(13^ 
 
 - (ioio 
 
 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 He who essays to write history should respect facts. To obscure them 
 by half-statements or by making assertions based on insufficient evidence 
 is in effect direct misstatement. Mr. Griffin, in his article on " The Con- 
 solidation of Canada," published in the April number of this Magazine, 
 tells us, " Many citizens of the Young Dominion had no faith in its future. 
 They predicted all kinds of disasters and declared that the consolidation of 
 Canada could never be anything more than a name." The writer might 
 fairly have stopped here. But when he proceeds to indicate that these 
 " doubting Thomases " were all Reformers, while the Confederationists 
 were Conservatives, he belies the party record of the past twenty-five 
 years. The paragraph to which I take special exception is as follows: 
 " So the people formed themselves into two parties, the Dominionists and 
 Provincialists, the one having unbounded confidence in the future of 
 enlarged Canada, and holding that where the interests of one of the prov- 
 inces conflicted in any matter with those of the country at large, the prov- 
 ince must give way to the Dominion ; the other taking a most gloomy 
 view of the future of the Confederation, and insisting that the autonomy 
 of the provinces should be restored in part, at least. Most of the Domin- 
 ionists allied themselves with the Conservatives, while the Provincialists 
 joined the Reformers, and thus, while the names Dominionist and Pro- 
 vincialist have never been used to designate the two parties, the distin- 
 guishing characteristic of the one is nationalism and that of the other 
 provincialism. No review of Canadian history since the Confederation 
 that ignores this distinction can satisfactorily explain the present situation, 
 and no forecast of the future is reliable unless it takes this into account." 
 Now, if this means anything it is that to the Tories Canada owes Confed- 
 eration, and that the Reformers were, and yet are, ranged in opposition to 
 the scheme and its principles. I propose to elucidate some facts bearing 
 on this statement. 
 
 That there is a marked difference between the Tory and Liberal views 
 of Confederation I grant. The Liberals hold and always have argued that 
 the less the federal authority intermeddles with affairs of purely local con- 
 cern the better; that the interests of the nation would be best conserved 
 by recognizing the fullest degree of provincial autonomy consistent with 
 the letter and spirit of the Act of Confederation ; that, within their 
 
TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 69 
 
 spheres, the peoples of the provinces should be clothed with full legislative 
 powers, and that the Federal Government should not encroach upon them ; 
 that the veto power should be sparingly exercised and that the less legis- 
 lative friction produced the better for the general good. They did not 
 forget the fact that each of these provinces were supplied with an equip- 
 ment of legislative machinery, and they pointed out that the confederated 
 nation would become, as it were, the multiple of which the several prov- 
 inces were the units — not the unit of which they were the factors — and 
 asked that in matters which were of purely provincial interest the federal 
 authorities be completely isolated. They appreciated the fact that the 
 federal system always presupposes the existence of an autonomy, and they 
 objected to sinking it in a legislative union. They advocated Confedera- 
 tion and were content to give up, and a majority of the people, in the B. 
 N. A. Act, agreed with them in giving up to the Central Government that 
 proportion of authority necessary to the smooth working of Confederation. 
 A brief resume' of the events leading to, and subsequent to the passage of, 
 the Act of Confederation may be of value in determining the position of 
 Reformers on the question and of estimating what measure of praise or 
 blame attaches to their action in that regard. 
 
 The Government under which Confederation was accomplished was a 
 coalition. A series of Parliamentary deadlocks had threatened the very 
 existence of government, and a temporary union of forces was resorted to 
 in order to carry some scheme which might once more put the legislature 
 on a working basis. Of that government Hon. George Brown, the then 
 leader of the Liberal Party, was President of the Council ; and Hon. John 
 A. Macdonald, now the Rt. Hon. Sir John, was Attorney-General West. 
 Mr. A. Mackenzie, Member for Lambton, and subsequently premier in the 
 Reform Administration from 1873 to 1878, was then in the Assembly, and 
 to note the part taken by them may be pertinent to the issue. Here, 
 however, I may say that a union of the provinces was not at all a new 
 consideration when it was discussed by the Conference of Delegates, at 
 Quebec, in 1864. I find that as far back as 1831, Mr. Wm. Lyon Macken- 
 zie, leader of the Upper Canada Radicals, declared that he wished with 
 his whole heart that there could be a union of all the British North Ameri- 
 can provinces. In the year 1837, both Houses of the Imperial Parliament 
 adopted a resolution setting forth that for reasons given, " It is expedient 
 that the Legislatures of the said provinces respectively be authorized to 
 make provision for the joint regulation and adjustment of such their com- 
 mon interests." Thus, it seems, that a very early official directory impulse 
 to the movement emanated from Britain. In the year following (1838) I 
 
70 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 find the Colonial Office thus expressing itself: "... It will be for your 
 Lordship, in conjunction with the Committee to consider . . . some joint 
 legislative authority, which should preside over all questions of common 
 interest to the two provinces, and which might be appealed to in extraor- 
 dinary cases to arbitrate between contending parties in either, preserv- 
 ing, however, to each province its distinct Legislature, with an authority 
 in all matter of an exclusively domestic concern." {Vide Lord Durham's 
 Instructions, 1838.) In the following year (1839) Lord Durham recom- 
 mended a scheme for a union of Upper and Lower Canada, to which, by 
 mutual consent, the other provinces might be admitted. He recom- 
 mended the appointment of a commission charged with the arrange- 
 ment of the constituencies and representation on a basis of popu- 
 lation ; the establishment of local legislatures with exclusive domestic 
 control, and protected by Imperial Act from federal encroachment, 
 and a Supreme Court of Appeal. {Vide \\\s report, 1839.) I" ^he same 
 year. Lord John Russell introduced a bill, based on these recommenda- 
 tions, into the Imperial House, but on the second reading, it met with 
 much opposition and was withdrawn. In 1849 {'^ year made memorable 
 by the issue of the celebrated Annexation Manifesto, signed by so many 
 of the leading Tory politicians of the federated Canada of to-day), the 
 British American League, in a manifesto, expressed its advocacy of union, 
 with increased powers of self-government, but did not define the system. 
 In that year some such union was felt to be a necessity, and that "peace 
 and prosperity were endangered " for lack of it, the official statement of 
 the basis, on which the Brown-Dorion government was formed, expressing 
 it in so many words. Thus it will be seen that there had been a long 
 period of constitutional unrest out of which our politicians looked for 
 some such solution as we obtained in Confederation. I come now to some 
 evidence more clearly indicative of the parts played by Toryism and 
 Liberalism in the great constitutional drama. 
 
 In 1859 *^^ Lower Canada Liberal members issued a manifesto, in 
 which it was asserted that " the true, the statesmanlike solution is to be 
 sought in the substitution of a purely federative for the present so-called 
 Legislative Union. . . . The proposal to federalize the Canadian Union is 
 not new. ... It was no doubt suggested by the example of the neighboring 
 States where the admirable adaptation of the federal system to the gov- 
 ernment of an extensive territory, inhabited by people of divers origins, 
 creeds, laws, and customs, has been amply demonstrated; but shape and 
 consistency were first imparted to it when it was formally submitted to 
 Parliament by the Lower Canada Opposition (Reform), as offering in their 
 
TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 7I 
 
 judgment the true corrective of the abuses generated under the present 
 system." We get a fairly representative expression of Reform opinion in 
 the resolutions unanimously adopted by the National Liberal Conven- 
 tion, consisting of five hundred and seventy delegates from all parts of 
 Western Canada, which met in Toronto in 1859. They declared for " the 
 formation of two or more local governments, to which shall be committed 
 the control of all matters of a local or sectional character, and some joint 
 authority charged with such matters as are necessarily common to both 
 sections of the province," and that " no government would be satisfactory 
 to the people of Upper Canada which is not based on the principle of 
 representation by population." During the following session of Parliament 
 which opened at Quebec, on February 28, i860, Mr. Geo. Brown moved 
 these resolutions on the floor of the House, and on May 8, they were de- 
 feated by large majorities. {Vide Journals of the House, i860.) 
 
 In conformity with the resolution of a large Parliam.entary Committee, 
 composed of most of the members of the House, and which was moved for 
 by Mr. Brown, to consider methods for the extrication of the country from 
 the grave situation in which the deadlock in legislation placed it, Messrs. 
 Brown, McDougall and Mowat entered into coalition with their Con- 
 servative opponents for the express purpose {vide Mr. John A. Mac- 
 donald's speech, Confed. Deb., 1865, page 26) of bringing about a union, 
 of the provinces, a perfect understanding to that effect being precedent to 
 the compromise. They went before their constituents on this understand- 
 ing, with the result that Messrs. Brown and Mowat were unopposed, and 
 although Mr. McDougall was defeated he was immediately after elected by 
 acclamation for another constituency. Nor was public sentiment less 
 emphatically expressed in the elections of the members who went before 
 their constituents after the disclosure of the Government's policy at 
 Charlottetown. Thirteen elections for the Legislative Council took place ; 
 only three candidates declared themselves opposed to the scheme of Con- 
 federation, and of these but one was returned. Eleven elections for the 
 Assembly were held and not an opponent of the scheme was returned. A 
 man of less temerity than Mr. Griffin, with these facts accessible to him, 
 would have been deterred from making such a statement as I have just 
 quoted. The fact is, the country was ripe for the scheme, and " though 
 extreme parties here and there grumbled at these arrangements, the great 
 body of the people of all shades of opinion, thankful that the dangerous 
 crisis had been safely passed, gladly accepted the situation and calmly and 
 confidently waited the progress of events. Never before had coaHtion 
 been more opportune." (McMullen's History of Canada, chap, xxvi.) 
 
72 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 While participating in the canvass in favor of the scheme, Hon. Mr. Brown 
 and a number of his colleagues attended the meeting of a Conference of 
 Delegates from the Maritime Provinces, held at Charlottetown, P. E. I., 
 with a view to bringing about a Confederation of those provinces, and so 
 ably did they present their views that the conference abandoned the lesser 
 scheme and agreed upon a meeting of delegates from all the provinces, to 
 be held at Quebec, on the loth of October, 1864. In the interval, Hon. 
 Mr. Brown and several of his colleagues canvassed New Brunswick and 
 Nova Scotia, and did much to press on the people the merits of the scheme 
 of federal union. Of Mr. Brown's devoted and disinterested patriotism 
 and the earnestness, vigor and persuasiveness of his advocacy of Confeder- 
 al ion, at the Quebec Conference, supporter and opponent alike testify. 
 To his broad statesmanship and keen perception is due in a marked degree 
 the measure of perfection attained in the resolutions agreed to by that 
 body. It is not too much to say, that the spirit of forbearance and gen- 
 erosity manifested by him and his Reform colleagues — l4ieir willingness to 
 waive minor points and meet as far as possible the views of representatives 
 of all sections of the country in the promotion of the general good — was 
 indispensable to the success attending the undertaking. 
 
 The series of resolutions adopted at the Quebec Conference were intro- 
 duced simultaneously into the Legislative Assembly and Council of Canada, 
 on the 3d of February, 1865. On February 20th, they received the 
 approval of the Legislative Council by a vote of 45 to 15 and, on the 23d, 
 that House waited on His Excellency, the Governor-Cjeneral, with an 
 address, praying that a measure based on these resolutions be submitted to 
 the Home Government. In the Assembly the debate was of great interest, 
 being confined to the main motion, owing to Hon. Attorney-General 
 Macdonald moving the previous question, the resolutions being adopted on 
 March 10, by a vote of 33 to 13, and on the 14th of the same month this 
 House also presented His Excellency with an address. Having shown how 
 evenly parties were balanced, I might confidently submit my case co the 
 judgment of the intelligent reader. But I have a much better case made 
 out for me in the public records of the utterances of representative Liberals 
 on the subject. They show that while, for reasons which I will have 
 occasion to refer to subsequently, individual Reformers felt constrained to 
 vote against the scheme at that juncture, there were not lacking Tories 
 similarly disposed. They show also, that the Reform leaders went heart 
 and soul into the work of Confederation, accepting the scheme as embodying 
 in the greatest measure then attainable the principles which a generation 
 of Reform had advocated; and that with some, at least, of the Tory leaders, 
 
TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 73 
 
 acquiescence in its provisions was but a sine qua non to the retention of 
 office ; in short, that when their acceptance was found to be coupled with 
 the retention of power the principles to which they had hitherto given a 
 consistent and strenuous opposition suddenly found favor in their eyes. 
 On April 14, 1864, Hon. Attorney-General Macdonald voted that there 
 were no constitutional changes necessary; but on the following day he 
 found his government defeated, promptly reconsidered the matter and 
 voted that there was urgent need for such changes {vide Journals of the 
 House, 1864). When Hon. Mr. Brown's committee was asked for, I find 
 that he voted against it, and again, when he became a member of that 
 committee, he recorded his vote against the principles of Confederation. 
 He was consistent in so doing, as he strongly advocated legislative union in 
 opposition to the federal system ; although when the adoption of the latter 
 promised the renewal of an expiring lease of office he did not hesitate to 
 accept. It was an action quite in keeping with his course on the questions 
 of the Secularization of the Clergy Reserves, the abolition of the Seigniorial 
 Tenure and the introduction of the elective principle into the Legislative 
 Council, to all of which he gave ten years of consistent opposition and 
 then, under similar circumstances, Saul-like, became as suddenly convinced 
 of their desirability as he temporarily did of Confederation. In the official 
 record of the Confederation Debates, page 29, we find him quoted as follows : 
 " Now as regards the comparative advantages of a Legislative and a Federal 
 Union, I have never hesitated to state my own opinions. I have again and 
 again stated in the House, that, if practicable, I thought a Legislative Union 
 would be preferable. I have always contended that if we could agree to 
 have one government and one parliament, legislating for the whole of these 
 peoples, it would be the best, the cheapest, the most vigorous, and the 
 strongest system of government we could adopt .... It was found 
 that any proposition which involved the absorption of the individuality 
 . . . would not be received with favor by her people. . . . There 
 wa^ as great a disinclination on the part of the various Maritime 
 Provinces to lose their individuality, as separate political organizations, 
 ... so that those who were, like myself, in favor of a Legislative 
 Union, were obliged to modify their views and accept the project of a 
 Federal Union as the only scheme practicable." How different this senti- 
 ment to that desire for Confederation expressed by the Liberals for years 
 prior to the decisive discussion ! No clearer expression of preference for 
 Legislative Union, or candid admission that he unwillingly accepted the 
 situation, could be adduced. He had been a consistent opponent of Con- 
 federation up to the defeat of his Government in April, 1864, and his 
 
74 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 inconsistency in supporting the terms agreed upon at the Quebec Conference 
 extended over but a brief period, since which he has persistently worked 
 toward a realization of his ideal of a Legislative Union by a series of 
 systematic unconstitutional attacks upon the rights of the Provincial 
 Legislatures, which, happily, owing to the fact that the court of final 
 resort — the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council — is beyond his 
 influence, have thus far failed in producing the desired disintegration or 
 modification of our system. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Brown and Mr. A. Mackenzie gave no uncertain sound on the 
 question. In the case of the Reform leader I refer the reader to the 
 official record of his utterances in Confederation Debates. His splendid 
 orations, particularly those found on pp. 84-1 15, 709-710, and 989-995, are 
 the expressions of a vigorous and well-informed mind fired with the 
 devotion of true patriotism and conscious that the realization of the aims 
 of a lifetime was about to receive its consummation. Mr. Mackenzie's 
 views similarly expressed will be found on pp. 421-434, and at various 
 other stages of the debate. The Reform leaders rejoiced in the success of 
 the measure and they did so with the approval of the great mass of their 
 followers. Individual .nembers strongly advocated the submission of the 
 scheme to the people, but the government felt that however constitutionally 
 correct might be their contention it was likely to imperil the success of the 
 undertaking and cause a lapse into that very condition from which the 
 coalition had been formed to extricate the country. I am not prepared at 
 this day to indorse their view or to .sit in judgment on those who, upon 
 this ground, cast their votes against the measure. They were not confined 
 to one party, but included prominent members of both, and in their con- 
 tention they were supported by the chief Tory organ in Upper Canada, 
 the Toronto Leader. 
 
 Reformers did not accept the terms as incapable of improvement. They 
 did noi regard it as did Attorney-General Macdonald, who, in his new-born 
 fervor for Confederation (p. 32 Confed. Deb.), said: "I think and believe 
 that it is one of the most skillful works which human intelligence ever 
 created." They looked upon it, in the words of Hon. Mr. Brown (^p. 995, 
 Confed. Deb.), as " an admirable compromise," considering the vast and 
 varied interests involved. Hon. Mr. Brown saw in it the foundations for a 
 Dominion stretching from ocean to ocean (p. 86 Confed. Deb.), but he was 
 not unconscious of the elements of danger it contained. With Mr. 
 Mackenzie and the rest of his colleagues he appreciated the fact (pp. 108 
 and 427, Confed. Deb.), that great intelligence and political knowledge on 
 the part of the people and honesty on the part of those intrusted with the 
 
TORVISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 75 
 
 administration of government would be necessary to realize the full 
 benefits of the principle involved in Federal Union. He joined Mr. 
 Mackenzie in his advocacy of the abolition of the Second Chamber, but 
 waived the point rather than jeopardize the general result. To quote 
 Mr. Brown's exact words (p. 87 Confcd. Deb.) : " It was necessarily the 
 work of concession ; not one of the thirty-three framers but had, on some 
 points, to yield his opinions ; and for myself, I freely admit that I struggled 
 earnestly, for days together, to have portions of the scheme amended." 
 He opposed the Provincial Subsidies clause and advocated instead, that 
 the expenses of the local governments be defrayed by direct taxation. 
 Had it been so arranged I believe the people would have obtained cheaper 
 and better government, both Dominion and Provincial, and that what 
 promises to become a very grave source of difficulty would have been 
 avoided. With a single chamber the travesty on legislation annually 
 enacted by our Senate would have been impossible. But these aims could 
 not be realized ; concessions had to be made by all in order to arrive at any 
 agreement and they were a part of the Reform sacrifice. But the Tory 
 leader's hostility to Confederation was exerted in more than one direction 
 while the final arrangements were being made, and there are not lacking 
 reasons for suspecting him of attempting to influence, at least one of the 
 deputation of four who went over to confer with the Imperial Government, 
 in order to seduce him from his allegiance to the scheme. I am aware that 
 great credit is claimed for Sir John A. Macdonald in the bringing in of the 
 North-west Territory, but the basis is purely hypothetical — an instance of 
 his application of the doctrine of expediency. Mr. Macdougall (who was 
 then a member of Sir John's cabinet) in his famous pamphlet, says: " I am 
 disclosing no secret of the Council-room when I affirm that in September, 
 1868, except Mr. Tilley and myself, every member of the Government was 
 either indifferent or hostile to the acquisition of the North-west Territory. 
 When they discovered that a ministerial crisis . . . could only be avoided 
 by an immediate agreement (and immediate action) to secure the transfer 
 of these territories to the Dominion, they were ready to act." 
 
 Imperfect as the Confederation Act is, the only difificulties experienced 
 in operating it are of a kind directly traceable to the hostility to the 
 federal system entertained by those intrusted with the administration of 
 the affairs of State. It is impossible, in the space of a single article, to do 
 more than mention in passing a few of the evidences on the part of Tory- 
 ism to trench on the reserved prerogatives of the legislatures, which have 
 occasioned so much friction in Confederation. The principal attacks have 
 been made upon Ontario, and a few specimens may be cited. The settle- 
 
•Jd TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 ment of the northerly and westerly boundaries of the province, referred to 
 a Board of Arbitrators during the term of Mr. Mackenzie's administration 
 and adjudicated upon '\u 1878, the award of the arbitrators being made on 
 August 3d of that year — just one month and fourteen days before the 
 Reform defeat — was repudiated by the Macdonald government on its 
 accession to power. The award involved (in round numbers) 100,000 
 square miles of territory, much of which is valuable for its timber and 
 minerals, and, under the decision of the arbitrators, was declared to be a 
 part of Ontario. The Dominion Government disputed the claim for years, 
 the premier. Sir John A. Macdonald, declaring that " not one stick of 
 timber, not one pound of ore," would ever belong to Ontario. Strangely 
 enough, he was sustained, in the effort to plunder the province, by its 
 Tory representatives in the House! Negotiations for the submission of 
 the case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council proved, for a long 
 time, abortive, the Dominion refusing, in the interim, to recognize the 
 right of Ontario to exercise her powers in the maintenance of law and 
 order in the territory of which it was desired to despoil her. The case 
 had been further complicated by the Federal Government arbitrarily hand- 
 ing over a portion of the territory to Manitoba. Ultimately the case was 
 carried before tiie Privy Council, the Dominion, notwithstanding an ex- 
 pressed willingness to have the whole difficulty finally settled, declining to 
 join to have the north-easterly boundary defined. The result was eminently 
 satisfactory to Ontario, the judgment of their lordships being on the line 
 of the award, and almost in its precise language. The Federal Govern- 
 ment still resists the award, however, by refusing to make restitution to 
 the province of the vast quantities of valuable timber sold therefrom and 
 parceled out among their supporters while the case was pending. Within 
 the past few months a test case has been entered, and already the Chancery 
 Court and Court of Appeals have given judgments in favor of the province, 
 and I do not doubt the issue. The Streams Bill, an Ontario measure, fre- 
 quently disallowed by the Dominion Government, was another source of 
 difficulty, and, like the Boundary Award case, was carried to the highest 
 court in the realm, and the right of the province to enact such legislation 
 triumphantly vindicated. The Hodge case, the Insurance case, the Es- 
 cheats case, each in turn were struggled over, in every instance the Tory 
 Government at Ottawa being the aggressor, and the decisions invariably 
 justifying the contention of the province. Recently great demoralization 
 threatened the liquor traffic, owing to a conflict of authority precipitated 
 by Sir John A. Macdonald. The licensing function, specifically and 
 exclusively reserved for the provinces by the B. N. A. Act, he deter- 
 
TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION JJ 
 
 mined to seize upon, informing a gathering of his followers at Yorkville 
 that he would *' humble that little tyrant, Mowat," by taking from the 
 province the control of the licenses. He declared the excellent provincial 
 enactment, familiar as the "Crook:; ' ^," was "not worth the paper it 
 was written on," and staked his reputation as an authority on constitu- 
 tional law upon the result. He passed his Act, and, after some delay, 
 appointed inspectors and commissioners, who proceeded to collect fees 
 and issue licenses, and at once a case to test the question was submitted. 
 The Canadian Supreme Court was against him, but he did not allow it to 
 rest there. It was carried to the Privy Council, and with the usual result 
 of affirming the right of the provinces to exclusive control within their 
 spheres, to which it was decided to have been relegated. At this session 
 of Parliament, in progress as I write, it is proposed to appropriate a large 
 sum to pay the expenses of the attempted enforcement of the unconstitu- 
 tional License Act, and to recoup those from whom money was extorted 
 for worthless licenses. The policy of interfering with the Provincial Legis- 
 latures in matters amply within their competence, and disallowing acts of 
 great local importance, thus necessitating vexatious strife and costly ap- 
 peals to the Privy Council, the expenses of which fall upon the province 
 attacked, both as plaintiff and defendant, is pursued in conformity with 
 the well-known desire for legislative union and contempt for local authority 
 which mark the course of the present Tory premier, and it has not tended 
 toward the consolidation of which Mr. Griffin writes. It is the merest 
 obscuration to call Reformers " Provincialists." They are the true friends 
 of Confederation who scrupulously respect the authority of the provinces 
 and of the Dominion, each within its sphere. The indisputable fact that 
 in each of six consecutive contests of authority, brought up through the 
 courts to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the federal au- 
 thorities were decided to be the aggressors, ought at once to settle the 
 question as to responsibility for the friction engendered in the Confedera- 
 tion machinery. In none of these cases has the fault been one inherent in 
 the federal system. They were purely of administrative origin, and sprung 
 from the present premier's centralization policy and the supineness of his 
 Ontario following. No law has a fair trial when its administration is in- 
 trusted to hostile hands. 
 
 In 1872 government pledged the country to the construction, 
 within ten years, of the Canada Pacific Railway. Mr. Griffin says the 
 Provincialists — which term he applies to Reformers — opposed the building 
 of it from the first. They did protest against undertaking such an engage- 
 ment on such terms. I do not think the result discredits their foresight, 
 
78 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 as — after an expenditure of money, enormous for our population and re- 
 sources, and after giving away the road, paying a company many millions 
 of dollars, and 25,000,000 acres of land to bribe it to own and operate it, 
 and giving it an absolute twenty years* monopoly of the North-west, to- 
 gether with perpetual exemption frpm taxes — we are likely to have the 
 road opened during the present month. The policy of the Reformers was 
 to build the road as speedily as the resources of the country justified and 
 the needs of settlement required; and on that principle Mr. Mackenzie 
 proceeded, with the approbation of no less a Tory authority than Dr. 
 Tupper, Minister of Public Works in the Conservative Government, now 
 High Commissioner to England. He said : "I feel that the Ministry of 
 the day are entitled to the support of this House, and especially of those 
 gentlemen on the opposition benches, in any measure which is required to 
 carry out the pledge — perhaps a somewhat imprudent pledge — that was 
 given by their predecessors in relation to this work ; and I feel that they 
 may look to this side of the House for their most energetic support of the 
 measures they have taken — I believe wisely taken — for the redemption of 
 that pledge." That was his opinion of the Reform policy as recorded in 
 Hansard^ ^875. One circumstance in the history of this work seems to 
 have been overlooked by Mr. Griffin, " without which no review of it will 
 be complete." I allude to the celebrated scandal growing out of the sale 
 by Sir John A. Macdonald of the charter of the C. P. R.'s, his acceptance 
 of a sum approximating $360,000, to be used, and which was proven to 
 have been used, as a huge bribery fund, and his consequent fall in disgrace. 
 The report of the Royal Commission, which investigated the matter, and 
 Lord Dufferin's dispatch to the Home Government on the subject, will 
 convince the most incredulous, and give an insight into Tory methods 
 more clear than any other single Canadian public document of which I am 
 aware. 
 
 A few of the more important measures passed by the Reform Govern- 
 ment, 1874-1878, may be mentioned: The Controverted Elections act, 
 placing the trial of elections in the courts; liit Insolvent act; the Su- 
 preme Court act ; the Ballot act ; the Farmers' Sons* Franchise act ; the 
 Petition of Right act, by which citizens' claims against the government 
 may be enforced ; the New Postal act ; the Maritime Court act ; Improve- 
 ments to the Election Law ; the Independence of Parliament act ; the 
 Public Accounts Audit act, which places the auditor beyond the control 
 of the ministry of the day; the Canada Temperance act, giving local 
 option ; the Homestead Exemption act ; Criminal and Railway Statistics 
 acts; the General Insurance act ; the acts organizing the North-west Terri- 
 
TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 79 
 
 tories ; Improvements to the Extradition Laws, and many others of great 
 and permanent importance. During its term much correspondence passed 
 between the Canadian and Home Governments on the instructions given 
 Lord Dufferin, which directed him to " extend or to withhold a pardon or 
 reprieve according to (his) your own deliberate judgment, whether the 
 members of our said Privy Council concur therein or otherwise." Nothing 
 could be more odious to a Liberal Government or subversive of the repre- 
 sentative principle, and vigorous action on the part of Reform statesmen 
 led to the omission of the offensive paragraphs from the instructions of his 
 successor. Lord Lome. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's government fell on September 17, 1878, on the question 
 of protection, upon which the Tories appealed to the country, after bitterly 
 denouncing the Reform Administration for an increase of 2^ per cent., 
 imposed for the purpose of stimulating a declining revenue. The policy 
 has been in force seven years, and no remark I could make could empha- 
 size its disastrous failure or its influence for evil on the Government and on 
 the country. Of Mr. Grififin's remarks anent the Metis chief, Riel, I submit 
 they only serve to obscure the main question by raising a side issue. The 
 real question is the government's treatment of the half-breeds, of whom 
 Riel was the chosen leader. For years they had been asking redress, and 
 government, Mr. Grififin admits, did not regard their prayers and entrea- 
 ties until it became " wearied by their importunity." In the meantime 
 tracts of land on which they were settled were given to speculating com- 
 panies empowered to eject the unfortunates. Their treatment was a dis- 
 grace to Canada. To quote the chief Tory organ, the Toronto Mail, " Had 
 they had votes, like white men, or, if like Indians, they had been numer- 
 ous enough to command respect and overawe red tape, without doubt the 
 wheels of office would have revolved for them ; but, being only half-breeds, 
 they were put off with an eternal promise, until patience ceased to be a 
 virtue." For years petitions had been received and pigeon-holed, and, for 
 the hundredth time, government had promised to " consider the request," 
 when suddenly the rattle of musketry at Duck Lake awoke them to a real- 
 ization of their folly. Mr. Grififin's remarks would lead to the inference 
 that a commission had been appointed before the trouble developed. Such 
 is not the case. The battle of Duck Lake took place or. March 26, 1885 ; 
 by the report of the commissioners before me I learn that they were 
 appointed on March 30, just four days afterwards. I find that they dealt 
 with 1,815 claims, 1,710 of which were proven, and that a very large number 
 yet remain to be adjusted. The inference is plain. 
 
 In the first year of Confederation, 1867-8, our expenditure was $13,486,- 
 
80 TORYISM IN THE CANADIAN CONFEDERATION 
 
 092 ; in 1873-4, the year the Pacific Scandal Government was expelled from 
 power, it had risen to $23,316,316. In 1878-9, when the Reform Govern- 
 ment was defeated, it was $24,455,381, an increase of but $1,129,065, al- 
 though the retiring government, in 1873, had contracted for considerable 
 increases. In 1884-5, after six years of Tory rule, it is $35,037,060, with 
 many large items of expenditure properly chargeable to current account 
 charged to capital. The gross liabilities on July i, 1867, were $93,046,051 ; 
 assets, $17,317,410; in 1874, four months of which fiscal year the Tories 
 were in power, they were $141,163,551 ; assets, $32,838,586; in 1878, when 
 the Liberals went out, $174,957,268; assets, $34,595,199. Since then we 
 have had a Tory Government, with Sir John A. Macdonald as premier, 
 and on July i, 1885, our liabilities were $264,703,607; assets, $68,295,915. 
 Our gross debt now is probably close upon $300,000,000. Much is made 
 by Mr. Griffin of the proposal to give the North-west representation in the 
 Dominion Parliament. Any one who cares to examine Hansard for some 
 sessions past will find that the matter has been brought before the House 
 several times by the Reform members, and that motions recognizing the 
 propriety of granting such representation were defeated by strict party 
 votes. The general charge of annexation tendencies launched at Liberals 
 scarcely merits refutation ; but if it did, it already has it in the honors 
 heaped, by the present Tory Government, upon gentlemen who were but 
 recently prime agitators in such a movement. But, I submit, it is not for 
 an apologist for the present Canadian Government to hurl such a taunt. 
 History will, I venture to say, class as true patriots many who are thus 
 stigmatized. For the destiny of Canada I have no forebodings, however 
 dark maybe her political horizon or overcast her sky. Our troubles are not 
 inseparable from our system ; they are purely administrative, and the 
 remedy is always available. I have a strong faith in the character of the 
 Canadian people. They will yet shake off the incubus of debt and misrule 
 which afflicts them, and, whether as an important part of federated Britain, 
 a more closely welded Confederation of provinces, an independent nation, 
 stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, or a part of one great Anglo- 
 Saxon-speaking America, their status is assured ; and there will not be 
 wanting in time of need men of " high heart and strong endeavor," who 
 have the courage and patriotism to fight the battle of principle, though it 
 doom them to perpetual opposition ; and whose resolution will neither be 
 seduced by the temptations of office nor coerced by taunts of political 
 heresy. 
 
 CHAtHAM, Ontario, May 6, 18S6.