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Lea dicgrammes suivanta iiluatrent la mAthode. irrata to pelure, n d n 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^yV/:^. <^ /?: — ^*?^-i^riC\ LETTEE /T On Confederation X TO A FRIEND ro IN" e^vf o a n d 1 a n d BY MATTHEW RYAN. '>. Montreal, August, 1869. 63 St. Francois Xavier Street, My Dear Sir, The brief words we exchanged in this city more than two years since on the subject of Confederation, left neither inuoh enlightened as to the views of th? other. We spoke not a little of years that had passed, and of obj; fjta#once mutually dear, but of State affairs scarcely an opinion was expressed, not so much, I am sure, from indifference on the part of either, for we have both a well known penchant in that direction, as from that preference for personal and more genial subjects which old friends naturally feel when, after years of separation, a happy accident brings them together for a fleeting hour or two. But the present may not be an inopportune moment for me to communicate such ideas and information as I may deem of /alue, and as may interest you and others on the eve of that decision which you are so properly invited to pronounce. And, by the way, much credit is due to your public men for the judicious, and above all constitutional manner in which they have dealt with the question. From the begin- ningv I understand, they have been unanimous as to the propriety of a filial appeal to the people. Such is undoubtedly the right course. Nothing can be more convincing than the arguments of Locke in estah- lishiiig that the Legislature has no right to change the constitution, that the men composing it are *' delegates appointed to act under the con- stitution and not to alter it " Locke is sometimes sneered at by your ohl English to;y as a Republican, but Macauley tells us that Pitt, the statesman of whom Kngland is, perhaps, the most proud, " learned his theory of government in the school of Locka and Sydney." Before entering upon the question of Confederation it may not be out of order to furnish a briet account of our former Canada — the ex- tent, population and resources of the country up to the period of the «.i "V' X ■*, ■ inauguration of the present system. It extended, as you are probably aware, from near the Red River settlenaent to the gulf of St. Lawrence, and was divided info Upper and Lower Canada, the river Ottawa being the great central boundary. Upper Canada consisted of 180,000 square miles, with a population, according to the census of 1861, of 1 .396,091. Lower Canada of 210,000 square miles, population 1,110,664. By means of numerous lakes and navigable rivers, a continuous series of canals and extensive lines of raiivvay— connecting the upper lakes with the sea-board, — its internal trade was being well developed, and should this be one day -rollowed up by the construciion of a railway from the head of Lake Superior to the Pacific ocean, through British territory, it would be difficult to over estimate the commercial greatness that must follow. The prosperity of Canada, as in the ease of most countries,* was greatly influenced by the development of freedom in her political insii- tutions. Before the legislative union of the provinces in 1840 the sys- tem of government was virtually oligarchical. There was a parliament in each province, but such measures only were passed as the governor of the day indicated or directed. Progress was, therefore, much re- tarded ; emigration was discouraged ; and the aspirations of the people for local improvements and expansion repressed by an irresponsible, selfish, and often corrupt executive, in fact, such was the disreputable condition of Upper Canada, in particular, that Lord Sydenham, who was sent out to re-model the gt)vernraent, declares in a letter to his brother, published in his life, that had he been in the country in 1837 he would have been a rebel himself. Under Responsible Government, secured in 1841, general improve- ment soon commenced. The old standing questions of difficulty were * " It was only after the establishment of their independence that the Amer" ican people seemed to consider themselves as anything more than sojourners in the land of their nativity. Before that era, their inventions, their wealth, and their glory, centered in the Isle of Britain, as unerringly as the needle pointed to the pole. Forty years of self government has done more for them what a century and a half of dependence was unable to achieve." — Cooper's " Spy," open- ing of 25th chapter. Per contra. — John Bright says of India : " In a single English county there are more travelable roads than are to be found in the whole of India ; and the single city of Manchester, in the supply of its inhabitants with the single arti- c'le of water, has spent a larger sum of money than the East India Company has spent in the fourteen years from 1834 to 1848 in public works qf every kind throughout the whoU of its vast dominions. In India there is scarcely a decent road, the rivers are not bridged, there are comparatively no steam engines, and none of those aids to industry that meet us at any step in Qreat Britain and Ireland." Speech on iJecond reading of India Bill June 24, 1858. F K ^ \ judiciously disposed of in almost rapid succession ; education, especially of the elementary kind, received an extraordinary impetus, and the material prosperity of the country was soon shown by an increase in the public revenue from about a million of dollars, under the old system, to close upon six millions, three-fourths of which was derived from Customs duties. Our canals were so extended as to reach a total length of 235 miles ; and in due time not less than fourteen rail- ways were constructed. You are, of cour^'e, aware that of tho latter the Grand Trunk is the principal, extending from Sarnia in the far west to Eiviere du Loup in the east, a distance of nearly eleven hundred miles. The most striking feature of this road, as you saw when here, is its more than magnificent Tubular Bridge, crossing the St. Lawrence at west Montreal. No description could enable the mind's eye to realize this work ; it must be seen ! Its cost was not less than two millions of pounds sterling. Its height above summsr water level is sixty feet ; twenty-five thousand tons of stone, and seven thousand five hundred tons of iron are embedded in it ; the contents of its masonry are three millions of cubic feet ; and the total length from bank to bank is ten thousand two hundred and eighty-four feet, or fifty yards less than two English miles. There can be no doubt that the railway system contributed largely to the advancement of the country. In less than ten years after it carne into operation the census showed that the population had increased from one million eight hundred thou- sand, to two millions five hundred thousand, a rate of nearly forty per cent. In the same period the customs revenue advanced some seventy- five per cent ; and the aggregate trade of the Province from fiftv-four millions of dollars, (imports $30,000,000, exports $24,000,000) to eighty- eight millions, (imports $46,000,000, exports $42,000,000.) But Canada, like most free and prosperous countries, had her debt, which for some time was a cause of grave concern. In 1853 it was only 819,000,000, in 18G3 it was more than $65,000,000, and when confe- deration was proposed it had reached $77.000,000 — a somewhat start- ling increase. It is right, how»;ver, ^o state that $20,000,000 was ex- I'euded, between the periods of 1853 and 1863, in aiding the construc- tion of the Gr-ind Trunk am! other railways, which 'ixponditure led to the investment of at least $100,009,000 of I nglish cajtital in these several railways. Still it must be admitted that financial blunders, if jioc crimes, w>re conimittod ; and this was so evident in England that mix the 14th Sept. 1865, the Times solemnly stated that " nothing but the *' unscrupulous profligacy of her financial administration limits the sr.p '• ply of British capital to Canada," adding, in view of a pre this money or who was liable, and what steps should be taken to recover the money. He thought that the House would fail in its duty if it did not record in the strongest possible terms its 1 obation of such a Iran sac ion, by which the Province was in danger of loc- ing $100,000, unless immediate steps were taken to recover it from whom- soever was responsible. If the financial agents were the parties reponsibie, the Finance Minister should show how the claim could be established against them, p,nd shou'd have instituted proceedings before this to bring them to account. If they could not be made liable then the Grand Trunk must be responsible, and tlie Finance Minister should show how it could be recovered from them. He considered that this was one of the worst transactions ever brought to light on the part of the Cartier-Macdonald Government, of which the present Finance Minister was a member. . He moved : " That the (Speaker do " not now lea -e the chair, but that it be resolved, that an humble address be " presented to His Excellency the Governor General, representing that in June " 1859, an advance of $100,000 was made f-om the public chest without the " authority of Parliment, for the redemption of bonds for a like amount, of the " city of Montrea , which bonds were redeemable by the Grand Trunk Bailroad " Company ; that by the terms of the Order in Council of the Ist June, 1859, " the Receiver General was ' authorized to redeem the said bonds on account " of the city of Montreal, and to hold the same until the amount so advanced " ($100,000), with interest at 6 per cent, be re-paid to the government by the " city of Montreal, subject to the condition that said city od immediately levy " the necessary rate to meet the indebtedness under the Municipal Loan Fund " Act, and that the amount so advarced be repaid within three months ;' that " the city of Montreal having fulfilled the condition of paying its indebtedness " under the Municipal Loan Fund Act, the bonds in question were delivered " by the Receiver General to the city treasurer, on the 15th August, 1859, " whereby all claim against the city of Montreal for said advance wasr elin- " quished ; that under instructions of the then Minister of Finance, conveyed i i " a letter dated London, 28th Dec. 1859, addressed to Mr. Reiffenstein. of the " Receiver General's Depaitment, the amount of the said advance was ti-ansfer- " red to the debit of the financial agents of the Province in London, who " deny that they ever consented to become liable therefor ; that in view of «' the facts above recited, this House word be failing in its duty if it did not " express its disapprobation of an unauthorized advance of a large amount of " public money, and of the subs quent departure from the conditions of the " Order in Council under which the advance was made." Ministers announced that if the resohi'ion were carried they would regard such a result as a ministerial defoat — a vote of want of confi- dence. It was carried by a majority of two; and a crisis of several days duration followed. But the cabinet would not resign, and it soon became evident that they were also unwilling to dissolve, for the obvious reason that the elections must turn on the merits of their previous ad- ministration of the finances, as shown by the evidence before the recent commission, and more particularly by the telling and tangible resolution of Mr. Dorion. It was believed at a distance, however, that a dissolu- tion would take place, and in view of such an event the Toronto Globe thus advised the public : " The issue which they (Ministers) are thereby referring to the coun- " try is simply this : Had Mr. Gait and his colleagues a right to take *' one hundred thousand dollars from the public chest contrary to law, " and lose that money to the country ? It is difficult to conceive how ** even Messrs. Gait & Co. can be reckless enough to hope that the coun- " try would sanction such a gross outrage." It will be difficult for you to credit that the very day after these words were published the propri- etor of the Globe, Mr. George Brown, a leading member of the Upper Canadian opposition, and who had, as such, supported Mr. Dorion's motion, volunteered to coalesce with Messrs. Macdonald, Cartier and Gait, and thus condone the " gross outrage" depicted in his paper, per- haps by himself. And yet so it was. And Mr. McDougall, who seconded the want oj confidence motion, followed Mr. Brown. Mr. McDougall I who had said, speaking of Mr. Gait's conduct, that " the public treas- " cry was plundered by official connivance to an extent that shocked " even the most devoted jiartizans of the government." Such was the coalition government, and such its origin, to which the world is undoubtedly indebted for the territorial creation known as tlie Dominion of Canada. " The British North America (confederation) Act" sets out by stating that,'" the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have *' expressed tlieir desire to be federally united into one Dominion." Anything more untrue never appeared in a state document. I have shown to what extent Canada was consulted. It is true confederation was spoken of, now and then, in a narrow circle, as it had been since the days of Chief Justice Sewell, and Lord Durham, both of whom looked to it as a means of crushing the French Canadians, but at no time, and in no form, was it ever submitted to the people. We know how much Nova Scotia desired it, and and the deep disaffection which to this hour prevails throughout the length and breadth of that Province because of the rash and rude hand which was placed upon her old and valued constitution to serve the miserable exigencies of Canadian poli- ticians. The result of the general elections of 18G5 in New Bruns- wick evinced nothing short of contempt for the measure, but after a second dissolution of Parliament a favorable decision was obtained by ^ w/ means of the skill and energy of governor Gordon, materially aided, however, by a Mr. Killian of New York, who conducted a band of Fenians to Campo Bello, where they made a hostile demonstration, — the history of which manoeuvre is not yet written, — on the eve of the elections, just at the moment of time to render the electors susceptible to the " cry" of loyalty, and confederation as its synonyme. The advo- cates of this great change knew well that the people having been nei- ther consulted nor educated on the question, wt -"e weak poitits in the case ; and hence their great efforts during the debate in Parliament to make the scheme acceptable. Poor McGee ! ever facile, contributed his quota of rich imagery. " What do we need," said he, " to construct " such a nationality ? We have more Saxons than Alfred had wlien he " founded the English state ; we have more Celts than Brien had when " he put his heel on the neck of Odin ; we have more Normans than *' William had when he marshalled his invading hosts along the strand •* of Falaise ; wa have the laws of St. Edward, and St. Louis ; we speak " the speech of Shakspeare, and of Bossuet, &c. &o." The less poetical speakers told of the number of square miles, — ara- ble or not mattered little, — which the Dominion would one day embrace; the annual agricultural products of the Provinces could be valued at $150,000,000 ; the yield of the fisheries at $20,000,000. - Mr. Brown, as in duty bound, made our status, present and prospective, grand indeed. " In 1793," said he, ♦• long after the United States had , " achieved their independence, and established a settled government, " their exports and imports did not amount to one-third what ours do " at this moment. There are few States in Europe," ho continued, «* that can boast of anything like the extent of foreign commerce that " now passes through our hands." The opponents of confederation, while smiling at the " spread eagle- ism" of Mr. Brown and others, did not deny that the several Provinces possessed much of the resources set forth, but replied that the cumulated figures presented were altogether beside the question. They contended, above all, that with regard to a measure so purely fundamental in its nature, the respective populations concerned should be directly consulted. As to confederation per se, they resisted it on geographical, social, and economic grounds, the first and last of which embraced the question of commerce, and the second those of religion and race. They urged that no paper or parchment writing could unite countries so effectually put asunder by nature as Canada and the Maratime Provinces, with the further great difficulty of their being separated by an " alien country," the latter having the power of cutting off all military communication in case of war. From a commercial point of view it was contended that no political consideration would induce the merchant of the far west of Canada to transport his produce to Halifax, or order his English goods by that route, a distance of nearly two thousand miles, — admitting the practicability of working a Railroad at all seasons between that port 8 and Quebec, which is much doubted. Commerce, said they, will follow the shortest and cheapest route ; and so true is this that the trade of Quebec would be likely to prefer the two hundred and seventy miles by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic line to Portland, even were the six hun- kundred and thirty-Jive miles of road to Halifax available at all timen " Indeed, the American routes by being so much shorter would " said one who had carefully studied the subject, " command the business even if the governments of the Provinces should be so liberal as to *' carry freight over the Halifax line for nothing, and pay all expenses." Arguing from the past, and on geographical grounds, it was maintained that the chief commerce of the lower Provinces must be with the United States. It was shown that the value of domestic and foreign goods exported to the Provinces from the Republic from the year 1850 to 1863 was $101,405,218. the Provincial products exported to the Uni- ted States m the same time amounting to $48,508,934. As to their S«^ofiJ*!!o^""?'l^ '''^!'^'* ^'^** '''^"'^ ^^ established was, that of the $45,964,493 of Canadian imports in 1863, $510,713 came from the ^'^''Za^Kfoa ""or" ^""P"'^'' «»"«"«<^J"g to $41,841,532, not more than $935,196, or 21 per cent, were directed thither. The questions of race and religion had, as I have intiu.ated, some prominence in the discussion. The French Canadians, ever sensitive as to the autonomy of of Lower Canada, where they constitute at least four-fifths of the popu- , lation, were appealed to against a constitution which gave the rival Province of Upper Carada a majority over them of seventeen in the House of Commons. On the other hand, the Anglo Saxons complained, as I read in a published letter from one of them, "that confederation almost consigned them to extinction in the projected Parliament of Lower Canada, although, while only ore-fifth of the population, they f represented four-fifths of its commerce and banking capital." In Upper Canada the Catholic element felt itself to be similarly exposed ? ioc\ .u P'**'*^^'tf *s ^n Lower Canada. According to the eensus of 1861 they were only 258,041, or about one-fifth of the population but, owing to the assistance rendered to them on religious and quasi religious questions >y their co-religionists of Lower Canada, their posi- tion m the Parliament of the united Provinces was one of comparative safety. In the Parliament of Ontario, however, they expected to fird themselves in a condition not unlike that which the Anglo Saxon I have quoted from apprehended would be the lot of his race in the Province ot Quebec. It is fair to tell that the alarm thus expressed had its effect on the Junto who framed the confederation act. The right to ♦' separ ate schools," which the Catholics of Upper Canada had secured after a hard strugg e, is maintained intact by that law, and provision is also niade for the protection of the " dissentient schools of the Queen'a Protestant sub;ect8 in Quebec." The Anglo Saxon, appreciating the injunction of Byron, Trust not for freedom to the Franks, 9 •»>■«** '^^ !■' and with that aptitude for taking good care of himself, which has dis- tinguished him for centuries, also exacted that there should be a provi- sion in the local constitution of Quebec that no change should at any time be made in the limits of constituencies then returning English- speaking members without " the concurrence of a majority of the mem- bers representing all those electoral divisions or districts." ' This secures to the Protestants of Quebec, in perpetuity, not less than twelve repre- sentatives, (in the present IIougc there avc fourteen Tiotcotanto) which with five members in the Legislative Council, two in the local executive, one in the Privy Council of the Dominion, seventeen in the House of Commons, and six in the Senate, is some guarantie against aggression. But how is it with the Catholics of Ontario ? Of course they have no representative in the Privy Council ; they have not one in the Senate ; in the House of Commons there are two ; in the local Legislature three; and as one of these is a dual member, upwards of 300,000 Catholic iiihabitauts of Ontario are represented by the adequate number of four ! The question of the public debt under confederation was thus put : The present debt of Canada is $77,000,000 ; it is proposed to add $15,000,000 due by Nova Sia and New Brunswick; $16,000,000 for the Intercolonial Road ; $5;000,000 as representing the annual sub- sidies to Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland ; and $5,000,000 for the purchase of the Hudson's Bay territory, making a total of $118,000,000, with the prospect of several further millions for the erection of fortifications in the five frontier cities of Quebec and Ontario. As it is important that you should, at this moment, know as much as i)ossible of the afi'airs of the Dominion, present and prospective, I tliink it well to submit the followinar, it being the most intelligible statement I have met with on the subject of the fortifications referred to, and that of Canadian defences generally. It is taken from the Trade Review, a paper published in the interests of commerce, strictly non -political, and most reliable as to its general contents. Last year (1864) the British Goverment seat an experienced and intelligent officer (Col. Jervois) to Canada, for the purpose of reporting upon the cost of Morks necessary to the dof«nce of the country. That gentleraan completed his report some time in September last, and our Government was made imme- diately aware of its contents ; but it is only just now that the recommendations and estimates are made public. They possess an absorbing interest for every resident of Canada. The report states that it will cost ntarly seven millions of dollars to properly fortify the five frontier cities. This includes armament, but not men. If itis deemed necessary to have fortifications, it is equally essential to have soldiers to man them ; and without pretending to much military knowledge we may estimate that anything like a proper force for the frontier fortifications would cost at least three millions of dollars per annum. Twenty-five thou- sand men,— five thousand at each city,— at fifty cents per day, foots up to over four and a quarter millions. We may rest assured that the cost of defences for Canada, in anything like the proportion that Col. Jervois suggests, will amount to at least ten millions of Dollars for the first year, and three and four 10 millions every year thereafter, as long as it is necessary to maintain the force The news received from England dnring the week indicates that the Imperial Government ars prepared to spend one million of dollars at present toward the defences of the country ; whether this is the amount iinaily decided upon as tho limit of the contrihution toward Canadi.-.n defences, it is impos<^ible to pay from the reports at hand ; but from the fact that Lord Derl.y and other Membeis of Parliament ridiculed the smfi'/luess of the amount asked, ard that no explanation followed, it is fair to presume that until there is more nr'csssi- ty apparent for an increase in the amount, a larger sun- wul not be granted. The expenditure of one million in the seven required for fortifications will leave six mJiions to be provided for by Canada, and nine millions for any- thing like a pro:^er defence of the country. Inasmuch as our entire revenue tor last yeai' was only ten millions of dollars, and that this year it is likely to fall to nine millions, we don't see how it is to come within the hounds of pos- sibility, that we can raise double the aniount for defensive purposes. If the country were in a prosperou*^ state, there might he some hope of its bearing a douDle taxation ; hut with every i?it.'rest depressed, and a large portion of the people with just enough to do to subsist, we confess our inability to see how these additional burdens are to be borne. It cannot be said that mucn improvement has taken place in the gen- eral condition of thh oountry since the above was written. On"' the contrary there are many signs of depression, the most prominent of which is the continued stream of emigration from the Province of Que- bec to tne United States. The Catliolic Bishop of Builington, Ver- iront, stated lately in the Cathedral pulpit in Quebec that there were then not less than 500,000 French Canadians in the differev.t States, that they were still pouring in at an average of one thousand por upek, and he called on tho Ecclesiastical Authorities of Canada to send Priests after them " speaking their own language, and participating in their *' ideas of the soil to which tlioy have become attached." I cannot barn tlint Conft'dcration has at all tended to the increase of enii,<2rati< n to the Dotiiini )n. So far as this Pr' vinco (Quebec) h concerned, the effect is of an opposite kind, the local government beJng plainly opiosf d to emigration from the British Isles. This, perhaps, is natural,— but u it whfit Confederation was deponed for? Or is it thus provision ,h to be made for the enoruious liabilities entailed upon the country by that measure ? I have now ne;irly reached tho end I proposed to myself in writin^^ tliis letter, but am approhcnsive that the derails I iiave conjidt-rcd it iiecessary to give wid be found less interesting than I couM desire ; and yt they may bo useful. The decisioi. about to be pronounced by the people of the Old Island will have a most Important (>ffect upon the future of the jjresent possessions of Great Britain in North America ai:d sho'ihi, therefore, be based ar much, as pos-ible, upon knowledge. In add'iion t-» what 1 have written, would it i ot be well to consider seriously the present phase of liritish connection in our hemisphere? You oill have seen tho intimations from the Lon- don press, of nearly all shades of i)olitic3, of tho desire in Fi.glaral that Canada should, forthwith, take her place among ihe Independent t # 11 nations of the earth. The Times of the 27th of last month says broadly : " Canada is in all respects fitted to become independent. " She has institutions of great power; and it is a fair subject of en- " qniry whether she might not assume her appropriate position." Some willingness is being manifested, especially in this city and in Quebec, to enter upon this " enquiry," and I believe it will soon take a definite and practical form. I send an able pamphlet from the pen of the Hon. John Young, and another consisting of a speech just spoken in one of the most loyal counties in the land by the Hon. Mr. Hunting- ton, in each of which you will find a depth of knowledge and sound reasoning on the suiyect which even the Times, in its ardor to set us free, oould not excel. In view of this movement it is asked by many, — how long will the Dominion last ? And the people of Newfoundland may ask at the coming elections how far their interests should be made subject to its uncertain fate ? This is a question, however, upon which I have no right to advise. ^ But it cannot be wrong for me to give utterance to a fervent desire that the result of the coming contest may contribute to the peace, honor, and prosperity of my native country, finowing, as I well do, the guileless character of her toil-worn sons, I cannot but pray that in any change that is to come their best interests may be dealt with in all sin- cerity. As to yourself, my dear sir, words are not necessary to express the friendship which exists between us, and I therefore subscribe myself Yours as ever, MATTHEW RYAN.