IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V // {/ *■<.' ^ //,.. ^^ i?.r :a [A ^n ^ 1.0 I.I '"I'lillM IIM Itt 116 z ii Z2 1 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 111^ .« 6" ► ^Ay Y ^>i r /. 'm w/ '^:^? 4- '^^ y Hiotographic Sciences Corporation iV «' ^ SOME REMARKS ON THAT REPLY. TORONTO : WILLING & WILLIAMSON LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL. 1878. PRIHTBD KSM BOUKB BY HUNTER. ROSE tt CO., TORONTO. 'A. PREFACE. I HAVE reason to believe that some persons would like to have the Essay on the Political Destiny of CWiada, which forms the principal part of this volume, and which is reprinted from the Fortnightly Bevieiv, in a more convenient form than a back number of the periodical in which it appeared. I take the opportunity of replying to some criticisms of Sir Francis Hincks. Sir Francis allows me to insert his paper, so that, if there is ■any poison in my opinions, the antidote will be found beside the bane. In the Appendix, are extracts from papers hy Mr. Robert Lowe and Lord Blachford, bearing on the subject of my Essay, which I think will repay attention. At a moment when the mind of the nation is occupied with questions respecting our commer- VI PREFACE. cial rolation.s, and our fiscal autonomy, it is surely needless to accumulate arguments for the pur- pose of proving that wisdom does not prescribe indifference to fundamental problems or blind- ness to the future. I write, as I hope and believe, in the interest of the people, English, as well as Canadian. As to the British aristocracy, it has political views of its own in relation to this Continent, which seem to me not consistent with the welfare of those whose lot is cast in the New World. G. S. Toronto, Nov. 1878. i m THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. -•♦♦ Ignorance of the future can hardly be good for any man or nation ; nor can forecast of the fu- ture in the case of any man or nation well inter- fere with the business of the present, though the language of colonial politicians seems often to imply that it may. No Canadian farmer would take his hand from the plough, no Canadian ar- tisan would desert the foundry or the loom, no Canadian politician would become less busy in his quest of votes, no industry of any kind would slacken, no source of wealth would cease to flow, if the i-ulers of Canada and the powers of Down- ing Street, by whom the rulers of Canada are supposed to be guided, instead of drifting on in darkness, knew for what port they were steer- ing- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. For those who are actually engaged in mould- ing the institutions of a young country not to have formed a conception of her destiny — not i^ have made up their minds whether she is to re- main forever a dependency, to blend again in a vast confederation with the monarchy of the mo- ther-country, or to be united to a neighbouring republic — would be to renounce statesmanship. The very expenditure into which Canada is led by her position as a dependency, in military and political railways, in armaments and defences, and other things which assume the pennanence of the present system, is enough to convict Cana- dian rulers of flagrant improvidence if the per- manency of the present system is not distinctly established in their minds. To tax forecast with revolutionary designs or tendencies is absurd. No one can be in a l^'^s levolutionary frame of mind than he who foresees a political event without having the slightest in- terest in hastening its arrival. On the other hand mere party politicians cannot afic ^ to see be- yond the hour. Under the system of party government, forecast and freedom of speech alike belong generally to those who are not engaged in public life. The political destiny of Canada is here consi- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. '.> tlvrtd Ly itself, apart from that of any other por- tion of the motley and ■widely-scattered "em- pire." This surely is the rational course. Not to speak of India and the military dependencies, such as Malta and Gibraltar, which have abso- lutely nothing in common with the North Ameri- can colonies (India not even the titular foi'm of government, since its sovereign has been maishops fall under his influence, and take his part against the Sulpicians ; the Guibord case marks, distinctly though faicically, the tiiuniph of his principles ; and it is by no means certain that he, a cosmopolitan power playing a great game, will cling to Canadian isolation, and that he will not prefer a junction with his main army in the United States. Assuredly his choice will not be determined by loyalty to England. At all events, his aggressive policy has begun to raise questions calcidated to excite the Protestants of the British provinces, which the politicians, with all their arts, will hardly be able to smother, and which will probably put an end to the long torpor of Quebec. The New Brunswick school case points to education as a subject which can scarcely fail soon to give birth to a cause of war. Besides the French, there are in Canada, as we believe we have good authonty for saying, about 400,000 Irish, whose political sentiments are generally identical with those of the Irish in the mother-country, as any reader of thiiir favour- ite journals will perceive. Thus, without reckon- ing a considerable German settlement in Ontario, which by its uninrpaired nationality, in tlie heart 16 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. of the British population attestn the weakness of tlie assimilating forces in Canada, compared with those in the United States, or the Americans, who, though not numerous, are influential in the commercial centres, we have at once to deduct 1,400,000 from a total population of less than 4',0()0,000 in order to reduce to reality the pictures of universal devotion to England and English interests which are presented by the speeches of official persons, or of persons profess- ing to know Canada, but deriving their idea of her from the same source. Confederation, so far, has done nothing to fuse the races, and very little even to unite the provinces. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, besides being cut off from Ontario by French Canada, have interests of their own, separate, and in some degree divergent, from those of Ontario, New Brunswick especially being drawn by her commercial interests towards New England. The representatives of each of the smaller pro- vinces form a separate group at Ottawa, giving or withholding their suppoH to a great extent from provincial considerations. Each of the two political parties has its base in Ontario, which is the field of the decisive battles ; and they can hardly be said to extend to the maritime provinces, THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 17 much less to Manitoba or to British Columbia. When the Ontarian parties are evenly balanced the smaller provinces turn the scale, and Ontarian Leaders are always buying them with " better temis," that is, alterations of the pecuniary ar- rangements of confederation in their favour, and other inducements, at the sacrifice, of course, of the general interests of the Confederation. From the composition of a cabinet to the compo- sition of a rifle-team, sectionalism is the rule. Con- federation has secured free-trade between the provinces ; what other good it has done it would not be easy to say. Whether it has increased the military strength of Canada is a question for the answer to which we must appeal once more to the British War-Office. Canadians have shown, on more than one memorable occasion, that in military spirit they were not wanting ; but they cannot be goaded into wasting their hardly-earned money on preparations for a defence which would be hopeless against an invader who will never come. Politically, the proper province of a federal government is the management of external relations, while domestic legis- lation is tiie province of the several states. But a dependency has no external relations ; Canada has not even, like South Africa, a native question, B 18 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. her Indians being perfectly harmless ; and con- f-equently the chief duty of a federal Government in Canada is to keep itself in existence by the ordinary agencies of party, a duty which it dis- charges with a vengeance. English statesmen bent on extending to all the colonies what they assume to be the benefits of Confederation, .should study the Canadian specimen, if possible, on the .spot. They will learn, iirst, that while a spontaneous confederation, such as groups of states have formed un«ler the pressure of a com- mon danger, develops mainly the principles of union, a confederation brought about by external influence is apt to develop the principles of antag- onism in at least an e(iual degree ; and secondly, that parliciJiientary government in a dependency is, to a lamentable extent, government by faction an.^ corruption, and that by superadding federal to provincial government the extent and vir- ulence of those maladies are seriously increased. If an appeal is made to the success of confedera- tion in Switzerland, the answer is, that Switzer- land is not a dependency but a nation. It is of Canaci? alone that we here speak, and we speak only of her political destiny. The ties of blood, of language, of historical association, and of general sympathy, which bind the British THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 19 portion of the Canadian people to England, are not dependent on the political connection, nor is it likely that they would be at all weakened by its severance. In the United States there are millions of Irish exiles, with the wrongs of Ireland in their hearts, and the whole nation retains the memories of the Revolutionary War, of the War of 181 2, and of the conduct of the British aristocracy towards the United States during the rebellion of the South — conduct which it is difficult to forgive, and which it would be folly to forget. Yet to those who have lived among the Americans it will not seem extrava- gant to say that the feelings of an Anglo- American towards Lis mother-country are really at least as warm as those of the natives of de- pendencies, and at least as likely to be manifested by practical assistance in the hour of need. A reference to the history of the opposition made to the War of 1812, will suffice at least to bring this opinion within the pale of credibility. The great forces prevail. They prevail at last however numerous and apparently strong the secondary forces opposed to them may be. They prevailed at last in the case of German unity and in the oase of Italian independence. In each of those cases the secondary forces were so heavily J 20 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. massed against the event that men renowned for practical wisdom believed the event would never come. It came, irresistible and irreversible, and we now see that Bismarck and Cavour were only the ministers of Fate. Suspended of course, and long suspended, by the action of the secondary forces, the action of the great forces may be. It was so in both the instances just mentioned. A still more remark- able instance is the long postponement of the union of Scotland with England by the antipa- thies resulting from the abortive attempt of Ed- ward I., and by a subsequent train of historical accidents, such as the absorption of the energies of England in Continental or civil war. But the union came at last, and, having the great forces on its side, it came forever. In the case before us, it appears that the great forces are those which make for the political separation of the New from the Old World. They are :— 1. The distance, which may be shortened by steam and telegraph for the transmission of a despot's commands, but can hardly be much shortened for the purposes of representative gov- ernment. Steam increases the transatlantic in- tercourse of the wealthier class, but not that of THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 21 ' the people, who have neither money nor time for the passage. Everything is possible in the way of nautical invention ; fuel may be still fuither economized, though its price is not likely to fall; but it is improbable that the cost of ship-building or the wages of seamen will be reduced ; and the grow^th of manufactures in the New World, which we may expect henceforth to be rapid, can hard- ly fail to diminish the intercourse dependant on tmnsatlantic trade. A commonwealth spanning the Atlantic may be a grand conception, but po- litical institutions must after all bear some rela- « tion to Nature and to practical convenience. Few have fought against geography and pre- vailed. 2. Divergence of interest, which seems in this case to be as wide as possible. What has Cana- da to do with the European and Oriental con- cerns of England, with her Euro}>ean and Oriental diplomacy, with her European and Oriental wai"s? Can it be conceived that Canadian traders would allow their commerce to be cut up by Russian cruisers, or that Canadian farmers would take arms and pay war-taxes in order to prevent Russia from obtaining a free passage through the Dardanelles ? An English pamphlet called "The Great Game" was reprinted the other day in Can- 22 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. ada ; but the chapter on India was omitted, as having no interest for Cana dians. For English readers that chapter had probably more interest than all the other chapters put together. On the othe. hand, whenever a question about bound- aries or mutual rights arises with the United States, the English people and the English gov- ernment betray, by the languor of their diploma- cy and the ease with whicli they yield, their com- parative indifference to the objects in which Can- ada is most concerned. A Canadian periodical some time ago had a remarkable paper by a native writer, showing that the whole series of treaties made by Great Britain with the United States had been a continuous sacrifice of the claims of Canada. It was not, assuredly, that Great Bri- tain wanted either force or spirit to fight for her own rights or interests, but that she felt that Canadian rights and interests were not her own. Her rulers could not have induced her people to go to war for an object for which they cared so little, and had so little reason to care as a fron- tier line in North America. Another illustration of the difference between the British and the Canadian point of view was afforded by the re- cent dispute about the Extradition Treaty. Eng- land was disposed to be stiff and punctilious. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 23 havini,' comparatively littl<; to fear from the .sus- pension of the treaty ; while tx) Canada, kjider- ing Oil the United States, tht' danger was great, and thi' renewal of the; treaty was a vital neces- sity before which piinctiliouaness gave way One object there is connected with the American Continent for which the British aristocracy, if we may judge l>y the temper it .showed and the line it took toward the American Republic at the time of the rebellion, v^ould be not unwilling to run the risk of war. But that object is one with regard to which the interests of British aristocra- cy and those of Canadian democracy not only are not identical, hut point directly opposite way.s. With regard to economical questions, the diver- gence is, if possible, still clearer than with regard to diplomatic questions. The economic interests of Canada must evidently be those of her own continent , and to that continent, by all the econ- omic forces, she must be and visibly is drawn. Her currency, whatever may he the name and superscription on the coin, is American, and it is the sure symbol of her i-eal connection. In the British manufacturer the Canadian manufacturer sees a rival ; and Canada at this moment is the scene of a protectionist movement led, curi- ously enough, by tho.se Conservative politicians 24 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. who are loudest in their professions of loyalty to Great Britain. 2 More momentous than even the divergence of interest is the divergence of political character, betwfien the citizens of the Old and the citizens of the New World. We speak, of course, not of the French-Canadians, between whom and the people of Great Britain the absence of political affinity is obvious, but of the British communi- ties in North America. The colonization of the New World, at least that English portion of it, which was destined to give birth to the ruling and moulding power, was not merely a migration, but an exodus : it was not merely a local exten- sion of humanity, but a development ; it not only peopled another continent, but opened a new era. The curtain rose not for the old drama with fresh actors, but for a fresh drama on a fresh scene. A long farewell was said to feudalism when the New England Colony landed, with the rough draft of a written constitution, which embodied a social compact and founded government not on sacred tradition or divine right, but on reason and the public good. The more one sees of society in the New World, the more convinced one is that its structure essentially differs from that of soci- ety in the Old World, and that the feudal element i THE POLJTICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 25 i ! has been eliminated completely and forever. English aristocracy, fancying itself, as all estab- lished systems fancy themselves, the normal and final state of humanity, may cling to the belief that the new development is a mere aberration, and that dire experience will in time bring it back to the ancient path. There are people, it seems, who persuade themselves that America is retrograding towards monarchy and church es- tablishments. No one who knows the Americans can po.-^sibly share this dream. Monarchy has found its way to the New World only in the ex- ceptional ctise of Brazil, to which the royal family of the mother-countiy itself migrated, and where, after all, the emperor is rather an hereditary president than a monarch of the Euro[)ean type. In Canada, government being parliamentary and " constitutional," monarchy is the dei'igation of a shadow ; and any attempt to convert the shadow into a substance, by introducing a dynasty with a court and civil list, or by reinvesting the vice- roy with personal power, would speedily reveal the real nature of the situation. Pitt proposed to extend to Canada what as a Tory minister he necessarily regarded as the blessings of aristocra- cy ; but the plant refused to take root in the alien soil. No peerage ever saw the light in Canada ; 26 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CyiNADA. the baronetag»3 saw the light and no more ; of nobility there is nothing now but a knighthood very small in number, and upon which the Pa- cific Railway scandal has cast so deep a shadow that the Home Government, though inclined that way, seems shy of venturing on more creations. Hereditary wealth and the custom of primogeni- ture, indispensable supports of an aristocracy, are totally wanting in a purely industrial country, where, let the law be what it might, natural justice has always protested against the feudal claims of the first-born. To establish in Canada the state Church, which is the grand buttress of aristocracy in England, has proved as hopeless as to establish aristocracy itself. The Church lands have been secularized ; the university, once con- fined to Anglicanism, has been thrown open ; the Anglican Church has been reduced to the level of other denominations, though its rulers still cling to the memories and to some relics of their privileged condition. As a religion, Anglicanism has little hold upon the mass of the people ; it is recruited by emigi-ation from England, and sus- tained to a certain extent by a social feeling in its favour among the wealthier class. More demo- cratic churches far exceed it in popularity and propagandist force : Methodism especially, which, *-.'^ ..»'3>-^:-">t^'.--".*'.:'^i';,. . TliE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 27 in contrast to Episcopacy, sedulously assigns an active part in church-work to every member, de- cidedly gains ground, and bids fair to become the popular religion of Canada. Nor is the militar- ism of European aristocracies less alien to indus- trial Canada than their monarchism and their affinity for state churches. The Canadians, as we have already said, can fight well when real occasion calls ; so can their kinsmen across the line; but among the Canadians, as an\ong the people of the Northern States, it is impossible to awaken militarism — every sort of galvanic ap- paratus has been tried in vain. Distinctions of rank, again, are wanting : everything bespeaks a land dedicated to equality ; and fustian, instead of bowing to broadcloth, is rather too apt, by a rude self-assertion, to revenge itself on broadcloth for enforced submissiveness in the old country. Where the relations of classes, the social forces, and the whole spirit of society, are different, the real principles and objects of government will differ also, notwithstanding the formal identity of institutions. It proved impossible, as all care- ful observers had foreseen, to keep the same po- litical root over the heads of slavery and anti- slavery. To keep the same political roof over the heads of British aristocracy and Canadian 28 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. ■«i democracy would be an undertaking only one de- gree less hopeless. A rupture would come, per- haps, on some question between the ambition of a money -spending nobility and the parsimony of a money-making people. Let aristocracy, hier- archy, and militarism, be content with the Old World ; it was conquered by the feudal sword ; the New World was conquered only by the axe and plough. 4. The force, sure in the end to be attractive, not repulsive, of the great American community along the edge of which Canada lies, and, to which the British portion of her population is drawn by identity of race, language, religion, and general institutions, the French portion by its connection with the Roman Catholic Church of the States ; the whole by economic influences, against which artificial arrangeuients and sen- timents contend in vain, and which are gather- ing strength and manifesting their ascendancy from hour to hour. An enumeration of the forces which make in favour of the present connection will show their secondary, and for the most part transient char- acter. The chief of them appear to be these : a. The reactionary tendencies of the priest- hood which rules French Canada, and which THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 29 t; , fears that any change might disturb its solitary reign. Strong this force has hitherto been, but its strength depends on isolation, and isolation cannot be permanent. Even the " palaeocrystal- lic " ice which envelops French Canada will melt at last, and when it does, French reaction will be at an end. We have already noted two agencies which are working towards this result — the leaven of American sentiment brought back by French Canadians who have sojourned as arti- sans in the States, and the ecclesiastical aggres- siveness of the Jesuits. b. " United Empire Loyalism," which has its chief seat in Ontario. Every revolution has its reaction, and in the case of the American Revolu- tion the reaction took the form of a migration of the royalists to Canada, where lands were assigned them, and where they became the political pro- genitors of the Canadian Tory party, while the " Reformers " are the offspring of a subsequent immigration of Scotch Presbyterians, mingled with wanderers from the United States. The two immigrations were arrayed against each other in 1837, when, though the United Empire Loyalists were victorious in the field, the politi- cal victory ultimately rested with the Reformers. United Empire lioyalism is still strong in some 30 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. districts, while in others the descendants of royalist exiles are found in the ranks of the op- posite }>arty. But the whole party is now in the position of the Jacobites after the extinction of the house of Stuart. England has formally recog- nized the American Revolution, taken part in the celebration of its centenary, and through her ambassador saluted its flag. Anti-revolutionary sentiment ceases to have any meaning, and its death cannot be far off. c. The influence of English immigrants, espe- cially in the upper ranks of the professions, in the high places of commerce, and in the press. These men have retained a certain social ascen- dancy; they have valued themselves on their birth in the imperial country and the superior traditions which they supposed it to imply ; they have personally cherished the political con- nection, and have inculcated fidelity to it with all their might. But their number is rapidly de- creasing ; as they die off natives take their places, and Canada will soon be in Canadian hands. Im- migration generally is falling off; upper-class immigration is almost at an end, there being no longer a demand for anything but manual labour ; and the influence of personal connection with ^ England will cease to rule. The [)ress is passing THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 31 i \ into the hands of patives, who are fast learning to hold their own against imported writing in literary skill, while they have an advantage ii\ their knowledge of the country. d. While the British troops remained in Can- ada, their officers formed a social aristocracy of the most powerful kind, and exercised a somewhat tyrannical influence over opinion. The traces of this influence still remain, but, with the exception of the reduced garrison of Halifax, the military occupation has ceased and is not likely to be renewed. e. The Anglican Church in Canada dings to its position as a branch of the great state Church of England, and perhaps a faint hope of re-estab- lishment may linger in the breasts of the bishops, who still retain the title of " lords." We have already said that the roots of Anglicanism in Canada do not appear to be strong, and its chi<3^' source of re- enforcement will be cut off by the discontinuance of upper-class emigration. It is rent in Canada, as in England, by the conflict between the Protestants and the Ritualists; and in Canada, there being no large endow- ments or legal system to clamp the hostile elements together, discord has already taken the form of disruption. As to the other diurches, mmmm mmm '62 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. they have a connection with England, but not with England more than with the United States. The connection of Canadian Methodism with the United States is very close. /. Orangeism is strong in British Canada, as indeed is every kind of association except the country. It retains its filial connection with its Irish parent, and is ultra- British on condition that Great Britain continues anti-papal. Old Irish quarrels are wonderfully tenacious of life, yet they must one day die, and Orangeism must follow them to the grave. fj. The social influence of English aristocracy, iind of the little court of Ottawa over colonists of the wealthier class. With this, (to dismiss at once a theme more congenial to the social hu- morist than to the political observer) we may couple the influence of those crumbs of titular honour which English aristocracy sometimes allows to fall from its table into colonial mouths. If such forces cannot be said to be transient, the tendencies of human nature being pei'petual, they may at least be said to be secondary ; they do not aflfect the masses, and they do not aflect the strong. h. Antipathy to the Americans, bred by the old wars, and nursed by British influences, mili- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 33 tary and* aristocratic, not without the assistance of the Americans themselves, who, in the case of the Fenian raids, and in other cases, have vented on Canada their feelings against England. This antipathy, so far as it prevails, leads those who entertain it to clinor to an anti- American connec- tion. But, generally speaking, it is very hollow. It does not hinder young Canadians from going by hundreds to seek their fortunes in the United States. It does not hinder wealthy Americans who have settled in Canada from finding seats at once in the Canadian Parliament. It never, in fact, goes beyond talk. So far as it partakes of the nature of contempt, it can hardly fail to be modified by the changed attitude of the British aristocracy, who have learned to exhibit some- thing more than courtesy towards the victorious republic, while the Americans, it may be reason- ably presumed, now that the cause of irritation is removed, will not think it wise to make enemies of a people whose destinies are inextricably blended with their own. i. The special attachment naturally felt by the politicians, as a body, to the system with reference to which their parties have been formed, and with which the personal ambition of most of them is bound up. Perhaps, of all the ^mmmmmm 34 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. forces which make for the present connection, this is the strongest ; it has proved strong enough, when combined with the timidity and the want of independence which life-long slavery toa fac- tion always breeds, to prevent any Canadian politician from playing a resolute part in such efforts as there have been to make Canada a na- tion. In some cases it is intensified by commer- cial connections with England, or by social aspira- tions, more or less definite, which have England for their goal. In this respect the interest of the politicians, as a class, is distinct from, and is liable to clash with, the real interest of the com- munity at large. So, in the case of Scotland, it was the special interest of the politicians to resist the union, as, without special pressure and in- ducements, they would probably have persisted in doing. It was the interest of the people to accept the union, as the flood of prosperity which followed its acceptance clearly showed. In the case of Scotland, the interest of the people tri- umphed at last, and it will probably triumph at last in Canada. Such, we say, are the chief forces that make for the existing connection ; and we repeat that they appear to be secondary, and for the most part, transient. United, all these strands may 11 n THE POLITIC VL DESTINY OF CANADA 36 make a strong cable; bub, one by one they will give way, and the cable will cease to hold. This conviction is quite consistent with the admission that the eonnectionist sentim-dnt is now dominant, especially in Ontario ; that in Ontario it almost exclusively finds expression on the platform and in the press ; and that the exist- ence of any other opinions can only be inferred from reticence, or discovered by private inter- course. A visitor may thus be led to believe and to report that the attachment of the whole popu- lation to the present system is unalterable, and that the connection must endure forever. Those who have opportunities of looking beneath the surface may, at the same time, have grounds for thinking that, on economical subjects at least, the people have already entered on a train of thought which will lead them to a different goal. What has been the uniform course of events down to the present time ? Where are the Ame- rican dependencies of Spain, Portugal, France, and Holland ? Those on the continent, with un- important exceptions, are gone, and those in the islands are going ; for few suppose that Spain can keep Cuba very long. Of the English colonies on the continent, the mass, and those that have been long founded, have become independent ; H- mm 36 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. and every one now sees, what clear-sighted men saw at the time, that the separation was inevit- able, and must soon have been brought about by natural forces, apart from the accidental (juarrel. If Canada has been retained it is by the reduc- tion of imperial supremacy to a form. Self- government is independence ; perfect self-govern- ment is perfect independence ; and all the ques- tions that arise between Ottawa and Down- ing Street, including the recent question about appeals, are successively settled in favour of self- government. Diplomatic union between two countries in different hemispheres, with totally different sets of external relations, common re- sponsibility for each other's quarrels, and liability to be involved in each other's wars — these inci- dents of dependence remain, and these alone. Is it probable that this last leaf can continue to flutter on the bough forever ? Lord Derby some years ago said that everybody knew that Canada must soon be an independent nation. Now he thinks that the tide of opinion has turned in favour of imperialism, and he fciJrns with the tide. But what he takes for the turn of the tide may be merely the receding ua'e; and he for- gets what the last wave swept away. It swept away the military occupation, with all its in- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 37 fluences, political and social. Even since that time the commercial unity of the empire has been formally abandoned in the case of the Aus- tralian tariffs ; and nov/ the marriage-law of the colonies is chushing with that of the mother- country in the British House of (^^ommons. It is, perhaps, ])artly the recoil of feeling from a severance felt to be imminent, as well as the temporary influence of Conservative reaction in England, that has led to the revival in certain quarters, with almost convulsive vehemence, of the plan of imperial confederation. Certainly, if such a plan is ever to be carried into effect, this is the propitious hour. The spirit of aggran- dizement is in the ascendant, and the colonies are all on good terms with the mother-country. Yet, of the statesmen who dally with the project, and smile upon its advocates, not one ventures to take a practical step toward its fulfilment. On the contrary, they are accessory to fresh inroads upon imperial unity, both in the judicial and in the fiscal sphere. Colonial governors talk with im- pressive vagueness of some possible birth of tlie imperial future, as though the course of events, which has been hurrying t'rie world through a series of rapid changes for the last century, would now stand still, and impracticable aspira- TssennRRi 38 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. tions would become practicable by the mere operation of time ; but no colonial governor or imj erial statesman has ventured to tell us, even in the most general way, to what it is that he looks forward, how it is to be brought about, or even what dependencies the confederation is to include. It is, therefore, needless to rehearse all the arguments against the feasibility of such a scheme. The difficulties which beset the union under the same parliamentary govenimentof two countries in different parts of the world, with different foreign relations, and differing internally in political spirit, would, of course, be multiplied in the case of a union of twenty or thirty coun- tries scattered over the whole globe, bound to- gether by no real tie of common interest, and ignorant of each other's concerns. The first meeting of such a conclave would, we may be sure, develop forces of disunion far stronger than the vague sentiment of union arising from a very partial c» mmunity of descent, and a very imperfect community of language, which would be the sole ground of the federation. Even to frame the agreement as to the terms of union with the shifting jarties and ephemeral cabinets of a score of colonies undei- constitutional gov- ernment would be no easy task. The two Parlia- I THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 39 ments, the one National, the 6ther Federal, which it is proposed to establish in order to keep the na- tional affairs of England separate from those of the Imperial Federation, would be liable to be brought into fatal conflict, and thrown into utter confusion by the ascendancy of different parties, say a war party and a peace party, in the Na- tional and Federal House. The veriest Chinese puzzle in politics would be a practicable con- stitution, if you could only get the real forces to conduct themselves according to the programme. It was not in the programme of Canadian con- federation that the provinces should form sepa- rate interests in the Federal Parliament, and force the party leaders to bid against each other for their support ; though any one who had studied actual tendencies in connectit>n with the system of party government Tnight have pretty confi- but she would have to pay for them more than she pays for soldiers and sailors recruited at home. Whether morality is embodied in Bismarck or not, modern policy is ; and Bismarck seems not to covet distant dependencies; he prefers solid and "oncentrated power. " Commerce follows the flag," is a saying which THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 47 ': it seein.s can still be* repeated by a statesman ; but, like the notion that dependencies are a source of military strength, it is a mere survival from a depai-ted system. Commerce followed the flag when the flag was that of a power which enforced exclusive trading. But exclusive trading has given way, as an imperial principle, to free-trade, and the colonies, in the exercise of their fiscal power of self-government, have dissolved the commercial unity of the empire. They frame their independent tariffs, laying, in some cases, heavy duties on English goods. It will hardly be contended that, apart from commercial legisla- tion, colonial puichasei*s inquire whether goods were produced under the British flag. ''The best customer," says Sir George Lewis, " which a nation can have, is a thriving and industrious community, whether it be dependent or independ- ent. The trade between England and the United States is probably more profitable to the mother- country than it would have been if they had re- mained in a state of dependence upon her." As to Canada, what she needs, and needs most ur- gently, is free access to the market of her own continent, from which, as a dependency of Eng- land she is excluded by the customs line. With free access to the market of her own continent au,-^ js 48 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. she might become a great manufacturing country, but manufactures are now highly specialized, and to produce with advantage you must produce on a large scale. Nor is the evil confined to manu- factures ; the farm-products of Canada are depre- ciated by exclusion from their natural market, and the lumber-trade, which is her great industry, will be in serious jeopardy, since, by the fall of wages in the States, the production of lumber there has been rendered nearly as cheap as it is in Canada, while Canadian lumber is subject to a heavy duty. The projects for opening markets in Australia merely serve to show how severely Canada feels the want of a market close at hand. Cut off any belt of territory commercially from the continent to which it belongs, industry will be stunted, the inflow of capital will be checked, and impoverishment will follow isolation. The Canadians will find this out in time, and the dis- covery will be the first step toward a change of system. It is true that Canada has drawn a good deal of British capital into works little remunerative to the investors, though, perhaps, not more than the United States and other countries with which there was no political connection. But, if we consider credit as well as cash, the gain must be THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 49 pronounced doubtful, and it is balanced by such a work as the Intercolonial Railway, into which Canada has been led by imperial influence, and which, after costing more than four millions sterling, will, as some leading Canadian men of business think, hardly " pay for the grease upon the wheels." The Pacific Railway, and the in- demnity which Canada is forced to pay to British Columbia for the non-performance of an imprac- ticable treaty, are too likely, in the opinion of many, to furnish another illustration of the ex- pensiveness of the imperial connection. That emigration is favourably influenced by political dependency is another lingering belief which seems now to have no foundation in fact, though it had in the days when emigration was a Government aflfair. The stream of emigration, in ordinary times, sets, as has often been proved, net toward Canada, but toward the United States ; and of the emigrants who land in Canada a large proportion afterwards pass the line, while there is a constant exodus of French-Canadian3 trom their own poor and overpeopled country (overpeopled so long as it is merely agricultural) to the thriving industries and the hi • ^ages of the Statt3. Emigrants, whose object is to im- prove their material condition, are probably little 50 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. influenced by political considerations ; they go to the countr}^ which offers the hest openings and the highest wages ; but EAglish peasants and artizans would be likely, if anything, to prefer the sticial elevation i)romised them in a land of equality to anytliing like a repetition of the social subjection in which they have lived at home, while by the Irishmen, escape from the British rule h deemed escape from oppression. Whether the tutelage of the mother-country has ever been useful to a colony, even in its infancy, except where there was an actual need of military protection, is a question to which the language of the adherents of the colonial system themselves, when reviewing the history of colonial govern- ment, seems to suggest a negative reply. " Hither- to," says Mr. Roebuck, " those of our possessions termed colonies have not been governed according to any settled rule or plan. Caprice and chance have decided generally everything connected with them ; and if success has in any case attended the attempts of the English people to establish colon- ies, that success has been obtained in spite of the mischievous intermeddling of the English Govern- ment, not in consequence of its wise and provi- dent assistance." Such is the refrain of almost all the works on the colonies, whether they treat I THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 51 of the general adminiHtration or of some special (luestion, such as that of the crown-lands, which appears to have been solved by Downing Street in various ways, but always wrong. Not by government, but by fugitives from the tyranny of government, the great American colony was founded ; unaided and unregulated it grew, and laid the deep foundations of society in the New World. With tutelage came blundering, jobl>ery, mischief of all kinds, and at last a violent rup- ture, which injurious as it was to the mother- country, inflicted a still greater injury on the colony by launching it on tlic career of democracy with a violent revolutionary bias, whereas it needed a bias in favour 8 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. daily experience in Canada, as well as in the neighbouring republic, shows, and to be succes- fully solved it must be seen in its true bear- ings, which the ostensible retention of the here- ditary principle as the security for good and stable government obscures. Canada, though adorned with the paraphernalia of eight constitutional monarchies (one central and seven provincial), is a democracy of the most pronounced kind ; the Governor-General was not wrong in saying that she is more democratic than the United States, where the President is an elective king, and where the Senate, which, though elective, is ■conservative, possesses great power, whereas the nominated Senate of Ctinada is a cipher. Dema- gogism and the other pests of democratic institu- tions are not to be conjured away by forms and phrases ; they can be repressed and prevented from ruining the state only by developing reme- dial forces of a really effective kind, and by ad- justing the actual macliinery of the constitution so as to meet the dangers which experience may reveal. The treason-law of the Plantagenets with which, as well as with the Lord Chamberlain's code of precedence, Canada is endowed, is not of much use to her while she is left without any legal means of repressing her real cancer, political THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 69 corruption. Loyalty to the faineant deputy of a distant crown may be in a certain sense real ; it may be felt by those who profess it ; but it probably does not often prompt to a good politic- al action, and it certainly never restrains from a bad one. Among Canadians, as among American politicians, the most " truly loyal " are often the most unscrupulous and corrupt. They are often, through tl^ i whole course of their public lives disloyal to everything that represents public honour and the public good. A provincial court adds flunkyism to demagogism with- out making the demagogue less profligate, less dangerous, or less vile. It does not even make him less coarse. No refining 'iitiuence can really be exercised by a few dinners and receptions even over the small circle which attends them ; while the social expenditure and display which are imposed on the Governor-Gen- eral as the condition of his popularity in the col- ony, and of the maintenance of his reputation at home, are anything but a wholesome example for colonial society, which, on the contrary, needs an example of hospitality and social enjoyment cul- tivated in an easy and inexpensive way. At present the bane of Canada is party govern- ment without any question on which parties can 60 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. be rationally or morally based. The last question of sufficient importance to form a rational and moral basis for a party was that of the Clergy Reserves and the Church Establishment, since the settlement of which there has been absolutely no dividing line between the parties or assigna- ble ground for their existence, and they have become mere factions, striving to engross the prizes of office by the means which faction every- where employs. The consequences are, the increafe- ing ascendancy of the worst men, and the poli- tical demoralization of a community, which, if a fair chance were given it, would furnish as sound a basis for good government as any community in the world. Of course, England cannot be charged with introducing the party system into Canada ; but she does fling over it the glamour of British association, and beguile a country really abandoned to all the instability and all the degrading influences of government by fac- tion with the ostensible stability and dignity of the hereditary crown. Indeed, the provision in the draft of confederation that both the par- ties should be considered in the first nomination of senators is, perhaps, the only authoritative recognition which the party system has ever received. In common with the other colonies, THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 61 Oanaiia is deemed happy in being endowed with a counterpai-t of the British Constitution. The British Constitution putting aside the legal forms and phrases, is government by party ; and what- ever government by party may be in England, where there are some party questions left, in Canada it is a most noxious alxsurdity, and is ruining the political character of the people. When Canadian Nationalists say that patriot- ism is a good thing, they are told to keep their wisdom for the copy-books ; and the rebuke would be just if those who administer it would recognise the equally obvious truth that there can be no patriotism without nationality. In a dependency there is no love of the country, no pride in the country ; if an appeal is made to the name of the countiy, no heart responds as the heart of an Englishman responds when an appeal is made in the name of England. In a depen- dency every bond is stronger than that of coun- try, every interest prevails over that of the coun- try. The province, the sect, Orangeism, Fenian- ism, Freemasonry, Oddfellowship, are more to the ordinary Canadian than Canada. So it must be while the only antidote to sectionalism in a population with strongly-marked ditferences of race and creed is the sentiment of allegiance to a '^ 62 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. distant throne. The young Canadian leaving his native country to seek liis fortune in the States feels no greater wrench than a young Eng- lishman would feel in leaving his county to seek his fortune in London. Want of nationality is attended, too, with a certain want of self-respect, not only political but social, as writers on colo- nial society and character have observed. Wealthy men in a dependency are inclined to look to the Im- perial country as the social centre and the mark of their social ambition, if not as their ultimate abode, and not only their patriotic munificence but their political and social services are with- drawn from the country of their birth. Mr, TroUope finds himself compelled to confess that in passing from the United States into Can- ada you pass " from a richer country into one that is poorer, from a greater country into one that is less." You pass from a country embracing in itself the resources of a continent, into one which is a narrow section of that continent cut off commercially from the rest ; you pass from a country which is a nation into a country which is not a nation. On the other hand, there were reasons which, not only to patriotic Canadians, but to patriotic Americans who took a comprehensive view of the li [-»«-;"■»>«■ THB POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 63 vv interests of their country, seemed strong, for wishing that Canada should remain politically separate from the United States. Democracy is a great experiment, which might be more safely carried on by two nations than by one. By emu- lation, mutual warning and correction, mutual supplementation of defects, they might have helped each other in the race, and steadied each other's steps ; a balance of opinion might have been established on the continent, though a balance of power cannot; and the wave of domi- nant sentiment which spreads over that vast democracy like the tide running in over a flat, might have been usefully restiicted in its sweep by the dividing line. Nor was there any insur- mountable obstacle in the way. Canada is want- ing in unity of i*ace ; but not more so than Swit- zerland, whose three races have been thoroughly welded together by the force of nationality. She is wanting in compactness of territory, but not more so, perhaps than some other nations — Prussia, for instance — have been. In this latter respect, however the situation has been seriously altered by the annexation of Manitoba and Brit- ish Columbia, which in their present raw condition have no influence beyond that of distant posses- sions^ but which, when peopled and awakened to U THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. commercial life, will be almost irresistibly at- tracted by the economical forces to the States which adjoin them on the south, and will thus endanger the cohesion of the whole confederacy. The very form of the Dominion indeed, drawn out and attenuated as it is by these unnatural additions, apart from the attractive influence of Minnesota and California, would seriously imperil its political unity, as will be seen, if, instead of taking Canada as it is presented by the political map, the boundary-line is drawn between the habitable portion and that which belongs only to arctic frosts. In the debate on confederation it was urged by the advocates of the measure that seven sticks, though separately weak, when bound together in a fagot would be strong. " Yes," was the reply, but not so seven Ashing rods tied together by the ends." As to the expense of a national government, it would probably not be greater than that of the governor-generalship and the seven lieutenant- governorships is at present. Diplomacy in these days of rapid communication may be cheaply done, and Canada would not need much of it : she has no Eastern question. The queston of military security has referei solely to the danger to be apprehended on the e. THE POLITICAL DESTINy OF CANADA. 66 of the United States ; and danger on the side of the United States, .supposing Canada disen- tangled from English quarrels, we believe that there is none. The Americans, as has been re- peatedly observed, have since the fall of slavery given every proof of an unambitious disposition. Th3y disbanded their vast armaments imme- diately on the close of the civil war, without wait- ing even for the Alabama question to be settled ; they have refused to annex St. Domingo ; they have observed a policy of strict non-intervention in the case of Cuba, which they might have made their own with the greatest ease ; they have de- clined to take advantage of the pretexts furnished them in abundance, by border outrages, of con- quering Mexico ; it is very doubtful whether they would even have purchased Alaska, if Mr. Seward hiid not drawn them by secret negotiations into a position from which they could not well retreat. Slavery wanted conquest for the creation of new slave States, but with slavery the spirit of aggression appears to have died. Welcome Canada into the Union if she came of her own accord, the Americans no doubt would. They would be strangely wanting in wisdom if they did not ; for she would bring them as her dower not only complete immunity from attack, and great ^=^w I ij • 4.11 jmMM . u. fmwxrmnmeasBisafB 66 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. economical advantages, but a political accession of the most valuable kind in the shape of a popu- lation, not like that of St. Domingo, Cuba or Mexico, but trained to self-government, and capable of lending fresh strength and vitality to republican institutions. It is true that slavery having been aboli.shed, the urgent Deed of add- ing to tlie number of the free States in order to counterbalance the extension of slavery in the councils of the Union no longer exists ; but there are still in the population of the United States large elements essentially non-republi- can — the Irish, the emigrants from Southern Germany, the negroes — to which, perhaps, may be added a considerable portion of Southern society itself, which can hardly fail to retain something of its old character while it con- tinues to be composed of a superior and an in- ferior race. Against these non-republican ele- ments, the really republican element still needs to be fortified by all the reinforcements which it can obtain. Welcome Canada, therefore, into the Union the Americans no doubt would. But that they have the slightest inclination to lay violent hands upon her, that such a thought ever enters their minds, no one who has lived among them, and heard the daily utterances of a by no Nil THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 67 means reticent people, can balieve. Apart from moral principle, they know that, though a des- potic Government may simply annex, a republic must incorporate, and that to incorporate four millions of unwilling citizens would bo to intro- duce into the republic a most dangerous ninss of disaffection and disunion. That the Americans have been litigious in their dealings with Canada is true ; but litigiousness is not piracy ; and, as we have already said, the real object of their ir- ritation has not been Canada, but England. The Monroe doctrine was held by Canning as well as by Monroe; and, irrespectively of any desire of aggrandizement, the intrusion of an American power in Europe would give as much umbrage to England as the intrusion of the English power in their own continent gives to tht) peo[)le of the United States. That the Americans would feel pride in behaving generously towards a weaker state, will appear cretlible only to those who have seen enough of them to know that, though supposed t<) care for nothing but the «lol- lar, they have in reality a good deal of pride. As an independent nation, Canada would, of course, he at liberty to negotiate freely for the re- moval of the customs-line between herself and the United States, and for admission to all the '•*4ij mil u.ijMtiumsnmpnni9mnBnBH 68 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. comnifircial advantages of her own continent. At present not only is she trammelled by im- perial considerations, but it can hardly be ex- pected that the American Government will place itsoU' on a lower international level than that of England by treating with a dependency as a na- tion, especially as there are constant intimations that the dependency is retained and is being nur.sed up with the view of making it a rival power to the United States, and thus introducing into the continent the germs of future jealousy* and possiV)ly of war. That C'anada can ever be made a rival j)ower to the United States — that, if she is only kept long enough in a state of dependence, there will be an iinletinite increase of her population and her strength — seems tlic life. Hut it was not strong enoun the hearts of British subjects, especially those who are British bom. But the text, though it sup- plies us with the note of patriotif^m, vhile its tender charm must touch every heart, is, in one important respect, haply inapplicable to us. This is nut a strange land. We are not htre as captives taunted by cynical op- pressors. Though in another hemisphere, we see cur tokens, and feel that we are among friends. • • • • • • a^ "It is the love to the dear Mother Country, and through her, the love of her children, that is the source of this Society's existence. That isthelond which unites us all one to the other. It is the strong affection we bear our Queen and Country, the admiration we all entertain for her institutions, that make uh recognize and desire to help as brethren those who claim old Fngland as the country of their birth. * ■ • • • • t "The St. George's Society reminds us that we share the greatness, the glory, the freedom of that land upon whose sacred soil the exile can tread in safety ; the land which offers an asyhmi to the unfortunate, the unhappy, no matter who they be ; the hind that brooks not slavery. M, .11 — lOJJJHaHBaHEK H 80 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. and whereon for centuries no foreijifn invader has been >»ible to plant his fuut. This Dominion is great in itself ; greater still in its future prospects. But its greatness is enhanced by its connoction with the Mother Land, and it shai'es, through cumnKHi origin, in the illustrious past of the great British nation. Surely of this country it may to a certain extent be said that the honours on the crest of England are garlands for the head of Canada. It is no proof of national vigour to ignore the past, and live only in the present. While, therefore, we love Canada ; while we are ready to serve her interests and promote her ad- vancement, let us still turn a loving glance across the broad sea to the mother of us all. Happily, loyalty is a master principie in the heart of a Canadian. Like justice, of which the Roman poet wrote, which quitting the world, vet lingered in rural abodes and pastoral pursuits ; so loyalty, even if about to (juit this earth, which I trust is not to be, yet tarries here, and there is no fear of its ex- tinction. And the loyalty of Canadians is of the true, old-fashioned type — unselfish, faithful ; the loyalty of the tree. " Although Mr. Norman addressed the language that 1 liave (juoted, especially to Englishmen, I be- lieve that it contains a faithful exposition of the sentiments entertained l)y the Canadian people of all nationalities towards the mother-country. 1 believe, nioreovei', that there has been no period in the history of (Janada when its inhabitants were so loyal, as at the very time when the THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 81 writer in the Fortnightly lias considered it his duty " to cast its political horoscoj)e." and to the »ple of England that its destinati( assure is absorption in the adjoining Republic. When I first entered public life I am tinuly convinced that the majority of Canadians were thoroughly alienated in their feelings, from the Biitish Crown, Those who engagfrl ':n the rebellion of 1837 con- stituted but a fraction of those whry p.-i'^^y had aided in its suppiession. When par- liamentary government was ti.stabiisheil, the Reformers obtained i>th political parties are unquestionably sincerely loyal, and Friendly to the subsisting connection j I TBE POLITIC \L DESTINY OF CANADA. 83 with Great Britain. It must surely strike with ainazetnent English readers of the essay in the FortnigJuly, that in a House of Commons consist- ing of upwards of 200 members, not one member has ventured, either in the House or at the hus- tings, to propose the severance of the subsisting connexion with Great Britain. Widely as I ditfer from the views of the writer in the Fortnightly as to the " Political Destiny of Canada," there are portions of his essay in which he has given expression to Canadian opinion, on points on which it is highly desirable that our fellow-countrymen in England should Ije correctly informed. The jn'incipal of these is Canadian nationality, of which the essayist was, as he admits, once an advocate, and for which he still evinces a desire. He admits, however, that it is "a lost cause," and as he is determined not to believe in the contiuuaticm of the present con- nexion, he is bound to maintain that union with the United States is " momlly certain." 1 am not presumptuous enough to declare that the sul)sisting coniu'xion must Im" ])('rpetual, but I am decidedly of opinion, in <;ummon, as I have r'iason to kn )\v, with the leaders i)f both politi- cal parties, that if at a.ny futur*? period, owing to causes which it is impossible to foresee at preatent, MWHSBW mmm mmmm^ M 84 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. a disruption of our connexion with Great Britain were to become necessary, there would inevitably be union with the United States and not an In- dependent Republic. It is desirable that those English politicians who sometimes look with complacency on the severance of the con- nexion, should, be aware that its result would be veiy different from what they imagine. I likewise concur with the essayist that all the projects of Pan-Britannic Empire are visionary in the greatest degree. I refer to the subject merely because the essayist has done so, and because some scheme of the kind lias found favour in England, though as justly observed — "of the statesmen who dally with the project and smile upon its advocates, not one ventures to take a ])ractical step towards its fulfilment." No such scheme has ever found favour in Canada. Having noticed the points on which I concur with the writer in the Fortnightly, I shall i>roceed to state those on which I entirely differ with him. It may be convenient to state my objec- tions under the following heads : 1st. Errors in matters of fact ; 2nd. Inconsistencies ; 3rd. Erroneous reasoning. Under the first head the uiost important errors are those which attach undeserved blame to the Iiaperial THE POLITrCAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 85 Government. Reference is made to the " Inter- colonial Railway, into which Canada has been led by Imperial influence, and which after, costing more than four millions sterling, will, as some leading Canadian men of business think, hardly pay for the trrease upon the wheels." A more unjust charge never was made. It has certainly not been the practice of the Imperial Government either to suggest the construction of public works in Canada, or to interfere with them in any way. The scheme for the construction of an Intercolo- nial Railway originated in Nova Scotia, and it was on the joint application of the separate Pro- vinces that the Imperial Government authorized Royal Engineer otticers to conduct a survey. The principal of these. Major Robinson, located a line, after which the three Provinces confened as to the constru«'tion and as to the proportions of expense to be incurred by each. New Bruns- wick positively refused co-operation unless a dif- ferent line from that recommended was adoj)ted, an < 6" — ► V] %■> -m V /A Photographic Sdences Corporation i\ ^^ ^^ ^ % to \ 92 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. in favour of self-government," is a faithful de- scription of the present Canadian system. In his bitter censure of Parliamentary Govern- ment the essayist has fallen into a glaring incon- sistency. The Government is said to be the bane of Canada, because " there is no question on which parties can be rationally or morally based," con- sequently the parties have become " mere factions, striving to engross the prizes of office." Such allegations abound through the essay, but, on the other hand, there are some admissions which would indicate to any experienced politician that there are important questions on which parties may properly be divided. I could enumerate several, but as my present object is merely to establish my charge of incon- sistency, I shall content myself by referring to two questions noticed in the essay. Surely the question of Protection is one on which political parties might properly join issue. The essayist states that " Canada at this moment is the scene of a protectionist movement, led curiously enough by those * Conservative politicians ' who are loud- est in their professions of loyalty to Great Bri- tain." The divisions in the Canadian House of Commons were, with two or three exceptions, strictly party, and the English newspapers have THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 93 expressed their satisfaction with the result. It does not strike me as at all curious that Conser- vative politicians should have a predilection for protection, but on the other hand it does appear to me rather extraordinary that so advanced a liberal as the essayist should be an extreme pro- tectionist. I am persuaded that the members of the Conservative opposition are not of opinion that their views on this question are inconsis- tent with their loyalty to the crown, but I only refer to them here to prove that there is an im- portant question on which political parties are divided. There is yet another, viz., British Co- lumbia and the Pacific Railway. On these ques- tions Canadian parties are in avowed antagonism. The essayist admits fully their importance, for he thinks that it will be fortunate if some ques- tion " such as that respecting the pecuniary claims of British Columbia, which is now assum- ing such exaggerated proportions, does not supervene to make the final dissolution of the political tie a quarrel instead of an amica- ble separation." Surely a question from which such serious consequences are apprehended, is one important enough for the consideration of politi- cal parties in Canada, by whom alone it must be solved. I need hardly observe that there is not the ■■PNnMm RKMMIRilSiaPi *P 94 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. slightest danger of any misunderstanding between the Imperial and Canadian Governments on any such question, nor so far as 1 can foresee, on any other; andif the essayist reallybelieves what he has stated, that " all questions are successively settled in favour of self-government," he need be under no apprehension on the subject. I think it must be admitted that I have proved by his own language that the essayist is moat inconsistent in alleging that there are no questions in Canada on which parties can be honestly formed. Another incon- sistency will be found in those passages of the essay in which the author treats of the Roman Catholic element in our population. There is, indeed, not only inconsistency ; there is error ill a matter of fact. It is assumed that the French Canadian and Irish Catholics, consti- tuting 1,400,000 of the population, are anything but friends to British connection. These it is said, must be deducted in order to reduce to reality the pictures of universal devotion to Eng- land and English interests." The political senti- ments of the Irish " are generally identical with those of the Irish in the mother country." The French Canadians have " no feeling whatever for England." They are '* governed by the priest with the occasional assistance of the notary." THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 95 The priests " put their interests into the hands of a political leader, who makes terms for them and for himself at Ottawa, and as the priests are reactionists, Canada has long witnessed the singular spectacle of Roman Catholics and Orangemen marching together to the poll." While, in the passages to which I have adverted, the writer deducts the French and Irish elements from the loyal portion of the population, he in his " enumeration of the forces which make in favour of the present connexion, leads off with the "reactionary tendencies of the priesthood which leads French Canada, and which fears that any change might disturb its solitary reign." It is true that the essayist makes a " forecast " that " the ice will melt at last;" but I am much mis- taken if the Roman Catholic clergy will not smile with derision at the idea that one c* the agencies is to be "the leaven of American t^timent brought back by French Canadians who have sojourned as artisans in the States," the other being "the ecclesiastical aggressiveness of the Jesuits." I shall not discuss the alleged " struggle for ascendancy between the Jesuits and the Gal- licans," but shidl merely observe that if any such struggle is going on, the contending parties con- trive not to trouble their neighbours of other ■f? % THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. IBI denominations with their controversies. The point of interest is, wh<}ther the French Canadians and the Irish are satisfied with their present government, and the essayist, although classing them as disloyal, is comp3lled to admit that at present they are adverse to change, and he can only rest his hopes on his own " forecast of the future." I have said that there was an error as to fact in this portion of the essay. It is not true that the Irish Catholic vote has of late been with the Conservatives. On the contrary, it is notorious that many elections in Ontario were carried for the Reformers by the Catholic vote. I am not aware how mar.y Irish Catholics are in the House of Commons at present, but most as- suredly Mr. Speaker Anglin and Mr. Devlin, MP. for Montreal Centre, are representative Irish Catholics, and both are decided Liberals. Mr. Devlin contested Montreal Centre with an Irish Roman Catholic who ran in the Conservative inter- est, and he succeeded in obtaining a majority in a constituency in which, beyond all others, Irish Catholic influence prevails. And I may here observe that^with reference to the remark " that the political sentiments of the Irish are identi- cal with those of the Irish in the mother coun- try," that it evinces a very superficial knowledge THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 97 of the state of Irish feeling. I have shown how widely the Irish Catholics of Montreal differ as to Canadian politics ; but it is nevertheless a fact that those same parties can unite in expressing opinions favourable to Home rule. The truth is that they are so attached to Home rule in Canada, that they would like, if possible, to see it extended to Ireland. Their sympathy with their feK )w- countrymen in Ireland is manifested by pecuniary contributions ; but with regard to Canadian poli- tics they vote, not as a^ religious body, but ac- cording to the bias of their feelings and the various influences brought to bear on them. A sagacious statesman will at once perceive, what has completely escaped the observation of the essayist, that there is no inconsistency whatever in the Irish Catholics in Canada being dissatis- fied with the existing relations between Great Britain and Ireland, and yet being perfectly satisfied with those between the United^King- dom and Canada. The French Canadian Koman Catholics are likewise very far from unanimous in their political sentiments. There are two dis- tinct parties, Conservative and Liberal,^ and although the former is in the majority in the Province of Quebec, there is a minority, respec- table both in numbers and talent ; while in]_,the a 98 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. Dominion Liberal government there are three Cabinet Ministers, all Roman Catholics. 1 shall now proceed to the third division of ray criticism, viz : " erroneous reasoning." I en- tirely dissent from the position laid down at the opening of the essay, that it is wise or profitable for a statesman to regulate his policy by any "forecast of the future." Let me not be misun- derstood. A wise statesman ought to endeavour to make the political institutions of his country as perfect as possible. If our statesmen in 1830 believed, as no doubt they did, that there was danger of revolution unless the representative system was reformed, it was their duty to apply a remedy. The same remark would apply to those statesmen who proposed and carried Catholic emancipation. But that is just what the essayist objects to, when he remarks that " party politi- cians cannot afford to see beyond the hour." He requires a " forecast of the future," which is pre- cisely whatneither he norany other manis capable of making. It is said by the essayist that " to tax forecast with revolutionary designs or tendencies is absurd." To this I demur. Nothing is easier than for one who dqsires revolution, " to cast a political horoscope." to make a " forecast," and then, on the pretence of providing for what is THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 90 •certain to occur, to strain every effort to bring about the desired result. 1 am opposed to revo- lution, and if 1 could forecast anything in the future likely to bring it about, I would spare no effort to prevent it. The truth is that with the essayist " the wish is father to the thought." He evidently prefers the Republican system of Gov- ernment to the Monarchical, at which he sneers incessantly throughout his essay. He seems, how- ever, to give it a preference as being less demo- cratic. He pronounces Canada " a democracy of the most pronounced kind ; " considers the Gov- ernor-General " not wrong in saying that she is more democratic than the United States, where the President is an Elective King, and where the Senate, which though elective is Conservative, possesses great power, whereas the nominated Senate of Canada is a cypher." I may remark en passant that this same cypher threw out a ministerial bill of considerable importance passed by the Commons with reference to British Columbia, and that the Prime Minister made a distinct proposition to have that body increased in order to bring it more into harmony with the Commons. To return from this digres- sion : " Deraagogism and the other pests of demo- cratic institutions are not to be conjured away by 100 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. forms and phrases.' " The Governor-General has formally avowed himself a faineant^' which simply means that he has acted ai? the represen- tative of a Constitutional Sovereign, instead of,, as the essayist would have wished him to do, like " an Elective King." People are generally wise after an event. I have no doubt that many of the present Government party who were dis- satisfied with Lord Dufferin's course during the political crisis of 1873, are now satisfied that it was the wisest he could have adopted. Had h& refused to follow the advice of his Ministers, as to the prorogation of Parliament, and thus forced them to resign, he would no doubt have been more popular with their opponents, but he would not have enjoyed that universal respect which is felt towards him at present. Differing en- tirely as I do from the essayist as to the merits of the English system of Parliamen- tary Government and the Republican system of the United States, I cannot look with in- oifierence on the attempt which he has made to influence English public opinion to force tJanada into the American Union on the plea that it is her manifest destiny. One who admit* that self-government is independence, and that such self-government Canada enjoys, can have THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 101 no other object, in advocating, first Canadian nationality or independence, and, on the utter rejection of his proposals, then annexation to the United States, than to substitute foi the British system of party government, the Republican Elective King, with Ministers not holding seats in the Legislature, and responsible only to their chief. Nothing is more easy than to point out the evils in party government, l)ut it is wholly irreconcileable with fact to maintain that cor- ruption is more prevalent under the Monarchical than under the Republican system. It is now some sixty years since a venerable living states- man, Earl Russell, treated the subject of party government with great ability. Among its bad effects he admitted the want of candour which it necessarily produces, party politicians, in the heat of controversy, being prone to attribute to their opponents intentions and motives of which they are as incapable as themselves. Moreover, there is a tendency in politicians, even when convinced of an error, to adhere to wrong views lather than afford a triumph to their op- ponents. With regard to the corruption, Earl Russell maintains strongly that party connection is a great safeguard against it. I hope to be •excused giving a short extract from the French 102 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. edition of Lord Russell's work, which is the only one within my reach : — " En reconnaissant Ibr mauvais effets des partis, je n'ai ritn dit des ani- mosit^s et des querelles violentes qu'ils suscitent. D'hypocrites philosophes, des femmes sentimen- tales, des hommes eifi^minds, ne cessent de se livrer k des lamentations sur les divisions poli- tiques et les Elections contest^es. Les homraes d'un esprit ^lev^ savent qu'elles sont les signe-s de la liberty et de la prosperity de la nation. C'est dans la chaleur et sous le marteau de !'♦ nclume que la liberty acquiert ses formes, sa treinpe, et sa vigueur."* I believe that I express the views of Canadians of all parties in affirming the j^reat superiority of the British system of Parliamen- tary Government over the Republican s\ stem which the Canadians have ample opportuiiity of contrasting with their own. I have never been able to satisfy myself that we can enjoy that gystem of government except as a dependency of • The following is the passage in the original Englitib ed'-^- t«t)te4l elections. Men of noble minds know that they are the workkhop uf national liberty and national prosperity. It iit from the heat and hammering of the smithy that freedom receiver ita •hape, its temper, and its stiength. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 103 the crown of Engluiul, and I therefore unhesitat- ingly avow that 1 am in favour of perpetual con- nection, although I aui ready to admit that cir- cumstances may lead to a revolution in any State or Kingdom or Empire. The essayist, in order to establish the coiTect- nesH of his for cast of the future insists that what he calls '' the great forces " must prevail over " the secondary forces " which he admits may suspend the action of the great forc' in my judgment he has wholly omitted from his calcula- tions the greatest force of all, viz., ihe relrrtance 0*" '.'^li people of any country to enga'^e lH revolu- tionary" proceedings, which reluctance can only be overcome when some intolerable giievance exists, for which no other remedy but re volution can be found. I am unaware of any case in which a po- litical revolution involving a change of allegiance has taken place without civil war, and I am firm- ly persuaded that such a revolution would not take place in Canada without the occurrence of that fearful calamity. I am well aware that when the subject is discuss(Kl by English politi- cians, they invariably assume that any contro- versy w^hich may arise in the future will be be- tween England and Canada, the Canadian people being supposed to be a unit. This is a most seri- w^ mmm mm nnp 104 THE POLITICAL DESTTNY OF CANADA. ous mistake. Judging from the state of public opinion in Canada, and I am unaware of any other mode of forming a judgment on the point, there is no probability whatever that Canadians will be united in favour of any revolutionary change. They are united at pref^ent in favour of the con- nexion with Great Britain, and so long as the ad- vocates of revolution content themselves with writing essays in the Fortnightly, and avoid ob- truding their opinions in Parliament or at the hustings, the loyalists will probably treat them with silent contempt. Should, however, any serious revolutionary movement be attempted, what are termed " the secondary forces " would most assuredly display the same vigour that they have done on previous occasions. I must, hovrever, ask attention to what the essayist terms the great forces which must in his opinion prevail. They are, 1st, distance ; 2nd, di- vergence of interest ; 3rd, divergence of political character ; 4th, the attractive force of the great American community which inhabits the adjoin- ing territory. Now, after a calm consideration of all that the essayist has said to prove .hat these are " great forces," I must confess that I have failed to find more than a single obstacle to the permanency of the connexion. On the question THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 105 of distance the essayist argues that " political in- stitutions must after all bear some relation to Na- ture and to practical convenience. Yew have fought against geography and prevailed." Again, he says that the distance " can hardly be much shortened for the purp(^ses of representative government." I confess that unless the foregoing language has some reference to the Pan-Britannic system, I fail to comprehend it. In the first ten years of Confederation the distance haa not been found in the slightest degree inconvenient, and I can conceive no reason why it should be in the future. 2nd. Divergence of interest. It is con- tended that Englishmen control the foreign policy of the Empire, and having no interest in thoee questions in w^hich Canada is chiefly interested, " betray l)y the languor of their diplomacy, and the ease with which they yield, their comparative indifference." No doubt there have been three or four occasions on which Canada has been dis- satisfied with British diplomacy. I am not aware of any treaty made by England since the Treaty of Utrecht, in the reign of Queen Aime, that has not been vigorously attacked by the Opposition of the day. When the representatives of contend- ing powers come to treat, they each find it abso- lutely necessary to make concessions, and such w^ 106 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. '4 i '>t. •. concessions always cause dissatisfaction. It may,, however, be assumed that, as a rule, the British Government has endeavoured to select diploma- tists of experienee and ability to conduct their negotiations, and that their representatives are better informed as to what it is expedient to press than tl: ose who criticize their acts. It is, however, unforti nate for the argument of the essayist that although our boundary questions have been al- ways settled unsatisfactorily according to our judgment, no feeling of disloyalty to England has been manifested in consequence. I think there- fore that, notwithstanding the fact that there may be some divergeiice of interest, if it has led to no feeling of disloyalty in the past, it is still less likely to do so in the future. It is alleged by the essayist, not only that the interests of the Cana- dians are neglected owing to the apathy evinced by English statesmen in questions of controversy between Canada and the United States, but like- wise that Canadians run the risk of being involv- ed in war without having any voice in the pre- ceding deliberations. It is now upwards of twen- ty years since I published a pamphlet in London,, in reply to a very similar complaint. I shall ven- ture to make a quotation from it : THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. lOT ** The next complaint is that the interest of the colonies may be seriously afFected by the decision of the mother- country to engage in war, and yet they are not consulted on the subject. It may be admitted as a possible contin- gency that the mother-country might engage in war on groumls which would be deemed insufficient in the colo- nies, and that if the property of the latter were exposed to loss or injury in consequence, disaffection might ensue.. I am, however, of opinion that nothing can be more un- profitable than speculating on c(mtingcr!cies which may never arise. It is a far more probable contingency that- the mother-country might be compelled to engage in war to protect one of her colonies, as she has been lately to protect an ally from a powerful oppressor. The colonies, cannot be consulted about the (jutstion of war, because they contribute nothing to the expense of it, and would, in my opinion, be very sorry to purchase the privilege of being consulted at the price of bearing a just share of the burden. It is worthy of remark here, that the last war with the United States arose from a dispute on a question in which the North American Provinces had little or no interest. It was clear that the Canadians would be the principal sufferers, and it was imagined that they would be too glad to purchase tranquillity at the price of their allegiance. But the result proved that the British and French Canadians rallied with equal promptitude round the national standard, and the mihtia of the provinces, with very little assistance from the regular army, was strong enough to expel the invaders. With such a pre- cedent I have no apprehension that the relations now sub- sisting between the mother-country and the colonies >vould be disturbed by the engagement of the former in a just T^r^ 108 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. war, and T do not believe in the probability of its engage- ment in an unjust one." The 3rd great force, said to be " more luomen- tous still," is the ** divergence of political charac- ter." Under this the essayist descants on aristoc- racy, the Anglican Church, custom of primogeni- ture, militarism, &c., &c. The simple answer is, that England makes no attempt whatever to introduce into Canada any of her peculiar institutions or customs, and there has never beer the slightest difficulty between the two governments growing out of divergence of political character. The fourth great force is " sure in the end " to be attrac- tive, but not a shadow of an argument is adduced to support the assertion except a vague reference to " commercial influences," already discussed under the second head of " divergence of interest." This is the single difficulty, for it must be admit- ted that, if it were practicable, the abolition of the frontier custom-houses would bo beneficial to both countries. The question is not one that could be conveniently discussed on such an occa- sion as this, but hitherto the effect of discuss- ing measures of commercial policy with the United States has not been either to induce Canadians to admire the institutions of their THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 109 neighbours, or to be attracted towards them in any way. While the " great forces " are so little likely to lead the Canadian people to engage in revolution- ary projects, the essayist ha*^ enumerated a num- ber of secondary forces, all sufficiently powerful at present to account for the loyalty of the peo- ple, but, in his opinion, " of a transient charac- ter." These are as follows — 1st. The French Canadians are led by their priests, who are at present satisfied, but then in the future thej^ice will melt under the influence of the Jesuits and " the leaven of American sentiment brought%ack by artizans." 2nd. United Empire Loyalists are in the position of the Jacobites after the extinction of the House of Stuart, but all their loyalty has evaporated since the English Ambassador saluted the Americiin flag " in the celebration of the^Cen- tenary." 3rd. English emigrants are rapidly de- creasing, and " as they die ofi" natives take their places, so that Canada will soon be in Canadian hands." 4th. The social influence of the British officers has ceased with the military occupation. I learn for the first time, to my great surprise, though I was not without opportunity of forming a correct judgment, that these officers " exercised a somewhat tyrannical influence over opinion." mtm llOj THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. oth. The Anglican Church still fosters loyalty, but its roots " do not appear to be strong;" it is rent by the conflict between the Protestants and the Ritualists, and " discord has already taken the form of disruption." Now I should admit the appositeness of this argument, if it could be shown that either the Protestants, as they are called, or the Ritualists, or the members of the Reformed Church, were disloyal; but inasmuch as they are all equally loyal to the crown, I can conceive no reason for referring in this connexion to the differences as to ritualism. The connexion of Canadian Methodism with the States is said to be " very close," but it has never to my knowledge had the effect of making the members of that in- fluential body disloyal to the crown. 6th. It is admitted that Orangeism is " strong in British Canada," but It is hoped that "one day" Orange- ism must die. Of one thing the essayist may be «»ssured, and that is^ that should any attempt be ma(ie to promote a revolution the Orangemen will be ready to fight to the last in support of the connexion with the Ci'own of Great Britain. 7th. The social influence of English aristocracy, and of the little court of Ottawa. I presume this has reference to the Representative of the Crown, for the English aristocracy most assuredly do not THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. Ill «eek to exert influence in Canada. 8th. Antipa- thy to the Americans. 9th. The special attach- ment felt by the politicians to the present system. Some of these secondary forces are wholly un- worthy of notice, while others are infinitely more powerful than the greater forces, and others again Are wholly omitted. Surely, in a country where the Scotch exercise so large an influence, where the First Minister is of that nation, as well as many members of both Houses of Parliament, their force is worthy of notice. I have no doubt that it would be, as it has ever been, with the loyalists. It does not appear, indeed, that there is any discontented class, for I have already shown that the French Canadians and the Irish Catholics are perfectly satisfied with the institu- tions under which they live. The policy of a true Canadian statesman is to endeavour, in the improbable event of any cause of difiiculty arising between the Imperial and Canadian Governments, by every means in his power to remove it. The essayist displays most bitter hostility to Confederation, and, as usual with him, the respon- sibility for that measure is thrown on England. He argues that, while a " spontaneous confede- ration" develops mainly the principles of union, " a confederation brought about by external in- pill ■ 112 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA, fluence is apt to develop the piincij>les of antagon-' iam in at least an equal degree." He proceeds to state that if an appeal be made to the success of confederation in Switzerland, the answer is, that Switzerland is not a dependency but a nation. Now, as the writer has himself assured us that " self-government is independence," and as the Canadian Confederation has practically the same power as the Swiss, I am unable to discover how the control of its external relations iendh to pro- duce success. Those relations lead to complica- tions and difficulties, but cannot in any way en- sure the success of the domestic government. But surely the essayist must be well aware that no con- federation could be more spontaneous than the Ca- nadian one. It was most assuredly not brought about by external influence, unless in so far as Nova Scotici. «vas concerned. It appears, however, that "the proper province of a Federal govern- ment is the management of external relations," and as " a dependency has no external relations," it is implied that " the chief duty of a Federal government in Canada is to keep itself in exist- ence by the ordinary agencies of party, a duty which it discharges with a vengeance." There is a simple answer to all this. The powers of the Dominion Parliament and of the Local Legisla- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 113 titrea are clearly defined in the Imperial Statute, and during the ten years that it has been in force, no serious difficulty has arisen. The essayist in- forms us that, " had the movement in favour of nationality succeeded, the first step would have been a legislative union." He admits that there would have been opposition to such a step on the part of Quebec, but this is no difficulty with an advanced liberal, for " Quebec, if she had been handled with determination, would most likely have given way." It is consolatory to find that, although our pjlitical horoscope has been cast, it is admitted that " to specify the time at which a political event will take plr-ce is hardly ever possible," and it is lurther admitted that there is " a real complication of secondary forces," in other words, the secondar^'^ forces are all at present loyal to the core : but then there may be a continuance of commercial depression in Canada accompanied by prosperity in the United States ; then there may be financial difficulties in Canada owing to the Pacific railway, in short something may occur, ' A critical moment may arrive, and the politicians, recognising the voice of Destiny, may pass in a moment to the side of continental union " I will close these remarks by repeating what I have already stated, that I do not believe H 114 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. in the probability of a complete change of allegi- ance being brought about in any other way than as the result of a civil war, a calamity so fearful that it will not be hazarded unless some serious misunderstanding should arise between the two governments, and I cannot conceive that any such contingency is at all probable. EEMAEKS ON THE CRITICISMS OF SIR FRANCIS HINCKS. The position, experience and ability of Sir Francis Hincks afford a sufficient assurance that the case on his side will have been fully and well set forth. I think I may venture to add, that he has shown no unwillingness to expose any eri'or or false rea- soning of mine. The critical tendency has been displayed with still less reserve in other articles ascribed to his pen ; and he seems even inclined to applaud and by applauding to adopt, abuse which I should have thought a lover of honour- able controversy would disdain. He not seldom appeals to prejudice against me as a Liberal ; but before taunts oh that subject can come with pro- priety from his pen, the sponge must bo passed over a great part of his own career. If I have yet seen no reason for deserting my principles, that surely is no disgrace. My critic begins by quoting largely from a ser- -Y^w 116 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. mon preached by a clergyman of the Anglican Church before the St. George's Society of Mon- treal, in which he appears to himself Uy find a tnistwoi-thy index to the political sentiment of the future. The preacher is |)ersonally entitled to the highest respect ; but when I am told that he is in no sense a party politician, I must answer that the (Jhurch which he represents is itself a political party. It has been throughout its histoiy as much of a political party as of a church. In the doubtful region where it has hov- ered between Catholicism and Protestantism, be- tween private judgment and priestly authority, while it has not been very steadfast in itsadherence to any distinctive system of doctrine, it has been very steadfast in its adherence to the cause of political reaction. It has taken an actJve part in all the great attempts to overthrow English liberty. It has been the oracle of Divine Right and passive obedience. In English elections, at the present day it is of all the allies of Toryism the staunchest as well as the most powe.'ful. The organic principles, the tendencies, the hopes, of society on this continent are utterly alien to it. A land without a connection between church and state, without a privileged religion, without bishops in the House of Lords, without a Defend- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 117 er of the Faith, without a congenial aristocmcy to support clerical influence, must seem to it, spiritually and politically, out of the way of grace. It longs to bring back the New World under salutary bondage to the Old World, as the most energetic and probably the most numerous section of its clergy longs and strives to bring back society altogether to the salutary supersti- tions of the Middle Ages. I gave it what seemed its proper place among the secondary forces which work fcr the continuance of the present connec- tion, observing at the same time that it seemed likely to be broken up by internal differences of opinion on fundamental questions, which are every day becoming more pronounced and more violent in their manifestations. Sir Francis Hincks says that disruption would not signify, because all the fragments would be loyal. It may perhaps be doubted whether the Protestant or Rationalist is exactly on a level with the Rit- ualist in the mental tendencies which Sir Francis Hincks would call loyal But I spoke of the in- fluence of Anglicanism as an organized body ; and the influence of an organized body would surely be impaired by its dissolution. In private, perhaps, one who may justly claim a place among " sagacious politicians," would be PPW 118 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANAD.V. ready tc admit that as a key to the future state of sentiment and the probable course of future events in a community of the New World, a ser- mon preached by an Anglican clergyman before a congregation of English immigrants was little more significant than a saying of King George III. Sir Francis Hincks undertakes to convict me (1) of errors of fact, (2) of inconsistencies, (S) of er- roneous reasoning. The errors of fact, ushered in as though they were many and grave, turn out to be in number two, both relating to secondary points and to matters less of positive fact than of impression. In the first of the two cases, however, Sir Francis Hincks has misconstrued me. I did not cite the Intercolonial and Pacific Railways as in- stances of the interference, much less of the un- warrantable interference, of the Colonial office with our public works. I cited them as instances of the influence of the Imperial connection in prompting us to undertakings from which, if we were guided only by our own interests and our own councils, wisdom might teach us to abstain. The Imperial character of the two works will scarcely be disputed when each has received an Im[)erial guarantee. It will scarcely be disputed either that both of them are rather political and THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 119 military than commercial. As a merely commer- cial enterprise the Intercolonial would not do much credit to the sagacity of the projectors, since in addition to the sum spent in its construc- tion it is run and seems likely to be nin at an annual loss. Of the Pacific, as everybody seems to admit, the main object is to link together pro- vinces at opposite sides of the Continent, because they fall within a line traced by the hand of em- pire, not by the hand of nature nor by any hand which had nature for its guide. ** My bete noire " the Pacific Railway is not, and in calling it so, Sir Francis Hincks shows a tendency which is displayed throughout his paper, to exaggerate the position of his opponent for the purpose of giving effect to his reply ; but it seems to be something like the bite noire of a good many Canadit\n poli- ticians, for Sir Francis himself tells us that it has been " a subject of unceasing reproach by each political party, against its antagonists ;" so that either half the public men of Canada are very factious, or I have said nothing very absurd. The second error of fact with which I am charged is in tracing the policy of annexing Mani- toba and British Columbia to the Colonial Secre- taryship of Sir Bulwer Lytton. My expression was, perhaps, not so precise as it ought to have tu.up wAwiivP LID '-WKwmw^K^w^mm^sivm 120 THE POLITLCAL DESTINY OF CANADA. If been ; but I meant to refer to the origin, not to the legislative consummation of the scheme. That the legislative consummation came later, no- body who has witnessed the controversies of the last six years about the treaty with British Co- lumbia and the Pacific Railway questions could possibly fail to be aware. If Sir Bulwer Lytton was not the father of the scheme he got the credit of being so, and it was one likely to spring from his lively and ambitious fancy. But Sir Francis Hincks knows best. I can well afford to dispense with the illustration, for an illustration it was and nothing more. Examples are not wanting of British statesmen made Colonial Secretaries on grounds of party convenience rather than of per- sonal aptitude, and called upon without know- ledge or with only the knowledge picked up from Under-Secretaries or Colonial frequenters of the Office to decide upon measures vital to the wel- fare of young nations. With the Pacific Railway I have in no way connected Sir Bulwer Lytton's name. 2. The inconsistencies with which I am charged so far as 1 can see (and I must own the medium is not very pellucid) are three. The first is in some of my statements respecting the government of dependencies. But I must confess that after T 1^ THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 121 carefully perusing and reperusinga long paragraph I fail to perceive the point of the indictment. I have said that political tutelage while it was really exercised was an evil. I have said that to exercise it now would be absurd, seeing that of the holders of political power in the imperial countiy the great mass, all indeed with very few excep- tions, are too much occupied with their own con- cerns and too ill instructed about the colonies to form any opinion upon colonial questions. I have said that through successive concessions to the principle of self-government political tutelage has been tending to extinction. That these are three distinct statements is clear ; it is clear also that each of them is unpalatable to Sir Francis Hincks ; but how they contradict each other I entirely fail to apprehend. That the same language is not applicable to the colonial system in the different stages of its exis- tence, is a fact of which I could hardly be ignor- ant, since I took part in the discussion which led to the last great change. The same language is not applicable to the col- onial system in the different stages of its existence, nor is the same language applicable to the differ- ent portions of it now. Of political self-govern- ment almost a full measure has been conceded, and I w^ mmm mmmmm tm 'WPPiliSP"'' 122 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. unless the English Tories, emboldened by the ap- pearance of reaction, should attempt to resume any of the prerogatives granted away by their Liberal predecessors, it is difficult to imagine the occurrence of a serious disagreement on that ground. But our commercial autonomy is doubt- ful ; by some it is denied ; and at any rate we still bear the commercial burden of the connec- tion in being partly excluded, as a dependency of England, from the markets of other nations, above all from those of the United States, whereby we pay a heavy tribute, not in money, but in sacrifice of prosperity, to the Imperial nation. And so with regard to foreign relations generally, the posi- tion of the dependency remains unchanged ; we are as liable as ever to be drawn by the Mother Country into war ; she is as liable as ever to be drawn into war by us ; and we are in principle as liable as ever to be called upon to contribute Imperial armaments, though our payments would be levied and our contingents raised through a Parliament of oui' own. My second inconsistency is in saying that there are no questions great enough to divide parties in Canada, and that consequently party government here is out of place ; whereas, says my critic, I mention in the coui*se of my essay some questions THE POLITieAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 23 which an "experienced politician" would deem im- portant enough to form dividing lines. I am in- consistent in short, not with myself, but with Sir Francis Hincks ; a new version of inconsistency. The questions upon which Sir Francis Hincks fixes are Protection and the Pacific Railway. Protec- tion can hardly be called a political question at all : here as in the United States the line of divi- sion between Protectionists and Free Traders crosses the line of division between political par- ties ; in this country it crosses the party division in the case of Sir Francis Hincks, who, it seems, is a Conservative but a Free Tiader. As to the question of the Pacific Railway, the idea of divid- ing our people into parties upon it, and making it the test of fitness to govern the country, so far from being mine, or available for the purposes of an indictment against my consistency, seems to me when propounded to be as untenable as any- thing can be. What I said was that " paftiy government was the bane of Canada." Sir Francis Hincks, in re- ferring to my words, substitutes "Parliamentary" for " party." Is this fair ? Is it fair to affect surprise " that so advanced a Liberal as the essay- ist should be an extreme Protectionist," when the fact is that I have simply referred to the ex- I "W^ '"w'"»'"n. I . Ill ■«^mnpii9^p«awpiiMipiinmRmnmMiif||n|mfpiippi ii 124 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. istence of a protectionist movement without my- self expressing any opinion on the subject. I am as far as my critic is from being a Protectionist, though I deem it frivolous to talk of upholding the principle of Free Trade, while we submit, for the sake of a political object (whether sufficient or insufficient is another question), to exclusion from the markets of the continent of which we are and cannot help being economically a part. Free Trade is the course of nature. The political connec- tion which identifies Canada with a countrj^^ in the other hemisphere and cuts her off from her own is as contrary to the course of nature as any thing that the most extreme Protectionist could devise. It does not follow from my denying the ex- cellence of party government in a country where there are no rational grounds for the existence of parties, that I must wish to introduce an elective Presidency and a Cabinet without seats in Parli- ament. 1 have more than once ventured to suggest that the elective presidency of the United States is a questionable reproduction of the monarchy of the Old World ; that the peri- odical elections tend, among other evils, to bring public questions to a dangerous head, as they did iti U- fatal case of slavery ; and that an Executive ^rv I THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 125 Council elected, with a proper system of rotation, by the le^slature would probably be the better plan. The machinery of democratic government was framed under misleading influences ; it is still very imperfect, and there is room for hope that some of the evils of democracy may be di- minished by removing these mechanical defects. But the English system can have no place in Canada. A balance of power between Estates is impossible where there is no Estate but the Commons ; and Party, to which in England reason enough for existence is supplied by the conflict, still undecided, between aristocracy and demo- cracy, is without a reason for its existence here. Sir Francis Hincks admits as much when he sets to work to provide the Canadian parties with a new principle of division, and after boxing the compass hesitates at last between Protection and the Pacific Railway. Party, without great ques- tions, is faction ; and faction, if it is not cheeked, will before long bring calamities on the country. Sir Francis Hincks knows the meaning of the scene before him, though he speaks of it with faltering lips. He calls my remarks indiscrimin- ate because they apply equally to both parties ; as though one party could have a dividing line when the other had none. The character of all factions, 1^ ''W>T,*WW 126 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. in the same country, is pretty sure to be the same. Lord Russell's defence of party, to which Sir Francis Hincks appeals, applied to a country in which the parties have a meaning. And why does Sir Francis Hincks pride himself upon being unconnected with either party, after having tried both, if party in this country is a good thing ? The third charge of inconsistency has reference to the account I have given of the different sentiments prevailing in the different sections, national and religious, of our people. And here again I have to confess that the subtlety of the accusation eludes the grasp of my simple under- standing. Where is the inconsistency of saying that the priesthood of Quebec is opposed to union with the States from motives of sacerdotal conserva- tism,and at the same time that the French popula- tion of the Province "is not devoted to England and English interests " ? This, I beg leave to observe, was my expression, though Sir Francis Hincks finds it convenient for his argument and for the impression which he wishes to create to insert the term ** disloyal." It is interesting to find that in the remote seclusion of Montreal, Sir FrLacis Hincks has heard nothing of any struggle for ascendancy between the Jesuits and their Qallican opponents. " If," he says, " any such struggle is w THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 127 going on, the contending parties contrive not to trouble their neighbours of other denominations with their controversies." From his paper we should almost gather that he was unaware of any disturbance of the harmony which reigns around him by quarrels between Roman Catholics and Orangemen^ though the fact has since been brought under his notice. Of the Irish sentiment, his ex- planation is one which he justly observes, has escaped the observation of a poor essayist, and could be discerned only by " a sagacious states- man." " The truth is," he says, " that the Irish are so attached to Home Rule in Canada that they would like, if possible, to see it extended to Ire- land." This their loyal and affectionate aspiration finds singular expression in the columns of their favourite journals. That the Irish Catholics are not exclusively and inflexibly attached to either of the Canadian parties, is a fact of which we have abundant proof in the political flirtations which are going on around us ; but it tells us nothing as to their feelings with regard to British connection. A Conservative politician would not reject a vote, or refrain from trying to secure it, because the voter was a Fenian, any more than a Presbyterian politician rejects a vote or refrains from soliciting it because the voter is a Papist. I ^fvw "^vp^^^fRMPPiiiPPPpP 128 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. trust I shall not go beyond the mark in saying that the picture of Canadian sentiment drawn by Sir Francis Hincks is somewhat official, and that an English statesman who should accept it without misgiving, as an English statesman is warranted in accepting anything from Sir Francis Hincks, would not be entirely in possession of the actual facts. 3. Erroneous Reasoning. Under this head we expect to find instances of a want of proper connection between premises and conclusion. But in the vocabulary of Sir Francis Hincks er- roneous reasoning seems to mean the expression of opinions in which he does not cbncir. I have submitted, as a justification for the subject of my essay, that statesmen engaged in building up the institutions and forming the character of a young nation will be aided, not embarrassed, by a true forecast of its political destiny. From this pro- position, Sir Francis Hincks " entirely dissents," though not without showing- himself conscious that an explanation of his dissent may be re- quired. But his dissent is no proof of any want of connection between my premises and the not very paradoxical conclusion at which I arrived. A want of logical connection there might have been if instead of statesman I had said politician. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 129 Even a politician, however, must be rather an ex- treme specimen of the class, if he can go on drain- ing the resources of a not very wealthy country to constmct a separate system of political and mili- tary railroads, without caring to inquire what the political and military relations of the country in the future are to be. He must be rather an ex- treme specimen of his class if ho can go on legis- lating for Canadian industry and commerce, without caring to inquire in what channels they are destined to run. The reflection extends in a certain raejisure to all military expenditure, to money given out of Canadian resources in aid of emigration to the far West, and to the annual 'Outlay of a large sum on public works in British Columbia. To a string of miscellaneous contradictions, un- supported by argument, I hardly know what answer to make. I can only say that I have given, to the best of my ability, my reasons for my opi- nions, and that when new arguments are brought before me, my opinions shall be reconsidered. To one or two of the questions here cursorily mooted by Sir Francis Hincks, 1 may advert before I have done. We find ourselves approaching the end of Sir Francis Hincks' paper before we come to the real I 130 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. point. My essay is an attempt Uj forecast the political destiny of Canada by a method the soundness of which experience has proved, 1 endeavour to distinguish the great and permanent forces from those which are secondary in strength or transient, assuming that, however numerous, and however complex the secondary forces may be, the great forces will in the end prevail. I have enumerated four forces which seem to me to be great, all of them tending to the ultimate sever- ance of the political connection (it is of the political connection alone that I speak), between Canada and the Old World. The four are distance, divergence of interest, divergence of political character, and the attraction of the great mass of English-speak- ing people which adjoins us on this continent. The first three are passed over by Sir Francis Hincks, with a few curt and somewhat superci- lious remarks, the upshot of which is that as these forces have never caused disloyalty in the jmst, they are not likely to cause it in the future. Some of them, being neglected by unwise politicians, did cause the American Revolution, mid what may almost be called a revolution in Can^/Ja. But who talks of disloyalty ? Not I, but SirFiancis Hincks. I should as soon think of taxing the natural succes- sion of the seasons with disloyalty, as the natural THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 131 course of political progress, tending towards an end, which, so far as we can see, is good. If Sir Francis Hincks chooses to hold the greater force guilty of disloyalty for ^eponderating over the lesser, he must be allowed to do so ; but for my part I wish to adhere to the rules of common sense and calmly to consider the probabilities of the future, as they result from past experience and present facts. Distance, divergence of political character and divergence of interest, operating in the past, have led in the case of the United States, to a complete political separation from the Mother Country ; in the case of Canada to that large measure of political separation which is called self- government, as well as to the practical rejection up to this time of hereditary aristocracy, the aboli- tion of the Church Establishment, and the adoption of a tariff, which takes us out of the commercial unity of the Empire, though it may not imply that we are in possession of complete commercial auto- nomy. It may be that these forces in the case of Canada are exhausted, and that so far as our poli- tical relations with the Mother Country are con- cerned, we have arrived at our final state. Let Sir Francis Hincks prove this or show that it is pro- bable and I am answered. But at present he is "irsBaamsm 132 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. meicJy rending his garments and throwing dust into the air. I pointed to the feebleness of England's diplo- macy on this Continent as proving the faintness of her interest. Sir Francis Hincks replies that all treaties made by governments, from the Treaty of Utrecht downwards have been attacked by the Opposition. But the strongest objections to the treaties by which Canadian interests were sacri- ficed did not come from the English Opposition ; they came from Canada. Does Sir Francis Hincks mean to say that the objections to the Oregon Treaty were mere party objections ? I know the Oregon treaty did not make us "disloyal" any more than it made us lame or bald, but it did show that England felt her interests to be any- thing but identical with those of Canada ; and where interests are not identical political union is apt not to be lasting. War made by England for an object in which Canada had no concern would place the divergence of interest in a strong light. Of this Sir Francis Hincks is aware ; but he thinks to conjure away the difficulty by repeating from a pamphlet of his own the formula that England will never make an unjust war, and that in a just war Canada will not object to suffer. The war against the French THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 133 Republic, the war with the United States in 1812, the Crimean war are not regarded by all English- men as just, and the Lorcha war with China was voted unjust by the House of Commons. But a word on this point hereafter. The fourth force is the attraction of our own Continent. In this, Sir Francis Hincks allows that there is something deserving his considera- tion, at least from the economical point of view. " This," he says, " is the single difficulty, for it must be admitted that if it were practica))le, the abolition of the Custom houses would be beneficial to both countries." At last then he has come to an important point, one on which he is eminently qualified to givean opinion, and on which he would be heard with the gi'eatest interest, especially at a moment when fiscal and commercial questions are pressing with no ordinary force upon the public mind. How does he deal with this point ? He evades it altogether, and passes it by without a v/rvd, on tlie pretence that " it could not be coswf niently discussed on such an occasion as this ; " covering his retreat by an irrelevant appeal to the prejudice against American charac- ter and institutions! We should admire the cour- age of the stage manager, who when ^he expectant audience were looking for the entrance of Hamlet, . jjju ff-ivjKfasmmgmm 134 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. could come before the scene and tell them that the part of Hamlet was omitted as it could not be conveniently introduced on such an occasion as the performance of the play. But my critic tells me that I have omitted from my list the greatest foi'ce of all, which, in his opinion, is the reluctance of the people of any- country to engage in revolutionary proceedings. " I am unaware," he says, " of any case in which a political revolution involving a change of alleg- iance has taken place without civil war, and I am fiimly persuaded that such a revolution would not take place in Canada without the occurrence of that frightful calamity." If in his idea of po- ll oical revolution the writer mentally includes civil war, as there seems reason to suspect, his statement i-» indisputable but at the same time unfruitful. He can hardly mean that a change of allegiance has never taken place without civil war. The history of Europe is full of changes of allegiance witliout civil war by cession, exchange, purchase, marriage of heir- eases, division jf inheritance. In our own 'time Neufchatel, the Ionian Islands, Savoy, Nice, Alaska, the Transvaal and Cyprus have changed their allegiance without civil war. There is apparently no law of nature any more than THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 135 •there is a principle of morality, which when two Kjivilized and intelligent communities find that political independence would be for their mutual benefit, forbids them to separate without first mak- ing war upon each other. Nor are we bound alto- gether to overlook the teachings of experience. Sir Francis H^ncks has in his mind the American Revolution. But Engla,nd has plainly and repeat- edly declared that she will not again be guilty of the folly which when the American Colonies were ripe for inde[jendence, compelled them to achieve it with revolutionary arms. Even at the time of the ([uarrel with America, the mobt clear-sighted Englishmen perceived, what all per- ceive now, that the struggle to keep a full-grown community in the leading strings of dependence, was a struggle against nature. " The power," said the Titnes, " which we desire to exercise is entirely a moral one, and strong or weaK, the de- pendency which wishes to quit us has only solemn- ly to make up its mind to this effect." Such, it may safely l)e said is the settled policy of Eng- land, when England is in her normal mo( d. Even in the midst ot a Conservative reaction, it would hardly be possible to drag the English people in- to a war for the purpose of preventing a British Colony from becoming a nation. If there is to be ■fp «nvpRss.,u^. uukMm.'ULxwemiimiuxammij un 136 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. a civil war it must be one got up by Sir Fi-ancis- Hincks and those who consider that it is con- trary to principle to allow a British Colony to take out its freedom as a nation without blood- shed. He seems to gloat over the idea that any attempt to change the existing system, would be resisted by the Orangemen with arms. I will not S8V that it surprii^es me that a public man once liberal should wi. ^^ «ee the political des- tinies of Canada and ot' . continent, violently controlled by a power whicn is the offspring and perpetuation of an old Irish feud. But I have already said that under the influence of a humane and tolerant legislation, Orangeism is declining in Ireland : and that the Canadian branch is not likely to survive the tree out of which it grows. If the account which Sir Francis, since the pub- lication of his paper, has given of Orangeism be true, if Orangeism aims at forcing the Canadian people to submit to the yoke of Protestant ascend- ancy, it is not unlikely to come to its end in a more sudden and violent way. To my enumeration of the secondary forces, Sir Francis Hincks takes no serious exception ; but he complains that I have left out the Scotch who, he says, have great political influence in Canada, and " would be as they have ever been with the THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 137 loyalists." I do not doubt that Scotchmen would, like all good citizens, be on the aide of the law. But looking to the part they have played in Canadian history, we should hardly rank them with the United-Empire Loyalists. Cei'tain it is that in the political revolution by which the Crown was practically stripped of its powera, Scotchmen played a part which to strong royalists and to the representatives of Royalty seemed anything but loyal. That Scotch Presbyterians as a class are less inclined to independence than English Episcopalians, it would surely be a historical paradox to assert. Whichever may be the side of good sense, the Scotch, unless they belie their history, will be found ultimately on that side. By reference to Sir Francis Hincks' paper, m.y readers will be able to judge whether I have given a fair account of his reply. They will see, at the same time, what points and arguments he has passed over in silence, and thus measure the strength of his resolution to deal fully and fairly with the whole question. The truth is, that if he attempted to deal fully ^nd fairly with the whole question, he would find himself compelled to come over to my side. He says he " is not presumptuous enough to declare ■i^.ii. -l»;iWii i lW i[ KWlW i Iil,lll|illl IIIL.jJlMJtl 138 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. that the subsisting connexion must be perpetual" He is not presumptuous enough to declare that he thinks it Hkeiy to be perpetual. He is not pre- sumptuous enough to declare that it is not sure to come to an end. The real force of his reply lies, I fear, not in its reasonings, but in the suggestion, which runs through the whole of it, that those who differ from him on these questions are disloyal, revolu- tionists and conspirators. He is constantly ap- pealing to the politi3i'l cowardice created by a terrorism of opinion. And with all who have anything to hope or i'.xrfium politicians or their organs, with all who, careless of the future, merely wish to be on the side of what is at present do- minant and orthodox, the appeal is sure to be effective. We see now how difficult it is to get at the real sentiment of the people of this country, and how fallacious after all, the official estimate of it derived from its public manifestations, may be. Who will speak his mind when, if he fails to agree with Sir Francis Hincks he is to be branded as a traitor and threatened with Orange revolvers ? In a recent debate in the English House of Commons, a member said he had been in Canada six years before, and had then found a THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 139 good deal of whai; he misnamed disloyal feeling in the background. In the background, if any- where it was sure to be. I have myself reasor to believe that a man may be publicly assailea with the utmost virulence for his opinions, by writers who in private do not differ from him. I know also that a public man may think it ne- cessary, for political purposes, to fall in with the prevailing sentiment, while in his own mind, he regards Annexation as the inevitable end. The English member of Parliament, if he kept his ear and his mind open, was at least as likely to get at the truth as Governors General holding their court or making their state tours. His report is, to say the least, not more incredible than reports which include the French and Irish in their flattering pic- tures of universal and enthusiastic devotion to the interests of Great Britain. Is it rash to infer from this sudden lavishness, after a period of parsimony, in the distribution of titles, and from other measures indicative of the same policy, that there may be a misgiving on the part of the Tory Government in England, as to the perfect agreement between the official representations and the real state of things ? For my own part I have formed the general impression that except when some special stimu- ■iJ^L,,, yn 140 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. lant is applied.the feeling of attachment to the present system, if not weak, is for the most part not so strong but that a powerful pressure of interest might give opinion a new turn; and moreover, that there is a considerable difference between the feelings of the immigrants and those of the native Canadians, the immigrants being often proud individually of their British birth, which they feel gives them a sort of superiority over the natives. I suspect that among the more active-minded of the natives the fire of na- tionality kindled by confederation still smoulders in spite of all the efforts of loyal politicians to ex- tinguish it, and that upon the appearance of a leader (an event certainly not very probable) it might again burst into a flame. In another critique we were bravely chal- lenged to try the question at the polls. That we should try at the polls a speculative question re- specting the future destiny of the country, seems a somewhat grotesque proposal. It would be something like asking a constituency to decide by ballot the probable recurrence of a comet. But in whose hands really are the polls ? In those of the people or in those of the party organiza- tions ? W . jld the managers allow a self -no- minated candidate to go with an issue of his own THE POLxTICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 141 choosing before the people, and freely to take their votes upon it ? Sir Francis Hincks as an experienced politician must know that such a challenge is a mockery. It seems time to ask ourselves in what loyalty really consists ? Is there any sound principle of public morality which renders it criminal to con- template, to propose, or to promote by legal means the political severance of a colony from its mother country, supposing separation to be good for both. It seems time, I say, that we should look this question in the face. It is folly, in any case, to let a shadow bar the path, or to allow bad citizens to clothe themselves with a fictitious virtue, and taint good citizens with a fictitious crime. The loudness with which loyalty is professed by certain lips is enough to suggest the necessity of investigating its claims to our veneration. We know that the name is capable of abuse. We know that it was abused by the political sharpers who the other day were oppres- sing and plundering the Southern States. We know that it has been abused by tyrants, who have always called slaves loyal and branded patriots with disloyalty. In its etymological sense loyalty might be predicated of every law-abiding citizen. But under the Feudal System it denoted TxzssasmBsa U2 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. the sentiment connected with personal allegiance. It was then no irrational emotion, but the ce- ment, rational because necessary, of the peculiar institutions of the time. It had nothing in it servile, reactionary or savouring of later super- stitions about Legitimacy and the Divine Right of Kings. It was hai-dly even dynastic. It did not hinder the framers of the Great Charter or the founders of the House of Commons from adopting bold measures of innovation when inno- vation seemed improvement. It did not hinder theni even from chauf^incj their allegiance when they saw good reason for the change. But we are not living in the Middle Ages. The feudal doctrine of personal allegiance is not the basis of modern institutions. Naturalization laws and treaties have distinctly set it aside. It can no longer form the rule or the warrant of our politi- cal actions. It can no longer forbid us to do, or absolve us if we neglect to do, anything that is required by the common weal. It is superseded by the sentiments of duty to the State and devo- tion to the common good. He in whom those sentiments manifest their presence, who keeps all laws, obeys all constituted authorities, and seeks no change except by peaceful and legal means cannot, among freemen, be called disloyal. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 143 If mere change of allegiance, or the contempla- tion of it, without any disposition to rebellion, is disloyalty, all the emigrants from Europe to the United States must be tiisloyal. All the persons of Canadian birth who have settled on the other side of the line must be disloyal. The present proprietors of the Olohe, now Sir Francis Hincks' best allies, must have gone fearfully near the verge of disloyalty when they took up their residence as journalists in New York. The case of the mass of people collectively forming a colony does not appear, in this respect, to differ in principle from that of the individual emigrant. The conservative Lord Derby said in a speech, already cited, to the electors of King's Lynn, that Canada and Australia must, as everybody knew, soon become separate nations. Was Lord Derby disloyal himself, and a preacher of dis- loyalty to others ? In a more general sense loyalty means devotion to a public principle, whether it be the principle of legitimacy embodied in a particular dynasty, as in the case of the Jacobites, or one of a more modern and rational kind. A man may be said, in this sense to be loyal if, being a citize' ) the New World, he is faithful to its social principles, to its hopes, to the apparent designs of Providence Ai..j.njBr. 144 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. in thus leading up mankind out of the realms of feudalism and placing them on a Continent ad- mirably fitted to be the scene of an ampler and happier development of humanity, to the people whose labour has won for themselves and for all of us here a land beyond the influence and tradi- tions of Norman conquest. Loyalty of this kind may perhaps be soon put to the proof ; for there is every appearance of a renewed efibi-t on the l>art of aristocracy to propagate its intli.ence and restore its ascendancy here. Sir Francis Hincks says that England " makes no attempt whatever to introduce into Canada any of her peculiar in- stitutions or customs.'* Historically this is scarcely correct, since an hereditary peerage was projected, hereditary baronetcies were conferred, and the State Church of England was established and endowed, while orders of knighthood, though not hereditary, are more congenial, to say the least, to aristocratic than to democratic institu- tions. But the hope of fostering aristocratic sentiment and antagonism to American democracy has never been quite relinquished, and it has evidently been revived by the Conservative re- action in England, consequent on the influx of wealth, and by the reawakening of that spirit of military and territorial aggrandizement which is THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 146 a part of the same movement. An imperialist and aristocratic policy (the two are, in the case of England, practically identical) is in the ascen- dant, and its operations are evidently about to be extended to the Colonies. Confederates, it is ex- pected, will be found in Colonial wealth and in Colonial love of titles and social distinction. We are to be made instrumental, in common with the Empire of India, to the suppression of Liberalism in the Mother Country. But what the Tory aris- tocracy of England specially want of Canada is that she shall serve it as a political outpost, and interfere as much as possible with the consolida- tion of democratic institutions on this Continent. If Canada lends herself to that game she lends hei-self to her own ruin. She lends herself to her own ruin for the benefit, not of the Mother Country, but merely of the aristocratic party in it ; for what the England of the people desires of the Colonies is only that they should make her the mother of free nations. Aristocracy, not monarchy, is now the real power and the power against the designs of which those who are true to New World principles have to be on their guard. Constitutional monarchy is a mask prudently retained by aristocracy to hide features which, when actually displayed, J 146 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. have seldom excited love. If the Royal pre- rogative were to be in any measure restored, it would be wielded by aristocratic hands in the interest of the order. I am not so irrational as to be an enemy to mon- archy in the abstract, nor have I " incessantly sneered at monarchical institutions throughout my essay," as Sir Francis Hincks in his usual style of invidious exaggeration asserts. I only say that hereditary government belongs to the Old World, and that if we rely on the hereditary principle as our safeguard against the dangers of democracy here, we shall be leaning on a bruised reed, and building on a frail foundation. Nay, even in the Old World, at least in the- more civilized part of it, the hereditary prin- ciple appears to have arrived at its last stage of existence. In the East it still prevails in com- bination with other primitive customs and be- liefs. It still prevails in half Asiatic Russia, where it is the necessity at once of a vastly ex- tended empire and a race untrained in self-govern- ment. But in civilized Europe, one great nation has discarded it, while in the rest it lingers with grep.tly reduced prerogatives, and in several cases with a revolutionary title. Legitimacy is depart- ing from the scene with the melancholy forms of THE POLITICAL DESTINE OF CANADA. 147 the last Bourbons. To turn the eyes of the people here to the hereditary principle as the permanent basis of government and the security for social order, would be to disregard all the signs of the times. The only possible basis of government here is the national will ; the only security for social order is the recognised justice and expedi- ency of institutions. To purify the Republic of faction, demagogism, wirepulling, corruption and all the other evils by which thoughtful men see that it is fearfully beset, is no doubt a difficult task; but it is a noble task; it is a task in which public characters at least as high as any that present themselves in the history of mon- archies may be formed ; and it is the task allotted to us here. Here, apart from any republican cant we must be loyal to the people, to whom by right of labour this continent belongs; and we must show our loyalty to them not by pander- ing to their vanity and their passions, but by trying to make their reason and their morality prevail. Native Canadians will more readily admit this than Englishmen in whom the hereditary sentiment is ingrained, and who can- not fancy a government built securely on any other foundation. Yet we may all learn a lesson and take some comfort from the devotion with 148 THE POLITICAL DJSSTINY OF CANADA. which the American people supported a gjovern- raent based on the national will during their great civil war. Social influence the Crown still retains, though some of us have been carried by their loyalty to the verge of servility in tracing the morality of English men and English women io the beneficent example of a Court, Whether the social influence of the representative of the Crown in a colony is good depends not only on his personal qualities, but on the suitableness of the aristocratic model for our imitation, and the effect which an attempt to imitate it may have on the genuineness of our social character and the simplicity of our social life That the violence of political war is tempered and its coai*seness refined by the presence of a British nobleman, is but a pleasing illusion as the records of the last session show. Neither at Ottawa nor at Westminster will the passion, which is gene- rated by the fierce struggle for power and by the presence of hated antagonists, allow itself to be bri«lled by any silken thread. It would be wrong to say that the presence of a discreet and well- bred man of the world, with the presti)?e of rank, has not sometimes moderated the factious ex- cesses of party leaders ; but if we can find nn THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 149 surer antidote to faction than an influence of this sort, our political prospect is not fair. Political inconsistency is always a venial fault; i ot seldom it is a virtue; but to warrant us in recognising it as a virtue some terms must be kept with the past. It is trying to patience to see men who have spent half their public lives in re- ducing the power of the Crown in a Colony to a shadow, turn round and denounce us as traitors because we cannot take the shadow for a sub- stance and adopt it not only as the palladium of our political confidence, but as the object of a political religion. I did not arraign the decision of the Governor-General in the case of the Pacific Railway investigation, so that Sir Francis Hincks need not introduce that issue ; but I said that his decision amounted to a total abnegation of real power, in other words to a declaration of faineancy. And this faineancy is the work of Reformers who are filled with loyal horror at the thought of any further change. I perfectly understand the position of those who seeing, as every man of sense must see, the perils of democracy, wished to retain the reality of monarchical rule, especially as the power of the Crown in the ease of a dependency was practi- cally vested in a representative who could never be 160 THE POLTTICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. a George IV. It is not so easy to understand the position of those who having destroyed the reality make a desperate stand in defence of the name. Attachment to England, to the England of the people, may surely b-^ strong in a breast in which confidence in the hereditary principle of govern- ment is weak,and the love of aristocratic privilege till weaker. We, or at least the English portion of us, are bound to our mother country by ties of blood, history, language and literature, which would not snap with the attenuated thread of political connection. But we do not show our- selves the worthy offspring of England by want of self-reliance and self-respect. An English writer of note, the otherday, taking pity on the low estate of colonists, proposed to elevate them by the dis- tribution among them of a few more pieces of rib- bon or by the admission of a few of them to the professions r^ the mother country. It is always assumed that a Colony can have no honours or worthy objects of ambition in itself ; and the as- sumption is too well justified by the bearing of many colonists and the language of many organs of colonial sentiment. Yet the people of the New World, those of English blood especially, have been picked out of the people of the Old World THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 151 Isy a process of selection far higher and more •searching than those which had determined the elements of any previous migration ; by a process which combined religions and political aspiration with commercial enterprise, and which could hardly fail to bring to these shores the ilower of the race. The qualities of self-government surely reside in the freeholders of Canada in as full a measure as in the tenant farmers of England or the masses of the English towns. In the products of industry our kinsmen in the United States a.re fast taking the first place among all nations. The historic glories of England belong alike to both branches of the race.; and the American branch has in addition the history of an heroic colonization. Writers of Canadian history fill their pages with minute details of political strife or of border war. They leave untold, and soon they will have lost the traditional materials for telling, the most moving and instructive taJe of all, that of the struggle with the wilderness. If no escutcheon can be bright without blood, surely blood and brave blood enough was shed in the war of 1812 and in the American Civil War. Culture and art of course come later, but in time they come ; and manners are formed in the school of equal- mSSSmSSC 152 THE FOLlilCAL DESTINY OF CANADA. ity better in all essential respects than any that a representative of European privilege can teach.* Sir Francis Hincks crows over the admission that the crisis of our destiny may yet be a long wa off. It may be a veiy long way oflf, for aught I can tell. Its arrival depends on the course of events not only in Canada, England, and the United States, but in the world at large, for the partnership of nations and the sympa- thetic interaction of their politics become more manifest overy day. But if Sir Francis Hincks will examine the cases of the unification of Ger- many, the liberation of Italy, the union between England and Scotland, to which I have referred, he will see that the event, long delayed, some- times comes at last like a thief in the night. There is at present a Conservative and Imperial- ist reaction in England, which extends in some measure to the Colonies. But history is full of these backstreams. If the plethora of wealth and the other special causes to which the reac- tion is traceable, should cease to operate, the re- action itself would subside; England would return * The social consequences of colonial self -prostration are what they might be expected to ho. The author of the Abode of Snow has noticed the amusing way in which the social superiority of the Indian Service to coloniste is asserted on. board mail steam.- ; THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 163 to her normal mood ; moderation and sobriety of mind would resume their sway over her coun- sels ; her people would again become conscious of the fact, which seemed to be dawning on them twenty years ago, that enonnous and unnatural agglomerations of territory are not really and per- manently conducive to wealth, strength or hap- piness. As it is, "Jingoism" is by no means uni- versal in the mother country ; it is compara- tively weak in the north of England, and has been almost entirely repelled by the good sense of Scotland. To the more clear-sighted it is al- ready evident, that Imperialism is likely to bring as its penalty a loss or diminution of English liberty, and a corruption of the political character of the English people. But suppose Jingoism should prevail, and England should remain in her present frame of mind. Engrossed by East- em aggrandizement, she may become less anxious to retain Western Colonies which contribute much to her military liabilities, and little to her military strength. There is yet a third con- tingency, not to be left altogether out of sight* Jingoism, like Chauvinism, arousing the natural jealousy and the just resentment of nations may, like Chauvinism, find its Sedan. In one way or other, the world, menaced by the ambition of mmmmmmmm 154 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. aspirants to universal Empire, has always con- trived to deliver itself in the end. Sir Francis Hincks trusts in sentiment, which, it is true* =often lingers and rules the conduct of nations after the solid grounds for it have been removed. Still sentiment is not adamant, as even Canadian history will prove. It is not likely that any political question will arise between the Colony and the Mother Coun- try. This has been already admitted. But with regard to war, military expenditure and commer- cial autonomy it is not unlikely that serious questions may arise. Sir Francis Hincks says that England will never get us into an unjust war. The England of the people will never get us into any war at all ; for it is the England of industry, coloniza- tion and peace ; nor is the England of the people in any way tempted to crusade against the politi- cal progress of other nations. It would not have made war upon the French Republic, and consequently it would not have involved Canada in the war of 1812. But the England with which we are likely to have to deal for the present is the England of the aristocracy, and the England of the aristocracy has twice within a few years brought Canada to the verge of war. It brought *?«>■♦?!■ =T«!S»»~*^«lwJ'-W>i-5f;.. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. 166 her to the verge of war for slavery, to which aristocracy Tas bound, both by> the sympathy which unites privileged classes and by common enmity to the Republic, but which, had it tri- umphed by our aid, would have filled the veins of society on this continent with moral, politi- cal and industrial poison ; and, again, the other day, for the maintenance within the borders of Christendom of Turkish despotism, with fatal- ism, slavery, polyg amy and concubinage in its train. In both these cases the dependency would have been dragged, not only into suicidal folly, but into crime. The Anglo-Turkish convention may be described as a provision for a war, at no distant date, between England and Russia in Asia Minor ; and the object of that war, even supposing justice to be on the side of England, would be so utterly remote from Canadian inter- ests and obligations that to shed Canadian blood for them would be almost criminal. War has been called the game )f kings. It is equally the game of aristocracies, and not only their game but their natural policy. Apart from special objects of political propagandism or of territorial ambition, interest leads them to stimu- late the military and imperial spirit as an anti- dote to thoughts which lead to political change. 166 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. Mr. Forster's fair vision of a Pacific British Empire has faded away. The British Empire stands revealed as an Empire, like other Empires, of military force. To that force all its members will probably be called upon to contribute, espe- cially if, by their martial enthusiasm, they invite the demand. Even the peace party in England has an interest in enforcing the principle, because members who do not contribute, not feeling the burden, will be apt, in gaiety of heart, to applaud a spirited foreign policy, and to strengthen by their sympathy the hands of the war party in the Mother Country. But, when the call comes, the divergence of character between a military nation of the Old World and a commercial nation of the New World can hardly fail to appear. Canadians have shown that they are warlike enough in their own defence, but taxation for the maintenance of great standing armaments is one of the things to escape which many people have come here. We of this generation do not know what war is. We might know if England were to provoke a hostile combination of maritime powers, as she one day will, if she is bent on making the Medi- terranean a British Lake, Commercial autonomy again is a C[uestion which can hardly fail soon to become practical, which in ^y .' '■*■' • .T^: "•^- y^v .^;?'.9gr :»;,s(«>? jj THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 157 fact has become practical already. It is impos- sible that Canada should long remain content with the situation in which her industries are placed by the existing state of things. She can- not bear to have them at once excluded from their natural markets on this Continent and exposed to the crushing force of European and American competition. In the case of America indeed com- petition is not all ; I am credibly informed at least that a sort of commercial war is waged by sending in American goods at a loss to prevent the development of certain manufactures in this country. This, it has already been said, is not free trade, nor is it a system which any English free trader can reasonably ask us to maintain. Our producers, placed under these artificial dis- advantages by a political connection, naturally seek relief in some countervailing revision of the tariff. But when everything in the way of tariff revision has been tried, it will probably be found that the one thing needed, and the only effective remedy, is free access to the markets of our own continent. The abolition of the frontier custom houses between Canada and the United States is the policy to which, as Sir Francis Hincks allows, the common interest of both coun- tries points. Nature beckons us to it with both li / 168 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. hands. A special reciprocity treaty, supposing it could be negotiated, would be hardly worth hav- ing in comparison with a complete measure of continental free trade. It would not rid us of the expense and annoyance of the customs line ; it would probably be unfair to some interests on both sides ; it would be difficult of execution in r^ard to manufactures, because Canada could hardly be prevented from becoming an entrepot for Eu- ropean contraband ; it would be precarious and liable to be overturned, with the industries built on it, by the first gust of anger between the nations: whereas a customs union would be in it- self a strong cement of friendly relations, though it would not, any more than the postal union into which we have already entered, interfere in prin- ciple with political independence. But a customs union with the United States presupposes com- mercial autonomy; as indeed does any alteration of the tariff involving a large increase of the duties on European goods ; and the commercial autonomy of the dependencies is not yet fully established, though lai^e concessions to fiscal self-government have been made, and in the case of the Australian Colonies, there was some years ago almost f^, direct admission of the principle ; an admission qualified m its practical bearing by the fact that >■. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA 15{> ^> I at that time England was disposed to l)elievc that thocolonies injured only themselves by protection, whereas she is now more disposed to believe that they also injure her. While these lines are passing through the press the London Tlmea points out, that the dependen- cies being included in the commercial treaties made by the Imperial country, it is not in the power of England to permit any exercise of com- mercial autonomy by which the " most favoured nation " clauses or other stipidations of those trea- ties would be infringed. We are thus brought face to face with the fact that while the existing relations between the dependency and the Im- perial country continue, the people of the depen- dency will be liable to having their commercial interests seriously affected by treaties in the nego- tiation of which they have no voice and which are probably framed almost exclusively with re- ference to the wishes of the people of the Imper- ial country. We are made sensible, in the most forcible manner, of the limited nature of the self- government which under the most liberal of colo- nial systems, a dependency can attain. It is not to manufacturers alone that economi- cal separation from our own continent is injurious. All Canadian property must be depreciated by w^ miwm fm 160 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. k ( nj that which arrests the natural flow of capital and commercial life. Cut off the most smiling section of England from the rest, and its aspect would soon be changed. Even property of little value in itself often acquires a high value by econo^^f^i • cal union with a wealthy countr}'^, as the modi's and lochs of Scotland have acquired a high value by union with the wealth of England. Gifts however gracious, will not restore the life of the past to the City of Quebec; but, economically united to the wealth of the continent, she might, with her beauty and iier historic interests become the Edinburgh of America. I am as fully persuaded as Sir Francis Hincks that the Conservative Protectionists of Canada deem their views consistent with their loyalty to the Crown ; and I would at once recall any words of mine which I thought capable of conveying a contrary impression. No doubt it is against the United States immediately and mainly, not against British competition, that the Protection- ism of our Conservatives is pointed. Still England is concerned, and the defeat of the Canadian Con- servatives on the tariff resolution was a matter of rejoicing, as Sir Francis Hincks is aware, to all parties alike in the Imperial country. The com- mercial question must be pressing when it can THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 1«I force the Conservative party in this country to place itself in a position at all equivocal towards its political allies in Great Britain. No one can look forward with complacency to a separation of the colony from the Mother Country brought about by a misunderstanding between them ; apart even from sentiment, such an event would be an immense disaster. But if the yoke of political subjection galled till it was practically removed, we must expect that the yoke of diplomatic and commercial subjection, which has notbeen removed, will sometimes gall. Nor, in regard to the internal constitution of our Dominion, is it likely that matters will long remain as they are. Sir Francis Hincks sets me down as bitterly hostile to Confederation because I hold that the measure did not go far enough and has consequently failed of its effect. The Provinces have not been blended into a united community ; they remain separate interests, ex- ternal in a great measure even to the Old Cana- dian parties, and make their separate terms witli the party chiefs. Sectionalism, both of race and religion, is tos strong and as noxious as e\ ar ; the conflict between Orangemen and Catholics has attained the chanicter of a petty civil war, and Sir Francis Hincks himself speaks of the Scotch i" w I ll 162 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. as a separate nationality, with special sentiments and exercising a special influence in our political affairs. I do not cast the blame on England. Some at least of the English statesmen who were engaged, and perhaps the English people generally believed, that Confederation was destined, at no distant period, to be crowned by nationality. Lord Derby, from his very want of originality, is always a good index of the prevailing tone of the time. That the functions of the Dominion Government are clearly defined by statute I have never denied ; but what is in federations, the proper work of the federal government — the conduct of foreign affairs and the determination of all questions between the members of the fed- eration — is, in the case of dependencies, reserved to the government of the Imperial country. The consequence is that the Dominion Government is without adequate objects, and the cost of a session at Ottawa, computed at $600,000, is ridiculously disproportioned to the amount of useful work done. To legislative union, at all events, we must come, if we are to be a united community independent of the American Republic. The mere expense of this galaxy of little constitutional monarchies with their separate parliaments and trappings, in the THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 163 -present state of our finances, will soon enforce a reconsideration of the existing arrangement. Since the publication of his reply to me, Sir Francis Hincks has been engaged in a controversy with Sir Julius Vogel, lately Premier of New Zealand, on the subject of Imperial Federation. Sir Julius Vogel urgently recorn mends that mea- sure, on the ground that for want of it the Col- onial Empire is tending to dissolution, so that the confidence of this very competent judge in con- nexionist sentiment and the influences which tell in favour of the existing system is not so great as that of Sir Francis Hincks. Sir Julius seems to have caught the tone of British loyalty more successfully than that of British liberty. He appears to think the coercion of Cuba by Spain an example not unfit for England to follow towards British Colonies. Unwarned by the em- blematic teaching of King Canute he proposes to arrest the tide of progress by an Act of Parlia- ment, declaring that no British Colony shall ever become an independent nation. It is curious to -consider what would have been the effect of such an Act had it been operative in the case of the United States. We should have had fifty mil- lions, and in time a hundred millions, of English- .speaking people without entire self-government, 164 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. J and perhaps with their capacity for it fataUy im- paired by the long habit of dependence ; a giant in leading strings ; a colossal baby among the nations; a frame of prodigious magnitude, but without a centre of thought or action in itself, and borrowing a languid animation from the heart and brain of a distant body. In place of Ameri- can patriotism we should have had the worship of some British nobleman sent out as CJovernor- General ; in place of national pride, restless and self-abasing efforts to attract the notice of the superior country ; in place of the elevating ambi- tion which looks to national gratitude for its re- ward, the ambition not so elevating which looks elsewhere. The United States in perpetual tute- lage is the logical consequence of the principles held in common by Sir Julius Vogel and Sir Francis Hincks ; but are they ready to embrace it ? If not, they must admit that their loyalty^ like mine, has rational bounds. One word before I close, upon a subject which is partly personal but concerns others more than myself. In the paper on which I have been com- menting, it is suggested, and in another paper it has been plainly stated that I have had some political object of my own in view ; that I have attempted to form an Independence party with THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 166 myself at the head of it, and that I have solicited the co-operation of members of the House of €ommons, thongh in vain. This is the stuff of which a politician's dreams are made. I have never attempted to form a party of any kind, or fiolicited the co-operation of any member of the House of Commons in any plan or for any ob- ject whatever. The National movement was the offspring, the inevitable offspring, of Confederation. It was fostered by the appeals of men who have since found it convenient not only to turn against it, but to brand it as sedition, and to hound down those who sympathized with it as traitors. In the essay of Professor Caimes on Colonial Government, a speech of Mr. Brown is quoted as a proof that the public men of Canada were making no secret of their aspirations. Be- fore I settled in Canada, the movement had been fully developed ; it had put forth its manifesto in the form of the remarkable pamphlet entitled *' Canada First ; " it had given birth to a National Association, which I believe was originally com- posed of native Canadians, and of which I never -was a member. The stirrings of national life were felt as usual iiot only in the political but in the intellectual 'WW'' 166 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. sphere. There was a desire for a national ma^- zine, and as I had leisure and Uterary experience, the publishers enlisted me in the enterprise. It was at first determined, at my instance, that the magazine should be purely literary, and that politics should be excluded. From this determi- nation it was found necessary to depart, in defer- ence to the taste of the general public, and an article, non-party in its character, on Current Events was introduced. The measure of success achieved by the Canadian Monthly,* in face of the tremendous competition not only of the Eng- lish magazines, but of the splendid periodical lit- erature of the United States, shows the strength of the sentiment which gave it birth. That he has an organ in Canada for the discussion of a Canadian question. Sir Francis Hincks owes to the movement of which he speaks with contemp- tuous hatred, and which he and the politicians as a class have, not unnaturally, done their utmost to put down. Of the founders of the weekly Nation I was not one ; I was not in the country a^j the time. Looking to the circumstances of our country, and * Let me take the opportunity as one of the foundei-a of the Magazine of offering my best wishes to the spirited and patriotic publishers into whose hands it has lately passed. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 167 the numbers of our reading public, I shouki hardly have been inclined to attempt the publication of a journal in so expensive and aristocratic a form The programme, instead of embodying my special opinions on the Colonial question, contained a clause in favour of Imperial Federation. At a later period, I accepted an invitation to join the paper, because it was in the hands of my friends, and because I felt sure that it would be con- ducted honourably and with perfect independence. It sought, consistently I believe, to aid in raising the national spirit above mere colonialism, in giving national interests the ascendency over those of party, in maintaining decency of discussion, and in protecting the character ^f public men. Its succ(;s8 was great considering its form and the limited t.rea of its circulation. I think I may say with truth that it was regarded by men even of opposite opinions as creditable to the Canadian press, &,nd that it thus performed the proper duties of journolism, and fulfilled the legitimate objects of a journalist's ambition. It lent, if I mistake not, an impulse to the growing independence of our press, and when the loss of the principal writers, who were called away by other work, compeUed us to suspend the publication, another indepen- dent journal sprang from the same root. ! ! 168 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. Sympathize with the national movement of course I did : in what should a political student and inquirer feel an interest, if not in a move- ment which promised to give birth to a nation ? Sympathize with it I did, and heartily, but I left its political conduct to Canadians, I had turned from the gate of politiwil life when it was opened to me in England, and I have never sought or desired to enter it here * I have taken no active part in Canadian politics. A few days ago I at- tended for the first time a political meeting. My name would hardly have been heard in connection with public affairs if the rules and privileges of journalism had not been systematically violated in my person, with the design of driving from the Canadian press an independent journalist whose pen might infringe the monopoly of opinion which it was the object of the assailants, for their commercial as well as for their political purposes, to maintain. It was the independence of the Canadian press, not a political theory or ii * Perhaps I ought to Bay that I whh at one time inclined to entertain a proposal of bringing me forward for the Local House. It appeared to me that the Local House ought to be regarded as municipal rather than political, and there were some educational questionH of importance which I might have taken up, there being then no Minister of Education ; but I found party politics in my way, and at once gave up the idea. ..tu.%uj«;<*ii«^i THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 169 scheme, that was attacked in my person. Err I veiy likely may from ignorance or misconcep- tion ; but there is not a man in the Dominion to whom, individually, it matters less what course political events may take, than it does to me. In seconding, as far as I was able with propriety to second, the movement in favour of Canadian nationality, I was not actuated, so far as I am aware, by any selfish or sinister motive, but merely by a natural sympathy vnth an aspiration generous in itself, and in accordance with the views as to the general destinies of free British colonies which I had previously expressed ; and I feel some satisfaction in thinking that 1 have not to bear even that small portion of blame which attaches to a private citizen, if nothing is now left as an ultimate mark for Canadian statesman- ship but to prepare the terms of continental union. 1 if opmioisr OF LORD BLACHFORD, Formerly Permanent Under Seci'etary for the Colonies, ON IMPERIAL FEDERATION As the colonies develop fchey must either become separate nations, or they must have a share — eventually the greater share — in the government of the British Confederacy. Questions might arise on the working of the Federal Constitution. It does not appear whether the Imperial Ministry (which would include at least the foreign, coloni- al, and war ministers) is to be controlled and practically appointed by the Imperial Legislature or by the English Parliament ; nor whether India and the Crown colonies are to be considered as Imperial or English property ; nor whether the stimulus given to the establishment of responsible government in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales would be advantageous or otherwise ; nor whether recent experience recommends a composite Legis- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 171 ature ; nor whether it would Ix) possible, with the requisite promptitude, to eradicate the senti- mental objection which most Englishmen would feel to reducing the old historical House of Com- mons to the dimensions of a local legislature ; nor whether it would be worth while for the colonies to send away for the greater part of every year so large a proportion of their ..-ading men as would be necessary to secure a proper voting power in the Imperial Councils. But, all these queries notwithstanding, I am quite prepared to admit that the integrity of the British Empire could not be perpetuated by any rearrangement less objectionable than that which Sir Julius Vogel proposes. Indeed, I would add the observation that if, in the course of fift}- years, such a meta- morphosis became necessary, it might be found convenient, before the century was out, to con- sider whether the seat of government ought not to be at Melbourne rather than London. Tlie relative position of Australia and India, added to the acquisitions of Oceania and New Guinea, certain to be effected under Australasian influence, appear-j to point to such a transfer, which by that time might be justified by the relative wealth and population of the different States of the Union. The question would be a very real one, and would 172 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. have arisen before now with regard txj New York, if it had been possible for us to retain our North American provinces till now. I do not raise any quarrel upon these details, or pursue the thoughts which they suggest. I object to the conception out of which they atise. With "Empire" that conception has nothing to do. The Imperial relation only subsists in substance between the United Kingdom on the one hand and India and the Crown colonies on the other. It subsists in form and in form only between the United Kingdom and the constitutional colonies. For that formal and delusive relation of empire it is proposed, by steps, which, if they are taken at all, must be taken in no long time — say in the course of the next half century — to suljstitute a real working confederacy. The conception is that of a close and permanent association between self- governed States, not arising out of geographical neighbourhood. To this conception I (ibject as hoUow and impracticable. Every association of human beings must have a purpose, and the object of every association must be to combine in emplojring means for the attainment of that purpose, according to some un- derstood rules. Men associate for comfort or pleasure, and become a club ; for gain, and be- THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 173 come a company ; to return a member of Parlia- ment, and become a committee ; for the advance- ment of art or science, and become a society ; for the all-embracing purpose of securing order, pros- perity, and safety in tlie territory which they oc- cupy, and become a St^te. The proposed Confederation will be an associa- tion. What is its common purpose ? Evidently to secure and further the order, prosperity, and safety of t!ie Cor federation, so far as these are to be secured and furthered by the action of a com mon and supreme authority. But in what sense is this a common purpose ? A common aspiration it no doubt is. But a common purpose, capable of being made the principle of a confederacy, must be something which can be pursued by com- mon efforts and a common policy. Of what com- mon efforts and common policy will the proposed confederacy be capable ? What is that sphere of combined action which is a condition of its real existence ? I understand alliances and treaties between in- dependent powers, for specific purposes. I even understand what is in form a general defensive and offensive alliance, if it is, at bottom, based on some such specific and terminable purpose. But a confederacy affects a nmch closer solidarity ; it 174 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. aims at securing that, within certain limits, but under all sorts of unforeseen circumstances, the interests, and quarrels, and responsibilities of each part shall be the interests, and quarrels, and responsibilities of the whole. What are these limits ? What are to be the functions of the con- federacy as such with respect to these interests and responsibilities ? The supi-eme power of a confederacy may deal cither with the purely internal affairs of its com- ponent members, or with their relations to each other, or with their foreign policy. With the firdt of these it is fully admitted that the intended confederacy will have nothing what- ever to do. This immense department of law and government must be exclusively and jealously and properly reserved to the State authorities. The effect of this reservation in confining the functions of the central power will at once be felt if we remember how small a proportion of the legislative and administrative action of our own country relates to anything but the internal affairs of the United Kingdom. Next come what may be called inter-provincial ([uestions. Such, it may be said, are customs du- ties, ocean postage, immigration, the treatment of offences committed at sea, extradition, alienage, ^£'"5^^ THE POLniOAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 175 slavery, the treatment of natives, the machinery of common defence, and others, possibly which do not occur to me. Each of these has called for consideration in its day, and some have presented great difficulty. But much has settled itself Events have deteraiined that, in respect to self- governed colonies, seme of these, like customs duties and immigrati!).j, must be treated as inter- nal. About others, like alienage, extradition, and the treatment of offences committed on the high seas, arrangements may be necessary, as with fo- reign countiies, but no serious difficulty need be anticipated. Others are detinitively settled l>y an accepted Imperial law, like slavery ; others nar- rowed geographically by the course of events, like the treatment of natives. Some will remain the subject of what may be called administrative negotiation, like ocean postage and (I should say) the machinery of common defence. Great ques- tioiib ii^ this department can at present scarcely be said 10 exist, while small ones are generally mat- ters of discussion between the home Government and one or more of the colonies. It is perhaps worth while to explain the mode in which such discussions are now conducted. They are con- ducted through the governor, through whom all authoritative communicat. jns pass, and whose :M 176 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. advice the home Government expects in all mat- ters to receive ; but whose reports are supple- mented by concurrent explanations received less authoritatively from the accredited agents of the different colonial Governments, who have full cognisance of the views of their respective Go- vernments, free access to the Colonial Office, and full opportunities ibr acting in concert on any question in which any number of colonies have a common interest. This method in probably not without some inconvenience. No method is likely to be otherwise which involves negotia- tions of detail — sometimes in the nature of bar- gains — between authorities at opposite ends of the earth. But it is, after all, not very inappro- priate to the work which has to be done ; it is capable of adjustment to meet discovered incon- veniences or altering circumstances; and I am not aware of any reason for supposing that colo- nial Governments would prefer to it either Sir Julius Vogel's immediate proposal of a represen- tative Council of Advice, which, if it is to have the power of controlling the Government of Eng- land, should also have that of binding those of the colonies, or the prospect of a Confederate Legislature, which would settle questions over their heads, and whose conclusions, if they hap- i.MJt k^itin M ui tfiiiteM.^'ri it»t.uJ%t.'a:fl..'-^^>t THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 177 pened to be carried by English votes, would not be always well received. Assuming, however, that some two or three questions of this class would be more satisfactorily settled by a repre- sentative central authority than hammered out by piecemeal negotiation, I contend that their aggregate and decreasing bulk is plainly insuffi- cient to strengthen materially the raUon d'etre for a Confederate Legislature. It remains that this ralson d'etre must be found, if anywhere, in foreign politics. And here it appears to me, the conception completely breaks down. To such a confederacy as we are imagin- ing foreign politics may be supposed to supply a sphere of action, only till we remember that it does not sup[)ly a common purpose. For, in re- lation to foreign politics, what ])uq)oses are com- mon to England and her colonies as a mass ? In the course of the last thirty years we have had wars in China, Intlia, and Abyssinia, some or other of us iiave talked of war with the United States in aid of the St3cessionist.s, of war with Austria and Piussia on behalf of Denmark, of war with Germany in aid of France, and now of war with Russia on behalf of Britisli interests in or about Turkey. In wliich of these questions have the colonies any interest ? If any such 178 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. question involves us in a maritime war, they will no doubt suffer, but their interest in that case will not be in the object of the war, but in the- war itself. It will be a simple interest of suffer- ing. We may fairly enough say to them as the whole Empire may at any moment be called on to put itself into peril for their protection, so they must be content to suffer inconvenience when the Empire goes to war for its own objects. But we cannot allege that they will be suffering for any object of their own or in support of a policy from which they will derive any benefit. What have they to do with the command of the Medi- terranean, or the road to India, or the balance of power, or the invasion of Belgium ? One of them is interested in the cod fisheries of the At- lantic, another in the development of Oceania or the annexation of New Guinea, anothe; in the pacification of Central Africa — objects all which have to be considered between Great Britain and the particular colony concerned, because in each case we are responsible for asserting; the rights of those who depend upon us. But in the external war policy of the Empire as such no colony has any tangible share, except in so far as they may suffer from a state of war. No doubt their in- rtuence in our councils would, exceptia excipiendiSf THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 179 be pacific, and this is so far good. But is it yet light that the councils of any great nation should be weighted with an element which is steadily against war, without having an interest in those oljjects for which war may become im- peratively necessary ? I admit that in some com- mercial matters confederation might facilitate the conduct of negotiations with foreign Powers, u ho cannot understand colonial independence. But this would be at the cost of enabling the colonies to obstruct, in its application to foreign countries, the principle of free trade, or any other on which England may consider her commercial prosperity to depend. Is it possible to expect that any great Power will consent to be so weighted { llather is it not certain that, in the aV)sence of any prevailing purpose and consolidating bias, each member of the confederacy, finding itself unable to carry its peculiar objects, will, sooner or later, think itself ill-treateil. and claim the ri<;ht of takiu<' care of itself? ('an this tendency be resisted:" It can only be resisted, as Sir Julius Vogel plainly pro- poses to resist it — l>y force. If fjrce is not to bo applied, the result must be that so long as the advantages of following in the train of a gi'eat nation appear to outweigli the damage and peril w I 180 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. — or rather, for sentiment's sake, somewhat longer — these communities will remain willingly at- tached to Great Britain. When the connection becomes a grievance, they will disengage them- selves. If I were compelled to hazard a prophecy, I should guess that our great colonies would en- dure manfully the inconveniences of one great war, but would shrink from the prospect of a second. But, whatever the vitality of our pre- sent relations, there is between us, I contend, no such common purpose or ^roup of purposes as will give us a common desire to pursue a common policy. And without this I see no basis lor a union between practically independent powers. The conclusion of the whole seems to me one whicli it is oa.sier to dislike than to disprove. Our present relations with our grown-up colonies are exceedint]jly satisfactory, and the longer they con- tinue the l)etter. But there is a period in the life of distant nations, however close their original connection, at which each must puiNuc; its own course, whether in domestic or foreign politics, uiK'inltarrassed by the other's leading. And the arrival of that period depends upon growth. Every increase of colonial wealth, or numbers, or intelligence, or organisation, is in one sense a step towards disinte<'ration. The Confederation of THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 181 Canada was therefor© such a step. The Confed- eration of South Africa will be. in the same sense, another. All these are steps of a wholesome kind, which only facilitate separation by provid- ing againts its evils ; and it is hardly a paradox to say that they may delay it by preparing for it. An agreeable but transitory relation is often pro- longed by the sense that when it becomes irk- some it can be terminated without difficulty. On the other hand if it is seriously believed possible that nations internally independent, and exter- nally divided by oceans, like England, Canada, South Africa, and Australasia, can remain for ever united in one political system for the sole purpose of determining a foreign policy in which no three of them have a common object ; and if English statesmen seriously undertake to render a union under such conditions perpetual, it is to be appre- hended that, in their struggles against dismem- berment, they may either attempt, by a sacrifice of " British interests," to briln; the colonies into a cohesion which cannot really he secured, or may alienate them by showing a suspicious disinclina- tion to recoj/nisc tliat national nianliood into which they are rapi ■^ 6" - ► <^ /2 >> o> C?m. ■' . 0% ^,. %'>^' y A w '^/ Photographic Sciences Corporation ,\ W A \ V ^o' 23 WIST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 cS^ s" WJ'. .i 190 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA, ment on a federal principle. To this there are two insuperable objections : one the impossibility of persuading England and Scotland, and perhaps even Ireland, to consent to such a change ; the other the difficulty which is sure to arise among the colonies themselves. * * * * On the second point, which has hitherto escaped observation, we will offer a tew remaiks. Every colony is, by the ties of Government, trade, and a certain degree of common interest, connecte«^. with the Imperial Government. The colony looks back to her origin and her history, inseparably intertwined with our own. " Ai;d Rome may bear the pride of him of whom herself Is- proud." Much may and doubtless would be conceded to the mother-country which would be conceded to no one else ; with her there is no spirit of rivahy. But of an assembly composed partly of represen- tatives of the mother-country and partly of the representatives of other colonies, each colony would be utterly intolerant. They would say, and with some justice, that they recognize the right of England to a voice in matters affecting their welfare, but that they utterly deny the right of any one colony to exercise any influence over the affairs of another. THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 191 Every one whose lot it has been to be practic- ally acquainted with the sentiments and aspira- tions of a colonial community, is well aware that one colony seldom en's on the side of over-estima- ting the advantages or good qualities of its neigh- bour. They are apt to regard each other more as rivals than as co-operators. The products of those that he near each other are mostly similar and they are competitors for custom in the Lou- don market. Many reasons may be given why it would be very much for the interest of the Aus- tralian colonies to foim a confederacy somewhai on the pattern of the United States, or at least to join in a Zollverein, and thus .save the expense and delay of inter-colonial custom-houses. But though no one can deny this in the abstract, these reasons have hitherto been urged in vain. There is but one really efficacious motive to draw them into a confederacy, and that motive is fear. Where that is present the thing may be forced upon the colonies, as in North America and South Africa ; where this is wanting, as in Australia,, minor inducements are tried in vain. But if this repulsion exists so strongly between neighbouring colonies, what will it be between colonies separated from each other by the dia- meter of the earth ? Will Canada accept laws- 192 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. from New Zealand ? or Australia submit to the legislation of Jamaica ? And yet the only con- ceivable scheme by which the colonies can pos- sibly be admitted to share in imperial councils is an assembly in which the Crown and the colonies shall be alike represented. Whenever, therefore, the time shall arrive for the colonies to claim a voice in the general policy of the empire, there is nothing for it but separa- tion, since the only alternative that can be sug- gested is utterly unworkable. The result is, that we shall act most wisely by looking the question fairly in the face, whenever the inevitable day shall arrive when our larger colonies shall make the claim, to have a voice in imperial affairs, and solve the question by submitting patiently and graciously to the inevitable alternative of separa tion, instead of exaggerating the mischief by futile efforts to avert it. It is not natural that nations which are destined, probably in the life- time of some persons now in existence, to become more numerous than our own, should submit to be for ever in a state of tutelage. Our wisdom is to defer the change as long as possible, and when it does come, to throw no captious obstacles in the way, but to console ourselves by the reflec- tion that the experience of a hundred years ago # THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 193 shows us that it is very easy to exaggerate the mischiefs that arise from such a separation ; above all, we should be on our guard against such phrases as " the decline of the empire," the " set- ting of the sun of England," and other })oetical ami rhetorical expressions, w^hich have really no application to a change that only marks an in- evitable period in a singulaj'ly wise and bene- ficent policy of which we have every reason to be proud. To those who view the probable separation of the colonies from the mother-country at some period more or less remote as a proof of our de- generacy as compared with those who founded them, it may be some consolation to observe that hai'dly any of these settlements at* the present day are answering the purposes with which they were founded. The great object in founding a colony was undoubtedly to secure the monopoly of its trade, and so long as we confined oui'selves to that the American Colonies were among the most loyal of our fellow-subjects. Australia was origin- ally occupiedas apenal settlement. The West India Islands were desired as fields for the employment of slave-labour ; and India, as we shall see pre- sently, was acquired for objects very different M 104 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OP CANADA. from those whwh are now assigned for its re- tention. There remains for consideration the third and by far the^ most important part of our inquiry, the question, namely, of the amount of injury which we should sustain by the loss of those do- minions of the Crown, which, being situated within the tropics or in their vicinity, can never become the home of a laborious and quickly multiplying European population. Our sugar islands were acquired as labour-fields for slaves, and with emancipation they lost the greater part of their value. Nature is so bountiful and life so easy in these lovely isles, and indolence so irresist- ible, that we lose greatly instead of gaining by the change from slave labour to free. To add to the depression in these once flourishing posses- sions, it pleases the Government of France, in ad- dition to one hundred and nine millions which the nation has to pay for Government and the in- terest of debt, to raise another million, which is employed in bounties to enable the beetroot sugar of France to undersell the sugar of the tropics. No one, we think, will say that any considerable loss would be sustained if these islands were sep- arated from the British dominions. There can, in fact, be no reason for retaining them except THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 195 tbo honourable feelinf; that it would be disjji-ace- ful to England to allow some of the fairest s})ots of the earth to relapse into utter sloth, ignorance, and barbarism, after she has once taken them . into her hands. We now believe ourselves to be in a condi- tion to answer the question which we proposed as to the value to the United Kinirdom of the foreign dominions of the Crown other than military posts. The answer seems to be that to over-estimate it is extremely easv, and to under- estimate it extremely difficult. Having consider- able faith in the soundness of opinions which are very generally entertained, we have done our best to find some ground for the belief that the •colonies are the mainstay of the empire, and that we have in India the secret of our greatness, our wealth and our power. As will be seen, in this attempt we have utterly failed. The matter was extremely simple while we confined ourselves to vague generalities. As long as we limited our view to tables of imports and exports, to retunis of population and numbers o$ square miles, the case seemed plain enough ; but when we came to examine the relations in which the owners of these things stood to England, the scales fell from our eyes, and we saw that all these good things 196 THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. which we are instructed to regard as elements of our strength, were really ours in words alone ; and what we were instructed to rely on as our own property turned out to be nothing better than a mere rhetorical flourish, in fact the pro- perty of others. The question is not whether all these magnifi- cent territories and swarming millions exist ; nor yet whether they are set down in books of geo- graphy and gazetteers as forming part of the dominions of the British Crown : nor vet whether they are the objects of admiration to the nations of the earth. The question w^th w^hich we. as practical people, are concerned is much simplex, and may be thus expressed. What is the relation in which the inhabitant of the British Isles stands to these })ossessions ? Are they his in the same sense in which the wealth, the population, and the strength of the United Kingdom are his i The answer must be, that they are not. And if the question be further pressed, in what respect do they differ ? The answer must be : The difl:er- ence is simply this, that while we are bound to defend these vast possessions beyond the United Kingdom to our last shilling and our last man, the persons to whom we are so bound recognise no corresponding obligation, and after enjoying THE POLITICAL DESTINY OF CANADA. 197 the fruits of our power and prosperity are at liberty to part from us, if tliey so tliink fit, in the moment of danrjer and distress. And, further, the answer must be that these dominions, which we call ours, give us no strengtli in war, and no funds at any time towards the support of our Government, and have been in the past the fruit- ful causes of wars. We look for a solid repast, and can find no- thing b a a banquet of the Barmecide. -FoHaiyhtly Revisw. :