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I wmm wmmi^w ^H^^^ ■ .^ iliilpll ■lihliMiMMMiiH 1 ;' «ie^P^i^Pi HON. THOMAS D'ARCY McGEE Plea For Separate Schools, 1863— A Great States- man's Masterly Presentation. The Separate Schooi Act of 1863 was being debated in the House of Assembly at Quebec. The Hon. Mr. McGee gal /J • "Jn rising to make the observations whi. I feel it my duty as the spokesman of so many of the petitioners, to offer to the House, I cannot but congratulate the House and the cov y on the good temper, and if I may say so, the good taste which has characterized this discussion, to which I have listened with great attention, but I am bound to say not without pain. From the moment I first entered upon my parliamentary duties, I have continued to act with the Oppo- sition. I have given them a bold, hearty and unstinting co-operation; but I must take this opportunity of saying that if the course of this debate should satisfy me that the reli- gious liberties of the Catholic minority of the people of Upper Canada were more safe in the hands of what is called the Consei-vative party than they are in the hands of tae Re- form party in this House, however painful it may be to me personally, I shall not hesitate to make my choice in favour of the party which guaranteed the religious rights and liber- ties of the Catholic minority of Upper Canada. And no earthly object would deter tne from preferring the Conserva- t ve party, if they are tolerant on this question, to any other party who are intolerant, no matter what are the points on which I agree or disagree with them in reference to the other subjects which came before the House and country. I have always maintained that there is more liberality existmg in the ranks of my Western friends on subjects of this descrip- tion than is to be found on the Ministerial side of the House But there has not hitherto been such a practical test smce 1 have had the honour of holding a seat in the House, as is now introduced by this Bill. This is indeed a practical test, and I will say, that for my part, I will make up my mind as to the side on which the greatest amount of liberality and toleration existed by the result presented when the final vote is taken. I aiijjp "I deeply regret to find, Sir, from the reference of the honourable member from South Lanark (Mr. Morris) that a remark of mine last year in which I called the six months' hoist 'the Parliamentary Bludgeon,' seems to have rankled in his memory, and that an honourable member who came to the House with such a high reputation and character as his should choose almost as his first act in the political arena of the Province to put himself in the position of the anti-Catho- lic leader on the floor of the Legislature. He ought to have left that piece of work to the hon. member for South Simcoe (Mr. Ferguson), the worthier and older soldier of intolerance. The hon. member for South Simcoe referred to me last night. It was unnecessary to reply, inasmuch as the hon. gentleman was himself his best illustration. The hon. member also complained of the hon. member for Ottawa comparing him (Mr. Ferguson) to Guy Fawkes. This, I think, was hardly fair— that is to say, it is hardly fair tc poor Guy Fawkes. And as that Guy— I do not now speak of the other Guy — has nobody else to speak for him, I think it is only an act of justice that I should defend him from the charge which the hon. member for Ottawa has brought against him. It is said that this is a BiU promoted by the clergy only. No, I do not represent any ecclesiastical interest on the floor of this House; and I must declare that the Bill is a layman's Bill— that it is not demanded so much by the clergy as by the laity. I am sorry, inc d, to hear it said by one or two members that this Bill is a.o result of ecclesiastical dictation. To that I reply that if this could be demonstrated as a fact I would be ready to oppose it. It is a Bill demanded by the laity. The hon. member for Middlesex said that he had never heard" a Catholic lajmian in Middlesex ask for Seperate Schools. It seems that the hon. member regards all the Catholic laity as a pack of slaves who have no opinions of their own, but are entirely at the mercy of their priests. However, the true tone of moderation on this subject has been given by the hon. member for North York, who admit- ted that the principle has been recognized and could not now be taken back; and in accordance with that principle the Legislature was bound to concede the means nd machinery to carry it out. If it did not, it only gave 'the word of promise to the ear and breaketh to the hope.' Was the ex- tension of the machinery proposed by the hon. mover of the Bill necessary? If the House believed the assertion of the applicants for the Bill, it was so. If we do not believe them, MMM* I rm mm. mmrnf wnnp ■MM ■•■MIMlii \ tl we could refer to the causes, an m^fHmmim — 7— if the local visitors so decided, the board was turned which announced the ordinary studies at an end, and either cate- chetical or Biblical instruction about to begin. The minority, if Protestan., had to withdraw — or if Catholic, had to with draw. But the character of the Irish system of 1831— 'com- mon secular and separate religious instruction' — has not been observed; whether it was found impracticable, or whether the secular element encroached continually upon the reli- gious element, I am not prepared to say; but, at this mo- ment, the fact is that 90 per cent, of the Irish schools both in Ulster and the other Provinces are practically denomina- tional schools. Sir, those who uphold the common or mixed system of public instruction, assume a tone of confidence amounting to certainty as to the immense benefit of this sys- tem; they speak to us, who stand on the old salutary senaua communiB of Christendom, ai if we were the challengers; as ad ''ien tried every one the true show — ^hose would fore an if they were in possession ; as if their the by the elements of ages and had bornt f^ could see and feel and banquet on. Nr relati^^e position of the two argumertn can my hon. friend from Peterboro (Co earnestness on all subjects I respect, vhc 1 . no more fall down before a popular fallacy i».- enemy in the field, can he, or ary advocate of strict secu- larization, show me any enduring character that ever was moulded v/ithout a strong infusion of a dogmatic religion of some sort? Even the wise Athenian, to whom my hon. friend referred, would have reverence for the immortal gods, and especially for the gods of Greece, taught in public. I will not speak of Catholic ages and countries — but in Scotland, Switzerland, Holland, do they launch men upon the voyage of life without a strong infusion of dogmatic religions—with- out a standard of right and wronr— without an ethical com- pass, by which they may tell the moral north from the moral south, which will tremble with magnetic sensibility to the point of honour and the path of duty? I do not intend here and now, Mr. Speaker, to discuss the general question, but I repeat that the opponents of combined religious and secular teaching beg the whole question when they '\ssume their project of yesterday to be uione right and the common sense of Christendom wrong, since the creation of the family in- stitution — the olde3t and most sacred fnstitution in the world — an institution unknown to Asia and to Africa — which we of America Jiiave copied from Europe, and which we have I I i'fflmmm»m^:. wmr* '^ yet to naturalize and establish in this new civilization, in this new soil. The common or State school system, which iMHvea a Christian family out of account as m institution, was the creation of two despotisms. It was conceived in Prussia by Frederick tho Great, when he strove to .veld to- gether his scrap-iron empire; it was followed in France dur- ing the Revolution by that other infidel, Talleyrand, the apostate Bishop of Autun, and some ill-wind blew it ovei." to Boston, which every vne knows is "the hub of the uni- verse," without which the earth woul run off its rusty old axis. The local pride of Boston — a city of bookmakers and ideologists, where they make maps of the Union fill three- fourths of the Atlas, has been associated for thirty years with thisi Franco-Prussian despotism of public instruction^ and has helped to spread its prett.ibions over most of the United States. But will any man in Boston, not an orator or editor, or echo of the locality, tell you that it has made this generation of men, not to speak of women, better sons or better husbands, \idth a keener sense of mercantile or per- sonal honour, with a greater reverence for law, authority, age and magistracy, than the colony-bred men, their ances- tors, or the private cchool-bred men of the last generation? I do not think, I may say I know, that many of the most thoughfiful men in the United States do net believe that purity, that heroism, that self-denial, that subordination to lawful authority, are lessons learned in the common schools; that many of the best families will not trust their own child- ren among the juvenile mob at the primary schools; that though a Boston high school of this age would throw the log school of Henry Clay or the New Hampshire college of Daniel Webster into the shade— that the type of character fashioned in those foundries of miud, so far as tested, has not answered to the high pretensions of the educators on this system. They answer well as cms' "ng mills to -manu- faf-ture natives out of Germa.s or Hibt^rnians; but in the city of Boston, where the common schools were as good as it was possible to make them, the larger number of children went to select schools. The citizens in good circumstances generally were willing to pay for the education of the pro- fanuw vulgua, but they chose for themselves) other and pri- vate means of education. Such, I think, would be the candid answer of the modern Athenian, not professionally bound to uphold his own town as the tripod of the new Western civilization. No one can show me any enduring national .^^unpiuiiHi pi —9.- character that, ever was moulded without a strong infusion of dof^natic religion of some sort. "Some honourable members, Mr. Speaker, have spoken of this demand for Separate Schools in Upper Canada as a priests' question, but nothing could be further from the fact. I ascert, of my o> i knowledge, in the name of thousands of parents whose petitions are on your Table, that this is a fathers' aid mothers' Bill, much more than a priests' Bill, it would be, as I have ofteii before observed in this House, a /ery great error to assume that this measure is not asked for by the Catholic lait a very great error to assume that this measure is not asked for by the Catholic laity, in the exercise of their own conscientious judg ment of what was best for their children It i to the cred'.t of our human nature that the mass of men, however poor their practice, do still keep in view the great goal of life, especially when they speculate not only on their future, but on the future of their chi' 'ren. The mysterious relatfon of parent and child inspires the hearts of all but the very stolid or the very depraved with a double anxiety concerning that hereafter, into which we must all enter, whether we sing with the psalmist the canticle of the resur- rection, or ask with the skeptic, 'can lines finite one way, infinite another?' There must be in every father's heart a latent or an active sense of responsibility for the spirit and genius of his child, as well as for his flesh and blood. Tha parent is not alone the parent of the body, but of the mind; the mother is not alone the nurse of the person, but the governess of the soul — all that troes to make up character, morality, are charges upon the parental office, just as much as all that goes to make up shelter, or cookery, or clothing. The question before this House had its origin in the deepest and most enduring elements of our nature ; it is not a got-up debate; it is not a temporary interest; it could only be. set- tled in one way, and that is to allow the petitioners to try it out in practice. I should be sorry, Sir, that any one in ihe House or the country should continue under the suppo- sition thtit it is a priests' Bill, rather than a parents' Bill, or that the Catholic laity have not in good faith asked for this amended legislation for their own sakes. I am free to confess that there are times and subjects in which I wouP deprecate the interference of priests as much as any layman livmg but I am not at all afraid, for my part, that in this country and in this centuiy, the ecclesiastical order will be- -_io_ come disproportionately powerful. The tendency of all the modern forces is to laicize Christian society — if I may coin a word— it has been so ever since the learned profession- of law and medicine were shut against clerks in orders; ever since commerce and banking became a recognized profession of peace; ever since printing made knowledge common. Modern force no more distinguished in favour of a man in orders from a man out of orders, than the steam^press could tell for whom it was working. There is no danger that a priestly caste can ever arise in pur times, out of our society; but there may be danger, and I think there is danger, that in these new realms, so bare of 'all tradition — so far apart from our own old inheritance — gross materialism may spread into excessive dimensions — the sceptre of the Breside may be brc'ien and the moral magistracy of the parent be over- thrown. Old people are at home in old countries; young people in young countries. All the indices of our society seem to me to veer away from the altar and the throne, to point towards money an^' earthly advantages. If the Catholic minority of Upper Canada, holding still, as it were in solu- tion, a greater body of Christian tradition than other classes of the population — if they should be able to show to Canada and the continent how it is possible practically to unify the three great social forces — the parent, the pastor, and the State — in the great work of the formation of youth, it does seem to me, Mr. Speaker, that they will have effected one of the noblest and most desirable reforms within the compass of human achievement. For my part, I feel so strongly that they are right, that I do not hesitate to say that if, on the one hand, it was in my power to give to my own children all the secular knowledge that Alexander Von Humboldt car- ried to the grave — and he mastered, perhaps, as much as one man ever did — or — observe — to give them, on the other hand, the .Christian catechism and some of those old songs of our ancestors that infuse heroism and fortitude and affection into- the heart — if I had to choose between them, I would not hesitate a moment to choose the old songsi and the little six-, penny *catechism. (A voice, 'buncombe')- Mr. McGee con- tinued^ — I think I heard an hon. member mutter the word 'buncombe.' Well, Sir, it may be buncombe to the hon. mem- ber whoever he is, but wi.en he has given as man"'^ hours' thought to this subject as I have given days', he may find somn reasons, to change his cont ,mptuous opinion of the influence of the common Christian doctrine, and of the songst I wmit,^ IMMiMI . —11— of the nursery and the fireside, in the formation of char- acter, which I take to be the end and aim of all education. I observe H has been assumed in this debate, as an argument against the proposed concession, that if additional Separate Schools are established, the children of Catholics will be uneducated or ill-educated,, Mr, Speaker, I shall only say, that we may trust human nature and parental pride and social rivalry for that. Are Catholics less prone than any other people to fancy their children the cleverest ever seen? Are they less ambitious of their success in life? Are they more disposed to see them in subordinate positions in the professions, in business or in society? I do not think thero is any danger in that direction, which would justify us in putting a whole body of people in a state of tutelage such as this objection would imply. Sir, my hon. friend from Glen- garry (Mr. D. A. Macdonald) who is so good a cosmopolitan that he has no partiality even for his own religion, has moved his amendment to protect the Protestant minority of his county. Now what is that minority, of whom alone my hon. friend can think in this case? In a single county — ^the county he represents — there is a minority of 651 persons; there are over 10,200 Protestants to 10,900 Catholics; and for this solitary exception my hon. friend would cripple the school Bill for all the rest of the Province. My hon. friend need not fear for the religious liberties of the Protestants of Upper Canada — they are four to one of the Catholics, they are the vast majority in evory county council; they have every single member in this House from that section, but three; they have all the members of the Upper House, with- out exception; they are amply able to protect themselves. Those whom we need to protect is the one-fifth, not the four- fifths; and this law, whether it is exercised in all instances or not, will be a" protection. It will be on the Statute Book, it will be a possible remedy — it will be an unloaded gun in the House — useful if it should be found necessary. It will secure, what in some localities nothing else could secure — fair play for the minority in the administration even of the common schools themselves, where no Separate School exists or may be found necessary to be called into existence. Mr. Speaker, I have reason to believe that some members of this House who would have opposed the original Separate School legislation incorporated with this Bill, if the question were now up for the first time, would yet willingly vote for these amendments of the machinery, if they were satisfied this M^ ■■ ay&CM'-ynt i pr i M —12— measure would prove a settlement of the question. An hon. member has asked my hon. friend the member for Grenville, whose stron? attachment to his own religious convictions is well known, and who spoke of treating this Bill as a finality, whether he was authorized to speak for the Catholic clergy and bishops in that respect. Of course, the question was not serious, nor do I know that any one here is so authorized, but I can say for myself, and from my knowledge of the Catholic laity generally, that they sincerely desire this thing to be put out of politics — ^that they desire a final settlement, and I believe will accept this measure as such settlement. 1 can only say for myself, that I will endeavour to the utmost of my power to make this settlement final so far as I am concemedi if the Bill passes unmutilated, I will be no party U re-opening the subject either in the House or in the coun- try. It seems to me rather inconsistent that the opponents of clerical domination, as it is called, should also be the opponents of this Bill. It is not a fit argument for me, but it is a fair argument as against them to point out that the settlement of the school question, by removing the last poli- tical religious question from the campus, the hustings, the committee room, and the closet, will leave no ground for such interference hereafter. The exclusion of this question from the arena will restore the rule of legitimate politics; it will no longer be possible for unfit and insincere men to find their way into this House, with the certifioate of a Catholic bishop in the one pocket and the card of an Orange lodge in the other. It will enable all the decorous and dignified members of the clergy to decline interfering in party contests— and for this, if for no other reason, the settlement ought to be at- tempted. For myself. Sir, there is no place I would not rather see a priest than as a suppliant or an agent of any politician; there is no place I would rather not hear the voice dedicated to the service of the altar raised than in the uproar that surrounds the hustings. Great learning and high character will create a wide influence for clergymen, and great necessities may justify their active interference in political coji^tests; but it is because, in addition to its justice, I believe this measure, — whether it an- swers all the expectations entertained^ of it or not — whether it is in all cases, or in many cases, put into operation or not — it is because I consider it, and accept it as an actual settlement, tending to the actual settle- ment, tending to the extinction of sectarian war— that I ( t 1 —13— warmly desire its passage. I have never been a party to bigotry in the ranks to which I belong— whether aimed at leading individuals like my hon. friend, whom we are soon again to have in this House, I am happy to say, from South Oxford — or directed against classes or sects of our fellow- subjects; I always felt that we are all interested— every way interested— in getting under and keeping under sectarian warfare— and for this crowning reason, I hope to see this measure passed into law during the present session." II