours, in which he discussed the action of M. Letellier in all its constitutional bearings with marked acimien and skill. He reminded the house how mischievous it would be, at this stage of the country's his- tory, to lay down an evil precedent. He argued that there was a wide difference between prerogative power and con- stitutional right ; and that an act which might be sustained by the courts as the legal privilege of the crown might be used in the most unconstitutional way. Setting aside all legal and side questions which had grown out of the main irsue he affirmed that the Quebec ministry should have governed and been free to govern so long as they possessed the confi- dence of the legislature. He admitted that an exception to the rule was possible, "^uch, for example, as when the crown had rea - son to believe that the parliament did not represent the country — though this seemed not unlike a surrender of the conserva- tive side of the question, for M. Letellier, who was the "crown" had reasons which he doubtless considered " good " for believ- ing that parliament did not represent the people. On the exercise of the prerogative Sir John was explicit, and he adopted the views of Bagehot, a clear-headed and impressive writer on constitutional questions. These views of Bagehot's for exam- ple he affirmed : — "Nothing perhaps would more surprise the English people than if the Queen by cowp d'etat and on a sudden destroyed a ministry firm in the allegiance and secure LETELLIER. C9 of a majority in parliament. That power intlubitably, in theory, belongs to her ; but it has passed so far away from the minds of men that it would terrify them if she used it like a volcanic eruption from Primrose Hill. The Queen can hardly now re- fuse a defeated minister the chance of a dissolution any more- than she can dissolve in the time of an undefeated one, and with- out his consent." And again : " The Sovereign has, under a con- stitutional monarchy, such as ours, three rights — the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to reason ; and a king of great sense and sagacity would want no others. » ♦ «- The Queen has no veto. She must sign her own death warrant if the houses unanimously send it up to her." The lieutenant- governor, Sir John contended, had allowed legislation to pro- ceed without suggestion or warning, and, at the last hours of the session, unceremoniously dismissed his ministers. No man fully aware of his responsibilities, he averred, would have taken such a step ; and it now remained to be seen whether the premier, upon whom the mantle of Robert Baldwin had fallen, would turn his back upon the principle he had so long pro- fessed, and which had been the chief credit and the chief hon- our of his party. And thereupon Mr. Mackenzie, the leader of the Reform government, did arise, and took exception to the character of De Boucherville's legislation, citing likewise Sir Francis Hincks in proof of the contention that M. Letellier had dismissed his advisers on constitutional grounds. In this way the impartial and judicial discussion went on, every Reformer declaring that what Letellier had done was expedient and right, every Conservative fiercely protesting that it was inexpedient and wrong. On the 15th of April Sir John's motion came to THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. before tlio house oi coniinons, and was defeated by 170 Reform votes to 1 12 cuMt by tlie Conso'vativos. In the senate, however, the complexion of which was lar<^ely Conservative, a similar motion to Sir John's, ottered by senator (Campbell, met a ditterent fate. There Letellier was denounced by thirty-seven voices and vindicated by twenty. The Englishman who leads Letcl- lier's story will be able to judge how mucli significance there is on Canadian soil in the words " Tory " and " Liberal," after he has seen the former as a party denounce a governor for using a constitutional j)rerogative, and the latter defend him for the exercise of that power. Truly may it be said that the day is come when Strattbrd is seen standing' astrido the mound of Oliver asserting the supremacy of the people, while the spirit of the Protector sits perched on the tomb of the murdered king preaching prerogative. Having been defeated by repeated non-confidence votes in the legislature it remained for M. Letellier only to dissolve parliament and issue writs for a new election. On the first of May, amid a hurricane of screeching, Bleu and Rouge went to the' polls. Though the writer has little interest in either party, it is only fair to say that the dubious justification of the dismissal aflbrded by the number of supporters sent to M. Joly at the new election was not a test of sobqr, public opinion. The De Boucherville party appeared before the country in a state of disgrace : the governor had just dismissed them from office, declaring them to be incompetent and corrupt. The Canadian commons had by its vote affirmed that the allegation was true and thus justified the act of the lieutenant-governor. It is quite as certain that hundreds, if not thousands, of those LETELUEK. 71 who voted for M. Joly's Romjes did so because of the action of M. Letellier and its ratification by the Canadian parliament, who would otherwise have not distrusted the competency or the purity of the De Boucherville party, as it is that thousands who voted for the ejected ministry believed them to be as bad as the lieutenant-governor had described them. It is vc cannot find either adniinition or attention for tlie utterances of this wreck of a mediocrity which has had its day. Mr. Mackenzie's amendment to tlie tariff re- solutions, it may bo said, was negatived by 13G votes to 5?^ Some of the newspapers caught the ex premiei's note, and de- clared that the national policy, by placing the same rate of tax upon British, as upon American imports, endangered British connection ; and the Mail newspaper, speaking it must be pre- sumed for the government, replied, " Then so much the woi-so for British connection." If the Mail voiced the feelinjrs of the Conservative party, and its statement had a meaning, then is it legitimate to deduce the following doctrine as the policy and sentiments of its party : So \on^^ as British lonnection does not interfere with our commercial interests, let it remain; but if it is to be a choice between that connection, and our fiscal policy — a policy, by the way, which nearly half the people declared to be unsound in principle, retrogressive, and antagonistic to the interests of the countiy — then farewell to the tie that binds us ; we choose our national policy. I have been reviled by Canadian journals of both sides of politics for declaring in my own poor way my desire for Canadian independence ; an old man,* down in Montreal, affirms that a book^f lately written by me is the mere vehicle of independence " poison," while the very newspaper which declared that if th? national policy was to endanger British connection, then so 'auch the worse for British connection, chaiacterizes my conviction!* od t-his head as " impertinences." As for Sir Francis Hincks, v ho is less * Sir Francis Hincks. t The Life and Times of Right Hon Sir John A. Macdonald. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY— 1S79. ]1{> lenient with nio, I cannot re^'ard him a8 a disinterested witness, for he draws an imperial pension; and Johnson luvs defined pension to bo the reward given to a state liireling for treason to his country. In due time the discussion on the Canadian tariff readied England. John Bright strangely enough with his advanced ideas on self-government made emjuiry in the house of com- mons on the suLject as if he should not have known that it was none of Great Britain's affairs what kind of a fiscal policy Can- adians adopted ; and with motives that were highly unselfish a number of English manufacturers represented to parliament that their interests were prejudiced by the new tariff". What- ever the future may have in store for us it is plain at all events that the English artizan thinks our destiny is to buy his cloth and spoons. Some of our Canadian politicians set limits to our aspirations by the same noble and patriotic view The London Times, just for once in its attitude towards Canadian questions, acknowledged that the Dominion had the right to adopt whatever commercial policy the people thought fit; it regretted however that a promising dependency like Canada should weight its young shoulders with a system that belonged to a past age. On the 10th of May, Dr. Tupper, minister of railways and canals, announced the railway policy of the government in a series of resolutions, providing among other things that one hundred million acres of land and all the minerals they con- tain should be appropriated for the construction of the Canada- Pacific railroad ; that this land should be located along the line of the railway, except when the land was not of an average 120 TUE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. quality, when an ecjuivalont inust bo granted from fair land elsewhere. To these resolutions Mr. Mackeu/io offered two amendments which were both negatived by a vote of 115 to 37. It was out of this legiHlution that grow the greatest public enterprise in the country's history, the work now going on of building the Caniula-pacific railway, a lino that will link the Atlantic Ocean with the PaciHc, and open a con- tinent of wheat-growing land to immigrants from all quarters of the globe. On March 10th Mr, DeCosmos moved for papers in connect- ion with the treaty of 1825, between Great Britain and Russia, under which British ves.sris were permitted to navigate the rivers which ran out of British Columbia territory through Alaska to the sea. The sale of Alaska to the United States ho contended abrogated any rights to Canada under the treaty of 1825. Mr. David Mills, in a very rambling and inconse- ,00() in perj)etuity to main- tain submarine cables to Anticosti and tbo Magdalen Isbmds ; increasing tbo salaries of county court judges in Prince Ed- ward Island from 32,000 to $2,500 per annum ; amending and consolidating tbo act respecting Dominion lands and tbo In- dians; providing for tbo acfiuiremont by tbe Dominion of tbo liiviero du Loup brancb of tbo (Jrand Trunk railway; tbe consolidation of tlio railway acts ; and tbe amendment of tbo banking act by probibitory loans on bank stocks, tbo transfer of bank sbares unless registered, their sale unless tbo name of the hokler is set forth in tho contract, and authorizing tbo governor-goneral-in-council, in case a bank has impaired its capital by reason of losses, to reduce its stock, orovided tho re- duction has been agreed to at a meeting of th shareholders. On the 15th of May parliament prorogued. One of the most serious questions now pressed upon tho at- tention of the government was the problem to provide food for the needy Indians of the North-West territories without demoralizing the tribes by bringing them to neglect means of supporting themselves and to lean on the authorities. Year by year, as civilization crawls out upon the prairie, the buffalo 124 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. lierds, disturbed in those haunts where once the reign of na/- ture was uninterrupted, save when the Indian came with bow and arrow to get venison, recede towards the Rocky Moun- tains, beyond the reach of the tribes living upon the more easterl}'- part of the plains. With the disappearance of the buffalo vanished the chief food supply of the Indians, and at once the necessity for those in authority to provide for the deficiency, was presented. To add to the misery of the Cana- dian tribes, in 1870, a Inrge body of United States Sioux, fol- lowers of Sitting Bull, the celebrated chief anj,'atlon to Ottawa to coiiffi- there ruspectinj^ the provincial io^iwhitioii proposod. The hou.so, as appointed, mot on the Hth of April l»ut adjourned a^'ain till the 27th of May, to enable the nioinhei-H to eoticludo its nej^otiationn with the Canadian ^'ovornnient. On tlu- 2()th of May, Me-ssrs, Norquay anil Koyal, the delegates to Ottawa, laitl upon tho table their report, in which tho Dominion government agreed among other things to grant the subsidy of !>10.5,<)50 already named, annually to tho province until tho end of 1881. On tho 4th of Juno tho vacancies in the executive council created by the resi^nalion of Messrs. Royal and Dtdorme, were filled by the appointment of Messrs. Beggs and Taylor. On the 25th of June tho assen»bly was prorogued ; and on the KJth of December a general election was held resulting favourably for tho Nonpiay ministry. On the 20th of January, lion, (now Sir) W. J . Ritchie, one of the puisne judges of tho supreme court of Canada, was sworn in chief justice by tho governor- general. Hon. James Cockbtirn, Q. C, congratulated chief justice Ritchie on his appointment and made the prediction, that has since been so fully verified, that tho new incumbent would bo an honour to the bench. Mr. Cockburn likewise paid a well-deserved tribute to the character and abilities of Mr. \ B. Richards, the predecessor in oftice of chief justice Ritchi Among the strange occurrences of the year may be mentioned a curious and sad case showing the effect of a bitter grief. A miner named W. B. McMillan died at Denver, Colorado and his remains were sent to Brantford, where lived his widowed mother. The son had been the prop of his mother's 138 TEE A DMINISTRA TION OF L ORD L ORNE. age. When she saw the corpse she sobbed wildly for a few moments, then raising her hands above her head and crying, " My son, my son, you have crossed the river before me," she dropped dead across the coffin. There was sorrow during this year throughout the Episcopal communion of Canada, by the tiding of the death of the Rifjht Reverend A. N. Bethune. On the 5th of February the remains were taken from Wind- sor Place, the late residence of the deceased prelate, to Cobourg, and were accompanied by large numlers ,of the clergy and laity of the church of England, many of whom had come from distant places to pay their tribute to this distinguished, zealous and well-beloved churchman. Upon certain temperaments a body of water rushing over a precipice, or a fierce current rolling by, exercises fatal fascin- ation. On the 21st of June, A. Rolland, who had recently been married, and who made a tour over the world, rested with his bride at Niagara Falls. They contemplated leaving on the after- noon of the day named, but in the morning went out to see the cataract. They visited each one of the Three Sister Is- lands, and while at the last, the lady asked her husband for his cup that she might get a drink from the rushing water ; then she stepped down to the verge, observing that she would like to "dabble" her hands in the river, and that it had a strange fascination for her. He simply requested her to be cautious in filling the cup ; and then she stepped out upon a flat rock from which to dip the water. However it came to pass her husband knew not, but he saw his wife linger for a moment over the mad eddies ; then totter, lose her balance, and fall POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY— 1879. 130 into tlie rushing river. She was swept instantly over the Canadian Fall. On theoth of August a terrific cyclone, coming with the sud- denness of a thunder-bolt, burst upon New Brunswick. It moved in a path half a mile wide carrying utter destruction in its course. Trees of the primeval forest were torn from their roots and whirled through the air as if they had been straws ; houses were thrown over and crushed, and in some instances carried bodily through the air; cattle were flung down, and rolled along the ground like leaves, while fences and crops were entirely demolished. Several persons were in the wood, or travelling by road, when the storm came on, and these were whirled about like chaff. Althou^jh their carriajjes were crushed, and in the woods trees fell about them as if the forest were a field of oats falling before the scythe, only four persons were killed ; but numbers were bruised and wounded. Incidents are related stranger and more wonderful than the brain of a romancer could conceive. It is stated that in one farm-house, a stove was raised from its place and driven through the side of the dwelling, though the rest of the cottage remained comparatively uninjured. In another residence were two wo- men whose clothing was rent into thousands of tatters, and blown off their bodies, while innumerable grains of .^and were afterwards found imbedded in the skin of each, though neither was seriously injured. The Buctouche bridge, a mass- ive structure, was lifted and blown a long distance through the air like a reed, and the roof's of dwellings and out-houses floated overhead like the flying cinders that one sees in the air during a, conflagration. The personal losses reached over $100,000, 140 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. and to relieve the distress a subscription list was at once opened in St. John. To this object the Governor-General and Her Royal Highness contributed $150. On the morning of the 20th of August many of the inhabit- ants living on the r)eninsula of Niagara thought that the end of the world had come. The ground swayed siekeningly for many seconds ; at St. Catharines the shock was very marked, and made doubly terrifying by the tolling of the bells in the Welland Railway shops and in the steeple of St. Barnabas Church. On the 30th of October a furious gale swept across the Nor- thern Atlantic, overtaking many vessels. The shores of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were strewn with wreckage. Not less than a hundred vessels were thrown on shore. During this year also was settled the question of the " Great Seal," arising out of the " matter of the precedence of Joseph Norman Ritchie," for whom, in May, 1876, a patent decreed by the Nova Scotia Government had given precedence to cer- tain members of the Bar. Mr. Ritchie took his case to the Supreme Court of the Province, contending that the seal affixed to the patent was not valid ; that the Heralds' office in 186& had devised Goats of Arms for the Dominion, and each of the Provinces ; that in consequence of ?ome delay in forwarding the new Seal to N ova Scotia, the old Seal had been used by the Province ; but pointed out that the Seal of 1809 did sometime afterwards arrive, and tiiat it was accompanied by instructions to the Lieutenant-Governor from the Colonial Office " to take the necessary steps to cause tLe same to be adopted ;" but that it had not been adopted, and that all thiiigs done by virtue of the POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY— 1879. 141 old instrument were invalid. The Provincial Court sustained Mr. Ritchie's contention ; after which the case was appealed and taken to the Dominion Court. Pending the settlement of the question by the latter tribunal, on the recommendation of the Crown Officers in England, acts were passed by the Dominion and Provincis' Legislatures giving validity to all things done under the Grea. Jeal, and authorizing the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia in council to alter the Seal if necessary. Upon the strength of these acts the Supreme Court of Canada gave judgment disallowing Mr. Ptitchie's claim, thus settling the troublesome question. In the death roll of the year was the Right Rev. Alexander N. Bethune, who passed to his rest at Toronto, on the third of February. A cultured scholar, and an able administrator, he was a singularly devoted and zealous son of his Church, while his whole life has been described as one of gentleness and love. On the 16th of January, literary circles in Quebec received a shock by the announcement that one of the most gifted of their native litterateurs and poets, M. Joseph Octave Cremazie, had that day died at Havre, France. M. Cremazie had reached his forty-ninth year, and gave promise, had time been spared to him, to further enrich the literature of his province, for which he had done much. On the 20th of September, English-Cana- dian literature sustained a loss by the departure from its ranks of Mrs. Leprohon, who for many years had contributed fiction to the Literary Garland and other Canadian publications. CHAPTER IV. EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL — 1S80. /^N the 12th of January, a cheerless day of driving snow and ^ a bitter wind, the second session of the fourth Dominion parliament was opened. There was the usual formula ; guns thundered from Nepean Point, Canadian soldiers formed a. guard of honour, and the princess was seated on the throne. Without intending irreverence, the writer cannot avoid remark- ing that governments in their Speech from the Throne, always,, more or less, seek to identify themselves with Providence, by calling attention to the bountiful harvests in some such way a» to show that they were " in a measure to be thanked for it,'* and the utterance opening the present session was no exception to the rule. Oppositions are never grateful for bounty to the husbandman or to anybody else, neither was Mr. Mackenzie, who spoke for his party, and characterized the speech as a " de- ception." It was a custom with political monks of the mid- dle ages to never commit a record of their state intrigues to- paper, the motto " Littera scripta manet," being more terrible to them than the legend written over the gate of hell ; and so- it always came to pass that they might, without censure to profession, discard an old doctrine of morals or worldly polity, and adopt a new without fear of incurring the reproach of in- consistency, or of being deemed fallible in their portents. The EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLITICAL-1880. 143 politician who is of all men the most exposed to the temptation of turning prophet, would do wisely to remember the caution of the church fathers. In replying to the speech from the.throne Mr, Mackenzie said that but for the bountiful harvest which Canada had been given during the preceding year, and the seri- ous deficienc}'^ in the crops of Great Britain and Ireland, the state of the Dominion would now be the most deplorable ever known. Then he referred to the local general election in On- tario, and contended that the recent success of the Mowat ad- ministration was a severe condemnation of the fiscal policy of the Dominion government, protection having been made a dis- tinct issue at the polls. The Oracles when invoked so fashion- ed their answers that whether the battle was lost or won their insight was never impeached ; but here the types will merci- lessly keep Mr. Mackenzie on record. In the light of the general election that has taken place since the ex-leader of the opposi- tion delivered this opinion, in view of the vote cast by Ontario, and above all, with the picture of Mr. Mowat's party stagger- ing out of its recent encounter before us, the assertion that the people of Canada had then expressed their " condemnation of the national policy " — whether that policy is now, or will be, for the country's good — is not an evidence of penetration into the heart or the direction of public opinion. Sir John Mac- donald, who, even when things are very bad, will try to make the best of them, followed Mr. Mackenzie and affirmed that a wondrous change for the public good had come ; and added : " I believe that under that Providence, at which the hon. gen- tleman rather sneers, this improvement will continue from year to year so long as the present policy is developed." 144 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. It was in this speech that provision was made for the creation of a Canadian High Commissioner to the Court of St James, and the reason assigned for the appointment in the Speech from the Throne, was " the increasing foreign trade of Canada." The motive given for appointing the Commissioner may have been wisdom, but it would be some- what venturesome to say that it was logic. There is no ar- gument left to defend the appointment on the ground of a growing foreign trade after the rejoinder by Mr. Blake : " Trade is exchange, and if you want other people to take your commodities you must take theirs ; and whilst you establish and maintain as part of the general, permanent policy of the country a system of obstruction and restriction as to the importation of these commodities which other people have to give you, it is a farce to talk of extending your foreign trade." If prime ministers will permit Speeches to go out of their hands loosely and inaccurately worded, it is just and meet that they should take the punishment that an out- raged logic has to offer. There was, however, another reason given to the Colonial Secretary when our government was praying that the appointment might be granted, and if the motive was a more logical one than that which Mr. Blake so thoroughly punctured, it is certainly not more palatable to the ambition and the pride of Canada. During the summer of 1879 some of our Canadian ministers went to England, and during their stay there they pressed, among other things, this project of appointing a Canadian Commissioner upon the Home Government's attention. There happened at the time to be a vast deal of the Beaconsfield Jingoism in the English EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLlTlCAL-imo. 145 air, and our poor colonial statesmen caught it as soon as they landed. They met the English prime minister who had a short time before obtained a Garter, brought home " Peace with Honour " from Berlin, and who was now full of schemes for erecting scientific frontiers and other wonderful things for the glorification of the empire, " By Jingo !" There- fore it is not strange that our Canadian ministers put this de- claration into their memorandum urging the appointment of the Canadian High Commissioner : " The idea must be avoided that the connection of Canada with the British Empire is only temporary and unabiding, instead of being designed to strengthen and confirm the maintenance of British influence and power." The declaration of the tailors of Tooley street passes into history, but it does not make history ; for knight- hood has not yet bribed all the brain and self-respect in this country into reconcilement to national degradation.* On the opening day of the session Mr. Mackenzie rose in his place and brought to the notice of the house a curious case of breach of privilege which had arisen towards tTie close of the preceding session. On the night of the 10th of May, 1879, during the discussion on the Pacific Railway, several mem- bers lost their temper and insinuated that their opponents were liars and not reputable men. While the fray went on there were several spectators on the floor of the house ; and among these was a young barrister from Toronto. It hap- pened that during the discussion, Mr. Huntington, member for *The first Canadian High Commissioner was Sir A. T. Gait, whose appointment was gazetted on the llth of May, 1880. His salary was fixed at $10,000 per annum ; And $1,000 a year was granted for a residence. IM THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. Shcflbnl, arose ; and while ho was speaking, a voice came audibly from among the spectators — it was that of the young })arrister referred to — saying that the member on his feet was a " clieat and a swindler." Mr. Huntington called attention to the outrage, and the floor was speedily cleared. The person offending made two attemi)ts to re-enter the chamber and reach Mr. Huntington, but was forcibly prevented by the sergeant- at-arms ; whereupon he at once wrote the following note : " To the Hon. L. S. Huntington, M, P. : Sir, I desire to state out of the house what I have stated in it ; you are a cheat and a swindler." On motion of Sir John Macdonald, it was ordered that a summons bo issued citing the offender to appear at the bar of the house at its next sitting : but when the officer went to serve the instrument it was found that the barriste .' had left the city. On the opening day of the next session, Mr. Mackenzie, as has been seen, having referred again to the mat- ter, Sir John Macdonald moved that the offending party be summoned to appear before the house on the 24!th inst. On that day Mr. Macdonnell, which was the name of the barrister ^^ came before the bar and read an apology which, among other statements, contained these : " My language was not addressed to the member in question nor to any member of this house, but to a gentleman sitting beside me * • * " I did not intend to speak in a voice which would be audible to the member for Shefford, or to any member of this house."* On a motion by *One would suppose from the phraseology of this apology that the offending per- son was a member of the House of Commons, for the words " this house " could only be used properly either by a member of the parliament, or by an accused party on trial for his offence in the house ; whereas those cited by parliament ap- liear befoi-e the house or at the bar which divides the legislative precincts from the EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITIC A L-lHm. 147 Mr, McCarthy, that "taking into consideration the regret and apology made,"* the house did not deem it necessary to proceed further in the matter, an animated discussion arose, in '.vhich Messrs. Mackenzie, Mills, Casey, Anglin, among other memhers of the Opposition, ctntended that the apology offered was not an apology at all, two or three of the speakers maintaining that the offending person should have addressed his amende to Mr. Huntington as well as to the House of Commons. The reader who is familiar with events in the parliamentary history of Canada will not be surprised to learn that even such an oc- currence as the coming in of a stranger upon the floor of the House of Commons, and while there insulting a member who was speaking, was speedily imbued with party rancour, the con- servative squaring off from the reforruer and doing battle as if the question at issue had been a disputed problem in finance. Sir John indeed did not, strictly speaking, take party ground \ he characterized the letter of Macdonnell as " most offen- sive and improper," and as " libellous and defamatory," but expressed his adherence to the view of his co-partyists that no matter how improper or how offensive the letter, it having been written beyond the precincts of the house, he did not be- lieve that the action constituted such a breach of privilege as. could be dealt with by the House of Commons. Macdonnell wa.s outside. The house, or your house would therefore seem to be the more correct form of expression. In England, where parliament is more antique and cast-iron in its forms, the phrase of an apology would needs be as accurate as a quotation from the Scriptures, *While referring to the propriety of phrase, it may be remarked that the spec- tacle of a man makitig a " regret " is novel, if not in a parliamentary sense, then at least in a grammatical light, A strong literary bitw is not the characteristic of many of our Canadian public men. 148 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. subsequently called in and informed that in consideration of his regret and apolog}' the house would proceed no fuither against him ; after which he departed. Another privilege question was raised which also engrossed public attention. Mr. Hooper, member for the united counties of Lennox and Addington, had been charged with embezzling the funds of the municipality. A commission appointed by the government of Ontario reported that Mr. Hooper was in- debted to the county, but did not charge him with fraudulent doing — the accused member denied that he owed anything. On the 19th of February, therefore, one Thomas Anderson pre- sented a petition to the House of Commons praying that Mr Hooper be declared an unfit and improper person to represent the county in parliament. A motion was made to refer the case to the Committee on Privileges and Elections, but the proposal creat- ed a storm of opposition ; it was pointed out that it would be"a nice state of things" if every gentleman similarly accused would be liable to parliamentary investigation ; that some bank might allege that an hon. member had defrauded it because he had not paid his note, and that if such a precedent were estab- lished it would lead to endless persecutions and attempts to levy black-mail. Mr. Bunster, amid the loud laughter of the house, said that if parliament were to investigate deficits it had better be^in with the millions of deficits created by the late minister of finance, Sir Richard J. Cartwright, who had also represented Lennox, instead of wasting its time over a paltry $32,000. An amendment by Mr. Cameron, of Victoria, that Anderson's petition be not referred to committee, was carried, and the much-distended interest in the question collapsed. It EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL— 1880. 149 may be here Hiiid that certa'n eases do undoubtcMlly arise where the provision for trial on petition, before parliament, is good ; but the examples are rare indeed, since the person accused will be tried not in the light of justice but of pa'ty; while that member, with liis " side of the House " strong enough, wlio is a proven incendiary instead of a suspected embezzler, will be de- clared innocent by a " majority report." . , When, therefore, a case like that of Mr. Hooper's comes into the house, brought there by party politicians, for the ends of faction, it is the duty of any man who has a spark of public decency to resist its acceptance, leaving it to be dealt with by the courts that are clothed with all the needed authority, and for whose decisions we have respect. Let the justice-seats of the land try the parliamentary representative as they try any other citizen ; if he be therein proven guilty of serious offence against the law, then let some responsible person present the petition to parliament asking for his disqualification. Then will the time be meet to receive such request, and to act upon it. Sir Leonard Tilley came forward with an account of his stew- ardship for the year, and claiming with strong earnestness that, while other causes had assisted in the return of better times, the National Policy had been a very great factor in restoring prosperity. He produced a list from which he showed that there were then 10,000 persons occupied in the country who could get no employment before. Sir Richard Cartwright, suffused with bitterness, laid his soft felt hat upon the desk, and rising said that " so far from greater employment being given to the working classes, thousands of working men were 1 50 THE A D M I NIS TU . 1 TIO S OF L RD L O U NE. at thnt moment cmsin«^t]io day that they trusted to the gov- ernment's false promisos ; * * and tliat the National Policy Imd utterly failed as a means of |)rodu(Mn<;rev(auie or of foster- ing nuinufactures." The only one of these two contentions about which we can be sure gives empliatic contradiction to the €X-finance minister's allegation ; and the same gentleman, in 1883, finds as tlie grievous fault of the same policy that it oxtorts from the people three or four million dollars, annually, more tlian is needed for purposes of revenue. The ability of ♦liir llichard (Jartwright is not here in (question, but the value of his criticism of the financial policy of his opponents, and the credit to which he is entitled before Canadians who have an atom of self-respect, is shown in this statement of liis occurr- ing in the speech from which extracts have been already made : " It would be a great error to believe tliat either the statesmen or the people of Great Britain look with any degree of pleasure on the policy Canada lias adopted." This it must bo admitted was a strong point against the National Policy ; for the fanners and draymen of England must undoubtedly know better than Canadians the kind of fiscal policy needed for this country. And Sir Richard's logical and very patriotic protest against the National Policy was supplemented by another argument dressed out in strong sentimental colours : the ministry were accused, in scathing language, of showing ingratitude to their kind Mother England, by a Reformer who for treason to the British government, some decades ago, narrowly escaped hanging. But the government now and again adopted lines of defence scarce- ly more edifying in nature than some of the attacks. Sir Charles Tupper, who, in his speeches not unfrequently mingles too much EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLITICAL-im). 161 ferocity witli a conspicuous contempt for logic, iu dofcnding the coal tax, the feature in the National P(jlicy nicstolmoxiouHtothe Refonuors,in his mostcliaractoristic way maintained that " every poi*8on knows that, while there was a duty of fifty centa im- posed on coal durinj^ the last year, the cost of coal fell to the lowest price it over was in the history of the country." The tax on coal may be expedicuit, or it may be unwise, that is not the ((uestion here, but what benefit, it will be asked, did the fifty-cent tax confer on the coal-miner in whoso interest this item in the tariff was made, if it did not increase the price of his coal ; and would not the coal that had fallen " totho lowest price it ever was" cost the consumer in Canada just fifty cents on the ton less had not the duty been affixed ? If the import- ers of coal paid the tax declared by law, then was Dr. Tupper's statement not merely daring, but an insult to every man that heard him who was not an idiot. I have made these extracts to show my reader what passes for " lucid and forcible state- ments " and " unanswerable arguments," in the way of talk, and for " statesmen that would do honour to any hall of parlia- ment " in the way of men, among the slavish admirers of cer- tain of our Canadian politicians, and the wretched hack-news- papers that are engaged in the manufacture of public opinion. It was at this period of Canadian history that so many poli- ticians and their followers began to read the "Arabian Knights," learning therefrom how magicians in the Esist needed but to raise their wands and express a wish, when the thing, whatso- ever they desired, immediately came into existence ; and mar- velling much at the princely palaces and wondrously splendid creations so called forth, they bethought them that the legis 152 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUD LORNE. lature of Canada had likewise the power to do great things ; and it occurred to one member of parliament, Mr. Wallace, of South Norfolk, that as one of the prerogatives of the state was to declare, stamp and give validity and value to the money of the realm, therefore, while they were at it they might as \vq\\ make enough to pay the expenses of the onerous public works on hand, and put an end to public stringency at once. Therefore during the session of 1879, he moved a set of resolu- tions providing among other things: " That for the convenience and requirements of trade and commerce, and for constructing the Pacific Railway, and the other public works of the country, the government should at onceprovide an ample and sujfficient supply of money ; but in no one year should the amount expended on the railways and works aforesaid exceed the sum of ten millions of dollars, nor should any portion of that sum be paid out until its expendi- ture had been authorized by a vote of the parliament of this Dominion." This scheme must have been very alluring to the government, pinched for funds and burdened with extensi\e works, but the proprieties demanded that they should set their face against it ; and so the finance minister disapproved of Mr. Wallace' doctrine, and the other ministers laughed at their desks, and deemed the proposal unworthy of serious resistance. Yet a seed -ad dropped from Mr. Wallace' argument, and was even now fructifying in ministerial breasts. The govern- ment found that it was necessary to obtain for public works eight million dollars, and taking to heart the advice which they had outwardly scorned, their finance minister went out, raised his wand and created the sum needed. This was his method of EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL— ISSO. 153 procedure: On the 2Gfch of April, in the session which is now being recorded, he introduced a bill providing for an ex- tension of the currency in circulation from ^12,000,000, the amount hitherto allowed, to $20,000,000. This would set afloat $8,000,000 in notes, while the gold reserve was not increased by a dollar. The measure evoked a torrent of censure upon the finance minister, though no very clear insight into the questier of currency is revealed in the speeches or the writings of the times. Little was afterwards said about this Balloon Act, for we since have fallen upon days of plenty. The Act was really a watering of our national circulation to the extent of two-fifths ; and it has established a most dangerous example.* It was during this session that the measure facetiously de- scribed as a Bill for the Abolition of Aunts was introduced. For many years the mu-riage of a man with the sister of his deceased wife had formed a theme for legislators and moralists in Great Britain as well as in this countr^'^, and among divines the widest difference of opinion had prevailed upon the subject. With few exceptions the Nonconformists have favoured such marriages,but the churches of England and Rome have opposed them, save for the dispensations that the latter has always granted for " sufficient reasons." These unions were not void de jure in England up to 1835, but in that year Lord Lynd- * Writing of the Act in the Bystander of 1880, Mr. Goldwin Smith said : ■" The finance minister thinks that he can fix the limit beyond which inflation shall not go ; but he has no control over his successors, who may be, and indeed are pretty sure to be, in greater straits than himself. His measure, though he would not like to admit it, involves a breach of faith to the holders of existing notes, who have taken them on tbe assurance of their being secured by a certain reserve. If a bank were to do the same thing, its conduct would be deemed frau« dulent, and it would be restrained by law." 154 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE, hurst procured the passage of an act providing that all such marriages, which had not been declared void by the Ecclesiasti- cal courts, should remain valid, but that all such marriages taking place after the passage of the act should be void with- out the interposition of the proper court. Many attempts had been made to repeal the handiwork of Lord Lyndhurst, and na fewer than eight bills legalizing the marriage of a man with the sister of his deceased wife had passed the imperial house of commons, to be every time defeated in the upper house by the influence of the spiritual peers. In 1879, the Prince of Wales brought a bill into the house of Lords embodying the provisions of the measures adopted by the commons, but his Royal Highness, though they do pray specially for him every Sabbath, has not a high odour of sanctity, and the bishops were no wise softened towards the unscriptural marriage for his zea- lous persuasions. On the 1 'ith of February, M. Girouard, of Jacques Cartier, introduced a measure, which after much change and paring passed the commons in the following terse form : — " Marriage between a man and a sister of his deceased wife, or the widow of his deceased brother, shall be legal. All such marriages heretofore contracted, the parties whereto are living as husband and wife at the time of the passage of this act, shall be held to have been lawfully contracted." On the 28th of the month, the senate somewhat revealed its capacity for legislation, and for the Interpretation of public opinion, by re- jecting M. Girouard's measure. It ought to be hardly necessary at this age of the world to raise a pen in vindication of the right of a man to wed the sister of his deceased wife should he desire to marry her, but superstition still has an important EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL-1880. 156 chair in the council of human affairs ; — but it is a comforting part of the reflection that in the legislative deliberations of Canada, the blindfold monitress sought and dominated those who most resembled herself in sex, and who can perform the greatest service to the state by doing the least. Neither is it necessary here to show at length that it is uo more reasonable nor mcral to forbid the marriage of a man with his sister-in- law than to restrain a witch, by statute, from changing her neighbours' cows into foxes, or turning the milk into blood and water. When superstition has been met by the unanswerable argument that in all questions relating to matrimony, a sin against the moral law is a dn against the natural law, and that the latter it is that has dictated the former, she will take you to the Mosaic code ; but, as Mr. Goldwin Smith so completely shows,* " that law relates to Oriental and primeval marriage, and embodies the primeval idea of immortality, which was not individual life in an other world, but representation by pos- terity in the tribe." Close marriages, let it be repeated, are intolerable to the moral law, chiefly because they violate natu- ral law ; because they would bring, as they have brought, in communities where union within close degrees of consanguinity, have been practised for some generations, physical deteriora- tion, idiotcy, and annihilation of the species. If the system of hereditary monarchy in the centuries to come were to be guar- anteed immunity from the resentment of intelligence and popu- lar self-respect, the custom of close marriage among the piinces and princesses who are now nearly all related, is certain to con- vert royal palaces into lunatic asylums, and bring the kingship * The Bystander, March, 1880. 156 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. into contempt and to an end. Some of our own English royal personages who marry cousins, and arc themselves the fruits of close marriages, are not, and have not been conspicuous for their sanity, and never for more than intelligence of the common order ; and there is possibly not a European prince who would hunt with a spaniel or a pointer that could not show a pedigree more free from the taint of consanguinity than his own. The potato crop of the season of 1879 in Ireland was a failure, and with the winter came famine and its attendant horrorp. Measures were promptly taken by the Imperial Government and by benevolent persons, chief among which which was the Duchess of Marlborough, for relieving the distress. Subscrip- tions were opened in Canada and liberal sums collected, besides which the Dominion Parliament made a grant of $100,000. Even so palpable an act of charity as this must be revolved upon the party mill-wheel, and some Reform members of Parlia- ment, of Irish extraction, were graceless enough to sneer at what they declared to be the inadequacy of the grant, and the method of its disposal. The total amount contributed by Can- ada reached £50,000. Nothing succeeds like success ; but woe to the man who leads the failing cause. Not alone will thunder and the winds pre- vail against him, but he must bear the sins of the lightning and the tempest. Sometimes the man brings disaster on the cause, sometimes the cause brings ruin upon itself ; it is the victim only that is certain. But yesterday the word of Csesar stood against the world ; to-day he lies there, none so poor as to do him reverence. We have not any Caesars in Canada, nor any supremely great causes, but we have cases that sometimes sug- EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLITICAL-1880. 16T gest comparison with things convoying higher morals. While Mr. Alexander Mackenzie was in office there was not wanting myriads to bear testimony to his transcendent honesty, his pru- dence, clear insight, and capacity for administration ; but the sun had not gone down after it was known that he had been defeated, before the same men came to utter maledictions, and to lay at his door the disaster to their cause. Then the disaf- fected ones began to plot the overthrow of their leader, and they cast about for a man to take his place. At this time Mr. Edward Blake was not a member of parliament, but in October, 1879, he was elected for Durham, whereupon several Reform politicians waited upon him, and made known their de- sire that he should assume the leadership of the party. It is not necessary to record here, if it would be worth while, that Mr. Blake either offered opposition or felt exalted by the offer; he had for years shown a well-bred and politic contempt for Mr. Mackenzie,and felt very clearly and strongly convinced that the leadership belonged to himself. Various rumours were afloat during the early part of the session, respecting the alleged ill- feeling and rivalry between Messrs. Mackenzie and Blake, and for many weeks it was understood that the former gentleman would not resign the mantle, unless compelled to do so by a vote of the majority of his supporters. The followers of Mr. Blake, it was learned, suggested that a caucus of Liberals should be held, and the question squarely submitted ; but Mr. Mac- kenzie's admirers saw in this certain humiliation for their leader, and, it is said, advised resignation. It is by no means certain that, had the recalcitrant Reformers been less obtrusive in demanding the leadership for Mr. Blake, Mr. Mackenzie, 158 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. somewhat broken in spirit by defeat, and shattered in health by a too close attention to the duties of a double department, would not have thrown off' the galling harness. It is certain, however, that the most delicate methods to effect the removal were not adopted, and that the ex-Preniier felt the act more bit- terly than his defeat at the polls, or any other cross in his public career. On the 27th of April, at 2 o'clock, looking very calm, and showing no trace of the humiliation that must have been burning within him, he rose in his place, and simply said : " I desire to say a word or two with regard to my personal re- lations to the house. I yesterday determined to withdraw from the position as leader of the Opposition, and from this time forth I will speak and act for no person but myself." With characteristic generosity. Sir John Macdonald promptly arose and replied : " Of course we, on this side of the House have nothing to say to such a decision ; but I can say that I hope the hon. gentleman who takes the place of the hon. member for Lambton, and his party, will display the same ability, earnestness and zeal for what he thinks and believes to be for the good of the country, as have been displayed by my hon. friend who has just taken his seat." Two days later, a caucus of Reform members was held, and Mr. Blake was chosen to the leadership. On the 7th of May, parliament was proro- gued by the Marquis of Lome. During the session of 1878, there entered into the head of Mr. David Mills, then minister of the interior, a scheme for the extension and aggrandizement of Canada. He introduced a series of resolutions on which to found an address to the impe- rial parliament, praying for the annexation to Canada of all EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLITJCAL—1880, 159 British territory in North America, and the islands adjacent to the said territory, not aheady included in the Dominion, except- ing the colony of Newfoundland and her dependencies ; and on July 31st, 1880, an order was issued by the imperial privy council providing for the annexation of the territories vaguely referred to. If not practically momentous, it was at least ideally well that the North Pole should be added to the nation; that the Esquimaux should be created Canadian citizens, and that the walrus and bears that inhabit the ice-floes within the Arctic Circle should be accounted national game. Everything between the definite limits of the pre-existing Dominion and the pole, icebergs, and ice fields, it is to be presumed, went into the Confederation under the compact, and should in time the planet succeed in giving birth to another glacier at the North, it would, it may be inferred, form also a legitimate chattel of our politicians. The writer has no desire to belittle this legislation, since Southampton and other islands thereby acquired are said to contain valuable mineral deposits and coal, which, in view of the proposed establishment of a Hudson's Bay international route, would be exceedingly valuable ; but men usually sensi- ble, talked, at the time of the acquisition, a great deal of non- sense about untold mineral wealth and valuable fisheries. It does not facilitate the getting of ores to be obliged to dig un- der hills of ice to obtain them ; nor does it make fishing more desirable to carry it on in Arctic storms and between crushing icebergs, while both employments can be prosecuted in the older Canaaa without the titanic obstacle or the peril. There is no reason why some other Canadian politician should not 160 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. take steps to secure from the Queen the right to annex th& moon. The " Fortune Bay affair," was still on the scenes, and tomes of correspondence passed between the Colonial office and Secre- tary Evarts. This case may be stated in brief as follows : On a Sabbath morning cei'tain American fishermen rowed out from their schooners, which were moored in a bight in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, and nearing the land cast out their seines to take herring. Now the local laws of the colony forbade the methods of fishing adopted by the Americans, and likewise pro- hibited the hauling of fish on the Sabbath day ; so that the Newfoundland fishermen — some of whom were livincr in their tilts upon the shore, others of whom were sleeping in their boat* on the bay — seeing that the laws of the island were being doubly broken, promptly mustered their boats to resist the transgressions. They cut the gear of the American fishermen releasing the fishes, and then drove the otFenders from the shore. When, later in the season — for the obstruction by the coast in- habitants was offered only on the day, and to the illegal manner of catching, in question — the United States schooners reached their homes, they reported the occurrence ; whereupon the press of their countrymen set up an indignant cry against the out- rage, called upon Secretary Evarts to demand an apology and recompense for the insult and obstruction to American citizens while pursuing a calling made legal by treaty rights. Mr. Evarts at once made a statement of grievances to Lord Salis- bury, colonial secretary, and demanded as recompense for the losses sustained by the American schooners, $105,000. To this, demand Lord Salisbury replied that the American fishermen EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL— IKHO. 161 had no sufficient grounds on wliich to base their claims for damages ; that under the treaty of Washington tiioy were given only concurrent rights with British subjects ; that therefore they were bound by the same laws which governed the fisher- men on the Island coast, that they violated those laws and must not now expect recompense for damages sustained through their own transgressions. American diplomacy has not yet be- come either an exact or a dignified science, and Mr. Evarts re- plied to the cold, stately and polished document of Lord Salis- bury in the tone and temper of a ward politician. The secretary took the ground among others not more tenable, that the treaty of Washington gave to American fishermen the right to fish as- they pleased, without respect to the local laws. Any one of the meanest comprehension can see that tliore h only one local law which it might be permitted to an American citizen to vio- late by the Washington treaty, namely, that p;oiubiting the taking of fish on the Sabbath day, which could not in reason be binding upon others than those permpnen ly under the juris- diction of the laws of the colony. For t];e Sunday laws have an application to all forms of labour, and the taking of fisk would make only one item in the forbidden list of works. By such a law, therefore, the American citizen, who might be a Jew, or an atheist, ought not to "be bc»und ; but suppose that the taking of fish in a certain manner, or at a particular season^ were adjudged by the colonial government to be detrimental to the fisheries, and for such leason forbade the taking in certain modes and seasons, no treaty unless giving authoriza- tion in express terms could justify the breaking of such law; and no man, influenced by a sense of right and national honour,. 102 TUE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. would seek excuse for its violation. Lord Salisbury's argu- ments, therefore, were tenable, and in harmony with the views expressed upon the subject with such ability, dignity and moderation by the Hon. Edward Dalton Shea,* colonial secre- tary for the province of Newfoundland. But a change of gov- -ernment in England brought a change of policy, and much wrongheaded opinion upon the subject. Lord Granville suc- ceeded Lord Salisbury, and " peace at any price " seemed rather to be his aim than a patient hearing of the case, and an impar- tial judgment upon it This Englishman, with the evidence before him, and presumably with some brains, did actually ad- mit to Mr. Evarts that, " If such local statutes could be shown to be inconsistent with the express stipulations, or even with the spirit of the treaty, they would not be within the category of those reasonable re- gulations by which American (in common with British) fisher- men ought to be bound." During the summer following this stage of the question, it may be related here, the affair at Fortune Bay was further dis- tended in importance, by the perpetration of another " out- rage " upon the persons of certain other American citizens who visited a place called Suiall Point, in Conception Bay, on the Newfoundland coast, to take squid. The boat it appears rowed in from the schooner, and under the shelter of a bold cliff", be- gan "jigging " in the dark waters. They had not well begun their operations when huge stones began to thunder down the cliff" and splash in the sea by their boat They paused not to * The Hon. Mr. Shea's views were published in his own new^spaper, the Neic- foundlander. EVENTS SOCIAL AM) rOLlTWAL-lA80. 103 make cnquirie.s into the cause of the occurrence, or tlie niotive.s prom|tting it, but pulled back again to their vessel deternnned that the American nation should hear of the wanton assault, and violation of international law and right. On reaching? home, i\\ii Minnesota, which was the schoooner's name, reported the case, and the American press once again raised its voice and demanded satisfaction.* *The writer, who hail an oi)])ortunity of hiirniiiK the factH ahout the Concfption Bay outrage, publidlied in an American newHpaper a letter bearing ni)on the cane, an • xtract from which he here aHkn perinisnion to reproduce: "In the month of June lant, an American «choonPr, t'le Minni'notii, with six or seven of your coun- trymen for a crew, sailed into Small Point, Conception Hay, N. F., to take bait. It was a wild and desolate place, and even the citizens of your nation might be excused for feeling nervous in such a spot. A few miles distant down the coast there was a cluster of fishermen's huts, and that was all that showed signs of civilization ; for the rest there was naught save huge rocks, the iron-bound cliff and the sea. Now on the top of the cliff above where your fellow-countrymen, were peacably, and lawfully catching their Hr dear life out to the schooner, and the schooner weighed anchor and sailed away to another cove where she suffered no molestaticm to sjieak of. It is true several hundreds of saddleback gulls had been in the habit of hatching about the rocks, and the inconsiderate birds not knowing that it was an American schooner, or what were the tenns of the Washington treaty — if indeed they knew whether there was such a treaty at all or not— began to clamour in the most alarm- ing and indescribable manner. But I will say to the credit of Secretary Everts, that in his report of the case to Downing Street, he made no allusion to the clearly-intended obstruction by the gulls, though it is quite certain that they deserved censure. As for the treaty-breakers, who rolled the stoneSj each got off with a spanking, administered by a slipper, after a neighbour had gone round and informed the mothers ; but, sir, was ])unishmnent by a slipper the satisfaction that your nation and your citizens had a right to expect for a breach of international treaty at once so flagrant and so glaring ? " 164 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUD LOIiNE. It was (lurinj^ this year that tho oxortions of Hon. Hector L, Tittugovin, Hocondodlty thoHO of Di. Fortin, bore fruit in tho entcrpriso begun and nearly completed of connecting by tho telegraph system the islands in the Gull" of St. Lawrence with tlio adjacent shores of the mainland, thus bringing within speaking distance the various scattered and isolated districts ta which fishorinen resorted in the sununer. Anticosti and the Magdalen Islands lying in tho track of so many coasters, no year went round that did not bring tidings of 8l'ip>\''eck upon their shoi'cs, and frecjuently the news had been so tedious in reaching the mainland, owing to the fierce storms prevailing about the islands, that tho distressed seamen perishetl of cold and hunger before; succour could reach them. Not only in convoying information of vessels and their crews in dis- tress on the fishing coasts, however, was the telegraphic system proven beneficial, but in sending tidings from one district to another of the scarcity or plenty of fish ; for sometimes an off-shore v/ind on one portion of coast will bring a body of fish from a certain feeding or spawning ground to a different neigh- bourhood, and by spreading intelligence of a " spurt " here, or of dearth there, the coast boats under many conditions are en- abled to move from the deserted to the fruitful localitv. Lines were therefore laid connecting Halifax with Canso, Anticosti, the Magdalens and Bird Rock with each other, and with the mainland, the total length of land lines being 914 miles, and of cable 127.25 nautical miles.* * The following ftre the lines, owned and established by government, in the coastal system : Newfoundland section, Port au Bas\ the winter drew on, by the statement that the Q. M. 0. k^ Occidental Railroad was to be connected with the South-Eastern road by a link stretching across the ice on the St. Lawrence from Longueuil to Montreal. On the 31st of De- cember every preparation had been made for testing this novel railway, and in sight of throngs of spectators, the train, con- sisting of an engine, weighing about twenty-five tons, and two flat cars of eight tons each, slowly moved from the station to- ward the river. Some of the spectators held up their hands at what they deemed to be the mad folly of the experiment, while others declared that the bottom of the river would soon have new tenants ; but engineering skill had not made the trial reck- lessly, and the train passed over safely, causing only an almost imper'^t.itible dt flection in the ice. ' ' Chronic rivalries, aggravated by the incendiary advice of demagogue leaders, between the t- a'o whip-labourers' u-^ions of Quebec, culminated on the third of May in riot, in which sev- eral persons were seriously injured, though none was killed. On the 12th of the same month, after a series of mutual ajjcrra- vations, during which the most brutal fights occurred, the dis- content again blazed forth, and it was found necessary to call out the military to disperse the belligerents. The bay- onets, however, only vindicated the law in the open streets, for individuals of the one society banded together with the avowed purpose of assaulting and harassing such members of the other as refused to conform to the wage and other regulations adopted by them. Conformably with these lawless decisions, several persons, many of them not belonging to the union, were 172 TEE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. assaulted and beaten in a cruel manner, and a reign of terror prevailed in several streets of the city. To stamp out su'^h a spirit as this, the most careful vigilance of the police was in- sufficient. The harassing parties fortunately belonged to the Roman catholic communion, and their church had locked in her bosom a force mightier than that of the military, or than of the civic arm. So, as in the case of another city* in British North America, the voice of the pastor was stronger than the voice of the law. On Sunday, the IGth instant, archbishop Taschereau caused to be read in all the catholic churches a letter threatening with excommunication " any catholic who, in the course of the present year, 1880, shall attack or conspire to attack any person belonging to a labour society or not, or any member of his family, because such person works, has worked, or is willing to work, at a price which he thinks fit." Obedience to the church, especially when the compliance is another name for immunity against public terror, is salutary ; but it is to be regretted that the faithful can not be made to see that they should do what is right, for Rights own sake — because riglit-doing is good, and wrong-doing is bad. The terror of excommunication forcing a band of men, inflamed by ignorance and brute passion, into obedience to the law, is about as high a moral spectacle as a menagerie wherein are several wild beasts that tear one another, but that cower into submission at tLe crack of the tamer's whip. It were well that respect for the __ ^ . _ * In St. John's, Newfoundland, during an election riot, when volleys of musketry fired among the seething mob, many of whom fell killed or wounded, could not re- store the peace, the sudden outringing of the cathedral bells, and the appearance of the bishop and his priests in canonicals, calling on the faithful to assemble at church, drew the rioters away almost as a man, and ended the tumult. F. VENTS, SOCIAL AND I'OLlTiCAL—lsso. 173 civil law should hfy inculcated with as much stress as regard for the theological code ; and that community wherein gross public violence is only repressible by a craven fear of excom- munication, with its implied tire and brimstone, is no higher in the civilized scale than a band of savages moved to war or peace by the jargoning of a medicine man. Archbishop Taschereau's pastoral was effective, and the reign of terror came to an end. Perhaps the most unitjue ])roduction of the year, was a pas- toral from Bishop Fabre, of Montreal, a document which seem- ed as if it might have been rescued from some archive where it had lain for a thousand years, but which,before being now read, had received the varnish and the approbation of a Methodist conference. Without any circumlocution, it forbade ladies to appear in public without wearing a cape or shawl, for his lord- ship laid it down that to make a display of the curves of the female figure was improper and immoral : though he made no attempt to deny that God gave this beautiful form to woman, or to state for what reason he dowered her with those graces, and why, instead of fashioning her after his own image and like- ness, he did not make her like unto a pork-barrel. He likewise , directed that nuns within the pale of his jurisdiction must not shake hands with any man, even though he be their own bro- ther or father; and that they must not give visitors at the con- vent any refreshments. He concluded his letter by prohibiting ecclesiastically and authoritatively the sinful practice known as private theatricals. As celibacy is the greatest of all the clerical restrictions — it being that principle which maintain** eternal enmity to the ruling, and the most important, law of nature — its cognate virtues, among the flock, are accorded the 174 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. highest place in the merit calendar, while the church's artillery is chiefly pointed against all the transgressions, and the amuse- ments or customs that might prove the agencies of transgres- sion, against her Sixth Commandment.* Apologists for assas- sination during the late reign of murder in Ireland, point with pride to the fact that the prison statistics record among Roman catholics a far lower percentage of offences against sexual morality than among protestants. Diet-f and temperament more than theology influence sexual morality, just as certain as that the mandate of a recluse who is out of sympathy with his kind, and who has become as dead to all that makes life sunny as the walls that hem him in — prohibiting human beings from enjoying themselves at such innocent, and intellectually health- ful amusement as private theatricals — will not make the young men and maidens in his lordship's diocese more practically moral, or purer in thought than they were before. No one can impugn the worthiness of the bishop's aims ; they were, beyond question, pious and pure, but the same might be said, if, instead of giving the orders recorded, his lordship had declared that every true son of the church must henceforth shave his head, and wear a petticoat. Piety in the olden time cut the hair oft" the heads of its monks and nuns ; and bishop Fabre might have carried the unbeautifying process further, and eventually re- ceived canonization by also compelling the nuns in his diocese * The Sixth Comtriandment ia the Roman Catholic Church, is the Seventh among Froteatant communions. t It is well known that in many districts in Ireland the peasant lives and dies without once havint^ tasted flesh meat ; and the stimulation to sexual excess cannot be great where the labour is hard and the food is seldom other than potatoes and Ci)m-meal. Virtue ij preserved in the cloister rather by fast, than by prayer or the knotted cord. EVENTS, SOCIAL AND VOLITWAL-lSSu. 175 to blacken their faces whenever they appeared within the gaze of the world. On the 12th ofNovember.a deep gloom was cast over the mining districts of Nova Scotia by a terrific explosion which oc- curred" in the " Foord " pit, Albion Coal Mines, Stellarton. A sound as of *subten-anean thunder at first was heard ; then the mouth of the fatal pit began to vomit forth volumes of sullen «moke. It was a pitiable sight when terrified wives and mo- thers followed by their little ones rushed down to the mines, staring with blanched faces and streaming eyes into the mouth of the'pit for those who would not come forth again. Fifty men and boys had perished in the explosion, and thirty-three widows, and 110 orphans were left to mourn forthem. s CHAPTER V. EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL — 1881. INdE the break-down of negotiations with Sir Hugh Allan, , the Pacific railway sclieme had pressed like a nightmare upon the country, and some of the more prescient of the j)oliti- cians declared, in an undertone, to their neighbours, and with a shake of the head, that it never would bo built. Nearly every session of parliament had produced some Pacific railroad legislation, and Mr. Mackenzie had grown weary of advertis- ing that his government was prepared to grant a subsidy of $10,000 and 20,000 acres of land to any body of capitalists for every mile of road that they would build ; but you can not run cars over the routes in statute books : and the public became listless when, session after session, subsidies and almost illimit- able tracts of territory were offered to any coir.pany that would take the tremendous burthen off the hands of government, for they did not believe that any body would be found capable of accomplishing such a task. But, on the 29th June, Father Mc Williams, of Bath, Ontario, held a pic-nic, it is supposed by prearrangement with certain Canadian politicians, and to it came Sir John Macdonald, Sir Leonard Tilley, and other public men of less note. Without irreverence, one is reminded that it is to the humble and obscure that the most important tid- ings are first communicated : the lowly shepherds of Bethlehem 176 EVENTS, SOCIAL AND VOUTICAL-lHSl. 177 while .shivering through their night watclies received the first word of the greatest message known to niaiil procodin^j (lay ; and inuiKHliatcly several American and er of signatures was 2!(,91.'}. — t Those skilled in petitions not fail to notice that all the dead men in a given district write alike. They also write like the man who hawks the petition around . EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL— 1S81. 18$ denouement. The more Sir Charles heard of tlie threatened " strong card " the deeper he scowled ; but Sir John was the type of perfect unconcern, and he assured his followers that it was only natural to expect a "card" of some kind, but that they would hardly be warranted in looking for a very " strong " one. On the 7th of January, the expectancy of the house was- set at rest, for on that day a newspaper in London, Ontario, published in its Ottawa correspondence that a new syndicate was being formed which would offer to construct the road on terms far more advantageous to the country than those proposed by the government's syndicate. The new syndicate offered to build the road in consideration of a money subsidy of $22,000,000, and a land subsidy of 22,000,000 acres ; and they asked for no exemp- tion from duty on articles imported for construction, from mu- nicipal or Dominion taxation, or for any special privileges or monopolies with regard to the construction of branch lines. Every reform newspaper promptly made up its mind that the duty of the government was to treat with the company that offered the best terms ; but the ministerial press asserted that the gentlemen now forming the; second syndicate had had suffi- cient time to present an offer to the ministry before an under- standing with the other company had been concluded ; that/ it would be rash, dishonourable and expedient now to give eai' to an offer which was a mere haphazard tour de force, designed only to obstruct. And though it may be presumed that the government press wrote in this strain chiefly from party obli- gation, and without being at all clear whether the doctrine was practically and morally sound, or whether it was only an ob- sequious surrender to the wish of the political masters, it seems 18t TEL ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE beyond question <v that we can appeal to the patriotism of the people of Canada : wo can tell them that we want a line which will connect Halifax with the Pacific Ocean ; we can tell them that out of our lands we can pay off every single farthing taken out of the pockets of the people, twenty- fold, and we will have a great Pacific Railway. Let me draw a contrast. You are now «.sked to have a railway running h 186 TUE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. from the United States to the United States ; you are asked to have a line by which the trade from the East will run into tho United States, and by which the legitimate profits of the Lake Superior road will be destroj-ed. You are asked to have a line by which the trade from the West will run into the United States. Mr. Speaker, the whole thing is an attempt to destroy the P.acific Railway." However much truth there might have^ been in these assertions, — there is no doubt that Sir John was mistaken in supposing that the aim of tho second syndicate was to " destroy the Pacific Railway " — the premier's speech had a marked effect on both sides of the house : it raised the courage of one party, and set staggering the hope of the other. On the following day Mr. Blake replied in a speech marvellous for its strength, for the array of arguments presented, and for the skilful and effective method in which the facts were em- ployed. He maintained the view now so firmly established, that the second offer xuas made in " good faith," and he de- scribed the company as " the strongest combination ever wit- nessed of Canadian capitalists." He moved an amendment to the ministerial resolution ratifying the agreement with the first syndicate, but his motion was lost by a vote of 140 to 54. It is related that before military movements had become a science in Persia, when there came tidings of invasion the jeaders of the people would meet in the market place, and there- discuss how they best might resist the enemy. But it so happened that there were always two or more factions in the community, and in emergency each division would propound a plan the merits of which was measured by its difference from the scheme of the other faction. And it came to pass. EVENTS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL -IS.^l. 187 that once out of the country now known as India, marched hordes of fierce warriors thirsting for conquest in the Shali's dominions ; but when their spears appeared in the hills, the Persians held their usual consult to devise methods of resistance. Two parties appeared in the public square, and for each one, men accounted wise and patriotic raised their voices, urging the adoption of a certain course ; but the devices of the stronger faction prevailed, and having received its in- structions the army sallied forth to meet the invaders. And tlion the patriots whose counsels had not been accepted, green with envy, sat on the top of every tower and looked out upon the conflict between their countrymen and the foe ; and when the former dismayed and blood-stained began to flee from the enemy, the wise patriots full of joy came dow^n from their watching places and proclaimed the tidings that their country- men had been overthrown ; yea, and they sent their emissaries to the battle-field to collect the bodies of the fallen Persians, whom they exhibited through the city with much jubilation as proof that theirs was the best theory of wai-. And the in- telligence of the disaster they blazoned jcyfully through all the public places, even though it turned the eyes of other preda- tory princes upon the country of the Persians as a tempting- field for plunder; and while it w^.is ma.iifest to all that the Shah's soldiers had been overwhelmed, not through interior trictics, but through the superior number.': and arms of the foe. Something very similar to this happened in Canada during the administration of Lord Lome. Through the summer preceding the session which is being described, a gale of discussion had been maintained in the party press on the subject of what was 188 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. called the "Exodus." When, in 1878, the Mncdonald ministry came to power, there was the usual output of prophecy, and among other forecastings it was predicted that the government's protective tariff would compel tliouHands of our people to leave the country and settle in the United States where they would find living more easy. Consistency of argument was not of special importance and therefore no one asked : " How is it then that the Heeing Canadian can better his condition by going to a country whose policy is more highly protective than that of Canada ? " Therefore, in order to verify the predictions, dili- gent steps had been taken by certain leading Reform politicians to ascertain the actual number of persons crossing over from Canada to the United States ; and so, with an expression of pleasure and triumph in his face, like unto the Persians in their watch-towers looking at the battle. Sir Richard Cart- wright informed the house that he had information that not fewer than 99,000 persons during the year had entered their goods at the various American customs' houses with the avowed intention of settling themselves in the United States. This statement was received with more joy by the patriotic gentle- men of opposition than had the tidings received been that God had sent a harvest of unexampled bounty, and that a plenitude of prosperity and content were the portions of the Canadian people. The government, however, had some reason for doubting the accuracy of Sir Richard's figures, and after much painful departmental enquiry, Mr. J. H. Pope, minister of Agriculture, was able to announce that he had investigated the matter, and that not more than 53,000 persons altogether had passed westward, through Sarnia and Port Huron, during EVENTS, SOCIAL AND rOLITICAL-hSSl. 189 the preceding year. It was undoubtedly correct that lar^je numbers of Cimadians crossed the line and settled in the States durin},' the year, as it is undeniable that every season there is an outflow ; but the movement is natural, since in every country, especially where there is no serious bar to emigration, there is always a portion of the population which may be designated as " floating : " that is those unsettled ones who, much like the rest- less sitters in a play-house, are continually going out or coming in ; but it is surely the duty of patriotism to make the least instead of the most of this evidence of national discontent, if such evidence it be, since to blazon it cannot but disparage our new country in the eyes of the old world, when such dis- paragement, too, may cost us fifty thousand immigrants a year- It is a sad prospect that our yr-ung nation with her splendid possibilities, her ardour and her hopes, should become the mere game of politicians. To one who has watched the career of Sir Richard Cart- wright in parliament, it would appear as if that gentleman has invariably looked upon Sir John and his followers with the same degree of confidence and respect that he might regard a band of horse thieves. Again and again he has introduced measures for the plain purpose of protecting all unguarded interests from the dishonesty of the ministry ; and during this session he proposed a resolution which aimed to restrain any member of the Pacific Railway Company from supplying funds to carry elections. Sir Hector Langevin with characteristic chivalry resented the /'insult," and moved a six months' hoist which was carried. Sir Richard sat down, put on his soft hat> and looked more mistrustful of the government than ever. 190 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. Among the more important measures of the session were; the acts respectin<^ naturalization and aliens, relating to the extension of the boundaries of the province of Manitoba, re- garding steand)oats, and providing for the incorporation of a company to estaltlish a marine telegraph between the Pacific coast of Canada and Asia. Of this latter scheme, wliich has since made little progress, it may be said that it was the inten- tion of the promoters to utilize the telegraphic lines already laid across this continent ; to lay a new line from Nanaimo to Quat- sino in Vancouver Island, and from this point to stretch a cable to Walvis Bay in Japan touching at the Aleutian Islands on the way. From Walvis Bay it was proposed to extend the system across the Island of Yesso, to Satsuporo whence it would be further extended to Yokohama, putting Yeddo in immediate communication with all the important telegraphic lines of Asia. The local result of the scheme woukl be to give Canada connection with Australia as well as with the entire continent of Asia. On the 2nd of July, Canada shared in the general horror occasioned by the assassination of President Garfield. Lord Lome was absent at the time in the North- West Territories.but Sir W. J. Ritchie, the deputy Governor-General, conmiunicated the regret of our people to Washington ; and Sir John Macdon- ald in the name of the government of Canada caused flags to be hoisted at half-mast on all public buildings, forts and govern- ment vessels, throughout the Dominion. Two lieutenant-governors were appointed during the year : Hon. Clement Francis Cornwall, senator, on July 20th to the Province of British Columbia in the room of governor Richards EVKNTS, SOCIAL AND POUTICAL-lSSl. 191 whose term luul oxpinnl; and Mr. Kd^'nr Dcswdney, commis- sioner of Indian attains, was appointed to the Nortli-Wost Ter- ritories, vice jTovornor Luird, whoso term liad also elapsed. Anion*^ the notable dead of the year was Hon. Luc Lctellier De St. Just, who breathed his last at Riviere Ouelle, C^nebec, on the 28th of January. Already in this book several pages !iave been devoted to thi.s ill-starred public man; and if the writer has found it inipo.ssible to condone certain acts in his public career, he finds himself also incapable of withholding sympathy from the dismis.sed governor in the hour of his fallen fortunes. Culpable M. Letellier was in the eyes of history, but he was less the free-agent in his own wrong-doing than the victim of a political system that has now degenerated into a commerce for politicians. M. Letellier had hoped that the day would come when his own party, again trium[)hant, would restore him to office and remove the tarni.sh from his name ; buthe did not liv^eto see tbe wheel go round; and those to >vhom he told his sorrows aver that the end was brought on by liis public humiliation. On the 4th of January tidings reached Toronto that on that eing unable to destroy or discredit tho record he adopted tho tu quoqu.e ex[)odiont, of which he, above all other Canadian politicians, is a master. He declared in a daring bolsterousness of manner, thou<;h no- body believed him, that "no man had so degraded himself in order to gain power" a.s the leader of the opposition, who, he artirmed once upon a time," boughtoutono of themini.,ters of a government to which he was opposed." Mr. McLolan, who dis- regarded either his own utterances, or political purity, declared that he now supported the minister of railways and canals because he believed that the policy pursued by that gentleman was " best suited to serve the interests of Nova Scotia and the Dominion at large ; " but it is remarked that he did not then oi since seek to modify his statement that Dr. Tupper onco was the high priest of corruption. Such scenes are not likely to heighten public regard for the political profession, nor to edify the young men among us who look to a public career.. . 204 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. Sir Leonard Tilley pointed out in his budget speech that in three years and four months the deposits in tlie government savings bank had increased by $10,000,000, and in the banks of the country, in the same period, to $20,000,000. He showed, also, that th.e coal raised from the Nova Scotia mines had in- creased from 7o7,000 tons in 1877 to 1,110,24.8 tons in 1881. For all this and much more not here lecorded, the government, through the national policy, he said, were indebted to credit ; but Sir Richard Cartwright, who is the bane of Conservative optimism, again took off his soft hat, and rising gave a somewhat " different account of the country," He said that the exports had increased from circumstances over which the government could exercise no control, being due " absolutely and wholly to the increase in the lumber trade, the exports of animals and their products, and of agricultural produce," and that the min- isters stood condemned " as impostors who have laid claim to an improvement which their policy was nob able to prevent, but which it cei'tainly did nothing to create or stimulate." The bitterness is sometimes the best of Sir Richard's speech, for what could have been more unfair, or less worthy a states- man of his ability and reputation, than to urge it as a serious charge against the government that they had "doubled the taxes since confederation ; " that they " had begun with $13,- 000,000 and now demanded nearly $28,000,000." Sir Richard very well knew that the main bulk of the twenty-eight mil- lions was needed in legitimate and imperative public service; that, save in such features of the civil system as have met his own approval, not less than that of the Conservative govern- ment, he cannot show that of that twenty-eight millions, one EVENTF!, POLITICAL Ah'D SOCIAL— 188S. 206 million, or half" a million, is expended for unnecessary objects. It may be that Sir Richard believes that expenditure ought not to be increased to civilize and holu vithin the law the savages of our North-West, in erecting and maintaining postal communication, in militia, light-house and coastal service, but that we ought to \ reserve a condition as nearly as possible primitive. It is not likely that Adam paid taxes ; neither did he travel by railway. Sir Richard concluded his extremely bitter, and in a great many respects very clever, speech by this definition of our common Dominion : " Canada is a coun- try in which no man is free to buy or to sell, to eat or to drink, to travel or to stand still, without paying toll to some extortioner or other." Sir Charles Tuppcr who had been conspiciously exasperated by the tone, and the stinging quality of Sir Richard's remarks, stood up on the 27th instant and said he was not going to dis- cuss the abstract question of free trade and protection ; and would on that point only observe that " the party who now have the confidence of the people of this country, adopted from the first a policy of protecting Canadian industries." Yet, unless Sir Charles is greatly belied, he once had in his desk an elabor- ate free trade speech, ready to hurl at Sir Richard Cartwright who, it was supposed, was going to declare his party in favour of an increased tariff*, with protection as a basis. The people of England were once credited with believing that Mr. Gladstone could " explain away" Garibaldi's wife ; and the Canadian ministry sat with folded arms supremely certain that Sir Charles could explain away something equally as difficult, viz., the tax upon foreign coal. And the Amherst knight began 206 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. liis task by asserting that the imposition of a " duty of 50 cents a ton on coal, has actually not increased the cost to the con- sumer, but it has lowered the cost to the consumer in Ontario." Now, had the Nova Scotia coal fields lain contiiruous to Ontario, or been within commercial range of that province, there would be enough of truth in Sir Charles' statement to redeem it from the brand of utter rant ; but with the fact clear to all who have informed themselves, that probably not one scuttle of Maritime-pi'ovince coal reaches beyond Kingston, the assertion is about as logical and as sane as to have told those who burn coal, that the six dollars and fifty cents that they paid for the ton of fuel was not that sum at all, but just five dollars and fifty cents. But supposing Sir Charles' statement had been correct, what explanation then has he to offer to the deluded coal miners to whom he told, before the election of 1878, that the national policy would keep out Pennsylvania coal from all parts of Canada, and give the market to the Nova Scotia coal fields. The truth is the coal tax, like Garibaldi's wife, remained after all the verbosity, un- explained, and unexplainable. Sir Hector L. Langevin met the spectre perhaps more fairly than other speakers who joined in the discussion. His defence was that the tax was an integral part of the whole national policy. He would, however, have been nearer thtj mark had he said that it was an integral part of party expediency ; that it was the Conservative sop tc Nova Scotia, given less as an offset lo the bread-stuffs tax than as an equivalent for votes. There was, strange as it may seem, somewhat more reason in the honourable gentleman's other allegation that "even if the consumer did pay the duties, he did EVENTS, POLITICAL AND BOClAL-1882. 207; not regard it as a disadvantage, seeing that under the opera- tion of the policy he could afford it." It may be said once for all here, that the coal tax is not a naiai-al, necessary or defens- ible portion of the protective policy ; it must remain an engine of oppression to the commerce and the people of the west till their own provinces are found to contain coal accessible and sufficient for their needs. If Reform politicians and newspapers are entitled to credit. Sir Charles Tupper's public career has been a series of daring and successful acts of corruption, through which he has amassed a fortune ; and it has been asserted even in Conservative quar- ters, and by those whose voice seems to come from the inside, that the honourable gentleman's character is not conspicuously pure. Public wrong-doing has been insinuated against him sometimes in the house of commons, but he has promptly risen, teeth shut, and face dark with rage, and challenged his alleged calumniators to the proof. Sir Charles has probably convinced himself that it takes legal proof to hang the man but he ought also to remember that moral proof can jibbet the reputation, that the uniform sanctity and Quaker-like meekness of the speech and address of Nick-of- the- Woods could not hide from the eye of the reader the figure of the stealthy, vengeful murderer. It is well, however, to examine one of the charges of corruption made against this minister by such light as we have, and then to give the reader a conscientious conclusion. One of the amendments moved to the motion for committee of supply related to the contract for the construe oion of that portion of the Pacific railway in British Columbia between Port Moody and Emory's Bar. The matter had assumed such importance, 909 THE ADMINISTRATION Ot LORD LORNE. and a portion of the public conscience had been so scandalized by the transaction, that Mr. Mackenzie offered a motion which was virtually an impeachment of government. From this motion, which was admitted to be an accurate recital of the case, it appeared that on the 24th of October, 1881, tenders had been invited by government for the construction of the portion of road named, it being provided that the offers were to be received up to the first day of February, 1882. Conform- ably with the call fourteen tenders were received varying from $2,227,000 to $3,531,832, the lowest tender being that of Messrs. McDonald and Charlebois, $2,227,000, the next lowest 'jcing Andrew Onderdonk's,iif;2,48G,225, or.$209,25 5 higher ti a that of the former. It being necessary that tenderers should deposit a certain forfeit sum with government as a guarantee of good faith, McDonald and Charlebois enclosed a cheque for $20,000, the sum specified, dated on the 23rd day of January, and drawn on the Bank of Montreal. The cheque, it appears, was duly accepted by the bank, but some fumbling clerk stamped across its face the words, " Good for two days only." Having noticed the limitation to the validity of the security, Mr. A. P. Bradley, private secretary to the minister of railways and canals, on Saturday, February the 4th, called on Mr. Drummond, mana- ger of the Ottawa branch of the Bank of Montreal, handing him the cheque and asking him whether it was still good^ and if he would pay it should he be called upon to do so ; to which Mr. Drummond replied that, as the cheque was made 1 the head office, he could say nothing about it till he had made enquiry. And then and there Mr. Bradley franked a telegraphic blank, and Mr. Drummond dispatched the needed en-r EVENTS, POLITICAL AND S0CIAL-LSS2. 20O quiry. Three hours later Mr. Drummond handed to Mr. Brad- ley the reply, which was as follows : " Please strike out ' For' two days only' from our acceptance stamp. The cheque will be good until paid." Mr. ])rummond then went away, and the private secretary at once put the reassuring telegram into the^ hands of the minister. On the following day, with full know- ledge of the contents of this dispatch, Sir Charles went before- the privy council and reported that " the tender of McDonald and Charlebois, which was the lowest, is irregular, inasmuch a* the checiue which accompanies it was marked by the Bank of* Montreal, on the 24th of January, as good for two days only^ and that the lowest tender made in conformity with the condi- itions is that of Mr. Andrew Onderdonk for $2,486,255." His- report to the council shows not even a reference to the enquiries- stated, or to the assurances that he had received ; and upon the strength of the alleged worthlessness of McDonald and Charle- bois' cheque, while Sir Charles knew it was not worthless, the contract was awarded to Mr. Onderdonk. There can be no one who will deny that the limitation imposed by the stamp- was, at the first, a serious irregularity, but after the despatch of the bank manager had been received, there was no ground existing for further suspicion by the minister, much less for the plea of " irregularity " which he laid before the council. When Sir Charles' conduct was arraigned in the house he showed much wrathful contempt for his accusers, and only condescen- ded to explain that McDonald and Chai'lebois could have repu- diated the cheque after the tenders were opened, and that ta permit any tenderer to make a security good after that date^ would be to render abortive the whole system of deposits. But aiO TUB ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. Sir Charles did not try to deny, for lie could not deny, that the cheque was good for two rfays which time gave his department opportunity, was it sufficiently intere.sted, to secure the face value of the paper and ho'd it in trust; but it was made abundantly clear to all concerned, by the telegram of Mr. Clous- ton, that the cheque was valid, and was drawn in good faith, and the same appears from the following statement which oc- curred in a letter from the same gentleman : " The limit of * two days only ' was unintentional ; it was simply an over- sight that this was not at once struck out, for it was certainly our intention to guarantee the cheque until paid." It would give the writer the most profoui 1 pleasure to be able to sup- plement what to him seems Sir Charles' utterly insufficient defence with any grounds of justification, but, unfortunately, there are nont at his hand ; and he trusts that all who read this book will believe that he sought for them. Had McDon- ald and Charlebois been refused the contract because the min- ister believed that they were men without financial standing or good repute, he should have boldly stated his conviction, and though the gratuitous, and, as far as the writer believes, ■entirely unjustifiable assumption, might have failed to satisf}'' the inner conscience of the house that the minister's course was dictated rather by anxiety for the fate of the work in the handa of such men, (ban by a motive so corrupt as to make one shudder, it would nevertheless have been more satisfactory than the painful misrepresentation to the council about the irregularity, and the unnecessary fear for the safety of the deposit system expressed in the house. If the writer had any rsspect for the present plight of party development in Canada EVENTS, rOLlTICAL AND SOCIAL-ISSJ. 211 he would atop here, and not finish the record ; but he lias not. Therefore, his readers must know that one hundred and twenty- five voices endorsed the action of the minister of railways an canals, and only fifty- five condemned it. About this time the permanentconvictionhad forced itself upon the party membei-s that there was not room for the entire male population of the country in the civil service, and for some years certain honourable irentlemen had declared in the house of com- mons that it was desirable to reorganize the civil service system, especially with relation to the modes and requirements of ad- mission. Almost since the confederation our young men had swarmed from their agricultural pursuits, and other honest em- ployment, importuning government for situations, like unto the shoals of sharks about which Marryatt tells us, that used to besiege the ships in Pacific waters, waiting through days and weeks for a negro to drop overboard. The desirability of re- organization was made manifest chiefly from two considera- tions : the corruption and inefticiency that must prevail where appointment and promotion rested on political favour, and the annoyance and embarrassment to the patronage-bestower who» has only one vacancy and eleven hundred applicants. There- fore it was that in 1880 Mr. Casey introduced a bill providing for the reorganization of the civil service ; but the government promised to deal with the question, and the measure was with- drawn. By order in council in the following summer commis- sioners were appointed to reconsider the duties of each depart- ment of the Dominion public service, " with a view to securing greater economy in all the departments, by the weeding out of men who were no longer efficient public servants hy the crea- 212 THE A I) \fINIS TR A TIO iV OF LORD LOR N^E. tion of a new tliooretlcal organization for each department which should retfuhito the nundx-r of each class of ofhcers re- quired for its work, the promotion from class to class, and tlio steps by which salaries should be increased." The conmiission was likewise required to make " such other recommendations for promoting the efHcient and economical administration of public affairs as they deem proper." The commissioners were two deputy heads and two secretaries of (h^partments to re- present the inside service; a collector of customs from the out- side service, and two iinotHcial representatives of the public. In March, 1881, the commissioners presented their report, and on the i.Srd of February following, a bill, based on the recom- mendations and views offered, A\as introduced by Sir Hector L. Langevin. The measure received a wheezy sort of opposition from tliat class of representatives, foimd in the most democratic of republics, which is completely insulated from the genius and the enlightenment of the time ; but the bill passed the com- mons on the 2nd of May, and the senate on the 11th of the same month.* * The foUowi'ig digest of the bill I find in "The Annual Register," edited by Mr. Henry J. Morgan : — " A Board of three examiners were to be appointed by the Governor-in-Council, and, with the assistance of sub-examiners, were to hold periodical examinations, as far as practicable in writing, in Halifax, St. John, Charlottetown, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Ijondon, Winnipeg, and Victoria. No persons were to be appointed to any position, except that of Deputy Head of a Department, without passing a prescribed examination, except for bpecial qualifications, which were to be reported upon by the Deputy Head, and concurred in by the Minis- ter presiding over the Department. The age of candidates for first appointment- to the Inside Service was to be not less than eighteen and not more than thirty five years. Deputy Heads were to be appointed and removed by the Governor- in-Council, but in case of removal the reasons were to be reported to Parliament. The clerks were divided into chief clerks, first-class, second-clas^, and third-class, and the sa'aries were to be as follows:— Deputy Head, $3,200 to .$1,000; chief EVENTS, rOLITlCAL AAV S0C1AL~1883. 218 Some discussion arose on the proposal of the ministry to in- crease the number of mounted constables in the North-West to five hundred, with twenty supernumeraries. When, after the acfjuisition by the Dominion of the Hudson's Hay territor- ies, settlers began to Hock into the wilderness which foi-med the old hunting-grounds of the aboriginal tribes, it was found •clerk, $1,H(K) to .^2,400; firHt-claHH clerk, Sl,400, with an annual increiwe of ijloO lip t«» §1,800 ; Hecond-clasH clerk, $1,100, with a like annual incr^awe tip to Jjl.-lOO; third-claHH clerk, !? 100, with a i?r)0 annual increase ii|) to .?1,000. No ap])ciintnient was to bo made until after the nalary had lieen voted liy )iarlianiebt, and the person appointed, except in the caHe of Hpecial qualification, must be selected from the list of per«onn reported by the lioard to have ))ax^ed the refpiisite er- aininationH. For entrance, two examinationH were fpecitied a ' pivliniinary,' in penmanship, orthography and elemenlay arithmetic, whii;h wan to be required from all candiilateH for lower grades, such as nieH«enger.-i and letter-carriers ; and a •(lualifying,' which was to be in subjocts R])ecitii'd by the governor-in-council. Personi selected from the list were to serve a ])robation of six months li^fore receiving a permanent appiintment. For promotion, examinations, open to all persona in the department in which the vacancy existed, were to be held in sub- jects 'adapted to test tha fitness of the candidates for the vacant otiice.' Tem- porary clerks as well as jiermanent were to be selected from the list of those who had passed the (pialifyiu,' examination, and their salary was to be limited to the iniuimum jjvyable to a third-class clerk, except in case of technical work. It may here be added, that it was s;ib'ie(niently directed by Order-in-Council that the preliminary and (pialifying examinations should be held semi-annually, on the second Tuesday in Juno and December, except the first examinations, and that tlie subjects should b3— for the preliminary, ijenmanshij), orthography, first four rules in arithmetic, and reading print and handwriting ; for the (pialifying, penmanship, orthography, arithmetic (inclusive of interest, vulgar and decimal fractions), geography (especially of the Dominion of Canaila), outlines of British, French, and Canadian history, English or French grammar, Engliih or French «ampositi(m, and English and French transcription, with the following' oi)tional subjects : comi)osition, translation, indexing, and precis-writing, book-keeping by single and double entry, short-hand and telegraphy ; and for promotion, j)en- manship, composition, arithmetic (l)ased on the nature of the work required by the Department), indexing and precis-writing, Constitution of Canada (B. N. A. Act), questions relating to the organization, practice and duties of the otKce in which the vacancy existed, and efficiency (ascertained fram the report of the Deputy Head of tha Dji)irtment in which the candidate had been serving). In each examination the candidate to bo successful must obtain TjO per cent, of the total value ass'gned to the subjects and 3) pe;^- cent of each subject, and in the optional subjects, 50 p3r cent, in each." 214 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. desirablo to establish a provontivo force of a somi-military character tliat iiii^'ht bo sufHciont to .supi>ress the aggressions by the Indians against the settlers or their property. To this end a force of mounted police, nniubering three hundred, and well officered and diHciplined, was established at desirablo points in the territory ; but as population began to increase, and the buffalo to recede further and further from its usual haunts, signs of discontent wen* seen among the tribes ; hun- ger, throtigh the failure of the chase, began to pinch them ; petty thef's beciune common, and here and there began to take the form of violent atrgressions against the property of the set- tlers. By virtue of tht excellent discipline of the force most ofiences against the law were promptly punished ; yet the field for depredation was so wide, and the op[)ortunity for escape from punishment was so great, added to certain signs of liostility evinced by the Indians, that the authorities became convinced of the need of increasing the police-force. Representations were made to the department of the interior, and Sir John Macdon- ald proposed the legislation already alluded to. But Mr. Blake, whose insight into most questions is accurate, strangely enough opposed the government's step, and made the extraordi- nary statement that the white settlers should be warned "that they must take care of themselves to a great extent." This sounds not alone unstatesmanlike, but inhuman; for it gives us room only to conclude that Mr. Blake would have the set- tler, on occasion, take down his gun and alone defend his house and his family against aggressive savages. If there was a shadow of need for thousands of volunteers and a military system through the civilized provinces, there was surely great necessity EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL-1882. 215 for the proposed force throu^'h a barbarous wildornesH whoso iiihabitaiits were only a few cotn[)are(l to roaniinj,' tribes of Indians, who looked upon civili/iition wiCi an uidVicndly eye, and upon the white settlers as intrudtsrs whooanie to dis- possess them of their wild inheritance. If Mr. Blake did not mean that each settler should provide himself with a riHo to Hjgdit hostile aborigines, or to protect his food orliis cattle from the wandering and half-faniisiied bands, it is dittieult to divine what he intended to convey by saying that settlers sliould take care of themselves to a great extent. JJid settlement through the territories exist in compact bodies instead of being sparse, one could have supposed he intended that each community or municipality should form a sort of unlawful military organiza- tion, which should provide its own muskets and other fighting weapons, and be prepared to not alone resist attack, but io de- tect or hunt down transgressors of the law. If he did nob mean this, he meant nothing ; for government like unto that prevailing in the other provinces did not exist in the territory, and the establishment of a large territorial police by the people themselves, through the authorities, was impossible. Mr. Mac- kenzie, whose judgment, too, is usually clear and good, suffered himself, probably for the same reasons that induced Mr. Blake to put an absurdity on record, to oppose the measure, and to assure the house that he was "not at all satisfied as to the ne- cessity for increasing the force," If Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Blake happened to live out on the plains, and the Indians came along at night and stole their hens and geese, or drove away their cattle, and threatened to shoot themselves when t they sought to recover their property, they would be satisfied ■f- — ft! THE ADMINISTRATrON OF LORD LORNK, of the nooil of incroasiii;^ the protectivo force ; but they would not be able to fiiul inutjli respect for the intolli;;enco, or re^^anl for the liumauity, of the moinber in the house of coinimms who opposed iiicroaso for the roa.soiis given by tlie two proiuinent lleforin statesmen. The first conspicuous case of public and oHicial cunsuro to a vohinteer oiKcer arose out of an occurrence at the camps at Pic- ton, Ontario, on the Oth of September, IMSl. It appears that lieutenant-coh)nel Walter lloss, of the Kith battery, w»w in temporary coinniand of the camp, and regarding himself as king upon the field, for reasons that to himself seemed sufti- •ciont, gave orders for an armed ])arty to pull down a building which was being erected as a canteen under the authority of the minister of militia. The men did as they were desired, charged the building with fixed bayonets, then threw it over the fence into the highway. The owner was in the canteen at the time, and M. Caron, the minister of militia, afterwards {»ointed out that, had he resisted, as he had the right to resist, •since he possessed authority to occupy the building, bloodshed must have followed. In the Canada Gazette, therefore, was published a General Order, in which colonel Ross was "seriously •censured for the grave military indiscretion." No one is sur- prised to learn that this case too, which, did public decency and honour i)revail among our parties, would be dealt with purely as a question of discipline in the public service, was •cast down as a football between the contending factions. Sir John Macdonald contended that colonel Ross " richly deserved ■censure ;" M. Caron declared that had it not been the first offence of this nature, he would "have cashiered the offender;" EVENTS, VOLiriCAL A SI) S0CIAL-1SS3. 117 but Mr. Mackenzie clmiacterizotl tlic order "as an extraordin- ary instance of petty tyranny ; " and Mr. lilako considered it "an unusual aet." yeldoni lias oven the hreath of suspicion Iteen breathed n<,'ainst the ui)ri;,ditness ot'din- Canadian judiciary, hut durin<; the .session of IHSl a |)etition si^nied hy Henry J. Claike, Q, a, W. Boyle, T. J. Ihadley, J. P., and J. E. Cooper liad heen received in the house ofcouiinons char^Mn",' (^hief Justice Wood, of Manitoba, with " injustice, conspiracy, partiality and arltit- rarines.s." The jusidered that the func- tions of that body ought to be limited to the taking of evi- dence. But the commission was never appointed and the judge was never tried. He died before the next session met, and the politicians were generous enough to let his ashes abide in peace, Under the British North America act it was provided that a census should be taken every ten years ; that " Quebec shall have the fixed number of sixty-four members ; " that " there shall be assigned to each of the other provinces such a num- N 218 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. ber of members as will bear the same proportion to tlie num- ber of its population ascertaineii at such census, as the number of sixty-four bears to the nu)nber of the jjopulation of Quebec so ascertained." The census of 1881 showed Quebec to con- tain a population of 1,359,027, which divided by sixty-four gave 20,908 as the unit of representation: Ontario with 1,923,- 228 souls was entitled to ninety-two members, and it was decided to give to Manitoba one representative, by virtue of its premised rather than its actual population.* The bill was introduced by Sir John Macdonald, but had the premier exploded an infernal machine in the house it could not have created greater tumult than the measure offered. The Reformers believe that there is no iniquity to which Sir John will not descend for even a trivial political gain, and hence it was, now, that they accused him of framing his measure in such a manner as to group as many of his opponents in a newly-created district as possible — which plan they declared he had himself with immoral facetiousness characterized as " hiving the Grits," — with being guided entirely by the elec- tion returns, and creating, carving and adjusting the constitu- encies in utter disregard of municipal lines or the interests of communities, with the sole aim of procuring the return of Con- • * In Ontario the small electoral divisions of Niagara and Cornwall were merged respectively in the counties of Lincoln and Stormont, their names being retained in the designations, " Lincoln and Niagara " and " C(/rnwall and Stormont.'' In the following manner were the six new constituencies created : Essex was divided into two, Lambton into two, Bruce instead of two divisions was given three ; Middle- sex instead of three was given four ; Simcoe and Ontario, which had previously been divided into two, were now, each divided into three. The greater number of the other constituencies were readjusted ; or " carved " as the Reformers described it. In Manitoba the old constituencies were slightly rearranged ; and the added member was given to Winnipeg. EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL— 18.^2. 219 servative members for certain of the constituencies " operated upon." Mr. Blake, full of scorn and honest indignation, declared that the premier had " determined to use his majority to load the dice in the ])olitical game which was shortly to be played," and characterized the action of the ministry as " high-handed, arbitrary and unjust." His speech was one of the ablest ever delivered in the house of commons in eloquence, in somewhat of passion, in its sarcasm, and in its knowledge and mastery of the question ; and the honourable gentleman Jissured his hear- ers, — though it afterwards turned out that he was pretty badly mistaken — that the ministry could relegate the bodies of men from one constituency to another, but that they could not transfer their minds. Somewhat later, when he addressed his constituents in Durham, he allowed his lieutenants to fill him with several absurd convictions, and in this unedifying plight he uttered the extravagant statement that " government having been beaten in fair fight, had resorted to foul play." The pounding of a desk by a needy oppositionist, hungering for office, does not necessarily mean that a government is beaten, though this was about all the warrant that Mr. Blake, usually cautious and within the mark, had for his Durham declaration. The government replied in a lame sort of fash- ion to the opposition onslaught, and Sir John Macdonald's foremost reply and defence was this: "The measure is a fair one ; it is a bill which equalises the population, which acknow- ledges the principle [representation by population] which was pressed to a successful completion by the Liberal party — the old Reform party of Canada — and which since that time has 220 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. been adopted by all parties as being the true principle, the real basis of representative institutions." A ridiculous and unsuccessful attempt was made by Conservative politicians and newspapers to prove that the Reform ministry of Ontario had likewise, with just such justification as that claimed by the Dominion Government, "gerrymandered" the provincial con- stituencies ; but supposing the allegation had been correct, and nobody, not even the most rabid assei'ters of the story, believed that it was, it could not absolve the ministry of responsibility for its own alleged misdeed. It is neither honest nor sufficient when charged with evil doing to bring forward no excuse save the rejoinder, "You did the same thing yourself." That method of justification should be left in the sole possession of Sir Charles Tupper. However it be, there are thousands of intelligent men in Canada who believe that Sir John did deliberately and wickedly "carve the constituencies" in a manner designed to further his party's intei-ests ; and Mr. Goldwin Smith, a per- sonal admirer and warm friend of the premier's, declared the measure to be "a blunder as well as a crime." Mr. Smith has been in the habit of regarding Sir John as aaother Walpole, who lives amid a throng of corruptionists, dij-ects their movements, profits by their machinations, and yet remains personally pure. Upon the other hand there are not fewer of the intelligent ones who believe that Sir John violated no just, or known principle in his measure ; that he inflicted no injury upon popular or municipal interests, and that the grouping together of so many Reformers as was really done in several cases, was accidental ; but that if it was a work of design, it would be a pity, where two commu- EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL-1882. 221 nities of Grits had to Le disposed of, to spoil two houses with them, since no interest was violated by putting them into one. The measure passed by a vote of 112 to 52. Some excitement was caused in this country on the 2n(l of March by the rumour that an attempt had been made upon the life of the Queen of England. It appears that just as Her Majesty entered her carriage at Windsor railway station, a mentally disordered creature named McLean, incited with an ambition for notoriety, probably by the action of Guiteau who had shot President Garfield a short time before, presented a pistol, though whether he aimed it or not is not known, and tired in the direction of the Queen. Her Majesty received no injury ; but the loyalty of British subjects was everywhere aroused ; and, where love for monarchy did not exist, the sympathy of humanity, and reverence for government arose in its place, and from all parts of the empire felicitations poured in to the Queen congratulating her, and thanking Providence for the escape. In the Dominion senate in moving the address congratulating the sovereign on her " providential escape from so grave a peril," Sir Alexander Campbell said : " No life certainly is more precious to Her Majesty's subjects than her own, and I think I may say that, not only with refer- ence to ourselves, but also with reference to all English-speak- ing people throughout the world." In moving a similar address in the house of commons Sir John Macdonald said : " The feel- ings that pervade every part of this house are the same that exist in every part of the Dominion of Canada — the most devoted lo3'alty to Her Majesty, the greatest respect for her virtues, domestic and public, the horror with which we have heard the 222 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. news, and tlio great pleasure and delight with which we have learnt that she has suffered no injury from the atrocious attack." The Earl of Kimberley at once cabled the thanks of the Queen, and four days later a more lengthy and formal reply was despatched. About tliis time it was rumoured abroad that Mr. John Costigan, the member for Victoria, New Brunswick, contem- plated the introduction of a series of resolutions bearing upon the then much disturbing and perplexed Irish question, tender- ing certain advice to the imperial government, and reciting the experiences of the Canadian colonies in domestic govern- ment. As the election drew near, members released from their arduous legislative labours had time to abandon themselves to the generosity of their instincts. They were able to devote much of this period now, by neglecting the duties that since the date of their last election had pretty uniformly absorbed their attention and energies, to various worthy public objects. Their sympathy for the various orders of workingmen had become most keen ; ^hey attended lotteries and bought tickets ; spoke, and nearly wept with enthusiasm as they spoke, at every social gathering in town or country; they attended church conspicuous!}'', put bills upon the plate instead of silver, and posted themselves at the gate as the congregation went out, to shake hands with hundreds of gentlemen of whom they had "just been speaking," and whom they were "wanting to see yesterday." It is demonstrably certain that if two clear months did not occur before each election in this country, .within which time our politicians can go around investigating human distress, and examining tlie commercial organism with EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL— 188:2. 223 a view to setting it in perfect order, there would ensue a complete disruption of our social system. No great scheme of philanthropy that any honourable member might propose in the house of commons during this closing session of parliament could surprise the people ; there- fore Scotchmen, Englishmen and orangemen, learnt without wonder, and it seemed, without disapprobation, tha*'. the politi- cians had decided to extend their field of well-doing to Great Britain and Ireland, in undertaking a solution of the Irish problem. While according full approval to government for their extreme solicitude in the welfare of peasants of a foreign country, there was a number of persons who remembered that a large portion of the electorate was made up of the ' 'Irish vote," and these were uncharitable enough to believe that neither Sir John nor Mr. Blake, nor the parties of both gentlemen cared three straws what was the condition of tenants in Connaught ; that the interest of each was simply intended as a bait for votes. But however just or unjust the suspicions of this class of people might have been, one fact stands clearly out : Mr. Costi- gan's honesty of motive, his genuine sympathy foi' the sufiering of the Irish peasant, and his faith in the expediency and pro- priety of his own undertaking. On the 20th of April, Mr. Costi- gan introduced into the house of commons a series of resolutions* * The following in the text of Mr. Costigan's resolutiona : *' Moat Gracious Sovereign .-—We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Canada, in Parliament assembled, desire most earnestly, in our own name, and on behalf of the people whom we represent, to renew the exjires- flion of our unswerving loyalty and devotion to your Majesty's person and govern- ment. 1. We have observed, may it please yo ir Majesty, with feelings of profound regret and concern, the distress and discontent which have prevailed for some time among your Majesty's subjects in Ireland. 2. We would respectfully represent to 224 TUE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. reciting the facts that great destitution prevailed in Ireland, that Irish subjects in Canada were among the " most loyal, most prosperous, and most contenttjd of our people ; " — though this statement would hardly hold true of Biddulph — that owing to the estrangement of Irish sul)jects towards the imperial govern- ment many of these people have sought fncign homes, and, it is to be inferred, passed by our Dominion on that accourt. All this preamble the raison d 'etre for which, it must be confessed, it is not very easy to see, being disposed of, there f^/Iiows this pertinent and potent part of the resolution: (a) " We de- your Majesty that your Irish subjects in the Dominion of Canada are among the moat loyal, most prosi)erous and most contented of Your Majesty's subjects. 3. We would further resiiectfuUy represent to your Majesty that the Dominion of Canada, while offering the greatest advantages and attractions for those of our feU low-subjects who may desire to make their liome.s amongst us, does not receive that proportion of emigrants from Ireland which might reasonably be expected, and that this is due, in a great measure, in the case of many of our Irish fellow-subjects who have sought foreign liomes, to their feelings of estrangement towards the Imperial Government. 4. We would further most respectfully rejiresent to your Majesty that, in the interests of this your loyal Dominion, and of the entire Empire, it is extremely to be desired that your Majesty may not be deprived, in the development of your Majesty's possessions on this continent, of the valuable aid of those of your Majesty's Irish subjects who may feel disposed to leave their native land to seek more prosperous homes. 5. We desire respectfully to suggest to your Majesty that Canada and its inliabitants have prospered exceedingly under a Federal sys- tem allowing to each Province of the Dominion considerable powers of self-govern- ment, and would venture to express a hope that if consistent with the integrity and well-being of the Empire, and if the rights and status of the minority are fully protected and secured, sure means may be found of ujeeting the expressed det-ire of so many of your Irish subjects in that regard, so that Ireland may become a source of strength to your Majesty's Empire, and that your Majesty's Irish subjects at home and abroad may feel the same pride in the greatness of your Majesty's Em- pire, tlie same veneriition for the justice of your Majesty's loyal subjects in this Dominion. 6. We would further exi)ress a liope that the time has come when your Majesty's clemency may without injury to the interests of the United Kingdom be extended to those persons who are now imprisoned in Ireland charged with poli- tical offences only, and the inestimable blessing of personal liberty be restored to them . We pray that the blessings of your Majesty's reign may, for your people's sake, be long continued." EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL— 1882. 225 biro," it says, " respectfully to suggest to your majesty that Canada and its inhabitants have prospered exceedingly under a federal system allowing to each province of the Dominion considerable power of self-government, and would venture to express a liope that, if consistent with the integrity and well- being of the empire, and if the rights and status of the minor- ity are fully j)votectcd and secured, sure means may be found of meeting the expressed desire of so many of your Irish subjects in that regard, so that Ireland may become a source of strength to your majesty's empire." This recommendation embodies the virtue and the propriety of the resolution. No one could be better qualified than Canadians, who have tried and adopted provincial local government, to give an opinion of the merits of such a plan — and from no (juarter ought such opinion come with better grace than . from the colonies so equipped to advise — to the Head of the empire of which they formed a part. Nobody supposes that Mr. Costigan wrote the words, " if the rights and status of the minority are fully protected and se- cured";" and one wonders why Sir John Macdonald should have added the clause, or his party deemed the addition neces- sary, when it comes to be considered that in Canada there is a " minority " class, that that class once had what it regarded a supremely sacred right, the right to educate its children in the manner which it deemed to be morally and intellectually best ; and that the majority took away that option and prescribed a method acceptable only to itself. The very party system con- tradicts the proviso : for does the majority, do Sir John Mac- donald's Conservatives, respect "the rights and status" of their opponents who are a "minority?" Nevertheless the writer *226 THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD LORNE. t'onunend.s the insertion of the added clause ; the critioi.sni is merely of a coiiision of principle. Thei'o was further down in the resolution another clauvso, which, however, was an imper- tinence. It was this : {h) " Wc would further express a hope that the hour has come when your majesty's clemency may, without injury to the interests of the united kingdom, be extend- -ed to those persons who are now imprisoned in Ireland charged with political offences only, and the inestimable blessings of personal liberty be restored to them." Mr. Costigan's tone in submitting his resolutions was moderate, his argument was vigorous, and whoever listened to him must have been con- vinced that every word spoken was the utterance of a man who had zeal and faith in the cause ho had undertaken. He was convinced, he assured the house, that the " more you relax the bonds which now fetter Ireland, the more strongly you bind her to England." Miss Crawley, in " Vanity Fair," was not flattered with a tenth of the assiduity and ardour by Rawdon, Becky Sharpe and the rest of the mercenary train for her for- tune, as was now the cause of Ireland by the politicians from both sides of the liouse, for the Irish vote. Mr. Blake, who may, or may not have been, very little or very much in earnest, but who found the occasion strong enough to elicit from him one of the greatest speeches of his life, regretted that Mr. •Costigan had permitted the ministry to ''emasculate" his resol- utions, declared that every concession obtained by Ireland had been granted " grudgingly and of necessity," and concluded his masterly utterance by saying: "Although we have no direct voice in the legislation cf Great Britain, vet we have the right to venture our counsel and express our views ; we have a right EVENTS, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL- l(i^2. 227 respectfully to api)roach our sovereign and strengthen the hands of her prime minister, whose sentiments are not hostile to reform ; we have a right to give the inHueiice of four mil- lions (if British subj(!cts to the redress of griuvances too long maintained, to the attainment of rights too long denied, and so to enlarge the sti'ength and increase the unity of the mighty empire of which we form a part." Sir John Macdonald and his followers wore somewhat disappointed that Mr. Blake did not pernut themselves to retain a monopoly of Irish sympathy, and when the premier arose to reply it was plain that he was some- what batHed. He contrasted the address of the two preceding {speakers, and declared that " the one wanted to secure the ob- ject of his resolution, and the other wished to make political capital ; " but it did not add weight to the latter half of this statement, that the premier was a Scotchman, who could him- self acquire only a dramatic sympathy for the Irish cause, and that the leader of the op[)osition was the son of a warm-hearted Celt who passionately loved his native land. The resolutions were duly passed and forwarded to the home-government, and, AS might have been expected, gave keen offence to the dull- witted but exceedingly touchy officialism in the colonial office. Unable to convince themselves that Canadians are the very best judges of the virtue of domestic government for a province, they ignored the I'ecommendation made touching the question of a like political system for Ireland, regarded the advice of the parliament of Canada as impertinence. So in very high dudgeon that, in official setting, took the form of a stately re- buke, the Earl of Kimberley replied : — TllK ADMJNISTIiAriON OF LOUD LORNE. " ITcr Majesty will always jjladly rocoivo tlio advico of tho pailianieiit of Canada on all matters relating to tho Dominion and tho administrMtlon of its affairs; hut in respect to tlie questions referred to in tho address Her Mn J((sty will, in accord- ance with the constitution of tins country, liavo regard to the advice of the imperial parliaujont and ministers, to whom all matters relating to tho affairs of tlie united kingdom exclusively appertain." Tho Earl, it will be seen, carried his fooling from his head to his high-bred nostril, and in company with him, opinion in England rose with haughty indignation to rebuke this colonial assurance. Tlie Times, which from its top-lofty utteranceSjSeonied to talk with tho tongue of the empire, was not at any pains to conceal its con- tempt for colonialism, and to put us in our true light. It wrote much in this fine strain : " Our colonies [Note tho language. It seems as if a forbearing plantation owner were talking of his slaves.] owe us a great deal, and make a remarkably small return. Wo nurse them through their puling infancy, insure for their youth an opportunity for tranquil, undisturbed growth; and our reward usually is that, as soon as they reach something approach- ing manhood, tliey display independence by putting prohibi- tive, restrictive taxes upon our commerce." The Times has not forgotten its history. When England once endeavoured to convert the American colonies into a nation of dear-tea drink- ers, the people threw overboard the tea; and a little later British rule met tho same fate. The Times goes on, with a slight variation in tone: just sufficient to make its language resemble that which a gentleman might use in speaking of his retinue of domestic servants : " Our behaviour to them is EVENTS, VOUTWAL AND SOCIAI-UHS. 220 largely rcguliiteJ by a kind patunial fueling, uml their behavi- our towards us is shaped upon commercial principles, UHiially false ones. They expect us to defend thciin ,and regulate our fleets and armies accordingly. In return, they buy from us whatever they cannot get as cheaply elsewhere. They might at least treat us with the respect and courtesy we receive at the hands of our peers." This impertinent insolence, it must be remendjere