THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 u
 
 CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL 
 DEVELOPMENT
 
 CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 SHOWN BY SELECTED SPEECHES AND 
 
 DESPATCHES, WITH INTRODUCTIONS 
 
 AND EXPLANATORY NOTES 
 
 BY H. E. EGERTON, M.A. 
 
 FELLOW OF ALL SOULS' COLLEGE ; BEIT PROFESSOR OF COLONIAL HISTORY IN 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 AND W. L. GRANT, M.A. 
 
 BEIT ASSISTANT LECTURER IN COLONIAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD 
 
 LONDON 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
 
 1907
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In the following pages the attempt is made to trace, from 
 the writings and speeches of those concerned in the work, 
 the development of the Canadian Constitution. The 
 chief Acts of Parliament and Treaties in which the 
 stages of its progress are recorded have been collected 
 in a very handy and useful volume, edited by Mr. William 
 Houston of Toronto ; but the dry bones of Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, if they are to be galvanized into life, require the 
 jflesh and blood which come from considering the motives 
 and language of their authors. The present collection of 
 speeches and dispatches needs, then, no apology. At a 
 time when the future constitution of the British Empire 
 is generally recognized as one of the most pressing ques- 
 tions awaiting solution, the constitutional evolution of 
 the Dominion of Canada deserves and needs attentive 
 study, while to the ordinary reader the material which 
 should be consulted is by no means ready at hand. To 
 mention three important authorities from which long 
 extracts have been taken, the Report by Sir Henry 
 Cavendish of the Debates in the House of Commons on 
 the Quebec Act is a scarce book, difficult to find except 
 in the British Museum or the library of the Royal Colonial 
 Institute ; the Letters and Speeches of the Nova Scotian 
 orator, Joseph Howe, are out of print ; and the volume 
 of the Confederation Debates in 1865, in the Canadian 
 legislature, is not easy of access to the English reader. 
 
 Apart, moreover, from these special cases, dispatches 
 hidden in old Blue books, though in theory easy of refer- 
 
 72^ 1 vO
 
 vi . PREFACE 
 
 ence, are in fact often neglected ; and even letters, con- 
 tained in general biographies written many years ago, 
 gain an added interest when placed in a context which 
 brings out their constitutional importance. For the 
 first years of British rule, from 1760 to the passing of the 
 Constitutional Act of 1791, the recently published volume 
 of constitutional documents, edited by the Canadian 
 Government archivist, Mr. A. G. Doughty, and Professor 
 Shortt, of Queen's University, Kingston, are invaluable. 
 But even though the following periods should be dealt with 
 on the same exhaustive scale, the need of a single volume, 
 to gather together the more important documents, ex- 
 tending over a hundred years, is none the less manifest. 
 
 It has not seemed necessary to reprint here the speeches 
 of British statesmen in Parliament, because the volumes 
 of Hansard are easy of reference, and it was inad- 
 visable to overload the present book. It will be noted 
 that no extracts are included from the most important 
 of aU public papers relating to Canadian history. The 
 reason is obvious. Lord Durham's Report on British 
 North America must be studied as a whole. It m.a,j not 
 be an infallible statement of facts ; the author's personal 
 knowledge of Upper Canada was very slight, and he may 
 in some cases have been misled by his informants. The 
 time-spirit has dealt very summarily with one of the main 
 tenets of his political belief — the view that it w^as neces- 
 sary to absorb the French national character in a domi- 
 nant Anglo-Saxon type. But, though it may not be 
 without mistakes, the Report is none the less a work of 
 genius, not a line or word of which should be neglected or 
 ignored by the student of the Canadian Constitution. 
 Unless a statesman of Lord Durham's position and calibre 
 had taken up the cry for responsible government, it is 
 probable that all the arguments and eloquence of a 
 Joseph Howe might for years have remained unheeded and 
 ignored by British Ministers, with results to the Empire 
 which one shudders to contemplate ; and if the final form
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 of the Dominion has been other than the one roughly 
 sketched by Lord Durham, the idea which it embodies 
 is none the less the idea which inspired him, when it 
 seemed as though in imperial matters the Urim and 
 Thummim of the first Empire-builders were no longer 
 in the land. 
 
 It would be difficult to find a hundred years richer in 
 constitutional experience than is the period dealt with 
 in the present volume. It is true that Canadian history 
 presents no situation so striking or dramatic as that 
 under which the general of the forces of a hostile Dutch 
 republic hks become within the space of some five years 
 the Prime Minister of a British Colony endowed with 
 full responsible government. But if, compared to such 
 lightning turns, the development of Canada has been 
 slow, compared to other historical precedents it has been 
 rapid enough. We start with a conquered country, a 
 tabula rasa upon which Great Britain may write as 
 seems good to her. During a brief period of military rule 
 British officers endeavour, upon the whole with success, 
 to mitigate in practice the harshness of the position. The 
 proclamation of 1763, which appeared to sweep away the 
 whole fabric of French law, added to the confusion, as it 
 was never given full effect, and neither the natural ability 
 nor the legal attainments of the British rulers sufficed 
 to evolve a new system ; while the appointment of Murray 
 to the civil government was so far a failure in that it gave 
 no solution to the difficult problems connected with the 
 laws and the Church. In the years which preceded the 
 Quebec Act we find in the records the frequent and 
 anxious endeavours which were made to solve the question, 
 and we recognize that that Act, so far from being the bolt 
 from the blue directed against the fabric of American 
 liberties it has been sometimes represented, was the out- 
 come of painful efforts to deal with the particular diffi- 
 culties of Canadian circumstances. It has been criticized 
 and condemned by very able writers, in that it stereotyped 
 
 h
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 and niado permanent a condition of things which it Avas the 
 interest of Great Britain to supersede. But a different 
 poHcy might have had results still more disastrous. 
 Certain it is that, when we consider what a bulwark to 
 British connexion has been the fact that the Roman 
 Catholic Church has recognized Great Britain to be its 
 friend and the United States to be its danger, we may- 
 continue to hold that the wisdom of the Quebec Act has 
 been justified by its results. 
 
 Hardly had the policy of recognizing a French colony 
 in the British Empire been formally adopted when a new 
 scene opened, leading to new political developments. 
 The successful revolt of the American colonies entailed 
 the voluntary banishment of those who were British 
 subjects first, and citizens of this or that colony or State 
 only in a secondary degree. In the death-throes of the 
 first British empire in America was born the offspring 
 which in time was to make up for the loss of those first 
 possessions. Henceforth Lower and Upper Canada ad- 
 vance side by side, the one growing more aggressively 
 French as the common people awoke from the political 
 apathy which was the heritage of French absolutism, 
 under the influence of political leaders or demagogues, 
 who were peculiarly their own kith and kin ; the other 
 in its origin and in its character no less aggressively Anglo- 
 Saxon ; so that the chances of a United Canada seemed 
 small, if not hopeless. Such points of sympathy as ex- 
 isted were found in common opposition to the impossible 
 system of government, under which a suffrage much more 
 democratic than that of Great Britain, and a legislature 
 really representative of the people, stood confronted with 
 an executive wholly irresponsible to colonial public 
 opinion. The Quebec Act, plausibly and reasonably at 
 the time, had merely introduced a Nominated Council, 
 and no attempt was made to take advantage of the 
 breathing space to set up a system of local self-govern- 
 ment or of popular education ; so that when, under the
 
 PREFACE ix 
 
 Constitutional Act, it was thought necessary to deal with 
 the two provinces on the same lines, and to give to the 
 French Canadians the representative institutions which 
 could not be denied to those who in the American 
 colonies had always enjoyed them, the measure, so far 
 as Lower Canada was concerned, was a leap in the 
 dark. Something will be shown in the following pages 
 of the miserable impasse to which matters came ; but it 
 is worth noting that Lower Canada could approach no 
 nearer to the continental demagogue than the bourgeois 
 Papineau ; while the nearest approach to a tyrant, in 
 the heated imaginations of political partisans, was the 
 well-meaning, if blundering, Craig. 
 
 The period of the two Canadas was closed by the Act 
 of Union, while the grant of responsible government 
 ended the political controversy between the colonies and 
 Great Britain ; but the gulf between the two portions 
 of the country was too deep to be bridged by an Act, 
 which itself, by giving equality of representation to the 
 two sections, recognized the permanence of racial divisions. 
 In these circumstances, the nominal union of those whom 
 associations of race and of religion kept apart, proved a 
 failure, and events seemed hastening to a deadlock as 
 serious as, though different from, the one which had 
 followed the working of the Constitutional Act. Most for- 
 tunately a federal constitution proved the Deus ex macfiina 
 which, while securing to local prejudices the preservation of 
 local rights, was able to start the Dominion, as a whole, 
 upon the road of nationhood. These phases, then, of 
 Canadian constitutional life — the working of military rule, 
 the preparations for the Quebec Act, the Government of 
 the country under that Act, the now situation created by 
 the coming of the loyalists, the Constitution conferred on 
 the two provinces by the Constitutional Act, the failures 
 of that system in its working, the demand for responsible 
 government, the recognition of that system under the 
 Union, the difficulties attending the existence of conflict- 
 
 h 2
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 inji nationalities, and the discussions which led to federa- 
 tion — all these will be found illustrated in the following 
 pages. Incidentally will be noted the political ground- 
 swell which followed the high-tide of Free Trade, and the 
 full triumph of the principle which claimed complete 
 independence for the colonial legislature in all matters 
 of local concern. The history of British North America 
 has been too exclusively approached from the point of 
 view of Canadian experience ; but the writings here given 
 are enough to show how great a part the Maritime Pro- 
 vinces played in the building up of the future Constitu- 
 tion ; indeed, the letters of Joseph Howe to Lord John 
 Russell, here published in full, can hardly be surpassed 
 in political literature for clearness and power of argument. 
 In taking stock of the material here collected, the 
 dominant feeling of the modern observer may well be one 
 of admiration for the good intentions and good sense of 
 those who, in their different ways, laboured at the work 
 of Canadian constitutional development. The little 
 quoted from Carleton is sufficient to bring out the sterling 
 merits of that great Governor, and if the elder Pitt is not 
 very happy in invoking the spectre of the Inquisition 
 before the humdrum details of the Quebec Act, British 
 statesmen, for the most part, show their best face in the 
 attempt to do substantial justice. A hereditary aris- 
 tocracy on American soil may have proved a vain dream, 
 but none the less was the idea of finding a makeweight to 
 a pure democracy altogether reasonable and well-justified, 
 from the point of view of the time. It is true that a book 
 of this kind does not bring out the fatal defects of British 
 government. It was procrastination and the tendency to 
 shirk difficult questions, rather than wilful misdoing, 
 which was the besetting sin of the colonial policy of the 
 time. Still, making allowance for all this, there is much 
 in the dispatches here given which cannot but command 
 respect and admiration. To those whose chief knowledge 
 of Lord Grey's administration of colonial affairs is derived
 
 PREFACE XI 
 
 from the fierce controversy to which it gave birth over 
 the subject of transportation, it will be welcome to find 
 him giving cordial and complete recognition to the prin- 
 ciple of responsible government in the Maritime Provinces. 
 Even the much-abused Tory " family compact " of Upper 
 Canada are able to show how much gold was mingled 
 with their alloy, by the reprint of the very able report 
 which was their reply to the criticisms of Lord Durham. 
 What could be more characteristic of the different needs 
 of different periods, and the manner in which they were 
 successively met, than the letters of Lord Sydenham and 
 of Lord Elgin, if put side by side ? The Vetat c'est moi 
 of Sydenham is admirably adapted to a period of transi- 
 tion from chaos to order, wherein men have to be driven 
 to their right position ; while, after the uneasy interval of 
 the political struggles of Metcalfe's Government (the 
 complicated character of which it has been impossible to 
 bring out without giving to the episode disproportional 
 space), the serene temper of Elgin ushers in and justifies 
 the new modes of political influence, open to the Governor- 
 General, under the system of responsible government. 
 
 And if British statesmen emerge with credit from the 
 ordeal of being their own spokesmen, the same thing may 
 assuredly be said of their Canadian confreres. Mention 
 has already been made of Joseph Howe ; but the brief 
 references to Robert Baldwin in the following pages will 
 be enough to bring out something of the part he played 
 along with La Fontaine in the first years of complete self- 
 government. The " much-contriving " John A. Mac- 
 donald and the fervent George Brown alike only gain in 
 reputation from their spoken judgments ; and throughout 
 the debates on federation, in the language of the oppo- 
 nents no less than in that of the advocates of the measure 
 there is a note of integrity and of high-minded patriotism 
 which shows that in that portion of America, at least, 
 politics have still the power of attracting the better men. 
 
 The primary object of this volume is to furnish a text-
 
 xii PREFACE 
 
 book for those who are taking up the special subject of 
 the evolution of Canadian self-government in the modern 
 history school at the University of Oxford ; but it is 
 hoped that both in Great Britain and in Canada it may 
 be of service to a wider circle of readers who are inter- 
 ested in the Imperial problems of the present and the 
 future, and recognize that only when hewn from the 
 quarries of past history and experience can the founda- 
 tion-stones of the future be laid firm and secure. The 
 notes have been confined to as small a space as possible, 
 especially with respect to biographical details, for which 
 the reader should consult the Dictionary of National 
 Biography. 
 
 The main work of passing through the press and anno- 
 tating the present collection of documents has been taken 
 by my colleague, Mr, W. L. Grant, though the form of the 
 book and the choice of material are largely my own. 
 We have to express our gratitude to the Royal Colonial 
 Institute for the loan of books, and to the Librarian of 
 Bodley's Library for permission to make photographic 
 copies of documents. 
 
 HUGH E. EGERTON. 
 September, 1907.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR JAMES MURRAY 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Appointment of a Council - - - - - 3 
 
 A General Assembly ...... 5 
 
 Duties as to Legislation ------ 7 
 
 Administration of Justice - - - - - 9 
 
 Toleration for Catholics - - - - - - 11 
 
 Establishment of the Church of England - - - 13 
 
 Land Surveys - - - - - - - 15 
 
 Indians - - - - - - - - 17 
 
 Conduct in Time of War - - - - - - 19 
 
 Periodic Reports - - - - - - - 21 
 
 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Speech of Lord North ----- 2 3.27 
 
 Increase of Territory - - - - - - 23 
 
 Civil Law - - - - - - - 25 
 
 Speech of Dunning - . - . - 27-33 
 Promises of 1763 broken ------ 27 
 
 Extension inadvisable - - ' - - - - 29 
 
 The Real Origin of the Bill - - - - - 31 
 
 Speech of Thurlow - . . - - 33-41 
 
 The Boundary Question - - - - - - 33 
 
 Law as to Conquered Countries - - - - - 35 
 
 French Civil Law - - - - - - 37, 57 
 
 The Governor and Council - - - - - 39 
 
 Legal Systems - - - - - - - 41 
 
 Speech of Bari'e ------ 41-44 
 
 Evil of perpetuating French Law - - - - - 43 
 
 Speech of Fox ------ -14-45 
 
 An Asylum for Roman Catholics - - - - - 45 
 
 Passage of Second Reading - - - - - 45 
 
 Opposition Motion for Information - - . 45, 46
 
 xiv CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Speech of Burke - - - - - - - 40 
 
 Burke asks for Information - - - - - 47 
 
 Burke pleads for Delay - - - - - - 49 
 
 Evidence of Carleton . . . . . 50-65 
 
 Increase of Trade - - - - - - - 53 
 
 Wishes of the French -Canadians - - - - - 55 
 
 French-Canadian Law - - - - - 59, 83 
 
 Desire for Ancient Usage-; - - - - - 61 
 
 Complaints as to English Law - - - - - 63 
 
 Evidence of Maseres . . . . . 65-74 
 
 Trial by Jury - - - - - - 67, 75 
 
 jNIurray's Administration - - - - - - 69 
 
 An Anglo -French Legal System - - - - - 71 
 
 Rehgion in the Province - - - - - - 73 
 
 Evidence of Chief Justice Hey .... 74-S5 
 
 Habeas Corpus - - - - - - - 77 
 
 Canadian Civil Law - - - - - - 79 
 
 Wishe-s of the French -Canadians - - - - - 81 
 
 Burke on Toleration ..... 85-87 
 
 Barre on Popery --...- 87, 88 
 
 Fox urges an Assembly - - - . . 88, 89 
 
 Speech of Lord North " - - - - - 89, 90 
 
 Speech of Burke - - - - - - 91-95 
 
 Trial by Jury ....... 91 
 
 Juries need not be Unanimous - - - - - 93 
 
 Vote m House of Lords - - - - - - 95 
 
 Opposition of Cliatham - - - - - - 95 
 
 His Denunciation of Popery .... 96, 97 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 Despatch of Lord Dorchester .... 99-103 
 
 Representative Government - - - - - 99 
 
 The Council and Assembly ..... 101 
 
 General Government Proposed - - - - - 103 
 
 Letters of Chief Justice Smith . - - - 104-110 
 
 Growth of Colonial Democracy ..... 105 
 
 A General Legislature ...... 107 
 
 Rights of the Crown - - - - - - 109 
 
 Despatch of Lieutenant-Governor Milnes - - - 110-121 
 
 Weakness of Executive - - - - - 111-113 
 
 Increase of Crown Influence desirable - - - - 115 
 
 The :vmitia - - - - - - - 117 
 
 Defects of the Assembly - - - - - - 119 
 
 Education and Religion ...... 121
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 XV 
 
 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 Letter of Sir John Sherbrooke 
 
 Proposed General Union - 
 
 Arguments against Union 
 
 Petition from Quebec 
 
 Evils of Disunion - - - 
 
 Petition from Wentworth - 
 
 Opposition in Upper Canada 
 
 Objections to Union 
 
 Petition from Lower Canada 
 
 Objections to Union 
 
 Petition from Montreal 
 
 Former Mistakes - 
 
 Impolicy of Constitutional Act 
 
 " La Nation Canadienne " 
 
 Trade Disputes 
 
 Trade with France 
 
 Letter from John Beverley Robinson 
 
 Pan- Britannic Union 
 
 PAGES 
 
 123-125 
 
 - 123 
 
 - 125 
 125-129 
 
 - 127 
 129-133 
 
 - 129 
 
 - 131 
 133-137 
 134-136 
 137-146 
 
 - 137 
 
 - 139 
 
 - 141 
 
 - 143 
 
 - 145 
 146-148 
 
 - 147 
 
 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 Letters to Lord Glenelg - 
 
 Race Feeling in Lower Canada 
 
 Race Question 
 
 Attitude of United States - 
 
 American Sympathies 
 
 Feeling of British Party - 
 
 Durham's Resignation 
 
 Effects of Resignation 
 
 Anger at British Vacillation 
 
 Views of Sir John Colborne 
 
 Danger of Separation 
 
 Chances of Insurrection - 
 
 Feeling in Upper and Lower Canada 
 
 Protest of the " Family Compact " 
 
 Errors of Durham 
 
 Two Kinds of Responsibility 
 
 Position of Governor 
 
 Colonial Opinion Unstable 
 
 Evils of Popular Government 
 
 Need of Imperial Control - 
 
 Inaccuraeies of Durham - 
 
 149-173 
 
 - 151 
 
 - 153 
 
 - 155 
 157, 159 
 
 - 161 
 
 - 163 
 
 - 165 
 
 - 167 
 1C8, 169 
 
 - 169 
 
 - 171 
 172, 173 
 173-188 
 
 - 175 
 
 - 177 
 
 - 179 
 
 - 181 
 
 - 183 
 
 - 185 
 
 - 187
 
 xvi CONTENTS 
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN THE MARITDIE 
 PROVINCES 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Letters of Joseph Howe to Lord John Russell - - 191-252 
 
 Colonial Loyalty - - - - - - - 193 
 
 The British Constitution - - - - - - 195 
 
 Colonial Executive immovable . . - . . 197 
 
 Constitution of Executive ..... 199 
 
 The Evil and the Remedy - - - - - 200 
 
 Demand for British Piivileges ..... 203 
 
 Objections of Lord John Russell - . - - . 205 
 
 Conflict as to Responsibihty ..... 097 
 
 IiTesponsibility of Governor ..... 209 
 
 Municipal Analogy - - - - 201, 211-213 
 
 Situation in Upper Canada ..... 215 
 
 Power of Colonial Office - - - - - - 217 
 
 Government from a Distance ..... 219 
 
 Imperial Interests not Involved .... - 221 
 
 Situation in New Brunswick ..... 223 
 
 The IMilitary Question - - - - - - 225 
 
 The Two Systems contrasted ..... 227 
 
 Trade and Commerce ...... 229 
 
 Need of Protest - - - - - - - 231 
 
 Proposed New System ...... 233 
 
 Council under Old System ..... 235 
 
 OUgarchical Character of Council .... 236 
 
 Council under the Two Systems .... - 237 
 
 Improved Legislature ...... 239 
 
 Evils of Old System - - - - - - 241 
 
 Distribution of Patronage ..... 243 
 
 Papineau and ^Mackenzie ...... 245 
 
 The Example of Ireland - - - - - - 247 
 
 Colonial Liberties .-..--- 249 
 
 Colonial Disabilities - - - - - - 251 
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNTklENT— I. 
 
 Sydenham's Instructions - - - - - 255-266 
 
 Proposed Union -....-. 257 
 
 Emigration and the Land Question .... 259 
 
 Finance* of Upper Canada ..... 261 
 
 Bills rejected by the Crown ..... 263 
 
 Clergj' Reserves ....... 265 
 
 Lord J. Russell on Responsible Government - - 266-272 
 
 Consequences of the Theory ..... 267
 
 CONTENTS xvii 
 
 PAGES 
 
 English Constitutional Practice . - - - - 269 
 
 Tenure of Public Offices - - - - - - 271 
 
 Reply of Sydenham . . - . . 272-274 
 
 Opinion in Lower Canada .... 273, 277 
 
 Resolution of Sydenham's Council - - - 274-277 
 
 Proposed Terms of Union ------ 275 
 
 Letters of Sydenham . . - - . 277-289 
 
 Necessity of Union ...-.- 279 
 
 Municipal Institutions - - - - 281, 283, 285 
 
 Plans of Sydenham ...-.- 277 
 
 Fust United ParUament ------ 289 
 
 Speech of Sydenham ... - - 289-294 
 
 PubKc Works and Emigration ----- 291 
 
 Promise of Imperial Aid ------ 293 
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT— II. 
 
 Views of Lord Metcalfe . - - . . 295-296 
 
 Earl Grey's New PoUcy - - - - - - 297 
 
 His Letters to Sir John Harvey - - - - 297-313 
 
 Legislative and Executive Councils - . . . 299 
 
 Governor and Executive ------ 301 
 
 Status of Officials ------- 303 
 
 Necessary Changes . - - - . 305, 307 
 
 Proposed Changes ...... 309 
 
 Letters of Lord Elgin . . . . . 310-334 
 
 Governor under New System - - - - - 311 
 
 RebelUon Losses Bill - - - - - - 313 
 
 Feeling of British Minority - - - - - 315 
 
 Riots at Montreal ...... 317 
 
 Opinion of Assembly - - - - - - 319 
 
 Elgin's Criticisms of Lord J. Russell - - - 321-326 
 
 The Future of the Empire - - - - - - 321 
 
 Baldwin on Dismemberment . - - . . 323 
 
 Colonial Independence ...... 325 
 
 Rival Systems of Government .... 327-331 
 
 Role of Governor .--..-- 333 
 
 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 Manifesto from Montreal ----- 335-343 
 
 Repeal of Navigation Acts - . . . . 335 
 
 Reciprocity Treaty with United States .... 335 
 Gloomy Situation .-..--- 337 
 Proposed Remedies ---... 339
 
 XVlll 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Union \rith Unitod Statos - 
 Ix^ttors of Ixird Elgin 
 Need of Reciprocity 
 Cost of British Connexion - 
 Imperial Ideals 
 
 PAOES 
 
 - 341 
 343-347 
 
 - 343 
 
 - 345 
 
 - 347 
 
 THE TARIFF CONTROVERSY 
 
 Letter of the Duke of Newcastle 
 Reply of Gait 
 
 - 348 
 349-351 
 
 FEDERATION 
 
 Coalition - . - . 
 
 Quebec Conference 
 Speech of J. A. Macdonald 
 Steps towards Federation 
 Conference at Charlottetown 
 Alternative Solutions 
 Federation or Union 
 Financial Economies 
 Need of Compromise 
 Danger from United States 
 British and American Systems 
 British Connexion preserved 
 Constitution of Lower House 
 Constitution of Upper House 
 Representation by Population 
 Constitution of Legislatures 
 Federal and Provincial Powers 
 Speech of Cartier - 
 Necessity of Federation 
 Fear of American Annexation 
 Loyalty of French 
 Strength from Diversity of Race - 
 Heterogeneity of Opposition 
 Speech of Gait 
 Increase of Trade - 
 Speech of George Brown - 
 History of Movement 
 Difficulties of Solution 
 Vast Resources of Canada 
 Nomination v. Election 
 Local Government and Taxation - 
 Local Matters and Education 
 The Maritime Provinces - 
 
 - 352 
 
 - 353 
 
 355-396 
 355, 357 
 
 - 359 
 
 - 361 
 
 - 363 
 
 - 365 
 
 - 367 
 
 - 369 
 
 - 371 
 373, 393, 395 
 
 - 375 
 377-381 
 
 - 383 
 
 - 385 
 387-391 
 396-409 
 
 - 397 
 
 - 399 
 401-403 
 
 - 405 
 
 - 407 
 409-411 
 
 - 409 
 411-425 
 
 - 411 
 
 - 413 
 
 - 415 
 
 - 417 
 
 - 419 
 
 - 421 
 
 - 423
 
 CONTENTS xix 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The North-West - - 425 
 
 Speech of D'Arcy McGee ----- 425-428 
 
 Greatness of the Subject ------ 426 
 
 Change in British Policy ------ 427 
 
 Speech of Dorion ------ 428-455 
 
 Same Scheme already rejected ----- 429 
 
 Dorion's past Attitude ------ 431 
 
 Liberal PoUcy in 1859 - - - - - - 433 
 
 Liberal PoUcy in 1862 - - - - - - 435 
 
 Rights of Minorities ----- 437, 455 
 
 Grand Trunk Railway - - - - - - 439 
 
 Inconsistency of Ministers ----- 441 
 
 Alterations in Scheme ------ 443 
 
 Legislative Council ------ 445 
 
 Undue Influence of Crown . - . - - 447 
 
 Intercolonial Railway ------ 449 
 
 Undue Centralization - - - - - - 451 
 
 Legislative Union foreshadowed ----- 453 
 
 Speech of Langevin ----- 456, 457 
 
 The American Danger ------ 456 
 
 Speech of Dunkin 457-470 
 
 Importance of Details ------ 457 
 
 Shifting Constituencies ------ 459 
 
 Unwieldiness of proposed Cabinet - . - - 461 
 
 Provincial Constitutions ------ 463 
 
 Division of Powers ------ 465 
 
 Extravagance encouraged ----- 467 
 
 Risk of Separation from Britain ----- 469 
 
 Conclusion - - - - - ■ - 471
 
 GOVERNORS AND ADMINISTRATORS OF 
 CANADA 
 
 Amherst,! General Jeffrey Sep. 8, 1760, to 
 
 Murray, General James Aug. 10, 1764, to June 28, 
 
 Irving, 2 Paulus iEmiUus June 30, 1766, to Sep. 23 
 
 Carleton, Lt.-Gov. Guy Sep. 24, 1766, to Oct. 25, 
 
 Carleton, Guy Oct. 26, 1768, to June 26, 
 
 Cramahe, Hector Theophilus Aug. 9, 1770, to Oct. 10, 
 
 Haldimand, Frederick June 27, 1778, to Nov. 15, 
 
 Hamilton, Lt.-Gov. Henry Nov. 16, 1784, to Nov. 1 
 
 Hope, Lt.-Gov. Henry Nov. 2, 1785, to Oct. 22 
 
 Dorchester, Baron Oct. 23, 1786, to July 11 
 
 Clarke, Lt.-Gov. Alured Aug. 17, 1791, to Sep. 24 
 
 Prescott, Lt.-Gov. Robert July 12, 1797, to Apr. 26, 
 
 Prescott, Robert Apr. 27, 1797, to Aug. 28 
 
 Milnes, Lt.-Gov. Robert Shore July 26, 1799, to Aug. 3 
 
 Dunn, Thomas Aug. 4, 1805, to Oct. 23 
 
 Craig, Sir James Henry Oct. 24, 1807, to June 19 
 
 Dunn, Thomas June 20, 1811, to Sep. 13 
 
 Prevost, Sir George Sep. 14, 1811, to April 4 
 
 Rottenburg, Major-Gen. Francis de .May 12, 1813, to June 13 
 
 Glasgow, Major-Gen. George June 14, 1813, to Sep. 25, 
 
 Drummond, Sir Gordon April 5, 1815, to May 21 
 
 Wilson, Major-Gen. John May 22, 1816, to July 11 
 
 Sherbrooke, Sir John Coape July 12, 1816, to July 29, 
 
 Richmond, Charles, Duke of July 30, 1818, to Aug. 28 
 
 Monk, James Sep. 20, 1819, to Feb. 
 
 Maitland, Sir Peregrine Feb. 8, 1820, to Feb. 
 
 Monk, James Feb. 9, 1820, to Mar. 16, 
 
 Maitland, Sir Peregrine Mar. 17, 1820, to June 18, 
 
 ! Amherst resigned his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in 
 North America in 1763. He had left Canada in tlie autunin of 1760 (see p. 1). 
 
 2 Tlie names in smaller tyi)e are tliose of the Administrators who carried 
 on the government in the al)scnce of the Governor. 
 
 xxi 
 
 1766 
 1766 
 1768 
 1778 
 1774 
 1784 
 1785 
 1768 
 1796 
 1793 
 1797 
 1807 
 1805 
 1807 
 1811 
 1811 
 1815 
 1813 
 1813 
 1816 
 1816 
 1818 
 1819 
 1820 
 1820 
 1820 
 1820
 
 xxii GOVERNORS AND ADMINISTRATORS 
 
 DAUiorsiE, George, Earl of June 19, 1S20, to Sep. 7, 1828 
 
 Burton, Lt.-Gov. Sir Francis 
 
 Xathaniol June 7. 1824, to Sep. 16. 1825 
 
 Korapt. Sir Jamos Sep. 8. 1828, to Oct. 19, 1830 
 
 Aj'lmer, Matthew Whitworth 
 
 Aylmer, Baron Oct. 20, 1830, to Feb. 3, 1831 
 
 Aylmer, Matthew Whitworth 
 
 Aylmer, Baron Feb. 4, 1831, to Aug. 23, 1835 
 
 GosFORD, Archibald Acheson, Earl of .Aug. 24, 1835, to Feb. 26, 1838 
 
 Colborne, Sir John Feb. 27, 1838, to May 28, 1838 
 
 Durham, John Geo. Lambton, Earl of .May 29, 1838, to Oct. 31, 1838 
 
 Colborne, Sir John Nov. 1, 1838, to Jan. 16, 1839 
 
 Colborne, Sir John Jan. 17, 1839, to Oct. 18, 1839 
 
 Thomsox, aias. Edward Poulett Oct. 18, 1839, to Sep. 19, 1841 
 
 Jackson, Sir Richard DoAraes Sep. 24, 1841, to Jan. 11, 1842 
 
 Bagot, Sir Charles Jan. 12, 1842, 1x) Mar. 29, 1843 
 
 Metcalfe, Sir Charles Theophilus Mar. 30, 1843, to Nov. 25, 1845 
 
 Cathcart, Charles Murray, Earl of. .Nov. 26, 1845, to Apr. 23, 1846 
 
 Cathcart, Charles :\Iurray, Earl of . . Apr. 24, 1846, to Jan. 29, 1847 
 
 Elgin, James Bruce, Earl of Jan. 30, 1847, to Dec. 18, 1854 
 
 Rowan, Lieut.-Gen. WilUam Aug. 23, 1853, to June 10, 1854 
 
 Head, Sir Edmund Walker Dec. 19, 1854, to Oct. 24, 1861 
 
 EjTe, Sir William June 20, 1857, to Nov. 2, 1857 
 
 WiUiams, Sir William Fenwick Oct. 12, 1860, to Feb. 22, 1861 
 
 MoxcK, Charles Stanley, Viscount Oct. 25, 1861, to June 30, 1867 
 
 ^klichel, Sir John Sep. 30, 1865, to Feb. 12, 1866
 
 CANADIAN CONSTITUTIONAL 
 DEVELOPMENT 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR JAMES 
 MURRAY 
 
 By the surrender at Montreal, on September 8, 1760, of 
 De Vaudreuil and De Levis, the French Governor and 
 Commander-in-Chief, Canada passed into the hands of 
 Britain. The surrender was confirmed by the Treaty of 
 Paris, signed at Paris on February 10, 1763. During the 
 interval, and for some months after, Canada remained 
 under military rule. The nominal head was the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, General Amherst, who had his head- 
 quarters at New York, but the administration was really 
 in the hands of the Lieutenant-Governors at Quebec, 
 Montreal, and Three Rivers. On the conclusion of peace 
 it became necessary to establish civil government, and 
 on December 7, 1763, a commission was issued to 
 General James Murray, who had been in command at 
 Quebec since the autumn of 1759, appointing him 
 " Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over 
 Our Province of Quebec in America." ^ On the same 
 day were issued his instructions, which are here given, 
 
 1 Murray remained in Ciinada till Juno, 17G6, when he sailed for 
 England. Ho retained oflicc till April, 1768, when he was succeeded 
 by yir Guy Carleton. For a complete list of Governors from 17G;{ to 
 1867, see Appendix I. 
 
 1
 
 L> INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 and which had evidently been drawn up with great care. 
 While many of the eighty-two sections are copied from 
 the ordinary instructions given at the time to colonial 
 Governors, some even of these contain significant changes, 
 and others are obviously drawn up with special regard to 
 the circumstances of the new province.^ 
 
 The original instructions are in the Public Record 
 Office in London. The copy here given is taken from 
 that in the Report of the Canadian Archivist for 1904, 
 which h?s been carefully collated with the original. ^ 
 
 1. With these Our Instructions Y^u will receive Our 
 Commission under Our Great Seal of Great Britain, 
 constituting You Our Captain General and Governor in 
 Chief in and over Our Province of Quebec in America, 
 bounded on the Labrador Coast by the River St. John, 
 and from thence by a Line drawn from the Head of that 
 River through the Lake St. John to the South End of 
 the Lake Nipissin ; from whence the said Line crossing 
 the River St. Lawrence and the Lake Champlain in forty- 
 five Degrees of North Latitude, passes along the High 
 Lands, which divide the Rivers that empty themselves 
 into the said River St. Lawrence, from those which fall 
 into the Sea ; and also along the North Coast of the Baye 
 des Chaleurs and the Coast of the Gulph of St. Lawrence 
 to Cape Rosieres, and from thence crossing the mouth 
 of the River St. Lawrence by the West End of the Island 
 of Anticosti, terminates at the aforesaid River of 
 St. John : You are therefore to take upon You the 
 Execution of the Office and Trust We have reposed in 
 You, and the Administration of Government, and to do 
 and execute all things in due manner that shall belong 
 
 1 The instructions to Murray may be compared with those issued in 
 1758 to Governor Bernard, of New Jersey, which are printed in New 
 Jersey Documents, vol. ix., p. 40, and in the appendix to E. B. Greene's 
 The Provincial Governor in North America (London and New 
 York, 1898). Sections 1-4, 7, 8, 12-14, 22, 24-27, 34-40, 63, 66-71, 74, 
 76, 81, 82 of Murray's instructions are evidently based on the same 
 archetype as Bernard's. 
 
 2 All the instructions issued to Governors from 1763 to 1867, and 
 tliose issued to the Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada from 179] 
 to 1839, are included in the Eeports of the Canadian Archivist for 1904 
 and 1905 (vol. i.J.
 
 APPOINTMENT OF A COUNCIL 3 
 
 to your Command, according to the several Powers and 
 Authorities of Our said Commission under Our Great 
 Seal of Great Britain, and these Our Instructions to You , 
 or according to such further Powers and Instructions 
 as shall at any Time hereafter be granted or appointed 
 You under Our Signet and Sign Manual, or by Our Order 
 in Our Privy Council. 
 
 2. And You are, with all due Solemnity, to cause Our 
 said Commission to be published at Quebec, which We 
 do appoint to be the Place of your Residence and the 
 principal Seat of Government, in the Districts of 
 Montreal and Trois Rivieres, and in such other parts of 
 your Government as You shall think necessary and 
 expedient, as soon as possible ; which being done. You 
 are in the next place to nominate and establish a Council 
 for Our said Province, to assist You in the Administration 
 of Government, which Council is, for the present, to be 
 composed of the Persons, whom We have appointed to 
 be Our Lieutenant Governors of Montreal and Trois 
 Rivieres, Our Chief Justice of Our said Province, and the 
 Surveyor General of Our Customs in America for the 
 Northern District, and Eight other Persons to be chosen 
 by You from amongst the most considerable of the 
 Inhabitants of, or Persons of Property in Our said Pro- 
 vince ; which Persons so nominated and appointed by 
 You as aforesaid, (Five of which We do hereby appoint 
 to be a Quorum,) are to be Our Council for Our saicC 
 Province, and to have and enjoy all the Powers, Privilegej 
 and Authority usually exercised and enjoyed by the 
 Members of Our Councils in Our other Plantations, and 
 also such others as are contained in Our said Commission 
 under Our Great Seal of Great Britain, and in these 
 Our Instructions to You ; and they shall meet together 
 at such Time or Times, Place or Places, as You, in your 
 Discretion, shall think necessary and expedient : It is 
 nevertheless Our Will and Pleasure, that the said Chief 
 Justice, or Surveyor General of Our Customs, shall not 
 be capable of taking the Administration of the Govern- 
 ment upon the Death or Absence of You Our Governor, 
 or the Commander in Chief for the Time being. 
 
 3. And You are forthwith to call Our said Council 
 together, or such of them as can be conveniently assem- 
 bled, and to cause Our said Commission to You to bo 
 read at such Meeting ; which being done, You shall then 
 
 1—2
 
 4 INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR INfURRAY 
 
 take yourself, and also administer to Our Lieutenant 
 Governors respectively, and to the Members of Our said 
 Council, the Oaths mentioned in an Act, passed in the 
 lirst Year of the Reign of His Majesty King George the 
 First, intituled, " An Act for the further Security of 
 His ^Majesty's Person and Government, and the Suc- 
 cession of the Crown in the Heirs of the late Princess 
 Sophia, being Protestants, and for extinguishing the 
 Hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and his open 
 and secret Abettors ;" — as also to make and subscribe, 
 and cause them to make and subscribe the Declaration 
 mentioned in an Act of Parliament made in the Twenty- 
 fifth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second, 
 intituled, " An Act for preventing Dangers which may 
 happen from Popish Recusants." And You and every 
 one of Them are likewise to take an Oath for the due 
 Execution of your and their Places and Trusts, with 
 regard to your and their equal and impartial Administra- 
 tion of Justice ; — and You are also to take the Oath 
 required by an Act passed in the seventh and eighth 
 Years of the Reign of King William the Third to be 
 taken by Governors of Plantations, to do their utmost 
 that the Laws relating to the Plantations be observed. 
 
 4. And You are forthwith to transmit unto Our Com- 
 missioners for Trade and Plantations, in order to be 
 laid before Us for Our Approbation or Disallowance, the 
 Names of the Members of the Council, so to be appointed 
 ^by You, as aforesaid ; as also a List of the Names and 
 Characters of Eight other Persons in Our said Province, 
 whom You judge properly qualified to serve in that 
 Station ; to the End that, if any of the Persons appointed 
 by You, as aforesaid, shall not be approved and con- 
 firmed by Us, under Our Signet and Sign Manual, the 
 Place or Places of such Persons so disapproved may be 
 forthwith supphed from the said List, or otherwise, as 
 We shall think fit. 
 
 Sections 5-8 deal with the manner in which vacancies 
 are to be filled, and the circumstances under which 
 seats in the Council may be declared void. 
 
 9. You are forthwith to communicate such and so 
 many of these Om- Instructions to Our said Council,
 
 A GENERAL ASSEMBLY 5 
 
 wherein their Advice and Consent are mentioned to be 
 requisite ; as likewise all such others, from time to time, 
 as You shall find convenient for Our Service to be 
 imparted to them. 
 
 10. You are to permit the Members of Our said Council 
 to have and enjoy Freedom of Debate and Vote, in all 
 affairs of public Concern that may be debated in 
 Council. 
 
 11. And whereas it is directed, by Our Commission 
 to You under Our Great Seal, that so soon as the Situation 
 and Circumstances of Our said Province will admit 
 thereof. You shall, with the Advice of Our Council, 
 summon and call a General Assembly of the Freeholders 
 in Our said Province ; You are therefore, as soon as the 
 Rules and Regulations, by the Advice of Our said Council, 
 as shall appear to be carrying this important Object 
 into Execution : But, as it may be impracticable for the 
 present to form such an Establishment, You are in the 
 mean time to make such Rules and Regulations, by the 
 Advice of Our said Council, as shall appear to be necessary 
 for the Peace, Order and good Government of our said 
 Province, taking Care that nothing be passed or done, 
 that shall any ways tend to affect the Life, Limb or 
 Liberty of the Subject, or to the imposing any Duties 
 or Taxes ; and that all such Rules and Regulations be 
 transmitted to Us, by the first Opportunity after they 
 are passed and made, for Our Approbation or Disallow- 
 ance. And it is Our Will and Pleasure, that when an 
 Assembly shall have been summoned and met, in such 
 manner as You, in your Discretion, shall think most 
 proper, or as shall be hereafter directed and appointed, 
 the following Regulations be carefully observed in the 
 framing and passing all such Laws, Statutes and Ordi- 
 nances, as are to be passed by You, with the Advice 
 and Consent of Our said Council and Assembly ; viz. : 
 
 That the Style of Enacting the said Laws, Statutes and 
 Ordinances be by the Governor, Council, and Assembly, 
 and no other ; — 
 
 That each different Matter be provided for by a different 
 Law, without including in one and the same Act such 
 Things as have no proper Relation to each other ; — 
 
 That no Clause be inserted in any Act or Ordinance, 
 which shall be foreign to what the Title of it imports ; and 
 that no perpetual Clause be part of any temporary Law ; —
 
 INSTRUCTIONS TO OO^HERNOR MURRAY 
 
 That no Law or Ordinance whatever be suspended, 
 altered, continued, revived, or repealed by general 
 Words ; but that the Title and Date of such Law or 
 Ordinance be particularly mentioned in the enacting 
 l)art ; — 
 
 That no Law or Ordinance, respecting private Property, 
 be passed without a Clause suspending its Execution, 
 until Our Royal Will and Pleasure is known ; nor without 
 a Saving of the Right of Us, Our Heirs and Successors, 
 and of all Bodies politic and corporate, and of all other 
 Persons, except such as are mentioned in the said Law 
 or Ordinance, and those claiming by, from and under 
 them ; and before such Law or Ordinance is passed, 
 Proof must be made before You, in Council, and entered 
 in the Council Books, that public Notification was made 
 of the Party's Intention to apply for such Act in the 
 several Parish Churches, where the Lands in Question 
 lie, for three Sundays at least successively before any such 
 Law or Ordinance shall be proposed ; and You are to 
 transmit, and annex to the said Law, or Ordinance, a 
 Certificate under your hand, that the same passed through 
 all the Forms above-mentioned ; — 
 
 That in all Laws or Ordinances for levying Money, or 
 imposing Fines, Forfeitures or Penalties, express mention 
 be made, that the same is granted or reserved to Us, 
 Our Heirs and Successors, for the public Uses of the said 
 Province, and the support of the Government thereof, 
 as by the said Law or Ordinance shall be directed ; and 
 that a Clause be inserted, declaring that the money 
 arising by the Operation of the said Fines, Forfeitures, 
 or Penalties, express mention be made, that the same 
 is granted or reserved to Us, Our missioners of Our 
 Treasury, or Our High Treasurer for the time being, 
 and audited by Our Auditor General of Our Plantations, 
 or his Deputy ; — 
 
 That all such Laws, Statutes and Ordinances be trans- 
 mitted by You within three months after their passing, 
 or sooner, if Opportunity offers, to Our Commissioners 
 for Trade and Plantations ; that they be fairly abstracted 
 in the ]Margents, and accompanied with very full and 
 particular Observations upon each of them, that is to say, 
 whether the same is introductive of a new Law, declara- 
 tory of a former Law, or does repeal a Law then before 
 in being ; and You are also to transmit, in the fullest
 
 DUTIES AS TO LEGISLATION 7 
 
 manner, the Reasons and Occasion for enacting such 
 Laws, or Ordinances, together with fair copies of the 
 Journals of the Proceedings of the Council and Assembly, 
 which You are to require from the Clerks of the said 
 Council and Assembly. 
 
 12. And to the end that nothing may be passed or 
 done to the Prejudice of the true Interests of this Our 
 Kingdom, the just Rights of Us, Our Heirs and Suc- 
 cessors, or the Property of Our Subjects ; it is Our express 
 Will and Pleasure, that no Law whatever, which shall in 
 any wise tend to affect the Commerce or Shipping of 
 this Kingdom, or which shall any ways relate to the 
 Rights and Prerogative of Our Crown, or the Property 
 of Our Subjects, or which shall be of an unusual or extra- 
 ordinary Nature, be finally ratified and assented to by 
 You, until You shall have first transmitted a Draup;ht 
 of such Law, and shall have received Our Directions 
 thereupon, unless You take care, that a Clause be inserted, 
 suspending and deferring the Execution thereof, until 
 Our Pleasure is known concerning the same. 
 
 13. And whereas Laws have formerly been enacted 
 in several of Our Plantations in America for so short a 
 time, that Our Royal Assent or Refusal thereof could not 
 be had before the Time, for which such Laws were enacted, 
 did expire ; You shall not give your Assent to any Law, 
 that shall be enacted for a less Time than two Years, 
 except in Cases of imminent Necessity, or immediate tem- 
 porary Expediency ; and You shall not re-enact any Law, 
 to which Our Assent shall have been once refused, without 
 express Leave for that purpose first obtained from Us, 
 upon a full Representation by You to be made to Our 
 Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, in order to be 
 laid before Us, of the Reasons and Necessity for passing 
 such Law ; nor give your Assent to any Law for repealing 
 any other Law, which shall have passed in your Govern- 
 ment, and shall have received Our Royal Approbation, 
 unless You take Care that there be a Clause inserted 
 therein, suspending and deferring the Execution thereof, 
 until Our Pleasure shall be known concerning the same. 
 
 14. And We do particularly require You to take Care, 
 that fair Books of Accounts of all Receipts and Payments 
 of all Publick Money be duly kept, and the Truth thereof 
 attested upon Oath ; and that all such Accounts bo 
 audited, and attested by Our Auditor General of Our
 
 S INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 Plantations, or liis Deputy, who is to transmit Copies 
 thereof to Our Commissioners of Our Treasury, or to Our 
 High Treasurer, for the time being ; and that You do, 
 every half Year or oftener, send another Copy thereof, 
 attested by yourself, to Our Commissioners for Trade 
 and Plantations, and Duplicates thereof by the next 
 Conveyance ; in which Books shall be specified every 
 particular Sum raised or disposed of, together with the 
 Names of the Persons to whom any Payment shall be 
 made ; to the end We may be satisfied of the right and 
 due Application of the Revenue of Our said Province, with 
 the Probability of the Increase or Diminution of it under 
 every Head and Article thereof. 
 
 15. And whereas the Members of several Assemblies 
 in the Plantations have frequently assumed to themselves 
 Privileges no ways belonging to them, especially of being 
 protected from Suits at Law during the Term they 
 remain of the Assembly, to the great Prejudice of their 
 Creditors and the Obstruction of Justice ; and some 
 Assemblies have presumed to adjourn themselves at 
 Pleasure, without Leave from Our Governor first obtained ;^ 
 and others have taken upon them the sole framing of 
 Money Bills, refusing to let the Council alter or amend 
 the same ;^ all which Practices are very detrimental to Our 
 Prerogative ; If therefore You find, that the Members of 
 the Assembly of Our Province of Quebec insist upon any 
 of the said Privileges, You are to signify to them that it 
 is Our express Will and Pleasure, that You do not allow 
 any Protection to any Member of the Council or Assembly, 
 further than in their Persons, and that only during the 
 Sitting of the Assembly ; and that You do not allow them 
 to adjourn themselves otherwise than de die in diem, 
 except Sundays and Holy-days, without Leave from You, 
 or the Commander in Chief for the time being, first ob- 
 tained ; It is also Our further Pleasure, that the Council 
 have the like Power of framing Money Bills as the 
 Assembly. 
 
 16. And whereas by Our aforesaid Commission under 
 Our Great Seal of Great Britain, You are authorized and 
 impowered, with the Advice and Consent of Our Council, 
 
 ^ " We sit upon our own adjournments when we please and as long 
 as we think necessai-j." (Speech of Andrew Hamilton, in Proud, 
 History of Pennsylvania, ii. 217 ; cited by Greene, The Provincial 
 Governor, p. 153.) 
 
 ? Greene {op. cit., pp. 122, 123) cites the case of New York.
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 9 
 
 to constitute and appoint Courts of Judicature and 
 Justice ; it is therefore Our Will and Pleasure, that You 
 do, as soon as possible, apply your Attention to these 
 great and important Objects ; and that, in forming the 
 necessary Establishments for this purpose, You do con- 
 sider what has taken place in this respect in Our other 
 Colonies in America, more particularly in Our Colony of 
 Nova Scotia.^ 
 
 17. And whereas it is for the Ease, Satisfaction and 
 Benefit of all Our Subjects, that Appeals should be 
 allowed, in all Civil Causes, from the Courts in Our 
 Plantations ; it is therefore Our Will and Pleasure, that, 
 when the several Courts and Offices necessary for the 
 Administration of Justice shall have been settled, ap- 
 pointed and confirmed, in Consequence of the Power 
 vested in You by Our Commission under Our Great Seal 
 and by these Our Instructions, You do, as near as 
 different Circumstances will admit, conform yourself 
 to the Regulations prescribed in the Instructions given 
 to Our Governor of Nova Scotia in respect to such Appeals, 
 Copies of which Instructions are hereunto annexed. 
 
 18. You are, with the Advice and Consent of Our 
 Council in the Province under your Government, to take 
 especial Care to regulate all Salaries and Fees belonging 
 to Places, or paid upon Emergencies, that they be within 
 the Bounds of Moderation, and that no Exaction be made 
 on any Occasion whatsoever ;^ as also that Tables of all 
 Fees be publickly hung up in all Places where such Fees 
 are to be paid ; and You are to transmit Copies of all 
 such Tables of Fees to Our Commissioners for Trade and 
 Plantations, in order to be laid before Us. 
 
 Section 19 enjoins prompt communication of all 
 official papers to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 
 
 20. You shall not appoint any Person to be a Judge 
 or Justice of the Peace, without the Advice and Consent 
 of the Majority of the Members of Our Council, present 
 in Council ; nor shall You execute yourself, or by Deputy, 
 
 1 Copies were appended of the articles referring to this in the 
 instructions given to Governor Cliarles Lawrence, of Nova Scotia. 
 
 2 The fees exacted were at first excessive, and bitterly complained 
 of by the French-Canadians. A better system was introduced by 
 Carleton in 1770 (sets pp. 69, 70), but did not wholly put a stop to 
 complaints.
 
 10 INSTRUCTIONS TO GO\^RNOR MURRAY 
 
 any of the said Offices ; and it is Our further Will and 
 Pleasure, that all Commissions, to be granted by You, 
 to any Person or Persons to be Judges or Justices of the 
 Peace, or other necessary Officers, be granted during 
 Pleasure only. 
 
 21. You shall not displace any of the Judges, Justices 
 of Peace, or other Officers or Ministers, without good and 
 sufficient cause, which You shall signify in the fullest 
 and most distinct manner to Our Commissioners for 
 Trade and Plantations, in order to be laid before Us, by 
 the first Opportunity after such Removals. 
 
 Section 22 enjoins the impartial administration of 
 justice. 
 
 23. You are to take Care, that all Writs be issued in 
 Our Name throughout the Province under your Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 24. Whereas there are several Offices in Our Plantations 
 granted under the Great Seal of Great Britain, and Our 
 Service may be very much prejudiced by reason of the 
 Absence of the Patentees, and by their appointing 
 Deputies not fit to officiate in their stead ; You are there- 
 fore to inspect such of the said Offices as are in the 
 Province under your Government, and to inquire into 
 the Capacity and Behaviour of the Persons exercising 
 them, and to report thereupon, to Our Commissioners 
 for Trade and Plantations, what You think fit to be done 
 or altered in relation thereunto ; and You are, upon 
 the Misbehaviour of any of the said Patentees or their 
 Deputies, to suspend them from the Execution of their 
 Office, till You shall have represented the whole Matter 
 unto Us, and received Our Directions therein ; And in 
 case of the Death of any such Deputy, it is Our express 
 Will and Pleasure, that You take Care that the Person 
 appointed to execute the Place, until the Patentee can 
 be informed thereof and appoint another Deputy, do give 
 sufficient Security to the Patentee, or, in case of Sus- 
 pension, to the Person suspended, to be answerable to 
 him for the Profits accruing during such Interval by 
 Death, or during such Suspension, in case We shall think 
 fit to restore the Person suspended to his Place again. 
 It is nevertheless Our Will and Pleasure, that the Person 
 executing the Place during such Interval by Death or
 
 TOLERATION FOR CATHOLICS 11 
 
 Suspension, shall, for his Encouragement, receive the 
 same Profits as the Person dead or suspended did receive ; 
 And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that, in case of a 
 Suspension of a Patentee, the Person appointed by You 
 to exercise the Office during such Suspension, shall receive 
 a Moiety of the Profits which would otherwise become 
 due to such Patentee, giving Security to such Patentee 
 to be answerable to him for the other moiety, in case 
 We shall think fit to restore him to his Office again ; 
 And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that You do 
 countenance and give all due Encouragement to all Our 
 Patent Officers in the Enjoyment of their legal and 
 accustomed Fees, Rights, Privileges and Emoluments, 
 according to the true Intent and Meaning of their 
 Patents. 
 
 Section 25 forbids Murray to grant any patent place 
 save in accordance with Section 24. 
 
 Section 26 excuses officers of the Customs from serving 
 as jurors or in the militia " unless in case of absolute 
 necessity." 
 
 Section 27 empowers Murray and his deputy to fill 
 vacant places in the Customs in the absence of the 
 Surveyor General of Customs. 
 
 28. And whereas We have stipulated, by the late 
 Definitive Treaty of Peace concluded at Paris the 
 10th Day of February 1763, to grant the Liberty of the 
 Catholick Religion to the Inhabitants of Canada, and that 
 We will consequently give the most precise and most 
 eifectual Orders, that Our new Roman Catholick Subjects 
 in that Province may profess the Worship of their Religion, 
 according to the Rites of the Romish Church, as far as the 
 Laws of Great Britain permit ; It is therefore Our Will 
 and Pleasure, that You do in all things regarding the said 
 Inhabitants, conform with great Exactness to the 
 Stipulations of the said Treaty in this respect. 
 
 29. You are, as soon as possible, to summon the 
 Inhabitants to meet together, at such Time or Times, 
 Place or Places, as You shall find most convenient, in 
 order to take the Oath of Allegiance, and make and 
 subscrilio the Declaration of Abjuration mentioned in 
 the aforesaid Act passed in the Ih'st Year of the Reign
 
 12 INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 of King George the First, for the further Security of His 
 Majesty's Person and Government, and the Succession 
 of the Crown in the Heirs of the late Princess Sophia, 
 benig Protestants, and for extinguishing the Hopes of 
 the pretended Prince of Wales, and his open and secret 
 Abettors ; Avhich Oath shall be administered to them by 
 such Person or Persons as You shall commissionate for 
 such Purpose ; and in case any of the said French Inhabi- 
 tants shall refuse to take the said Oath, and make and 
 subscribe the Declaration of Abjuration, as aforesaid. 
 You are to cause them forthwith to depart out of Our 
 said Government. 
 
 30. And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that all 
 such Inhabitants, possessing the Religion of the Romish 
 Church, do, at all such Meetings, or at such other Time 
 or Times as You shall think proper, and in the Manner 
 You shall think least alarming and inconvenient to the 
 said Inhabitants, deliver in upon Oath an exact Account 
 of all Arms and Ammunition, of every Sort in their actual 
 possession, and so, from time to time, of what they shall 
 receive into their Possession, as aforesaid. 
 
 31. You are as soon as possible to transmit to Us, by 
 Our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, an exact 
 and particular Account of the Nature and Constitution 
 of the several Religious Communities of the Romish 
 Church, their Rights, Claims, Privileges and Property, 
 and also the Number, Situation and Revenue of the 
 several Churches heretofore established in Our said 
 Province, together with the Number of Priests or Curates 
 officiating in such Churches. 
 
 32. You are not to admit of any Ecclesiastical Juris- 
 diction of the See of Rome, or any other foreign Ecclesi- 
 astical Jurisdiction whatsoever in the Province under 
 your Government.^ 
 
 33. And to the end that the Church of England may 
 
 * The question of how the French Canadians were to obtain a supply 
 of duly consecrated priests was for some years left unsettled. The 
 Imperial Government was not averse to an arrangement, but feared 
 the explosion of anti-CathoUc feeling which might have been caused by 
 bringmg the matter before ParHament. In 1766 the French Canadian 
 clei'gy were allowed to choose one of themselves as Bishop. Their 
 choice fell on Mgr. Briand, who was consecrated in Paris, and who filled 
 his difficult position with modesty and decorum. See Kingsford, 
 History of Canada, v. 175, and a memorial of Mgr. Plessis of 
 May 15, 1812, summarized in Garneau, Histoire dii Canada (4th 
 edition), iiL 156-160.
 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION 13 
 
 be established both in Principles and Practice, and tliat 
 the said Inhabitants may by Degrees be induced to 
 embrace the Protestant Religion, and their Chilcken be 
 brought up in the Principles of it ; We do hereby declare 
 it to be Our Intention, when the said Province shall have 
 been accurately surveyed, and divided into Townships, 
 Districts, Precincts or Parishes, in such manner as shall 
 be hereinafter directed, all possible Encouragement shall 
 be given to the erecting Protestant Schools in the said 
 Districts, Townships and Precincts, by settling, appoint- 
 ing and allotting proper Quantities of Land for that 
 Purpose, and also for a Glebe and Maintenance for a 
 Protestant Minister and Protestant School-Masters ; and 
 You are to consider and report to Us, by Our Commis- 
 sioners for Trade and Plantations, by what other means 
 the Protestant Religion may be promoted, established 
 and encouraged in Our Province under your Government. 
 
 34. And You are to take especial Care, that God 
 Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your 
 Government, the Book of Common Prayer, as by Law 
 established, read each Sunday and Holyday, and the 
 blessed Sacrament administered according to the Rites 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 35. You are not to prefer any Protestant Minister to 
 any Ecclesiastical Benefice in the Province under your 
 Government, without a Certificate from the Right 
 Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of London,^ 
 of his being conformable to the Doctrine and Discipline 
 of the Church of England, and of a good Life and Con- 
 versation ; And if any Person hereafter preferred to a 
 Benefice shall appear to You to give Scandal, either by 
 his Doctrine or Manners, You are to use the best Means 
 for his Removal. 
 
 Section 36 appoints each minister head of the local 
 vestry. 
 
 Section 37 orders Murray to respect " the Ecclesiastical 
 
 jurisdiction of the Lord Bishop of London." 
 
 ^ From an early date the colonial Church had been more or less 
 officially under the Bishop of London. Previous to the Revolution 
 there was no liishop in the American colonies. Inglia,tlie first CIuutIi 
 of England Bishop in Nova Scotia, arrived in 1787; Mountain, the fh-st 
 in the province of Quebec, in 1793. See Mockridge, Tlhe Bishops of 
 Canada and Newfoundland. 1696.
 
 14 INSTRUCTIONS TO OOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 Section 38 requires schoolmasters to obtain a licence 
 from the Bishop of London. 
 
 39. And You are to take especial Care, tliat a Table of 
 INIarriages established by the Canons of the Church of 
 England be hung up in all Places of public Worship, 
 according to the Rites of the Church of England. 
 
 Section 40 orders the suppression of " every species 
 of vice and immorality." 
 
 41. And whereas it is stipulated by the aforesaid 
 Treaty concluded at Paris the 10th Day of February 
 1763, that the French Inhabitants, or Others, who have 
 been Subjects of the Most Christian King in Canada, 
 may retire with all Freedom and Safety wherever they 
 shall think proper, and may sell their Estates, provided 
 it be to Our Subjects, and bring away their Effects, as 
 well as their Persons, without being restrained in their 
 Emigration under any Pretence whatsoever, except that 
 of Debts, or criminal Prosecution, and that the Time 
 limited for the Emigration shall be fixed to the space of 
 Eighteen months, to be computed from the Day of the 
 Exchange of the Ratifications of the Treaty ; You are 
 therefore in all things to conform yourself to this Stipula- 
 tion, and to take care, that such of the French Inhabitants 
 as intend to remove within the Time hmited, be not 
 obstructed or impeded, provided they do not sell their 
 Estate to Others than His Majesty's Subjects, and that, 
 so long as they remain under your Government, they 
 do in all things conform thereto in like manner as Our 
 other Subjects.^ 
 
 Section 42 orders the registration of all grants of 
 
 land by " all and every the French inhabitants in Our 
 
 said Province, who are now possessed of Lands within 
 
 the said Province, in virtue of Grants or Concessions 
 
 made before the signing of the Preliminary Articles of 
 
 Peace on the third day of November, 1762." 
 
 1 There has been considerable dispute with regard to the number 
 who thus emigrated. See Garneau, op. cit., ii. 393 ; Kingsford, op. cit., 
 iv. 464 ; Munro, The Seigniorial tSystem in Canada, pp. 192, 204.
 
 LAND SURVEYS 15 
 
 Section 43 ordains that any irregularity appearing in 
 such grants is to be reported to the Commissioners of 
 Trade and Plantations. 
 
 Section 44 ordains a full survey of the province ; "' But 
 as the making of such Survey will be a work of great 
 Length, You are in the meantime to carry on Settlements 
 upon that Plan, which shall appear to You to be most 
 expedient from the best Information You can collect." 
 
 Section 45 ordains the laying out of townships, " of 
 about Twenty Thousand Acres, having as far as may be, 
 Natural Boundaries extending up into the Country, and 
 comprehending a necessary Part of the River of St. 
 Lawrence, where it can be conveniently had." 
 
 Section 46 orders him to mark out a site for a town in 
 each township, " taking care that the said Town be laid 
 out upon, or as near as conveniently may be, to some 
 navigable River, or the Sea Coast ;" and reserve land 
 "For erecting Fortifications, and Barracks, where 
 necessary, or for other Military or Naval Services, and 
 more particularly for the Growth and Production of 
 Naval Timber, if there are any Wood-lands fit for that 
 Purpose." 
 
 47. And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that a 
 particular Spot, in, or as near each Town as possible, 
 be set apart for the building a Church, and four Hundred 
 Acres adjacent thereto allotted for the Maintenance of a 
 Minister, and two Hundred for a Schoolmaster. 
 
 Section 48 orders him to enjoin all possible speed on 
 the surveyors. 
 
 Section 49 directs that the surveyors are to "take an 
 Oath for the due Performance of their Offices." 
 
 Section 50 ordains that grants of land shall be given 
 only to persons who prove " that they are in a condition 
 to cultivate and improve the same, by settling thereon, in
 
 IG INSTUUOTTONS TO CiOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 Proportion to the Quantity of Acres desired, a sufficient 
 Number of White Persons and Negroes,"^ All such 
 grants, " with a faithful and exact Survey of the Lands 
 so petitioned for," are to be registered at the auditor's 
 office within six months. 
 
 Section 51 sets limits to the amount of land which 
 may be granted to one person or family, and lays down 
 conditions as to clearing, improving, etc. 
 
 52. And it is Our further Will and Pleasure, that in all 
 Grants of Land to be made by You, as aforesaid, regard 
 be had to the profitable and unprofitable Acres, so that 
 each Grantee may have a proportionable Number of one 
 Sort and the other ; as likewise that the Breadth of each 
 Tract of Land, to be hereafter granted, be one Third 
 of the Length of such Tract ; and that the Length of each 
 Tract do not extend along the Banks of any River, but 
 into the Main Land, that thereby the said Grantees 
 may have each a convenient Share of what Accommoda- 
 tion the said River may afford for Navigation or other- 
 wise. 
 
 Section 53 orders him to encourage the growing of 
 hemp and flax. 
 
 Section 54 orders the reservation to the Crown of all 
 " Woods producing Trees fit for Masting for Our Royal 
 Navy, and other useful and necessary Timber for Naval 
 Construction," and advises him to consider whether it 
 would not be wise to prohibit saw-mills save under a 
 special licence from himself. 
 
 Section 55 orders the reservation to the Crown of the 
 iron works at St. Maurice, in the district of Three 
 Rivers, and of the adjoining territory. 
 
 Section 56 orders the publication of a proclamation, 
 
 1 Chiefly owing to tlie climate, negro slavery never took root in 
 Canada. In Upper Canada it was abolished by a law of 1793 (see 
 Kingsford, op. cit., vii. 426). In Lower Canada it was never formally 
 abolished (see Garneau, op. cit., iii. 90).
 
 INDIANS 17 
 
 embodying the " Terms and Conditions upon which 
 Lands will be granted in Our said Province." 
 
 Section 57 orders the filing of all instructions and 
 regulations regarding land grants. 
 
 Section 58 orders the preparation of a Bill to insure 
 the regular and effectual collection of quit-rents. 
 
 Section 59 orders the regular annual inspection of land 
 grants by the Survey or- General. 
 
 Section 60 orders him " to cultivate and maintain a 
 strict Friendship and good Correspondence " with the 
 Indians, especially by making treaties and delivering 
 presents. 
 
 61. And You are to inform yourself with the greatest 
 Exactness of the Number, Nature and Disposition of 
 the several Bodies or Tribes of Indians, of the manner of 
 their Lives, and the Rules and Constitutions, by which 
 they are governed or regulated. And You are upon no 
 Account to molest or disturb them in the Possession 
 of such Parts of the said Province, as they at present 
 occupy or possess ; but to use the best means You can 
 for conciliating their Affections, and uniting them to 
 Our Government, reporting to Us, by Our Commissioners 
 for Trade and Plantations, whatever Information You 
 can collect with respect to these People, and the whole 
 of your Proceedings with them. 
 
 62. Whereas We have, by Our Proclamation dated the 
 seventh day of October in the Third year of Our Reign, 
 strictly forbid, on pain of Our Displeasure, all Our Sub- 
 jects from making any Purchases of Settlements whatever, 
 or taking Possession of any of the Lands reserved to the 
 several Nations of Indians, with whom We are connected, 
 and who live under Our Protection, without Our especial 
 Leave for that Purpose first obtained ; It is Our express 
 Will and Pleasure, that You take the most effectual Care 
 that Our Royal Directions herein be punctually complied 
 with, and that the Trade with such of the said Indians 
 as depend upon your Government be carried on in the 
 Manner, and under the Regulations prescribed in Our 
 said Proclamation. 
 
 63. You are to use your best Endeavours in improving 
 
 2
 
 18 INSTRUCTIONS TO GOVERNOR MURRAY 
 
 the Trade of those Parts, by settling such Orders and 
 Regulations therein, with the Advice of Our said Council, 
 as may be most acceptable to the Generality of the 
 Inhabitants. And it is Our express Will and Pleasure, 
 that You do not, upon any Pretence whatever, upon pain 
 of Our highest Displeasure, give your Assent to any Law 
 or Laws for setting up any Manufactures and carrying 
 on any Trades, which are hurtful and prejudicial to this 
 Kingdom ; and that You do use your utmost Endeavours 
 to discourage, discountenance and restrain any Attempts 
 which may be made to set up such Manufactures, or 
 establish any such Trades. 
 
 64. Whereas by the 5th and 6th Articles of the Treaty 
 of Peace and Neutrality in America, concluded between 
 England and France the 6th- 16th Day of November 1686, 
 the Subjects and Inhabitants of each Kingdom are pro- 
 hibited to trade and fish in all Places possessed, or which 
 shall be possessed by the other in America ; and if any 
 Ships shall be found trading contrary to the said Treaty, 
 upon due Proof the said Ships shall be confiscated : but 
 in case the subjects of either King shall be forced by 
 Stress of Weather, Enemies, or other Necessity into the 
 Ports of the other in America, they shall be treated with 
 Humanity and Kindness, and may provide themselves 
 with Victuals, and other Things necessary for their Susten- 
 ance, and the Reparation of their Ships, at reasonable 
 Rates ; provided they do not break bulk, nor carry any 
 Goods out of their vShips, exposing them to Sale, nor receive 
 any Merchandize on board, under Penalty of Confiscation 
 of Ship and Goods ; It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure, 
 that You signify to Our Subjects under your Government 
 the Purport and Intent of the abovesaid two Articles ; 
 and that You take particular Care, that none of the 
 French Subjects be allowed to trade from their said 
 Settlements to the Province under your Government, 
 or to fish upon the Coast thereof. 
 
 Section 65 gives regulations for the disposal of for- 
 feitures and escheats. 
 
 Section 66 orders stringent measures to be taken 
 against pirates, who are to be sent to New York for trial. 
 
 Section 67 gives him the powers and duties of " Vice- 
 Admiral of Our said Province."
 
 CONDUCT IN TIME OF WAR 19 
 
 Section 68 forbids the carrying by merchant ships or 
 privateers of " Colours borne by Our Ships of War." 
 
 69. And whereas there have been great Irregularities 
 in the manner of granting Commissions in the Plantations 
 to private Ships of War, You are to govern yourself, 
 whenever there shall be Occasion, according to the Com- 
 missions and Instructions granted in this Kingdom : 
 But You are not to grant Commissions of Marque or 
 Reprizal against any Prince or State, or their Subjects, 
 in Amity with Us, to any Person whatsoever, without 
 Our special Command. 
 
 Section 70 directs that any ship carrying letters in time 
 of war is to " put such Letters into a Bag, with a sufficient 
 weight to sink the same immediately, in Case of imminent 
 Danger from the Enemy." 
 
 71. And whereas, in Time of War, the Merchants and 
 Planters in Our Plantations in America did correspond 
 and trade with Our Enemies, and carry Intelligence to 
 them, to the great Prejudice and Hazard of Our said 
 Plantations ; You are therefore by all possible Methods 
 to endeavour to hinder such Trade and Correspondence in 
 Time of War.^ 
 
 Section 72 orders him to send to the Commissioners 
 for Trade and Plantations a full report of the nature, 
 geography and prospects of the country, of its popula- 
 tion, and of the " Nature, Form and Constitution " of 
 the land tenure, civil government, and system of judica- 
 ture under French rule. 
 
 73. You are from time to time to send unto Us, by 
 Our Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, as afore- 
 said, an Account of the Increase and Decrease of the 
 Inhabitants, Whites and Blacks, and also an Account of 
 all Persons born, christened and buried. 
 
 1 See Pitt's letter of Au^'ust 23, 1700, and the replies of the Governors, 
 in Correspondence of William Fill ivith Colonial Governors (2 vols. ; 
 Macmillan, 1906). 
 
 '2—2
 
 20 INSTRUCTT0N8 TO OO^T^.RNOR MURRAY 
 
 Section 74 orders him to send every six months a 
 full account in duplicate of all forts, fortifications, and 
 naval stores. 
 
 75. You are from time to time to give an Account, 
 what Strength your Neighbours have by Sea and Land, 
 and of the Condition of their Plantations, and what 
 Correspondence You keep with them. 
 
 76. And in case of any Distress of any other of Our 
 Plantations, You shall, upon Application of the respective 
 Governors thereof unto you, assist them with what Aid 
 the Condition and Safety of Our Province under Your 
 Government can spare. 
 
 Section 77 gives him full power to deal with any special 
 cases not included in these instructions, " provided 
 always that You do not, by Colour of any Power or 
 Authority hereby given You, commence or declare War 
 without our Knowledge and particular Commands 
 therein." 
 
 Section 78 orders him not to remain constantly in 
 Quebec, but to visit all parts of his government. 
 
 79. And whereas great Prejudice may happen to Our 
 Service, and the Security of the Province, by your 
 Absence from those Parts, You are not, upon any Pretence 
 whatsoever, to come into Europe, without having first 
 obtained Leave for so doing from Us under Our Sign 
 Manual and Signet, or by Our Order in Our Privy Council ; 
 Yet nevertheless in case of Sickness, You may go to 
 South Carolina, or any other of Our Southern Plantations, 
 and there stay for such Space as the Recovery of your 
 Health may absolutely require. 
 
 Section 80 gives rules for the carrying on of the govern- 
 ment in case of his absence or death. 
 
 Section 81 ordains that in his absence half the salary 
 shall go to his substitute. 
 
 82. And You are upon all Occasions to send unto Our 
 Commissioners for Trade and Plantations only, a particular
 
 PERIODIC REPORTS 21 
 
 Account of all your Proceedings, and of the Condition of 
 Affairs Avdthin your Government, in order to be laid before 
 Us ; provided nevertheless, whenever any Occurrences 
 shall happen within your Government of such a Nature 
 and Importance as may require Our more immediate 
 Directions by One of Our Principal Secretaries of State, 
 and also upon all Occasions and in all Affairs wherein 
 You may receive Our Orders by One of Our Principal 
 Secretaries of State, You shall in all such Cases transmit 
 to Our Secretary of State only an Account of all such 
 Occurrences, and of your Proceedings relative to such 
 Orders.
 
 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 This Act, entitled " An Act for making more Effectual 
 Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec, 
 in North America," was brought before the House of 
 Lords by the Earl of Dartmouth, President of the Board 
 of Trade and Plantations, on May, 2, 1774, and passed 
 without any opposition on May 17. From May 26 till 
 June 13 it was discussed in the House of Commons. 
 Several witnesses were heard by the House, sitting in Com- 
 mittee, and some unimportant amendments were made. 
 
 The extracts which follow from the debates in the House 
 of Commons, and from the evidence given there, are 
 taken from the volume published at London in 1839 by 
 J. Wright, from the shorthand notes of Sir Henry Caven- 
 dish, who was from 1768 to 1774 Member for Lostwithiel. 
 The original is among the Egerton Manuscripts, in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 On May 26 the debate in the House of Commons was 
 begun by Thomas Townshend, later Viscount Sydney, 
 who twitted the Ministry with their slowness in intro- 
 ducing the Bill, and poked fun at the law officers of the 
 Crown, who were supposed to be extremely lukewarm 
 in its favour. 
 
 The defence of the Bill was undertaken by Lord North, 
 First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer : 
 
 22
 
 INCREASE OF TERRITORY 23 
 
 The first thing objected to by the honourable gentleman 
 is, the very great extent of territory given to the province. 
 Why, he asks, is it so extensive ? There are added, un- 
 doubtedly, to it two countries which were not in the 
 original limits of Canada, as settled in the proclamation of 
 1763 ; one, the Labrador coast, the other, the country 
 westward of the Ohio and the Mississippi, and a few scat- 
 tered posts to the west. Sir, the addition of the Labrador 
 coast has been made in consequence of information re- 
 ceived from those best acquainted with Canada, best 
 acquainted with the fishery upon that coast, who deem it 
 absolutely necessary for the preservation of that fishery, 
 that the Labrador coast should no longer be considered as 
 part of the government of New York, but be annexed to 
 that country. With respect to the other additions, three 
 questions very fairly occur. It is well known that settlers 
 are in the habit of going to the interior parts from time to 
 time. Now, however undesirable, it is open to Parliament 
 to consider, whether it is fit that there should be no govern- 
 ment in the country, or, on the contrary, separate and 
 distinct governments ; or whether the scattered posts 
 should be annexed to Canada. The House of Lords have 
 thought proper to annex them to Canada ; but when we 
 consider that there must be some government, and that 
 it is the desire of all those who trade from Canada to those 
 countries, that there should be some government, my 
 opinion is, that if gentlemen will weigh the inconveniences 
 of separate governments, they will think the least incon- 
 venient method is to annex those spots, though few in 
 population great in extent of territory, rather than to 
 leave them without government at all, or make them 
 separate ones. Sir, the annexation likewise is the result 
 of the desire of the Canadians, and of those who trade to 
 those settlements, who think they cannot trade with safety 
 as long as they remain separate. 
 
 The honourable gentleman next demands of us. Will you 
 extend into those countries the free exercise of the Romish 
 religion ? Upon my word. Sir, I do not see that this bill 
 extends it further than the ancient limits of Canada ; but 
 if it should do so, the country to which it is extended is 
 the habitation of bears and beavers ; and all these regula- 
 tions, which only tend to protect the trader as far as they 
 can protect him, undoubtedly cannot be considered 
 oppressive to any of the inhabitants in that part of the
 
 24 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 world, A\ lio are very few, except about the coast, and at 
 present in a very disorderly and ungovernable condition. 
 The general purpose is undoubtedly to give a legislature 
 to that country. It was very much, I believe, the desire 
 of every person, if it were possible, to give it the best kind 
 of legislature ; but can a better legislature be given than 
 that of a governor and council ? The honourable gentle- 
 man dislikes the omitting the assembly ;^ but the assembly 
 caiuiot be granted, seeing that it must be composed of 
 Canadian Roman Cathohc subjects, otherwise it would be 
 oppressive. The bulk of the inhabitants are Roman 
 Cathohcs, and to subject them to an assembly composed 
 of a few British subjects would be a great hardship. 
 Being, therefore, under the necessity of not appointing 
 an assembly, this is the only legislature you can give the 
 Canadians, and it is the one under which they live at 
 present. The governor and council really have been the 
 legislature there ever since our conquest of it, and it is 
 now put under some regulation. Hitherto, France has 
 conducted the business — that is all the difference ; if we 
 do nothing, it must remain in the hands of the governor 
 and council. The question is, whether, so regulated, this 
 is not better. All the other colonies have been governed 
 by a governor and council ; it is not, therefore, so totally 
 anomalous. The honourable gentleman objects to the 
 want of a quorum. It is only giving full notice to all 
 whose duty it is to attend, and when they do attend, 
 things are to be decided by the majority, as in all other 
 assemblies. 
 
 Xow, Sir, with regard to giving French law — if gentle- 
 men will remember, the most material part of the criminal 
 law is to be according to English law. The civil law of 
 Canada certainly is to be the French law : but. Sir, I 
 understand the establishing of these laws to be given as 
 the basis upon which the governor and legislative council 
 are to set out. Sir, you would not send the governor and 
 council to choose their own constitution — to choose their 
 own laws entirely. You must tell them from what laws 
 they are to take their departure. It has been thought 
 better calculated to secure the happiness of the Canadians, 
 and more beneficial for aU who live in the country, 
 
 1 The Proclamation of 1763 had promised an Assembly " so soon as 
 the state and circumstances of the said colonies will admit thereof." 
 See Instructions to Murray, .^ 11.
 
 CIVIL LAW 25 
 
 that they should have the civil law^ of Canada, and not 
 that of England. If the Canadian civil law is incom- 
 patible with the present condition and wishes of the 
 colony, the governor and council will have power to alter 
 it. But there must be a general basis ; there must be a 
 law established, ready to be amended and altered as occa- 
 sions shall arise, and as the circumstances of the colony 
 shall require. It has been the opinion of very many able 
 lawyers, that the best way to establish the happiness of 
 the inhabitants is to give them their own laws, as far as 
 relates to their own possessions. Their possessions were 
 marked out to them at the time of the treaty ; to give them 
 those possessions without giving them laws to maintain 
 those possessions, would not be very wise. The French 
 law may be worse than the English, but the particular 
 portions for which we have the highest value ourselves 
 are a part of our political law, and a part of our criminal 
 law. These may be acted on in Canada, seeing that the 
 criminal law has been submitted to for nine years, and is, 
 I dare say, approved of by the Canadians, because it is a 
 more refined and a more merciful law than the law of 
 France. 
 
 As to the free exercise of their religion, it likewise is no 
 more than what is confirmed to them by the treaty, as far 
 as the laws of Great Britain can confirm it. Now, there 
 is no doubt that the laws of Great Britain do permit the 
 very full and free exercise of any religion, different from 
 that of the Church of England, in any of the colonies. Our 
 penal laws do not extend to the colonies ; therefore, I 
 apprehend, that we ought not to extend them to Canada. 
 Whether it is convenient to continue or to abolish the 
 bishop's jurisdiction, is another question. I cannot con- 
 ceive that his presence is essential to the free exercise of 
 religion ; but I am sure that no bishop will be there 
 under papal authority, because he will see that Great 
 Britain will not permit any papal authority whatever 
 in the country. It is expressly forbidden in the Act 
 of Supremacy. 
 
 I dare say. Sir, I have not given an answer to many of 
 
 ^ The civil law of Canada was the cnutuinc de Paris, codified in 
 1510 and introduced by royal arret into Now France by Louis XIV. in 
 1664. In practice it had been p;reatly modified and amcndc'd by the 
 personal supervision exercised by the Intendant. See W. 15. Munro : 
 Tlie Seigniorial System in Canada, and Carleton's evidence on p. B7.
 
 26 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 the questions put to me by the honourable gentleman ; 
 nor do I recollect whether I have explained what I take 
 to be the purpose of the present bill. It certainly gives 
 to the Canadians many of their laws and customs ; which 
 laws and customs can be safely given to them. If altera- 
 tion in those laws and customs should be deemed neces- 
 sary, there is a legislature established, which will be read}'' 
 to make those alterations. In a general plan of govern- 
 ment, it is not possible to enter into a detail of what is 
 proper, or what is improper, in Canada : it must be left 
 to the legislature on the spot to consider all their wants 
 and difficulties.^ The present bill will give laws, the prin- 
 cipal laws, from which the legislature ought to take their 
 departure — criminal law, civil law% political law. That is 
 the purpose of the bill. It has appeared to be the best 
 plan that could at present be devised ; and it requires and 
 deserves the immediate attention of the House. The 
 honourable gentleman asks, why, before it was introduced 
 into the House of Lords immediately after Easter, full 
 notice was not given, that it would come down here ? 
 Sir, we are not to blame for the omission ; there is, how- 
 ever, abundance of time to go through the bill, to correct, 
 to approve, or to amend it. His Majesty's message re- 
 commended Parliament to take up the subject ■?■ and as 
 soon as it was in a fit state to be laid before the other 
 House, I am confident the noble lord brought it forward. 
 Sir, the honourable gentleman proposes to limit the bill 
 in point of time. That will be a proposition for the com- 
 mittee to consider : it is not now proper to be entertained. 
 If you mean to have the bill exist even but for a year, you 
 will read it now a second time. The question of duration 
 is a question that will come on hereafter ; it is not a proper 
 one for the present moment. I own I shall not be for a 
 
 1 Johnstone, a Whig member, extended this principle further than 
 Lord North desu'ed, and insisted that those on the spot should have 
 full power of dealing with the Indians : " The great maxim to be 
 learned from the history of our colonization is — let men manage their 
 own affairs ; they will do it better on the spot than those at a distance 
 of six hundred miles can possibly do it for them." 
 
 2 The King, in a message of the 7th of March, had called upon the 
 House of Commons " to enable him effectually to take such measures 
 as might be most likely to put an immediate stop to the present dis- 
 orders in North America, and also to take into their most serious 
 consideration, what regulations and permanent provisions might be 
 necessary to be established, for better securing the just dependance of 
 the colonies upon the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain."
 
 PROMISES OF 1763 BROKEN 27 
 
 limitation, and I shall be ready to submit my reasons ; 
 but if the committee should think proper to alter it, I 
 must acquiesce, rather than leave the Canadians without 
 any legislature at all. Better far to give them some 
 legislature, than leave them three or four years in their 
 present situation. 
 
 Mr. Dunning} — Sir ; late as it is in the session, and thin 
 as is the attendance of the House, I should hold myself in- 
 excusable, if I suffered a bill of this importance to pass 
 through the present stage, without delivering my opinion 
 upon it, and without giving it as much opposition as can 
 be given by a single negative. Having prefaced thus 
 much, it will be proper for me to state the reasons that 
 have induced me to act in this manner. I collect, and am 
 sure it is to be collected, from what fell from the noble 
 lord, in answer to the honourable gentleman's question, 
 whether this was meant to be a permanent measure, or 
 to be qualified and made temporary by some provision, 
 which it was the business of the committee to add, that it 
 was not the intention of the noble lord that it should be 
 temporary, but that we are to take it in its present form, 
 for we can get it in no other. 
 
 Conceiving therefore, Sir, from the omnipotence of the 
 noble lord, that this biU will be perpetual, not temporary, 
 I see the mischief in a light still more mischievous. I see 
 the bill stripped of aU those reasons in its favour, which 
 my imagination had enabled me to foresee might have 
 been assigned for it. Sir, the bill is as extensive as any 
 bill that was ever offered to the consideration of Parlia- 
 ment. Its direct object is to take from a large number of 
 the King's subjects that constitution which was given to 
 them ten years ago ; to take that constitution from them, 
 and to give them another in the place of it. Have, Sir, 
 those subjects expressed a wish to part with what has been 
 given them ? Have they expressed a wish to have the 
 one which is to be given in the place of it ? I apprehend 
 no such wish has been communicated to this House ; and 
 if any servant of government in that country has sent 
 home a representation to that effect, such representation 
 is equally unknown to me, and I apprehend to the rest of 
 members of this House ; but if any such representation 
 
 ^ At the conclusion of Lord North's speech, Townshend .again 
 objected to so important a bill being hurried through at the end of the 
 session.
 
 28 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 is iiiteuded to be made, I should wish this House to be 
 acquainted with it. 
 
 The provisions of this bill so far partake of all the 
 American regulations of tliis year,^ that they are offered at 
 a time, and are to be carried through in a time, wliich 
 precludes the individuals interested from being heard ; 
 whether they do desire, or do not desire, to show how 
 their interests are affected ; whether they expect benefit, 
 or apprehend mischief therefrom. The first object of the 
 bill is to make out that to be Canada, which it was the 
 struggle of this country to say, was not Canada. Now, 
 Sir, if this province should ever be given back to its old 
 masters — and I am not without an inclination to think, 
 that the best way would be to give it back to its old 
 masters — if it should ever become right to give back 
 Canada, with what consistency can a future negociator 
 say to France, we will give you back Canada ; not that 
 Canada which you asserted to be Canada, but that stated 
 in the proclamation, having discovered that we were mis- 
 taken in the extent of it ; which error has been corrected 
 by the highest authority in this country. Then, suppose 
 Canada thus extended should be given back to France, 
 the English settled there will then have a line of frontier 
 to an extent undefined by this bill ; for this country is 
 bounded by the Ohio upon the west — God knows where i 
 I wish God may not alone know where. I wish any gentle- 
 man would tell us where. I observe in this description of 
 the frontier, a studied ambiguity of phrase. I cannot tell 
 what it means ; but I conjecture that it means comething 
 bad. The Ohio is stated as a boundary confirmed by 
 the Crown ; but what act, what confirmation by the 
 Crown, has passed upon this subject ? I know of no such 
 act, of no such confirmation. I know, by the terms of the 
 charter, the colonists suppose, and I think they are well 
 grounded in the supposition, that they are entitled to 
 settle back as far as they please to the east, to the sea, 
 their natural boundary. They did not like a different 
 barrier. I know some assert this right, and that others 
 content themselves with a less extensive claim. Whether 
 so extensive a claim has been allowed I know not ; but I 
 do understand, in point of fact, that there has been long 
 subsisting a dispute about the western frontier, which was 
 
 * The allusion is to the Acts directed against Massachusetts, passed 
 in 1774 (14 George III., c. 19, 39, and 45).
 
 EXTENSION INADVISABLE 29 
 
 never discussed, still less decided : and when this bill shall 
 become a law, those colonists will then learn, that this 
 Parliament, at this hour, have decided this dispute, with- 
 out knowing what the dispute was, and without hearing 
 the parties. 
 
 Looking, Sir, at the map, I see the river Ohio takes its 
 rise in a part of Pennsylvania, and runs through the pro- 
 vince of Virginia ; that, supposing myself walking down 
 the river, all the country to the right, which is at this 
 moment a part of the province of Virginia, has been lopped 
 off from this part, and becomes instead a part of Canada ; 
 for we tell them, the instant they pass that river, which by 
 the terms of the charter they may pass, that matter is now 
 for ever at rest ; the moment, say we, you get beyond that 
 river, you are in the condition in which this bill professes 
 to put Canada ; the Indian finds himself out of the protec- 
 tion of that law under which he was bred. Sir, do we 
 treat the proprietors of the next province, Indiana, well ? 
 Some of them are resident in this country. I apprehend, 
 at this very hour, they are unapprized of this bill to stop 
 them. To decide upon questions without exactly knowing 
 whether such questions are existing, is an obvious injustice. 
 
 As to extending the country, this is the inconvenience : 
 it is abundantly safer to have regular posts of arms from 
 the north to the south. Forts may be erected, and law- 
 fully erected ; troops may be convened, and lawfully con- 
 vened, whenever there is occasion to use them, to take 
 possession of all the English colonies. This seems to me 
 to be a danger, which this extent of territory threatens. 
 These are the mischiefs ; and I should be glad now to learn, 
 what is the good intended to be effected by this extent of 
 territory ? The noble lord says, — it is to comprise a few 
 straggling posts, under some form of government. If I 
 should admit the necessity of so comprising a few strag- 
 gling posts, does it follow, that this is a form of govern- 
 ment fit to be established ? Does it follow, from any local 
 reasons, why Canada should be so extensive ? or that the 
 English settlers should likewise be involved ? What 
 objections are there to making more settlements ? What- 
 ever they are, they will be found trivial, compared to the 
 consequence of involving this whole region in this form of 
 government. 
 
 However, let us see. Sir, what is the form of government, 
 for the sake of which this bill is to be supported. The
 
 30 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 form of government is this. The Roman Catholic religion 
 is estnblisliod by law. All the arguments urged by the 
 noble lord, tending to shew that, de jure, the Roman 
 Catholics are entitled to a full toleration, I admit to be 
 ■well founded in law ; but does that imply, that the same 
 toleration should be given to them every\vhere ? Upon 
 the last part of the case, different gentlemen may entertain 
 different opinions. My opinion of toleration is, that 
 nothing can be more impolitic than to give establishment 
 to that religion which is not the religion of our own 
 country. Among the circumstances that unite countries, 
 or divide countries, a difference in religion has ever been 
 thought to be the principal and leading one. The Catholic 
 religion unites France, but divides England. Without 
 going further into the subject, it suffices for me to say, 
 that the religion of England seems to be preferable to the 
 religion of France, if your object is to make this an 
 English colony. When one sees that the Roman Catholic 
 religion is established by law, and that the same law does 
 not establish the Protestant religion, the people are, of 
 course, at liberty to choose which they like. Permission 
 is given to the governor, to do what he will with the Pro- 
 testant religion ; and this, to those who are gone there in 
 pursuance of the proclamation, may give encouragement ; 
 but the bill gives them none. Are we, then, to establish 
 the Roman Catholic religion, and tolerate the Protestant 
 religion ? I conceive so ; for this distinction is founded 
 in the terms of the bill. 
 
 The noble lord says, the free exercise of religion was 
 promised by the treaty of peace — was promised by the 
 proclamation. Does the noble lord say that this bill 
 gives them nothing more ? If the noble lord will do me 
 the favour of casting his eye a little down the same page, 
 he will see that the clergy of the Roman Catholic religion 
 are reinstated in all their accustomed rights and dues. 
 What, Sir, are those accustomed rights and dues ? I wish 
 some gentleman would do the House the favour to inform 
 them, what is the extent of the rights and dues of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy. I take leave to suppose that, 
 under the denomination of Catholic clergy, the bishops' 
 rights and dues are included. The noble lord says, there 
 is no papal jurisdiction. I wish to be told, what is the 
 authority by which he becomes a bishop ? I know he 
 becomes such by consecration in France ; but, in order to
 
 THE REAL ORIGIN OF THE BILL 31 
 
 qualify him for this present office, the noble lord, will be 
 so good as to tell us what the act appoints. We shall then 
 be able to judge how far he considers himseK of papal con- 
 stitution, or instituted by government. Sure I am, if he 
 is allowed to exercise this right, he will be found to insist 
 upon it.^ 
 
 The honourable gentleman who opened the debate 
 asked, whence this bill came ? He was only answered, 
 that it came from the House of Lords. I am glad it is 
 imputable to any house rather than our own. I believe 
 no individual in this House will own it. I believe that I 
 shall not do injustice to my learned friends opposite — that 
 I shall not be found a false prophet — when I take leave to 
 say, that they will disown it. But if. Sir, it was neither a 
 measure of any man in that House, nor in this House, does 
 it come from the King's servants in the law department in 
 Canada ? Nobody respects them more than I do ; nobody 
 knows them better. I am persuaded, that the degree of 
 respect in which they are held depends upon the degree of 
 knowledge which all men have of them. But we are not 
 left in the dark upon that subject ; for one of those gentle- 
 men^ has communicated to the world his ideas upon the 
 subject of this bill ; and whoever has taken the pains to 
 read his work will have found, that nothing can be more 
 diametrically opposite to the bill, than the opinion that 
 gentleman entertains upon this subject. It is not proper 
 for me to ask — it is not proper for me to answer, even if I 
 was asked myself — what his opinions are ; but I have good 
 authority for knowing his opinions upon things in 
 general. I know him to be so good an Englishman, so 
 good a lawyer, so good, so firm a friend of this constitution, 
 that for his sake I shall hope the House will not suspect 
 he has anything to do with this business. From that 
 congregate and aggregate body, then, the House of Lords, 
 this mischief comes ; but are we to cherish it ? It is easy 
 to sec what treatment it will meet with here. This pro- 
 posed constitution for Canada does this : it denies to 
 English subjects the English birthright, trial by jury. 
 
 1 A passage is here omitted in which the speaker argues in favour 
 of trial by jury. 
 
 2 Francois Maseres, as Attorney-General of Quebec, had in 1771 drawn 
 the draft of an Act for settling the laws of Quebec, which proposed to 
 abolish the French law except with regard to real property. Maseres 
 was an able and honest man, but liis Huguenot descent somewhat 
 prejudiced him against the French Canadians.
 
 32 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Sir, the most valuable of their civil rights is taken from 
 them by thi^^ bill. The honourable gentleman near me 
 observes, that the Habeas Corpus is among those civil 
 rights. Is that among the laws of Canada ? I do not 
 know what they are. I cannot put questions. I cannot 
 see any man here who would be warranted in giving me 
 an answer, if I did ask questions about those unknown 
 laws of Canada. We know, however, so much of them, 
 as to know that they are adopted from France. The 
 Canadians brought them from France ; and is it not 
 among those laws, that the governor may issue a lettre de 
 cachet to send away whom he pleases, to shut up whom he 
 pleases ?^ I know lettres de cachet are issued against 
 persons not charged of any crime ; not even suspected of 
 any : some reasons have, notwithstanding, operated to 
 make a man invisible for a time. This law of France I 
 take to be transplanted to Canada by this bill. By the 
 laws of England, a man may find his remedy : the laws of 
 Habeas Corpus are among the laws of England : they 
 existed at common law ; in some instances, they are made 
 more beneficial by the statute law. But when the laws 
 of Canada are looked to in order to furnish redress, the 
 same laws will, of course, refuse any redress. Is this a 
 trifle, to leave the people of Canada in a situation which 
 any man who hears me would shudder to be left in him- 
 self ? Whether this legislative council has authority to 
 add to the number of those laws — whether those laws are 
 the groundwork, as the noble lord says, in conformity 
 with which, according to the plan sent to them, this legis- 
 lative council is expected to make new laws, in the spirit 
 and temper of the old ones — I trust that those gentlemen 
 who are now sending to Canada, to a district of this im- 
 mense extent, a constitution of this nature, will not be 
 found to furnish arguments in favour, either of abolishing 
 the trial by jury, or of establishing the laws of France. 
 
 I see also, that this country is henceforward to be 
 governed by a legislative council, consisting of seventeen 
 at least, and not more than twenty-three. The governor 
 may make and unmake his creatures, as they become fit 
 tools for his purpose. They will therefore at all times, 
 
 1 This Maseres showed to be absurd. The issue of lettres de cachet 
 belonged to the King of France alone, not to the provincial governors, 
 and would in any case have been rendered inoperative by the Habeas 
 Corpus Act.
 
 THE BOUNDARY QUESTION 33 
 
 while in their senses, be sohcitous and anxious in en- 
 deavouring to guard against incurring his displeasure. 
 The minister has nothing to do but issue his order : those 
 individuals have nothing to do but obey. He will find the 
 inhabitants at his disposal ; because the inhabitants who 
 are at his disposal are creatures of the minister. In my 
 apprehension, Sir, if the King remained the sole legislator 
 of the country, the condition of it would be better than 
 when the governor is put in his place to exercise that power. 
 
 Sir, the bill professes ostensible good, but is pregnant 
 with ostensible mischief. It is not adopted or avowed by 
 any body, abroad or at home. All the answer the honour- 
 able gentleman received to his question was, " this is a 
 bill that came from the House of Lords." If that circum- 
 stance alone is a sufficient reason for passing it, without 
 any argument, to be sure the bill is so far entitled to the 
 concurrence of this House ; but if something more like a 
 reason is thought necessary, I shall be glad to hear it ; I 
 shall be glad to have a ground to change my opinion. Until 
 then. Sir, I shall certainly give this bill a decided negative. 
 
 The Attorney-General, Edioard (afterwards Lord) Thur- 
 low. — The honourable gentlemen are mistaken if they sup- 
 pose that the bounds described embrace, in point of fact, 
 any English settlement. It is undoubtedly true, if you 
 read the French history, that the bounds prescribed 
 neither are, nor ever were, the bounds of the province of 
 Canada, as stated by the French ; but let us consider it in 
 a point of view more serious. Let us consider it estab- 
 lished as an English province. The House has been told 
 that this bill trenches considerably upon the claim of 
 the other chartered provinces. I do not pretend to be 
 extremely familiar with their bounds, but I apprehend 
 Pennsylvania has never been stated by any of its pro- 
 prietors to go one acre of land within the precincts of this 
 new province. With regard to other chartered govern- 
 ments, there is no doubt that various contests to the north 
 of Pennsylvania have arisen upon their bounds ; and this 
 has been stated, and allowed by His Majesty in his Privy 
 Council ; which, I suppose, was the occasion of intro- 
 ducing the phrase in this part of the bill. With regard 
 to the more southern part of the country, I do not take it 
 that Virginia has ever made a single claim within more 
 than a hundred miles of the bounds prescribed for the 
 province. Tlie most extensive claim T ever heard of went 
 
 3
 
 34 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 to what is called the Endless Mountains, just in a nook 
 of the province of Virginia. I know of none that ever 
 pretended to exceed that.^ Upon the conquest of this 
 country wliat was it incumbent to advice the King to 
 do with respect to it ? I have heard a great deal of the 
 history of the famous proclamation of 1763 ; which, though 
 not an act of Parliament, fares pretty much as ill as this 
 proposed act appears to do ; for I think it meets with 
 nobody to avow it. The proclamation certainly gave no 
 order whatever with respect to the constitution of Canada. 
 It certainly, likewise, was not the finished composition of a 
 very considerable and respectable person, whom I will not 
 name, but went unfinished from his hands, and remained a 
 good while unfinished in the hands of those to whom it was 
 consigned afterwards. It professed to take no care of the 
 constitution of Canada : it states all the acquisitions, both 
 of the peopled countries and barren territories — the latter 
 being many hundred times larger than the former — which 
 were made in the course of the last war ; and, speaking of 
 them all in general, it declares to mankind, that his 
 Majesty thought proper to divide them into certain dis- 
 tinct and separate governments ; that it was in his 
 Majesty's contemplation to give them a constitution, like 
 that which had been given to the other colonies, as soon 
 as the circumstances of the colony would admit of it ; and 
 it promised to settlers, expressly to invite them to settle, 
 that, in the mean time, they should have the benefit of 
 the laws of England. So ran the proclamation. Now, 
 Sir, a proclamation conceived in this general form, and 
 applied to countries the most distant, not in situation 
 only, but in history, character, and constitution, from each 
 
 ^ Lord North afterwards said : "It was never intended that the 
 bill should intrench upon other colonies. Whenever any proposal is 
 made to us, whatever can tend to secure Pennsylvania and the other 
 proprietaries shall meet with no opposition from me. The demand is 
 so just and so reasonable, that, without hearing council, it ought to be 
 complied with." 
 
 But there can be no doubt that this annexation to Canada of the 
 western lands did greatly anger the American colonies, who had long 
 considered them their hinterland. For this reason it was strongly 
 objected to by the Opposition. Colonel Barre said: "The noble lord 
 runs a frontier at the back of almost all our capital settlements . . . 
 the measure carries in its breast something that squints and looks 
 dangerous to the inhabitants of our other colonies in that country." 
 
 On September 5, 1774, the Act was formally protested against by 
 the American Congress, sitting at Philadelphia.
 
 LAW AS TO CONQUERED COUNTRIES 35 
 
 other, will scarcely, I believe, be considered as a very well 
 studied act of state, but as necessary immediately after 
 the conquest. But, however proper that might be with 
 respect to new parts of such acquisitions as were not 
 peopled before, yet, if it is to be considered according to 
 that perverse construction of the letter of it ; if it is to be 
 considered as creating an Enghsh constitution ; if it is to 
 be considered as importing English laws into a country 
 already settled, and habitually governed by other laws, I 
 take it to be an act of the grossest and absurdest and 
 cruellest tyranny, that a concjuering nation ever practised 
 over a conquered country. Look back. Sir; to every page 
 of history, and I defy you to produce a single instance, in 
 which a conqueror went to take away from a conquered 
 province, by one rough stroke, the whole of their constitu- 
 tion, the whole of their laws under which they lived, and to 
 impose a new idea of right and wrong, of which they could 
 not discern the means or the end, but would find themselves 
 at a loss, and be at an expense greater than individuals 
 could afford, in order to inform themselves whether they 
 were right or wi'ong.^ This was a sort of cruelty which, I 
 believe, was never yet practised, and never ought to be. 
 My notion, with regard to this matter, I will venture to 
 throw out as crude and general. To enter into the subject 
 fully, would require more discussion than the nature of 
 such a debate as this will admit of. My notion is, that it 
 is a change of sovereignty. You acquired a new country ; 
 you acquired a new people ; but you do not state the right 
 of conquest, as giving you a right to goods and chattels. 
 That would be slavery and extreme misery. In order to 
 make the acquisition either available or secure, this seems 
 to be the line that ought to be followed — you ought to 
 change those laws only which relate to the French 
 sovereignty, and in their place substitute laws which 
 should relate to the new sovereign ; but with respect to 
 all other laws, all other customs and institutions whatever, 
 which are indifferent to the state of subjects and sovereign, 
 humanity, justice and wisdom equally conspire to advise 
 you to leave them to the people just as they were. Their 
 happiness depends upon it ; their allegiance to their new 
 sovereign depends upon it. Sir, what happened at the 
 
 ^ See Lord Mansfield's Judgment in Camphell v. Hall, 1774, in 
 DixMtments illustrative of the, Canadian Constitution. Edited by 
 W. Houston. 
 
 3—2
 
 36 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 conquest ? This proclamation being sent out in the 
 manner mentioned, was not addressed to the Canadians. 
 If it be true, that his Majesty may, according to the prin- 
 ciple of law, or pursuant to tlie history of the law, of this 
 country, universally and uniformly — (there is not an ex- 
 ception to the contrary) — give new laws to the country, 
 in what mamier is that to be done ? — By an instrument 
 not addi'essed to them ? By an instrument, so far from 
 adding anything to their laws, not mentioning them ? 
 But, it is said, they generally did understand, that such 
 should be their constitution, without reference to them in 
 particular. I wish gentlemen would go back to the pro- 
 clamation in 1763, and I would ask them from what 
 expression it is, that either the Canadians can discover or 
 English la^vyers advance, that the laws of Canada were all 
 absolutely repealed, and that a new system of justice, as 
 well as a new system of constitution, was by that instru- 
 ment introduced. Sir, the consequence of that proclama- 
 tion was, that commissions were granted to the governor, 
 in the manner they were granted to the governor of New 
 York on a former occasion.^ The difference between the 
 establishment of New York and the establishment of 
 Canada was, as the difference of 1,700 and 120,000. It is 
 true, there was likewise a commission of admiralty given 
 in the English form ; and a variety of other articles, known 
 to antiquarians, not kno^vn in Canada. There was also a 
 commission of oyer and terminer. The honourable and 
 learned gentleman who spoke last made an objection to 
 repealing all the present existing commissions. I do not 
 know whether it had occurred to him to read the present 
 existing commissions. If it had, I think he would not 
 hesitate much upon repealing them ; because the general 
 commissions of oyer and terminer, &c. are temporary. The 
 other commissions are, one to the court of King's Bench, 
 and another to the court of Common Pleas. The com- 
 mission to the court of King's Bench is to inquire, by the 
 oath of good and lawful men of the country, into aU 
 crimes, causes of action, and upon issue ; jumbling to- 
 gether the criminal and civil jurisdiction of the country. 
 They were framed, I believe, in Canada. How they came 
 to be so framed, I cannot imagine. The first thing dis- 
 covered was that they were impracticable ; not only im- 
 practicable with respect to the people, but impracticable 
 
 1 1664-5, after its capture from the Dutch, See Doyle ; The Middle 
 Colonies, pp. 136-9.
 
 FRENCH CIVIL LAW 37 
 
 with respect to the commissions themselves. The people 
 were so ignorant, not only of the form of our law, but with 
 respect to personal actions, that it was totally impossible 
 to execute them. If any dispute arose, there was no in- 
 stance of the Canadians resorting to the English courts of 
 justice ; but they referred it among themselves, for among 
 themselves only could they find any idea of what they had 
 been used to. I would ask any gentleman, whether, if the 
 thing had been done according to some men's opinions, 
 they could have afflicted any country with a greater curse, 
 than an intricate system of laws, which they could not 
 understand the terms or meaning of ? 
 
 With regard to the criminal law of the country, in the 
 first place, it is more simple, in the next place it is more 
 compulsory ; so they did, in point of fact, find their own 
 way. The first thing that happened which I recollect in 
 the history of Quebec, was, that the grand jury^ desired to 
 have all the accounts of the province laid before them ; 
 and, in the next place, there were some very laudable, 
 good Protestants among them, who desired that the 
 Popery laws should be carried fully into execution. They 
 lodged a general presentment against all the inhabitants 
 of the colony for being Papists. 
 
 With regard to the civil laws, the whole was overturned. 
 In their tenures, when any man found himself wronged by 
 the French laws, he went to an English attorney, to know 
 how to get righted. If wronged by the English laws, he 
 was told, that a proclamation was no law. The conse- 
 quence was, that the King lost all profit from tenures ; 
 and in many other articles, such as transmutation of pro- 
 perty, they were unwilling, because they had not the 
 benefit of English laws, to pay anything to the King. 
 
 The state of confusion the country was reduced to, and 
 individuals were reduced to, was beyond all manner of 
 description. In this situation they remained uncorrected 
 during all this compass of time ; and now the present bill 
 is upbraided, because it does not adopt a trial by jury, 
 which necessarily includes the form of English actions, in 
 a case where it would be destructive to the peace and 
 happiness of the country. If it would make them happy, 
 undoubtedly let us give them English laws. If the 
 English laws would be a prejudice to them, it would be 
 absurd tyranny and barbarity to carry over all the laws 
 
 ^ See as to proceedings of the Quebec Grand Jury in 1 764, Kingsford, 
 His lory of Canada, vol. v., pp. 152-6.
 
 3S THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 of this count I'v. by which thoy would lose the comfort of 
 their property, and in some cases the possession of it. As 
 far as that goes. I consider it merely as a gift of the con- 
 queror to the conquered people, whom he does not mean 
 to treat cruelly. The criminal law stands as in England. 
 I have observed many things exceedingly strong which 
 have, in my poor opinion, prejudiced the Canadians 
 against the bill ; but as to the criminal law, it is certainly 
 liable to none of the objections now urged. 
 
 The next article is with regard to religion. To take 
 away reUgion is what nobody wishes. AVhat is to be sub- 
 stituted in the place of it ? Why, a general toleration, 
 says my learned friend, without anj^ kind of establish- 
 ment ; or if an establishment, that of the church of Eng- 
 land ; or that the church of England should at least go 
 pari passu with the church of Rome. Taking it in either 
 of those views, I fairly own, I differ very much in opinion 
 with regard to the law of this country. By the first of 
 Elizabeth. I take it that there is no reason whatever, why 
 the Roman Catholic religion should not have been exercised 
 in this country as well as in that : confinmg it entirely to 
 that act, I know no reason to the contrary. The.; 37th 
 article of our rehgion speaks in such language, that the 
 poorest Roman Catholic, who had any sense, might use it 
 just as much as the warmest Protestant ; for the language 
 by the act. and article, is only this, that no foreigner what- 
 ever should have any jurisdiction, power, or authority 
 within the realm : but there is nothing in the act to pre- 
 vent a man beheving the inf aUibility of Popery, if he thinks 
 proper to believe it. It may refer to any church in the 
 known world. I take the act of Parliament to be purely 
 declaratory of that which is the law — of that which must 
 be the law. m every sovereign state under heaven. Then 
 as to the right of the clergy to their dues ; the right of the 
 bishop to Ms dues — these rights do not extend to liis 
 ecclesiastical functions ; they extend only to that main- 
 tenance which he was possessed of before, and which was 
 small enough before. In lieu of tithe, there was a tliir- 
 teenth^ paid to the clergy. The bishop has always lived 
 in a seminary : the see was not sufficient, in point of effects, 
 
 ^ In 1663 Bishop Laval ordered an annual tithe of one-thirteenth of 
 the cereals to be collected, and the Council save this order the force of 
 law. Owing to a general outcry, however, the amount was reduced by 
 Laval to one-twentysixth, which is still the established amount.
 
 THE GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL 39 
 
 to maintaiii him : but observe in what manner his rights 
 are reserved. They are reserved to be exercised only with 
 relation to such as choose to be Catholics. Nobody is 
 compelled to be a Catholic : they are rather invited not to 
 be Catholics, by having an exemption held out to them. 
 If that be the sufficient performance of the stipulation in 
 the treaty of peace, and if the country is ready to accept of 
 it eo no7nine, gentlemen should make no objection to it. 
 It is the very least that could have been given either to 
 humanity or justice ; considering them as having stipu- 
 lated for that religion at the time. If I had had to pre- 
 scribe what was to be given them, I should, instead of 
 stripping the Roman Catholics of their religion, which was 
 the religion of all temporal and all judicial authority, have 
 thought myself bound in conscience and humanity to 
 have allowed the religion, with one degree more of estab- 
 lishment, if it must be called establishment ; I mean with 
 one degree more of maintenance than it had before. 
 
 The next objection is that which relates to the governor 
 and council. I could wish that those gentlemen who 
 object to the legislature would be pleased to' substitute 
 something in the place of it. I have never yet heard the 
 most sanguine of those who desire to assimilate the govern- 
 ment of Canada to the constitution of Great Britain say, 
 it is fit to give the Canadians a governor, council, and 
 assembly ; but if it is not fit, what kind of government 
 would you reserve for them, preferable to the one chalked 
 out by the bill before us ? Do not let us amuse ourselves 
 with aggravating the possible consequences which may 
 befall the wisest constitution in the world. But how is 
 it to be carried into execution ? Why, by drawing as 
 many of the Canadians as it is possible to do with safety 
 to the sovereignty of Canada, into that assembly ; by 
 making it a somewhat better thing than the form of their 
 present constitution. At present, it consists of a governor 
 and council, with authority to make laws, which do not 
 affect the life or limbs of any person ; in which every law 
 that has been thought necessary has been brought under a 
 doubt, by the form in which the authority is conveyed ; 
 for if they are enabled to make only such laws as do not 
 affect the life or limbs of any person, what law does not 
 come within one of those bounds ? It is meant to give 
 them a more active constitution. It is confessed, on all 
 hands, that this is essentially necessary, and that it is
 
 40 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 impracticable to put it in the form which other gentlemen 
 seem to wish. 
 
 With regard to the question asked by the honourable 
 gentleman, whether this is to be a permanent constitu- 
 tion ? — whether it is wished there should be so rough a 
 form of government established in any English province 
 whatever ? — I can only say, that unless the present 
 government be not only objected to, but the objection so 
 stated as to point out some period of time in wliicli it is 
 fancied to be right to create the assembly wliich is now 
 confessed to be wrong, I do not see how it would be 
 possible, with the fullest purpose of doing it. to assimilate 
 that constitution, in point of form, to this. But it is to 
 be assimilated by a new clause, to be added to the present 
 bill ! If you were to give them a very short duration of 
 time, everybody knows that the same argument against 
 assembhes would go to the short time to be prefixed. If 
 the idea were to make the law last from period to period, 
 from three years to three years, is that the method of 
 treating the countrj^ ? — giving them no hopes of perma- 
 nence ? But if you do not fix the time, they w\l\ not look 
 upon this to be the constitution, nor be anxious to assimi- 
 late with it I When gentlemen apply the word "' assimi- 
 lation " to rehgion, to law. to civil laws, and to manners. 
 I can easily conceive it is not an undesirable object in 
 pohcy. that they should be so far assimilated. To a 
 certain degree. I can conceive that the government of the 
 country, under the present constitution. wiU look upon it 
 to be their duty to assimilate the people in language, 
 manners, and every other respect in wliich they can be ex- 
 pected to hold a more intimate connection. But when that 
 assimilation is proposed to be carried into the law-form of 
 the constitution. I cannot conceive the form of the British 
 constitution, as it stands at present, proper for them. 
 Upon tliis main principle, you ought to make a repartition 
 of the sovereignty of the country between the King and 
 the people, of whom 558 are to be elected a parliament. 
 On this principle, the sovereignty of this country was in- 
 tended to reside, and does, in fact, reside there. But do 
 you mean to vest the sovereignty of the province, either 
 by repartition or otherwise, in any other place than in the 
 House of Lords and Commons of Great Britain ? Yet, 
 if you follow your assimilating idea, you must do that. I 
 only know that none of the charters intended it. It is
 
 LEGAL SYSTEMS 41 
 
 impossible for the King to have done it — to have created 
 the sovereign authority of governor, council, and as- 
 sembly, in any one of the provinces. Li point of fact, 
 they have considered themselves, in more views than T 
 wish to draw into debate, masters of the sovereign power. 
 Is their money to be applied to support the British 
 empire ? Are their forces to be applied to the support of 
 the British empire ? Are they content that the King, 
 Lords, and Commons of Great Britain shall be the judges 
 of the drawing forth of those forces, and the applying of 
 that money to the protection of the British empire ? I 
 think I drew a degree of attention and conviction, when I 
 stated it as an absurdity, that the sovereignty of the pro- 
 vince should be divided between the governor, council, and 
 assembly ; and to be sure it is a grossness, — it is making 
 two allied kingdoms totally out of our power, to act as a 
 federal union if they please, and if they do not please, to 
 act as an independent country — a federal condition pretty 
 near the condition of the states of Germany. If you do 
 not Hke that idea, in all the extent, in all the grossness of 
 it, would you create a constitution in such a case which 
 would make it, in fact, the very thing you deny in words ? 
 
 The next thing that has been said is, that Englishmen 
 carry over their constitution along with them ; and in that 
 respect it is a hard measure to take from them any of the 
 English laws they carry over with them. I no more 
 understand this proposition, especially as applied to the 
 present subject, than I do the former. When the Crown 
 of Great Britain makes a conquest of any foreign estab- 
 lished country, if it be true that it is an article of humanity 
 and justice to leave the country in possession of their laws, 
 then, I say, if any English resort to the country, they do 
 not carry the several ideas of laws that are to prevail the 
 moment they go there : it would be just as wise to say, if 
 an Enghshman goes to Guernsey, the laws of the city of 
 London were carried over with him. To take the laws as 
 they stand has been allowed ; to act according to those 
 laws, and to be bound by their coercion, is a natural con- 
 sequence. In this view, I think the bill has done nothing 
 obnoxious. I have no speculative opinions. I would 
 have consulted the French habit to a much greater extent, 
 if it had been for me to have framed the law. 
 
 Colonel Barre. — Sir, the honourable and learned gentle- 
 man who spoke last has thought proper to give a short,
 
 42 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 l>ui very imporfoot, and for aught I know, a very incorroct, 
 history of this }n'ooh\niation. He says it was left in an 
 otttee ; it was k^ft a sketch, and that sketch was unfinished ; 
 it was k^ft by one nobk^ kird. and taken up by another, 
 who thought proper to make considerabk^ additions to it. 
 The honourabk^ and learned gentleman seems to be very 
 much displeased with this proclamation. He has reasoned 
 against it in different parts, and stated divers inconveni- 
 ences in it. I cannot help observing, that the honourable 
 and learned gentleman seems to be more solicitous upon 
 tliis occasion than the conquered inhabitants of that 
 country, and. in some measure, more than those who have 
 been the conquerors of it. This proclamation. Sir, gave 
 a certain torm to the colony. It provided, that the in- 
 habitants should have an assembly, asw^ell as all the other 
 royal governments, as soon as possible. The proclama- 
 tion held out this language, that "luitil such assemblies 
 could be called, all persons inhabiting in, or resorting to, 
 the said colonies, might confide in the royal protection for 
 the enjoyment of the benefit of the laws of England.' 
 Under this proclamation, thus held out as a solemn act to 
 the people of that country, many Englishmen went, and 
 settled in the heart of Canada : but their rights, their 
 privileges, were not thought worthy of the honourable 
 and learned gentleman's consideration ; he stood up only 
 in defence of the Canadians : but there is a very consider- 
 able number of men. no matter of what description — they 
 may have been poor bankrupts, but they are English 
 subjects, vv^ho have settled there imder the faith of this 
 proclamation. The honourable and learned gentleman 
 was not precise in stating the limits of our colonies. He 
 seemed unwilling for the House to think that any one of 
 the colonies, especially Pennsylvania and Virginia, had 
 a right to settle beyond the Endless Mountains ; as if the 
 honourable and learned gentleman could be ignorant of 
 the fact, that many thousands of English subjects are 
 estabhshed some hundi'ed miles beyond the Endless 
 Mountains, upon the very spot which you are now going 
 to make a part of this coimtry of Canada. 
 
 Sir, with respect to the Canadians themselves, the 
 learned gentleman asks — what would you do with them ? 
 would you do the cruellest thing that ever was done to any 
 conquered nation upon earth ? would you take away their 
 laws, their customs ? Xow, Sir, I never vet knew it was
 
 EVIL OF PERPETUATING FRENCH LAW 43 
 
 ff>und a grievance to any nation, to give them the English 
 laws, the Enghsh constitution. So far from it, the 
 Canadians admired and revered those laws, as far as they 
 could be made acquainted with them. If it is doubled, I 
 have an evidence to produce — the honourable and learned 
 gentleman himself. He says, " what did they do when 
 their grand jury met ? they called for their accounts, the 
 public accounts. They likewise wished to put in execution 
 the Popery laws." Could there be any stronger proof in 
 the world, that they knew the value of those laws ? The 
 criminal laws you have thought proper to give them ; but 
 you have not given them all. To my certain knowledge, 
 they wish to have the Habeas Corpus. You have re- 
 tained the civil law. What you will afterwards do to get 
 the law administered, is to me incomprehensible. The 
 civil law of the country stands founded upon what is 
 called the custom of Paris. Thirty foho volumes of that 
 custom those learned gentlemen are to make themselves 
 masters of, and lay open to you, instead of making the 
 English law the basis of their constitution. If any cus- 
 toms, or any particular laws, are appHcable to the people 
 of that country, take those customs and laws, and graft 
 them upon the law you give them. ^Ir. Maseres has 
 stated his opinion to you. It is in the hands of the public : 
 but you have not followed his advice. My honourable 
 friend wishes an estabUshment of a different kind : others 
 think the establishing such a government as this is right. 
 One law of inheritance the Canadians complain of : the 
 court of France has complained of it, and once attempted 
 to correct it. It is that which the learned gentleman 
 knows to be a custom \^ath them ; namely, the quantum 
 taken for the crown upon the alienation of any estate ;^ 
 they wish to get rid of that. In short, if you had led them 
 with any address, by degrees they would have received 
 great part of the EngHsh law : they would have hugged it 
 to their bosoms ; they would, from time to time, have abol- 
 ished stated customs, and, by this time, you would have 
 assimilated them to your constitution, and not left them 
 standing single, as Cathohcs, under an arbitrary power. 
 Another thing I wish to notice. Has there been any 
 
 ^ A fine of a quint, or one-fifth, of the value of the seigniory dealt 
 with became due upon change of ownership by sale, gift, or inherit- 
 ance other than direct succession. By custom a rebate was allowed of 
 one-third of the amount due.
 
 44 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 applicaiiuii liom the country ? any complaint of all this 
 chaos which tlie honourable gentleman has complained 
 of ? No : there is no complaint. The principal people of 
 the country are of a very particular cast ; they take a 
 liking — this I know to be the fact — they take a liking to 
 assemblies ; they think they have as good a right to have 
 assemblies as any other colony on the continent. It is 
 strange, if they like this constitution, that you will not 
 give them all the benefit and advantage of it. They ask 
 for it ; and when I say they ask for it, I do not mean to 
 say that they have made any application in form to the 
 court here, but they have stated their wishes to the 
 governor there. Why not let them have assemblies 1 
 But it is said, they are not ripe for assemblies ! Govern- 
 ment has, to be sure, made use of the same argument to 
 induce them to drop that idea. It was said, " Don't 
 you see very plainly, that the colonies upon the continent 
 have all of them assembhes ? Don't you see they are 
 quarrelling with their King ? If you have an assembly, 
 you will probably be in the same situation." Now, a 
 quarrel with their King, to the Canadians, is reckoned 
 worse than any vengeance that can be poured upon them. 
 They will not hear of anything that will put them upon 
 bad terms with their King. The method that I should 
 have thought most natural, is the method recommended 
 by ]\'Ir. Maseres, which was, by degrees, to introduce what 
 is proper in your laws, and to let what is proper in the 
 French laws remain with them.^ 
 
 ]\Ir. Charles Fox. — With regard to the measure itself, I 
 will say, that it is not right for this country to originate 
 and establish a constitution, in which there is not a spark 
 or semblance of Uberty. A learned gentleman has said, 
 that by this means we shall deter our own countrymen 
 from settling there. Now, Sir, as it is my notion, that it 
 is the policy of this country to induce Englishmen to mix 
 as much as possible with the Canadians, I certainly must 
 
 ^ Several speeches are here omitted, including that of Wedderburn, 
 the SoUcitor-General, who admitted that, " If I had been compelled to 
 have proposed my views upon the subject, perhaps they would not 
 have been the views of the present bill." His report, together with 
 that of Thurlow, is given in Christie's History of Lower Canada 
 (Quebec, 1848), vol. i., pp. 27-45. In it he said : " More attention is 
 due to the native Canadian than to the British emigrant, not only 
 because that class is the more numerous, but because it is not the 
 interest of Britain that many of her natives should settle there."
 
 AN ASYLUM FOR ROMAN CATHOLICS 45 
 
 come to a different conclusion. Everything that forwards 
 the learned gentleman's end, defeats my view of the sub- 
 ject. The learned gentleman has, too, with great in- 
 genuity, stated the inconvenience in Canada, if we give 
 them our laws with respect to real property. I do not 
 suppose there is any gentleman who would approve of 
 those laws being forced upon them ; but the learned 
 gentleman spoke, as if all civil law were comprehended in 
 this kind of relation, which affects the descent of property, 
 the Habeas Corpus, and all other rights. He quoted 
 Montesquieu with approbation, about exposing children, 
 but he says, "I cannot give the Canadians trial by jury ; 
 I cannot give them the Habeas Corpus " ; which are 
 laws of the same nature, and fully as commendable as 
 those which prevented the exposing of children. I 
 cannot conceive why we should not give them the law of 
 tliis country. If we gave them that law, it would be easy 
 to alter it in many respects, so as to make it agreeable to 
 them. That, Sir, I conceive it to be the duty of this country 
 to do ; and it is very easy to do it : but to go at once, and 
 establish a perfectly despotic government, contrary to 
 the genius and spirit of the British constitution, carries 
 with it the appearance of a love of despotism, and a 
 settled design to enslave the people of America, very un- 
 becoming this country. My idea is, that America is not 
 to be governed by force, but by affection and interest. 
 But the Roman Catholic religion, the learned gentleman 
 says, is not established. According to my notion, the 
 establishment of that religion consists in government 
 pa5ring its teachers ; and when the professors of that re- 
 ligion receive tithes, that, I maintain, is establishing a tax. 
 I profess I do not myself object so much to that portion 
 of the bill ; because I think the persecution of the Roman 
 Catholics is much to be deprecated, and that the penal 
 laws of this country are repugnant to every principle of 
 toleration. I think there might be, in some part of his 
 Majesty's dominions, an asylum, where Roman Catholics 
 might go, if persecuted. 
 
 Fox had argued that, as this Bill legalized tithe, it was 
 therefore a money Bill, and should not have been intro- 
 duced into the House of Lords. 
 
 
 1V..V, i-^T/vv** ♦" ^^^*^
 
 46 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 After a long discussion on this point the second reading 
 wa5 passed by 105 to 29. 
 
 On ^lay 31 the Opposition moved : " That there be laid 
 before the House copies of the reports made by Major- 
 General Carleton, Governor of the Province of Quebec ; 
 by William Hey, Esq., Cliief Justice ; and by Francis 
 Maseres, Esq., late Attorney-General of the said province, 
 relative to the state of that province." 
 
 This was opposed by Lord North, on the ground of the 
 delay which would be caused by the copying of the 
 reports, and " because I am confident every information 
 may be had in a more authentic mamier from the parties 
 themselves viva voceJ^ 
 
 Mr. Edmund Burke. — The learned gentleman observes, 
 that it is a tyranny to place over a whole people a law 
 they do not understand. But, Sir, is it not less a tyranny 
 to place a law over them which they do not understand, 
 than to impose upon them a law which we do not under- 
 stand ourselves ? Does this House know what that law 
 and custom is which they are going to impose upon their 
 fellow subjects ? I do not condemn either the present law, 
 or that which is proposed in its place. I will not approve 
 the one or the other ; much less attempt to impose it either 
 upon Frenchmen or Englishmen, until I know more of the 
 nature of those laws than I do at present. The customary 
 law of Canada may be a defect grown up from the time 
 of barbarism, and corrected by despotism ; as in many 
 parts of France, in many parts of Germany, and in many 
 other parts of the world. Can we say, what is the cus- 
 tomary law of Paris, which is going to be made law by 
 this bill — which is going to be made law in Canada ? 
 Do we know how to modify it by the practice and admis- 
 sion of the civil law, which has been admitted into almost 
 all the provinces of France ? For observe, that it is not 
 the custom of Paris, which has been mitigated by ordi- 
 nances and mitigated by the civil law, which is proposed 
 to be established ; but the custom of Paris, unmitigated, 
 unqualified, is now proposed to be established for ever, 
 as the law of the province of Canada. I should be glad to
 
 BURKE ASKS FOR INFORMATION 47 
 
 read the clause, to see if I am right in that expression ; 
 for I could wish to be correct. In page 3, it says, that 
 " all his Majesty's Canadian subjects shall hold and enjoy 
 their property and possessions, &c. ; and that in all matters 
 of controversy relative to property and civil rights, 
 resort shall be had to the laws of Canada." I see I was 
 rather mistaken, and am willing to correct myself. It is 
 not the custom of Paris that is to be established in that 
 extent, but the custom of Canada, of which we know 
 little or nothing. But there is something worse in the 
 wording of this clause ; for it is to be established, it is 
 said, " in as large, ample, and beneficial manner, as if the 
 said proclamation, commissions, ordinances, and other 
 acts and instruments had not been made." The wording 
 of this clause supposes, that the acts and ordinances, and 
 law of England, had not been beneficial to the Canadians ; 
 that the law of Canada is by the English government 
 approved ; and the law of England stands condemned, as 
 not being beneficial. Now, I should be glad to ascertain 
 two facts : first, whether the British government is odious 
 to the Canadians ; and next, what are the excellences of 
 that government to which we are reverting ; what bene- 
 ficial effects it has produced ; and whether the people of 
 Canada have flourished more under the French govern- 
 ment, than under the English government ? These are 
 matters of fact necessary to be known, to enable us to 
 judge of these laws. I shall never be induced to consider 
 government in the abstract. The government under 
 which the peoj^le have flourished most, that is the best 
 government. I should desire to see the present state of 
 the country compared with its state for the twelve or 
 fourteen years preceding the troubles that gave rise to 
 the present measure. Perhaps the people have enjoyed 
 great benefits. If they have, I would inquire, whether 
 this proposed change must not produce great inconveni- 
 ences ? Until I have this light of facts, it will be im- 
 possible for me to give an honest vote, with a view to a 
 change of the government of Canada. If you introduce 
 laws that have lain dormant for twelve or fourteen years, 
 it is as much an innovation, as if you had made the con- 
 stitution new. I have no objection to make the constitu- 
 tion new, provided the necessity of so doing is set in a clear 
 and satisfactory manner before me. I think I'arliament 
 can proceed upon no principles but two — reason and
 
 48 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 autliority. Reason we have none. The next question is, 
 wliat is our authority ? I behave the opinions of the 
 learned gentlemen near me, will, must, and ought to have 
 their due degree of weight with the House. They seldom 
 give their authorities, without, at the same time, giving 
 their reasons. It may be said, we have the gentlemen 
 here, and therefore have no need for their written opinions. 
 I should very readily agree to this, if gentlemen will tell 
 me that these written opinions may not have been given 
 with a greater or less degree of latitude in the council — 
 if gentlemen will tell me that I cannot, for the sake of the 
 public good, have those facts brought before us, which 
 those learned gentlemen made use of to justify their own 
 opinions. The reasons of those great law authorities, 
 combined wdth the authority of those facts, must have 
 great weight with me. 
 
 I have hitherto avoided offering a single word upon the 
 general policy of this bill. It is said, the general pro- 
 visions of the bill are to be considered in the committee, 
 and the general argument on bringing up the report. I 
 guard myself from this admission, upon this single ques- 
 tion — ought not such a ground of information to be first 
 given, as wdll induce you to reject the law of England, and 
 assume the law of Canada ? — that is, to reject the law 
 which you do know, and the beneficial effects of which 
 you have experienced, in order to impose another law 
 upon the Canadians which you do not know, but the ill 
 effects of which you have felt ? Are you to proceed, in a 
 manner so wild and at random, in condemning the British 
 laws unheard, and estabhshing the French law in Canada ? 
 I may venture to say, " condemning " the law of England, 
 because its condemnation is virtually made, the moment 
 it is proved not to be beneficial to the people. I believe 
 I am not so attached to words, as to put my own opinion 
 in competition with that proof ; but as yet I have no 
 evidence that the people do not like our law. I do not 
 know this to be the case. The presumption is, that the 
 law under which they have long lived, is the law most 
 agreeable to them. I will go upon presumption, when I 
 have no other ground to judge upon. The law may have 
 been more agreeable to them from their ignorance. They 
 did not know of any better ; and the moment they know 
 some other system more beneficial, they may wish to 
 adopt it. Until I know that the people of Canada con-
 
 BURKE PLEADS FOR DELAY 49 
 
 demn the British law, I will not impose another, which 
 their own enlightened judgment would have rejected. 
 Has any petition appeared before the House, to tell us the 
 law was a burthen to them ? Is either the form of trial, 
 or the laws by which they are tried, disagreeable ? What 
 evidence have we of all this ? As a friend to the people 
 of Canada, I ask these questions. The conquest of them 
 should not make them less dear to me : I would even treat 
 them with a milder hand. The treaty, too, has demanded 
 it : but until I know that the Enghsh laws are not bene- 
 ficial — are not good for all men in all cases ; until I know 
 this, — until the people of Canada complain of them — I 
 will not presume that they are opposed to them. At 
 present, there is an English complaint against the estab- 
 lishing of French laws. I should be glad to hear a French 
 complaint against the establishing of English laws ; and 
 whenever that comes, I shall be ready to give it a fair 
 hearing. But at present, the bill stands upon no com- 
 plaint. ^ There can be no mischief in postponing it ; but 
 there may be much mischief if you give the people French 
 despotic government, and Canadian law, by act of Parlia- 
 ment. By a delay of a year, they would be kept out of 
 the advantage of having Canadian law universally estab- 
 lished, which Canadian law universally establishes a 
 despotism ; and there is nothing left to complain of but 
 the despotism established by necessity. At present, they 
 bear that grievance ; but a grievance by necessity, and 
 a grievance established by law, are two very different 
 things. Supposing the bill to be delayed for a whole year, 
 the extent of the evil on our side will be, that we shall 
 have more information ; and as for the Canadians, they 
 will remain a little longer in the same situation in which 
 they are at present. If you were prepared to give them 
 a free constitution, I should be in haste to go on ; but 
 necessity — " necessity, the tyrant's plea " — is urged for 
 proceeding immediately. 
 
 Let us have evidence, then, of that necessity. I stand 
 for the necessity of information ; without which — without 
 great, cogent, luminous information — I, for one, will 
 never give my vote for establishing the French law in that 
 country. I should be sorry to see his Majesty a despotic 
 governor. And am I sure that this despotism is not 
 
 ^ A petition from French Canadians complaining of the incon- 
 venience of English law was, in fact, presented in February, 1771.
 
 50 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 meaiit to lead to universal despotism ? When that 
 countn- cannot be governed as a free country, I question 
 whether this can. Xo free country can keep another 
 country- in slavery. The price they pay for it will be their 
 own servitude. The constitution proposed is one which 
 men never will, and never ought, to bear. When we are 
 sowing the seeds of despotism in Canada, let us bear in 
 mind, that it is a growth which may afterwards extend 
 to other countries.^ By being made perpetual, it is evident 
 that this constitution is meant to be both an instrument of 
 tyranny to the Canadians, and an example to others of 
 what they have to expect ; at some time or other it will 
 come home to England. WTien it is proved that the 
 laws of England could not govern Canada, it will be plain 
 that some stronger power than the laws of England is 
 necessary to govern this country. I shall give my first 
 vote upon this bill, against the despotic government there ; 
 whether it is to be estabhshed for any length of time, or 
 to be estabhshed at all by Parhament. When you cannot 
 make a free government, you ought to leave a country to 
 be governed by the force of necessity. Government, and 
 a free government, are two different things ; but with 
 regard to those laws which are in use at present. I cannot 
 form an opinion — I know nothing of the custom of Canada. 
 
 The motion of the Opposition was defeated by 85 to 45. 
 On June 2 the examination of Governor Carleton 
 began, and was concluded on the following day. 
 
 ]Mr. 3Iachworth. — Were any objections made to that 
 mode of trial 1^ — There are two sets of people in Canada : 
 one. those who call themselves the ancient subjects, the 
 other the new subjects. The first are very well satisfied 
 with the form of justice administered in the Court of 
 King's Bench ; the other, the newly acquired subjects, 
 are extremely satisfied with the integrity of the court, 
 but extremely dissatisfied with the mode of trial. Their 
 dissatisfaction arises, first from the great expense that the 
 
 ^ This is an echo of Pitt's speech of 1766 on the Stamp Act : "I 
 rejoice that America has resisted. If its millions of inhabitants had 
 submitted, taxes would soon have been laid on Ireland ; and if ever 
 this nation should have a tyrant for its king, six miUions of free men, 
 so dead to all the feehngs of Uberty as voluntarily to submit to be 
 slaves, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." 
 
 2 I.e., that employed from 1763 to 1774.
 
 E\^DENCE OF CARLETON 51 
 
 court draws them into : and in the next place, from ail the 
 proceedings being in a language thej" do not understand : 
 they are likewise not satisfied with juries. They are 
 extremely flattered and pleased that there are to be juries ; 
 that they are to be admitted to be of the number ; but they 
 think it very strange that the EngHsh residing in Canada 
 should prefer to have matters of law decided by tailors 
 and shoemakers, mixed up with respectable gentlemen in 
 trade and commerce ; that they should prefer their 
 decision to that of the judge. 
 
 Have they been dissatisfied with, the judgments that 
 have pa.ssed in the Court of King's Bench ? — I cannot 
 say I ever heard a complaint of the kind. 
 
 If juries were composed of the species of men such as 
 they approved of, would they disapprove of the mode of 
 trial by jury ? — The great object with the Canadians 
 would be to procure justice ; and to procure it at a reason- 
 able and moderate expense ; these are the essential points. 
 As to the mode of trial, whether by jury or by the judge, 
 they would prefer the latter from custom, habit, and 
 education. I am not authorized to speak for the Cana- 
 dians, to assert that they absolutely pray against juries. 
 They certainly are attached to their own customs and 
 manners. I am willing to give as much information as is 
 in my power, but the chief justice is much better qualified 
 than I am. 
 
 If the expense was moderate and the jury composed of 
 proper men, would they object to that mode of trial on 
 account of thinking thej^ should not have justice done 
 them in the trial ? — I cannot say that the Canadians would 
 wish to adopt it : on the contrary, I have heard them 
 make objections to it. How far those objections will carry 
 weight , I know not . 
 
 Is not the trial b}' jmy in the Court of Common Pleas 
 optional ? — I understand so. 
 
 Do you know that the Canadians of late, in the trials 
 in that court, have chosen the trial by jury to decide their 
 causes ? — In general, I understand not. 
 
 Can you give any authentic account of the number of 
 Protestant subjects now in the provmce of Quebec ? — I 
 had the return of the province last April of the number of 
 Protestants in the j^ear 1770. By that return, I believe, 
 everybody who calls himself a Protestant is included. 
 By that account they are under four hundred men, about
 
 52 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 three hundred and sixty, besides women and children, in 
 the whole colony of Canada. I am afraid their numbers 
 are. diminished since. 
 
 Do you think the diminution of the number of British 
 subjects is an advantage or disadvantage to the province i 
 — That is a political question. I am afraid their circum- 
 stances have been so reduced, as to compel them to quit 
 the province ; I speak from humanity. I do not mean to 
 give any pohtical opinion upon the subject. 
 
 In general, are these three hundred and sixty persons 
 composed of men of substance and property in the pro- 
 vince I — There are some who have purchased lands — 
 oificers, or reduced officers ; some very respectable mer- 
 chants ; there are other inferior officers in trade, and a 
 good many disbanded soldiers. In general, they are 
 composed of people of small property. 
 
 What do you think may be the number of the new 
 subjects of Canada = — About one hundred and fifty 
 thousand souls ; all Roman CathoHcs. 
 
 In the conversation you have had with the Canadians 
 in general, are they not very earnest for the restitution of 
 the ancient Canadian laws I — They were very much so 
 when I was in the province ; and by the accounts I have 
 received since I came to England, they still continue very 
 earnest indeed, and anxious about it. 
 
 Have they expressed lately any apprehension, on seeing 
 plans of government sent over, that those plans should 
 take place, or any satisfaction or desire that they should ? 
 — They have expressed great uneasiness at the apprehen- 
 sion, and more warmth than is usual for that people. 
 They seem determined to form associations and compacts 
 to resist the English law, if they should be compelled to 
 do it, as far as they could do so with decency, and their 
 duty to the government would permit. 
 
 Have the ciergj- in Canada since the peace enjoyed and 
 received the tithes and parochial dues ? — They have 
 received the tithes and parochial dues as formerly ; 
 there may be some who have not, but very few ; as few as 
 those gentlemen who receive their rents ; they are as well 
 paid as the rents. 
 
 ]Mr. Charles Fox. — Did they receive the tithes and dues 
 onlv from the Roman CathoHcs, or from the Protestants 
 likewise ? — I really do not know ; there are so few Protes- 
 tants that cultivate the land.
 
 INCREASE OF TRADE 53 
 
 Was there an idea that the Protestant landlords were 
 exempt from paying tithe ? — I have heard some of the 
 clergy say, that in the uncertain state of things, they would j 
 not ask the Protestants to pay unless they chose it : as ! 
 there were opinions spread among them, that it was not 
 agreeable to the EngKsh law to trv the right, thev would 
 have to encounter the great expense of the law. I think 
 it induced them to act with great moderation and dis- 
 cretion in the matter ; hoping in a short time, that the 
 laws would be ascertained, that they might know what 
 ought to be paid and what not. 
 
 Did those few British subjects inhabit the towns of 
 Quebec and Montreal ? — Chiefly ; there are very few in 
 the country, so few. that they are scarcely to be seen in 
 travelling through it. as there are but three hundred and 
 sixty in a district of three hundred miles long, and very 
 ^vide. 
 
 Lord Xorth. — Is not the cultivation of the lands entirely 
 in the hands of the Canadians ? — Almost entirely. 
 
 T^T^iat part of the trade is in the hands of the Canadians ? 
 — I have heard about two-thirds. 
 
 Is not the trade much increased ? — I understand the 
 trade is increased very much. 
 
 Do you attribute that increase to the trial by jury, or 
 introducing so much of the EngUsh law as has been intro- 
 duced ? — Xo ; they have no dependence upon that at all. 
 
 Can you assign any probable reason to what it is to be 
 attributed ? — The colony of Quebec was in its state of 
 infancy ; it is so stiU, in some measure. They have been 
 now fourteen years quiet. The country- has peopled very 
 fast ; besides the natural increase of population, there 
 have been a great many Acadians. who had come into the 
 province ; people taken from America and Xova Scotia, 
 that were scattered in the province during the course of 
 the war. As the people multiply, they act as a sort of 
 farmers ; they take possession of the lands behind their 
 own. so that they go on cultivating the country very fast. 
 
 Do you not think the old inhabitant in Canada is 
 receiving considerable advantage from the change of the 
 disposition of the inhabitanis, from a mihtary to a com- 
 mercial life ? — Xo doubt he is. Under the French govern- 
 ment, the spirit of the government was mihtary, and con- 
 quest was the chief object ; very large detachments were 
 sent up every year to the Ohio, and other interior parts
 
 54 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 of the continent of North America. This drew them from 
 thoir land, prevented their marriages, and great numbers 
 of them perished in tliose different services they were 
 sent upon. Since the conquest, they have enjoyed peace 
 and tranquiUity ; they have had more time and leisure to 
 cultivate their land, and have had more time to extend 
 their settlements backwards ; the natural consequence of 
 which is, that wheat is grown in great abundance. I 
 have been very well informed, that we have exported large 
 quantities of wheat. 
 
 Colonel Barre. — I submit whether it would not be better 
 to go through one particular part first, without going into 
 any other. 
 
 Lord North. — It is almost impossible. No man can 
 know how many questions every particular member has 
 to ask upon this point. 
 
 Colonel Barre. — I; have only one question to ask upon 
 that point, reserving myseK to ask others ; it follows from 
 the noble lord's question. If by any means that same 
 warlike spirit was introduced again, would it not introduce 
 the like disagreeable and bad consequences ? — I take it, 
 that a spirit of war in that, and in all countries, is very 
 much against population and the cultivation of land. 
 
 What measures in that country would put an end to 
 this spirit ? — Their being subdued by the people they 
 meant to conquer. 
 
 Lord A^o?-^^. — Has not the increase of the agriculture 
 been the principal cause of the increase of the commerce ? 
 — It is so understood. 
 
 Do you not understand, that the great capitals of our 
 merchants, their great knowledge, and their spirit in 
 trade, have likewise contributed to the increase of it ?— 
 I believe they may have been of advantage. 
 
 Are the Canadian inhabitants desirous of having as- 
 semblies in the province ? — Certainly not. 
 
 Have they not thought with horror of an assembly in 
 the country, if it should be composed of the old British 
 inhabitants now resident there ? — No doubt it would give 
 them great offence. 
 
 Would they not greatly prefer a government by the 
 governor and legislative council to such an assembl}'" ? — 
 No doubt they would. 
 
 Do you not think a free exportation of corn contributed 
 to the encouragement of population and agriculture, as
 
 WISHES OF THE FRENCH-CANADIANS 55 
 
 much as any of the foregoing causes ? — The population 
 was the first effect ; the cultivation of the land was the 
 consequence. 
 
 Was it necessary to have any land to be qualified to 
 serve on a jury in the country ? — I believe there is very 
 little nicety in that matter ; there is too great a scarcity 
 of Protestants. I beg leave to add, in the list of jurors I 
 mentioned, there were a great number of disbanded 
 soldiers that kept tippling houses. 
 
 Is that the only idea of the assembly, that you ever 
 knew suggested to the Canadians, and to which they re- 
 turned their answer ? — I put the question to several of the 
 Canadians. They told me assemblies had drawn upon the 
 other colonies so much distress, had occasioned such riots 
 and confusion, that they wished never to have one of any , 
 kind whatever. 
 
 Did not the Canadians likewise think, that' assemblies 
 would draw upon them expenses as well as distress ? — By 
 distress I meant the displeasure of this country. No, they 
 never stated that. 
 
 Have you never heard, that they imagined they should 
 be obliged to pay the expense of government as soon as 
 they had assemblies, but that until they had them they 
 were not to pay the expense ? — No, that was not the idea 
 of the Canadians ; they dislike it as not being conformable 
 to their ancient customs. 
 
 Do you mean indiscriminately the whole law, civil and 
 criminal ? — The civil law. 
 
 Do you think, if all their customs of descent and heri- 
 tage were preserved, that they would be dissatisfied with 
 the introduction of trial by jury ? — With regard to any 
 portion of their law, one custom separate from another, 
 I believe they would be extremely hurt to have any part 
 of their customs taken from them, except where the 
 commercial interest of the country may require a reason- 
 able preference, and such commercial laws as can be 
 especially mentioned to them. I believe they would 
 make no objection to any such commercial laws, if they 
 may know what those laws are. But laws in the bulk, 
 which nobody can explain to them, they think would be 
 delivering them over a prey to everybody that goes there 
 as an attorney or lawyer. 
 
 Was the dissatisfaction expressed by the Canadians at 
 large, or by the corps of noblesse ? — They wore pretty
 
 56 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 unanimous in most points ; as unanimous as so large a 
 body could be expected to be. 
 
 Are the noblesse better pleased with a jury in criminal 
 causes ? — I never heard objections made to the criminal 
 law, except in one instance. Very soon after I went into 
 the province, there were some Canadian gentlemen and 
 some English gentlemen arrested for a very great crime 
 indeed.^ They were accused of a very great crime indeed. 
 Thej^ were committed to gaol until the next trial. It was 
 the unanimous sense of the province that they were 
 innocent, and they were found innocent at their trial. 
 Upon that occasion, I heard several of the Canadian 
 noblesse complain of the English law ; but, upon my word, 
 I recollect no complaint of the criminal law but upon that 
 occasion. 
 
 AMiat was the nature of the complaint ? — They com- 
 plained that, upon the deposition of one man of very bad 
 fame, gentlemen should be committed to prison, and there 
 remain a considerable time before they could come upon 
 their trial. They said, that under the former law, more 
 than one information would have been taken, and an 
 inquiry made by the King's attorney-general, and that 
 those gentlemen would not have been arrested if such 
 information had been taken, as their innocence by that 
 means would have appeared. 
 
 Has there been any other trial by jury for a capital 
 offence ? — I do not remember to have heard of any. 
 
 Have there been any considerable number of trials for 
 offences among the common people ? — Very few, to my 
 knowledge. 
 
 AVliat number of these noblesse is there in this country ? 
 — My memory will not suffer me to tell . 
 
 Nearly ? — I suppose a hundred and fifty ; I speak at 
 random. 
 
 What is the occupation of them ; do any of them trade ? 
 — I believe very few ; they are not fond of trade. They 
 have been brought up in the troops ; they do not appar- 
 ently trade : perhaps they may have connections with 
 some that do. 
 
 Do you know from the Canadians themselves, what 
 sort of administration of justice prevailed under the 
 
 1 They were accused of attacking a magistrate named AValker, and 
 cropping one of his ears (see Kingsford, History of Canada, vol. v., 
 pp. 163-169.
 
 FRENCH CIVIL LAW 57 
 
 French government, whether pure or corrupt ? — Very- 
 pure in general ; I never heard complaints of the adminis- 
 tration of justice under the French government. 
 
 Was it so pure, that there was no room for favour from 
 the judge ? — The intendant of the province was chief in 
 matters of justice. 
 
 What was his general character ? — With regard to his 
 character as chief justice, I believe it was unexceptionable. 
 It can never be the interest of a sensible man to connive 
 at, or suffer, iniquity in courts of justice. The matters 
 in dispute are very small between neighbour and neighbour, 
 and he would only incense the people for very little pur- 
 pose. The French intendant had other methods of 
 making large sums of money, and enriching his favourites, 
 if he had a mind to do it. 
 
 Was the administration of justice, in the other branch, 
 equally pure ? — He was at the head of all justice. He 
 had liis delegates, who presided in small matters in the 
 other parts of the province. There was an appeal from 
 the others to the intendant. 
 
 Were the decisions of the court in the three districts 
 always just ? — I believe so ; I never heard any complaints 
 from the people, that the courts of justice were not pro- 
 perly administered. I have heard of great fortunes made 
 in another manner. 
 
 If their favourite laws and favourite customs were pre- 
 served to them, would they not, in every other case, take 
 the law of England ? — They do not know what the law 
 of England is ; they call the law of England the mode of 
 administering justice. They do not know the difference 
 between Canadian law and English, in the mode of ad- 
 ministering it. The essential laws of England, in deciding 
 matters of property, they have not the least idea of. The 
 intelligent part of the Canadians think and hope, that their 
 laws and customs may be continued, because they know 
 what they are. 
 
 Have the intelligent part of the Canadians any idea of 
 tlie law of Habeas Corpus ? — I believe not the least. I do 
 not say there are no gentlemen who have made it their 
 particular study. 
 
 Are there any number of the professors of the law, 
 capable of instructing them in the law there ? — There is a 
 Mr. Taylor, attorney-general ; there is a Mr. , secre- 
 tary. I would not venture to say there is one lawyer in
 
 r>S THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 tho wliolo ]irovincc Avho has been at the bar in England ; 
 1 may be mistaken. I do not know one that ever was at 
 tho bar as a lawyer.^ 
 
 Then I understand you do not imagine that any other 
 person but those two are barristers ? — Not to my know- 
 ledge. 
 
 In general, have not the British subjects in Canada and 
 the old subjects intercourse witli one another ? — The}^ 
 have very little society. 
 
 Do the Canadians in general communicate their senti- 
 ments to the British subjects at all, or to the officers, 
 &c. ? — They are very decent people, and communicate 
 their sentiments only to those whom the King has ap- 
 pointed to receive them. 
 
 Has there been, by the supreme council established, 
 any summary trial for small matters in the different parts 
 of the province ? — Yes ; the justices of the peace formerly 
 had authority to try small causes. 
 
 Were any of the Canadian gentlemen among those 
 justices ? — Not one. 
 
 Did there exist in the French government any summary 
 mode of proceeding in the country ? — Yes ; some of the 
 seigneurs had a right to hold courts of justice. They 
 almost all had a right ; but few exercised that right. 
 
 Has that been taken away under the English govern- 
 ment, or more exercised ? — Entirely taken away ; besides 
 that right, which the seigneur of the original tenure has, 
 there was what is called the right of proceeding as dele- 
 gates to different parts of the province. 
 
 Are those delegates resident inhabitants, who have a 
 commission something like justices of the peace in 
 England ? — They were creditable people of good under- 
 standing. There was scarcely such a thing as a lawyer 
 admitted into the colony, under the French government, 
 except the King's lawyers ; I mean regularly educated 
 lawyers. There were attorneys and notaries. 
 
 Do you conceive the people of the country to be at all 
 informed of the French law they lived under ? — They 
 understand the French law from education, as the people 
 of England understand the English law from education, 
 from the customs and usages of the place. 
 
 Do they understand more than the general custom of 
 descent and heritage, and the mode of conveying pro- 
 1 This occasioned a great laugh [Cavendish].
 
 FRENCH-CANADIAN LAW 59 
 
 perty in that country ? — They understand in all respects 
 whatever comes before them. All the French law was 
 not introduced into Canada. They are acquainted with 
 the laws of property generally, and the custom of Canada ; 
 but as to the other laws of Paris, they are not introduced : 
 they are as much unknown to them as the law of 
 England. 
 
 Is there any code of Canadian law published ? — There 
 are law books, and some that contain precisely the laws 
 and customs of Paris, from whence the Canadian laws are 
 derived. There are, besides these, a collection of the 
 customs of Canada, as far as they are able to procure 
 them, which I understand is published. 
 
 Has there been any plan proposed since you have been 
 governor, or any in your predecessor's time, to determine 
 causes of small value ? — I do not know that there is any 
 plan. They have no sort of intermeddling with the 
 administration of justice, but in juries. 
 
 Would not that have removed their objection to the 
 English government, and given general satisfaction in the 
 country ? — The administration of justice by the seigneurs 
 was rather a tax upon them ; there were very few that 
 exercised it. Since I have been there, they have applied 
 to me to know whether they might not exercise it ; or to 
 know, whether it was taken from them. I said, I wished 
 they would let the matter lie dormant till something was 
 finally determined. 
 
 What is the wish of the people who would be subject to 
 this jurisdiction ? Do they wish to be tried without 
 expense, and upon the spot ? — They were under some 
 check under the French government. They certainly 
 were not delivered up to their mercy : there was an im- 
 mediate appeal to the King's courts of justice. They 
 were under the check of the King's courts of justice, and 
 the King's attorney-general brought everything up 
 immediately. 
 
 Might not some alterations have made that very agree- 
 able, such as might have enabled them to bring small 
 suits to immediate issue ? — They are very much attached 
 to their ancient customs. They were so much dissatisfied 
 with the people to whom commissions of the peace were 
 granted in different parts of the province, that I was 
 obliged to take away their power. It never was much 
 trusted into the hands of the French.
 
 60 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Were all the judges in all the courts of justice in Canada 
 bred to the law ? — Xo. 
 
 \\'ere any more than the chief justice of the King's 
 Bench ? — I believe not one. 
 
 Were the Canadians made aware by those persons, that 
 a jury in civil actions have nothing to do with the law ? — 
 They have a very confused idea of the EngUsh law. 
 
 What was the nature of those decent compacts and 
 associations they were determined to enter into, to resist 
 the laws of this country ? — To bind themselves in all 
 marriage contracts, as strictly as it was in their power to 
 do. that all their possessions should go according to the 
 Canadian customs, and in general to adhere to that as 
 closely and firmly as possible. 
 
 Did the supreme legislative council ever make any laws 
 to secure property, according to the Canadian customs ? 
 — There were some ordinances made ; but I never could 
 learn that anything was clear or certain in the law, nor 
 did I understand clearly what was the law and custom ; 
 nor does it seem to be a clear question in the country. 
 I have heard the same man argue for the English law in 
 one cause, because it suited his cause, and I have heard 
 him argue for the French law in another cause. There 
 is an ordinance for quieting the minds of the Canadian 
 subjects, directing the court of common pleas to decide 
 agreeably to the laws and customs of Canada, in adhering 
 as much as possible to the laws of England. There is also 
 an appeal to the supreme court of equity, which is directed 
 by the common laws of England. 
 
 Would two-thii-ds be satisfied to have their suits, rela- 
 tive to debts in the country, decided by the Canadian 
 law ? — I beUeve not. 
 
 Have they any regular method of convejdng their sense 
 at present ? — I understand they have conveyed it in 
 petitions. When I was in the province, seeing great heats 
 and animosities upon every occasion in various sorts of 
 people, and that petitions of all kinds greatly incited these 
 animosities, I dissuaded them, as mvich as it was in my 
 power, from measures of that sort. Before my arrival 
 they had expressed their desire in a petition to the Iving.^ 
 They frequently repeated the substance of that petition, 
 as their earnest desire and wish, and would have drawn 
 up a fresh one, had I not dissuaded them from so doing. 
 ^ See Kingsford, op. cit., v. 150.
 
 DESIRE FOR ANCIENT USAGES 61 
 
 My reason was, that I wished, them to wait till the King 
 should think proper to reply to their petition. During 
 my residence, upon all occasions, all sorts of people ex- 
 pressed the same wish and desire as in the petition, which 
 I understood to be the petition sent before my arrival. 
 I understand that since I have been in England, they have 
 expressed the same wish and desire by fresh petitions, 
 for fear the former one should be forgot. I assured them 
 that in due time proper attention would be paid to it and 
 justice be done ; and that in the meantime, they ought to 
 rest satisfied with the good-will and intention of this 
 country towards them. I saw a letter, or paper, asking 
 two Canadian gentlemen, in case I had not been here, to 
 act for them as their agent, to present this petition. 
 
 Are the Canadians aware that an assembly into which 
 they were admitted would be a legal and decent method of 
 making the sense of the inhabitants known, or have they 
 been led to look upon all representations of assemblies as 
 factions, &c. ? — I believe they have no idea of assemblies, 
 but what they receive from the newspapers, and the 
 accounts that come from the other provinces. 
 
 Have, or have not, any pains been taken to explain to 
 such persons the excellence of such a constitution, and 
 the advantages that would arise from it, or have they been 
 left to conjecture ? — It is a difficult matter to instruct a 
 whole people in lessons of politics, and I have never 
 attempted it. 
 
 At the time the apprehensions of the Canadians were 
 signified to the officers of government, had there been 
 no conference among the principal people in Canada ? 
 Had there been no conference with the governor, to hit 
 upon the form of government most agreeable to the 
 people ? — They had frequently expressed their desire and 
 prayer to have their ancient usages restored to them ; and 
 stated that the form of government which came nearest 
 to their ancient usages would be most agreeable to them. 
 
 Did they state what those usages and customs were to 
 the persons to whom they applied ? — They were in general 
 words, and are expressed in the petition. All conversa- 
 tions upon the subject were to the same effect. 
 
 Do you conceive it would be impracticable at this time, 
 without giving general lessons of politics to all the people, 
 to explain the advantages they would derive from the 
 English government, without the abolition of all their
 
 62 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 usages { — Thov have very often told me, that during tlic 
 military government, the English frequently expressed 
 to them the happiness, and great advantages they would 
 receive, by the introduction of the laws of the English 
 government, and by the protection of the civil laws of 
 the country ; that they were to become a happy people 
 by the change. Several years after, when they had ex- 
 perienced what it was, and found that they were debarred 
 of what they looked upon as the civil rights of subjects, 
 and that they understood that, as Roman Catholics, they 
 could not enjoy places of profit, or trust, or honour, they 
 thought it was adding mockery and insult to severity ; 
 and were astonished that people could hold such language 
 to them. 
 
 Was it ever suggested to them, that the difficulty could 
 be got over, and that the Roman Catholics might be 
 admitted to some share in the government ? — I have often 
 told them that I believed it would be the case in time. 
 
 Did you ever hear of any of the principal Canadians 
 expressing a wish that, until there was an assembly estab- 
 lished, the council established by the King should be so 
 modified, as to bear as near a relation as possible to the 
 moderate principles of the constitution of this country ? 
 — I often heard them express a wish, that Canadians 
 should be admitted into the council ; I never heard any- 
 thing further. 1 
 
 How long were you governor of Quebec, and resident ? 
 Are you not governor now ? — I am governor now. I was 
 in the province as governor, or lieutenant-governor, 
 commanding in the province, about four years. 
 
 Did you not, during the time of your being governor, 
 endeavour to learn the manners, temper, and genius of 
 the people over whom you presided ? — No doubt. 
 
 From the knowledge and experience you have of those 
 people, do you think they would choose to have the 
 English law as a rule to govern them, both in matters of 
 property and matters of crime ; or in either, and which of 
 them ? — The Canadians are very anxious to have Cana- 
 dian law to decide in matters of property. I believe they 
 are pretty indifferent in regard to criminal law. 
 
 Is that your judgment, formed from your knoAvledge 
 and experience of them ? — It is. 
 
 Do you not imagine that the aversion they have ex- 
 ^ Some unimportant matter is here omitted.
 
 COMPLAINTS AS TO ENGLISH LAW 63 
 
 pressed to the English law is because they think it is 
 likely to interrupt the course of descent and inheritance, 
 and to load them with incapacities as Roman Catholics ? 
 — The partiality and attachment which they have to the 
 laws and customs they possess is well known ; and they 
 apprehend that laws unknown to them may introduce 
 something terrible to them ; they know not what. 
 
 Is there not a great difference between the criminal 
 laws of the two countries ? The criminal law they have 
 experienced is, in fact, not so extremely different. The 
 mode of prosecution, the mode of deciding by the law, 
 is very different ; but the trial of great crimes, in nearly 
 all civilized countries, is almost entirely the same. 
 
 Are there not more punishments in the law of England 
 than in the law of Canada ?— I believe there are : I cannot 
 pronounce. 
 
 Was their dislike to the English law uniform from the 
 beginning ?^From the time they first experienced it, they 
 very soon found a great difference in the expense, which 
 was very grievous and oppressive to them ; not from any 
 defect in the characters of the gentlemen : but the wealth 
 of the country, compared to this, is extremely small. Fees 
 of all sorts, though not unreasonable in this country, were 
 considered extremely heavy in that. 
 
 Did they not complain, that the proceedings were held 
 in a language they did not understand ; and that no 
 Canadian advocates were permitted to plead in the 
 courts ? — That was a great complaint indeed, till it was 
 remedied. 
 
 When that was remedied, did they then express as 
 great dislike as they did before ? — The expense continued 
 pretty much the same ; the satisfaction was greater, 
 having then lawyers that could plead in the language 
 they knew. I believe there has been very little of that 
 in the supreme court. 
 
 Have you seen an act passed in the other House relative 
 to Canada ? — I have. 
 
 Do you think that bill gives the freest form of govern- 
 ment to Canada it is susceptible of ? — I should think it 
 the best form advisable to give in the present state of the 
 colony. 
 
 Were the noblesse not very fond of military rank and 
 distinction before the conquest ? — They were almost all 
 military men, and of course fond of rank and distinction.
 
 64 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 J)o they enjoy such gratifications now ? — I do not know 
 that any of the Canadians in Canada enjoy any gratifica- 
 tions from the court of France. 
 
 Do they enjoy any under the Enghsh government ? — 
 None. 
 I Would it not be flattering to them to enjoy some rank ? 
 ' — Undoubtedly.^ 
 
 Would it be more pleasing to have a share in the govern- 
 ' ment ? — Undoubtedly. 
 
 If his Majesty did not choose to appoint any particular 
 persons in the place to a share of government, would they 
 not be glad of having other lawful and honourable means of 
 t providing for themselves ? — No doubt. 
 
 Do not the gentlemen of Canada form some opinion 
 relative to the welfare and prosperity of their own country ? 
 Is not that a matter of discussion among them ? — It has 
 been a matter agitated very much ; but they seem to 
 confine their ideas chiefly to the restoration of their laws 
 and customs, and wish that all distinction should bo 
 taken away which separates them from the English 
 subjects. By that I understand the admission into 
 places and offices of trust and honour, equally with the 
 English. 
 
 Would they be glad to be in such a situation as to make 
 this idea of theirs prevalent ? — No doubt. 
 
 Have they such objections to the form of an assembly, 
 as to wish to make their ideas prevalent in such assembly ? 
 . — They do not wish for assemblies ; but if assemblies must 
 \ be, no doubt they would wish them to be a free repre- 
 11 sentation of the people. If that should be the case, 
 ' they would compose a great part of that assembly. 
 
 Would they have an objection to a seat in such an 
 
 assembly, in which they might have an opportunity of 
 
 I delivering their opinions ? — They never had an assembly, 
 
 I or anytliing like an assembly, nor have they the least 
 
 j desire to have one ; but if there should be one they wish 
 
 to have a share in it. 
 
 Have they any particular objection to arbitration ? — 
 Very far from an objection to it. In a great measure they 
 have come into it, wishing to keep clear of the courts of 
 justice. 
 
 Could they, therefore, have any objection to have 
 
 1 Carleton had long been urging the giving of British commissions 
 to the seigniors.
 
 EVIDENCE OP MASERES 65 
 
 causes decided by gentlemen of the country ? — They 
 would wish very much to have their causes decided by 
 gentlemen bred up in the country ; acquainted with their 
 laws, usages, and language. They would give the pre- 
 ference to judges ; but I do not know whether they would 
 make any violent opposition to juries, if this country 
 should think them advantageous. They confined their 
 petition mostly to general points. I do not know how 
 far they would make juries an essential point. 
 
 Examination op Francis Maseres, Esq., late 
 Attorney-General op Quebec. 
 
 Mr. Maseres was then called in, and acquainted the com- 
 mittee, that he went to Canada in 1766, and resided there 
 three years. He was then asked. 
 
 What were the sentiments of the Canadian inhabitants, 
 upon the supposition that the laws of England would be 
 of no more authority among them, by reason of the pro- 
 clamation ? — A great many were very uneasy upon the 
 apprehension of a sudden change of the laws respecting 
 family descent ; such as dower, and the like. 
 
 What sentiments do they entertain of the form of judi- 
 cature ? — I heard great complaints against the adminis- 
 tration of justice. I endeavoured to sift them to the 
 bottom. I think the result was the expense principally ; 
 partly the delay according to the mode of English adminis- 
 tration. The expense did not consist principally in the 
 fees of attorneys, but the provost-marshal's fees, which 
 were thought intolerable. At the same time, I doubt 
 much whether the provost-marshal did exact unreasonable 
 fees ; because, the two that acted there have assured me, 
 they did not make fifty pounds a-ycar of their place. 
 Whether they said true, I cannot tell. I have heard of the 
 extravagance of the fees, and also of the great burthens 
 of attorneys and advocates ; but those fees are not now 
 greater, but rather less. 
 
 Do you think the people have a strong attachment to 
 our laws and customs ? — I believe that the great body of 
 the Canadians, with the exception, perhaps, of an hun- 
 dredth part of the whole, would be very well satisfied i 
 with the establishment of those laws. i 
 
 Were the people of Canada very apprehensive on
 
 GO THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 account of the supposed danger to religion ? — I never 
 heard {\\vn\ express much apprehension with respect to 
 any danger to their rehgion ; but they have at times 
 expressed dissatisfaction at the disquahtication and civil 
 inconvenience attending the exercise of their religion ; not 
 any that the performance of mass would ever be impeded. 
 \Miat do you understand to be the sentiments of the 
 Canadians with regard to the form of government they 
 would wish to live under ?— I have not heard many of the 
 Canadians enter fully into the subject. I believe their 
 opinion is that of our poet, ' 
 
 " ^Vhate'er is best administer' d is best." 
 
 They have no predilection at present in favour of a legis- 
 lative council, or in favour of an assembly : I speak of 
 the generality of the people. There are a few persons who 
 have thought more upon the subject than the rest : I 
 believe they would incline to an assembly. 
 
 What sort of an assembly do you suppose they would 
 like : an assembly of which they might have a part, or 
 one which consists of his Majesty's OAvn subjects ? — I 
 have heard some of them say, they would rather have an 
 assembly consisting equally of Protestants and Catholics, 
 or at least of such Catholics as would take the oath of 
 abjuration of the Pope's power, but not the declaration 
 against transubstantiation, — than be governed by the 
 legislative council. I have heard so ; but in general those 
 who express a wish for an assembly, wish for one without 
 the exclusion of any Catholics on account of the oath : — 
 I mean the oath as it now stands ; I mean that which is 
 commonly called the oath of supremacy. I do not know 
 any instance of a Canadian taking that oath ; but they 
 have been under no temptation to do it. Hitherto they 
 have had no assembly. As to being a part of the council, it 
 would have been necessary to take the decla^ration against 
 transubstantiation, as well as the oath of supremacy : 
 therefore the distinction has not been tendered to 
 them. 
 
 Do you think the Canadians are desirous of serving 
 upon juries in civil causes ? — I believe they would like to 
 have the option of doing so continued to them. The 
 ordinance that directed that court, directed the jury to 
 be optional ; and I know that many of the people do 
 actually choose to have a jury, when their causes come
 
 TRIAL BY JURY 67 
 
 to be decided there ; which I look upon to be more con- 
 clusive than any testimony of opinions may be. 
 
 Would they perform the office of jurymen ? — They 
 sometimes complained of that as a burthen. 
 
 Were not the forms of proceeding according to the 
 French law, in matters of contract and recovery of debts, 
 exceedingly different from those which prevail under our 
 law ? — I believe they were. The mode of execution is 
 different. They had not the law of imprisonment in 
 execution for a common debt : but it was introduced by the 
 special description, by that original ordinance that set 
 out the courts of justice. Since that time they have made 
 very frequent use of it ; full as much as the British 
 subjects, or more so. 
 
 Do they in civil causes look upon the difference as a 
 hardship ? — I do not know that they do. I recollect a 
 circumstance m the execution of a process in civil causes, 
 in which the Canadians did complain of the English law, 
 until it was corrected : that was, there was too great haste 
 made in selling their landed property in a hurrying secret 
 manner, and at a small price, for less than it was worth, 
 in order to pay their debts. That has been corrected by 
 an ordinance of March, 1770 ; and care has been taken to 
 correct the process of imprisonment, which made them 
 liable to imprisonment for debt even for the sum of 
 twelvepence currency, in that part ninepence currency, 
 by substituting the sum of forty shillings. The ordinance 
 provides that an estate shall not be sold but after a 
 proper time, and not at all for a debt less than twelve 
 pounds. 
 
 Would not the Canadians think themselves happy 
 without the restoration of their laws and customs, and if 
 none of their forms of government were retained ? — I 
 think they would not be happy without the restoration 
 of some of their family customs, as tenures of land, the 
 mode of conveying, marriages, descent, and dower, and 
 the rule in cases of persons dying intestate. 
 
 Do not the Canadians at present esteem it a burthen 
 to be drawn from their homes to serve upon juries ? — I 
 have heard complaints of the kind. 
 
 Are you not of opinion that, in order to make a trial by 
 jury more beneficial, it would bo right for a certain allow- 
 ance to be made to persons called to serve on juries ? — I 
 think it would. A small one would be sufficient : five 
 
 5—2
 
 68 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 shillings a man would make them wish to be called upon 
 juries. I think that allowance should be paid by the 
 party that requested the jury. 
 
 In any and m what degree might it be expedient to 
 establish the civil jurisdiction of England, in preference 
 to that of the French, for trials of civil property ? — I 
 received an answer from an able Canadian, M. Cugnet,i 
 to whom I have no reason to be partial, as he has written 
 very spiritedly against my plan, — that the conquest was 
 in itself a misfortune ; and that they must bear with a 
 great deal, he was sensible, in consequence of it ; that the 
 criminal law must be that of the conqueror, that is, le 
 loi dii 'prince ; but that they must submit to it. He has 
 further said, as to civil matters, that in point of justice, 
 his jMajesty ought to keep up all the ancient and civil 
 laws of the Canadians ; but even there he admits, that the 
 form of administering justice must in the great courts 
 be changed. 
 
 Would it be convenient, and for the interest of them as 
 well as of us, that the trial by jury should be estabUshed ? 
 — I think so ; more especially if optional, as it takes away 
 all pretence of hardship. 
 
 Is not the province of Canada, by the superior spirit 
 and great capitals of the English merchants, very much 
 improved ? — Very much. 
 
 Have not those merchants, who have so improved the 
 province, engaged in those concerns and embarked their 
 property there under the sanction of the English govern- 
 ment ? — Undoubtedly. 
 
 Do you think the property so embarked would be 
 equally secure, if the common law of England with respect 
 to civil trials was entirely abolished ? — I rather think 
 not equally secure. Certainly, they would not think it 
 equally secure.^ 
 
 What proportion of the trade of the province is in the 
 hands of the English merchants ? — I can only tell from 
 information I have received here in England : I am told 
 it is seven-eighths. The increase of the trade is an un- 
 doubted certainty. I am inclined to think it is entirely 
 owing to the industry of the English merchants. 
 
 Did not the intendant make regulations ? — I have seen 
 
 1 Author of Traite de la loi des fiefs (Quebec, 1775). 
 
 2 On May 31st the Enghsh merchants trading to Quebec had pre- 
 sented a petition against the aboUtion of trial by jury.
 
 MURRAY'S ADMINISTRATION 69 
 
 the commission of the intendant. I think there is a power 
 given him singly, in certain cases, to make some regula- 
 tions — not of the highest magnitude, but under some 
 limitations, I cannot very well tell what. 
 
 Would the Canadians admit a part of the English law, 
 rather than lose those benefits they find from the intro- 
 duction of English merchants among them ? — I am per- 
 suaded they would. I apprehend, if the option was that 
 the English merchants should cease to trade there, or 
 that they should submit to have that part of the law, 
 trial by jury, they would undoubtedly choose the 
 latter. 
 
 Are not justices of the peace appointed to decide 
 causes ? — Upon the first establishment of the civil govern- 
 ment. General Murray endeavoured to soften the change 
 of conquest to the conquered people. The method of 
 administering justice was as follows : he first established 
 a supreme court of judicature, called the King's bench, 
 in which the chief justice of the province singly was to 
 preside, and which was directed to determine all matters 
 criminal and civil according to the laws of England, 
 taking himself to be bound to give those directions in 
 consequence of the King's proclamation. He also insti- 
 tuted, by the same ordinance, a court of common pleas, 
 in which he directed the judge to determine all matters 
 according to equity, having regard nevertheless to the 
 laws of England, as far as the circumstances of the pro- 
 vince would permit ; and he gave an appeal from that 
 court to the court of King's bench, which was directed to 
 follow the laws of England strictly. He also instituted 
 justices of the peace, and gave to each a power to deter- 
 mine civil matters, in a summary way, under five pounds 
 of the currency of that province, about four pounds 
 English. 
 
 Was not the tyrannical behaviour of those magistrates, 
 in their department as judges, the cause of complaint 
 among the Canadians ? — Some did behave tyrannically, 
 and their conduct gave rise to great complaints ; others 
 made use of their power so discreetly as to be a great 
 blessing to the people. Of these, two were Frenchmen, 
 Canadians, old subjects'^of '^old5France before the conquest, 
 both Protestants. " 
 
 Were any of those men suspended from their offices ? — 
 None. The governor, instead of suspending them, made
 
 70 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 an ordinance, in March. 1770, whereby he took away the 
 civil jurisdiction of all justices of the peace. It was 
 governor Carleton's ordinance. 
 
 From what cause was it taken away ? — I do not know. 
 It was a less odious way, perhaps, of disqualifying. It 
 was a little while after I left the province. 
 
 I wish to know in general whether, if the English law 
 was established in Canada, — the civil law — a few years' 
 experience would not concihate the Canadians in general 
 to that form of judicature ? — I am persuaded it would ; 
 and more especially if methods were taken to remove 
 some of their objections. How far it may be expedient 
 to take such measures the House will judge. One of 
 their objections is to juries, from the necessity of being 
 unanimous, which they sometimes ridicule, by calling it 
 a method of trial bj'^ strength of body and power to fast 
 longest. I conceive, therefore, that that trial would be 
 more agreeable to them, if the majority of the jury were 
 permitted to decide the verdict ; but as it is, with all its 
 inconveniences, I beheve they would choose to have it in 
 the manner it is, because I see they frequently make use 
 of juries in causes of consequence. 
 
 If that could be the case, would it not be a means of 
 increasing their affection and attachment to the govern- 
 ment of this country ? — In my opinion it y\'ould. 
 
 Would it not more speedily alienate their affection from 
 both the laws and the government of France ? — I should 
 think it would have that effect. 
 
 If that should be the case, would it not greatly promote 
 the interest of the country and improve it ? — I should 
 think it would. 
 
 From your knowledge of the French laws, should you 
 wish to see the property of English subjects decided by 
 those laws, in preference to the Canadian ? — ]\Iy opinion 
 is otherwise ; but I am not able to balance the merits of the 
 two codes of laws : I do not know enough of either of them. 
 
 If the French law should be estabhshed, do you appre- 
 hend there are judges sufficient in number, and of sufficient 
 abilities, to administer justice properly to the English 
 subjects ? — I doubt it ; and besides, while I was there, 
 the Canadians were much better satisfied with the in- 
 tegrity and abilities of the English lawyers in latter times 
 than of their own ; so as to employ the English lawyers 
 in the court of common pleas in many causes, in preference
 
 AN ANGLO-FRENCH LEGAL SYSTEM 71 
 
 to their own Canadian lawyers, who have always been 
 permitted, from the origin of the civil government, to prac- 
 tise in court. 
 
 In your judgment, would not the good object proposed 
 by the re-establishing of the French laws and customs, 
 be as well or better answered by retaining a system of 
 English laws, with such alterations as it may be necessary 
 to introduce ? — I think that the best method of giving 
 satisfaction. 
 
 Are not those parts in which you conceive an alteration 
 to be necessary, in order to gratify the prejudices of the 
 Canadians, principally confined to the tenure of land, 
 the mode of succession, and the descent of property ? — 
 Yes ; adding to it, conveying their lands, selling, mar- 
 riages, tenures, &c. I believe I might add, they would 
 be pleased with the continuation of the law relative to 
 intestate effects. It might be easily cured of its defects 
 by the power of making wills : it differs little from ours. 
 
 Are you possessed of knowledge enough of the French 
 laws intended to be introduced by this bill to give judg- 
 ment by them ? — I should not like to undertake the task. 
 The difficulty may be measured by M. Cugnet's endeavour- 
 ing to prove that the French law is a matter of easy 
 attainment. He tells us, in the manuscript I have seen, 
 it may be learned by the perusal of only thirty volumes 
 in folio and quarto. 
 
 I beg to know your judgment upon the propriety of re- 
 establishing the Catholic religion in Canada, and restoring 
 to the clergy their ancient rights and dues, without a 
 similar establishment for Protestants ? — ^It is a very 
 doubtful thing ; and, unaccompanied with restraints upon 
 the bishop's great power, may be of dangerous conse- 
 quence. It is certainly not necessary to the satisfaction 
 of the Canadians ; because the option of paying tithe, or 
 letting it alone, can never be disagreeable to them. 
 
 Do you understand that the Canadian subjects have at 
 this time this option ? — They certainly have, and some- 
 times make use of it. They never presume to sue for 
 tithe, either in the court of king's bench or common pleas, 
 knowing there is no possibihty of succeeding. The 
 ground of that opinion of theirs and of mine is, the strong 
 words of Genera] Amherst's answer to the demands on 
 the part of the French general for the continuation of the 
 obHgation of the people to pay their tithes and other
 
 72 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 dues : " Granted, as to the free exercise of their religion ; 
 but as to the obhgation of paying tithes, that will depend 
 upon the king's pleasure." That has been universally 
 understood, till now, to have been a positive dispensing 
 with the obligation. It has often happened that they 
 have not paid tithe ; much oftener that they did, from 
 their regard to their religion. 
 
 Did you ever hear in Canada that the claim to tithe 
 extended to Roman Catholic landholders, and not to Pro- 
 testant landholders ? — Everybody paid tithe indiscrimi- 
 natol}'. Since that everybody has been understood to 
 be exempted from tithes indiscriminately. 
 
 Can you help us to a ground of distinction, upon which 
 we might be induced to believe, that the right is a neces- 
 sary one with regard to Catholic subjects, and not so with 
 regard to Protestant subjects ? — I cannot conceive any. 
 
 From your experience of the inclinations and expecta- 
 tions of the Canadians during your time, do you conceive 
 their expectations went the length of imagining they 
 should have this re-establishment of the Catholic religion 
 made effective, relative to what is meant to be given them 
 by this bill ? — I believe they have been flattered with 
 hopes of that kind, and I have reason to think promises 
 of endeavouring to procure it have been made to them. 
 How far they thought they would be successful I cannot 
 tell. 
 
 Would they have been induced to believe such would 
 be the result, if no such promises had been made to them ? 
 — I am of opinion with Sir Jeffery Amherst, that so far 
 from it, if the priests had been permitted to remain in 
 the possession of their livings, and their places had been 
 supplied by Protestants, the Canadians would have been 
 satisfied. They would have been satisfied, if that had 
 been pursued from the beginning ; but I do not mean to 
 say, that so small a degree of indulgence, with respect 
 to their religion, would be expedient now. . . . 
 
 Are the provisions introduced by the proclamation such 
 as deserve to be called inapplicable to the state of the pro- 
 vince ? — I think not, in the general extent. They re- 
 quire correction, and a few alterations. With respect to 
 the laws, I beg leave to state a distinction. The laws that 
 I have mentioned, I can divide into three parts : laws of 
 tenure, laws of conveyancing, laws which I shall call a 
 devolution of property. I conceive the laws of tenure,
 
 RELIGION IN THE PROVINCE 73 
 
 by which I mean the laws relating to the mutual and 
 reciprocal ties of landlord and tenant, all subsist, not- 
 withstanding the proclamation, and do not need a revoca- 
 tion of it to revive them. These laws of tenure contain 
 the laws that oblige the tenants to pay their quit rent 
 and corn rent and their mutation fines, to their landlord, 
 to grind their corn at his mill, and give him his meal-toll. 
 If these laws were to be altered it would be taking away 
 the property of the seigneur ; which cannot be done, 
 because it is granted by the capitulation. In the next 
 class, I place the laws of conveyancing, which, though not 
 affecting the very property of the people, because a man 
 may be made to alter the mode of conveying his pro- 
 perty, without absolute violation of property, is yet a 
 necessary branch of the law for the convenience of enjoy- 
 ing property. These laws I consider as having been 
 changed precipitately, and that they ought to be restored. 
 In the third class, I place the laws of devolution ; meaning 
 by that the laws of inheritance and dower, and the right 
 of the husband upon the death of the wife : the distribu- 
 tion also of the intestate's effects. Those laws may be 
 changed by the legislature, without a breach of the 
 capitulation. . . . 
 
 Are the bulk of the people of Canada, in their religion, 
 devout or negligent ? — In general devout and sincere ; 
 yet with many exceptions. 
 
 How do you reconcile that opinion with thinking that, 
 upon the death of the present priests, they would have 
 been content if Protestants were received in their room ? 
 — It was from a conversation I had with a native. It is 
 an opinion. 
 
 Is it your opinion or not, that this would have satisfied 
 them ? — I really believe, if it had been done at first, it 
 might have created some immediate inconvenience, but 
 that would have worn out a long time ago. They are a 
 submissive, quiet people. I believe, in many places, if a 
 Protestant minister had been put in upon the vacancy of 
 a priest, a very little pains taken by the Protestant 
 minister would have brought over many to the Protestant 
 religion. It is a mere conjecture ; no such experiment 
 has been tried. 
 
 Would not some extraordinary indulgence alter them 
 very much ? — I cannot say I have seen anything of it. 
 
 Do you know of any persons who wished to change tlieir
 
 7 4 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 religion and were afraid to own it ? — I had rather be 
 cxousod answering questions relative to particular persons. 
 I apprehend, in general, that if encouragement had been 
 held out to those who were disposed to become Protes- 
 tants, there would have been a great number of converts. 
 I believe our sending a bishop there has tended very much 
 to check it : it has operated (so Canadian gentlemen 
 express it) as a centre of union. It has made the priests 
 necessarily more strict in the discharge of their duty 
 than they were before, or would have been without it. 
 Had this not been done, it is my opinion the priests them- 
 selves would gradually have forsaken first one doctrine, 
 then another, of their own religion. 
 
 Upon this encouragement given to Protestantism, was 
 there not an extraordinary zeal manifested in sermons 
 against all doctrines of heresy ? — I have heard so.^ 
 
 Examination of William Hey, Esq., Chief Justice 
 OF Quebec.^ 
 
 How long did you reside at Quebec as chief justice ? — 
 Six years ; from the beginning of September 1766 to 
 1773. 
 
 Have you found the Canadian inhabitants dissatisfied 
 with the introduction of the English law, and exclusion of 
 their own laws and customs ? Do they generally approve 
 of the trial by jury in criminal causes ? — I think they do. 
 
 Are they not equally capable of deciding in civil as in 
 criminal causes ? — I do not think the Canadians are in 
 general called upon juries so often as other inhabitants of 
 Canada. 
 
 Do you conceive they are less capable of distinguishing 
 in causes of property, or manslaughter ? — It is nicer to 
 determine questions of property, which depend upon cases 
 of law, than criminal causes which depend upon fact. I 
 always found them extremely attentive to my directions ; 
 if I may say so. 
 
 Were they not willing to receive the like assistance in 
 
 i Some further evidence of Maseres, and the re-exanaination of 
 Carleton, deaUng with the coidition of the country under the French 
 regime, and with the Indian (juestion, is here omitted. 
 
 2 For an account of Hey, see ]\rorp;an's Biograjihics of Celebrated 
 Canadians (Quebec and London, 1862), p. S4.
 
 EVIDENCE OF CHIEF JUSTICE HEY 75 
 
 civil causes ? — I think they were, in general, a very atten- 
 tive and obedient people. 
 
 Are not the laws of Canada respecting lands, dower, 
 and gift by will, allowed by the court and juries at Canada, 
 respecting the Canadian subjects only, to be just as they 
 were when they were in the possession of the French ? 
 — I believe the court of King's bench did admit the 
 Canadian laws and customs indiscriminately, in general. 
 The ordinance directed them to do it. 
 
 Then you believe the Canadians would be content to 
 have the laws continued to them upon this subject ? — I 
 believe they would. They have made objections to juries. 
 The higher part of the Canadians object to the institution 
 itself, as humiliating and degrading. They have no idea 
 of submitting their conduct to a set of men, their inferiors ; 
 and the lower order look upon it (as in truth it is) a 
 burthen to them. 
 
 I apprehend the customs of Canada are as much con- 
 sidered by the juries of Canada, as the particular customs 
 are here by the judge and jury ? — I believe, in the court of 
 King's bench, they are. I have thought myself obliged, 
 in my capacity of chief justice, in every case of appeal, 
 to determine by the same rule ; because it seemed to me 
 a gross absurdity, that I should sit to determine the merits 
 of a cause, governed by one kind of law, which they had 
 determined under the provisions of another. 
 
 Is there any method so likely to reconcile the Canadians, 
 in general, to our government, as the introduction of the 
 English laws, by the intervention of a jury ? — There are 
 two questions, rather. I believe they have great objec- 
 tions to the introduction of English laws. With regard to 
 trial by jury, they certainly do not understand the benefits 
 resulting from it as we do ; but I do apprehend, under 
 certain modifications, it would not be disagreeable to 
 them, both in civil and criminal causes. I think the trial 
 by jury would not be disagreeable to them, if they were 
 allowed compensation for their time and trouble ; and I 
 think, further, if that unanimity which our law insists 
 upon, was not to be insisted upon there, and that the 
 jury were to be composed of an unequal number (suppose 
 thirteen or fifteen), and that the majority of two-thirds 
 were to determine the question, I do not, in my own mind, 
 think there would be much objection in the main body 
 of the Canadians.
 
 76 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Do you mean this regulation to be in criminal as well as 
 civil causes ? — No. All in criminal causes. 
 
 Have you ever understood that the French suitors had 
 ever been accustomed to make presents ? — I have never 
 heard of any instance. I have found a great alacrity 
 among the Canadians to canvass for the vote of a judge. 
 That is still remaining in the province. 
 
 Have you heard any general complaint of juries de- 
 ciding partially in causes of property, or by any improper 
 influence ? — I cannot recollect any particular instance. 
 Suitors have complained. I never heard any general 
 complaint with regard to decisions. I have heard some 
 with regard to their conduct in not deciding matters. 
 
 Why did they hesitate ? — Perhaps it might be from. 
 difficulties arising from the question itself ; perhaps it 
 might be prejudice as to the party, as between one 
 another ; but they certainly have departed without 
 giving verdicts ; and, I am ashamed to say, I did not 
 punish them for it. 
 
 Then the Canadians do not think, under the proclama- 
 tion, this country is under an indispensable necessity to 
 allow them juries ? — I cannot take upon me to say. They 
 have an option. They have not frequently used the 
 option. According to the best of my information, it 
 never has been in the court. 
 
 Would not the English be very much dissatisfied if 
 juries were not to determine ? — Very much so. They 
 are wonderfully zealous for the trial by jury ; and, the 
 misfortune is, they do not act up to it ; for I can never get 
 them to attend. They are not numerous. It certainly 
 comes upon them at a very inconvenient time. They 
 have, sojne part of the year, nothing to do ; the rest of 
 the year they are exceedingly busy. 
 
 Under the present bill, do you think you could ad- 
 minister justice equally to your own satisfaction, or to the 
 Canadians in general, as you have done hitherto ? — The 
 question is rather embarrassing for me to answer. I hope 
 1 may answer for the integrity of my own conduct. 
 
 Could you make yourself equally master of the Canadian 
 law as of the English law ? — That must require a great 
 deal of time and attention ; and, I am afraid, more 
 abilities than I am master of. If his Majesty thinks 
 proper to continue me, I shall certainly try to make myself 
 master of it. I am unequal to give any opinion upon this
 
 HABEAS CORPUS 77 
 
 bill. It is not in my province, before this House. I 
 profess myself perfectly indifferent to the bill, and very 
 unable to form an opinion. 
 
 If the benefits of the Habeas Corpus were explained to 
 the Canadians, would they not think themselves highly 
 favoured by it ? — I should think it impossible but they 
 must think themselves highly favoured by it ; but I do 
 not pretend to answer for the opinions of the Canadians. 
 They are, in general, a very ignorant people — a very pre- 
 judiced people. 
 
 Are they not capable of understanding the benefits of 
 juries, as well as those of the Habeas Corpus ? — I cannot 
 answer for their capacity. They are, at present, in a 
 state of great ignorance with respect to it. 
 
 If the Habeas Corpus is not allowed, is not arbitrary 
 imprisonment in the power of the governor, without 
 legal relief ? — I should apprehend there are abundance of 
 restraints upon the governor, which will intimidate him ; 
 and that the courts of justice would relieve against such. 
 It would not be so instantaneous, perhaps, as the case 
 might require. 
 
 What is the mode of relief that the courts would take, 
 if it came to their knowledge, under the establishment of 
 this bill ? — They would not give instant relief ; but I 
 apprehend the party would be delivered at the commission 
 of oyer and gaol delivery. If out of term time, not. 
 
 Suppose the imprisonment private, what remedy then ? 
 — No remedy. 
 
 Without the permission of juries, may not money be 
 levied upon any of the King's subjects, under this bill ? — 
 I have had but one view of the bill. I did not know of 
 my attendance here. It does not occur to me, the power 
 of raising money — it is so directly in the face of every law. 
 I apprehend it might not be done readily. The applica- 
 tion must depend upon the decision of the court ; con- 
 sequently, upon a jury. 
 
 If the Papists were relieved from the oath of transub- 
 stantiation, would they not take the other ? — The clergy 
 would not. Perhaps some of the other inhabitants 
 would. The clergy might admit the King's supremacy 
 with regard to temporals. I speak only my own opinion. 
 There is no such thing as public chapels. Debts have been 
 sued for goods supplied to the Canadians. 
 
 Have the Canadians thought the decision fair ■? — I
 
 78 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 never heard any particular objection to them. I beUcvc 
 the import and export have increased. 
 
 What proportion is carried on by the English subjects 
 residing there ? — The English subjects import more than 
 the Canadians ; but when imported, the Canadians take 
 it up from them to the country. 
 
 Have the profits of the possessions of the Canadians 
 been increased since the conquest ? — They certainly grow 
 more corn, are more populous, and likewise cultivate their 
 land better. If this land had been now sold, no doubt it 
 would have sold for more. The body of the people are 
 not at all dissatisfied with the conquest. To be sure the 
 higher part are. 
 
 Have juries been considered as judges of law as well as 
 fact ? — They have taken it upon themselves to judge of 
 law as well as fact. They have laid it dow^n as a certain 
 principle, that they will never give a special verdict upon 
 any occasion. 
 
 Have you not paid attention to the Canadian law ? — 
 I certainly have, whenever causes came up to the court of 
 King's bench. Very few causes ever originated in my 
 own court. 
 
 Do you understand that, by this bill, all the law in civil 
 causes is to be repealed, and the law of Canada take place 
 entirely ?— I understand it so. 
 
 What remedy is substituted in the place of the Habeas 
 Corpus ? — I know of none. There is no long oppression ; 
 they sit every week. 
 
 Under the present constitution of the English criminal 
 law and the French civil law, could a person, not im- 
 prisoned for a crime by the operations of law, have relief 
 by the gaol delivery under this present bill ? — My duty is 
 to inquire into all prisoners, and to know for what they 
 were confined. If I did not find a law for it, I should be 
 tempted to make one myself. 
 
 Would the French civil law give any reparation to the 
 party for such confinement ? — I should apprehend it 
 would, upon the common principle of justice. 
 
 Is there any positive law in the Canadian code, that 
 authorizes that idea, or is it what your humanity would 
 make you infer ? — I apprehend, under every system of 
 laws, there must be naturally a redress for an injury of 
 that kind. What the particular mode of it is under the 
 Canadian law, I cannot tell.
 
 CANADIAN CIVIL LAW 79 
 
 Do you mean, that any chief justice, or judge, would be 
 entitled to assess any particular sum of money to com- 
 pensate ? — Undoubtedly the court must sit and deter- 
 mine the quantity. I cannot speak to it. I never studied 
 the law of Canada as a system. I have endeavoured, in 
 all cases of information, to collect the law. I apprehend 
 the aggrieved party must bring an action ; and that, 
 according to the evidence of the debt, the court would 
 allow it him. I believe, where the matter has been doubt- 
 ful, and has depended upon an intricate account, the 
 court has ex ofpcio awarded it to arbitrators to settle it. 
 I mean under the old Canadian system. 
 
 Under the Canadian law, do you know of any power 
 of imprisonment for debt ? — In particular cases there was 
 a power ; but, in general, they did not use the arrest for 
 debt. For debts of a large nature, such as bills of ex- 
 change, I believe they did allow it ; but, in general, 
 not. 
 
 Do you conceive the recovery of the property of the 
 English merchants, though in Canada, would be more or 
 less easy, under this bill, than it was before ? — That will 
 depend, in a great measure, upon the establishment of 
 the courts for the administration of justice. If they were 
 well supplied with proper powers — persons of discernment 
 and integrity invested with proper powers — I should 
 apprehend that property might be more easily recovered. 
 
 What do you understand, under the present form of the 
 bill, would be the mode of administering justice in that 
 country ? Who would stand in the place of the Canadian 
 intendant ? — I apprehend that would depend upon the 
 execution of the authority which is given to the Crown, 
 by virtue of that clause, which enables the King to 
 appoint courts of justice. 
 
 Do you apprehend the matter of courts of justice to be 
 left at large ? — I do. I apprehend my present commis- 
 sion will be at an end. 
 
 What kind of a commission can be given under the 
 Canadian law ? — I see no necessity for altering the com- 
 missions. 
 
 Will the establishment absolutely and unlimitedly of 
 Canadian civil law, tend to encourage or discourage 
 British subjects from purchasing land in that country ? — 
 I believe the British subjects would have no objection to 
 the restitution of a part of the Canadian laws ; but I think
 
 80 THl^: QUEBEC ACT 
 
 the restitution of tlic whole would very much disincline 
 them to settle among the Canadians. 
 
 Do you think it would be impracticable, or even very 
 difficult, to draw such a line of admission of Canadian 
 laws, as would give satisfaction both to the new and old 
 subjects ? — I myself have been unfortunate enough to 
 differ with General Carleton in that respect. His Majesty 
 was pleased to order the governor, the attorney-general, 
 and mj^self to make our report upon the state of the pro- 
 vince, and particularly Avith regard to grievances which 
 the Canadians either felt, or thought they felt, under the 
 administration of justice, as it was then administered ; 
 together with the remedies that we thought most proper 
 to be applied to those grievances. The Canadians con- 
 ceived that the introduction of the English laws, and the 
 exclusion of their own, at least their doubt and uncertainty 
 how far that matter went, was their greatest grievance ; 
 and the remedy proposed to be applied was the restora- 
 tion of their own laws and customs m toto. I own, myself, 
 I thought that went too far. I thought that such a mix- 
 ture might be made, as would be agreeable both to the 
 Canadians and British subjects, at least the reasonable 
 part of both, and answer every purpose of state policy here 
 at home. My idea was, that a country conquered from 
 France, and retained by the treaty at the end of the war 
 was, if possible, to be made a British province. I was, 
 and still am, very sensible that must be a work of time 
 and difficulty ; but, however, I thought it an object worth 
 attending to. The first thing that suggested itself to me 
 under that idea was, that the laws of this country should 
 be considered as the leading system of judicature in a 
 province that was to become British. I v/as willing, how- 
 ever, to allow large exceptions in favour of the prejudices, 
 the very natural and reasonable prejudices, of the Cana- 
 dians. I was willing to allow them the whole law with 
 respect to their tenures, with respect to the alienation, 
 descent, and mode of conveying or incumbering their 
 real property to the rights of dower and marriage, and 
 the disposition of their personal estate in case of intestacy. 
 This I thought was a very large field for them : quieting 
 and securing their possessions according to their own 
 notions of property, and not breaking in upon or disturb- 
 ing their former settlements. The rest of the law, as the 
 law respecting contracts, debts, disputes of a commercial
 
 WISHES OF THE FRENCH-CANADIANS 81 
 
 nature, the law of evidence, and many other matters of 
 that kind, I thought might safely stand upon English 
 bottom. These, with the whole criminal law of England, 
 with the trial by jury, the presentments by the grand 
 inquest, together with the establishment, or at least, 
 toleration of their religion, with some reformation in the 
 proceedings of the courts of justice, to exclude our 
 modes of pleading, which the legal pleaders of the pro- 
 vince are very unequal to, and to introduce a more com- 
 pendious and simple method of process, more conformable 
 to what they had been used to under their own govern- 
 ment, would, I had hoped, have made up a system that 
 should not reasonably have been objected to by either 
 British or Canadians. I am of opinion, that at the time I 
 stated that as the ground of my difference from General 
 Carleton's report, it would have been satisfactory to the 
 Canadians. I am in doubt now whether it will ; but I 
 still think it ought. 
 
 Why do you think it would not now be satisfactory to 
 the Canadians ?— I apprehend they have risen in their 
 demands of late, and hope to be gratified to the utmost 
 extent of their desires. 
 
 Upon what are these very extensive opinions founded ? 
 — I know of no particular ground for the extent of them. 
 It appears to be a natural progressive state from the 
 condition they were in, to that in which they now stand. 
 They were terrified, and in a state almost of distraction. 
 They neither expected to retain their religion or their 
 laws, and looked upon themselves as a ruined and aban- 
 doned people ; but when they saw attention wisely and 
 humanely paid to their situation, they were willing to 
 improve their condition, as far as their ideas carried them, 
 to the absolute restitution of their whole laws and customs. 
 But I know of no particular encouragement given them to 
 ask anything. It v/as, I have no doubt, promised them, 
 that their case should be fully and fairly represented, and 
 that they might rely upon his Majesty's bounty and good- 
 ness for their relief. 
 
 Do you suppose they included in that general wish for 
 the restitution of their laws and customs, a wish for the 
 restitution of the French criminal law ? — I do not appre- 
 hend they did. They seem perfectly satisfied with the 
 English criminal law. I cannot conceive them so stupid 
 as to wish for the French law. I speak of the great body 
 
 6
 
 S2 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 of the people. There may be a few persons of a very 
 ]H>euHar nature, that may wish for it. 
 
 Do not those persons you so properly deseribc as looking 
 ii]>on their situation with respect to their property and 
 with regard to juries, desire the restitution of their 
 criminal laws ? — I have no doubt they do. These are the 
 noblesse. 
 
 Does not the objection of the higher people to the trial 
 by jury, in civil causes, in a great measure arise from their 
 being deprived of that influence they used to have from 
 their power over the judges ? — I cannot say it does. I 
 never heard any complaints of their exercising any undue 
 influence over the judges. 
 
 Do you conceive that their readiness to have back the 
 French laws did not arise from the expectation of success ? 
 Have you not heard that the more powerful were the most 
 successful than the lower people ? — I never have heard 
 anything particular one way or the other : but one would 
 be apt to imagine that such an influence might prevail. 
 I am inclined to think, in general, that their courts of jus- 
 tice were pure, and justice fairly administered. There 
 was a great control of the superior council over every 
 judges' determination. As that council was composed of 
 men of the first rank and character in the province, I 
 cannot suppose they were under any undue influence, or 
 that they would suffer any. 
 
 Would not the low^er and middle Canadians be flattered 
 and pleased by the powder given by a jury, in proportion 
 as the higher were mortified ? — I am inclined to think not. 
 They would endure it, that is all : and, under the altera- 
 tions I have mentioned before, it would be less disagree- 
 able to them ; but I fear it would take a long time to con- 
 vince them of the use or advantage of it. 
 
 Was an appeal to the superior council attended with no 
 difficulty or expense ? — No difficulty, and very little 
 expense. 
 
 Where will the right of hearing appeals be lodged under 
 this law ? — I apprehend that will depend upon the con- 
 stitution of the courts ; as they will, and must be new 
 modelled under that law. 
 
 Do you think the former law of appeals will be in- 
 applicable to the government of that country under its 
 new law, without a special provision being made ? — There 
 will be no court to appeal to. The present courts will be
 
 FRENCH-CANADIAN LAW 83 
 
 abolished ; the present judges will be abolished. The 
 authority that constitutes these courts may, I presume, 
 constitute the mode of proceeding in them, and how and 
 where to appeal from them. But this act only directs, 
 in my apprehension, that the rules of law to be observed 
 in these courts should be those of Canada with regard to 
 civil property. 
 
 Can you suggest anybody sufficiently qualified in the 
 laws of Canada, to receive the appeal and do justice upon 
 that appeal ? — I have no particular person in my eye to 
 mention. 
 
 Do you understand the appeal would be according to the 
 spirit of the French law ? — ^The ultimate appeal would 
 always rest upon the King and council ; but the stages it 
 would go through must depend upon the constitution of 
 the courts. 
 
 Do you conceive there would be no inconvenience arise 
 to persons from having their property tried upon an appeal 
 under such laws ? — I cannot give an opinion upon the 
 competency of the privy council. 
 
 Not with regard to the abilities of the privy council. 
 But do you conceive that the education of a man for a 
 privy councillor in this country, will enable him to judge 
 of the extent of these Canadian laws ? Is the Canadian 
 system of laws a short system, or is it contained in many 
 books ? — It is much less complicated than the English, 
 and contained in a much less number of books. The 
 text of the Canadian law is contained in a very few articles ; 
 but the commentaries may be very voluminous. 
 
 Are there not many parts of the Canadian law imma- 
 terial to this point, but which might be attended with 
 considerable inconvenience to the English subjects 
 residing there ? — I must confess I am not able to answer 
 that question. The Canadian laws were extracted — 
 those that were thought necessary and applicable to every 
 purpose of securing their property — by a set of gentlemen 
 in Canada ; who, I believe, were very unequal to the work. 
 The compilation is published, and has been printed : it 
 is generally thought to be a faithful one. 
 
 In adopting that compilation, and establishing trial by 
 jury in civil causes, might not such trial be obtained with- 
 out any burdensome expense to the inhabitants V — I do 
 apprehend it might, if the courts of justice would regulate 
 the fees. 
 
 6—2
 
 84 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Would it not be dilfieiilt, in some cases, for the courts 
 to regulate the expenses ? — I should think not, in material 
 matters ; but in the fees of counsel, for example, no court 
 can, or perhaps ought, to interfere. 
 
 Do you conceive that, at present, the Canadians are 
 much attached to France, and would wish to be under 
 that government again ? — I do not apprehend that the 
 body of them would. No doubt the noblesse and the mili- 
 tary have been great sufferers, from the loss of their em- 
 ployments and commissions ; and it is natural enough to 
 suppose that they would incline to their old employments, 
 under their own government. But I should hope that 
 they, if proper indulgence were paid to them, might be 
 made to withdraw from every idea of returning to their 
 old government, and become good British subjects. 
 
 Do you conceive the Canadians would have any great 
 objection to a provincial assembly, into which Roman 
 Catholics would be admitted, under certain restrictions, 
 such as taking the oaths ? — I believe they have no idea of 
 advantage from it. They look upon the house of assembly 
 as a house of riot, calculated for nothing but to disturb 
 the government, and obstruct public servants. 
 
 Do they understand that there is a resemblance between 
 the house of assembly and the House of Commons in this 
 country ? — They do not understand the principles of 
 either. 
 
 Have there not been conferences in that country, rela- 
 tive to the form of government, and arrangement of laws, 
 that may best suit them ? — I know of no particular con- 
 ferences in that country relative to a form of government 
 and arrangement of laws. 
 
 Has it never been agitated with them, what would 
 make them happy ? — I know of no conference among them 
 upon that subject. Their ideas are a perfect submission 
 to the Crown, and to any authority the Crown chooses 
 to erect. They have a high confidence in his Majesty. 
 If he chooses to call a house of assembly, I have no doubt 
 they will compose it ; but they would not know what to 
 do when they came there, nor have they any idea of the 
 advantages of such an assembly. 
 
 They never, then, have been made to understand, bj'' 
 any of the King's servants, that it would be of advantage 
 to them ? No pains have been taken to tell them that, by 
 means of an assembly, they would have a power of internal
 
 BURKE ON TOLERATION 85 
 
 regulation ; but they have been taught to put the amplest 
 confidence in the Crown ? — They require no instruction ; 
 it is their natural habit. I have harangued the juries 
 upon the advantages of the British constitution ; but, 
 whether it was my fault in not delivering my ideas upon the 
 subject clearly, or that they were not interpreted to them 
 in the French language, I do not believe any Canadian took 
 notice of what I said. I mean, my ideas with regard to 
 trial by jury and the criminal law of England. I never 
 mentioned any advantage of an assembly. 
 
 Have you ever understood that there was an absolute 
 dislike to assemblies among the Canadians, or only 
 a dislike in part ? — They do not understand them, and 
 what they do not understand, they cannot be said to 
 dislike. 
 
 Were they ever informed that assemblies could be 
 managed so as to be extremely obsequious to govern- 
 ment ? — They do not at all understand the method of 
 making themselves so. To the English merchants, who 
 are desirous of establishing the English laws, it would, of 
 course, be an encouragement, 
 
 M. Lotbiniere, one of the French-Canadian seigniors, 
 and Dr. Marriott, the King's Advocate-General, wore next 
 examined, but contributed nothing of importance. 
 
 The various clauses were now discussed in Committee, 
 before a House which grew rapidly smaller as the session 
 dragged on. 
 
 Mr. Edmund Burke. — Before I proceed, allow me to 
 state, in a few words, my opinion with regard to the 
 principle of toleration. There is but one healing. Catholic 
 principle of toleration which ought to find favour in this 
 House. It is wanted, not only in our colonies, but here. 
 The thirsty earth of our own country is gasping and gaping, 
 and crying out for that healing shower from heaven. The 
 noble lord has told you of the right of those people by the 
 treaty ; but I consider the right of conquest so little, and 
 the right of human nature so much, that the former has 
 very little consideration with me. I look upon the people 
 of Canada as coming, by the dispensation of God, under 
 the British Government. I would have us govern it, in 
 the same manner as the all-wise disposition of Providence
 
 86 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 would govern it. Wc knoAV tliat Ho suffers the sun to 
 shine upon the righteous and the unrighteous ; and we 
 ought to sutler all classes, without distinction, to enjoy 
 equally the right of worshipping God, according to the 
 light He has been pleased to give them. The word 
 " established " has been made use of : it is not only a 
 crime, but something unnatural to establish a religion, 
 the tenets of which you do not believe. Applying it to 
 the ancient inhabitants of Canada, how does the question 
 stand ? It stands thus : you have got a people professing 
 the Roman Catholic religion, and in possession of a main- 
 tenance, legally appropriated to its clergy. Will you 
 deprive them of that ? Now, that is not a question of 
 " establishment "; the establishment was not made by 
 you ; it existed before the treaty ; it took nothing from 
 the treaty ; no legislature has a right to take it away ; 
 no governor has a right to suspend it. The principle is 
 confirmed by the usage of every civilized nation of 
 Europe. In all our conquered colonies, the established 
 religion was confirmed to them ; by which I understand, 
 that religion should receive the protection of the State 
 in those colonies ; and I should not consider that it had 
 received such protection, if their clergy were not pro- 
 tected. I do say, that a Protestant clergyman going into 
 that country does not receive the protection of the laws, 
 if he is not allowed to w^orship God according to his own 
 creed. Is this removing the sacred land-mark ? What 
 I desire is, that everyone should contribute towards the 
 maintenance of the religion he professes ; and if this is 
 proper to be done, why not do it immediately ? The 
 religion to be established should be that approved religion 
 which we call the religion of the Church of England. With 
 regard to the religion of our own country, there would be 
 propriety in the use of the word " established "; but I 
 maintain, that everyone ought to contribute to the sup- 
 port of some religion or other. Does any gentleman 
 mean to say, that the impious profligate, the moment 
 he chooses to avow himself an unbeHever, can appro- 
 priate to his own use the tithe he has been accustomed 
 to pay to the support of any religious estabhshment ? 
 Suppose one of those persons should turn Jew — I would 
 give him complete toleration, but I say, let him support 
 the synagogue. I will suppose this case ; when a man 
 is sued for his tithe, he will declare that he does not
 
 BARRE ON POPERY 87 
 
 profess the Roman Catholic religion. He then walks 
 directly into that Mass-house, or church, for the support 
 of which he has positively refused to engage himself ; he 
 says, he does not profess the Popish religion ; and sup- 
 pose he abstracts himself from all rehgion, he pays no 
 tithe. If this be allowed, you are encouraging him to 
 be an atheist. Therefore this clause does not provide for 
 the establishment of Popery, but it does provide for the 
 establishment of atheism. I have not yet heard a shadow 
 of an answer to this charge ; nor the slightest attempt 
 made to remedy tliis evil. With a view of meeting it, I 
 shall propose a clause, providing that the tithe paid by 
 persons not professing the Roman Catholic religion shall 
 be handed over to the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel. What objection can be made to my proposition 
 I cannot conjecture. Does it trench on the rights of 
 Englishmen ? Does it trench on the rights of the ancient 
 inhabitants of Canada ? By no means. When the people 
 become divided in their religion, why not follow the 
 generous example set by the treaty of Westphalia ; by 
 which the duties of two or three establishments were 
 discharged in the same church on the same day ; the 
 Roman Catholic, the Lutheran, and the reformed re- 
 ligion ? It sets an example worthy of a Christian Church. 
 It is a happy union, that has fixed peace for ever in those 
 provinces. 
 
 Colonel Barre. — This bill, Sir, originated with the House 
 of Lords. It is Popish from the beginning to the end. 
 The Lords are the Romish priests, who will give his 
 Majesty absolution for breaking his promise given in the 
 proclamation of 1763. In this bill they have done like all 
 other priests — not considered separately the crimes with 
 which the bill abounded, but have bundled them all up 
 together, and, for despatch, given absolution for the whole 
 at once. When, however, the measure came down to this 
 House, its members, not being so Popishly inclined, 
 wished to have some information. They asked for papers : 
 all the papers they asked for were not granted. They 
 asked for evidence : all the evidence was not granted. 
 The first man who governed the colony you would not hear, 
 though I stated the reasons why he ought to be called. 
 The chief justice and the attorney-general of Canada 
 were both examined ; and their testimony goes in the teeth 
 of this bill. Thus it is decidedly opposite to the opinion
 
 88 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 of two of the most respectable men in the kingdom. 
 When the noble lord was asked for the papers containmg 
 these opinions, he refused to give them, alleging that the 
 reports are very long : but the attorney and solicitor- 
 general are both in this House, and I wish to hear the 
 abstract of their opinions given by themselves. This they 
 could have done, but the House would not let them. The 
 advocate-general was called to the bar, upon which they 
 said, we meant to create delay. The witness is so singular 
 a man, that I cannot persuade myself to be out of temper 
 with him. He was mounted very high, and pranced and 
 pranced, and never moved from the place. I noticed a 
 few expressions not becoming him as a witness at the bar, 
 but altogether singular from a man w^ho tells you, he had 
 not memory to relate anything he had written, and is at 
 the same time known to be of so singular a memory, that, 
 without the help of notes, he can sum up the largest train 
 of evidence, not thinking it w^orth while to take it down 
 upon paper. Some time ago we were given to under- 
 stand, that we were not to expect a general election : the 
 report now runs, that parliament is immediately to be dis- 
 solved ; and, in truth. Sir, after the passing of this bill, 
 the sooner it is dissolved the better ! In its infancy it 
 was a very compliant one, and humoured the ministry in 
 what I thought a strong measure, I mean the IVIiddlesex 
 election. It continued to do so up to the middle of its 
 existence ; and, upon its dissolution, people may say, as 
 they did after the death of King Charles, that, by some 
 papers found after its decease, there is great reason to 
 suspect that it died in the profession of the Roman 
 Cathohc reUgion. 
 
 Mr. Charles Fox. — I wish, Sir, to state, in two or three 
 words, what I consider to be the principle of this clause.^ 
 My objection to the bill consists mainly in my objection 
 to this clause : it begins by stating, that "it is at present 
 inexpedient to call an assembly." Now, that I can con- 
 tradict this assertion, and say it is expedient to call an 
 assembly, I will not assert ; but, from all the information I 
 have obtained in this House, I am inclined to think it is 
 expedient. The principle laid down, in the course of 
 these discussions, has been this, that the government of 
 the colony ought to be assimilated, as much as possible, 
 with that of the mother country. That the establishment of 
 ^ Clause XII. of the Act as finally passed.
 
 NEED OF AN ASSEMBLY 89 
 
 this legislative council is a step towards such assimilation, 
 I hold to be impossible. I am free to say, that the Cana- 
 dians are my first object ; and I maintain, that their 
 happiness and their liberties are the proper objects, and 
 ought to be the leading principle, of this bill ; but how these 
 are to be secured to them without an assembly, I cannot 
 see. / It is not in nature for men to love laws, by which 
 their rights and liberties are not protected, I must have 
 more substantial evidence before I consent to establish 
 arbitrary power in that country : before I consent to 
 establish such a government upon the principle, that 
 volejiti non fit injuria, I must be exceedingly well assured 
 of the volens. You say, that the measure may be cor- 
 rected. But, is it likely that this legislative council 
 would go on, from day to day, considering how they could 
 abridge their own power ? This, Sir, is what can be ex- 
 pected from no set of men whatever. I never wish to 
 see the liberties of a country dependent on such extraordi- 
 nary virtue. Hitherto I have not heard a single argument 
 against the establishment of an assembly. We have 
 heard much of the danger of putting power into the hands 
 of the Canadians ; but as the persons of the greatest con- 
 sequence in the colony are stated to be attached to French 
 law and French customs, are we not, by preferring a legis- 
 lative council to an assembly, putting power into the hands 
 of those most partial to French government ? No one 
 has urged the circumstance of the people of Canada being 
 Roman Catholics as an objection to an assembly, and I 
 trust I shall never hear such an objection stated ; for no 
 one who has ever conversed with Roman Catholics can, I 
 think, believe that there is anything repugnant, in their 
 views, to the principles of political freedom. The prin- 
 ciples of political freedom, though not practised in Roman 
 Catholic countries, are as much cherished and revered by 
 the people, as in Protestant countries. If there was danger, 
 I should look for it more from those of high rank, than 
 those of low. 
 
 Lord North. — I cannot admit, that the evidence taken 
 at our bar has been in opposition to the principle of 
 the bill ; on the contrary, I think it confirms the most 
 material parts of it. With regard to the particular clause 
 before us, what have the witnesses at the bar said ? 
 The governor certainly, is evidence against 'an assembly; 
 the chief justice certainly is evidence against an assembly ;
 
 !)0 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 Mr. INIaseres is for an assembly. But, in point of fact, 
 what came out in evidence ? That tlierc were in the 
 province at present one hundred and fifty thousand 
 l\(>inan CathoHc subjects, and about three hundred 
 and sixty Protestant famihes, whose numbers we will 
 suppose to be a thousand or twelve hundred persons ; but 
 very few of them are possessed of any property at all. 
 The fair inference, therefore, is that the assembly would 
 be composed of Roman Catholics. Now, I ask, is it safe 
 for this country — for we must consider this country — to 
 put the principal power into the hands of an assembly of 
 Roman Catholic new subjects ? I agree with the honour- 
 able gentleman, that the Roman Catholics may be honest, 
 able, worthy, sensible men, entertaining very correct 
 notions of political liberty ; but I must say, there is some- 
 thing in that religion, which makes it not prudent in a 
 Protestant government, to establish an assembly con- 
 sisting entirely of Roman Catholics. The honourable 
 gentleman is of opinion, that more is to be dreaded from 
 the seigneurs than from those in the lower ranks. Sure 
 I am, that the seigneurs, who are the great possessors of 
 the lands, would be the persons who composed the 
 assembly, and some of them will, I hope, be admitted to 
 the legislative council ; but then, the governor will choose 
 those on whose fidelity he has the greatest reason to rely. 
 They will be removable by the King in council, and will 
 not depend wholly upon the Roman Catholic electors, 
 or be removable at their pleasure. It is not at present 
 expedient to call an assembly. That is what the act 
 says ; though it would be convenient that the Canadian 
 laws should be assimilated to those of this country, as 
 far as the laws of Great Britain admit, and that British 
 subjects should have something or other in their consti- 
 tution preserved for them, which they will probably lose 
 when they cease to be governed entirely by British laws. 
 That it is desirable to give the Canadians a constitution 
 in every respect like the constitution of Great Britain, I 
 will not say ; but I earnestly hope, that they will, in the 
 course of time, enjoy as much of our laws, and as much of 
 our constitution, as may be beneficial for that country, 
 and safe for this. But that time is not yet come.^ 
 
 ^ A long discussion on the subject of trial by jury followed, in 
 which some of the Opposition showed a tendency to talk for the sake 
 of talkin''.
 
 BURKE ON TRIAL BY JURY 91 
 
 Mr. Edmund Burke. — I will now pass to the alleged 
 hatred of the Canadians to serve on juries ; their in- 
 aptitude to the exercise of the functions.^ But a jury 
 may be fit for them, though they may not be fit for 
 jurymen. A love of justice must belong to the Canadians, 
 as well as to other people ; and I cannot believe that 
 trial by jury is an odious thing to men who are subject 
 to no undue prepossession against it. In a question 
 upon matter of fact, where evidence is taken upon oath, 
 between parties who are flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, 
 is there anything calculated so to prejudice mankind, as 
 to make them look upon the question of trial by jury as 
 an odious thing ? What is the reason that you cannot 
 repose confidence in the known reason of men, as well in 
 that country as in this ? — But it is said, the people of 
 Canada are averse to juries ! Have they complained of a 
 jury ? We have not one single syllable of complaint, 
 which has been taken at first hand. Opinions inferred 
 from conversations may be very easily mistaken. They 
 may have complained, very properly, that they found the 
 laws of the land all shaken ; that they found a new rule 
 given them, by which their family settlements were all 
 deranged ; that they were deprived of all share in the 
 government. But, Sir, as to the alleged dislike of these 
 people to the trial by jury, what does the gentleman who 
 filled the ofiice of Attorney-General in that country with 
 so much honour to himself tell you ? Did he point out 
 this fact ? Did he ever give such evidence ? He spoke 
 flatly to the contrary. He constantly spoke of it, not as 
 a tiling which they disliked, but as one of which they were 
 ignorant. Now, dislike and ignorance are very different 
 things. In their ignorance they confused the idea of a 
 grand jury with that of a petty jury, and esteemed the 
 law a tyranny. Even Mr. Hey's evidence had only a 
 dubious word or two in it. 
 
 Having cleared my way thus far, there remains nothing 
 but the evidence of a general officer. He, to be sure, 
 spoke of the ignorance of the people of Canada : he told 
 us of their having no wish to be tried by juries ; that they 
 preferred the mode of trial by a judge, from custom, habit, 
 and education ; and that they thought it strange that 
 the English residents should prefer to have their lives and 
 
 1 Burke had begun by some very excellent chaff of Thurlow and 
 Wedderburn.
 
 92 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 properties ilocided upon by barbers and shoemakers. You 
 see. Sir, how much tliesc people are to be pitied whose 
 authority is thus quoted ; how ignorant, how much de- 
 ceived, were those persons who conversed with this great 
 officer ! how httle they knew of the nature of that insti- 
 tution which they condemned ! Their objection was 
 chiefly an objection of pride. Now, if that was a good 
 reason to urge against the institution there, it is a good 
 reason against it here. But the objections of the Cana- 
 dians, so far as they are solid and substantial, are easily 
 removable, without injury to trial by jury. With regard 
 to the objection that it is humiliating to be tried by a 
 jury, it can only come from those who are desirous of being 
 above the law ; who are ambitious of lording it over their 
 brethren. To check that disposition would be one of 
 my reasons for giving a jury ; because giving a jury would 
 be giving protection to the majority of the people, against 
 those wiiose pride and arrogance make them say it is 
 humiliating to submit to a jury. I have no objection 
 to all the authority which weight of family, great name, 
 and fixed property in the country can confer. These are 
 always respectable. But how does the establishment of 
 trial by jury necessarily contradict the feelings of this 
 class ? It does not contradict their feehngs in this 
 country. All the objections of the Canadians against the 
 measure therefore ought to vanish. 
 
 The next objection urged against the establishment of 
 juries is, that they w^ould be a burthen to the people. 
 Now, that is an objection of another sort ; but what sort 
 of objection is it ? The learned gentleman has stated it 
 wdth truth : he says, that no man is willing to be a, juror, 
 because he is a juror for the benefit of the community, not 
 for his own benefit. There is no one but would wish to be 
 excused from discharging the duties of the office. In 
 many cases here, men must be forced to serve. Why not 
 do in Canada, as we do here ? But, if a small allowance 
 were made, such a measure, I have no doubt, would recon- 
 cile the Canadians : — I would, however, rather try a little 
 longer, and see whether these two objections, that a jury 
 is oppressive to the poor and humiliating to the rich, 
 cannot be thoroughly removed without it. 
 
 Another thing I forgot to allude to. We are told, that 
 to require unanimity in a jury shocks the Canadians. 
 Truly, Sir, I know it is the substance and character of
 
 JURIES NEED NOT BE UNANIMOUS 9:^ 
 
 a jury to be unanimous by our law ; but if I could be 
 suffered, in a great public cause, to give an opinion, I 
 do not think that unanimity is absolutely necessary, 
 but that the majority of a jury might do just as well, 
 I believe it would prove no inconvenience ; because, 
 even in this country, the majority of a jury always 
 turns the scale. The inconvenience is this, — the rest, 
 finding they must j^eld, trifle with their oath ; they 
 cannot be quite so strict with their oath as I could wish 
 them. I believe that, by the payment of a very small 
 remuneration for the loss of time, all objections to juries 
 will vanish. One learned gentleman has suggested, that 
 compensation might be given to a jury to the amount of 
 three pounds : but let it be left to the judge, jury and 
 counsel to adapt the payment to the nature of the 
 cause. Most blameable will they be, if they establish 
 such compensation as will make the expense eat out 
 the suit. 
 
 Having said this, I would remark, with regard to what 
 the learned gentleman has charged against us about 
 forcing laws upon them, that all such accusations vanish 
 into air ; they are not applicable to the case. We do not 
 know that they abhor a jury — that they abhor a collective 
 jury, in which they themselves will bear a considerable 
 part. If it be proposed hereafter to give a jury to 
 Canada, what will the answer be ? " Dare I give what 
 the Parliament of England has refused? ^'You never 
 will have a jury, if you do not put it into this bill : it is 
 absolutely and clearly impossible. How many years 
 elapsed, before you thought of making any constitution 
 for Canada at all ! And now, instead of making them 
 free subjects of England, you sentence them to French 
 government for ages. I meant only to offer a few words 
 upon the part of the Canadians, and leave them to their 
 misery. They are condemned slaves by the British 
 Parhament. You only give them new masters. There is 
 an end of Canada. 
 
 Sir, having "given up a hundred and fifty thousand of 
 these people, having deprived them of the principles of 
 our constitution, let us turn our attention to the three 
 hundred and sixty English families. It is a small numl)or ; 
 but I have heard, that the English are not to be judg(^(l of 
 by number but by weight ; and that one Englishman can 
 beat two Frenchmen. Let us not value that prejudice.
 
 94 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 I do not know that one Englishman can beat two French- 
 men : but I know that, in this case, he ought to be more 
 vahiable than twenty Frenchmen, if you estimate him as 
 a freeman and the Frenchmen as slaves. What can com- 
 pensate an Englishman for the loss of his laws ? Do you 
 propose to take away liberty from the Englishman, 
 because you will not give it to the French ? I would give 
 it to the Englishman, though ten thousand Frenchmen 
 should take it against their will. Two-thirds of the whole 
 trading interest of Canada are going to be deprived of their 
 liberties, and handed over to French law and French 
 judicature. Is that just to Englishmen ? Surely, the 
 English merchants want the protection of our law more 
 than the noblesse ! They have property always at sea ; 
 which, if it is not protected by law, everyone may catch 
 who can. No EngHsh merchant thinks himself armed 
 to protect his property, if he is not armed with English 
 law. I claim protection for the tliree hundred and sixty 
 English families, whom I do know, against the prejudices 
 of the noblesse of Canada, whom I do not know. I must 
 put the House in mind of what an honourable gentleman 
 said in the course of this debate — that it was seldom that 
 any improvement was introduced into any country, which 
 did not, at first, militate against the prejudices of the 
 people. Was all England pleased with the revolution ? 
 No. The wishes of the majority were sacrificed to the 
 reason of the better part, and the interest of the w^hole ; 
 and we are now enjoying the benefits of that choice — 
 benefits brought upon the ignorant people, not by force, 
 but with an easy hand. The Canadians are now struggling 
 with their old prejudices in favour of their former lavv^s. 
 A new establishment is proposed to them ; which throws 
 them into some disorder, some confusion — " All the in- 
 terim is like a phantasma and a hideous dream." The 
 honourable gentlemen opposite, taking advantage of this 
 confusion, say — ^We have got a basis ; let us see how much 
 French law we can introduce ! With a French basis, 
 there is not one good thing that you can introduce. With 
 an English basis, there is not one bad thing that you can 
 introduce. Take the rule of the law of Canada for the 
 rule of the constitution of your courts, and it will be the 
 rule of all your proceedings : take it for the rule of your 
 judicature, and sooner or later, it will be the rule of your 
 legislature. How often have we had occasion in this House
 
 OPPOSITION OF CHATHAM 95 
 
 to quote the practice of the courts below ! how many 
 lights have we derived from the learned gentlemen plead- 
 ing there ! how many lights have we derived from you, 
 Sir ! how many from the judicature of the upper House ! 
 Where there is a basis of French judicature, of French law, 
 the legislature will never think of grafting upon it an 
 English constitution. 
 
 With regard to state policy, which is the last point I 
 shall touch upon — the preservation of their old prejudices, 
 their old laws, their old customs, by the bill, turns the 
 balance in favour of France. The only difference is, they 
 will have George the Third for Lewis the Sixteenth. ^ In 
 order to make Canada a secure possession of the British 
 government, you have only to bind the people to you, by 
 giving them your laws. Give them English liberty — give | 
 them an English constitution — and then, whether they } 
 speak French or English, whether they go to mass or 
 attend our own communion, you will render them valu- ' 
 able and useful subjects of Great Britain. If you refuse to 
 do this, the consequence will be most injurious : Canada 
 will become a dangerous instrument in the hands of those ' 
 who wish to destroy English liberty in every part of our 
 possessions. 
 
 On June 13, the Bill, as amended, passed its third 
 reading by 56 to 20, It was then referred back to the 
 House of Lords, through which it passed o^i June 16 by 
 a vote of 26 to 7, and received the royal assent on June 22. 
 During the debate in the Upper House, it was vehemently 
 opposed by Lord Chatham, in a speech of which only a 
 very imperfect report has been preserved (Chatham 
 Correspondence, vol. iv., pp. 351-353). 
 
 The Earl of Chatham rose, and entered fully upon the 
 subject of the bill. He said it would involve a great 
 country in a thousand difficulties, and in the worst of 
 despotism, and put the whole people under arbitrary 
 power ; that it was a most cruel, oppressive, and odious 
 
 ^ Lord John Cavendish had already said : " I should think it material i 
 
 not to give them directly their own law again ; it keeps up that perpetual ! j 
 
 dependence upon their ancient laws and customs whicli will over i ' 
 make us a distinct j)eoplo."
 
 06 THE QUEBEC ACT 
 
 measure, tearing up justice and every good principle by 
 the roots ; that by aboUshing the trial by jury he supposed 
 the framers of the bill thought that mode of proceeding, 
 together with the Habeas Corpus, mere moonshine, whilst 
 every true Englishman was ready to lay down his life 
 sooner than lose those two bulwarks of his personal 
 security and property. The merely supposing that the 
 Canadians would not be able to feel the good effects of 
 law and freedom, because they had been used to arbitrary 
 power, was an idea as ridiculous as false. He said the 
 bill established a despotic government in that country, 
 to which the royal proclamation of 1763 promised the pro- 
 tection of the English laws. Here the noble lord read 
 part of the proclamation, and then entered fully on the 
 council and power vested in the governors, the whole mode 
 of which, he said, was t3rrannical and despotic : he was 
 likewise very particular on the bad consequences that 
 would attend the great extension of that province ; that 
 the whole of the bill appeared to him to be destructive 
 of that liberty which ought to be the ground-work of 
 every constitution : ten thousand objections, he was con- 
 fident, might be made to the bill, but the extinction of the 
 mode of trial above mentioned was a very alarming cir- 
 cumstance, and he would pronounce him a bold man who 
 proposed such a plan. — When his Lordship came to the 
 religious part of the bill, he directed his discourse to the 
 bench of bishops, telling them that as by the bill the 
 Catholic religion was made the established religion of that 
 vast continent, it was impossible they could be silent on 
 the occasion. He called the bill a child of inordinate 
 power, and desired and asked if any of that bench would 
 hold it out for baptism ; he touched again upon the un- 
 limited power of the governor, in appointing all the 
 members, who might be made up of Roman Catholics 
 only. He also took notice of an amendment which had 
 been made in the House of Commons, which was a new 
 clause, repealing so much of the act of reformation of the 
 1st of Elizabeth as relates to the oath of supremacy, and 
 substituting a common oath of allegiance in its place. 
 This act of Elizabeth, he said, had always been looked 
 upon as one that the legislature had no more right to repeal, 
 than the Great Charter, or the Bill of Rights. — His Lord- 
 ship stated, with great force, many objections to the clause 
 giving to the French Canadians so advantageous a part
 
 DENUNCIATION OF POPERY 97 
 
 of the fisheries of cod on the Labrador coast, to the great 
 prejudice of the Enghsh fishermen on the banks of New- 
 foundland ; considering the said fisheries of Labrador as a 
 nursery of French Canadian seamen, to man, in case of a 
 French war, any squadrons of France in those seas. He 
 exposed the train of fatal mischiefs attending the estab- 
 lishment of popery and arbitrary power in that vast and 
 fertile region now annexed to the government of Quebec, 
 and capable of containing (if fully peopled) not less than 
 thirty millions of souls. He deduced the whole series of 
 laws from the supremacy first re-vindicated under 
 Henry VIII., down to this day, as fundamentals consti- 
 tuting a clear compact that all establishments by law are 
 to be Protestant ; which compact ought not to be altered, 
 but by the consent of the collective body of the people. 
 He further maintained, that the dangerous innovations 
 of this bill were at variance with all the safeguards and 
 barriers against the return of popery and of popish influ- 
 ence, so wisely provided against by all the oaths of office 
 and of trust from the constable up to the members of 
 both Houses, and even to the sovereign in his coronation 
 oath. He pathetically expressed his fears that it might 
 shake the affections and confidence of his Majesty's Pro- 
 testant subjects in England and Ireland ; and finally lose 
 the hearts of all his Majesty's American subjects. His 
 Lordship then said, that for these and other reasons he 
 gave his hearty negative to the bill.
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL x\CT OF 1791 
 
 When by the Treaty of Versailles Britain acknowledged 
 the independence of the American Colonies, the conse- 
 quent injflux of American Loyalists into Canada and Nova 
 Scotia profoundly altered the social and political character 
 of those provinces. Though the Loyalists had taken the 
 side of Britain in the struggle, and fought hard for the 
 ideal of a United Empire, they were as resolute believers 
 in the right of colonists to manage their own local affairs 
 as John Adams himself. Those who had settled on the 
 St. John River at once claimed the right to send repre- 
 sentatives to Halifax. When this was refused by Governor 
 Parr, they appealed to the Mother Country to divide the 
 province. In 1784 this division was made, and New 
 Brunswick was separated from Nova Scotia.^ 
 
 In Canada a considerable Enghsh-speaking population 
 settled in the fertile country between the old French 
 settlements and the American border, now known as the 
 Eastern Townships. Further west, in the district after- 
 wards known as Upper Canada, the first settlement of 
 Loyalists was made on the spot where, under the French, 
 Fort Frontenac had stood. Here a new town grew up, 
 with the name of Kingston. Other Loyalists settled to 
 the number of several thousands along the River St. 
 Lawrence and the Bay of Quinte. 
 
 ^ Cape Breton was also separated at this time, but in 1820 was again 
 united to Nova Scotia. 
 
 98
 
 REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT 99 
 
 Many of the provisions of the Quebec Act were soon 
 found to be unsuitable for men trained in such schools 
 of self-government as New England and New York, and 
 in 1791 the Constitutional Act was passed, by which the 
 British Parliament endeavoured to give to the North 
 American Colonies, in the words of John Graves Simcoe, 
 the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, a Con- 
 stitution " the very image and transcript of that of Great 
 "Britain." 
 
 During the preparation of this Act numerous communica- 
 tions passed between the British Government and the 
 Governor, Lord Dorchester,^ of which one of the most 
 important is here given, together with the views of 
 Lieutenant-Governor Milnes on the working of the Act, 
 given in 1800. 
 
 Lord Dorchester to the Right Hon. W.W. Grenville. 
 
 Quebec, 
 8th February, 1790. 
 
 Sir, — I received the triplicate of your dispatch No. 2 
 on the 20th of last month, and avail myself of the first 
 
 >• Formerly General Carleton. Lord Dorchester had been opposed to 
 the division of the Province. He wrote to Lord Sydney on November 8, 
 1788 (P.R.O., Col. Corr., Q., vol. xxxix., p. 119)": " A division of the 
 Province, I am of opinion, is by no means advisable at the present, 
 either for the interests of the new or the ancient districts, nor do I see 
 any immediate call for other regulations than such as are involved in 
 the subject of the general jurisprudence of the country. Indeed, it 
 appears to uie that the western settlements are, as yet, unprepared for 
 any organisation superior to that of a county. . . . But though I hold 
 a division of the Province at present inexpedient, yet I am of opinion 
 that no time should be lost in appointing a person of fidelity and ability 
 in the confidence of the Loyalists to superintend and lead them and to 
 bring their concerns with despatch to the knowledge of Government 
 under the title of Lieutenant-Governor. . . . Should a division of the 
 Province notwithstanding be determined by the wisdom of His Majesty's 
 Council, I see no reason why the inhabitants of these western districts 
 should not have an assembly as soon as it may be organised witliout 
 detriment to their private affairs, nor against their having so much of 
 the English system of laws as may suit their local sitxifition and 
 condition." 
 
 7—2
 
 100 THE CONSTTTUTTONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 opportunity to submit to His Majesty's Ministers such 
 observations on the proposed Bill as occur to me in the 
 moment . 
 
 The enclosed Draught comprehends the corresponding 
 alterations, Engrafted upon the Bill, transmitted in your 
 letter.! 
 
 The attainment of a free course of Justice throughout 
 every part of His Majesty's possessions in the way least 
 likely to give umbrage to the United States appears to 
 me very desirable. For this reason the boundaries of 
 the two proposed Provinces are described by a precise 
 Partition line only of the Countrj^ of Canada, with the 
 addition of such general words, as I hope might include 
 the Territories subject to, or possessed by. His Majesty 
 to the Southward of the forty-fifth degree of North 
 Latitude on the side of Lake Champlain, as well as on 
 the side of Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Michilimakinak, 
 corresponding as nearly as could be, with the idea ex- 
 pressed in your letter. But upon consulting the Chief 
 justice relative to the operation of this description of 
 the Boundary, I find that he does not think it will answer 
 the desired end. 
 
 The District of Gaspe it seems best for the present to 
 leave annexed to the Province of Lower Canada, on 
 account of its commercial connection wdth this Province, 
 and because, notwithstanding its distance, the communica- 
 tion of it with Quebec by water is easier than its access 
 to the seat of the Government of New Brunswick, in 
 the present condition of that Province ; the more so, as 
 the difficulty of a representation from that District in 
 an Assembly at Quebec is greatly diminished, by the 
 opening left in the Bill for non-residents of any district 
 being elected Representatives thereof. 
 
 But the Bay of Chaleiu's being subject to different 
 Governments, particularly during the present uninhabited 
 state of that part of New Brunswick, gives an oppor- 
 tunity to ill disposed persons to elude the controul of 
 the law to the detriment of the Fisheries, and good order ; 
 a clause to remedy this evil is therefore inclosed, which, 
 if approved of, may be introduced into the Bill as an 
 addition to the second clause. 
 
 Many advantages might result from an hereditary 
 
 ^ The original draft of the BiU, with Dorchester's proposed emenda- 
 tions, is given in the Eeport of the Canadian Archivist for 1890.
 
 THE COUNCIL AND ASSEMBLY 101 
 
 Legislative Council, distinguished by some mark of 
 honour, did the condition of the country concur in sup- 
 porting this dignity, but the fluctuating state of Property 
 in these Provinces, would expose all hereditary honours 
 to fall into disregard ; for the present therefore it would 
 seem more advisable to appoint the members during life, 
 good behaviour and residence in the province. The 
 number for Upper Canada to be not less than seven and 
 for Lower Canada not less than fifteen, to be encreased 
 by His Majesty as the wealth and population of the 
 Country may require. To give them as much conse- 
 quence as possible, in the present condition of the Pro- 
 vince, they should be selected from among the men of 
 property, where talents, integrity and a firm attachment 
 to the Unity of the Empire may be found. I shall take 
 the first opportunity of communicating the names of 
 such persons as appear to me the fittest objects of this 
 description. 
 
 The House of Assembly for Upper Canada might 
 consist of not less than sixteen, and that for Lower 
 Canada of not less than thirty members, or nearly 
 double in number to the Legislative Councils, to be 
 augmented also in proportion to the Population of the 
 Country. 
 
 As far as I can judge at present it might be advisable 
 to give the Towns of Quebec and Montreal in Lower 
 Canada, a representation of four members each, and two 
 to the Town of Three Rivers, dividing the Country 
 Parishes thereof into twenty Circles, to send one member 
 each. In Upper Canada, the four districts of Lune- 
 burg, Mecklenburg, Nassau and Hesse, ^ to furnish four 
 members each, and hereafter to be subdivided into 
 as many Circles and Towns, as their condition may 
 require. 
 
 But the present time is too short to enter into a more 
 minute detail, for which reason it is proposed to fix only 
 the smallest number of members in the Bill, and to leave 
 the actual subdivision and apportionment, necessary for 
 an equal representation, to be ascertained by the Lieu- 
 tenant Governors, Avith the advice of the Executive 
 Councils, of the respective Provinces, under authority 
 for that purpose from His Majesty. 
 
 1 This division had been made by Dorchester in July, 1787. ISee 
 Kingsford, op. cit., vii. 259.
 
 102 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 The qualifications of Electors, and persons to be 
 elected, as to birth has been extended to inhabitants of 
 the Provinces before and since the Conquest, because 
 they may be considered upon an equal footing with the 
 natives and to foreigners naturalized, because an acces- 
 sion to the Province of light and property from abroad 
 is desirable and not likely to injure the King's interest 
 under the guards proposed. 
 
 The disqualifications of Persons, attainted for Treason, 
 and Felony, Deserters from the Militia when called out 
 into service, and Bankrupts, until the full payment of 
 their debts, have been added to the fourteenth clause, as 
 a check to these evils and from a persuasion, that persons 
 of that description are not entitled to any political 
 honours or consequence. 
 
 On the expediency of inserting any Commercial regula- 
 tions, as exceptions to the Laws of Canada, previous to 
 investing the Assembly in Lower Canada with a right 
 to negative all future changes, I regret that the com- 
 plicated and professional nature of the subject, prevents 
 my forming any other than a general opinion, that what- 
 ever regulations of this sort shall be thought proper to 
 be adopted, should be enacted specially, unfolded to the 
 people, and not introduced in bulk, and by general de- 
 scription. 
 
 The introduction of a Soccage Tenure I think neces- 
 sary in the Upper Country and advisable in every part 
 of the province, and this free of Quit rents from all 
 holding no more than one thousand acres, as recommended 
 in my letter to Lord Sydney, No. 18. And the Quit 
 rent, which it may be judged proper to lay on large 
 Tracts, should be given up to the Provincial Govern- 
 ments for their support, that all seeds of discord between 
 Great Britain and her Colonies may be prevented. And 
 independent of this important consideration perhaps the 
 true principle of Qj]conomy is rather to obviate the 
 necessity of sending money abroad, than to bring home 
 any from Quit rents or Duties of any kind. 
 
 I take for granted, that the benefits, arising to the 
 subject, from a change of the tenure in Fief to that in 
 Common Soccage, are meant to run throughout, as from 
 the King to his Tenant, so from the latter to all his under- 
 tenants, at the time of change, otherwise the advantages 
 will be confined to a few, and an interest created un-
 
 GENERAL GOVERNMENT PROPOSED 103 
 
 friendly to the improvement of the country. Some 
 alterations have been made in the clause relative to 
 this point, with a view of clearing doubt upon the 
 subject. 
 
 The commencement of the operation of the Act as to 
 every part excepting only the issuing the writs of Elec- 
 tion, and calling together the Houses of Assembly, of the 
 respective Provinces, has been fixed at such time as may 
 be declared by His Majesty, with the advice of His Privy 
 Council, not later than Six months after the notification 
 of the Act in this Country, which I think will allow time 
 sufficient for all necessary arrangements as to these 
 points. 
 
 But for the convocation of the Assemblies a more 
 distant period appears to be necessary, for the reasons 
 above stated. 
 
 As soon as the proper plans for their organization shall 
 have been prepared. His Majesty may order the Assem- 
 blies to be convened, as soon as convenient, previous to 
 the first of January, 1792, as suggested in the thirty-first 
 clause of the Bill, to which is likewise added a proposal 
 for the temporary Government of the two Provinces in 
 the interval by the Lieutenant Governors, and Legisla- 
 tive Councils thereof, according to the model of the 
 Quebec Bill. 
 
 Should this be approved, the Royal indulgence of 
 returning to England for a few months on my private 
 affairs, would give me an opportunity to lay before His 
 Majesty's Ministers all further explanations in my power 
 on this subject. 
 
 Before I conclude, I have to submit to the wisdom of 
 His Majesty's Councils, whether it may not be advisable 
 to establish a General Government, for His Majesty's 
 Dominions upon this Continent, as well as a Governor 
 General, whereby the united exertions of His Majesty's 
 North American Provinces may more effectually be 
 directed to the general interest, and to the preservation 
 of the Unity of the Empire. 
 
 I enclose a copy of a letter from the Chief Justice with 
 some additional clauses upon this subject prepared by 
 him at my request. 
 
 I am with much respect and esteem, 
 Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 Dorchester.
 
 104 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 Chief Justice Smith ^ to Lord Dorchester. 
 
 Quebec, 
 5th February, 1790. 
 
 My Lord, — The clause inclosed for the Trial of extra- 
 provincial offences appears to me to be necessary to en- 
 courage that spirit of enterprise, which leads our people 
 in the Fur Trade to explore the Depths of this Continent 
 and has carried them almost over to the Eastern shores 
 of the Pacific Ocean. This Commerce, elsewhere wearing 
 out, by the encreased Population of the North-eastern 
 parts of the antient Continent, will soon become the 
 Monopoly of our Nation. I have couched it in terms 
 least hkely of any that occur to me, to excite the Jealousy 
 of our neighbours. 
 
 The Bill with the other additions for the intended 
 Reforms in this Country, left to be supplied by Your 
 Lordship's local experience, greatly improves the old 
 mould of our Colonial Governments ; for even those 
 called the Royal Provinces, to distinguish them from 
 the Proprietary and Chartered Repubhcs of the Stuart 
 Kings, had essential Faults, and the same general ten- 
 dency. 
 
 jVIr. Grenville's plan will most assuredly lay a founda- 
 tion for two spacious, populous and flourishing Provinces, 
 and for more to grow out of them ; and compose, at no 
 remote period, a mass of Power very worthy of immediate 
 attention. 
 
 I miss in it, however, the expected Establishment to 
 put what remains to Great Britain of Her Antient 
 Dominions in North America, under one general direc- 
 tion, for the united interests and safety of every Branch 
 of the Empire. 
 
 The Colonies of England were flourishing Colonies. It 
 was the natural effect of the connection, the Character 
 of the People, and the Genius of the English Constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 Ours will be so too. But that prosperity may be their 
 ruin, and I trust in God that the wisdom which is dictat- 
 
 1 Smith was a New York Loyalist. Consult Appleton's CyclopcBdia 
 of American Biography, vol. v. suh nomine. He must not be con- 
 founded with his son ^Yilliam, author of a History of Canada.
 
 GROWTH OF COLONIAL DEMOCRACY 105 
 
 ing the new arrangements for us, will perfect its work 
 by a system to prevent our repeating the Folly that has 
 plunged the several parts of the Continent into poverty 
 and distress. 
 
 Native as I am of one of the old Provinces, and early 
 in the public service and Councils, I trace the late Revolt 
 and Rent to a remoter cause, than those to which it is 
 ordinarily ascribed. The Truth is that the Country had 
 outgrown its Government, and wanted the true remedy 
 for more than half a century before the Rupture com- 
 menced. To what period it continued to be practicable 
 is problematical, and need not now be assigned. 
 
 To expect wisdom and moderation from near a score 
 of Petty Parliaments, consisting in effect of only one of 
 the three necessary branches of a Parliament, must, after 
 the light brought by experience, appear to have been a 
 very extravagant expectation. So it has been to my 
 view above twenty years, and I did not conceal it. 
 
 My Lord, an American Assembly, quiet in the weak- 
 ness of their Infancy, could not but discover in their 
 elevation to Prosperity, that themselves were the sub- 
 stance, and the Governor and Board of Council were 
 shadows in their political Frame. ^ 
 
 All America was thus, at the very outset of the Planta- 
 tions, abandoned to Democracy. And it belonged to the 
 Administrations of the days of our Fathers to have found 
 the cure, in the erection of a Power upon the Continent 
 itself, to controul all its own Httle Republics, and create 
 a Partner in the Legislation of the Empire, capable of 
 consulting their own safety and the common welfare. 
 
 To be better understood by Your Lordship, I beg leave 
 to put a paper under this cover, in the form of additions 
 to the present proposed Bill, partly suggested by the 
 necessity of something to give a real and useful signifi- 
 cancy to Your Lordship's nominal command of more 
 Provinces than this. 
 
 As to the moment for commencing such an Establish- 
 ment, that certainly must be the worst when it shall be 
 most wanted. And since its Erection will speak Inten- 
 tions, and may give Umbrage, that will be the best time 
 in which that Umbrage shall excite the least apprehen- 
 sion. 
 
 The Debility of our Neighbours is notorious, nor can 
 ^ Sec as to this Greene, op, cit. passim.
 
 106 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 be succoured during the Distractions of France, and the 
 consternation spread by those Distractions through all 
 Europe. 
 
 Here in these provinces, where it is of much conse- 
 quence to set out with good habits, what juncture can 
 be so favourable, as when the thousands thrown into 
 them, under your Patronage and Direction, have their 
 Loyalty confirmed by Resentments for their Sufferings ; 
 and so are disposed to take, and especially from your 
 hand, whatever the wdsdom of Great Britain shall pre- 
 scribe, as a Gift of her Benevolence. 
 
 As to Canada, I mean that part of it to become Lower 
 Canada, the biasses in it, if there are any remaining, to 
 the Stock from which it was severed, are become per- 
 fectly harmless b}^ that Body of English Loyalty Your 
 Lordship has planted in the West, by their aversion to 
 share in the Burdens and Miseries of the Revolted 
 Colonies, and by the growing Discernment, that their 
 safety and Prosperity is only to be found in the Com- 
 merce and Arms of Great Britain. 
 
 I am old enough to remember what we in the Mari- 
 time Pro^ances dreaded from this French Colony in the 
 North, and what it cost to take away that di'ead, which 
 confined our Population to the Edges of the Atlantic ; 
 and my mind is therefore carried, under such an Adminis- 
 tration as the present one, into a strong Persuasion, that 
 nothing will be neglected to enable Great Britain so to 
 serve herself of that Power, she already possesses here, 
 as to check any Councils to be meditated to her Detri- 
 ment, by the new Nation she has consented to create. 
 She may do more ! but this is out of my province. 
 
 So much. My Lord, you'll forgive me, I could not 
 repress what I owed to the vindication of my zeal in the 
 sacrifice of my fortune for the British Interest, and as I 
 think still for the best Interests too of the Country of 
 my Birth. Most of all I owed it to my Sovereign, in 
 whose Grace I found a Relief at the end of the Storm. 
 
 With a deep and grateful sense of aU your kindnesses 
 and the honour of your request of my poor abilities, upon 
 questions of so great magnitude and consequence, 
 
 I am. My Lord, 
 Your Lordship's most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 Wm. Smith.
 
 A GENERAL LEGISLATURE 107 
 
 Proposed Additions to the New Canada Bill for a 
 General Government. 
 
 And to provide still more effectually for the Govern- 
 ment, safety and prosperity of all His Majesty's Dominions 
 in North America and firmly to unite the several branches 
 of the Empire. 
 
 (1.) Be it also enacted by the same authority that there 
 shall be (with a Governor General) a Legislative Council 
 and a General Assembly for all His Majesty's Dominions 
 and the Provinces whereof the same do now or may here- 
 after consist in the parts of America to the Southward 
 of Hudson's Bay and in those seas to the Northward of 
 the Bermuda or Somers Islands ; And that His Majesty, 
 His Heirs and Successors shall have power by and with 
 the advice and consent of the said Legislative Council 
 and General Assembly, to make laws for the peace, wel- 
 fare and good Government of all or any of the said 
 Provinces and Dominions. And that such Laws being 
 passed by the said Legislative Council and General 
 Assembly, and being assented to by His Majesty, His 
 Heirs and Successors, or being assented to in His Majesty's 
 name by the Person appointed or to be appointed Governor 
 General of the Provinces and Dominions aforesaid, or 
 such person as may be appointed by the Crown to exer- 
 cise the powers of Governor General on the death or 
 absence of such Governor General, shall be valid and 
 binding on the inhabitants of the said Dominions or such \ 
 part thereof as shall for that purpose be expressed. J 
 
 (2.) And be it enacted by the same authority that 
 such Legislative Council may be composed of at least 
 members from each of the said Provinces to be appointed 
 as His xMajesty by His Royal Instructions to the Governor 
 General for the time being shall authorize and direct who 
 shall hold their several places in the said Council for Life 
 subject nevertheless to such terms and conditions are as 
 hereinbefore declared to be annexed to the trust and 
 station of a member of the Legislative Council of either 
 of the said Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and 
 saving to His Majesty's Governor General or the Person 
 upon whom that trust by His Majesty's appointment may 
 devolve, power and authority from time to time by an
 
 108 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 iiistruineut under the Great Seal to be created for the 
 British Dominions in North America to constitute, 
 appoint and remove the Speaker of such Legislative 
 Council. 
 
 (3.) And be it enacted by the same authority that such 
 General Assembly may be composed of such persons as 
 may be elected by the majority of the House of Assembly 
 of the Province for which they serve to be manifested 
 by Triplicate Instruments under the hand and seal of 
 the Speaker thereof to the Governor General, the Speaker 
 of the Legislative Council and the Speaker of the General 
 Assembly. 
 
 (4.) And be it also enacted by the same authority that 
 to give any acts of the said Governor General, Legislative 
 Council and General Assembly, the force and authority 
 of a Law, the same shall have been assented to in the 
 said Legislative Council by the majority of the voices 
 forming a house of Council according to His Majesty's 
 appointment thereof, and shall have been assented to in 
 the said General Assembly by such and so many Voices 
 as will make it the Act of the majority of the Provinces, 
 having right to be represented in the said General As- 
 sembly, and it shall be a House of General Assembly as 
 often as there shall be assembled one or more members 
 duly elected by each of the Assembhes of the said Pro- 
 vinces or of the greater number of such Provinces. 
 
 (5.) And be it further enacted by the same authority 
 that it shall be lawful for His Majesty, His Heirs and 
 successors to authorize and direct His Governor General 
 for the time being or the Person upon w'hom that trust 
 by His Majesty's appointment may devolve, in His 
 Majesty's name and by an instrument under the great 
 seal of the British Dominions in North America to. 
 summon and call together such General Assemblies in such 
 manner as His Majesty shall be pleased to signify and com- 
 mand by His Royal Instructions to such Governor General. 
 
 (6.) And be it also enacted by the same authority that 
 the Governor General under such instructions as he may 
 have received from His Majesty may assemble the said 
 Legislative Council and General Assembly where, and 
 prorogue and dissolve them when and as often as he 
 shall judge it necessary. Provided alw^ays and be it 
 enacted that they shall be called together once at least 
 in every two years, and to continue to have the right of
 
 RIGHTS OF THE CROWN 109 
 
 sitting seven years from the Teste^ or day of the process 
 or summons for their election unless they shall be sooner 
 dissolved by the Authority aforementioned. But no 
 member either of the said Legislative Council or General 
 Assembly shall be permitted to sit or vote in the General 
 Legislature until he shall have taken such oath as herein- 
 before directed to be taken by the members of the Legis- 
 lative Council and Assembly of Upper or Lower Canada, 
 or not being an inhabitant of either of the said Provinces 
 last mentioned, such other oaths and qualifications as are 
 taken to become a member of the Parliament of Great 
 Britain as by His Majesty's Instructions shall be directed 
 and required. 
 
 (7.) And be it also enacted by the same authority that 
 whenever any Bill which has been passed by the said 
 Legislative Council and b}?^ the said General Assembly 
 shall be presented for His Majesty's assent to the Governor 
 General for the time being or the person exercising that 
 trust under His Majesty's authority, it shall and may 
 be lawful for such Governor General or other person exer- 
 cising the said trust, at his discretion, subject neverthe- 
 less to such instructions as he may from time to time 
 receive from His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, 
 either to declare His Majesty's assent to such Bill, or to 
 declare that he withholds such assent, or that he reserves 
 the said Bill until His Majesty's Pleasure shall be signified 
 thereon. And no Bill so to be presented and not assented 
 to in manner aforesaid shall have the force of a Law. 
 
 (8.) And be it further enacted by the same authority 
 that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed to 
 prevent His Majesty from appointing, erecting and con- 
 stituting such general and executive Council and Councils 
 as he may judge proper for the said Provinces and 
 Dominions in general, and any other office, in His Royal 
 Judgment and discretion requisite for the said General 
 Government, or from nominating and appointing thereto 
 from time to time, such persons as he shall think fit to 
 compose the same Executive Council, or to execute such 
 offices or from removing therefrom any person or persons 
 whom he may think fit to remove. 
 
 (9.) And be it also enacted by the same authority that 
 it shall and may be lawful for His Majesty to give 
 
 ^ I.e., the Writ of Summons, which was authenticated by the royal 
 attestation : " Teste me ipso," etc.
 
 110 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 authority to His said Governor General, or the person 
 exercising that trust, on his arrival in either of the pro- 
 vinces within his commission, to assume the authority 
 and to perform all the duties and functions which the 
 Lieutenant Governor thereof might exercise and perform, 
 and the powers and authority of such Lieutenant Governor 
 shall be suspended and so continue during the time of 
 the Governor General's being within the same province, 
 and that it shall also be kA\'ful for His Majesty to give 
 to the said Governor General for the time being, tho' 
 absent in some other province of His General Govern- 
 ment, authority respecting any act of any of the Pro- 
 vinces of such nature and tendency as His Majesty may 
 see cause by His Royal Instruction to describe, to sus- 
 pend the execution of such act until His Majesty's 
 Pleasure shall be signified respecting the same ; to which 
 end it shall be the duty of the person administering the 
 Government in every Province subject to the Governor 
 General's authority, to transmit to him a copy of every 
 Bill to which he has assented as soon as possible after 
 the enactment of the same into a law, and shall upon 
 the suspension thereof by the Governor General im- 
 mediately cause the same to be made known by pro- 
 clamation under the great seal of his Province, in the 
 manner most effectual for making the same universally 
 known to the inhabitants of the same Province, and all 
 others whom the same may concern. 
 
 (10.) And be it further enacted by the authority afore- 
 said, that nothing in tliis act contained shall be inter- 
 preted to derogate from the rights and Prerogatives of 
 the Crown for the due exercise of the Royal and execu- 
 tive authority over all or any of the said Provinces, or 
 to derogate from the Legislative Sovereignty^ and Supre- 
 macy of the Crown and Parliament of Great Britain ; but 
 the Acts of Legislation of either of the said Provinces, as 
 well as the Acts of the Governor General and the Legisla- 
 tive Council and General Assembly so to be made, shall 
 be subject to the Royal disallowance as exercised here- 
 tofore respecting the laws of any of the British Provinces, 
 and the said Dominions and all the Provinces into which 
 they may be hereafter divided shall continue and remain 
 to be governed by the Crown and Parliament of Great 
 Britain as the Supreme Legislature of the whole British 
 Empire.
 
 WEAKNESS OF EXECUTIVE 111 
 
 Lieut. Governor Milnes to the Duke of Portland. 
 
 Quebec, 
 1st November, 1800. 
 
 My Lord, — On my first taking upon myself the ad- 
 ministration of the affairs of this Province, I was ex- 
 tremely struck with the wavering state in which I found 
 the Interests of Government. I have since been at much 
 pains to discover the real cause of this situation of things, 
 which I plainly saw lay deeper than, I believe, is generally 
 supposed by His Majesty's Ministers, and I am so forcibly 
 impressed with a persuasion that this subject ought to 
 be attended to, that I feel it my duty to lay before Your 
 Grace such remarks as have occurred to me respecting 
 it, in order that Your Grace may be fully apprized of the 
 real state of the Country, and take such measures as you 
 may think fit to strengthen the Executive Power in 
 Lower Canada. 
 
 However excellent in itself the new Constitution may 
 be which His Majesty has graciously been pleased to 
 Grant to the Province, I conceive the Foundation of it 
 must rest upon a due proportion being maintained be- 
 tween the Aristocracy and the Lower Orders of the 
 People, without which it will become a dangerous weapon 
 in the hands of the latter. Several causes at present 
 unite in daily lessening the Power and Infiuence of the 
 Aristocratical Body in Lower Canada. I cannot how- 
 ever but think that measures might be adopted to counter- 
 balance in some degree this tendency, and I shall here- 
 after have the Honour to point them out to Your Grace ; 
 but in order to make myself clearly understood, I must 
 first explain what I consider to be the principal causes 
 by which the Influence of tlie Aristocracy in this country 
 has gradually been reduced to its present state. The first 
 and most important of these, I am of opinion, arises from 
 the manner in which the Province was originally settled ; 
 that is from the independent Tenure by which the cul- 
 tivators (who form the great Body of the People and are 
 distinguished by the appellation of Habitants) hold their 
 Lands ; and, on the other hand, from the inconsiderable 
 power retained by those called the Seigneurs, and the
 
 112 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 little disposition they feel to increase their Influence or 
 improve their Fortunes by Trade. Hence by degrees, 
 the Canadian Gentry have nearly become extinct, and 
 few of tliem on their own Territory have the means of 
 living in a more affluent and imposing style than the 
 simple Habitants, who feel themselves in every respect 
 as independent as the seigneur himself, with whom they 
 have no further connexion than merely the obligation of 
 having their corn ground at his Mills, paying the Toll of 
 a fourteenth bushel, which they consider more as a 
 burdensome Tax than as a Return to him for the Land 
 conceded by his family to their Ancestors forever, upon 
 no harder conditions than the obligation above men- 
 tioned, a trifling Rent, and that of paying a Twelfth to 
 the Seigneur upon any transfer of the Lands. 
 
 The second cause which I apprehend tends to lessen 
 the Influence of Government in this Province is the pre- 
 valence of the Roman Catholic Religion, and the inde- 
 pendence of the Priesthood ; this Independence I find 
 goes considerably further than what was intended by 
 the Royal Instructions wherein it is particularly declared 
 to be His Majesty's pleasure, " that no person whatso- 
 ever is to have Holy Orders conferred upon him or to 
 have the Care of Souls, mthout a license first had and 
 obtained from the Governor," etc., etc., but this Instruc- 
 tion has hitherto never been enforced, by which means 
 the whole Patronage of the Church has been thrown into 
 the hands of the Roman Catholic Bishops, and all con- 
 nexion between the Government and the People through 
 that channel is cut off, as the Priests do not consider 
 themselves at all amenable to any other power than the 
 Catholic Bishop. 
 
 A singular Instance lately occurred of this Indepen- 
 dence : A Priest at Terrebonne, near Montreal, inter- 
 fered in the most indecent manner in the late election 
 for the County of Effingham. He exerted all his Influ- 
 ence to prevent the Solicitor General from being chosen, 
 and violently supported a man who had been expelled 
 from the House of Assembly on account of his having 
 been convicted of Conspiracy, and who was consequently 
 considered as a dishonoured Person. Upon this man 
 being chosen, the Priest actually went so far as to per- 
 form High Mass in the Parish Church, to return thanks, 
 as he termed it, " for the re-election of this Martyr." In
 
 WEAKNESS OF EXECUTIVE 113 
 
 Justice to the Canadian Bishop^ I must add, that upon 
 my representation he did everything that was proper to 
 be done on tlie occasion. 
 
 Another circumstance which has greatly tended to 
 lessen the Influence of Government since the Conquest, 
 has arisen from the necessity which then existed of dis- 
 embodying the IVIilitia, but as I am by no means of 
 opinion, considering the circumstances which took place 
 a few years since, that it would be either practicable or 
 prudent to caU on the Militia at this particular moment, 
 I shall not enter further into this subject at present, 
 though I shall hereafter revert to the Militia, even in its 
 present state, as a means by which a certain degree of 
 Influence might still perhaps be established in the several 
 parishes. 
 
 It may be unnecessary to observe to Your Grace how 
 much more Important the above facts are become since 
 the establishment of the new Constitution. In the time 
 of French Government, an Ordinance issued in the name 
 of the King was sufficient to enforce the Execution of 
 any measure that was deemed expedient, without any 
 discussion taking place upon the subject, or its entering 
 into the mind of the unlettered Habitant, to doubt for 
 \ a moment the propriety of the measure. But since the 
 
 \ establishment of the present Constitution in the year 
 \l792 the case is very different, everything being pre- 
 viously discussed in the House of Assembly, and unless 
 a certain preponderance can be maintained in that 
 /House, which at present is by no means as firmly estab- 
 /lished as I could wish, the Power of the Executive Govern- 
 
 / ment will insensibly become nothing. Very few of the 
 Seigneurs, as I have already hinted, have sufficient 
 Interest to ensure their own Election or the Election 
 of anyone to whom they give their support in the House 
 of Assembly ; and the uneducated Habitant has even a 
 better chance of being nominated (though he cannot 
 perhaps sign his name) than the first officer under the 
 Crown. There was a moment when I even despaired 
 of getting the Attorney General into the present As- 
 sembly and though it is undoubtedly better composed 
 than the last, it is far from being so respectable a Body 
 as Government might wish. 
 
 1 Mgr. Hubert.
 
 114 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 The Canadian Habitants are, I verily believe, an 
 Industrious, peaceable and well disposed People, but 
 they are, from their want of education and extreme 
 simplicity, hable to be misled by designing and artful 
 men ; and were they once made sensible of their own 
 Independence, the worst consequences might ensue. 
 They are, in fact, the sole proprietors of nearly all the 
 cultivated Lands in Lower Canada, the Seigneurs and 
 Ecclesiastical Bodies to Avhom the Lands were originally 
 granted, having conceded the greater part of the Lands 
 for ever, with little or no reserve, to the Cultivator, in 
 small Parcels of from one to two hundred acres, retaining 
 only, as I have already observed, the Property and 
 Profits of the IMills, a certain proportion of the Produce, 
 which is sometimes paid in kind and in various ways, 
 and the Lods and Ventes ; and this species of property 
 attached to the Seigniorial Rights, is by the Ancient 
 French Laws of Inheritance (which occasion frequent 
 subdivisions of Property) in a few Generations become 
 quite inconsiderable, whereby the situation of the Seig- 
 neur has in many Instances been reduced below that of 
 the Vassal. Each Habitant cultivates as much Land as 
 he can manage, with the assistance of his own Family, 
 and as is necessary for its support ; and having thus 
 within themselves from year to year all the necessaries 
 of life, there cannot be a more independent Race of 
 peoj)le, nor do I believe there is in any part of the world 
 a country in which equality of situation is so nearly 
 estabHshed. Except in the Towns of Quebec, Montreal 
 and Three Rivers, little or no difference is observable in 
 the affluence of the Canadians, but what may in some 
 measure arise from the local circumstances of more or 
 less favourable situation, a richer soil, or a greater or 
 less degi'ee of exertion. 
 
 The counties are divided into Parishes, each Parish 
 chiefly extending about three leagues along the River 
 St. Lawrence and Chambly, and to each of which there 
 is a Parochial Church ; the principal person in every 
 Parish is in general the Priest, another next the Captain 
 of IVIilitia, and it is through the latter that any business 
 is transacted by Government. 
 
 Having endeavoured to give Your Grace some insight 
 into the actual state of this country, which I could more 
 fully enlarge upon if I was not apprehensive of intruding
 
 INCREASE OF CROWN INFLUENCE 115 
 
 too much upon your time until I have received your 
 permission so to do, I shall proceed to point out the 
 means by which I imagine the Influence of Government 
 might be immediately extended to the distant parts of 
 the Province, and though I am conscious this cannot be 
 effected without a certain expense to the Mother-Country, 
 I consider that expense as inconsiderable when com- 
 pared to the sums it would require to quell any dis- 
 turbance that might for want of timely precaution take 
 place in the Province. The apprehensions of such an 
 event though not immediate, is strongly impressed on 
 the minds of some of the best Friends of Government. 
 
 I am well aware the chief object to be depended upon 
 to increase the Influence of the Crown, will be by means 
 of the Waste Lands ; and in that point of View the 
 delay that has taken place in the Land Business is greatly 
 to be regretted, and it becomes an object of peculiar 
 Importance to Government that no further delay may 
 occur to prevent the clearing and settling of the immense 
 Tracts that are now in the lands of the Crown undisposed 
 of, as their being granted in free and common soccage 
 will in time (if judiciously granted) form in this Province 
 a body of people of the protestant Religion that will 
 naturally feel themselves more immediately connected 
 with the English Government, but as this cannot be 
 expected to have any immediate effect, I am inclined to 
 think that in the meantime much may be done first 
 through the Catholic Priests, and secondly by means of 
 the Militia. 
 
 The Present Catholic Bishop is extremely well disposed 
 to Government, he is allowed by His Majesty £200 per 
 annum, as Superintendent of the Catholic Church, in 
 addition to which he receives from Government a Rent 
 of £150 a year for the use of the Bishop's Palace at 
 Quebec, which is occupied by Public Oflicers ; he has 
 lately applied to us for an enclosure^ of this Rent, signi- 
 fying at the .«ame time that his income is very inadequate 
 to the situation and the calls which are made upon it, 
 which I have reason to believe is a just statement. 
 
 This application offers an occasion of attaching the 
 Canadian Bishoj) more particularly to Government, if by 
 such an encrease of his appointments as His Majesty 
 
 ^ Probably commutation. 
 
 8—2
 
 116 THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 shall graciously be pleased to allow his situation was 
 made more easy, at the same time requiring of him a 
 strict attention to that part of His IMajesty's Instructions 
 to the governor which I have before mentioned. This 
 I am of opinion would tend very much to encrease that 
 consideration which the Priests themselves ought to feel, 
 and to encourage in their Parishioners, for the Execu- 
 tive Government, at the same time that it would ensure 
 the co-operation of the Canadian Bishop.^ But in order 
 to carry this point, particular care must be taken to 
 secure a proper moment, and if the Bishop should be 
 decidedly averse to make the sacrifice required of him, 
 it ought perhaps be deferred to the Peace. 
 
 The Priests have a 26th of all the Grain, which may be 
 valued at £25,000 or £26,000 a year, which alone must make 
 their influence very considerable, and especially as the 
 Religious Bodies are in possession of nearly One Fourth 
 of all the Seigniorial Rights granted before the Conquest 
 (excepting those of the Jesuit Estates lately taken into 
 the possession of the Crown, as will appear by the In- 
 closure). There are 123 Parishes and 120 Parish Priests. ^ 
 
 With regard to the Militia, it will be more difficult to 
 give Your Grace a clear and distinct idea of the mode in 
 which I am inclined to think use may be made of tliis 
 Body to support the Interests of Government through 
 the Province and to disseminate Principles of Loyalty 
 amongst the Canadians in opposition to that spirit of 
 Democracy wliich has lately gained so much ground in 
 many parts of the world, but fortunately has not at 
 present made any material progress in Canada. 
 
 ^ An attempt along these lines to gain control of the Roman Catholic 
 Church was made some years later, and in 1810 the Hon. H. W. 
 Kyland was sent to England to obtain the consent of His Majesty's 
 Government. The plan failed, owing, it is said, to the opposition of 
 Lord Eldon. See the very interesting documents cited in Christie's 
 History of Canada, vol. vi., and those in the Report of the Canadian 
 Archivist for 1892, pp. 16-31. 
 
 2 When, in 1773, Pope Clement XIV. abolished the Society of 
 Jesuits, its Canadian estates fell to the Crown. George III. at first 
 wished to confer them on General Amherst, but this proposal proved 
 so unpopular that it was abandoned. By an Act passed in 1832 the 
 income from the estates was appropriated to education. At federation, 
 in 1867, they passed under the control of the province of Quebec. In 
 1887, when the revived society was incorporated in that province, it 
 was awarded compensation by the local government. See J. S. 
 Willison, Sir Wilfrid Laitrier, ii. 40.
 
 THE MILITIA 117 
 
 The Population of Lower Canada is computed at about 
 One Hundred and Sixty Thousand Souls, nine-tenths of 
 whom reside in the Parishes before described, distinct 
 from the Towns, and from these are drawn the Canadian 
 Militia, which amount to 37,904 between the ages of 16 
 and 60. In the Parishes here alluded to, there are 292 
 Captains of Militia, who are chosen from amongst the 
 most respectable of the Canadian Habitants (the Etat 
 Majors amounting to 16, being in general chosen from 
 amo'^e the Seigneurs) ; and here it is necessary to inform 
 Your Grace how far under the dominion of France the 
 Body of the People were regulated in all Public Matters 
 by the Officers of Militia ; the Captains of Militia 
 and the Cures, being the persons employed to issue 
 and enforce the Public ordinances, and through the 
 authority thus delegated to them by Government, 
 possessed considerable influence in their respective 
 Parishes. 
 
 Although under His Majesty's Government these 
 powers have in a great measure been withdrawn, especially 
 since the establishment of the new Constitution, there 
 still remains in the minds of the Canadians, a certain 
 consequence attached to the character of Captain of 
 Militia, and as I have before observed to Your Grace it 
 is still customa^ry on all public occasions to employ this 
 useful Class of People to perform many services for 
 Government, which they had hitherto done without 
 other Reward than merely that arising in their own 
 minds from the honour and respectability of the appoint- 
 ment ; but this tho' sufficient to render it desirable is, 
 as they feel, by no means an equal return for the con- 
 siderable Portion of their time so employed. If then 
 by means of an honorary and pecuniary reward, or by 
 any plan that may be so approved of by the Executive 
 Council, this class of the Canadians would be brought 
 to consider themselves as the immediate Officers of the 
 Crown, and peculiarly attached to the Interest of Govern- 
 ment, there is no doubt that such an influence, from the 
 circumstance of being equally diffused over the whole 
 Province would effectually tend to keep alive among the 
 great Body of the people, that spirit of Zeal and Loyalty 
 for Monarchical Government which I believe to be 
 natural to the Canadians, but which for want of an 
 immediate class to whom they can look up, and from
 
 lis THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF 1791 
 
 their liaving no immediate connexion with the Execu- 
 tive Power, is in danger of becoming extinct. 
 
 That Loyalty is a lively principle in the hearts of the 
 Canadians I have no doubt, if I may judge from tlie 
 expressions of satisfaction which are shewn by all Ranks, 
 whenever the Representative of His Majesty only passes 
 through the Country ; this I myself experienced (though 
 at that time generally unknown) in the Tour I lately 
 made through the Province. 
 
 There are several other means besides those I have 
 already stated by which I am convinced a proper bias 
 may be maintained in the minds of the Canadians, such 
 as, I should hope, would secure the Province against any 
 internal Commotion or Disaffection, the details of which 
 I shall reserve until I shall receive Your Grace's sanction 
 to trouble you further on this head, particularly as in 
 order to give Your Grace a complete idea of this subject 
 and the extent of my plan, it will be necessary to solicit 
 your attention while I lay before you a sketch of the 
 relative Expences of the Civil Department of Lower 
 Canada, and the Military expenditures of the Canadas, 
 by which it will appear how little proportion exists in 
 the expences of those Departments, and what a con- 
 siderable saving may hereafter accrue to Government, 
 if according to the Plan proposed, and by a more liberal 
 allotment to the Civil Expenditure, such an Influence 
 could be attained over the minds of the Canadians as 
 might in the course of time not only secure the Province 
 from any Interior Commotion or disaffection but like- 
 wise ensure the co-operation of the Inhabitants in the 
 defence of the Province against the attempts of a 
 foreign Enemy without the aid of such a Considerable 
 Military Establishment as the Mother - Country has 
 hitherto maintained in this part of His Majesty's 
 Dominions. 
 
 The deficiency of the Revenue, upon the average of 
 the last five years of the Civil Expenditure, amounts, 
 as will appear in the paper I have the honour to transmit, 
 to £12,000 per annum, and the Military expence of the 
 two Canadas, according to the best Information I can 
 collect to about £260,000, this Expejice would, in case 
 of any Tumult or Insurrection in the Country, or of a 
 war with the neighbouring States, most probably be 
 double its present amount, and this Consideration alone
 
 DEFECTS OF THE ASSEMBLY 119 
 
 shows, how infinitely important it is to the Mother- 
 Country, that Your Grace should be made acquainted, 
 while there is yet time, with every means by which the 
 Influence of the Crown may be increased and the hands 
 of the Executive Power strengthened. 
 
 But there is another Consideration of perhaps greater 
 importance than any above mentioned : Could such an 
 Influence be obtained throughout the Province by means 
 of the Priests and the Captains of Militia, as I have 
 ventured to look forward to, that Influence when fully 
 established might also be employed so as at all Times 
 to ensure a Majority in favour of the Government in the 
 House of Assembly, and to secure the election in that 
 House of such men, as from their Education and know- 
 ledge of Business are most likely to see the real Interests 
 of the Province in their true light, and not to be deluded 
 by the fallacious arguments of any popular speaker from 
 giving their entire support to the Executive Government. 
 The defect of such an Influence over the Elections lessens 
 the respectabiUty of that Assembly in a very great 
 degree, and particularly as from the absolute want which 
 has so long existed of the means of Education and the 
 inability of the Canadians to support the Expence that 
 would attend sending their sons to the Mother-Country 
 for that purpose, there are at present scarcely any rising 
 men, and but few men of Talent among the Canadian 
 Gentry. 
 
 From this and other Causes the Business of the House 
 of Assembly is transacted with so little system, or 
 regularity, that the oldest members are sometimes 
 unable to form a judgment of what is likely to be 
 the Result of their deliberations on the most common 
 subjects. 
 
 While a due Preponderance on the side of Government 
 is so manifestly wanting in the Assembly, it is considered 
 by the well-wishers of Government as a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance that the Revenue is not equal to the Expendi- -f 
 ture, and Your Grace will immediately see the necessity 
 on this account of preserving, in appearance at least, that 
 disposition in a greater or less degree, as there is reason 
 to apprehend that in case the Province could be induced i 
 to tax itself in a degree equal to the calls of the Execu- 
 tive Government, the Right of Regulation and Control 
 over the whole would probably be aspired to by the
 
 120 THE CONSTTTUTTONAL ACT OF 1701 
 
 Assembly/ whicli could not fail of producing the most 
 injurious consequences to the Colonial Government, 
 rendering it from that moment dependent on the will 
 of a })0]nilar Assembly. 
 
 The burthen which is at present thrown upon the 
 ^lother-Country will be fully Compensated for, when- 
 ever the sums that shall arise from the sale of the Waste 
 Lands begin to come in, and particularly if (as appears 
 by the despatch of the 13th Juty. 1797, to Gen. Prescott, 
 to have been in contemplation) it should be determined 
 to appropriate the moneys arising from these sales to 
 the purchase of Stock in the English Funds, and the 
 Interest of this Stock to go in aid of the Civil Expendi- 
 tures of the Province, in such manner as the Lords of 
 His Majesty's Treasury may direct. 
 
 The Quantity of Land which from first to last will have 
 been at the disposal of Government is computed at about 
 One hundred and fifty Townships, equal to Ten million 
 of Acres, which have actually been applied for, including 
 as is supposed the principal part of the Ungranted Lands 
 in Lower Canada that are deemed convenient and fit for 
 cultivation. 
 
 Of the above about Thirty-five Townships only are in 
 contemplation to be granted in the original Terms pro- 
 posed in the year 1792, consequently one hundred and 
 fifteen Townships will remain for the future disposition 
 of the Crown, exclusive of the Church and Crown reserves, 
 consisting of five-sevenths set apart in the Townships 
 already granted. 
 
 The Wealth, Power and Influence that must accrue 
 to the Parent State when these Lands become settled 
 is an object of self-evident magnitude, and must in time 
 make a full return for whatever will be found necessary 
 in the meanwhile to support and secure so valuable a 
 colony. 
 
 I flatter myself there can be no doubt that the 
 Liberality with which His Majesty has lately been 
 pleased to provide the means of Education in the Pro- 
 vince, will go a great way to secure the affection and 
 Loyalty of the rising Generation, who would otherwise 
 be in danger of imbibing Principles inimical to His 
 
 1 Experience after 1818, when the offer of the Assembly to provide 
 for the civil expenses of the province was accepted, justified Milnes's 
 apprehensions.
 
 EDUCATION AND RELIGION 121 
 
 Majesty's mild and paternal Government, by the neces- 
 sity which has hitherto existed of their being sent to the 
 neighbouring states for Education.^ 
 
 The respectable footing upon which the Protestant 
 Church is about to be put in Quebec will likewise tend 
 to increase Consideration which ought to prevail for the 
 Established Church. ^ 
 
 \^Tien I began this Dispatch I did not foresee the 
 length into which I have inevitably been drawn, but 
 trust I shall stand excused in the opinion of Your Grace 
 by the motives that have actuated me in this research, 
 and I may truly say I have no other view than a full 
 and conscientious discharge of aU the duties that belong 
 to the situation which His Majesty has been pleased to 
 entrust to me. 
 
 I have the Honour to be, My Lord, 
 
 Your Grace's most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 ROBT. S. MiLNES. 
 
 1 A Bill for establishing free schools for the teaching of English, and 
 for " the incorporation of the Koyal Institution for the Advancement 
 of Learning " was carried in the session of 1800-1801, but remained 
 without effect, largely owing to the opposition of the Roman Catholic 
 clergy. See Kingsford, oj}. cif., vii. 480-482. 
 
 2 In 1799 the Duke of Portland, on behalf of His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, had given a site for an Anglican cathedral, and a small annual 
 grant. See lungsford, op. cit., vii. 475-476.
 
 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 From 1791 to 1838 the Constitutional Act remained in 
 force, but both in Upper and in Lower Canada grievances 
 soon arose. The Governor, the Executive Council, the 
 Legislative Council, and the Legislative Assembly quar- 
 relled among themselves, each proving strong enough to 
 thwart the others, but not to assert its own supremacy. 
 In Lower Canada this struggle was complicated by racial 
 and religious antagonism, the French Canadians forming 
 the majority of the Assembly, while the Governor chose 
 his Councils mainly from the English inhabitants of 
 Quebec and Montreal. A bitter dispute also arose 
 between the two provinces, Lower Canada refusing to give 
 to the Upper Province an adequate share in the Customs 
 dues levied at the port of Montreal, an increasing propor- 
 tion of which was collected on goods destined for use in 
 Upper Canada. To remedy these evils, the Imperial 
 Government in 1822 proposed a union of the two Canadas.^ 
 This proposal was withdrawn, owing to the fierce opposi- 
 tion of the French Canadians and the lukewarm attitude 
 of the English, but that part of the Act dealing with the 
 apportionment of the revenue passed into law as the 
 Canada Trade Act. 
 
 1 It is interesting to note the large share played by financial 
 questions in this proposed constitutional change. Similarlj-, in the 
 negotiations leading up to the federation of 1S67 the financial relations 
 between the provinces proved a rock which more than once threatened 
 to wreck the scheme. 
 
 122
 
 PROPOSED GENERAL UNION 123 
 
 The chief arguments for and against the proposed 
 measure are given in a private letter of Sir John Sher- 
 brooke, Governor from 1816 to 1818, to Lord Bathurst, 
 the Colonial Secretary, and in the following petitions 
 submitted to the King and to the Imperial Parliament, 
 the text of which is quoted from the Report of the 
 Canadian Archivist for 1897. 
 
 The Legislative Councils of both provinces were at this 
 time controlled by an English-speaking oligarchy, the core 
 of which was composed of the prominent Loyalists and 
 their descendants. In the answers of the chief of these to 
 the questions of the Imperial Government, while the sug- 
 gested union v/as but coldly received, a proposal for the 
 federation of all the British North American provinces 
 was put forward.^ In 1824 several of these replies were 
 published in London, including those of J. B. Robinson, 
 Attorney-General of Upper Canada ; John Strachan, 
 Bishop of the same province ; and William Sewell, Chief 
 Justice of Lower Canada. The two main arguments ad- 
 vanced in favour of the proposition were the gradual 
 extinction of French influence, or, at any rate, of 
 French preponderance, and the strengthening of British 
 North America against the rising power of the United 
 States. 
 
 Sir John Coape Sherbrooke to Lord Bathurst. 
 
 Calverton near Southwell, 
 
 Notts, 
 Uth March^ 1822. 
 
 My Lord, — I have been honoured with your Lordship's 
 private and confidential letter of the 11th inst., the con- 
 tents of which shall not transpire, and in reply to your 
 
 1 The first such proposal subsequent to the loss of the American 
 colonies is found in a report on Nova Scotia made in 1784 by Lientonant- 
 Colonel Morse, and given in full in the Kcport of the Canadian Archivist 
 for 1884. Oddly enough, he proposed that the capital of the united
 
 124 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 question " Whether the Union of Upper and Lower Canada 
 irould have a beneficial c-ffect" I answer, that if these Pro- 
 vinces continue in the same state they were in at the time 
 T rehn(|uished the Government, an Union would be very 
 desirable, provided it could be established on proper 
 principles, so that the undue influence of the Assembly 
 should be somewhat controlled and the power of the Crown 
 increased. But if such a measure were to be attempted, 
 considerable difficulties must be expected before it 
 could be reconciled with the jarring interests of the 
 inhabitants and the variety of wild opinions so generally 
 entertained. 
 
 Your Lordship's description of the persons usually 
 returned to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada is 
 perfectly correct. And the mischiefs arising from this 
 cause are incalculable. I also agree that the Assembly of 
 Upper Canada appears more tractable at present. But 
 when I consider the vicinity of the latter Province to the 
 United States, the population continually flowing in from 
 thence, the constant communication and intermarriages 
 between the families on both sides of the line, the number 
 of Americans who purchase the best of the lands as soon 
 as they are cleared and every other description of property 
 in Upper Canada worth having ; and when I look to the 
 loose demoralising principles introduced by those people, 
 I very much doubt whether rehance can be placed on a 
 continuance of this tractable disposition. 
 
 I am fully aware my Lord of the evils arising from that 
 ascendancy which the Catholics of Lower Canada exercise 
 to the prejudice of whatever relates to the Protestant 
 interest, but I suspect a very erroneous idea prevails in 
 this country of the state of religion in Upper Canada. It 
 might be supposed that the generality of the inhabitants 
 being called Protestants were either of the communion of 
 the estabhshed Church or of the Kirk of Scotland. 
 Whereas the greater part are Methodists and Sectaries 
 of every description. And I am sorry to add there 
 
 provinces should be placed in the island of Cape Breton. The next 
 proposition of the sort was that of Chief Justice Smith, quoted on 
 pp. 104-110. In 1809 a federal union was advocated in the Legislature 
 of Nova Scotia by R. J. Uniacke. In 1814 a similar proposal was made 
 to the Duke of Kent by Chief Justice SeweU of Lower Canada, wh o 
 had married a daughter of Smith, and been much influenced by him . 
 Subsequent propositions will be noted later.
 
 ARGUMENTS AGAINST UNION 125 
 
 are many who appear to have no sense of rehgion 
 whatever. 
 
 Circumstances have materially changed since the 
 separation of the two Provinces, and I could not avoid 
 remarking when I was in Upper Canada, that in many 
 instances a' stronger bias prevailed in favour of the 
 American than of the British form of Government. 
 Whereas the Cathohcs in Lower Canada have a rooted 
 antipathy to the Government of the United States, and 
 have no dread equal to that of one day falling under its 
 Dominion. This trait of character I venture to press on 
 your Lordship's attention, as whatever may be the fate 
 of the Upper Province, the Americans will never be able 
 to establish themselves in Lower Canada, whilst this 
 feeling is cherished. 
 
 In giving my candid opinion of the state of the two 
 provinces, I shall be happy if I have in any degree 
 answered the expectations your Lordsliip has done me 
 the honour to express. And I have only to assure you of 
 my willingness at all times to attend to your Lordship's 
 commands. In repeating that I shall not fail to hold your 
 Lordship's communication confidential, I must request 
 that my answer may be looked upon in the same light, 
 and have the honour to be, my Lord, 
 
 Your Lordship's very obedient and 
 Faithful humble servant, 
 
 J. C. Sherbrooke. 
 
 To THE King's Most Excellent Majesty : 
 
 The Petition of the Undersigned Seigniors, Magistrates, 
 Members of the Clergy, Officers of Militia, Merchants, 
 Landholders, and others. Inhabitants of the City and 
 District of Quebec, Province of Lower Canada : 
 
 Humbly Sheweth : 
 
 That your Petitioners have learnt with the greatest 
 satisfaction, that Your Majesty has taken into your 
 Gracious Consideration the State of the Provinces of 
 Upper and Lower Canada, Avith a view to adjust certain 
 differences relating to matters of Revenue complained of 
 by the Province of Upper Canada ; and as it appears that 
 Your Majesty's Government in the course of its inquiry
 
 126 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 into the sources of these differences, has become satisfied 
 of the necessity of some change being made in the Con- 
 stitution of these Provinces, but has postponed the adop- 
 tion of tinal measures in order to give time to the people 
 thereof to express their sentiments, Your Petitioners beg 
 leave humbly to approach Your Majesty with a statement 
 of various Evils under which they have laboured for some 
 years and from which they have no hope of relief except 
 by the interposition of Your Majesty and the Imperial 
 Parliament. 
 
 The experience of thirty years has now demonstrated 
 the impolicy of the Act of the British Parliament, 31 
 Geo. III., Cap. 31, by which the late Province of Quebec 
 was divided into the Provinces of Upper and Lower 
 Canada. To this Division Your Petitioners ascribe the 
 present ineffective state of the Legislature and the want 
 of those necessary measures for diffusing tliroughout the 
 whole population of the country feelings becoming their 
 character as British subjects, and introducing that general 
 spirit of improvement wliich encouraged by the com- 
 mercial system, universally pervades and invigorates other 
 British Colonies. This division has created a difference 
 of interest between the Provinces in matters connected 
 with Revenue highly injurious to both, inevitably pro- 
 ducing a spirit of dissension and animosity, and infusing 
 into the Legislatures principles of a narrow and selfish 
 policy adverse to the general development of their re- 
 sources, and in an especial manner to the improvement 
 of the channels of intercourse between them, and it is 
 essential here to notice that nearly the whole of the 
 Revenue of the two Provinces arises from the duties levied 
 on Merchandize imported at the port of Quebec under 
 Laws enacted by the Legislature of the Lower Provin. 
 It has also, from the control which the geographical 
 situation of the Lower Province enables it to exercise over 
 the trade of the Canadas placed the export Trade of the 
 Upper Province at its mercy, being subject to such regula- 
 tions and restrictions at the Shipping Port as its Legisla- 
 ture may choose to impose. From this circumstance, 
 and from the feeble attempts made to improve the grand 
 natural channel of the Canadas, strikingly contrasted Avith 
 the enterprise and energy evinced by the neighbouring 
 State of New York in the rapid formation of Canals, 
 together with the indifference manifested on this subject
 
 EVILS OF DISUNION 127 
 
 by the Legislature of the Lower Province ; Your Peti- 
 tioners have just reason for alarm, that if a similar system 
 be persisted in, it may tend in a most injurious degree to 
 increase the Commercial Intercourse of the Upper Pro- 
 vince with the United States and divert the enterprise and 
 trade of its inhabitants into a foreign channel and from 
 these causes Your Petitioners not only apprehend the 
 immediate loss of beneficial Trade, but that the gradual 
 effect would be to interweave the interests of the Upper 
 Canadians with those of the neighbouring States, thereby 
 alienating their minds from the people of this province 
 and weakening their affection for Your Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, notwithstanding their present known and tried 
 loyalty. 
 
 The Legislature of this Province has for a long time past 
 been agitated by dissensions and their deliberations so 
 much interrupted thereby, that Trade, Agriculture, 
 Education and other objects of general interest have been 
 neglected. There exists no Law for the Registry of 
 Lands and Mortgages, so necessary for security in com- 
 mercial transactions, no Insolvent Debtors' Act, and 
 your Petitioners have looked in vain for a Law to provide 
 for the unrepresented state of the Townships, a fertile 
 and valuable portion of this Province settled by Inhabi- 
 tants of British origin ; of these Legislative Enactments 
 and many others necessary to quicken the enterprise and 
 industry of a commercial country, your Petitioners enter- 
 tain little hope, until a Reunion of the Provinces shall 
 have weakened the influence which has hitherto prevented 
 their adoption in our statvite book. The existence of this 
 influence, your petitioners chiefly attribute to the im- 
 politic division of these Provinces, which instead of ren- 
 dering it the interest, as it is the duty of every Individual 
 of the community to concur in measures to assimilate 
 the whole population and to allay the jealousies naturally 
 existing between the several classes, has unavoidably 
 presented to the individuals, who first attained a majority 
 in the Legislature, a temptation to perpetuate their own 
 power by adopting a course directly opposite. To the 
 same influence may be traced the small encouragement 
 which has been held out to the settlement of the vacant 
 lands of this Lower Province by British population, 
 and consequently that of upwards of eighty thousand 
 souls (a number equal to one-fourth of the actual
 
 128 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 French population), who since the last American war 
 have emigrated to this Province from Great Britain and 
 Ireland, scarcely one-twentieth part remain within its 
 limits. 
 
 Your Petitioners have observed with gratitude, the 
 disposition which Your Majesty's Government has evinced 
 by the Act of the present year of your Majesty's, cap. 119,^ 
 to apply a remedy to the existing political evil of these 
 Provinces, but it is their humble opinion that the Pro- 
 visions thereof are insufficient ; that numerous circum- 
 stances concur to render vain any attempt permanently 
 to regulate to the satisfaction of both Provinces the divi- 
 sion of the revenue collected at the Port of Quebec unless 
 united under one Legislature ; and further they humbly 
 beg leave to express their fears, that some of the pro- 
 visions of this Act although dictated by the necessity of 
 regulating the conflicting claims of the two Provinces 
 may afford a pretext for others for imputing to the Im- 
 perial Parliament a disposition remote from the intentions 
 and views of your Majesty's Government. 
 
 Having thus stated the evils under which they have 
 suffered your Petitioners feel the fullest confidence in the 
 justice and wisdom of your Majesty's government, and 
 being satisfied that the subject will receive the most 
 serious and deliberate consideration, would have felt 
 much hesitation in presuming to suggest remedies ; 
 but as the Reunion of the two Provinces has been 
 proposed in the Imperial Parliament, they beg leave 
 to express their entire acquiescence in the adoption of 
 that measure upon such principles as shall secure to all 
 classes of your Majesty's Subjects in these Provinces their 
 just rights and protect the whole in the enjoyment of 
 existing Laws and their Religion as guaranteed — such a 
 Union would in the opinion of your Petitioners afford the 
 most effectual remedy for existing evils as it would tend 
 gradually to assimilate the whole population in opinions, 
 habits and feehngs, and afford a reasonable hope that the 
 wisdom of the United Legislature would devise a system 
 of government of more consistency and unity, and of 
 greater liberahty to all classes than has hitherto been 
 experienced — a Union on the Equitable Principles humbly 
 suggested by your Majesty's Petitioners, will necessarily 
 include a representation proportionate as near as possible 
 
 1 The Canada Trade Act (3 George IV., c. 119).
 
 OPPOSITION IN UPPER CANADA 129 
 
 to the numbers, wealth and resources of the different 
 classes of inhabitants of these Provinces, will require no 
 innovation in the Laws or Religion of the Country nor 
 proscription in Debate or Motion in the Legislature, of 
 the language of any portion of the Inhabitants, in every 
 class of whom, bravery and loyalty have been evinced as 
 fellow soldiers in defence of the Provinces. 
 
 May it therefore graciously please your Majesty that a 
 Bill for the Union of the two Provinces of Upper and 
 Lower Canada, on the equitable terms prayed for by your 
 Petitioners, do pass into Law and the Constitution estab- 
 lished thereby be preserved inviolate to your Petitioners 
 and their posterity. 
 
 And your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. 
 
 Quebec, December, 1822. 
 
 To the Honourable the Commons of the United King- 
 dom of Great Britain and Ireland in Imperial Parliament 
 assembled. 
 
 The Petition of the Inhabitants of the County of Went- 
 worth in the District of Gore and Province of Upper 
 Canada most respectfully sheweth. That your peti- 
 tioners. His Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects many of 
 whom emigrated to this province at an early period of its 
 existence as such (for the purpose of enjoying the blessings 
 of British government) immediately drew forth the 
 Paternal care and solicitude of His late Majesty George 
 the third, who in the thirty first year of His Reign by and 
 with the advice of the British Parliament gave to Canada 
 a Constitution a transcript of their own and at the same 
 time for good and sufficient reasons divided Canada into 
 two Provinces ; the Upper Province being principally 
 settled by subjects of His Majesty who were accustomed 
 to British Laws and using the English language. 
 
 Every Circumstance that has arisen during the period 
 elapsed has tended to unfold its benefits by bringing its 
 enactments into practical operation, raising our admira- 
 tion of, and attachment to a constitution so well adapted 
 to our feelings and contributing so largely to our happiness. 
 
 Conscious that our gratitude and attachment to His 
 Majesty's government had been manifested on every 
 proper occasion, it was with deepest regret and almost 
 astonishment that we received the heads of a bill brought 
 
 9
 
 UO PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 before Your Honourable House during its last session for 
 altering the said Act of 31st Geo. 3rd, Cli. 31, altering 
 the same so as to destroy our liberty altogether, without 
 our consent, or even our knowledge and without any mis- 
 conduct on our part amounting to a forfeiture. 
 
 We beg leave to assure Your Honourable House, that 
 the proposed alterations could only have originated in 
 misrepresentations of the grossest nature and from utter 
 ignorance of the localities of the Country and the wants, 
 circumstances and feelings of the people. 
 
 It was thought proper in the present Constitution to 
 leave the quantum of property possessed by Representa- 
 tives to be assigned by the Pro\incial Legislature, which 
 has been done so as to secure the respectability of the 
 assembly mthout circumscribing too far the choice of the 
 Electors ; but raising the qualification of members to £500 
 Sterling agreeably to the Bill before Your Honourable 
 House at its last session, would have the effect of dis- 
 franchising the electors altogether, some Counties not 
 being able to select such qualified persons out of their 
 whole population. Landed property hkewise being made 
 answerable for demands against the owners, in cases where 
 Chattels would only be liable in England, causes real 
 estate in this province frequently to change possessors. 
 We would rather therefore resign the Representative 
 Branch altogether, than to have the House of Assembly 
 established on such principles, and to be told of every 
 Act "«ath which we could not accord, that it was our own ; 
 when we might, and frequently would be under the neces- 
 sity of choosing men for our Representatives, no other way 
 qualified, than by holding large tracts of wild land which 
 is in effect one of the greatest nuisances in the province.^ 
 
 The lengthening the duration of each Parliament to 
 five years is to us particularly objectionable as extending 
 too far the period before wliich the Representatives could 
 again meet their constituents ; and the vesting of the 
 Executive government of each province wdth power to 
 introduce two members into the Assembly without the 
 exercise of the elective franchise, is we believe, without 
 a precedent, and would give an undue influence to the 
 Executive which in our opinion already possesses enough 
 
 ^ The Bill itself, and the Canada Trade Act, will be found in Fii hlic 
 Bills (1822), vol. iii.
 
 OBJECTIONS TO UNION 131 
 
 for all the proper purposes of government ; for in this 
 country ofRcers under the government are not excluded 
 from the legislature as in England, by whom every wish 
 of the Executive may be made known and ably sup- 
 ported, as has been constantly the case. 
 
 The requisition likewise made upon the Legislature to 
 make permanent provision for the administration of 
 Justice and support of the Civil Government, would at 
 once render that power a nominal and unsubstantial one, 
 and deprive the House of Assembly of the only proper 
 and effectual check necessary to balance the otherwise 
 overwhelming force of the Executive. For our own 
 short history has taught us that times of plenty are times 
 of profusion, and by granting a permanent supply, the 
 House of Assembly will part with the power to accom- 
 modate the expenditure to the amount their resources 
 may enable them to grant, to curtail enormous contin- 
 gencies, or to afford compensation to services that may 
 imperatively call for reward. The propriety of this ob- 
 servation has become more evident by the experience of 
 a few years, for from 1812 to 1816 an unusual quantity of 
 money was in circulation in this province, and as might be 
 expected, abundance in receipt produced extravagance in 
 expenditure, both public and private. The reverse has 
 been great and sudden, for we have experienced and do still 
 experience a period of depression beyond parallel, during 
 which, all the usual means of the country have scarcely 
 been equal to the nett supply of an increased expenditure. 
 
 We proceed humbly to state our objections to an union 
 of the Legislatures of the Canadas on any terms. 
 
 The population of this province is chiefly composed of 
 subjects Avho have emigrated from Great Britain and Ire- 
 land, or from His Majesty's late American Colonies, and 
 their descendants, who from a sameness of Origin, Lan- 
 guage, Customs and Government, easily unite, commix 
 and become one people. 
 
 While His Majesty's subjects, our Brethren of Lower 
 Canada, sprung from a distinct origin, speak a different 
 language, profess a different form of Religion, are wedded 
 to their own peculiar manners and customs and each 
 Legislature having enacted, adopted and retained Laws 
 suitable to their own usages, customs and local wants ; 
 and these two provinces having been separated into dif- 
 ferent governments for more than thirty vears ; your 
 
 " 9—2
 
 132 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 petitioners do not believe that two bodies so heterogeneous 
 and discordant in all their parts as the Legislatures of 
 LTpper and Lower Canada must necessarily be can unite, 
 cement and become one so far as to render equal advan- 
 tages to both, wliich each has a right to expect from its 
 own separate Legislature ; and if an ascendancy should 
 be given to the Representation of Upper Canada over 
 that of Lower Canada, to which we do not feel entitled 
 from our population, it would be offering injustice to our 
 Brethren of the Lower Province, with whom we have no 
 desire to quarrel nor by any measure to break in upon 
 their rights and peace ; and should the advantage be on 
 the part of Lower Canada we must be at their mercy, 
 and we have no right to expect that attention to our 
 interests wliich our wants and circumstances require, the 
 only ground of difference heretofore existing between us 
 being an account of our Quota of the Revenue which 
 having been put in an amicable train of adjustment by 
 the prompt and timely interference of the British Parlia- 
 ment and His Majesty's Government at once does awaj' 
 with every semblance of reasonable argument that might 
 be offered by those anxious for a reunion : — and also the 
 extent of Territory would be so great that were it in- 
 habited by the same people throughout, it must neces- 
 sarily present such varied local interests that the wants 
 of some parts of so extensive a colony mil be more liable 
 to suffer from neglect, from ignorance or from clashing 
 interests than a less extent of territory would be. 
 
 To sum up all, Your Petitioners are of opinion that the 
 different origin of the population of the two Provinces, 
 the difference of their languages, habits, manners, customs 
 and ReHgions, together ^^dth their varied interests, will 
 necessarily produce efforts for ascendancy, create 
 jealousies, strifes, animosities and contentions, which may 
 break out in consequences of an alarming nature, and all 
 without answering any one desirable object which we can 
 foresee, or that may balance the least of the evils that 
 appear to us so obvious. 
 
 Wherefore, We his Majesty's faithful subjects most 
 earnestly beseech Your Honourable House to abstain 
 from placing us in a situation so perilous, so contrary to our 
 wishes, and as we fear so destructive of our best interests, 
 and that Your Honourable House would forbear passing 
 the said or any other Bill of a like nature into a Law
 
 OPPOSITION IN LOWER CANADA 133 
 
 for uniting the Legislatures of Upper and Lower Canada, 
 at any future Session of the Imperial Parliament. 
 
 And Your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. 
 
 (329 signatures are attached.) 
 
 A LA TRES EXCELLENTE MaJESTE DU RoI : 
 
 La Petition cles Soussignes, Seigneurs, Magistrals, 
 Memhres du Clerge, Ojjiciers de Milice, Marchands, 
 Tenanciers, et autres Habitants de la Province du 
 Bas-Canada. 
 
 Expose Humblement : 
 
 Que c'est avec la plus profonde douleur et les plus vives 
 alarmes que vos Petitionnaires ont appris que dans la 
 derniere session du Parlement des Royaumes Unis il 
 avoit ete, de I'approbation des serviteurs de Votre Majeste, 
 introduit dans I'honorable Chambre des Communes, un 
 Bill pour alterer I'heureuse Constitution de Gouvernement 
 etablie en cette Province par le Statut de la Sleme Geo. 
 III., chap. 3L 
 
 Que I'evenement d'une convocation prochaine du Par- 
 lement, pouvant faire perdre a la Legislature de cette 
 Province I'occasion que les Communes dans leur sagesse 
 et leur justice ont bien voulu donner au peuple de cette 
 Province d'exprimer a Votre Majeste et aux deux Cham- 
 bres du Parlement ses sentiments siu" un sujet d'une si 
 haute importance, Vos Petitionnaires croient qu'il est de 
 leur devoir en vers Votre Majeste, et en vers eux-memes, 
 de mettre sans delai au pied de Votre Trone, leurs tres 
 humbles representations au sujet de ce Bill. 
 
 Qu'aucune des autorites constituees en vertu du dit 
 Statut, ni aucune partic des sujets de Votre Majeste en 
 cette Province n'avoient jamais sollicite publiquement 
 qu'il y fut fait aucun changement, mais au contraire 
 toutes les classes du Peuple de cette Province ont con- 
 stamment manifeste un attachement inviolable a cette 
 constitution, et ont tout recemment encore expose avec 
 ardeur, leur vie et leurs fortunes pour sa defense ct celle 
 du gouvernement de Votre Majeste, tel qu'etabli par le 
 dit statut. 
 
 Que ce Statut ne fut accorde aux sujets de Votre 
 Majeste en cette Province, conformement a la promosse 
 Royale, contenue dans la Proclamation du 7 Octobre 1763,
 
 134 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 que sur uu ^[essage de feu Sa Majeste, recommandant au 
 Parlenicnt, la division de la Province de Quebec apres 
 plusiours Petitions pour et contre sa passation, de la part 
 des differentes classes dont il devait affecter les interets 
 et apres que les Petitionnaires eurent ete entendus a la 
 barre de la Chambre des Communes, et en consequence 
 tous vos sujets en ces parties de Vos Domaines Font re9u 
 et avec raison I'ont regarde comme un Pacte solennel, 
 par lequel I'autorite Supreme de I'Empire leur donnait 
 une garantie legale et permanente de la conservation de 
 leurs libertes, de leurs proprietes, et de leurs droits les plus 
 chers. 
 
 Que ce Statut modele sur la constitution de la Mere 
 Patrie par quelques-uns des plus grands et des plus sages 
 de ses hommes d'Etat etablit des pouvoirs suffisants pour 
 reformer les abus, reparer les torts, appaiser les mecon- 
 tentements, et promouvoir le bien general de la Province, 
 sans exiger 1 'intervention de la Legislatm'e Supreme, 
 intervention qui, lorsqu'elle a ete exercee, s'est trouvee 
 si pernicieuse en se chargeant des mecontentements pure- 
 ment locaux et temporaires, et en mesintelligences dan- 
 gereuses entre les colonies et la Metropole. 
 
 Que malgre divers obstacles et difficultes que les ressorts 
 et Taction de la Constitution etablie par le dit Statut font 
 graduellement disparoitre, la population de cette Province 
 s'est accrue aussi rapidement que celle des Etats-Unis, 
 sans recevoir une augmentation proportionelle par 
 I'emigration, le revenu public s'est trouve a peu pres suflfi- 
 sant pour subvenir a toutes ses depenses necessaires et 
 son commerce ainsi que son agriculture, meme dans ces 
 temps si difficiles, ont fait des progres considerables. 
 
 Que d'apres ces considerations Vos Petitionnaires ne 
 peu vent que pre voir que si ce Bill, introduit a I'insu des 
 habitants de cette Province, et si contraire a leurs voeux, 
 passoit en loi, outre les maux qu'ils ont a craindre de ses 
 dispositions, ils demeureroient, eux et leur posterite, sans 
 assurance suffisante de conserver ce qui leur resteroit de 
 droits et de libertes, que d'apres un pareil exemple sur des 
 representations secretes et partiales, ils seroient a chaque 
 instant exposes a perdre, et qui d'ailleurs demeureroient 
 a la disposition d'une Legislature Coloniale illegalement 
 constituee, etrangere aux interets, aux sentiments et au 
 bonheur de la grande majorite des sujets de Votre Majeste 
 dans cette Colonic.
 
 OBJECTIONS TO UNION 135 
 
 Que les differends qui se sont eleves entre cette Province 
 et celle du Haut-Canada, relativement a leur revenu, et 
 qui ont ete publiquement allegues comme le principal 
 motif de I'introduction de ce Bill, ne sont pas une suite 
 de la division des deux Provinces, mais proviennent 
 uniquement de causes temporaires, toujours faciles a faire 
 cesser, soit par des Actes de leurs Legislatures respectives 
 suivant lesquels chaque Province se borneroit a percevoir 
 son propre revenu, chacune d'elles dormant libre passage 
 et toutes facilites au Commerce de I'autre ou par des 
 reglements faits dans le Parlement du Royaume-Uni, 
 suivant la 46eme Section du dit Statut, de la 31eme 
 Geo. III., Chap. 31, et apres avoir entendu les deux 
 parties. 
 
 Qu'on ne sauroit se promettre de I'Union des Legisla- 
 tures des deux Provinces de voir terminer d'une maniere 
 juste et efficace ces differends, puisque cette mesure 
 laisseroit aux parties en litige a prononcer elles-memes sur 
 leurs propres pretentions et donnerait necessairement lieu 
 (quelle que fiit celle qui I'emportat) a des injustices et a 
 des discordes nuisibles aux interets de la Mere Patrie et 
 funestes a ceux des deux Provinces. 
 
 Qu'une telle Union feroit renaitre ces dissensions resul- 
 tant de la difference de langage, de religion, de lois et 
 d'interet locaux qui agiterent la Province de Quebec, et 
 que sa division en deux gouvernements separes si heur- 
 eusement fait cesser ; et qu'une Legislature ainsi consti- 
 tuee, ne sauroit parvenir aux fins utiles d'une Legislation 
 eclairee, qu'il ne pourroit resulter que des lois fondees sur 
 des renseignements insuffisants et nuisibles aux droits, 
 aux interets, aux sentiments et a la situation de ceux pour 
 qui elles seroient faites. 
 
 Que la situation geograjohique, la difference de climat, 
 et etendue des deux Provinces, dont quelques parties 
 peuplees sont a plus de quinze cents mi lies les unes des 
 autres, forment ainsi que la difficulte des communications 
 dans les pays nouveaux des obstacles insurmontables a 
 rUnion projetee et que les sacrifices qui en resulteroient 
 aux membres pour se rendre a leurs places, et aux con- 
 stituants pour communiquer leurs besoins locaux au siege 
 de la Legislature, priveroient certainement une grande 
 partie des sujets de Votre Majeste dans I'une et I'autre 
 Province de leurs justes droits, et de toute participation 
 dans la legislation de leur pays.
 
 130 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 Que c'est avec la douleur la plus reelle que vos Peti- 
 tionnaires voyent sans pouvoir se le dissimuler, que les 
 dispositions principales de ce Bill, se dirigent contrc les 
 plus chers interets de cette partie des sujets de Votre 
 Majeste, qui ferment les neuf dixiemes de la population 
 de cette Province. Et surtout qu'il y ait ete introduit a 
 regard de la langue et des etablissements religieux d'un si 
 grand nombre de vos sujets, des clauses qui doivent faire 
 naitre parmi les habitants de cette partie de vos domaines, 
 des jalousies et des prejuges, funestes a leur repos et a 
 leur bonheur, et qui paroissent incompatibles avec la 
 dignite, la sagesse et la justice du gouvernement de Votre 
 ^lajeste. 
 
 Que la clause de ce Bill qui interdit dans I'Assemblee 
 projetee, I'usage de la Langue Fran9oise, la seule que parle 
 et entend une si grande majorite des habitans de cette 
 Province, leur feroit perdre indirectement le droit d'etre 
 elu a cette Assemblee, equivaudroit en effet pour eux a 
 une privation absolue d'un des plus grands avantages 
 qu'aient les sujets de Votre Majeste, generoit et restrein- 
 droit leurs franchises et hbertes, et diminuant le nombre 
 des personnes propres a les representer eflficacement, 
 feroit des personnes qualifiees une classe privilegiee au 
 sein d'une Colonie Britannique. 
 
 Que ce Bill en accordant au Haut-Canada dont la 
 population n'est au plus qu'un cinquieme de celle du Bas, 
 autant de Membres qu'a cette derniere pour la representer 
 dans I'Assemblee Reunie, etabliroit en faveur de la 
 minorite une preferance humihante aux habitants de 
 cette Province, contraire a leur droits, comme sujets 
 Britanniques, et dangereuse pour leurs interets. 
 
 Et que vos Petitionnaires jaloux de conserver la part que 
 leur assure la division des deux Provinces dans le pouvoir 
 constitutionnel, de faire les lois que les concernent, ne 
 peuvent aussi que desirer que leur co-sujets de Haut- 
 Canada continuent a jouir d'un pareil avantage, commun 
 a toutes les autres Colonies de Votre Majeste. 
 
 Qu'outre ces sources fatales de discorde, d'injustice et 
 de confusion, ce Bill contient relativement a I'approbation 
 des subsides leves sur le peuple de cette Province, et a 
 d'autres objets, des dispositions contraires aux droits 
 de naissance de vos Petitionnaires comme sujets nes 
 Britanniques, et a la declaration expresse du Parlement. 
 
 Qu'il plaise done a Votre Majeste, que le dit Bill ne
 
 FORMER MISTAKES 137 
 
 passe pas en loi, et que I'Heureuse Constitution et la 
 Forme de gouveniement de cette Province, etablies par le 
 dit Statut soient conservees intactes a Vos Petitionnaires 
 et a leur posterite. 
 
 Et les Petitionnaires de Votre Majeste ne cesseront de 
 prier. 
 
 To THE King's Most Excellent Majesty : 
 
 The Petition of the Subscribers, Your Majesty's dutiful 
 and loyal Subjects of British birth or descent, 
 Inhabitants of the City and County of Montreal 
 in the Province of Lower Canada : 
 
 Most Humbly Sheweth : 
 
 That Your Majesty's Petitioners learnt with the most 
 hvely satisfaction, that the measure of uniting the Pro- 
 vinces of Upper and Lower Canada under one Legislature 
 had been submitted to the consideration of the Imperial 
 Parliament in its last Session, and have been impressed 
 with the sentiments of the most respectful gratitude for 
 the attention which has been bestowed on this measure of 
 vital importance to both Provinces. 
 
 Under the agreeable anticipation that the evident policy 
 and urgent necessity of a union of the Provinces will 
 induce a renewal of the measure in the next Session, 
 Your Majesty's Petitioners most respectfully beg leave 
 to submit the principal considerations that render them 
 in the highest degree anxious for the adoption of the pro- 
 posed Union. 
 
 Yom- Majesty's Petitioners in all humility represent 
 that the division of the late Province of Quebec into two 
 Provinces, must be referred to as a measure which has 
 been most prolific of evil. At the time the division took 
 place upwards of thirty years had elapsed from the Con- 
 quest of the country by Your Majesty's Arms ; and 
 notwithstanding the unlimited generosity which has been 
 displayed towards the conquered, by confirming to them 
 their Laws and Religion, by admitting them to a participa- 
 tion in the Government and in all the rights of British 
 Subjects, and by continued demonstrations of kindness 
 towards them, no advances had been made in effecting a 
 change in the principles, language, habits and manners, 
 whi^h characterize them as a foreign people. Such change
 
 138 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 as well from past experience, as from the known operation 
 of the feelings common to mankind, could not be expected 
 wliile the conquered people were permitted exclusively 
 to regulate their own Government, and thus cherish and 
 maintain the national peculiarities, which it was equally 
 the interest of the Parent State and of the Colony, should 
 be gradually effaced by an intimate miion with their 
 fellow subjects of British origin. On this account it 
 seemed evidently necessary in framing a new Constitu- 
 tion of Government that the representation should be so 
 regulated as to ensure a fit and reasonable influence of 
 British feeling and principles on the conduct of the 
 Colonial Legislature. The measures for this purpose 
 were at the time facihtated by the increase of the British 
 population which had taken place, and by the settlements 
 which had been formed by American Loyalists in the 
 Upper Districts of the late Province of Quebec ; in con- 
 sequence of which a sufficiently numerous body of persons 
 of British origin might, under a proper system of repre- 
 sentation, have been introduced into the Colonial Legisla- 
 ture without offending against any principle of Justice, 
 and certainly in strict conformity A\ath the dictates of 
 sound policy. Had this course which was anticipated at 
 the time by the French-Canadian population and would 
 then have been cheerfully acquiesced in by them, been 
 pursued. Your Majesty's Petitioners are confident that 
 the Province would now have been, in all essential 
 particulars, an Enghsh Province. Unfortunately, Your 
 Majesty's Petitioners in common mth their fellow sub- 
 jects of British origin, have to lament, that instead of 
 adopting the policy which has been mentioned, the 
 measure of dividing the Province was unexpectedly and 
 to the utter surprise of the persons who had petitioned for 
 a change in the Constitution, %vithout imagining that it 
 was to be accompanied by any such measure, resolved on ; 
 by wliich the English population in Lower Canada was 
 rendered inefficient from the comparative smallness of 
 their numbers, and the whole power of the representative 
 branch of the Government was given to the French 
 Canadians. It is a fact also, not unimportant to be 
 stated, that both the British and Foreign Canadian 
 subjects who had united in a joint petition to the Imperial 
 Parliament, praying for a change in the Government, 
 concurred through their agent, in petitioning, and were
 
 IMPOLICY OF CONSTITUTIONAL ACT 130 
 
 heard by Counsel, against the division of the Province ; 
 but their efforts were unavailing.^ 
 
 It is from this impolitic measure your Majestj^'s Peti- 
 tioners state with confidence that the political evils under 
 which Lower Canada has since laboured have principally 
 resulted as their primary cause. The French-Canadian 
 population for a short period of time after the adoption of 
 the present constitution, partly from incapacity to exercise 
 the pohtical powers with which they had become invested, 
 and partly from some remaining deference for their 
 English fellow subjects, used their ascendancy with 
 moderation ; but this disposition was not of long continu- 
 ance, and soon yielded to the inveterate anti-British and 
 anti-commercial prejudices, by which they have not ceased 
 to be actuated. The consequence has been, that persons 
 of British origin, with the exception of a very small 
 number, who have been elected rather for the sake of 
 appearances than from any regard for their qualifications, 
 have been excluded from the House of Assembly. The 
 proportion of English Representatives for many years 
 past, has hardly ever amounted to one-fourth of the entire 
 number ; and at the present time, of fifty members who 
 represent Lower Canada only ten are English. This 
 branch of the Government may indeed be said to be 
 exclusively in the possession of the uneducated peasantry 
 of the country, under the management and control of a 
 few of their countrymen, whose personal importance, in 
 opposition to the interests of the country at large depends 
 on the continuance of the present vicious system. As 
 illustrative of the spirit by which this body has been 
 actuated, it will not be deemed irrelevant to mention that 
 since the establishment of the present constitution, no 
 person of British origin has been elected Speaker of the 
 Assembly, although if regard had been had to abihty, 
 knowledge and other qualifications, a preference must 
 have been given to persons of that description. 
 
 The composition of a Legislative body, such as that 
 which has been described, under the influence of the pre- 
 judices of a foreign people, without the requisite ability 
 for the discharge of its functions, and from which persons, 
 
 1 On March 23, 1791, Mr. Adawi Lymburner, a Quebec merchant, as 
 
 agent for many dissatisfied Canadians, was heard at the bar of the 
 House of Commons, and pled with marked abihty against the Consti- 
 tutional Act (sec Cliristio, oj;. clL., vol. i., pp. 71-111).
 
 140 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 who by their knowledge, their property and their respec- 
 tabihty and influence in society, would constitute its 
 most eligible members stand excluded, certainly cannot 
 be deemed fit for regulating the concerns of a British 
 Province of so much importance as Lower Canada, con- 
 sistently with the interests of the Province itself or those 
 of the mother country. And if to those causes of dis- 
 qualification be added the most marked repugnance to 
 every measure calculated to assimilate the Inhabitants 
 of the country with their fellow subjects in other parts 
 of the Empire and to promote its commercial prosperity, 
 it is impossible not to observe in the constitution of the 
 Assembly of Lower Canada, the fertile source of all the 
 evils complained of. Hence it is indeed, that the ever 
 recurring differences between the several branches of the 
 Legislature have principally arisen : — Hence it is that the 
 powers of the Executive Government for the improve- 
 ment and advancement of the Colony, have in a great 
 measure become paralysed and utterly inefficient : — 
 Hence it is that the extension'of* British settlements has 
 been impeded and the increase of British population by 
 the tide of emigration which for some years past has 
 flowed so copiously into the province been prevented : — 
 Hence it is in fine, that all commercial enterprise and im- 
 provement have been crippled and obstructed, and the 
 country remains wdth all the foreign characteristics which 
 it possessed at the time of the conquest, that is, in all 
 particulars French. 
 
 The experience which your Majesty's Petitioners have 
 had of these evils and the prospect of still greater, if an 
 effectual remedy be not apphed, have rendered the pro- 
 posed Union of the Provinces to them a matter of the 
 most intense interest. They wnll therefore, it is hoped, 
 stand excused, if on a question involving their dearest 
 interests as well as those of their posterity, as British 
 subjects, they speak the language of truth without reserve. 
 In doing so they feel themselves constrained, on this part 
 of the subject, to declare that in their humble apprehen- 
 sion the adoption or rejection of the Union will determine 
 whether this Province is to be in fact as well as in name, a 
 British Province, or whether under the disguise of British 
 dependence for some time longer, it is to be for ever 
 French. In assuming the latter to be the consequence of 
 not adopting the Union, your Majesty's petitioners are
 
 " LA NATION CANADIENNE " 141 
 
 grounded on the most exclusive facts. The French popula- 
 tion of Canada, at the time of the conquest, was estimated 
 at sixty thousand ; and it is supposed may now exceed 
 three hundred thousand. The whole of tliis population, 
 though wdth the exception of an inconsiderable number 
 l)orn under the English dominion, is as strongly marked 
 by the characteristics of their foreign origin, as to lan- 
 guage, manners, habits and dispositions, as they were at 
 the time of the conquest. Without a union this popula- 
 tion must retain its present ascendancy in the government 
 of the country, and will not, of course, of its own accord 
 cease to be French. Its progressive increase under the 
 fostering protection of Great Britain would therefor© 
 necessarily lead to the result, which without a Union is 
 anticipated. And your Majesty's Petitioners cannot omit 
 to notice that the unreasonable extent of political rights 
 which has been conceded to this population to the pre- 
 judice of their fellow subjects of British origin together 
 with a sense of their growing strength, has already had 
 the effect of reahsing in the imagination of many of them 
 their fancied existence as a separate nation under the 
 name of the " Nation Canadienne "; implying pretensions 
 not more irreconcilable with the rights of their fellow 
 subjects than with a just subordination to the Parent 
 state. Your Majesty's Petitioners would respectfully 
 submit whether a system of government which has had 
 such effects, and which in its ulterior consequences, must 
 expose Great Britain to the mortification and disgrace 
 of having at immense expence, reared to the maturity of 
 independence a foreign conquered colony, to become the 
 ally of a foreign nation and the scourge of its native 
 subjects and their descendants, ought to be persisted in ? 
 In respectfully representing the considerations requiring 
 a Union, derived from the foreign character of a great 
 part of the population of Lower Canada and its inimical 
 disposition to everything British, Your Majesty's peti- 
 tioners have only stated those grounds for the measure 
 to which their situation and past experience have given 
 peculiar force and urgency. But if those were even ex- 
 cluded from view, and the Population of both Provinces 
 were entirely homogeneous, the necessity of uniting them 
 for their common interest as well as that of the mother 
 country would still be unquestional)le. It is n conse- 
 quence of the relative geographical situation of the Pro-
 
 142 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 vinces, that Upper Canada is entirely dependent on 
 Lower Canada for the means of communicating with the 
 Parent state and other countries ; it is only through 
 Lower Canada, that the Upper Province can receive its 
 supplies or export its surplus commodities. 
 
 The port of Quebec is the entrance common to both. 
 This being situated in Lower Canada the inhabitants of 
 Upper Canada can have neither free ingress into nor egress 
 from, their country, except in so far as it may be per- 
 mitted by the Government of Lower Canada. This Your 
 Majesty's Petitioners humbly represent is a cause for the 
 Union of the Provinces perpetual in its operation, and 
 which cannot be counteracted without a long series of 
 inconveniences and disasters to both. If while it may 
 still be done, the population of the two Provinces be not 
 gradually assimilated and identified in their interests by 
 a Union, the differences between them from the causes 
 now in operation and the collisions to which they mil 
 give rise, must have the effect of rendering the inhabitants 
 of each a separate and distinct people, with the most hos- 
 tile feelings towards each other, requiring only a fit occa- 
 sion to urge them into measures of actual violence. In 
 the progress of things towards tliis conclusion, the in- 
 habitants of Upper Canada would imperceptibly be 
 induced to form connections with their American neigh- 
 bours and being unnaturally disjoined from Lower 
 Canada, w^ould seek to diminish the inconveniences 
 arising by a more intimate intercourse with the adjoining 
 states, leading inevitably to a Union with that country. 
 The actual tendency of things to this result, while the 
 Provinces continue under separate Legislatures, it is to 
 be observed, is Hkely to be much promoted, by the artifi- 
 cial means of communication by canals, which have been 
 lately formed at immense expence in the State of New 
 York, affording to Upper Canada, if the outlet at the 
 port of Quebec should be rendered inconvenient to her, 
 an easy communication to American seaports ; and her 
 disposition to avail herseK of this communication will 
 obviously be increased while the Lower Province con- 
 tinues in its character to be French. 
 
 Some of the circumstances arising from the division of 
 countries thus imited by nature. Your Majesty's Peti- 
 tioners beg leave to represent, have been practically ex- 
 hibited in the disputes respecting revenue between the
 
 TRADE DISPUTES 143 
 
 two Provinces. Upper Canada relies on the revenue to 
 be derived from import duties for the payment of her 
 civil expenditure. The nature of her local situation 
 precludes her from conveniently or effectually levying 
 these duties within her own limits, it is at the port of 
 Quebec only that she can levy them : — but this is in 
 another Province, and while she has a separate Legisla- 
 ture, beyond the authority of her Government. 
 
 The consequence has been that till the recent inter- 
 position of the power of the Imperial Parhament, 
 she has been dependent on the good will of the Legis- 
 lature of Lower Canada, for a proportion of the duties 
 levied at the port of Quebec, and has been virtually 
 subject to taxation by the Legislature of another Pro- 
 vince, without her concurrence or consent. It is in 
 the nature of things impossible to determine what pro- 
 portion of the duties in question ought to be allowed 
 in Upper Canada, regard being had to strict Justice 
 between the Provinces. And it has been urged that the 
 claims of natural justice, on the part of Upper Canada, 
 would only require for her, either a free transit for goods 
 imported for that Province, or the payments to her of 
 the duties actually levied on such importations at the 
 port of Quebec. Your Majesty's Petitioners will not, on 
 this occasion, presume to canvass the merits of the con- 
 flicting rights of the two Provinces on this subject, but 
 wdll only observe, that if the Provinces be not united under 
 one Legislature, no system which human ingenuity can 
 devise, will be found effectual or satisfactory in obviating 
 this ground of difference between them, or exclude just 
 cause of complaint by one or other of the parties con- 
 cerned. 
 
 In what respects the Regulations, recently established 
 by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, for settling the 
 differences now referred to, Your Majesty's Petitioners, 
 while they acknowledge the beneficent views wliich have 
 dictated them, feel it incumbent on them respectfully to 
 state that these regulations if considered in any other light 
 than as a temporary expedient, would not be found re- 
 concileable with the just rights of the Lower Province or 
 of its Legislature, and would bo jiroductive of great evils. 
 Your Majesty's Petitioners cannot omit to obs(u-vc that 
 the proportion of duties allowed to Upper Canada is 
 greater than, if regard were had to her present consump-
 
 144 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 tion of diitinblo articles imported at Quebec, she should be 
 considered fairly entitled to, nor can they pass over in 
 silence the extreme inconveniences and injury that would 
 be occasioned by the restrictions imposed on the power 
 of the Legislature of Lower Canada as a permanent 
 measure, nor the inadequacy of arbitration to regulate, 
 as proposed, the important interests in question. With 
 the most perfect submission, your Majesty's Petitioners 
 beg leave to express their belief that neither of the Pro- 
 vinces would be satisfied for any length of time with the 
 arrangement referred to ; and that the advancement and 
 improvement of both would be most injuriously retarded 
 by the incapacity under which the Legislature of each 
 would labour to provide, by its own authority, a revenue 
 adequate to its wants. 
 
 While Your Majesty's Petitioners thus humbly repre- 
 sent the conviction they feel that the Regulations above 
 referred to miist create dissatisfaction, and be found in- 
 adequate for the purpose intended, they cannot but 
 observe in this inadequacy the strongest reason for 
 adopting the remedy of a Union by which the evil in- 
 tended to be palliated by those Regulations would not 
 only, by the removal of its cause, be extinguished for ever, 
 but a multitude of other evils be removed and prevented. 
 In adverting to the injurious consequences arising from 
 the division of the late Province of Quebec, Your Majesty's 
 Petitioners cannot omit to notice more particularly the 
 effect that measure has had in preventing the increase of 
 the British Population in Lower Canada, and the develop- 
 ment of its resources. The preponderance of the French 
 Population in the Legislature has occasioned obstacles to 
 the settlement of British Emigrants that have not been 
 surmounted ; so that the vast increase of British popula- 
 tion to have been expected from this cause has been, in 
 a general degree, prevented. The injury sustained in this 
 particular may be easily appreciated when it is observed 
 that, since the late American War, upwards of eighty 
 thousand souls (that is a number equal to one-fourth of 
 the actual French population) have found their way to 
 this Province, from Great Britain and Ireland, and of 
 these scarcely one-twentieth part remains within its limits, 
 the rest, with the exception of a small number who have 
 settled in Upper Canada, having been induced by the 
 foreign character of the country in which they had sought
 
 TRADE WITH FRANCE 145 
 
 an asylum, and the discouragements they experienced, 
 to try their fortunes in tlie United States. The loss thus 
 sustained is not confined to those who left the country, but 
 comprises their connections and friends who would have 
 followed them. In the same proportion as the increase 
 of British Population has been prevented, has the Agri- 
 cultural and Commercial prosperity of the county been 
 retarded and obstructed ; as it is to the enterprize, intelli- 
 gence and persevering industry of that population that 
 both Agriculture and Commerce must be principally in- 
 debted for their advancement. On this head it may 
 be fairly advanced that, had not the impolitic division of 
 the late Province of Quebec taken place, and had a fit plan 
 of Representation been adopted, the British Population 
 would now exceed the French, and the imports and ex- 
 ports of the country be greatly beyond their present 
 amount. 
 
 The injury thus produced to the interests of the Mother 
 Country and those of the Colony, by the French character 
 which now belongs to this Country, and the predominance 
 of French principles, Yom" Majesty's Petitioners humbly 
 represent, without a Union of the Provinces, must be 
 aggravated by the augmented influence of those causes 
 arising even from a recent Act of liberality on the part of 
 the Mother Country towards her Colonies. According 
 to the Colonial system recently adopted, a direct inter- 
 course between Lower Canada and France is now per- 
 mitted ; the immediate effects of which will unquestion- 
 ably be to give increased strength to these national pre- 
 judices which during sixty years of interdicted communi- 
 cation with France have remained unabated, and to render 
 more inveterate the causes of disunion between Your 
 Majesty's subjects in Lower Canada ; which effects as well 
 as others more remote, affecting the stability of Your 
 Majesty's Government, can only be counteracted by 
 the proposed Union of the Provinces under one Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Your Majesty's Petitioners, without trespassing on 
 Your Majesty's patience by a longer detail of the injurious 
 consequences produced by the division, will beg leave to 
 specify succinctly the benefits to be expected from a 
 Union of the Provinces. By this measure, the political 
 evils complained of in both Provinces would be removed. 
 The French population in Lower Canada, now divided 
 
 10
 
 146 PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 from their fellow-subjects by their national pecuHarities 
 and prejudices, and with an evident disposition under the 
 present system to become a separate people, would be 
 gradually assimilated to the British Population of both 
 Provinces, and with it moulded into one people of British 
 character, and with British feelings. All opposition of 
 interest and cause of difference between the Provinces 
 would be for ever extinguished : an efficient Legislature, 
 capable of conciliating the interests of the Colony Avith 
 those of the Mother Country, and providing for the 
 securit}^ and advancing the agricultm-al and commercial 
 prosperity of the country, would be established by means 
 of which the international improvement of both Pro- 
 vinces would not only be rapidly promoted, with the con- 
 sequent benefits thereto arising from Great Britain, but 
 their strength and capacity to resist foreign oppression be 
 greatly increased : — the tie of connection between the 
 Colony and the Parent State would be strengthened and 
 confirmed, and a lasting dependence of the Canadas 
 on the latter be ensured, to the mutual advantage of 
 both. 
 
 Under a full conviction that these important and lasting 
 benefits will be realized by a Union of the Provinces, Your 
 Majesty's Petitioners humbly pray that an Act for uniting 
 the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada under one 
 Legislature, may be passed, with such provisions for ren- 
 dering the measure effectual, as in Your Majesty's wisdom 
 may appear expedient. 
 
 And Your Majesty's Petitioners, 
 
 As in duty bound, 
 
 Will ever pray, 
 
 Montreal, December, 1822. &c., &c., &c. 
 
 The proposals for federation came before their time, 
 but had the merit of familiarizing the minds of leading 
 men, both in Canada and in England, with the idea of 
 Union. Nor are there wanting noble passages in these 
 letters, which should be borne in mind when reading the 
 attacks made later on " The Family Compact." Thus, 
 writing to the Hon. R. W. Horton, Under-Secretary of 
 State, John Beverley Robinson, replying to the argument
 
 UNION OR FEDERATION 147 
 
 that a federated British North America might desire 
 independence, says :^ 
 
 Allowing the objection stated to be one of weight in 
 contemplating the possible consequences, it may be said, 
 on the other hand, that it is an migenerous and imprac- 
 ticable policy which would seek to hold countries in sub- 
 jection by repressing their energies and retarding their 
 improvement ; and that a security far nobler, and pro- 
 ductive at once of honour, advantage, and strength, to 
 the Empire and the Colonies would be found in drawing 
 more closely the ties which connect them : by allowing the 
 Parhament of the United Provinces to be represented in 
 the British Parliament by one or two members, who should 
 have power to propose and to discuss measures, but not 
 to vote, or to vote only on matters immediately affecting 
 the colonies. It might be urged as a decisive objection 
 to the completion of the system proposed, that it would be 
 affording a precedent of a privilege which could not justly 
 be afterwards withheld from any, and which it would be 
 inconvenient, if not impossible, to grant to all the 
 numerous colonies of Great Britain. But, perhaps, it 
 would not be found impracticable to group the colonial 
 possessions of the Empire into six or seven confederacies 
 according to their situations, and to allow to each of these 
 confederacies a representative in Parliament. This actual 
 consolidation of the British Empire would at least be a 
 grand measure of national policy, and by allowing to the 
 inhabitants of the most remote regions of the Crown an 
 opportunity of making known their wants, their interests, 
 and their dangers, in the Great Council of the Nation, it 
 would make them feel themselves as parts rather than as 
 dependencies of the Empire : it would mitigate the irrita- 
 tion of colonial dissensions, and would make perfect and 
 general through the Empire, that knowledge of the situa- 
 tion and circumstances of the colonies which, it must be 
 confessed, is at present incomplete and confined to few. 
 
 To recapitulate. It is believed that to unite the British 
 North American Provinces by giving them a common 
 Legislature and erecting them into a kingdom^ would bo 
 
 ' " Meiiioir on tlio Means of Promoting the Joint IntcrcBts of tlio 
 Mother Country and her North American Colonies," pp. ill), 40. 
 
 2 in 1867 bir Joim Macdonald was extremely anxious that Canada 
 should be declared not a Dominion but a Kingdom. This was negatived 
 
 10—2
 
 us PROPOSALS FOR UNION 
 
 gratifying to all those colonies ; that it would add to their 
 security, contirm their attachment to the present Govern- 
 ment, and make wider the distinction between it and the 
 republican institutions of their neighbours ; increase their 
 respectability, give them a greater community of feeling 
 and interest among themselves, and connect them more 
 closely with the Empire ; that it would put an end to all 
 danger and inconvenience from petty factions and local 
 discontents, and secure the public counsels of all the 
 colonies from foreign influence. 
 
 And lastly, that every object would be certainly at- 
 tained by it with respect to Lower Canada, which can be 
 hoped for from the other and more partial measure, and 
 without endangering the interests of the Upper Province 
 or exciting alarm in either. 
 
 by Lord Derby, " who feared the name would wound the sensibihties 
 of the Yankees." — Joseph Pope : Sir John Macdonald, i. 313.
 
 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 The discontent, both in Upper and Lower Canada, went 
 on increasing, till in 1837-1838 it broke out into a 
 pitiful little rebellion, Avhich had at least the merit of 
 calling attention to the demands of the Reformers in a 
 manner impossible to disregard. The result was the visit 
 to Canada in 1838 of Lord Durham as Lord High 
 Commissioner, and the publication of his famous Report. 
 Below are given some of his chief dispatches to the 
 Colonial Secretary, Lord Glenelg.^ 
 
 Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec. 
 August 9, 1838. 
 My Lord, 
 
 The information which my residence here has 
 enabled me to obtain as to the condition of the two 
 Canadas is of such a nature as to make me doubt whether, 
 if I had been fully aware of the real state of affairs in this 
 part of the world, any considerations would have induced 
 me to undertake so very difficult a task as is involved in 
 my mission. I do not, however, wish it to be understood 
 that I consider success impossible. On the contrary, I 
 indulge in a hope that if the difficulties and dangers that 
 are now so apparent to me are appreciated by Her 
 Majesty's Government, so as to lead to their adoption of 
 measures sufficiently comprehensive and decided to meet 
 the emergency, the objects of my mission may be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 My sole purpose, therefore, in adverting to circum- 
 stances wliich threaten a different result is to impress upon 
 
 ^ Quoted from Parliamentary Reports and Pajiers. 1839. Vol. 
 xxxii. 
 
 149
 
 150 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 your Lordship my own conviction, which has been formed 
 by personal experience, that even the best informed per- 
 sons in England can hardly conceive the disorder or dis- 
 organization A^hich, to the careful inquirer on the spot, 
 is manifest in all things pertaining to Government in these 
 colonies. 
 
 Such words scarcely express the whole truth : not 
 Government merely, but society itself seems to be almost 
 dissolved ; the vessel of the State is not in great danger 
 only, as I had been previously led to suppose, but looks 
 like a complete ^^Teck. 
 
 It is needless to point out the wide difference between 
 this representation and the opinions on the subject which 
 were, and probably still are, held by Her Majesty's 
 ^Ministers ; but since one who had the benefit of whatever 
 information they possessed is nevertheless compelled to 
 acknowledge that the truth, as it now appears to him, 
 differs so much from his previous conceptions of it, what 
 can he infer but that distance has precluded them from 
 acquiring an accurate knowledge of the whole subject ? 
 This is my belief, and it becomes, therefore, an imperative 
 duty on my part to convey to your Lordship the exact 
 impressions wliich I have derived from personal inquiry 
 and observation. I wdll not shrink from the performance 
 of that duty. 
 
 On the present occasion, however, I propose to confine 
 myself to a particular class of circumstances ; that is, to 
 those which relate to the Lower Province, and are of the 
 most unfavourable character ; my object in making such 
 a selection being to state wdthout reserve, in a separate 
 despatch, certain facts and opinions, as to which, as 
 coming from me, it is most inexpedient that any publicity 
 should be given for the present : this despatch Avill there- 
 fore be marked " Secret." 
 
 The first point to which I would draw your attention, 
 being one with which all others are more or less connected, 
 is the existence of a most bitter animosity between the 
 Canadians and the British, not as two parties holding 
 different opinions and seeking different objects in respect 
 to Government, but as different races engaged in a national 
 contest. 
 
 This hatred of races is not publicly avowed on either 
 side ; on the contrary, both sides profess to be moved by 
 any other feelings than such as belong to difference of
 
 RACE FEELING IN LOWER CANADA 151 
 
 origin ; but the fact is, I tliink, proved by an accumulation 
 of circumstantial evidence more conclusive than any- 
 direct testimony would be, and far more than sufficient 
 to rebut all mere assertions to the contrary. If the differ- 
 ence between the two classes were one of party or prin- 
 ciples only, we should find on each side a mixture of per- 
 sons of both races, whereas the truth is that, with excep- 
 tions which tend to prove the rule, all the British are on 
 one side, and all the Canadians are on the other. What 
 may be the immediate subject of dispute seems to be of 
 no consequence ; so surely as there is a dispute on any 
 subject, the great bulk of the Canadians and the great bulk 
 of the British appear ranged against each other. In the 
 next place, the mutual dislike of the two classes extends 
 beyond politics into social life, where, ^vith some trifling 
 exceptions again, all intercourse is confined to persons of 
 the same origin. Grown-up persons of a different origin 
 seldom or never meet in private society ; and even the 
 children, when they quarrel, divide themselves into 
 French and English like their parents. In the schools 
 and the streets of Montreal, the real capital of the pro- 
 vince, this is commonly the case. The station in life, 
 moreover, of an individual of either race seems to have no 
 influence on his real disposition towards the other race ; 
 high and low, rich and poor, on both sides — the merchant 
 and the porter, the seigneur and the habitant— though 
 they use different language to express themselves, yet 
 exhibit the very same feeling of national jealousy and 
 hatred. Such a sentiment is naturally evinced rather by 
 trifles than by acts of intrinsic importance. There has 
 been no solemn or formal declaration of national hostility, 
 but not a day nor scarcely an hour passes without some 
 petty insult, some provoking language, or even some 
 serious mutual affront, occurring between persons of 
 British and French descent. Lastly, it appears, upon a 
 careful review of the political struggle between those who 
 have termed themselves the loyal party and the popular 
 party, that the subject of dissension has been, not the 
 connexion with England, nor the iorm of the constitution, 
 nor any of the practical abuses which have affected all 
 classes of the people, but simply such institutions, laws, 
 and customs as are of French origin, which the British 
 have sought to overthrow and the Canadians have 
 struggled to preserve, each class assuming false designa-
 
 152 T.ORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 tions and fighting under false colours — the British pro- 
 fessing exclusive loyaltj'^ to the Crown of England, and 
 the Canadians pretending to the character of reformers. 
 Nay. I am inclined to think that the true principles and 
 ultimate objects of both parties, taken apart from the 
 question of race, are exactly the reverse of what each of 
 them professes, or, in other words, that the British 
 (alwaj^'S excluding the body of officials) are really desirous of 
 a more responsible Government, while the Canadians would 
 prefer the present form of Government, or even one of a 
 less democratic character. I shall have more to say on this 
 head presently, having mentioned the subject heio only 
 for the purpose of citing another fact which tends to prove 
 the existence of a deep-rooted national sentiment on both 
 sides. Such a contradiction between the real and avowed 
 principles of each j^arty could not have occurred if all the 
 people had been of one race, or if every other considera- 
 tion had not given way to the sentiment of nationality. 
 
 This general antipathy of the Canadians towards the 
 British, and of the British towards the Canadians, appears 
 to have been, as it were, provided for at the conquest of 
 the province, and by subsequent measures of the British 
 Government. If Lower Canada had been isolated from 
 other colonies, and so well peoj^led as to leave little room 
 for emigration from Britain, it might have been right at 
 the conquest to engage for the preservation of French 
 institutions, for the existence of a " Nation Canadienne ;" 
 but, considering how certain it was that, sooner or later, 
 the British race would predominate in the country, that 
 engagement seems to have been most unwase. It insured 
 such a strife as has actually taken place ; for, notwith- 
 standing the division of Canada into two provinces, for 
 the purpose of isolating the French, the British already 
 predominate in French Canada, not numerically of course, 
 but by means of their superior energy and wealth, and 
 their natural relationsliip to the powers of Government. 
 
 It was long before the Canadians perceived that their 
 nationality was in the course of being over-ridden by a 
 British nationality. When the Constitutional Act be- 
 stowed on them a representative system, they were so 
 little conversant with its nature, and so blind to the prob- 
 able results of British emigration, that they described the 
 constitution as a " machine Anglaise pour nous taxer," 
 and elected to the House of Assembly almost a majority
 
 RACE QUESTION 153 
 
 of Englishmen. But with the progress of British intrusion 
 they at length discovered, not only the uses of a represen- 
 tative system, but also that their nationality was in 
 danger ; and I have no hesitation in asserting that of late 
 years they have used the representative system for the 
 single purpose of maintaining their nationality against the 
 progressive intrusion of the British race. They have 
 found the British pressing upon them at every turn, in 
 the possession of land, in commerce, in the retail trade, 
 in all kinds of industrious enterprize, in religion, in the 
 whole administration of government, and though they are 
 a stagnant people, easily satisfied and disinclined to exer- 
 tion, they have naturally resisted an invasion which was 
 so offensive to their national pride. 
 
 The British, on the other hand, impeded in the pursuit 
 of all their objects, partly by the ancient and barbarous 
 civil law of the country, and partly by the systematic 
 opposition of the Canadians to the progress of British 
 enterprize, have naturally sought to remove those impedi- 
 ments, and to conquer, without much regard to the means 
 employed, that very mischievous opposition. The actual 
 result should have seemed inevitable. The struggle 
 between the two races, conducted as long as possible 
 according to the forms of the constitution, became too 
 violent to be kept within those bounds. In order to pre- 
 serve some sort of government, the public revenue was 
 disposed of against the will of the Canadian people repre- 
 sented by their Assembly. The consequent rebellion, 
 although precipitated by the British from an instinctive 
 sense of the danger of allowing the Canadians full time 
 for preparation, could not, perhaps, have been avoided ; 
 and the sentiment of national hostility has been aggra- 
 vated to the uttermost, on both sides, by that excessive 
 inflammation of the passions which always attends upon 
 bloodshed for such a cause, and still more by this unusual 
 circumstance, that the victorious minority suffered 
 extreme fear at the beginning of the contest, and that the 
 now subdued majority had been led to hope everything 
 from an appeal to force. 
 
 There seems to me only one modification of this view 
 of the subject. The employment by the Canadians of 
 constitutional and popular means for their national pur- 
 pose, has taught some of them, consisting chiefly of the 
 most active and able, higher political views than such as
 
 154 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 belong to the question of nationality. These men are not 
 at heart friendly to the barbarous institutions of their 
 ancestors, but would readily adopt a more enlightened 
 system, if they could do so without losing their own im- 
 portance. Their necessary dependence on the prejudiced 
 mass has alone restrained them from joining in many of 
 the views for the improvement of the country which are 
 entertained by the British. They have also learned to 
 estimate the practical abuses of Government which affect 
 all classes, and to wish for many reforms without reference 
 to Canadian nationality. They even had, to some extent, 
 succeeded in disseminating their opinions amongst the 
 mass of tlicir countrymen, and they are not unhkely to 
 play a valuable and distinguished part under any new 
 sjT^stem of government that may put an end to the strife 
 between hostile races ; but, unfortunately, their number 
 is so small as scarcely to affect my opinion of the temper 
 of the Canadian people. 
 
 Supposing my view of that subject to be correct, your 
 Lordship mil readily understand that the bulk of the 
 Canadian people are as disaffected as ever, and that the 
 British part of the population regard the Canadians with 
 vindictive jealousy. The Imperial Government is dis- 
 trusted by both parties ; by the Canadians because they 
 fear, or rather expect in gloomy silence, that advantage 
 will be taken of their late rebellion to remove the very 
 causes of dissension, by giving a British character to the 
 institutions and laws of the province, so that there shall 
 no longer be any serious impediment to British coloniza- 
 tion and enterprize ; and by the British, on the other 
 hand, because they doubt whether the Imperial Govern- 
 ment will ever sufficiently understand the state of parties 
 here, to approve of the great changes wliich must inevit- 
 ably take place, if another period of legislative strife, and 
 perhaps another rebellion, are to be averted. 
 
 And here I must notice a fact of great importance. 
 The more discerning of the Canadians are perfectly aware 
 that if the authority of the United States should ever 
 extend to this country, whether by means of war or of a 
 peaceful union, the peculiar institutions, and even the 
 language, of French Canada would be extinguished as 
 soon as possible, yet are they willing, with the exception 
 perhaps of a considerable portion of the clergy, to incur 
 the loss of all that they have held most dear, in order to
 
 ATTITUDE OF UNITED STATES 155 
 
 gratify the sentiment of vengeance that has now got pos- 
 session of them. I would not exaggerate the amount of 
 the sacrifice that they are mlKng to make for the sake of 
 revenge. It is right to add, therefore, that, in my opinion, 
 they almost despair, come what may, of preserving those 
 ancient usages and that distinct nationality, in defence 
 of which they have struggled so many years. 
 
 But be this as it may, whether they are moved by a 
 sentiment of mere vengeance, or by revenge mixed with 
 despair, I am well convinced that an American invasion of 
 this province would be highly acceptable to most of them. 
 
 Satisfied of the disaffected temper of the Canadians as 
 a people, I have naturally taken pains to acquire correct 
 information as to the state of feeling in the United States 
 as respects these colonies and the mother country. 
 
 All reports concur in assuring me that the present 
 government of the Union, and a vast majority of the 
 American people, are decidedly adverse to a rupture \vith 
 England. Having already conveyed this assurance to 
 your Lordship, I need not dwell upon it here ; but there 
 are points in the state of American feeling towards these 
 colonies, and especially near the frontier, of so much 
 moment as to require particular notice. 
 
 In the first place, although some persons in the States, 
 and the more so if they have visited this country, are 
 aware of the true nature of the late rebellion, it is a 
 common opinion in America that the contention in this 
 province has been between the executive government on 
 the one hand, supported by a minority, and the majority 
 of the people, without distinction of race, on the other ; 
 and that the subject of disagreement has been, practical 
 grievances and general principles similar to those which 
 formed the matter of dispute between England and her 
 old colonies in America. 
 
 As their fathers rebelled in defence of those old English 
 charters of local self-government, which placed local taxa- 
 tion and revenue at the sole disposition of popular assem- 
 blies, so they think that the Canadian majority was justi- 
 fied in Mdthholding supplies, and in resisting by force the 
 violation of their constitution by the British Parliament. 
 
 They believe, in a word, that the majority in Lower 
 Canada has contended for the maintenance of popular 
 rights, and that arbitrary government is the aim of the 
 minority. The mistake is easily accounted for : it is
 
 156 LOET) DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 only on the spot that one leams how the subject of strife 
 in Lower Canada has been a question of nationality ; 
 everywhere else the false professions and designations 
 employed by both parties, combined w-itli the plain fact 
 that the contest has been between a majority and a 
 minority, is apt to mislead the inquirer, by keeping out 
 of view the distinction of races. If the whole subject 
 were understood by Americans, they would probably 
 sympathize with those who are of the same origin as 
 themselves, who resemble them in numerous particulars, 
 and who seek objects which, if this country were under 
 American rule, would be unhesitatingly accomplished, as 
 similar objects have been attained in the Dutch colony of 
 New York, and the French colony of Louisiana. 
 
 There is no people under the sun to whom the feudal 
 institutions and most defective ci^^l laws of the Canadians 
 would be more intolerable, than to the Anglo-Saxon race 
 of the United States. But they have misunderstood the 
 case. They have fallen into the not uncommon mistake 
 of confounding means wdth ends. Believing that the 
 means employed by the Canadians, in the Assembly, were 
 constitutional and popular, and seeing that the British, 
 being in a minority, necessarily clung to the local execu- 
 tive and the imperial authority ; above all, regardless of 
 the accident (for so it may be termed with respect to the 
 question of nationality) by which the Canadians happen 
 to constitute a majority, Americans have supposed that 
 the objects of both parties in the colony were of the same 
 nature respectively, as the means on wdiich each party 
 has relied. An ever active sentiment of national pride is, 
 perhaps, the most remarkable feature in the American 
 character. It might have been foreseen, therefore, that 
 the Americans, proudly recollecting the origin and pro- 
 gress of their own revolutionary war wdth England, 
 should sympathize with the Canadians, or rather wdth the 
 majority, who happen to be Canadians. Whether they 
 may ever comprehend the false position assumed by both 
 parties in this colony, I will not venture to predict ; but 
 so long as their view of the subject shall remain un- 
 changed, they will, I believe, continue to sympathize with 
 that side which has the air of contending for democratic 
 principles and popular objects, and to wash that it may 
 prevail over the other, which appears in the light of an 
 oppressive minority.
 
 AMERICAN SYI^IPATHIES 157 
 
 Secondly : Having regard to the national pride of 
 America, it is certain that the temper and tone of the 
 British party towards that country tends to stir up angry 
 passions throughout the Union, and especially near the 
 frontier, where articles from the colonial newspapers are 
 generally reprinted. Hitherto the national pride of 
 America has not been deeply wounded by these means 
 (and I do all in my power to mitigate the national influ- 
 ence of such aflfi'onts to it) ; but I am credibly informed 
 that these unceasing attacks have not been ^\dthout effect, 
 and that they form a subject of gro^^dng irritation. 
 
 Thirdl}^ : By the existence of a state of things out of 
 which it is easy to see that war might spring, the American 
 mind becomes more and more familiar with the idea of 
 war. Differing as the Americans do, from all other 
 nations, in the universal diffusion of an active interest in 
 pubhc affairs, and in a habit which belongs to all ranks, 
 of calculation as to the future, they are led, by the poli- 
 tical state of these provinces, to discuss the subject of 
 war hypothetically, if I may use the expression ; they 
 are reminded of the events of the last war, and one of 
 them in particular, the capture of Washington, which 
 inflicted a deep wound on the national pride, and by fre- 
 quently conversing on such exciting topics, they gradually 
 approach that state of feeling under which the govern- 
 ment, necessarily impelled by the people, would find it 
 hard to maintain friendly relations ^\ith England. 
 
 Fourthly : It is not to be denied that the distracted 
 state of these colonies occasions no Httle inconvenience 
 to the frontier states, and to the federal government ; 
 it calls for an increase of the army, a sort of military array 
 on the frontier, and the exercise of new powers by the 
 executive, which are opposed to the habits, if not the 
 institutions, of the American people. All the expense 
 and annoyance are attributed to the British Government. 
 A dispassionate American admits that his government is 
 bound, at whatever cost, to prevent aggressions on the 
 Canadian frontier, and he does not deny that the obliga- 
 tion has been inadequately fulfilled ;^ but when reminded 
 of the inefficiency of the laws for that purpose, and the 
 weakness of the American executive, he answers that the 
 
 1 From 1838 to 1840 a series of raids by American filibusters was 
 made on the Canadian frontier, but the conduct of the American 
 Government was throughout correct.
 
 158 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 true source of every difficulty is the weakness of the British 
 Government in Canada, which has not maintained order 
 amongst its own subjects, nor is able to protect the^United 
 States from such a nuisance as arises from the conduct of 
 British refugees within their territory. This retort, with- 
 out stopping to examine its justice, suffices to show that, 
 until order shall be restored in these colonies, a great 
 cause of uTitation in America will probably continue to 
 operate with increasing force. 
 
 Fifthly : The boundary question, being much mixed, 
 as it unavoidabl}^ is in America, with considerations arising 
 out of the state of these colonies, forms a more active 
 element of hostile feeling than would otherwise have been 
 the case. 
 
 Lastly : It is certain that, amongst the frontier popula- 
 tion of the United States, which, I should observe, has 
 very greatly increased since the last war, there exists a 
 numerous body of men, young, active, energetic, and self- 
 relying, who, from various motives, long for an oppor- 
 tunity of invading Canada. Some of them are moved by 
 an opinion, which it would not be easy to question, that 
 if these colonies were laid open to American enterprize, 
 a great impulse would be given to the industry and trade 
 of that part of the States which now constitutes the 
 frontier ; some are influenced by one or other of the cir- 
 cumstances to which I have already adverted ; some by 
 that love of adventure merely which belongs to the 
 American character ; and some by a reasonable calcula- 
 tion of the gain and distinction which, in troubled times, 
 usually fall to the most active and daring. The maimer 
 in which these people talk of invading the Canadas 
 exemphfies the self-reliance of American citizens. They 
 do not expect that the federal government should open 
 the way for them by mihtary operations ; they even avow 
 their belief that, in a contest of troops only, the British 
 would surely prevail ; but they reckon upon the friendly 
 disposition towards them of great numbers on this side, 
 and upon swarming over the line in such numbers, and at 
 so many places simultaneously, as to get possession of the 
 country in spite of mihtary obstacles. I do not pretend to 
 weigh such calculations, but state them as they have been 
 reported to me. If I am not misinformed, it is well that 
 . I should remind Her j\Iajesty's Government of the in- 
 vasion of Texas by a body of American citizens, who,
 
 AMERICAN SYMPATHIES 159 
 
 without the least aid from their government, have seized 
 an extensive country, defeated armies, got possession of 
 the soil, and established themselves as a nation, with 
 constitutional government, a judicial system and muni- 
 cipal institutions as complete as any in America. There 
 is certainly no immediate clanger of such an attack upon 
 these colonies ; and I have mentioned the subject only for 
 the purpose of indicating the probable character of the 
 contest that would take place here, if all the causes now 
 in operation should finally produce one. It was in con- 
 sequence of all these important considerations that, during 
 my late residence on the American frontier, I courted the 
 most unreserved communication with all respectable 
 Americans, for the purpose of impressing them with a 
 more sound and accurate conception of the real state of 
 things ; with a more just appreciation of our system of 
 government, and its real objects ; and with a due sense of 
 the danger which would arise to themselves, if their 
 government remained a passive spectator of all these pro- 
 ceedings, tending as they did, to destroy all confidence in 
 its executive strength, and all reliance on the national 
 honour. 
 
 I am happy to say that my efforts have been successful, 
 that a great change has taken place in public feehng on 
 the American side, and that my exertions to restore tran- 
 quillity and good order are encouraged and supported by 
 the most influential portions of the press and of society 
 in the United States. 
 
 Except as it has been noticed for the purpose of explain- 
 ing the temper of the Canadians, and one of the causes of 
 irritation in the United States, a most important subject 
 yet calls for your Lordship's attention ; I allude to certain 
 feelings and views of the British section of Her Majesty's 
 subjects in this province. 
 
 Your Lordship is already informed of the general satis- 
 faction expressed by the British party at my having, 
 when I assumed the Government, avoided connecting 
 myself with the old body of officials. It may be supposed 
 that the body in question did not participate in that 
 sentiment. I very soon became aware therefore of the 
 existence of some difference between the official body and 
 the British in general. Subsequent observation has con- 
 vinced me that, except in their common hostility to the 
 Canadians, there is no sympathy between these two classes.
 
 160 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 That this should be the case is really not surprising when 
 one discovers hoAv all the powers of Government have been 
 neglected and abused for many years past in this colony. 
 Not to go further back than the commencement of serious 
 differences between the Canadians and British as such ; 
 since, when the tw^o branches of the legislature have 
 neglected their proper functions to pursue the contest 
 between races, a long time has passed without anything 
 hke beneficial legislation, and not a few of the many evils 
 resulting from tliis perversion of legislative powers have, 
 by a very natural mistake, been attributed to neglect and 
 corruption in the Executive. At the same time it must 
 be confessed, that the Executive has been both neglectful 
 and corrupt. I need not remind your Lordsliip of those 
 flagrant instances in which the Imperial Government has 
 been led to interfere for the correction of administrative 
 abuses, nor is this a fit occasion for entering on that sub- 
 ject in detail ; but I am bound to add, that the Govern- 
 ment of this province, including the administration of 
 justice, has not obtained the respect of the people, and 
 that, according to all my information, there has been 
 ample ground for the distrust and suspicion with which 
 authority is regarded. 
 
 This leads to another feature in the disposition of that 
 portion of the British inhabitants which may be termed 
 "independent." Their main object, as I have before 
 explained, has been to remove the obstacles which the 
 ignorance, the apathy, and the ancient prejudices of the 
 Canadians opposed to the progress of British industry 
 and enterprize ; to substitute, in short, for Canadian in- 
 stitutions, laws and practices, others of a British character. 
 In this pursuit they have necessarily disregarded the 
 implied, not to say precise, engagement of England to 
 respect the peculiar institutions of French Canada. But 
 the Imperial Government, on the contrary, never quite 
 forgetting that ancient pledge, has rather extended its 
 protection to the Canadians than espoused the cause of 
 the British settlers. It were to be wished, perhaps, that 
 this policy had been consistently pm'sued from the begin- 
 ning, as in that case a British community might not have 
 grown up here A\dth feelings, wants, and a degree of power 
 which make it simply impossible to pursue such a policy 
 now. But it has not been consistently pursued. By a 
 variety of measures, and especially by promoting emigra-
 
 FEELING OF BRITISH PARTY 161 
 
 tion to this colony, the Imperial Government have really- 
 undermined the Canadian nationality wliich they perhaps 
 intended to preserve. A similar contradiction may be 
 observed in their treatment of the national struggle which 
 has ended in civil war. Never taking a decided part with 
 either section in the colony, they have wavered between 
 them, now favouring the one and then the other, but 
 neither decidedly, and finally displeasing both sections in 
 about the same^degree. Under such a system, if it may 
 be called one, no governor could have pursued a con- 
 sistent course, or have attached either the Canadians or 
 the British to the Imperial Government. 
 
 I should not permit myself to say this reproachfully, 
 even if there were room for an accusation, which in my 
 humble opinion there is not ; but I mention it as a neces- 
 sary result of the original false step, and for the purpose of 
 explaining the present disposition of the British party. 
 Deeply offended at every measure or decision of the 
 Imperial Government which thwarted their own British 
 or Anti-Canadian views, they are also wanting in that 
 respect for the supreme authority which is sometimes 
 felt by the discontented subjects of a decided and vigorous 
 Government. Restrained (though not entirely) from the 
 public expression of their sentiments by a hope that the 
 Imperial Government may yet accomplish the object on 
 which their heart is set, they have no such reserve amongst 
 themselves, nor do they at all care who knows of the 
 language commonly held by them when speaking of the 
 Imperial Government, and the connexion between this 
 colony and the mother country. 
 
 I am assured that the leaders and their followers, one 
 and all, are in the habit of declaring, that rather than be 
 again subject to the French (meaning, rather than see 
 another majority of Canadians in the Assembly), they 
 shall find a way to take care of themselves. 
 
 I should be sorry to report any idle conversation upon 
 such a topic, but have no doubt that language of this kind 
 is commonly uttered with an earnestness of manner which 
 should prove its sincerity. And this is not all : for the 
 sentiments expressed are enforced by deliberate argu- 
 ments, such as that, considering the exasperation of the 
 Canadians produced by late events, there can be no per- 
 manent safety for people of British descent except by 
 rendering the colony thoroughly British ; and that if the 
 
 11
 
 162 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 Imperial Government should not provide for the security 
 of its British subjects, the time will soon be past for 
 obedience to any other law than that of self-preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 That such views are currently expressed amongst the 
 British party, there can be no doubt ; and I am the more 
 disposed to believe them sincerely entertained, because, 
 having reference to a future contingency, they are not 
 inconsistent with those loud professions of loyalty and 
 attachment to England by which the British minority 
 has hitherto sought to enlist the Imperial Government 
 against the Canadian majority. At present, of course, 
 such views are merely speculative, everything being held 
 in suspense by the large powers awarded to me, and by the 
 hope of a happy settlement of affairs upon my recom- 
 mendation. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the very unfavourable re- 
 presentations contained in this despatch, I am induced 
 to hope with confidence, that success may ultimately 
 attend the measures wdth respect to this country which 
 have been recently adopted by the Imperial Government. 
 My principal reason for this assurance is drawn from the 
 good effect already produced by decided and vigorous 
 action. The exercise of the very extensive powers placed 
 in my hands seems to have operated as a sort of charm, 
 like oil poured upon troubled waters. At this moment 
 all is still. A stranger would hardly believe that the 
 country had been recently distracted by civil war. Ex- 
 pectation for the future is, I trust, taking the place of 
 angry passions occasioned by the past. I must, however, 
 conclude by assuring your Lordship, that whatever hopes 
 I entertain of the future, depend altogether on the suppo- 
 sition that Her Majesty's Government and Parliament 
 will not shrink from the adoption of permanent measures 
 of remedy and prevention, proportioned to the greatness 
 of the difffculties with which I have yet to contend, and 
 will sanction such measures as will effectually provide 
 for the abstraction of all legislation on British interests 
 from the control of a French majority. I am of opinion 
 that this great object can be legitimately effected without 
 violence to Canadian rights, and in strict accordance with 
 the soundest principles of constitutional government. 
 
 The time is fast approaching when I shall be enabled 
 to bring these measures under the consideration of Her
 
 DURHAM'S RESIGNATION 163 
 
 Majesty's Government ; and in the meantime I recom- 
 mend to their serious attention the important points to 
 which I have referred in the present communication. 
 
 Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 
 16 October, 1838. 
 
 In my despatch (No. 68) which announced my intention 
 of returning to England at an early period, for the purpose 
 of resigning my commissions, I explained the grounds on 
 which I had formed that decision after mature delibera- 
 tion. I felt that the moral power of my government was 
 so completely destroyed, and the difficulties of my posi- 
 tion so greatly augmented by the proceedings of Her 
 Majesty's Ministers and the Imperial Parliament, that the 
 attempt to conduct the government of these provinces on 
 better principles than those which have hitherto been 
 adopted was one which must be made by other hands 
 than mine.^ I grieve to find that I did not by any means 
 exaggerate the probable effect which would be produced 
 on the public mind on this continent by the occurrences 
 in England. In the course of one week I have found the 
 tone of the British inhabitants change from the loudest 
 professions of loyalty and attachment to the connexion 
 with the mother country to a calm anticipation and dis- 
 cussion of the chances and consequences of separation. 
 
 ^ By an Ordinance of his Special Council, dated June 28, 1838, Lord 
 Durham had proclaimed a general amnesty. From this eight rebel 
 prisoners were excepted by name, and without trial deported to 
 the Bermudas ; certain others were banished. For this and other 
 autocratic acts, he was fiercely attacked in the House of Lords by Lord 
 Brougham and the Tories, and very feebly defended by Lord Glenelg 
 and Lord Melbourne. In the House of Commons Lord John Russell 
 came to his defence, but on August 10 Lord Melbourne, the Prime 
 Minister, announced the disallowance of the Ordinance. On Sep- 
 tember 25 Durham received news of this from an American newspaper, 
 and at once forwarded his resignation, witliout waiting for the oflicial 
 confirmation, wliich came a few days later. On October 9 he issued a 
 proclamation, in which he practically appealed from the Home (Jovern- 
 ment to the Canadian people, recounting the history of his mission, 
 and announcing the fate of the Ordinance and his own resignation, of 
 which he had spoken freely since September 2/3. So fiery was the tone 
 of the proclamation that the Colonial Office recalled him, regardless of 
 the fact that they had already received his resignation ; but before the 
 despatch reached (Quebec he had a ailed for home, leaving the adminis- 
 tration in the hands of the Comm ander-in-Chief, Sir John Colborne. 
 
 11—2
 
 104 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 From the same mouths that a short while ago expressed 
 the most passionate resentment of wrongs supposed to 
 have been received from the people of the United States, 
 I hear significant approval of the course which I have all 
 along taken to conciliate the good-mil of a kindred people, 
 whose sympathies with the English race it is judged politic 
 to cultivate. I have been startled at the rapid growth 
 of this dangerous state of mind ; and when the mass of 
 the British population of this city were assembled to pre- 
 sent me with an address, expressive of the kindest feeling 
 towards myself, and the strongest condemnation of the 
 policy which severs the official connexion between us, I 
 shrunk from any other than a formal and deliberate ex- 
 pression of my feelings, from fear lest an indiscreet word 
 or gesture on my part, or any one of those unforeseen acci- 
 dents which carry large popular assemblies beyond the 
 influence of human control, might lead to a general ex- 
 pression of the angry feeHng that pervaded the excited 
 numbers whom I beheld before me. 
 
 A perfectly dififerent feeling exhibited itself at first 
 among the French Canadians. They naturally exulted in 
 the victory wliich appeared to have been gained by those 
 who put themselves forward as their especial advocates 
 in the mother country, and the disaffected rejoiced at 
 perceiving that the arm of authority was weakened. 
 Since the receipt of the first news from home which might 
 lead them to believe, on high authority, that I did not 
 really possess the powers with which they once imagined 
 me to be invested, I can have no doubt that the disposi- 
 tion to secret machinations and preparations for insurrec- 
 tion, which had been for some time checked, has sprung 
 into renewed activity ; and though I do not feel much 
 dread at the prospect of any unsupported attempts which 
 the French population may make against the military 
 force now in this country, I cannot doubt that there is 
 now in existence an organization of the disaffected in this 
 province, which may lend a most pernicious aid to any 
 attack which may be made from without. 
 
 I have already forwarded to your Lordship an address 
 expressive of the feelings of the delegates from the lower 
 provinces of British North America ; and the accounts 
 which I have recently had show that the same feelings 
 have been generally expressed in those provinces in the 
 calm manner in which their happy immunity from actual
 
 EFFECTS OF RESIGNATION 165 
 
 civil war enables their inhabitants still to express their 
 political sentiments ; but tliroughout Upper Canada, 
 where the memory of recent suffering is fresh and vivid, 
 and where the terror of near and visible peril constantly 
 alarms the public mind, a more passionate and general 
 feeling of regret and alarm has pervaded all classes. 
 Unaccustomed to the state of feeling generated by actual 
 insurrection, I have been struck by the extent of that 
 terror with which all parties and all classes see, in the 
 disturbance of my policy, the harbinger of a winter 
 similar in its political character to the last. The sudden 
 unanimity of all parties in that most divided province 
 has been as alarming as extraordinary ; for when those 
 in power, and those who in attempting to snatch it from 
 them advanced to the brink of rebellion, signed the same 
 address, — when the leaders of the reformers seconded the 
 resolutions moved by the heads of the family compact, — 
 I could not but infer that an unanimity so strange must 
 have been produced by the indication of sure and awful 
 peril. 
 
 Of what nature that danger is, the enclosed com- 
 munications from Her Majesty's Ministers at Washington 
 will inform your Lordship. I grieve to say, that all the 
 information which I have received within these few days, 
 from all quarters, confu-ms the alarming intelligence con- 
 veyed therein. I have no doubt that the numbers, means 
 and projects of the conspirators are greatly exaggerated, 
 but I have little doubt also, that there is a great reason to 
 apprehend that there has been suddenly formed through- 
 out the bordering states, among a population capable of 
 such enterprises, a A^ddely ramified conspiracy, bent on 
 repeating in Canada the scenes of Texas, invading the 
 British dominions with a horde of those lawless and daring 
 adventurers, who are to be tempted by the promise of 
 sharing in the plunder of private and public property in 
 these ample and fertile provinces. 
 
 It is of great importance that your Lordship and your 
 colleagues should know the present state of feeling, both 
 in these provinces and in the neighbouring states, and 
 that you should know it betimes. I take, therefore, the 
 opportunity which is afforded me by the postponement of 
 the Royal William's departure, to supply you, though in a 
 hurried manner, with the information which has reached 
 me.
 
 166 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 The mind of the British population throughout all the 
 provinces has been deeply agitated by the prospect of a 
 new change in the system of government. I am happy 
 to be able to adduce the great number and the kind lan- 
 guage of the addi'esses which I have received from all 
 parts of the two Canadas, as proofs of the favourable 
 feelings with which my policy has been regarded. Your 
 Lordship must not imagine that I attach undue import- 
 ance to documents so flattering to myself ; for I feel 
 that these are expressions of a deeper and more serious 
 feeling than any that regards my individual conduct or 
 treatment. The expressions of regret at my resignation, 
 and of condemnation of the disallowance of my ordinance, 
 proceed from those who disapproved of that part of my 
 policy, just as much as from those who had most warmly 
 supported it. The measures which I had adopted with 
 a view to the disposal of the political prisoners had been 
 a long time in operation ; and however freely they had 
 been canvassed, — however much a certain portion of the 
 population had thought it right to censure them, — that 
 discussion had run its course, and all had acquiesced in a 
 policy which they judged to be definitely adopted. The 
 disturbance of this settled policy by the acts of the home 
 Government has been regretted and condemned, not 
 more by those who most cordially approved of the par- 
 ticular course adopted by me, than by those who originally 
 wished that I had acted with greater severity. Both 
 equally condemn the precipitate interference, which has 
 obviously been undertaken in utter ignorance of the state 
 of these provinces. They see with dismay that the diffi- 
 culties which my policy had succeeded in removing are 
 again placed in the way of the Government ; that the 
 authority from which they expected at least vigour and 
 steadiness is powerless to enforce its determinations and 
 to maintain the course on which it has entered ; and that 
 these unhappy provinces are, during the trying emer- 
 gencies which are generally anticipated, to be still sub- 
 tected to the mischievous influence of that wavering and 
 temporizing policy which has hitherto paralysed the 
 efforts of their energetic and loyal inhabitants. 
 
 Your Lordship will not be surprised to learn that regret 
 is not the only feeling that has in consequence pervaded 
 the British portion of the population, and that they have 
 not beheld without anger their dearest interests thus
 
 ANGER AT BRITISH VACILLATION 167 
 
 made, as they express it, the sport of parties at home, 
 who do not participate in cither the danger or the desire 
 to avert it. I have wan; :d yom* Lordship, that the 
 patience and the loyalty of our countrymen in these pro- 
 vinces may be tried overmuch ; I have not been surprised, 
 therefore, that their despair at the failure of that support 
 which they had justly expected from home, has led them 
 to think on what they can do for themselves ; but I do 
 assure your Lordship that I was not prepared for the 
 extent of the change which I cannot doubt that these 
 events have produced in the public mind here. 
 
 I am compelled abruptly to close this despatch, of the 
 means of forwarding which, I received a very short 
 notice. 
 
 Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 
 20 October, 1838. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Since my despatch (No. 84) which I forwarded to 
 your Lordship on the 16th inst., I have seen Sir John 
 Colborne, and had the advantage of a good deal of com- 
 munication with him on the present state of affairs. His 
 information respecting the probability of serious dis- 
 turbances during the ensuing winter, I am sorry to say, 
 tallies very exactly with that which I have received from 
 all quarters ; and his opinion of the gloomy aspect of 
 affairs is just as strong as that which I have lately en- 
 deavoured to impress on your Lordship. I am happy to 
 say that the most perfect understanding continues to 
 prevail between us. Looking on him as the person with 
 whom the whole conduct and responsibility of the Govern- 
 ment during the next six months will in all probability 
 rest, I have thought it best for the public service that he 
 should enter as speedily as possible on that course, by 
 which he purposes to maintain the tranquillity and the 
 possession of these provinces. I have requested him at 
 once to take whatever military precautions he may deem 
 necessary for enabling him to carry out his own views for 
 the security of the provinces, against foreign invasion, or 
 internal disaffection. He has readily availed himself of 
 this offer, and is busily engaged in taking steps for calling 
 out the volunteers and guarding the frontiers. The 
 indications of mischief arc so numerous and so urgent, 
 that it is no longer possible to conceal, or advisable to
 
 1G8 LORr> DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 attempt concealing, the consciousness of danger enter- 
 tained by the Government : its only course is openly and 
 resolutely to proclaim and avert that danger. The early 
 adoption of these measures of military precaution must 
 of necessity entail great expense on the Government. It 
 will too clearly demonstrate to the province and to 
 neighbouring states the melancholy condition of its in- 
 ternal and external relations ; and it will in all probability 
 produce a state of things in which the present exaspera- 
 tion of parties will be aggravated by fresh causes of irrita- 
 tion ; but these are evils which must be borne, if we mean 
 to provide, as far as is in our power, for the retention of 
 the two Canadas. While, therefore, I cannot but lament 
 the necessity of them, I must approve the adoption, 
 under existing circumstances, of these measures by the 
 Commander of the Forces. 
 
 The result of my communication with Sir John Col- 
 borne, as well as of fresh intelligence which I have received, 
 has been a confu-mation of the propriety of my relinquish- 
 ing the government of these provinces. It is quite clear 
 that at the present season it is useless for the Government 
 to occupy itself with any schemes of extensive and per- 
 manent amelioration. The sole object of its care must 
 for the present be the retention of the province during 
 the winter. As this must be attained by military means, 
 the business of my pacific mission is, if not at an end, in 
 abeyance ; and it is best that for a while the civil and 
 mihtary authority of this province should be in the same 
 hands. A civil governor here would, during the next 
 six months, have no legitimate business, save that of 
 rendering that subordinate aid to the military authorities 
 which will be better secured if the entire direction and 
 responsibility be allowed to rest with the Commander of 
 the Forces ; and this is also Sir John Colborne's view of the 
 case. My only sphere of utility to these colonies must, 
 I am more than ever convinced, be henceforth in the 
 Imperial Parliament, where, if I can force on the knowledge 
 of my countrymen the true state of these provinces, and 
 the true policy to be adopted for their futiu-e good govern- 
 ment, I may contribute towards rendering available the 
 last opportunity which I believe will ever be afforded to 
 Great Britain of maintaining an useful and honourable 
 connexion with her possessions on the North American 
 Continent.
 
 DANGER OF SEPARATION 169 
 
 With this object in view, I think it my duty to return 
 without any delay. I have therefore, with great regret, 
 on pubHc as well as private grounds, abandoned my 
 intention of visiting the United States, where I hoped 
 that my communications with the President might be 
 of service. I now intend to sail from this port in Her 
 Majesty's ship Inconstant, direct to England, on the 
 3d of November. 
 
 The nature and extent of the danger with which Sir 
 John Colborne will probably have to contend, I en- 
 deavoured to point out to yoiu- Lordship in my despatch 
 (No. 84), which I prepared at a few hours' notice, availing 
 myself of the postponed departure of the Royal William. 
 Time and deliberation have not enabled me to supply 
 your Lordship Avith more precise information on the points 
 on which I then touched, for the fresh intelligence which 
 every day brings is of the same vague nature, and con- 
 firms our belief in the existence of unknown perils, with- 
 out informing us as to the time, the mode, and the extent 
 to which we are to be exposed to them. 
 
 There is great danger to be apprehended from the 
 rapidly increasing familiarity with which the idea of 
 separation from the British empire is expressed and can- 
 vassed by the British in these provinces. I do not mean 
 to disparage their severely tried and well proved loyalty 
 to the Crown and attachment to the British empire. 
 Their preference of monarchical institutions, their affec- 
 tion for the mother country, are as strong as ever ; but 
 their hope of maintaining either has been suddenly and 
 materially weakened ; and in this state of feeling they 
 naturally look with great anxiety to the form of govern- 
 ment under which it is possible they may soon have to 
 live, and to the connexions which they may be under the 
 necessity of forming when the ties of their present depend- 
 ence are severed. The chances and the desirableness of 
 the different possible results are daily canvassed among 
 them ; their minds become familiarized with the thoughts, 
 which a short time ago they held it a crime to entertain ; 
 and however favourable the decision of their judgment 
 may be, the strong feeling which bound them to the 
 British empire is weakened by the mere fact of its sound- 
 ness becoming a matter of question. 
 
 To what extent this feeling prevails, or how soon and 
 in what form it may exhibit itself, it is impossible to say.
 
 170 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 It is one of no recent growth. Do not imagine, my Lord, 
 that it owes its origin to my recall, or that it could be 
 obviated by my retention of the government. Long 
 lurking in the minds of even those inhabitants of these 
 pro\inces in whom it had not been openly manifested in 
 the course of the late discontents and disturbances, it 
 Avas in great measure removed by the apparent indications 
 of a better policy, which were hailed in the appointment 
 of a Governor armed with the extensive and sufficient 
 powers which I was supposed to wield when I landed on 
 these shores. This feeling has sprung into sudden and 
 rapid growth from the hour in which the public mind was 
 disabused as to the extent of my previously exaggerated 
 powers by the weightiest authority in the British legisla- 
 ture, wliich deprived me of moral influence by asserting 
 without contradiction, that I " possessed only the ordinary 
 legal powers of a common Governor." From the same 
 moment and from the same cause sprang the other feel- 
 ings of which the wide diffusion among perfectly different 
 classes menaces even greater danger. 
 
 The same cause called into renewed and vigorous action 
 the hopes of the disaffected in both provinces. Of the 
 designs of the disaffected vathin the Upper Province we 
 know nothing. In this, the indications of conspiracy 
 and dangerous designs are numerous and undeniable. A 
 formidable organization bound together by secret oaths 
 and secret signs, undoubtedly exists, and extends over 
 the French population, at least of the district of Montreal. 
 The object of the oath does not appear to be specific ; 
 it merely binds the conspirators to be ready to obey v/hat- 
 ever orders they may at any time receive from their chiefs. 
 When this machinery is to be called into action does not 
 appear. I am, on the whole, inclined to be of opinion, 
 that there is no intention of immediate outbreak in this 
 province, unless in case of invasion from without ; to 
 that it is at aU times ready to serve as a formidable 
 auxiliary ; but in the meantime it produces all the alarm 
 which actual insurrection would occasion.^ Terrified by 
 signs of this formidable and mysterious organization, and 
 sometimes by secret menaces or warnings of murder and 
 massacre, the loyal inhabitants of the country quit their 
 exposed and isolated habitations, and either at first seek 
 
 ^ On Durham's departure a second rebellion broke out, which was 
 sternly repressed by Sir John Colborne. (Ivingsford, op. cit., x. 90.)
 
 CHANCES OF INSURRECTION 171 
 
 refuge in the towns, or at once secure their safety by- 
 quitting the British dominions. In both provinces ahke 
 this emigration, from utter insecurity of person and pro- 
 perty, has taken place to an alarming extent ; and both 
 provinces have thus been, to a great extent, deprived of 
 the most valuable class of their inhabitants, of those whose 
 peaceful energies contribute most to their improvement, 
 and who most demand and deserve the steady protection 
 of a parental government. 
 
 The same cause has given life to the worst spirit among 
 the bordering population of the United States, and ex- 
 tended, if not created, that formidable secret combination, 
 of which the existence has been announced to me, not only 
 by a host of concurrent and consistent private communica- 
 tions, but by the most solemn warning which the govern- 
 ment of the United States could give. 
 
 I do not believe that this conspiracy is the result of that 
 somewhat generous, but utterly misdirected, sympathy 
 which last winter prompted our republican neighbours to 
 interfere in behalf of a people whom they erroneously 
 imagined to be making a hearty struggle for liberty. It 
 seems rather to result from the aspect of the weakness of 
 the Government in these provinces, which has latterly 
 been presented to the bordering population, and which 
 offers to the ambition or avarice of the bold and lawless 
 settlers of the American wilderness the ample and fertile 
 lands which appear to invite occupation by the strongest. 
 They think to repeat the conquest of Texas from a nobler 
 foe, with proportionably greater means of aggression ; 
 and if they know that they will have to contend with 
 something more than a Mexican army, they count on 
 an internal aid, which was not found in the solitary 
 wilds of Texas. 
 
 That this is the nature of their views and plans I infer, 
 not merely from the direct information which I have 
 received, but from the fact that the first indications of 
 these machinations were observed just at the period in 
 which the first debates in the House of Lords convinced the 
 ill-intentioned here, that they need not apprehend a 
 vigorous and well-supported government in Canada. 
 
 Such are the internal and external prospects of a 
 country, respecting which, in my despatch of the 9th of 
 August, I thus expressed myself : — " The exercise of the 
 very extensive powers placed in my hands seems to have
 
 172 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 operated as a sort of charm, like oil poured on troubled 
 waters. At this moment all is still ; a stranger would 
 hardl\' believe that the country had been recently dis- 
 tracted by civil war. Expectation for the future is, I 
 trust, taking the place of angry passions occasioned by 
 the past." 
 
 This was, at that time, a true description ; I stated 
 nothing but what correctly described the state of things 
 in these provinces. I could not know that at that very 
 hour events were passing at the other side of the Atlantic 
 which would call into renewed and fearful activity the 
 smothered embers of universal strife, and reverse the fair 
 order of things which I had so diligently laboured to 
 establish. 
 
 Her Majesty's Ship Inconstant, 
 At Sea, 10 November, 1838. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have the honour to inform yom* Lordship that I 
 had, on the morning of my departure for Quebec, an 
 interview with Mr. Sheriff M'Donnell, who had arrived the 
 night before from Kingston, Upper Canada, for the pur- 
 pose of communicating to the government the alarming 
 intelligence of the existence of a great unwillingness on 
 the part of the militia and volunteers of Upper Canada 
 to tender their active services. 
 
 IVIr. M'Donnell informed me that the belief amongst 
 them of the indifference of the British Government to 
 their fate was so general, that they deemed it useless to 
 make any exertions to maintain the connexion with the 
 mother country. He also said that nothing but a declara- 
 tion from me, of the intentions of the British Government 
 having been misunderstood, would induce them to enrol 
 themselves for the defence of the province this winter. 
 I had no hesitation in assuring him that no trace of 
 that indifference would be found in the measures 
 adopted, or the precautions taken by the government 
 over which I presided, and that I could not imagine the 
 existence of a different feeling in the minds of the British 
 Ministers. 
 
 I trusted, therefore, that the same alacrity as was before 
 manifested would be evinced by all classes in the Upper 
 province, in coming forward for the maintenance of the 
 public security.
 
 FEELING IN UPPER CANADA 173 
 
 Mr. M'Donnell stated himself to be perfectly satisfied 
 with my declaration, and was to retm-n to Kingston the 
 same evening. 
 
 I regret to state, with reference to this subject, that 
 the feelings expressed by Mr. M'Donnell are also very 
 generally entertained by the British population in Lower 
 Canada. 
 
 I have, &c. 
 
 (signed) Durham. 
 
 Lord Durham's Report on the affairs of British 
 North America was published early in February, 1839.i 
 Much of it was naturally displeasing to the dominant 
 party in the colonies, and both in Upper Canada and 
 in Nova Scotia protests were made by the Legislative 
 Council. In the former a select committee drew up a 
 report on the Report, wliich was unanimously adopted by 
 the Council, and in which their point of view is expressed 
 with much force. 
 
 Report. 
 
 The Select Committee to whom was referred the Report 
 of the Right Honourable the Earl of Durham, Her 
 Majesty's late Governor-in-Chief of British North 
 America, 
 
 Respectfully submit the following Report : 
 
 In discussing the report of Her Majesty's late High 
 Commissioner on the affairs of Upper Canada, your Com- 
 mittee are fully aware, that their observations cannot be 
 understood by your Honourable House, as conveying any 
 censure on Her Majesty's Commissioner ; who commences 
 by informing Her Majesty, that his information, respect- 
 ing the state of Upper Canada, had not been acquired in 
 
 ' As originally presented to Her Majesty, the Report was in folio, 
 with four extremely valuable volumes of appendices. In the same 
 year unofficial octavo reprints appeared in London and in Canada, 
 without the appendices, but containing copies of his lordship's 
 despatches to Lord Glcnelg from May ;J1 to November 10, 1H;5H. In 
 1902 the Report wa-s reprinted at London (Methucn and Co).
 
 174 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 the course of his actual administration of the government 
 of that Province, a fact to which the report itself bears 
 ample testimony.^ His Lordship observes that, " it is 
 very difficult to make out from the avowals of parties, 
 the real objects of their struggles, and still less easy is it 
 to discover any cause of such importance, as would 
 account for its uniting any large mass of the people in 
 an attempt to overthrow, by forcible means, the existing 
 form of government." — From the first part of this para- 
 graph it appears, that the pohtical parties into which 
 the Province is said to be divided, have no very strong 
 ground for complaint, otherwise some definite description 
 thereof would doubtless have been given to his Lordship ; 
 who, in the latter part of the same paragraph, insinuates, 
 that a large mass of the people of Upper Canada were 
 desirous of overthromng the government, a fact totally 
 unknown in this Province, and already sufficiently re- 
 futed by the conduct of the people. His Lordship then 
 informs Her Majesty, that Upper Ca.nada " lias long been 
 entirely governed by a party commonly designated 
 through the Province as the ' family compact,' " and 
 that, " there is in truth, very Httle of family connection 
 among the persons thus united." Why then should his 
 Lordship give his assistance in the dissemination of any 
 such erroneous idea, as that title has been used to pro- 
 pagate ? His Lordsliip does not appear to have under- 
 stood, that the object of the Press in adopting the term 
 of " family compact," as a name by which to designate 
 " the Bench, the Magistracy, the holders of the liigh 
 offices of the Episcopal Chm-ch, and a great part of the 
 legal profession, the possessors of nearly the w^hole of the 
 waste lands of the Province, the people all powerful in 
 the chartered Banks, and sharing among themselves 
 almost exclusively all offices of trust and profit "; in- 
 tended to impress their readers with the idea, that a 
 close family connection did exist among all the persons 
 in authority throughout the Province, and that if it w^ere 
 not so understood the force of the epithet w^ould be alto- 
 gether lost ; for tliroughout Ms Lordsliip's report " the 
 family compact " is blazoned forth wdth studious perti- 
 
 ^ That part of the Eeport dealing with Upper Canada is its least 
 valuable portion. In its preparation Dm-ham seems to have relied 
 mainly on Charles BuUer. (See Bradshaw, Self-governuient in 
 Canada, p. 247.)
 
 ERRORS OF DURHAM 175 
 
 nacity, although the inaptness of the title had been pre- 
 viously admitted. 
 
 The High Commissioner next endeavours to show, that 
 all persons of education, and more especially members 
 of the learned professions, ought rather to settle in the 
 United States than in Canada, a Surgeon, for instance, 
 because he must show that he is duly qualified before 
 he can be permitted to practise within this Province ; 
 an Attorney, because he is not permitted to practise 
 therein as a Barrister ; and a Barrister, because he is 
 not allowed to act as an Attorney. 
 
 Your Committee are of opinion, that in all these regu- 
 lations the legislature has shown a proper and praise- 
 worthy desire to prevent ignorant pretenders to medical 
 and legal knowledge, disturbing the animal economy or 
 social condition of Her Majesty's subjects. Then comes 
 his Lordship's list of British grievances, which is alto- 
 gether remarkable ; he complains of the Banking system, 
 in which he says the Canadian party are supreme, (a 
 large portion of the stock in the most ancient of the 
 chartered Banks is, however, owned by persons residing 
 in England,) and further asserts, that the influence of 
 the Banks " is said to be employed directly as an instru- 
 ment for upholding the political supremacy of the party " 
 (Canadian) — Your Committee happen to have the means 
 of personally knowing, that the chartered Banks have 
 most studiously avoided pohtical connection with all 
 parties.^ 
 
 Your Committee find introduced as one of the griev- 
 ances, " that under the system of selling land pursued 
 by the government, an individual does not receive a 
 patent for his land, until he has paid the whole of his 
 purchase money." — Why should a contrary course be 
 pursued ? — That is not shown ! The High Commissioner 
 then wanders into Illinois, and gives a vivid description 
 of the pecuhar advantages to be derived by English folk, 
 who may become domiciled in the republic. If indeed 
 his Lordship had not qualified his opinions with the 
 assertion that, " but few cases in which the departure 
 of an Englishman from Upper Canada to the States, can 
 be traced directly to any of these circumstances in par- 
 ticular," alluding to the British grievances before men- 
 tioned, your Committee would have supposed that the 
 
 ^ Consult thereon Shortt, Early Hiatory of Canadian Bankiuy^
 
 176 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 peculiar functions of Her Majesty's High Commissioner 
 were not those detailed in his commission, the more 
 especially, as these hitherto unheard of grievances are 
 quoted as the cause of the decreased immigration from 
 " the Parent State ; and tliroughout the report comparisons 
 are constantly drawn unfavourable to Her Majesty's 
 possessions in North America. 
 
 Your Committee having exposed a few of the incon- 
 sistencies in the first pages of his Lordship's report, deem 
 it unnecessary to enter more fully into its details, the 
 conflicting character of which, as compared ^vith his 
 Lordship's other productions, is sufficiently set forth in 
 the report of the Committee on the state of the Province, 
 appointed by the House of Assembly : observing, how- 
 ever, that his Lordsliip sums up the Upper Canadian 
 grievances, in the great practical question of the Clergy 
 Reserves. Your Honourable House has, so recently, had 
 this question under discussion, that your Committee 
 refrain from any commentary on his Lordship's state- 
 ments regarding it, but your Committee cannot avoid 
 observing, that however unintentional, his Lordship's 
 remarks are evidently calculated to cast odium on the 
 Estabhshed Church of England, which, like every other 
 respectable body throughout the colony, has been con- 
 stantly assailed by the party mis-named Reformers. 
 
 Adverting, now, to liis Lordsliip's great panacea for 
 all political disorders, " Responsible Government," your 
 Committee beg to observe, that a liberal minded English- 
 man, sincerely admiring the great principles of the British 
 Constitution, would naturally be desirous of extending 
 them, theoretically and practically, to all people Hving 
 under the dominion of the Crown ; and at the first view, 
 would be apt to ascribe any evils which were found to 
 exist in any portion of the Empire, to the absence of 
 those political institutions, which he is bound to uphold 
 in the administration of public affairs, in the metropolitan 
 and supreme government. 
 
 It is in this manner we must account for the adoption, 
 at first sight, by many statesmen, of the principle, that 
 the officers administering the government should be 
 under the same popular control in colonies, as the like 
 persons necessarily are in those societies, where powders 
 of supreme legislation, by means of popular adminis- 
 tration, are found to exist ; but it is to the practical
 
 TWO KINDS OF RESPONSIBILITY 177 
 
 impossibility of preserving colonial relations on such a 
 plan, that we must attribute the fact, that notwith- 
 standing aU the changes produced by the struggles of 
 party, or the alternations of conservative or liberal 
 politics in England, no statesman, armed with the 
 authority, has, as yet, attempted to introduce the prin- 
 ciple of responsibility of government to the people, into 
 the colonial system. 
 
 After an attentive and disinterested consideration of 
 this subject, your Committee are led to the conclusion, 
 that the adoption of the plan proposed by the Earl of 
 Durham, in which this is the prominent feature, must 
 lead to the overthrow of the great colonial empire of 
 England. 
 
 The control exercised by the popular will, over the 
 administration of affairs in Great Britain, and over the 
 choice of persons by whom the government shall be con- 
 ducted, is founded, not upon theory, but upon the prac- 
 tical necessity of carrying on a government according 
 to the will of that power in the constitution, which, right 
 or wrong, can most effectually control it. Simple re- 
 sponsibility of the executive functionaries, and their 
 liability to answer for misdemeanors or mistakes, existed 
 in England long before the popular branch of the legisla- 
 ture assumed its present powers ; and in fact, the trial 
 and punishment of ministers, or in other words, their 
 actual responsibility was much more frequently ex- 
 hibited when the Sovereign was independent of the 
 people, than since the British constitution has been, by 
 the necessities of the Crown, moulded into its present 
 form. 
 
 This latter responsibility the colonists have : it is now 
 proposed to bestow on them the former. 
 
 No one can be blind to the fact, that it is amongst 
 those who advocate the doctrine, that colonies are use- 
 less and burdensome, tliat responsibihty of the govern- 
 ment to the ])eople finds its warmest supporters. Lord 
 Durham holds a contrary opinion, and yet he advocates 
 popular government ! 
 
 That the colonial possessions of England are of im- 
 mense importance, and essential to the continuance of 
 her greatness and prosperity, few, we believe, are pre- 
 pared to deny. In support of that opinion, your Com- 
 mittee will, however, quote a favourite expression of the 
 
 12
 
 178 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 Earl of Durham, after his lordship had seen the Canadian 
 possessions of the Crown, and become sensible of their 
 vahie — " England, if she lose her North American colonies, 
 must sink into a second-rate power." 
 
 According to the present system, the governor of a 
 colony exercises most of the royal functions, under the 
 general direction of the ministers of the crown ; he is 
 strictly accountable for his conduct, and for the use he 
 makes of the royal authority — he recommends for office 
 persons in the colony, or appoints those selected by the 
 minister : and he endeavours to conduct his government 
 according to the policy of the imperial cabinet, with a 
 view to the present prosperity and future greatness of a 
 country in which England has a deep interest ; and above 
 all things, with the intention of preserving, against all 
 opposition, the unity of the empire. 
 
 To enable him to fulfil these great duties, it is obviously 
 his interest, and that of his advisers, to keep on his side 
 the popular voice of the colony, and to avoid giving occa- 
 sion to discontent — redressing real, and dissipating, by 
 temperate discussion, all imaginary grievances. 
 
 According to the system proposed by the Earl of 
 Diu-ham, the advisers of the Lieutenant Governor would 
 not be officers who, in accordance with the policy of the 
 home government, endeavour to aid the Lieutenant 
 Governor in conciliating the affections of the people ; 
 but they must be the creatures of the prevailing faction 
 or party in the Assembly — advising the Governor alto- 
 gether with the view to the washes of the House for the 
 moment, regardless of the opinions of the supreme 
 parliament, or those of the imperial cabinet — and having 
 (though nominally subordinate) the power of forcing all 
 their measures upon the Governor. 
 
 The colonial Governor must, in this case, be left with- 
 out discretion or responsibility, and follow whatever 
 changes may occur ; in his colony he could take no direc- 
 tions from the minister of the crown, nor, indeed, com- 
 municate with the supreme government, unless in the 
 terms dictated by his responsible advisers, to whose 
 directions he must submit, far more completely than the 
 Sovereign to the advice of the cabinet. The real Sove- 
 reign, and the supreme cabinet, are lost sight of and 
 forgotten, in the administration of pubHc affairs in the 
 colony : and thus the responsibihty to Parliament, which
 
 POSITION OF GOVERNOR 179 
 
 in England is produced by, and consistent with the 
 powers of supreme legislation, being introduced into a 
 colony where the supremacy in the legislative body does 
 not exist, the weaker body, in fact, is, by a political 
 fiction, made the stronger. — The dependency of the 
 colony is at an end ; and while the Sovereign no longer 
 possesses a confidential servant in the colony, the ministers 
 of the crown, who are responsible for the preservation of 
 colonial connection, lose all authority to fulfil the duties 
 of their office. 
 
 Either this must be the course pursued by a Governor, 
 with responsible advisers, or he must think for himself, 
 independently of those advisers : and, as a matter of 
 course, throw himself for information and advice, upon 
 irregular and unknown sources. In such an event, the 
 responsible advisers resign — they have, perhaps, a 
 majority in the Provincial Parliament ; but they may, 
 notwithstanding, be very wrong. Then comes a disso- 
 lution of the Provincial Parliament, and, perhaps, an 
 expression of public opinion, by a bare majority, against 
 the government — and probably, inimical to the interests 
 of the empire. Who, then, is to yield ? — The govern- 
 ment must, in fact, retire from the contest, whether right 
 or wrong, or carry on public affairs without any advisers 
 or public officers. 
 
 This cannot be done : so that, after all, the governor 
 of the colony must be responsible to the prevailing party 
 in the colony ; and, so far as the empire is concerned, he 
 becomes the sovereign of an independent realm — having 
 no discretion, and therefore no responsibility. 
 
 Under such a system, colonial dependence would prac- 
 tically be at an end. If it be resolved, then, to force upon 
 us an independence not yet courted, why subject the 
 colonies to the few miserable years of transition from 
 monarchy to democracy, which must inevitably follow ? 
 Why subject the colony to the dissensions of party ? 
 Is it to foster a spirit of undying enmity among a people 
 disposed to dwell together in harmony and peace ? Far 
 better would it be to unite them at once to an empire 
 which, though rival, and perhaps inimical to England, 
 would, in such case, interfere sufficiently between con- 
 tending parties, to save them from each other. 
 
 If England withdraw her influence, and leave her 
 governors to be the shuttle between coloniar'parties, no 
 
 12—2
 
 ISO LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 loyalty now existing among any of these parties, will 
 prevent tlieir seeking another influence in the neigh- 
 l)ouring republic, to replace the one needlessly with- 
 drawn ; and as the French of Lower Canada sought the 
 alliance of their ancient enemies, the Anglo-American 
 population of the neighbouring States, to give them the 
 means of overwhelming the British population — for the 
 time left without the countenance c r support of the 
 British government — so will the losing party, in either 
 colony, seek some external influence to aid their cause. 
 England refuses the umpirage, and there can be no doubt 
 but that it "wdll be readily offered, before many years, to 
 the United States. 
 
 Ireland and Scotland had once independent legisla- 
 tures ; but never, when under the British crown, had 
 they anything approaching to governments responsible 
 to their respective people — ^yet the government of them 
 became impracticable, the moment it approached to a 
 participation of equal political rights, and they were 
 united %vith England : because government in the dif- 
 ferent parts of an empire, must be conducted with a 
 view to some supreme ruHng power, which is not prac- 
 ticable with several separate and independent legisla- 
 tures. 
 
 The plan of the Earl of Durham is to confine the 
 functions of the local legislatures to affairs strictly 
 colonial, but this limitation of powers is not practicable 
 under his Lordship's system. 
 
 It is perfectly true that it is not for the interest of 
 England to maintain a continual struggle with the local 
 legislature, for the purpose of upholding any class of 
 persons in the colonies, as the servants of the Crown ; 
 but it is no less true, that the honour and interests of 
 the Empire are intimately involved with local administra- 
 tion, and that if Governors of colonies are to be left un- 
 supported by the Imperial Government, and to have their 
 advisers chosen for them by the prevailing party, the 
 usefulness of the Governors must be at an end, — there 
 must either be continual collision between them and the 
 other public servants in the colonies, or the Governors 
 must yield up their judgments and consciences to the 
 keeping of the factions which agitate the countries they 
 are appointed to govern. 
 
 In small communities, the future is continually sacri-
 
 COLONIAL OPINION UNSTABLE 181 
 
 ficed to present convenience, but the very temporary 
 nature of the interests which influence the politics of a 
 country Hke this, with a changing population, with no 
 barriers between the inception of public will and its 
 expression — the comparatively little personal influence 
 held by any, from considerations of property, or per- 
 sonal attachment — the ephemeral character of the topics 
 which sway elections and elevate men for the moment 
 into public favour, with almost a certainty of sinking 
 with the reflux of the wave which lifted them into view, 
 operate against the growing up of that steady influence 
 capable of giving stability to politics, or of defining the 
 views of party. The people are individually essentially 
 free — free from landlords — free from employers — free 
 from the influence of great wealth, as well as from that 
 of high station in the few ; every man does as it seems 
 best in his own eyes. The consequence is, that it is 
 scarcely possible to know, for any continuance, what 
 the views of the prominent parliamentary men are, 
 except on a few questions : no considerable number of 
 them think alike, and all, by turns, find themselves in a 
 minority many times during a parhamentary session. 
 
 This state of things does not arise from any modifica- 
 tion of political institutions, but from the individual in- 
 dependence of the population — caused by the ease with 
 which landed property is acquired. In England, political 
 leaders think for the people : in America, the people think 
 for the members of Parliament ; and as the people is not 
 bound to consistency, like individuals of note, its appetite 
 for change, and for the proposal and attempt to carry 
 absurd and extravagant measures, is, and must be 
 gratified from time to time, " non obstante" the consis- 
 tency of politicians. 
 
 The same course of politics is found in the United 
 States, where the President, the Senate, and the House 
 of Representatives constantly find their measures nega- 
 tived by each other, and where members are constantly 
 instructed by their constituents, according to the popular 
 whim of the hour. We therefore do not find what is 
 strictly called Executive responsibility, or necessity of 
 continual accordance of government with the popular 
 voice ; and measures have, even between the short in- 
 tervals of the Presidential elections, time to be ])opular 
 and unpopular, two or three times over. The French
 
 1S2 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 Canadian party form, perhaps, the only pohtical com- 
 bination in America with consistency of principle, and 
 this is because they have leaders who direct the general 
 opinion. They are consequently the only party whose 
 representatives could by any possibility lay down any 
 tangible principles upon which they would conduct a 
 government. In this Province, as in the United States, 
 popular mil must influence the conduct of government 
 in all things not essentially Avrong or chimerical, and in 
 these the government must be strong enough to resist, 
 and be known to have the power of resistance for a sufR- 
 cient time, to permit more cool and quiet consideration 
 on the part of the constituency. 
 
 A curious example of this species of legislation is found 
 in a discussion, which has occupied a great part of the 
 present session, on the absorbing topic of the Clergy 
 Reserves. It has been taken up and discussed upon 
 principles of liberality and concession, on all sides ; the 
 parties, unable to agree upon any mode of appropria- 
 tion, have, as a final measure, referred the issue to the 
 Imperial Parliament. 
 
 It would be almost impossible to enumerate the various 
 modes of distribution proposed, wdth and without the 
 approbation of government, on this question, which 
 would undoubtedly, in English politics, be considered 
 one, upon which the existence of a ministry must depend. 
 Suffice it to say that, almost every member had a plan 
 of his own ; some had two or three plans fresh from their 
 constituents — yet, strange to say, the house could not 
 agree, — that is to say, there was a number sufficient to 
 negative every plan proposed, and to prevent the refer- 
 ence of the matter to England, up to the last day of the 
 session. 
 
 In this paradoxical state of affairs, wliich of the con- 
 tending parties should form the colonial cabinet ? 
 
 This, or something approaching to it, not being an 
 unusual condition of pohtics, it may easily be supposed 
 that few, if any persons, possess sufficient influence to 
 conduct affairs ; and from this state of things, it is to be 
 presumed, has arisen the practice in all colonial govern- 
 ments with legislatures, of the governors standing as 
 mediators between parties, yielding and leaning to the 
 popular voice, but resisting it with the authority of their 
 office, when it was manifestly in error.
 
 EVILS OF POPULAR GOVERNMENT 183 
 
 It must be supposed that had the system proposed by 
 the Earl of Durham been long since adopted, the popular 
 will would have prevailed to a far greater extent than 
 heretofore, and yet most of the practical evils found in 
 the colonies have arisen from measures popular at the 
 time of their enactment. 
 
 The preservation of the French language, laws, and 
 institutions, and the consequent perpetuation of the con- 
 test between the races, so strongly deprecated by the 
 Earl of Durham, was a popular measure, and must have 
 prevailed even more injuriously, and even destructively, 
 under a responsible government. 
 
 The concessions of public lands to U. E. Loyalists 
 and their children, to militia, and other grantees not 
 resident upon the lands, which now form an acknow- 
 ledged public grievance, were popular measures : the 
 persons who benefited by them being the population 
 of the country, and those who complain of them not 
 being yet arrived. 
 
 The parliamentary grants for local works, and the 
 disposal of funds by commissioners named by the legis- 
 lature, and the abuse of this patronage, are evidently 
 founded upon, and rising out of, the parliamentary influ- 
 ence sought to be made supreme, and are evils which 
 might have been greatly exaggerated, but could not have 
 been lessened by responsible Government. — In fact they 
 prove that governors should oftener take the responsi- 
 bility of resisting the popular voice than they have been 
 hitherto accustomed. 
 
 The very change in political sentiments, produced by 
 the constant introduction of new population from Great 
 Britain, shows that legislation in these colonies ought to 
 be conducted with some view to the interests of those not 
 represented in the legislature, but who may soon form 
 the great mass of the subjects of the Crown in America. 
 A responsible cabinet must, however, look exclusively to 
 the party of the day, and in its favour neglect the great 
 future interests of the Province. 
 
 In short, local and sectional interests are felt too 
 strongly and directly in elective bodies, in small com- 
 munities, to permit of consistent legislation on general 
 principles, and the objects to be gained during the short 
 period for which the majority hold their influence, are of 
 too much consequence, compared with distinct general
 
 184 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 results, to permit of the perfectly unchecked course which 
 would result from responsible government. 
 
 Although the points are few in which it is the interest 
 of England directly to interfere with local and internal 
 affairs in the colonies, your Committee are at a loss to 
 conceive how, in a government so independent as this 
 is proposed to be made of England, these few points can 
 by any means be excluded from the controul of the local 
 parhament — a disagreement with the cabinet and legis- 
 lature on the subject of foreign trade, immigration, dis- 
 posal of lands, or any of the excluded topics, will just as 
 readily induce a stoppage of the supplies, with all the 
 consequences, as any of the questions Tvdthin the range 
 of local legislature, and if we can suppose cases in which 
 the interests of the empire and that of the colony should 
 be different, it is vain to expect that any set of public 
 servants who should espouse the general interests could 
 continue in authority. 
 
 Even in the question of peace and war, excluded ahke 
 from local legislation in the several states of America, 
 as in the colonies, we have seen how nearly in the states 
 of ]\Iichigan, New York, and Maine, the prevalence of 
 popular opinion produced a terrible national war : how 
 the arm of government was paralysed, and the hcentious 
 and outrageous conduct of the populace encouraged by 
 local authorities, because of the influence of this excluded 
 and forbidden question upon the elections of local 
 governors and local legislatures : — and it cannot be 
 questioned that little more exacerbation of the public 
 mind in Upper Canada, would have caused such a desire 
 for reprisal and retaliation, as would have placed any 
 local responsible cabinet, desirous to maintain peace on 
 the border, in direct colhsion with the popular voice. 
 
 A stronger instance of the necessity for interference 
 in local affairs than the recommendation of the British 
 Government for a merciful course towards the prisoners 
 presented, could scarcely have occurred, for it has justly 
 been observed, that the honour of England would suffer, 
 if life were taken unnecessarily. But to prevent its being 
 taken to a much greater extent than has been permitted, 
 required much firmness in the advisers of the govern- 
 ment, and much reliance on their part on the Imperial 
 authorities for support in the humane course recommended 
 by them.
 
 NEED OF IMPERIAL CONTROL 185 
 
 To conclude this subject, your Committee would 
 observe, that so long as England holds sway in the 
 colonies, there will be a majority seeking for power in 
 the Provinces ; and a minority for justice and protec- 
 tion, and impartial government. The moment the pro- 
 vincial magnates are made supreme by the proposed 
 system, interference to do justice will be a breach of 
 faith ; and let it be recollected, that if England refuse 
 the umpirage between contending parties, there is a power 
 at hand, ready and anxious to join with either, and 
 watching for the favourable opportunity. 
 
 From these reasonings, it appears evident, that the 
 expenses of military defence in Canada are not to be 
 avoided by a partial independence, or by anything short 
 of abandonment. These expenses have not been incurred 
 in consequence of any want of popular concessions : they 
 have been caused by the unprincipled and outrageous 
 conduct of the border Americans, which can only be held 
 in check by military defences, or by the influence of 
 British power, upon the American people, through their 
 government. 
 
 Referring to the causes of the late insurrection, your 
 Committee would observe, that it is not to be contended, 
 that the influence over the public mind, caused by Sir 
 Francis Head having placed the question at issue in such 
 a light as to show political evils arising from the reform 
 system so strongly as to produce the change in the elec- 
 tions of 1836, could either produce or excuse rebellion. 
 The question at issue involved consequences of vital 
 importance : nor could the rebellion be produced or 
 excused by comparisons made by the public, to the dis- 
 advantage of the reformers. — The only pretence amongst 
 all those urged, having any colour of argument, is the 
 alleged corruption at the elections, and the influence then 
 obtained by government. But this pretext seems, upon 
 examination, as unfounded as the others : a people who 
 will permit themselves, in a country in which the elective 
 franchise is so widely diffused, to be bribed or influenced 
 into returning an overwhelming majority to parliament, 
 are not the most likely, therefore, to rise in rebellion 
 against their own decision ; and as to the fact of corrup- 
 tion on the part of the government, so far from there 
 being any means of attempting such a course, it is with 
 great difficulty that the government can find the means
 
 186 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 of carrying on itself, without any such expensive inter- 
 ference with the rights of electors. If the assertion were 
 not too absurd for dispute upon it, reference might be 
 had to the returns from the public offices, and to the pro- 
 ceedings in the Assembty, in which the reformers were 
 invited, in vain, to sustain any one of these accusations, 
 as a full refutation of the charge of corrupt interference 
 influencing the elections. 
 
 That dissatisfaction prevailed amongst the defeated 
 party, as in all other cases, is admitted — and that the 
 elected members did not possess the confidence of those 
 who voted against them, was to be expected ; but that 
 the successful majority were thereby driven into despair 
 of good government, or were discontented with their own 
 mode of putting members of their owti choice into 
 power, is not only contradicted by the argument that 
 the remedy would always be in their ov,ti hands, but by 
 the fact of the enthusiastic loyalty with which the popu- 
 lace of the country, chiefly those who formed the majority 
 in the late elections, raUied round the very men and the 
 governor, by whom, according to the complaint of the 
 reformers, they had been disappointed and betrayed. 
 Your Committee are of opinion, that the proximity of 
 the American frontier — the wild and chimerical notions 
 of civil government broached and discussed there — the 
 introduction of a very great number of border Americans 
 into this Province as settlers, who, with some most 
 respectable and worthy exceptions, formed the bulk of 
 the reformers, who carried these opinions so far as 
 disaffection — together wdth the existence of actual 
 rebellion, and the expectation of a general rising in Lower 
 Canada, emboldened a portion of the minority to rise in 
 rebellion in this Province, in the hope of achieving the 
 overthrow of the Government with foreign assistance. 
 
 Is it because reformers, or a portion of them, can com- 
 mand the sympathies of the United States, and of Lower 
 Canadian rebels, that the internal affairs of a British 
 colony must be conducted so as to please them ? Where 
 would the colonial government have looked for support 
 and defence, in its time of real danger, had proscription, 
 and discouragement, and disregard, been the portion of 
 those who had sho^\^l, at the elections, that they were 
 \vdlling to sacrifice a portion of popular influence, to the 
 great object of retaining British connection ?
 
 INACCURACIES OF DURHAM 187 
 
 How painfully must such men be excited, at reading, 
 in Lord Durham's report, what appears to be a justifica- 
 tion of the course taken by the disaffected, without one 
 word of approval to those who risked and endured so 
 much in defence of British supremacy. In what manner, 
 we ask, did the dominant party make use of the occasion, 
 to persecute or disable the whole body of their political 
 opponents ? Who were the numbers of perfectly inno- 
 cent men thrown into prison, and who suffered in person, 
 property, and character ? And what severe laws were 
 passed in Upper Canada, under colour of wliich indi- 
 viduals very generally esteemed, were punished without 
 any form of trial ? 
 
 That some unauthorized individuals were prone to 
 insult those whom they viewed, at the moment, as a 
 fallen enemy, must have been the case. That the indi- 
 viduals, thus insulted, may have felt themselves aggrieved 
 and annoyed, cannot be doubted — that a great many 
 were thrown into prison, (against whom the clearest 
 proof of high treason was in the hands of the magis- 
 tracy,) but who were released without trial, a mercy 
 which they most thanldully accepted, can easily be 
 proved. That they were perfectly innocent, could only 
 have been placed beyond dispute by a trial, but in the 
 cases of the great number of individuals arrested there 
 were not only good grounds of suspicion, but means of 
 proof of guilt, and it would be far, indeed, from being the 
 interests of the parties themselves to provoke an inquiry. 
 
 It is true, that magistrates, sometimes looking to the 
 circumstances of their own immediate neighbourhoods, 
 rather than to the policy of the Government at large, 
 proceeded with more zeal and strictness than the case 
 demanded ; but what good reason for complaint has the 
 criminal, arrested for high treason, in the discovery, that 
 the magistrate, by whose authority he is arrested, has a 
 political leaning different from himself ? 
 
 It is stated, in Lord Durham's report, that it was 
 generally believed, that the pardon of Samuel Lount, 
 and Peter Matthews,^ was solicited by no less than thirty 
 thousand of their countrymen. The number of peti- 
 tioners — men and women — who petitioned for these 
 criminals, appear, upon examination, to be four thousand, 
 
 ' Two Upper Canadian rebels, hanged in 18;JH. (See Kingsford, 
 op. (dt., X. 474.)
 
 188 LORD DURHAM'S REPORT 
 
 live liuiidred, and seventy-four ; — such exaggerations 
 necessarily refute themselves. 
 
 It is one of the most distressing effects of the publica- 
 tion of the Earl of Durham's report, that His Lordship 
 thus seems to condemn the execution of these men. If 
 they really ought to have been spared, the publication 
 of such a sentiment, from one in high authority, cannot 
 restore them, but it must give rise to feelings, on the 
 part of their friends, and their political party, (avIio may 
 never have imagined such a possibility as the escape 
 from punishment of every one of the leaders of a re- 
 belhon, wliich infhcted so much calamity upon the Pro- 
 vince,) but who will now think that, had the Earl of 
 Durham been in this Province, high treason would have 
 been considered much in the same light as a riot at an 
 election. 
 
 Your Committee having animadverted on the principal 
 topics in the report of the High Commissioner, beg, ere 
 they conclude, to observe that, as regards Upper Canada, 
 Lord Durham could not possibly have any personal 
 knowledge, the period of his sojourn in that Province 
 being of such very short duration. — Your Committee 
 regret that His Lordsliip should have confided the task 
 of collecting information to a person, who, be he whom 
 he may, has evidently entered on his task, \^dth the 
 desire to exalt the opponents of the colonial government 
 in the estimation of the High Commissioner, and to throw 
 discredit on the statements of the supporters of British 
 influence, and British connection — that he should, in such 
 an attempt, have laid liimself open to severe censure, was 
 to be expected. Yoiu* Committee have, however, through 
 a feeling of respect for Her Majesty's Commissioner, 
 refrained from commenting on his report, in the terms 
 which they honestly avow they think it merits, confident 
 that their forbearance will meet the desires of your 
 Honourable House, and be equally in accordance with 
 the wishes of the family compact hereinbefore men- 
 tioned. 
 
 AU which is respectfully submitted, 
 
 J. S. Macaulay, 
 
 Chairman. 
 
 Committee Room, 
 
 Legislative Council, 
 
 nth day of May, 1839.
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT IN THE MARITIME 
 PROVINCES 
 
 The same problems of the relations between Governor, 
 Councils, and Assembly had long vexed, not only the 
 two Canadas, but also the Maritime Provinces. It is 
 the glory of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that they 
 won responsible government with none of the bloodshed 
 and misery which accompanied the struggle on the St. 
 Lawrence. This was largely due to the character of 
 the leaders of the Reformers, Lemuel Allan Wilmot in 
 New Brunswick and Joseph Howe in Nova Scotia. No 
 other Canadian has enjoyed such popularity as did Howe 
 for many years in his native province. In him were 
 combined the gifts which were scattered among the 
 Canadian Reformers. To an eloquence as fiery as that of 
 Papineau he added a clearness of vision equal to that of 
 Baldwin or of Bidwell. In 1858 his Speeches and Public 
 Letters were issued at Boston in two volumes, now rare, 
 nominally edited by his friend and colleague William 
 Annand, but really compiled and revised by Howe him- 
 self. From this collection we have taken four open 
 letters, written in 1839 to Lord John Russell, in reply to 
 the speech made by that statesman in the House of 
 Commons on June 3, 1839 (see Hansard, Third Series, 
 vol. xlvii., pp. 1254-1275). 
 
 The contest in Nova Scotia for responsible government 
 necessarily concerned itself largely with the conduct and 
 
 189
 
 190 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 the competency of individuals. Its vehemence was in- 
 tensified by the smallness of the area, which gave the 
 leaders of each side full knowledge of the faults and fail- 
 ings of their opponents. Thus even Howe's best speeches 
 are full of local and personal allusions, which have now 
 lost their interest. The words that once kindled thou- 
 sands to flame are now but ashes from which the last 
 flicker of life has gone, and his letters give what is really 
 a truer, though an inadequate, idea of his greatness. 
 
 Letter I. 
 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
 
 Sept. 18, 1839. 
 
 My Lord, — I beg your Lordship to believe that no 
 desire to seek for notoriety beyond the Kmited sphere 
 in which Providence has placed me, tempts me to address 
 these letters to you. Born in a small and distant Pro- 
 vince of the Empire, and contented with the range of 
 occupation that it affords, and with the moderate degree 
 of influence which the confidence of some portion of its 
 population confers, I should never have thought of in- 
 truding upon your Lordship, had not the occupations of 
 my past life, and the devotion to them of many days of 
 toil and nights of anxious inquiry, led me to entertain 
 strong opinions upon a subject wliich your Lordship has 
 undertaken recently to discuss ; and which, while it 
 deeply concerns the honor and the interests of the Empire, 
 appears to be, by Her Majesty's present Ministers, but 
 little understood. Whether or not the Anglo-American 
 population, upholding the British flag on this side of the 
 Atlantic, shall possess the right to influence, through their 
 representatives, the Governments under which they live, 
 in all matters touching their internal affairs (of which 
 their fellow subjects living elsewhere know nothing, and 
 with which they have no right to interfere,) is a question, 
 my Lord, that involves their happiness and freedom. To 
 every Nova Scotian it is no light matter, that the country 
 of his birth, in whose bosom the bones of a hardy and 
 loyal ancestry repose, and whose surface is possessed by
 
 LETTERS TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL 191 
 
 a population inferior in none of the physical, moral, or 
 mental attributes which distinguish his race, to any 
 branch of the great British family, should be free and 
 happy. I share with my countrymen their solicitude on 
 this subject ; I and my children wiU share their deep 
 disgrace, if the doctrines recently attributed to Your 
 Lordship are to prevail to the utter exclusion of us all 
 from the blessings and advantages of responsible govern- 
 ment, based upon the principles of that Constitution 
 which Your Lordship's forefathers labored to establish, 
 and ours have taught us to revere. To the consciousness 
 of social and political degradation which must be my 
 portion, if the future government of North America is 
 arranged upon the principles recently avowed by the 
 ministry, I am reluctant that the reflection should be 
 added, that the Colonists were themselves to blame, in 
 permitting a great question, without ample discussion 
 and remonstrance, to be decided upon grounds which 
 they knew to be untenable and untrue. In addressing 
 Your Lordship on such a topic, it is gratifying to reflect, 
 that your past life is a guaranty that the moment you 
 are satisfied that a greater amount of freedom and happi- 
 ness can be conferred on any portion of your fellow 
 subjects than they now enjoy, without endangering the 
 welfare of the whole — when once convinced that the great 
 principles of the British Constitution can be more widely 
 extended, without peril to the integrity of the empire — 
 you will not hesitate to lend the influence of your great 
 name and distinguished talents to the good old cause 
 " for which Hampden died in the field and Sidney on 
 the scaffold." 
 
 Lord Durham's report upon the affairs of British North 
 America appears to have produced much excitement in 
 England. The position which his Lordship occupies as 
 a politician at home, naturally draws attention to what- 
 ever he says and does ; and the disclosures made in the 
 report must appear so strange to many, and the remedies 
 suggested so bold and original to many more, that I am 
 not surprised at the notice bestowed by friends and foes 
 on this very important document. From what I have 
 seen, however, it is evident that His Lordship is paying 
 the penalty of party connection ; and that his opinions 
 on Canadian affairs, instead of being tried upon their 
 merits, are in many cases applauded or opposed, as his
 
 192 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 views of British and Irish poHtics happen to be relished 
 or condemned. It is almost too much to expect that 
 my feeble voice will be heard amidst the storm of praise 
 and censure that this report has raised ; and yet there 
 may be some, who, disliking this mode of estimating a 
 state paper, or distrusting the means of judging possessed 
 by many who express opinions, but whose practical ex- 
 perience of the working of Colonial Constitutions has been 
 but slight — if indeed they have had any — may feel dis- 
 posed to ask. What is thought of the report in the 
 Colonies ? Are its leading features recognized as true 
 to nature and experience there ? Are the remedies sug- 
 gested approved by the people whose future destinies 
 they are to influence and control ? 
 
 The report has circulated for some months in the 
 Colonies ; and I feel it a duty to state the grounds of my 
 belief, that His Lordship, in attributing many if not all 
 of our Colonial evils and disputes, to the absence of re- 
 sponsibility in our rulers to those whom they are called 
 to govern, is entirely warranted by the knowledge of 
 every intelligent Colonist ; that the remedy pointed out, 
 while it possesses the merits of being extremely simple 
 and eminently British, — making them so responsible, is 
 the only cure for those evils short of arrant quackery ; 
 the only secure foundation upon which the power of the 
 crown can be established on this Continent, so as to defy 
 internal machination and foreign assault. 
 
 It appears to me that a very absurd opinion has long 
 prevailed among many worthy people, on both sides of 
 the Atlantic ; that the selection of an Executive Council, 
 who, upon most points of domestic policy, will differ 
 from the great body of the inhabitants and the majority 
 of their representatives, is indispensable to the very 
 existence of Colonial institutions ; and that if it were 
 otherwise, the Colony would fly off, by the operation of 
 some latent principle of mischief, which I have never 
 seen very clearly defined. By those who entertain this 
 view, it is assumed, that Great Britain is indebted for 
 the preservation of her Colonies, not to the natural affec- 
 tion of their inhabitants — to their pride in her history, 
 to their participation in the benefit of her warlike, 
 scientific or literary achievements, — but to the disin- 
 terested patriotism of a dozen or two of persons, whose 
 names are scarcely known in England, except by the
 
 COLONIAL LOYALTY 193 
 
 clerks in Downing Street ; who are remarkable for nothing 
 above their neighbors in the Colony, except perhaps the 
 enjoyment of offices too richly endowed ; or their zealous 
 efforts to annoy, by the distribution of patronage and 
 the management of public affairs, the great body of the 
 inhabitants, whose sentiments they cannot change. 
 
 I have ever held. My Lord, and still hold to the belief, 
 that the population of British North America, are sincerely 
 attached to the parent State ; that they are proud of their 
 origin, deeply interested in the integrity of the empire, 
 and not anxious for the establishment of any other form 
 of government here than that which you enjoy at home ; 
 which, while it has stood the test of ages, and purified 
 itself by successive peaceful revolutions, has so developed 
 the intellectual, moral and natural resources of two small 
 Islands, as to enable a people, once comparatively far 
 behind their neighbors in influence and improvement, to 
 combine and wield the energies of a dominion more vast 
 in extent, and complicated in all its relations, than any 
 other in ancient or modern times. Why should we desire 
 a severance of old ties, that are more honorable than any 
 new ones we can form ? Why should we covet institu- 
 tions more perfect than those which have worked so well, 
 and produced such admirable results ? Until it can be 
 shown that there are forms of government, combining 
 stronger executive power with more of individual liberty ; 
 offering nobler incitements to honorable ambition, and 
 more security to unaspiring ease and humble industry ; 
 why should it be taken for granted, either by our friends 
 in England, or our enemies elsewhere, that we are pant- 
 ing for new experiments ; or are disposed to repudiate 
 and cast aside the principles of that excellent Constitu- 
 tion, cemented by the blood and the long experience of 
 our fathers, and upon which the vigorous energies of our 
 brethren, driven to apply new principles to a field of 
 boundless resources, have failed to improve ? This sus- 
 picion is a libel upon the Colonist, and upon the Con- 
 stitution he claims as his inheritance ; and the principles 
 of which he believes to be as applicable to all the exigencies 
 of the country where he resides, as they have proved to 
 be to those of the fortunate Islands in which they were 
 first developed. 
 
 If the conviction of this fact were once acknowledged 
 by the intelligent and influential men of all parties in 
 
 L3
 
 194 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 Britain, Colonial misrule would speedily end, and the 
 reign of order indeed commence. This is not a party 
 question. I can readily understand how the Duke of 
 Wellington and Sir Robert Peel may differ from Your 
 Lordship or the Earl of Durham, as to whether measures 
 should be carried, which they believe will impair, and 
 you feel will renovate, the Constitution ; but surely none 
 of these distinguished men would wish to deny the Con- 
 stitution itself to large bodies of British subjects on this 
 side of the water, who have not got it, who are anxious 
 to secure its advantages to themselves and their children ; 
 who, while they have no ulterior designs that can by any 
 possibility make the concession dangerous, can never be 
 expected to be contented with a system the very reverse 
 of that they admire ; and in view of the proud satisfac- 
 tion with which, amidst all their manly struggles for 
 power, their brethren at home survey the simple machinery 
 of a government, which we believe to be, like the un- 
 erring principles of science, as applicable to one side of 
 the Atlantic as to the other, but which we are neverthe- 
 less denied. 
 
 Many persons, not familiar with the facts, may wonder 
 how this occurs, and be disposed to doubt the correct- 
 ness of my assertion. It seems strange that those who 
 live within the British empire should be governed by 
 other principles than those of the British Constitution ; 
 and yet it is true, notwithstanding. Let me illustrate 
 the fact, by a few references to British and Colonial 
 affairs. In England, the government is invariably en- 
 trusted to men whose principles and policy the mass of 
 those who possess the elective franchise approve, and 
 who are sustained by a majority in the House of Commons. 
 The sovereign may be personally hostile to them ; a 
 majority of the House of Lords may oppose them in that 
 august Assembly ; and yet they govern the country, until, 
 from a deficiency of talent, or conduct, or from ill fortune, 
 they find their representative majority diminished, and 
 some rival combination of able and influential men in 
 condition to displace them. If satisfied that the Com- 
 mons truly reflect the opinions of the constituency, they 
 resign ; if there is any doubt, a dissolution is tried, and 
 the verdict of the country decides to which party its 
 destinies are to be confided. You, in common with every 
 Englishman living at home, are so familiar with the opera-
 
 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION 196 
 
 tion of this system, and so engrossed with a participa- 
 tion in the ardent intellectual competition it occasions, 
 that perhaps you seldom pause to admire what attracts 
 as little attention as the air you breathe. The cabman 
 who drives past St. Paul's a dozen times a day, seldom 
 gazes at its ample outline or excellent proportions ; and 
 yet they impress the Colonist with awe and wonder, and 
 make him regret that he has left no such edifice in the 
 west. 
 
 As a politician, then, Your Lordship's only care is, to 
 place or retain your party in the ascendant in the House 
 of Commons. You never doubt for an instant that if 
 they are so, they must influence the policy and dispense 
 the patronage of the government. This simple and ad- 
 mirable principle of letting the majority govern, you 
 carry out in all your corporations, clubs, and public com- 
 panies and associations ; and no more suspect that there 
 is danger in it, or that the minority are injured when 
 compelled to submit, than you see injustice in awarding 
 a cup at Epsom or Doncaster to the horse that has won, 
 rather than to the animal which has lost the race. The 
 effects of this system are perceptible everywhere. A peer 
 of France, under the old regime, if he lost the smiles of 
 the court suffered a sort of political and social annihila- 
 tion. A peer of England, if unjustly slighted by the 
 Sovereign, retires to his estate, not to mourn over an 
 irreparable stroke of fortune, but to devote his hours to 
 study, to rally his friends, to connect himself with some 
 great interest in the State, whose accumulating strength 
 may bear him into the counsels of his Sovereign, without 
 any sacrifice of principle or diminution of self-respect, 
 A commoner feels, in England, not as commoners used 
 to feel in France, that honors and influence are only to 
 be attained by an entire prostration of spirit, the foulest 
 adulation, the most utter subserviency to boundless pre- 
 rogatives, arbitrarily exercised, — but, that they are to be 
 won in open arenas, by the exercise of those manly 
 qualities which command respect ; and by the exhibition 
 of the ripened fruits of assiduous intellectual cultivation, 
 in the presence of an admiring nation, whoso decision 
 ensures success. Hence there is a self -poised and vigorous 
 independence in the Briton's character, by which he 
 strangely contrasts with all his European neighbors. 
 His descendants in the Colonies, notwithstanding the 
 
 13—2
 
 196 GOVERNTVIENT TN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 difficulties of their position, still bear to John Bull, in 
 this respect, a strong resemblance ; but it must fade, if 
 the system be not changed ; and our children, instead of 
 exhibiting the bold front and manly bearing of the Briton, 
 must be stamped with the lineaments of low cunning and 
 sneaking servility, which the practical operation of 
 Colonial government has a direct tendency to engender. 
 
 From some rather close observation of what has occurred 
 in Nova Scotia and in the adjoining Colonies, I am 
 justified in the assertion, that the English rule is com- 
 pletely reversed on this side of the Atlantic. Admitting 
 that in Lower Canada, in consequence of the state of 
 society which Lord Durham has so well depicted, such a 
 policy may have been necessary ; surely there is no reason 
 why the people of Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New 
 Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, 
 should, on that account, be deprived of the application 
 of a principle which is the corner stone of the British 
 Constitution — the fruitful source of responsibility in the 
 government, and of honorable characteristics in the 
 people. If the Frenchmen in one Province do not 
 understand, or cannot be entrusted with this valuable 
 privilege, why should we, who are all Britons, or of 
 British descent, be deprived of what we do understand, 
 and feel that we can never be prosperous and happy 
 without ? 
 
 Your Lordship asks me for proofs. They shall be 
 given. 
 
 Looking at all the British North American Colonies, 
 with one single exception, so far as my memory extends, 
 although it has sometimes happened that the local ad- 
 ministration has secured a majority in the lower House, 
 I never knew an instance in which a hostile majority 
 could displace an Executive Council, whose measures it 
 disapproved ; or could, in fact, change the policy, or 
 exercise the slightest influence upon the administrative 
 operations of the government. The case which forms 
 the exception was that of the Province of New Bruns- 
 wick ; but there the struggle lasted as long as the Trojan 
 war, — through the existence of several Houses of As- 
 sembly ; and was at length concluded by an arrangement 
 with the authorities at home, after repeated appeals, and 
 two tedious and costly delegations to England.^ But the 
 
 1 See Hannay, Wilmot and Tilley, chap. iv.
 
 COLONIAL EXECUTIVE IMMOVEABLE 197 
 
 remedy applied, even in that case, though satisfactory 
 for the time, can have no appHcation to future difficulties 
 or differences of opinion. Let us suppose that a general 
 election takes place in that Province next year, and that 
 the great body of the people are dissatisfied with the 
 mode in which the patronage of the government has 
 been distributed, and the general bearing of the internal 
 policy of its rulers. If that colony were an English in- 
 corporated town, the people would have the remedy in 
 their own hands ; if they were entrusted with the powers, 
 which, as British subjects of right belong to them, they 
 would only have to return a majority of their own way 
 of thinking ; a few men would change places ; the wishes 
 of the majority would be carried out ; and by no possi- 
 bility could anything occur to bring the people and their 
 rulers into such a state of collision as was exhibited in 
 that fine Province for a long series of years. But under 
 the existing system, if a hostile majority is returned, 
 what can they do ? Squabble and contend with an 
 Executive whom they cannot influence ; see the patronage 
 and favor of government lavished upon the minority who 
 annoy, but never outvote them ; and, finally, at the ex- 
 piration of a further period of ten years, appeal by delega- 
 tion to England ; running the hazard of a reference to a 
 clerk or a secretary whose knowledge of the various points 
 at issue is extremely limited — who has no interest in them, 
 and who, however favorably disposed, may be displaced 
 by some change in the position of parties at home before 
 the negotiations are brought to a close. 
 
 In 1836, a general election took place in Nova Scotia ; 
 and when the Legislature met for the dispatch of business, 
 it was found that the local government had two-thirds of 
 the members of the representative branch against them. 
 A fair-minded Englishman would naturally conclude that 
 the local cabinet, by a few official changes and a modifica- 
 tion of its policy, would have at once deferred to the 
 views and opinions of so large a majority of the popular 
 branch. Did it do so ? No. After a fierce struggle with 
 the local authorities, in which the revenue bills and the 
 appropriations for the year were nearly lost, the House 
 forwarded a strong address to the foot of the throne, 
 appealing to the Crown for the redress of inveterate 
 grievances, the very existence of which our Colonial rulers 
 denied, or which they refused to remove.
 
 198 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 To give Your Lordship an idea of the absurd anomalies 
 and ridiculous wTetcliedness of our system up to that 
 time, it is only necessary to state, that a Council of twelve 
 persons administered the government, and at the same 
 time formed the upper branch of the Legislature, sitting 
 invariably with closed doors. Only five of these twelve 
 gentlemen were partners in one private bank, five of 
 them were relations, two of them were heads of depart- 
 ments, and one was the chief justice, who in one capacity 
 had to administer the law he had assisted to make, and 
 then in a third, to advise the Governor as to its execu- 
 tion. To heighten the absurdity of the whole affair, it 
 is hardly necessary to add, that only nine of these twelve 
 were members of a particular church, which, however 
 useful or respectable, only embraced one-fifth of the whole 
 population of the Province. To the passage of certain 
 measures for the regulation of our currency, the derange- 
 ment of which was supposed to be profitable to those 
 who dealt in money, the bankers were said to have op- 
 posed their influence. Any attempt at reduction of the 
 expense of the revenue departments, the heads of which 
 sat at the board, was not likely to prevail ; while the 
 patronage of the government was of course distributed 
 by the nine churchmen, in a way not very satisfactory 
 to the four-fifths of the people who did not happen to 
 belong to that communion. Such a combination as this 
 never could have grown up in any Colony where the 
 English principle of responsibility had been in operation. 
 Indeed, there was something so abhorrent to British 
 feehng and justice in the whole affair, that Lord Glenelg 
 at once decided that it was " too bad ;" and, while in 
 Her Majesty's name he thanked the Commons for the 
 representation they had made, he directed the Governor 
 to dissolve the old Council, and form two new ones, free 
 from the objections which the Assembly had urged.^ 
 
 Had the instructions given been fairly carried out, 
 there is little doubt that in Nova Scotia, as in New 
 Bruns^vdck, the people and their representatives would 
 have been contented for a time ; and would have felt 
 that, in extreme cases, an appeal from their local rulers 
 to the Colonial Secretary would be effectual. The exist- 
 ing machinery of government might have been supposed 
 to be adequate to the necessities of the country, with 
 
 ^ See Longley, oj). cit.
 
 CONSTITUTION OF EXECUTIVE 199 
 
 perhaps an entire revision and repair at the hands of the 
 master workmen at home once in ten years ; or whenever 
 the blunders of subordinates in the Colony had completely 
 clogged its operations. 
 
 But mark the result. The Governor was instructed to 
 call into the new Councils those who " possessed the con- 
 fidence of the country." Now, you in England are simple 
 enough to believe, that when the Whigs have, in a house 
 of six hundred and fifty-eight members, a majority of 
 eight or ten, they possess the confidence of the country ; 
 and if their majority should happen to be double that 
 number, you would think it droll enough if they were 
 entirely excluded from political influence, and if the new 
 creations of peers and selections for the Cabinet should 
 all be made from the ranks of their opponents. This 
 would be absurd at home ; and yet it is the height of 
 wisdom in the Colonies. At the time these commands 
 were sent out, the party who were pressing certain econo- 
 mical and other reforms in Nova Scotia, were repre- 
 sented by two-thirds of the members of the popular 
 branch. The relative numbers have occasionally varied 
 during the past three sessions. At times, as on the 
 recent division upon a delegation, the reformers have 
 numbered thirty-three to eleven, in a House of forty-six. 
 On some questions the minority has been larger ; but 
 two-thirds of the whole may be fairly taken as the 
 numerical superiority on all political questions, of the 
 reformers over their opponents. It will scarcely be 
 believed, then, in England, that in the new appoint- 
 ments, by which a more popular character was to be 
 given to the Councils, six gentlemen were taken from 
 the minority, and but two from the ranks of the majority. 
 So that those who had been thanked for making repre- 
 sentations to the Queen, and who were pressing a change 
 of policy, were all passed over but two ; while those who 
 had resisted and opposed every representation, were 
 honored by appointments, and placed in situations to 
 render any such change utterly hopeless. The Execu- 
 tive Council, the local cabinet or ministry, therefore, con- 
 tained one or two persons of moderate views, not selected 
 from the House ; one from the majority, and eight or 
 ten others, to render his voice very like that of the " man 
 crying in the wilderness." He held his seat about half 
 a year, and then resigned ; feeling that while he was
 
 200 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 sworn to secrecy, and compromised by the policy he had 
 not approved, he had no influence on the deliberations 
 of the Cabinet or the distribution of patronage. Things 
 were managed just as much in accordance with the royal 
 instructions with respect to the Legislative Council, The 
 pack was shuffled, the game was to remain the same. 
 The members of the majority, as I have said before, were 
 all omitted in the new creation of peers, but one ; while, 
 both from the House and beyond it, some of the most 
 determined supporters of old abuses were selected ; and 
 among them, a young lawyer who had shown a most 
 chivalrous desire to oppose everything Her Majesty so 
 graciously approved ; and who, in the excess of his ultra 
 zeal, had, upon the final passage of the address to the 
 crown, when almost all his friends deserted him, voted 
 against the measure in a minority of four. 
 
 Here, then, Your Lordship has a practical illustration 
 of the correctness of Lord Durham's observations ; and 
 may judge of the chance the present system offers of 
 good Colonial government, even when the people have 
 the Queen and the Colonial Secretary on their side. Such 
 policy woiild wither all hope in the Nova Scotians, if 
 they did not confide in the good sense and justice of their 
 brethren within the four seas. We do not believe that 
 the Parliament, press, and people of England, when 
 rightly informed, will allow our local authorities " to play 
 such tricks before high heaven ;" or force us to live under 
 a system so absurd, so anti-British, so destructive of 
 every manly and honorable principle of action in political 
 affairs. The House of Assembly, as a last resort, after 
 ample deliberation, determined to send two members of 
 that body as delegates to England, to claim the rights 
 of Englishmen for the people of this country. Your 
 Lordship's declaration tells me, that on this point they 
 will be unsuccessful ; but patient perseverance is a political 
 characteristic of the stock from which we spring. 
 
 You ask me for the remedy. Lord Durham has stated 
 it distinctly : the Colonial Governors must be commanded 
 to govern by the aid of those who possess the confidence 
 of the people, and are supported by a majority of the 
 representative branch. Where is the danger ? Of what 
 consequence is it to the people of England, whether half 
 a dozen persons, in whom that majority have confidence, 
 but of whom they know nothing and care less, manage
 
 THE EVIL AND THE REMEDY 201 
 
 our local affairs ; or the same number, selected from the 
 minority, and whose policy the bulk of the population 
 distrust ? Suppose there was at this moment a majority 
 in our Executive Council who think with the Assembly, 
 what effect would it have upon the funds ? Would the 
 stocks fall ? Would England be weaker, less prosperous 
 or less respected, because the people of Nova Scotia were 
 satisfied and happy ? 
 
 But, it is said, a C!olony being part of a great Empire, 
 must be governed by different principles from the Metro- 
 politan State. That, unless it be handed over to the 
 minority it cannot be governed at all. That the majority, 
 when they have things their own way, will be discontented 
 and disloyal. That the very fact of their having nothing 
 to complain of will make them desire to break the political 
 compact, and disturb the peace of the Empire. Let us 
 fancy that this reasoning were applied to Glasgow, or 
 Aberdeen, or to any other town in Britain, which you 
 allow to govern itself. And what else is a Province, like 
 Nova Scotia, than a small community, too feeble to inter- 
 fere with the general commercial and military arrange- 
 ments of the government ; but deeply interested in a 
 number of minor matters, which only the people to be 
 affected by them can wisely manage ; which the ministry 
 can never find leisure to attend to, and involve in in- 
 extricable confusion when they meddle with them ? You 
 allow a million of people to govern themselves in the very 
 capital of the kingdom ; and yet Her Majesty lives in the 
 midst of them without any apprehension of danger, and 
 feels the more secure, the more satisfaction and tran- 
 quillity they exhibit. Of course, if the Lord Mayor were 
 to declare war upon France, or the Board of Aldermen 
 were to resolve that the duties upon brandy should no 
 longer be collected by the general revenue officers of the 
 kingdom, everybody would laugh, but no one would 
 apprehend any great danger. Should we, if Lord Dur- 
 ham's principles be adopted, do anything equally outre, 
 check us, for you have the power ; but until we do, for 
 your own sakes — for you are as much interested as we 
 are — for the honor of the British name, too often tar- 
 nished by these squabbles, let us manage our own affairs, 
 pay our own officers, and distribute a patronage, alto- 
 gether beneath your notice, among those who command 
 our esteem.
 
 202 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 The Assembly of Nova Scotia asked, in 1837, for an 
 elective Legislative Council, or for such other reconstruc- 
 tion of the local government as would ensure responsi- 
 bility. After a struggle of three years we have not got 
 either. The demand for an elective upper branch was 
 made under the impression, that two Houses chosen by 
 the people would sufficiently check an Executive exempt 
 from all direct Colonial accountability. From what has 
 occurred in the Canadas ; from the natural repugnance 
 which the House of Peers may be supposed to entertain 
 upon this point ; and from a strong desire to preserve in 
 all our institutions the closest resemblance to those of our 
 mother country, a responsible Executive Council, as re- 
 commended by Lord Durham, would be preferred. Into 
 the practicability of His Lordship's plan of a union of all 
 the Colonies under one government, I do not intend to 
 enter ; that is a distinct question ; and whenever it is 
 formally propounded to the local Legislatures, will be 
 gravely discussed upon its own merits ; but whether there 
 be union or not, the principle of responsibility to the 
 popular branch must be introduced into all the Colonies 
 without delay. It is the only simple and safe remedy 
 for an inveterate and very common disease. It is mere 
 mockery to tell us that the Governor himself is responsible. 
 He must carry on the government by and with the few 
 officials whom he finds in possession when he arrives. 
 He may flutter and struggle in the net, as some well- 
 meaning Governors have done, but he must at last resign 
 himself to his fate ; and, like a snared bird, be content 
 with the narrow limits assigned him by his keepers. I 
 have known a Governor bullied, sneered at, and almost 
 shut out of society, while his obstinate resistance to the 
 system created a suspicion that he might not become its 
 victim ; but I never knew one, who, even mth the best 
 intentions, and the full concurrence and support of the 
 representative branch, backed by the confidence of his 
 Sovereign, was able to contend, on anything like fair 
 terms, with the small knot of functionaries who form the 
 Councils, fill the offices, and wield the powers of the 
 government. The plain reason is, because, while the 
 Governor is amenable to his Sovereign, and the members 
 of Assembly are controlled by their constituents, these 
 men are not responsible at all ; and can always protect 
 and sustain each other, whether assailed by the repre-
 
 DEMAND FOR BRITISH PRIVILEGES 203 
 
 sentatives of the Sovereign or the representatives of the 
 people. It is indispensable, then, to the dignity, the 
 independence, the usefulness of the Governor himself, 
 that he should have the power to shake off this thraldom, 
 as the Sovereign does if unfairly hampered by faction ; 
 and by an appeal to the people, adjust the balance of 
 power. Give us this truly British privilege, and Colonial 
 grievances mU soon become a scarce article in the English 
 market. 
 
 The planets that encircle the sun, warmed by its heat 
 and rejoicing in its effulgence, are moved and sustained, 
 each in its bright but subordinate career, by the same 
 laws as the sun itself. Why should this beautiful example 
 be lost upon us ? Why should we run counter to the 
 whole stream of British experience ; and seek, for no 
 object worthy of the sacrifice, to govern on one side of 
 the Atlantic by principles the very reverse of those found 
 to work so admirably on the other. The employment 
 of steamers will soon bring Halifax within a ten days' 
 voyage of England.^ Nova Scotia will then not be more 
 distant from London, than the north of Scotland and the 
 west of Ireland were a few years ago. No time should 
 be lost, therefore, in giving us the rights and guards to 
 which we are entitled ; for depend upon it the nearer we 
 approach the mother country, the more we shall admire 
 its excellent Constitution, and the more intense will be 
 the sorrow and disgust with which we must turn to 
 contemplate our own. 
 
 Letter II. 
 
 My Lord, — I have read the speech delivered by Your 
 Lordship on the 3d of June, as reported in The Morning 
 Chronicle, several times ; and beg Your Lordship's atten- 
 tion to what I conceive to be the rational solution of the 
 difficulties raised in that speech to the concession of the 
 principle of local responsibility. Had Your Lordship 
 been more familiar with the practical working of the 
 existing Colonial Constitutions, and with the feelings of 
 
 ^ In 1839 the first transatlantic steamship company was formed by 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Samuel Cunard, of Halifax. In July, IHU), tlio 
 first steamer of the company sailed from Liverpool for Halifax and 
 Boston. (See Dictionary of National Biorjraphy, xiii., p. 300.)
 
 204 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 the people who smart under the mischiefs they produce, 
 you would not, perhaps, have fallen into some errors by 
 which that speech is disfigured ; nor have argued the 
 question as one in which the obvious, manifold, and vital 
 interests of the Colonists were to be sacrificed to fear of 
 some vague and indefinite injury that might be sustained 
 by Imperial interests, if Executive power were taken from 
 the ignorant and given to the well informed — if it passed 
 from the hands of officers to whom but a nominal responsi- 
 bility can attach, into those of men subject to constant 
 scrutiny, and, whenever they fail in their duty, liable to 
 exposure and disgrace. 
 
 Lord Durham recommends that the English rule, by 
 which those who conduct public affairs resign w^hen they 
 have lost the confidence of the Commons, should be 
 appHed to the Executive Councillors in North America. 
 Your Lordship denies the existence of the analogies upon 
 which Lord Durham's views are based : — 
 
 " It does not appear to me that you can subject the 
 Executive Council of Canada to the responsibility which 
 is fairly demanded of the ministers of the executive power 
 in this country. In the first place, there is an obvious 
 difference in matter of form with regard to the instruc- 
 tions under which the Governor of the Colony acts. The 
 sovereign in this country receives the advice of the 
 ministers, and acts by the advice of those ministers ; 
 and indeed there is no important act of the crown for 
 which there is not some individual minister responsible. 
 There responsibility begins, and there it ends. But the 
 Governor of Canada is acting, not in that high and un- 
 assailable position in wliich the Sovereign of this country 
 is placed. He is a Governor, receiving instructions from 
 the crown on the responsibility of a Secretary of State. 
 Here then, at once, is an obvious and complete difference 
 between the Executive of this country and the Executive 
 of a Colony." 
 
 Now, my Lord, let me beg Your Lordship's attention 
 to a few of the reasons why I conceive that such an argu- 
 ment as this ought not to stand in the way of the perma- 
 nent peace, prosperity, and happiness, of a million and a 
 half of human beings. " The Sovereign in England re- 
 ceives the advice of the ministers, and acts by the advice 
 of those ministers ;" — but are there no limits assigned 
 by law, within which those advisers are bound to keep ?
 
 OBJECTIONS OF LORD J. RUSSELL 205 
 
 and is not the Sovereign bound to know and to apprise 
 the country when they overstep them ? What is the 
 question at issue now between Whigs and Tories ? Is it 
 not, whether, according to the spirit and practice of the 
 Constitution, Sir Robert Peel had or had not a right to 
 advise the changes in Her Majesty's household, upon 
 which he insisted, before he would consent to form an 
 administration ? Suppose the present Cabinet were to 
 advise Her Majesty to cut off Sir Robert's ears, or to 
 bombard the city of London, would she obey ? or would 
 she not say : gentlemen, you are exceeding your powers, 
 and unless you conduct yourselves with more discretion, 
 you must resign ? It is plain, therefore, that there are 
 bounds, beyond which, even in the mother country, 
 neither the advisers nor the monarch can pass ; and 
 none who seek Colonial responsibility are so mad as to 
 require, that corresponding restrictions shall not be bind- 
 ing here ; that there shall not be a limit beyond which 
 no Executive Councillor can pass, and over which no 
 representative of Majesty will consent to be driven. 
 These bounds must be clearly defined in the Act of Parlia- 
 ment which establishes the new system, or in the in- 
 structions sent to the Governors, to be communicated 
 to the Legislatures ; and which they may, if they see fit, 
 embody in a bill, which, so long as it exists, shall be, to 
 all intents and purposes, the Constitution of the Colony. 
 
 But, Your Lordship says : — " The Governor is acting, 
 not in that high and unassailable position in which the 
 Sovereign of this country is placed." Why should he 
 not occupy a position nearly as independent ; and be 
 perfectly unassailable, so long as he does not interfere 
 (as the Sovereign would not dare to do) with matters for 
 which others are responsible ; nor allow himself, or his 
 Council, to overstep those boundaries which British 
 subjects on both sides of the Atlantic, for. the protection 
 of their mutual rights and interests, have established ; 
 and for a jealous recognition of which he, in case bad 
 advice be given him, is alone responsible ? The Queen's 
 position is unassailable only so long as she does no act 
 which the Constitution does not permit to be done. The 
 Governor, if assailed, would in like manner turn to the 
 Constitution of the Colony committed to his care ; and 
 show that, on the one hand, ho had neither trenched 
 upon the rights essential to the security of C^olonial
 
 206 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 liberty, nor, on the other, timorously yielded aught which 
 the la\\s for the protection of Imperial interests made 
 it criminal to yield. 
 
 Your Lordship is mistaken, therefore, in supposing 
 that the Sovereign is divested of all responsibility ; 
 although I admit it is much more difficult to call him 
 or her to an account than it would be the Governor of a 
 Colony. If the Queen were to deprive Sir Robert Peel 
 of his ears, or open a few batteries upon London, an 
 emeute or a revolution would be the only remedy ; but 
 a Governor, if he consented to an act which shut out 
 British manufactures, or was tempted to levy war upon 
 a friendly state, could be called to account without diffi- 
 culty or delay ; and hence, I argue, that the facility and 
 certainty of inflicting punishment for offences of this sort 
 would prevent their commission ; and operate as a suffi- 
 cient guard to the Imperial interests, which Your Lord- 
 ship seems so anxious to protect. If it be said that the 
 people in a Colony may sustain Councillors who give 
 unconstitutional advice, my answer is, that the same 
 thing may occur in England. Wlien it does, a peaceful 
 modification of the Constitution, or a revolution follows ; 
 but these cases are not so frequent as to excite alarm, 
 nor is there any reason to believe that they will be more 
 so, in the Colonies, whose power to enforce improper 
 demands is so questionable. 
 
 " He is a Governor receiving instructions from the 
 crown, on the responsibility of a Secretary of State." 
 This passage suggests some reflections, which I feel it 
 my duty respectfully to press upon Your Lordship's 
 attention. One of the evils of the existing system, or 
 rather haphazard mode of government, devoid of all 
 system, is the various readings given to the medley of 
 laws, usages, and Colonial office dispatches, by which 
 we are at present ruled. An excellent illustration of the 
 difficulty of obtaining an interpretation of these, about 
 which there can be no mistake — which he who runs may 
 read — may be furnished by contrasting the views put 
 forth by your Lordship with those acted upon by Sir 
 Francis Head ;^ and which, after a bloody rebellion, 
 brought on to prove the value of his theory, he still 
 
 1 Lieut. -Governor of Upper Canada from January, 1836, to March, 
 1838. Soon after his return to England he published A Narrative, 
 in which are related the events of his tenure of office.
 
 CONFLICT AS TO RESPONSIBILITY 207 
 
 avows in every succeeding edition of his Narrative, with 
 a consistency and complacency worthy of all praise. 
 " The responsibility," says Your Lordship, " rests on the 
 Secretary of State.''' " The responsibility," says Sir 
 Francis Head, in every act of his government and in 
 every page of his book, " rests on me." From the 
 moment of his entering into Upper Canada, he threw 
 overboard all the instructions from the Colonial Secretary 
 (who, according to Your Lordship, ought to have been 
 obeyed, for he was alone responsible) ; he struck out a 
 course of pohcy entirely new ; commenced " putting the 
 padlock on the mind," to be followed by some hundreds 
 of handcuffs on the wrists, and padlocks on the body. 
 His language to Lord Glenelg throughout was, " you 
 must support me," — " the fear is that / will not be sup- 
 ported at the Colonial office." In fact, from first to last, 
 Sir Francis gave instructions to, instead of receiving them 
 from, the Secretary of State ; and finding that Lord 
 Glenelg would not permit him to try his experiments in 
 government, and combat the fiery dragon of democracy 
 in the bosom of a British Province, at the cost of a good 
 deal of blood and treasure, and the prospects of a foreign 
 war, without occasionally offering a little advice, the 
 worthy Baronet resigned ; and has ever since been pub- 
 lishing his complaints to the world and claiming its 
 sympathy, as a sufferer for conscience-sake, in up- 
 holding the only correct reading of Colonial Constitu- 
 tions, and which the Secretary of State, and the Whig 
 government of which he was a member, did not under- 
 stand. The doctors in this case differed ; the patient 
 was left prostrate, mangled, bleeding and exhausted, 
 listening to their altercations, but suffering from every 
 gash made to convince each other at her expense ; and 
 there she lay, until recently ; when, beginning to suspect 
 that both had been talking nonsense and trying absurd 
 experiments, she lifted her languid head, stretched out 
 her wounded limbs, and began to fix her eyes upon the 
 only remedy by which health could be restored. 
 
 Let us, in order to convince ourselves that the con- 
 clusion to which Upper Canada is coming after all her 
 sufferings is a sound one, examine the two prescriptions 
 and modes of treatment ; and ascertam whether either 
 contains anything which ought to rescue it from the 
 oblivion that invariably closes over the nostrums by
 
 208 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 which the science of politics, like the science of medicine, 
 is often disfigured for a time. 
 
 A Colony where the Governor is alone responsible, is 
 Sir Francis Head's interpretation of the system under 
 which we live. It is one very much affected by Colonial 
 Governors everywhere. Unlimited power within a wide 
 Province, is a beautiful idea for an individual to indulge, 
 especially when it is attended with but little risk and 
 only nominal responsibihty. Of all the British Colonial 
 Governors who have wielded this vast authority ; plumed 
 themselves upon the possession of these plenary powers ; 
 and, in the exercise of them, vexed, distracted, and ex- 
 cited to disaffection one Province after another, how 
 many have been tried or punished ? How many have 
 met with even a reprimand from the ministry, or a cold 
 look from the Sovereign whose authority they had 
 abused ? I leave Your Lordship, whose historical read- 
 ing has been much more extensive than mine, to point 
 out the instances ; I have searched for them in vain. 
 It is true that debates in Parliament occasionally arise 
 upon such subjects ; but these, judging by their practical 
 effect, can hardly be taken into account. A Governor 
 knows well that, so long as he holds office, the ministry 
 by whom he was appointed will defend him ; that their 
 majority in the Commons precludes the possibility of a 
 vote of censure being passed against him ; that the Duke, 
 under whom he probably served, having a majority in 
 the upper House, he is perfectly safe, so long as he com- 
 mits no act so flagrant as to outrage the feelings of the 
 nation ; and which, coming home to the heart of every 
 man and woman in England, would make it unsafe for 
 any parliamentary combination to attempt to protect 
 him. Thus fenced in during his administration, what 
 are his perils when he retires ? The Colonists, too happy 
 when rid of the nuisance to be vindictive, and hoping 
 better things from a successor, of whom they are un- 
 wiUing to suspect any evil, cease to complain ; His Ex- 
 cellency is removed to another Province, with a larger 
 salary, to act the same farce over there ; or retires to his 
 estates in the mother country, to form one of that nume- 
 rous body of ex-Governors, who live upon the conscious- 
 ness of having, once within their lives at least, wielded 
 powers within a wide range and over the destinies of 
 many thousands of their fellow beings, such as are never
 
 IRRESPONSIBILITY OF GOVERNOR 209 
 
 permitted to be wielded by any individual, however high 
 his rank or widely extended his influence, without full 
 and ample responsibility, within the British Islands 
 themselves. These men, whether they go into Parlia- 
 ment or not, always sympathize with Governors abroad 
 acting upon their darling theory ; and, as they are often 
 consulted by ministers who know perhaps a little less than 
 themselves, they are always at hand to stifle the complaints 
 of the Colonists when appeals are made to England. 
 
 Your Lordship will perceive, therefore, that when a 
 Governor declares, as did Sir Francis Head, that the 
 responsibility rests on him, he merely means, that he is 
 about to assume extensive powers, for three or four, 
 perhaps for eight or ten years, without the shadow of a 
 chance of his ever being called to account for anything 
 he may do or leave undone. To enable you to form 
 some idea of the peace, prosperity, and satisfaction likely 
 to be diffused over a Province, by a Governor acting upon 
 this principle and exercising these powers, let me request 
 Your Lordship to imagine that, after twenty or thirty 
 years of military service, by which I have become disci- 
 plined into a contempt for civil business and a fractious 
 impatience of the opinions of all beneath me in rank, 
 Her Majesty has the right, and graciously deigns to exer- 
 cise it, of making me mayor of Liverpool. Fancy that, 
 up to the moment when the information is conveyed to 
 me, though I have heard the name of that city several 
 times, and have some vague notion that Liverpool is a 
 large commercial port in England ; yet that I neither 
 know on what river, or on which side of the island it is 
 situated ; nor have the least knowledge of its extent, 
 population, requirements, or resources ; the feelings, 
 interests, prejudices, or rights of its inhabitants. Within 
 a month, having had barely sufficient time to trace out 
 the situation of the place upon the map, read a book or 
 two about it, hear an under secretary talk an hour or 
 two of what neither he nor I understand ; receive a 
 packet of instructions — of which half a dozen different 
 readings may be given — and become thoroughly inflated 
 with my own consequence, I find myself in Liverpool ; 
 and feel that I am the great pivot upon which all its 
 civil administration, its order and defence, its external 
 relations with the rest of the emjiirc and the rest of the 
 world turns ; the fountain from which its internal patron- 
 
 14
 
 210 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 age is to flow ; and to which all, for a long period of years, 
 must look for social and political ascendancy, if they 
 have no merit ; and, if they have, for a fair consideration 
 of their claims. 
 
 Your Lordship will readily believe, that a man thus 
 whisked away from the pursuits which have occupied his 
 thoughts for years, and plunged into a new scene, sur- 
 rounded by human beings, not one of whose faces he 
 ever saw before ; called to the consideration of a thousand 
 topics, with almost any one of which the assiduous devo- 
 tion of half a life would be required to make him familiar ; 
 and having to watch over vast interests, balance con- 
 flicting claims, decide on the capacity of hundreds, of 
 whose characters, talents, and influence, he is ignorant ; 
 to fill offices, of the duties of which he has not the slightest 
 conception ; — that a man so situated, must be either very 
 vain or very able, if he is not appalled at the extent of 
 the responsibility he has assumed ; and must be an angel 
 of light indeed, if he does not throw the good city of 
 Liverpool into confusion . This, my Lord, is no fancy sketch ; 
 no picture, highly colored to produce effect, but which 
 on close examination, an artist would cast aside as out 
 of drawing ; it is a faitiiful representation of what occurs 
 in some British Colony almost every year. 
 
 But it may be said, all this is granted, and yet there is 
 the Legislature to influence and instruct. Liverpool shall 
 still serve for illustration, and we will presently see to 
 what extent the representative branch operates on the 
 conduct of a gentleman who assumes the responsibility, 
 and is placed in the circumstances described. Let us 
 suppose that the city charter gives me for my advisers, 
 from the moment I am sworn in, ten or a dozen indi- 
 viduals, some of them the heads of departments, enjoying 
 large salaries and much patronage ; others, perhaps, dis- 
 carded members of the popular branch ; and not a few 
 selected by no rule which the people can clearly under- 
 stand, but because they happened to flatter the vanity 
 of one or other of my predecessors, or to be connected 
 with the families, or favorable to the views or interests 
 of some of those by whom they were advised. This body, 
 be it observed, by usage never departed from, hold 
 their situations as Councillors for life ; the people have 
 no control over them, neither have I ; they are sworn 
 not to inform upon each other, nor is it necessary that
 
 MUNICIPAL ANALOGY 211 
 
 they should ; because, as I have assumed the responsi- 
 bihty, and they for their own interest favor the theory, 
 if anything goes wrong they can lay the blame on me. 
 This body, then, which owes no allegiance to the people 
 of Liverpool ; which often, in fact, has an interest the 
 very reverse of theirs ; which, suspected of usurpation 
 and improper influence, pays back the imputation with 
 unmeasured contempt ; and hardly one-fifth of whose 
 number could, by any possibility, be thus honored if 
 their seats depended on popular selection ; this body I 
 am compelled to call around me in order that my ad- 
 ministration may commence, for without some such 
 assistance, I am unable to take a single step. They 
 come ; and there sit, at the first council board, the 
 responsible mayor, who knows nothing and nobody, and 
 his irresponsible advisers, who, if they do not know 
 everything — and they are seldom greater witches than 
 their neighbors — know their friends, a lean minority of 
 the citizens, from their enemies, the great majority ; and 
 are quite aware that, for their interest, it is necessary 
 that I should be taught, as soon as possible, to despise 
 the latter, and throw myself into the arms of the former. 
 Will any sensible man, calmly viewing the relative situa- 
 tions, opportunities, and powers of the parties, believe 
 that any act of administration done, or any appointment 
 made for the first six months, is my act or my appoint- 
 ment ? I may choose between any two or three persons 
 whose names are artfully set before me, when an office 
 is to be filled, and if determined to show my independence, 
 may select the worst ; but I must choose from the rela- 
 tives and friends of my advisers, or from the small 
 minority who support them in the hopes of preferment ; 
 for to that section, the whole of the city patronage must 
 be religiously confined ; and it is of course so managed, 
 that 1 scarcely know or have confidence in anybody else. 
 Can Your Lordship believe that such a state of things 
 would give satisfaction to the citizens ? Would they not 
 begin to grumble and complain ? to warn, to remonstrate, 
 and to expose the machinations and mancBUvres of the 
 monojiolists ? It would be very odd, and they would 
 be very strange Englishmen, if they did not. But, as I 
 have come to jjiverpool to demonstrate the b(\auties of 
 this system of city government, which 1 highly ap[)rove ; 
 as I have assumed the whole responsibility, and become 
 
 14—2
 
 212 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 inflated with the consciousness of my extensive powers ; 
 and, above all, as I amj^taught by my advisers to look 
 upon every complamt of the system as a libel upon my 
 judgment and an insult to my administration — I very 
 soon begin to dislike those who complain ; to speak and 
 write contemptuously of them in private and in public ; 
 to denounce any who have the hardihood to suggest that 
 some alterations are required, by which the opinions and 
 rights of the majority shall be respected, as men dangerous 
 to the peace of the city, and disaffected towards Her 
 Majesty's person and government ; until, in fact, Liver- 
 pool becomes very like a town, in the olden time, in 
 which the inhabitants generally being hostile to their 
 rulers, the latter retire to the citadel, from which they 
 project every description of missile and give every species 
 of annoyance. 
 
 By and by the time arrives for the legislative branches 
 of the city government to assemble. One of these, being 
 elected at short periods, under a low franchise, which 
 includes the great body of the independent citizens, may 
 be taken as a fair reflection of all their great interests, 
 their varied knowledge, passions, and prejudices ; the 
 other is a body of life legislators, selected by my advisers 
 from among their own relatives and friends ; with a few 
 others, of a more independent character, to save appear- 
 ances ; but in which they always have a majority of 
 faithful and determined partisans. The business com- 
 mences ; the great majority of members in the repre- 
 sentative branch — speaking the matured opinions of the 
 people — complain of the system, and of the advisers it 
 has placed around me ; expressing the fullest confidence 
 in me, whom they cannot suspect of wishing to do them 
 harm, but asking my co-operation towards the introduc- 
 tion of changes without wliich, they assure me, the city 
 never can prosper. But my advisers having a few of 
 their adherents also in this body, they are instructed to 
 declare any change unnecessary ; to throw every obstruc- 
 tion in the way ; to bully and defame the more conspicuous 
 of those who expose the evils of the existing system ; and 
 to denounce them all as a dangerous combination, who, 
 with some covert design, are pressing, for factious objects, 
 a series of frivolous complaints. Of course, as the 
 minority speak the sentiments which I have imbibed, 
 and put themselves forward as my personal champions
 
 MUNICIPAL ANALOGY 213 
 
 on all occasions, they rise in my esteem exactly in the 
 same proportion as the other party are depressed, until 
 they become especial pets ; and, from their ranks, as 
 opportunities occur, all vacancies are supplied, either in 
 the list of irresponsible advisers, who in my name carry 
 on the government, or in the number of life legislators, 
 who do their bidding in the upper branch. 
 
 I respectfully beg Your Lordship to ponder over these 
 passages, which I assure you are true to nature and ex- 
 perience ; and ask yourself, after bringing home such a 
 state of things to the bosom of any British city, how long 
 it would be uncomplainingly endured ? or how long any 
 ministry, duly informed of the facts, would wish it to 
 continue ? Look back, my Lord, and you will find in 
 every rotten corporation, swept away by the immortal 
 act of which Your Lordship was one of the ablest de- 
 fenders, a resemblance to our Colonial governments as 
 they at present stand, too strong to be mistaken ; and, 
 let me venture to hope, that the man who did not spare 
 corruption so near the national centre of vitality ; who 
 did not hesitate to combat these hydra-headed minorities, 
 who, swarming over England, everywhere asserted their 
 right to govern the majorities, will not shrink from apply- 
 ing his own principles — the great principles of the Con- 
 stitution — to these more distant, but not less important 
 portions of the empire. 
 
 Your Lordship will, perhaps, urge that Sir Francis 
 Head succeeded in pleasing the people and getting the 
 majority on his side. Admitting the full force which 
 the worthy Baronet gives to this case, it is, after all, 
 but the exception to the general rule. The true history 
 of events in Upper Canada, I believe to have been this : 
 A small, but desperate minority had determined on a 
 violent revolution ; this party might have contained some 
 men so wicked, that a love of mischief and desire for 
 plunder were the governing principles, and others, moved 
 by attachment to republican institutions ; but, small as 
 it was, the greater number of those found in its ranks had 
 been driven there by the acts of another equally small 
 and equally desperate minority, who had long monopo- 
 lized, — and, under the present system, may and will 
 monopolize for a century to come — the whole power and 
 patronage of the government, dividing among them the 
 revenues of the country. The great mass of the people
 
 lM4 government in maritime provinces 
 
 of Upper Canada belonged to neither of these bands of 
 desperadoes. They were equally determined, with the 
 one, to uphold British connection ; and as equally deter- 
 mined, with the other, to get rid of a wretched system 
 of irresponsible local admniistration, under the continu- 
 ance of which they well knew the Province could never 
 prosper. When Sir Francis Head arrived, he entered the 
 Colony — if we are to believe his own account of the 
 matter — almost as ignorant as my imaginary mayor of 
 Liverpool. Sir Francis admits his ignorance, but denies 
 the consequences that must be deduced from it : that 
 he was led and influenced, in the first acts of his adminis- 
 tration, until the compact found him ripe for their own 
 purposes and embroiled even with the moderate men on 
 the other side. Then commenced that extraordinary 
 flight of proclamations, addresses, and declamatory 
 appeals ; which, winged with the ready pen of a pro- 
 fessional author, and shot from the long bow of the 
 family compact, created so much false excitement, and 
 carried so much misrepresentation into every corner of 
 the Province. In these the great question at issue in 
 Upper Canada — which was one between the interests of 
 the family compact and the principles of the British Con- 
 stitution — was winked out of sight ; and the people, not 
 only of that, but of the surrounding Colonies, were made 
 to believe that they were to choose between British and 
 Republican institutions ; that Sir Francis and the family 
 compact (Archdeacon Strachan, with the Clergy Reserves, 
 one-seventh of the Province ; and Attorney General Hager- 
 man, with the corrupt patronage and influence of ad- 
 ministration, under their arms), represented the former ; 
 and Mackenzie, and his band of desperadoes, the latter. 
 Thus appealed to, the British population everywhere, as 
 the cunning men at Sir Francis' elbow well knew they 
 would, said, with one voice : If that is the question, then 
 we are for the British Constitution ; and hurrah for Sir 
 Francis Head ! Mackenzie was an outlaw in a week ; 
 his small band of desperadoes was scattered by the energy 
 of the people, the great mass of whom never dreamed of 
 breaking the connection with the mother country. Then 
 came the period in which the compact glorifled them- 
 selves and Sir Francis ; the fever of loyal excitement, in 
 which the miserable minority of officials — feeling strong 
 in the success of their manoeuvres, and still stronger
 
 SITUATION IN UPPER CANADA 215 
 
 in the strength of British thousands profusely spent ; 
 regiments of militia to be officered, equipped, and paid — • 
 began to wreak their vengeance upon every man who had 
 been known to be hostile to their monopoly ; and to 
 identify opinions, not more extreme, when thoroughl}'- 
 understood, than those held by the most moderate section 
 of the Whigs in England, with " privy conspiracy and 
 rebellion." But the period was fast approaching when 
 this unnatural excitement was to subside ; when hundreds 
 of thousands of British subjects, looking steadily through 
 the mists that had been raised around them, were to ask 
 of each other, Has this case been decided upon the true 
 issue ? Was that the question ? For evidence of the 
 solemnity with which this inquiry has been put, and the 
 all-pervading unanimity with which it has been answered, 
 I refer Your Lordship to the meetings which have been 
 held in every section of the Province ; to the opinions 
 boldly expressed by every newspaper — with a few, chiefly 
 venal exceptions — printed in Upper Canada ; to the bold 
 and determined stand taken by many of the bravest and 
 ablest men who crushed Mackenzie's rebellion, and beat 
 back the sympathizers upon the frontier ; to the extra- 
 ordinary union of Orangemen and Catholics, Methodists, 
 Baptists, Churchmen, and Presbyterians ; whose watch- 
 words are British connection and British responsibility, 
 and down with the compact, and the absurd idea cherished 
 by Sir Francis Head, of a government in which the whole 
 responsibility rests upon the Governor. If Your Lord- 
 ship doubts the utter explosion of your theory, even in 
 this Province, where, for a time, I admit, it seemed to 
 flourish, the approaching general elections will furnish 
 evidence enough ; and even Sir Francis, if he were to 
 come out again with another sheaf of proclamations and 
 addresses, and preach this unitarian doctrine of responsi- 
 bility, would no longer be listened to by the Upper 
 Canadians, who have embraced a higher and purer faith. 
 Having, as I conceive, then, shown Your Lordship that 
 the idea of a Colony in which nobody is responsible but 
 the Governor, while his responsibility is only nominal, 
 however delightful it may appear in the eyes of those 
 who have been or hope to be (lovernors, is one that never 
 can be a favorite with the Colonists, and has been re- 
 pudiated and rejected by those of them among whom, 
 for a limited period, and under a system of delusion, it
 
 216 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 seemed to flourish ; let me turn Your Lordship's atten- 
 tion for a few moments to the doctrine maintained by 
 Lord Ck^ielg, against Sir Francis Head, and now put 
 forth by Your Lordship, in opposition to the Earl of 
 Durham — that the Colonial Secretary is alone responsible, 
 and that the Governor is an agent governing the Province 
 by instructions from him. 
 
 Whatever new readings may be given of our unwritten 
 Constitutions, this is the one which always has been and 
 always ^vill be the favorite with Colonial Secretaries and 
 under secretaries, and by which every clerk in Downing 
 Street, even to the third and fourth generation yet to 
 come, "will be prepared to take his stand. And why ? 
 Because to deprive them of this much-talked-of responsi- 
 bility, which means nothing, would be to deprive them 
 of the power to which they cling — of the right of meddling 
 interference with every petty question and every petty 
 appointment in thirty-six different Colonies. While 
 things remain as they are, the very uncertainty which 
 reigns over the whole Colonial system invests the Secre- 
 tary of State with a degree of power and influence, the 
 dim and shadowy outline of which can scarcely be 
 measured by the eye ; but which, from its almost bound- 
 less extent, and multiform and varied ramifications and 
 relations, possesses a fascination which few men have 
 been born with the patriotic moderation to resist. Though 
 a Secretary of State may occasionally have to maintain, 
 in a particular Province, a doubtful struggle for the whole 
 responsibility and the whole of the power, with some 
 refractory Governor like Sir Francis Head ; yet even 
 there he must exercise a good deal of authority, and enjoy 
 a fair share of influence ; while in all others his word is 
 law, and his influence almost supreme. A judge, a crown 
 officer, a secretary, or a land surveyor, cannot be appointed 
 without his consent ; a silk gown cannot be given to a 
 lawyer without his sanction ; while his word is required 
 to confirm the nomination of Legislative Councillors for 
 life, and irresponsible Executive Councillors, in every 
 Province, before the Queen's mandamus is prepared. 
 The very obscurity in which the real character of Colonial 
 Constitutions is involved, of course magnifies the im- 
 portance and increases the influence of the gentleman 
 who claims the right to expound them. More than one 
 half the Colonists who obtain audiences in Downing
 
 POWER OF COLONIAL OFFICE 217 
 
 Street, are sent there by the mystifications in which the 
 principles of the system are involved ; while the other 
 half are applicants for offices, which, under a system of 
 local responsibility, would be filled up, as are the civic 
 offices in Manchester and Glasgow, by the party upon 
 whose virtue and ability the majority of the inhabitants 
 relied. Adopt Lord Durham's principle, and, above all, 
 give to each Colony a well defined Constitution based 
 upon that principle and embodied in a bill, and " the 
 office " will become a desert. The scores of worthy 
 people, with spirits weary of the anomalous and cruel 
 absurdities of the system, and sincerely laboring to 
 remove them, now daily lingering in the ante-rooms, 
 would be better employed elsewhere, in adorning and 
 improving the noble countries which gave them birth, 
 and whose freedom they are laboring to establish ; while 
 at least an equal number of cunning knaves, whose only 
 errand is to seek a share of the plunder, had much better 
 be transferred to the open arenas in which, under a system 
 of responsibility, public honors and official emolument 
 could only be won. But then the office of Colonial secre- 
 tary woiild be shorn of much power, which, however 
 unwisely exercised, it is always delightful to possess ; the 
 dim but majestic forms of authority which now over- 
 shadow half the world, would be chastened into reason- 
 able compass ; with boundaries, if less imposing and 
 picturesque, for all practical purposes more simple and 
 clearly defined. Nor would under secretaries and clerks 
 have so many anxious and often fawning visitors, solicit- 
 ing their patronage, listening to their twaddle, wondering 
 at their ignorance, and yet struggling with each other 
 for their smiles. The mother country would, it is true, 
 hear less of Colonial grievances ; Parliament would save 
 much time now devoted to Colonial questions ; and the 
 people of England would now and then save a few millions 
 sterling, which are required to keep up the existing system 
 by force of arms. But these are small matters compared 
 with the dignity of a Secretary of State. 
 
 Here, then, my Lord, you have the reason why your 
 reading of our Constitutions is the favorite one in Down- 
 ing Street, Let us see, now, whether it is more or less 
 favorable to rational freedom and good government in 
 the Colonies, than that advocated by Sir Francis Head. 
 Your authority and that of Lord Glenelg is with me in
 
 IMS nOVERNMlONT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 oondcinninjT his, which I have done, as deceptive and 
 absurd ; he will probably join mc in denouncing j'ours, 
 as the most impracticable that it ever entered into the 
 mind of a statesman to conceive. 
 
 Tlie city of Liverpool shall again serve us for the pur- 
 poses of illustration. Turn back to the passages in which 
 I have described a Mayor, ignorant of everything, sur- 
 rounded by irresponsible but cunning advisers ; who, for 
 their own advantage, embroil him with a majority of the 
 citizens, while his countenance, and the patronage created 
 by the taxes levied upon the city, are monopolized by a 
 miserable minority of the whole ; and insulted and injured 
 thousands, swelling with indignation, surround him on 
 every side. After Your Lordship has dwelt upon this 
 scene of heartburning and discontent — of general dis- 
 satisfaction among the citizens — of miserable intrigue and 
 chuckling triumph, indulged by the few who squander 
 the resources and decide on the interests of the many, 
 but laugh at their murmurs and never acknowledge their 
 authority — let me beg of you to reflect whether matters 
 would be made better or worse, if the Mayor of Liverpool 
 was bound, in every important act of his administration, 
 to ask the direction of, and throw the responsibility on 
 another individual, who never saw the city, w^ho knows 
 less about it than even himself, and who resides, not in 
 London, at the distance of a day's coaching from him, 
 but across the Atlantic, in Halifax, Quebec, or Toronto, 
 and with whom it is impossible to communicate about 
 anything within a less period than a couple of months. 
 Suppose that this gentleman in the distance possesses a 
 veto upon every important ordinance by which the city 
 is to be watched, lighted and improved — by which docks 
 are to be formed, trade regulated, and one-third of the 
 city revenues (drawn from sources beyond the control of 
 the popular branch) dispensed. And suppose that nearly 
 all whose talents or ambition lead them to aspire to the 
 higher offices of the place, are compelled to take, once or 
 twice in their lives, a voyage across the Atlantic, to pay 
 their court to him— to solicit his patronage, and intrigue 
 for the preferment, which, under a better system, would 
 naturally result from manly competition and eminent 
 services within the city itself. Your Lordship is too keen 
 sighted, and I trust too frank, not to acknowledge that 
 no form of government could well be devised more
 
 GOVERNMENT FROM A DISTANCE 219 
 
 ridiculous than this ; that under such no British city 
 could be expected to prosper ; and that with it no body 
 of Her Majesty's subjects, within the British islands them- 
 selves, would ever be content. Yet this, my Lord, is an 
 illustration of your own theory ; this is the system pro- 
 pounded by Lord Normanby,^ as the best the present 
 cabinet can devise. And may I not respectfully demand, 
 why British subjects in Nova Scotia, any more than their 
 brethren in Liverpool, should be expected to prosper or 
 be contented under it ; when experience has convinced 
 them that it is miserably insufficient and deceptive, re- 
 pugnant to the principles of the Constitution they revere, 
 and but a poor return for the steady loyalty which their 
 forefathers and themselves have maintained on all occa- 
 sions ? 
 
 One of the greatest evils of the Colonial Constitution, 
 as interpreted by Your Lordship, is, that it removes from 
 a Province every description of responsibility, and leaves 
 all the higher functionaries at liberty to lay every kind 
 of blame at the door of the Secretary of State. The 
 Governor, if the Colonists complain, shrugs his shoulders, 
 and replies, that he will explain the difhculty in his next 
 dispatch, but in the mean time his orders must be obeyed. 
 The Executive Councillors, who under no circumstances 
 are responsible for anything, often lead the way in con- 
 centrating the ire of the people upon the Colonial Secre- 
 tary, who is the only person they admit their right to 
 blame. It is no uncommon thing to hear them, in Nova 
 Scotia, sneering at him in public debate ; and in Canada 
 they are accused of standing by while Lords Glenelg and 
 Melbourne were hanged in effigy, and burned in the 
 capital, encouraging the populace to pay this mark of 
 respect to men, who, if Your Lordship's theory is to be 
 enforced, these persons, at all events, should have the 
 decency to pardon, if they cannot always defend. 
 
 I trust, my Lord, that in this letter I have shown you, 
 that in contemplating a well-defnuKl and limited degree 
 of responsibility to attach to Executive Councillors in 
 North America, I have more strictly followed the analogies 
 to be drawn from the Constitution, than has Your Lord- 
 ship, in suy)posing that those officers would necessarily 
 overstep all hounds ; that, in divesting the Governor of 
 a vague and deceptive descri])tion of responsibility, which 
 
 ^ Colonial Secretary in the early part of 18y9.
 
 220 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 is never enforced, and of a portion of authority which it 
 is impossible for him wisely to exercise, and yet holding 
 him to account for what does fall within the scope of his 
 character as Her Majesty's representative — the constitu- 
 tional analogy is still preserved, his dignity left unim- 
 paired, and the difficulties of his position removed. I 
 trust also that I have proved to Your Lordship that the 
 Colonial Constitutions, as they at present stand, are but 
 a medley of uncertainty and confusion ; that those by 
 W'liom they are administered do not understand them ; 
 and lastly, that whether Sir Francis Head's interpreta- 
 tion or your own be adopted, neither offer security for 
 good government : the contest between them merely in- 
 volving a difference of opinion as to who is to wield 
 powders that neither governors nor secretaries can use- 
 fully assume, and which of these officers is nominally 
 to bear the blame of blunders that both are certain to 
 commit. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 My Lord, — The next passage of the speech of the 
 3d of June, which I am bound to notice, is that in which 
 you say : — 
 
 " The Governor might ask the Executive Council to 
 propose a certain measure. They might say they could 
 not propose it unless the members of the House of As- 
 sembly would adopt it, but the Governor might reply 
 that he had received instructions from home command- 
 ing him to propose that measure. How, in that case, is 
 he to proceed ? Either one power or the other must be 
 set aside, either the Governor or the House of Assembly ; 
 or else the Governor must become a mere cypher in the 
 hands of the Assembly, and not attempt to carry into 
 effect the measures which he is commanded by the home 
 government to do." 
 
 This objection is based upon the assumption, that the 
 interests of the mother country and those of the Colonies 
 are not the same ; that they must be continually in a 
 state of conflict ; and that there must be some course of 
 policy necessary for the Imperial government to enforce, 
 the reasons for which cannot be understood in the Colonies, 
 nor its necessity recognized. This may have been the
 
 IMPERIAL INTERESTS NOT INVOLVED 221 
 
 case formerly in the West Indies, where the conflict was 
 one between the ideas engendered by a state of slavery 
 and a state of freedom ; but it is not true of the North 
 American Provinces, to the condition and claims of which 
 my observations are chiefly confined. Of all the ques- 
 tions which have agitated or are likely to agitate Nova 
 Scotia, New Brunswick, or Prince Edward Island, how 
 few, when rightly understood, can be said to involve any 
 Imperial interest ; or trench upon any principle dear to 
 our brethren at home, or the concession of which could 
 disturb the peace of the Empire ? Have any of these 
 Colonies claimed a right to regulate the foreign trade or 
 foreign policy of the Empire ? Have they ever inter- 
 fered, except to carry out the views of Her Majesty's 
 government, with any of the military or naval operations ? 
 Have they exposed a grievance, the continued existence 
 of which is indispensable to the well-being of the British 
 Islands ; or demanded a right, the concession of wliich 
 would not be serviceable to themselves, without doing 
 the least injury to the people of Britain ? For what 
 have they asked ? For the control of their own revenues, 
 and the means of influencing the appointment and acts 
 of the men who are to dispense them ; and who are, 
 besides, to distribute hundreds of petty offices, and dis- 
 charge functions manifold and various within the Colony 
 itself. The people of England have no knowledge of 
 these matters, nor any interest in them, to give them 
 the right to interfere. Interference does much mischief 
 to the Colonists, and can do no good to their brethren 
 across the water. If British statesmen would let these 
 things alone — and it is over these only that we claim to 
 enforce responsibility — and confine themselves to those 
 general arrangements affecting the whole Empire, of 
 which we admit them to be the best judges, and in the 
 conduct of which we never asked to take a part, it would 
 be impossible to conceive how such a case could arise as 
 that supposed by Your Lordship ; or how the Governor 
 could be charged with " a measure wliich his Executive 
 Council would not dare to propose." Admitting tliat 
 there might be some subjects requiring discussion in the 
 Provinces, but which the Colonists were not prepared to 
 adopt, surely an Executive Councillor could be got, even 
 if he were opposed to the views of ministers, to submit 
 the measure and explain those views to the popular
 
 '22-2 ooveknmi:nt in maritime provinces 
 
 braiuli ; or might there not be " open questions " in the 
 Colonics as at home ? 
 
 The conc'kision at which my mind arrives, then, after 
 the best attention that I can give to this branch of the 
 subject, is, that if the duties and responsibihties of govern- 
 ment are fairly and judiciously divided between the Im- 
 perial and Colonial authorities, no such case as that 
 assumed by Your Lordship can occur ; and, if it should, 
 surely the good sense of all parties concerned may safely 
 be trusted, to avoid any violent or unpleasant collision. 
 But did it never occur to Your Lordship to inquire, 
 whether the very evil anticipated, as an insuperable 
 objection to the new system, does not disfigure and 
 annually occur under the old ? What else were the 
 Executive Councillors in Upper and Lower Canada doing 
 for a series of years but " proposing certain measures," 
 to be as certainly rejected by the popular branch ? What 
 else are they about now in Newfoundland ? What but 
 this were they doing in New Brunswick, down to the 
 close of Sir Archibald Campbell's administration ? In 
 all these Provinces a state of constant collision between 
 the Executive and the popular branch, which could by 
 no possibility arise under the system I contemplate, 
 would answer the objection, even if the difficulty sug- 
 gested could be fairly taken into account. If it be said 
 that the Councillors now do not refuse to propose measures, 
 I answer, But if the Legislatures invariably reject them, 
 does government gain anything, or is public business 
 advanced by the system ? What a figure did the Execu- 
 tive cut in Nova Scotia, in 1838, when the Councillor 
 who brought down from the Governor a grave proposi- 
 tion, led the opposition against it ? ^ And how stand 
 things in this Province now ? Are not all the Councillors 
 selections from a lean minority of the commons, in which 
 body almost every debate terminates in a vote of implied 
 want of confidence in them ; and where the Governor 
 they surround has, on several occasions, only been saved 
 from an insulting vote of censure, by the good temper 
 
 * On March 8, 1838, when Mr. Uniacke, the head of the Executive 
 Council and a member of the House uf Assembly, moved resolutions in 
 favour of granting a civil list in exchange for the casual and territorial 
 revenues, a colleague moved in amendment other and contrary 
 resolutions, which were carried. Mr. Uniacke, though at this time a 
 strong opponent of Howe, afterwards changed his views, and was one 
 of the chief advocates of Responsible Government.
 
 SITUATION IN NEW BRUNSWICK 223 
 
 and moderation of the majority ? This is a state of 
 things too ridiculous to be long continued. To me it 
 seems essential that Her Majesty, in every Colony, should 
 be represented by an Executive not only willing " to 
 attempt " but " able to carry " any measures that it 
 may be necessary to propose. 
 
 The next objection taken by Your Lordship to the 
 introduction of Provincial responsibility, one eminently 
 calculated to have weight with the body you addressed, 
 and to alarm the timid everywhere, was drawn from an 
 appHcation of the principle, to the management of foreign 
 affairs. "If," says Your Lordship, " the Assembly of 
 New Brunswick had been disposed to carry the point in 
 dispute with the North American States hostilely,^ and 
 the Executive Council had been disposed to aid them, 
 in my opinion the Governor must have said that his duty 
 to the crown of this country, and the general instructions 
 which he had received from the minister of the crown, 
 did not permit him to take that course, and, therefore, 
 he could not agree with the Executive Council to carry 
 into effect the wish of the Assembly. That is allowed. 
 Does not, then, its very exception destroy the analogy 
 you wish to draw, when, upon so important a point as 
 that of foreign affairs, it cannot be sustained ?" Your 
 Lordship, in delivering this passage, of course was not 
 aware that, without the alteration of a single syllable, 
 you answered the very objection that yourself had raised. 
 If the Executive Council of New Brunswick advised Sir 
 John Harvey to declare war upon the State of Maine, 
 " he must have said that his duty to the crown, and his 
 instructions, did not permit him to take that course." 
 Most certainly he would, if a measure so ridiculous had 
 been attempted in New Brunswick, which nobody, who 
 knows anything of that Province, could for a moment 
 imagine. I do not believe that there are ten men in it, 
 certainly there are not fifty in all the lower Provinces 
 put together, who do not know that the sovereign alone 
 
 ^ In 1839 Great Britain and the United States were on the verge 
 of war over territory in dispute between New Brunswick and Maine. 
 Governor Fairfield of Maine sent into the disputed district 1,.S()() of the 
 State niiUtia, and called out 10,000 nioi'e. On hearinj^' of this, the 
 Legislature of Nova Scotia unanimously and with tumultuous cheering 
 placed tlOOjOOO and all their mihtia at the service of the threatened 
 province. War was, however, averted, and in 184'2 the territory was 
 partitioned by what is known as The Aahburton Treaty. (See p. '239.)
 
 224 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 has the right to declare war upon foreign powers ; and 
 who are not willing that, upon all the relations of the 
 Colonies with these, and with each other, the Imperial 
 government shall decide. A few of the New Brunswickers 
 blamed Sir John Harvey for not acting upon Her Majesty's 
 instructions to maintain exclusive jurisdiction over the 
 disputed territory, notwithstanding the advice received 
 from the Minister at Washington ; but, if those instruc- 
 tions had not existed, and had not been positive, no one 
 would have been idiot enough to suppose that Sir John 
 Harvey would have been bound to make war, on a point 
 of honor or policy newly discovered by his Executive 
 Council, and upon which Her Majesty's government had 
 had no opportunity to decide. Suppose, when Parlia- 
 ment was granting a charter to Hull, it was objected that 
 the Mayor might be advised to make war upon Sweden, 
 (and, in the case of an elective officer, the danger would 
 l3e greater than if he were appointed by the crown,) 
 would not the same House of Commons that thought it 
 unsafe to let a Colony manage its internal affairs for fear 
 it would engage in foreign wars, laugh at the possibility 
 of such an absurdity being committed by any body of 
 Englishmen out of Bedlam ? Why then should it be 
 taken for granted that we are not English in our habits 
 and opinions, our education and training, our capacity 
 to discern the boundaries of authority ; and that there- 
 fore it would be unsafe to depend upon our wisely exer- 
 cising powers, which, in the British Islands, millions exer- 
 cise for their own security and without danger to the 
 State ? In the case of Hull, if the objection were gravely 
 urged, the ready answer would be, " No greater powers 
 can be exercised than are granted in the bill ; and if 
 there is the least danger of the city authorities doing 
 anything so ridiculous, put in a clause that shall restrain 
 them." And I say — after soberly protesting that the very 
 suspicion of such an attempt is an insult to the under- 
 standing, and an imputation upon the character of our 
 population, which they do not deserve — that if you wish 
 " to make assurance doubly sure," put a clause into the 
 bill which concedes the principle of responsibility so far 
 as relates to domestic affairs, and by which all such 
 belligerent Councillors shall be expressly restrained. 
 
 Whether this point were or were not thus defined, that 
 any Executive Council, merely because they were re-
 
 THE MILITARY QUESTION 225 
 
 sponsible to the people, would, after receiving such an 
 answer as Your Lordship admits a British Governor must 
 give, proceed in defiance of his authority, to levy war 
 upon a friendly State, I cannot for a moment believe. 
 If they did, they certainly would so completely fail, and 
 render themselves so supremely ridiculous, that the 
 attempt would not be likely to be repeated, at least 
 for a century to come. Let us suppose the case to have 
 occurred in New Brunswick : that the Executive Council, 
 being responsible, had advised Sir John Harvey to pro- 
 ceed hostllely ; and that, on his declining, they had levied 
 war. In the first place, as all the regular troops were 
 at Sir John's disposal, as Commander-in-Chief within the 
 Province, and not merely as civil Governor, they not only 
 could not have moved a soldier, but would have had the 
 whole military force of that and the adjoining Provinces 
 against them. As the Governor's order to the Colonels 
 and officers commanding the Militia is indispensable, 
 before a single step can be taken, under the laws by 
 which that force is embodied, of course no hostile order 
 would have been given, nor could those laws have been 
 modified or changed without Sir John's assent. And if 
 it be urged, that volunteers would have flocked to the 
 aid of the Executive Council, may I not enquire where 
 they would have obtained arms and ammunition, when 
 all the military munitions and stores were deposited in 
 military warehouses, under the care of commissaries and 
 officers of ordnance responsible only to the crown ? 
 Oh ! no, my Lord, whatever effect such imaginary cases 
 as these may have upon men at a distance, unacquainted 
 with the state of society in British America andfthe 
 general intelligence which prevails ; here they are laughed 
 at, as the creations of a fertile imagination taxed to com- 
 bat pohtical improvements that were feared without being 
 understood. If, even under the federative government 
 of the United States, in which each State is much more 
 independent of the central authority than any Colony 
 would bo under the system I contemplate, this right of 
 private war has only been once asserted, by a single 
 State, in more than half a century, and then was scouted 
 all over the Continent, is it to be supposed that British 
 subjects will pay less respect to the authority of their 
 Queen, than do Republican Americans to that of their 
 President 1 
 
 15
 
 226 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 There is one bare possibility, which Your Lordship has 
 not suggested, in opposition to the new system, and yet 
 it is scarcely more ridiculous than some that have been 
 urged ; that the Colonial Councillors might claim the 
 control of the squadron upon the North American coast, 
 as well as of the land forces, in their anxiety to engage 
 in foreign wars. The danger in this case would be nearly 
 as great as in the other ; for, in modern warfare, a fleet is 
 nearly as necessary as an army ; and yet, it is certain 
 that the Admiral upon the station would know how to 
 treat such a claim, should it be preferred by a Council, 
 who, in the wanton exercise of authority, were disposed 
 t?o transgress all bounds ? 
 
 The next objection which I am bound to notice, is 
 thus given in the report : — " Let us suppose that an 
 ofl&cer of the militia in Upper Canada, after an action, 
 was to order that the persons taken in that action should 
 be put to death on the field. I can conceive it possible, 
 in a state of exasperation and conflict with the people of 
 the neighboring States, that the Assembly might applaud 
 that conduct, and might require that it should be the 
 rule and not the exception, — that all invaders of their 
 territory should be treated in that manner, and that the 
 parties should be put to death without trial. Supposing 
 that to be the case ; could the government of this country 
 adopt such a rule ? Could the Secretary of State for 
 the Colonies sanction such a rule, and not decide, as my 
 honorable friend, the under secretary has done, that the 
 practice would meet with his decided reprehension ?" 
 
 Now, my Lord, admitting that such a case might occur 
 once in half a century, under the new system, let me 
 remind Your Lordship that it has already occurred under 
 the old.^ If it is to have any weight, the fact of its occur- 
 rence in a Province in which the Executive Council is 
 irresponsible and the Colonial Secretary is in the exercise 
 of his full powers, makes in favor of my argument ; while 
 I have a right to deny, until proof is furnished, that it 
 could occur, if matters were more wisely ordered, and a 
 more rational system established, by which all tempta- 
 tions to foreigners to make inroads into British Provinces, 
 speculating upon the disaffection of the people, would 
 be removed. But, my Lord, life has been taken under 
 your system — " death " has been inflicted " mthout 
 
 ^ For the circumstances referred to, see Kingsford, op. cit., x. 498.
 
 THE TWO SYSTEMS CONTRASTED 227 
 
 trial," illegally, as you infer — and has any punishment 
 followed ? Have the laws been vindicated ? No ! — 
 Then why not ? Simply, I presume, because your 
 beautiful mode of government has produced such a 
 state of things in a British Province, that the ministers 
 of the Queen dare not bring the man charged with this 
 high offence to trial. Under a system of responsibility, 
 by which the population were left to manage their 
 domestic affairs, I hold that no such violation of law 
 would be likely to occur ; and, that if it did, investiga- 
 tion would be as safe, and punishment as certain, as though 
 a crime had been committed in Middlesex, or Surrey. 
 
 I have thus disposed, my Lord, of the military ques- 
 tions ; and, as I have left Her Majesty and her representa- 
 tives in full command of the army and navy, and of the 
 militia force of British America, and have asserted no 
 claim of the Colonists to interfere with foreign treaties 
 and diplomatic arrangements affecting the empire at 
 large ; I think, if peace be not maintained with foreign 
 states, the punishment for offences strictly military be 
 not awarded, the blame will not rest with the Executive 
 Councillors, who are to exercise no jurisdiction over these 
 matters, and cannot be responsible if others fail in their 
 duty. 
 
 Let me now turn to another class of objections, arising 
 out of our Colonial and foreign trade. " Again," says 
 Your Lordship, " neither could this analogy be main- 
 tained with regard to trade between Canada and the 
 mother country, or Canada and any other country. How 
 then can you adopt a principle from which such large 
 exceptions are to be made ? If you w^ere to do so, you 
 would be continually on the borders of dispute and con- 
 flict ; the Assembly and the Executive, on the one hand, 
 requiring a certain course to be pursued, while the 
 Governor, on the other hand, would be as constantly 
 declaring that it was a course he could not adopt ; so 
 that, instead of furnishing matter of content and harmony 
 in these Provinces, you would be affording new matter 
 for dispute and discontent if you were to act upon this 
 supposed analogy." Now, my Lord,}! feel it my duty 
 to state, that you may take from any Jpart you please to 
 select, of England, Ireland, or Scotland, two hundred 
 thousand persons, and among them you will not find a 
 larger number than are to be found in Nova Scotia, well 
 
 15—2
 
 228 COVERmiENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 inforniod as to tlic degree of authority in matters of trade, 
 which, for the good of the whole empire and the preserva- 
 tion of the advantages in which all are to participate, it 
 is necessary to confide to the care of the Sovereign and 
 the wisdom of the Imperial Parliament. The great cor- 
 porations of London, of Bristol, and of Liverpool, do not 
 presume to interfere with these, except by petition and 
 remonstrance, neither do we. Each of these cities has 
 the right to levy small duties within their own limits, for 
 matters of internal regulation, or to aid public improve- 
 ments ; and these rights they exercise, in common with 
 us, w'hen they do not contravene any British statutes 
 necessary for the protection of the trade of the empire. 
 But, if it can be shown that a law bears unequally upon 
 London or Halifax, and that a flagrant case of hardship 
 exists ; or if the industry of any portion of the people, 
 either in England or the Colonies, is taxed, while no 
 corresponding advantage is reaped by any other portion ; 
 or that, if reaped, it is an unfair and illegitimate ad- 
 vantage, — an appeal is made to Parliament. We have 
 hitherto been contented, although not directly repre- 
 sented in that Assembly, to abide the result of that appeal ; 
 or to pass bills, taking our chance of their being assented 
 to in England. The same thing would occur, even if the 
 Executive Council was responsible ; for, upon this point, 
 there is no part of our population prepared to set up 
 absurd or irrational claims. If Parliament should under- 
 take to legislate directly against our interests ; to cut 
 up our commerce, and prevent the growth of domestic 
 industry ; and, after fair notice and ample proof of 
 injury, were to persist in such a course ; why then a 
 state of things would arise, which similar policy produced 
 elsew^here, in other times, and upon the results of which 
 either responsible or irresponsible Councils could exercise 
 but little influence. But, as political economists at home 
 are every day becoming convinced that the more liberty 
 they afford to the Colonist to conduct his commercial 
 operations the greater will be his demand for British 
 manufactures ; and as, under the guidance of this en- 
 lightened policy, the laws of trade and navigation are 
 annually becoming less restrictive, it is not probable that 
 difficulties, which were never insuperable, will all of a 
 sudden admit of no rational remedy ; or that the boun- 
 daries of Colonial and Imperial authority, now so well
 
 TRADE AND COMMERCE 229 
 
 understood, and the recognition of which is so easily 
 enforced, will often be called in question on either side. 
 If the Colonists assert rights which do not belong to 
 them, and persist in their contumacy, disturbing solemn 
 treaties and setting acts of Parliament at naught ; why 
 then they have broken the social compact, it is a case of 
 rebellion, and they must be put down. 
 
 Let us reduce the difficulty to practice, for the purpose 
 of illustration. Suppose that both branches of the Legis- 
 lature pass a law by which a heavy duty is laid upon 
 British broadcloths, and those from the United States 
 are admitted duty free ; and that the Executive Council, 
 being responsible, advise the Lieutenant Governor to 
 assent to it. Such an absurd piece of bad faith as this 
 could never be attempted in the Lower Provinces ; for 
 public opinion would never sanction any interference 
 with the general laws, not intended to remedy abuses, or 
 that struck at Colonial, without promoting British pros- 
 perity ; nor would any changes be popular which violated 
 the fraternal comity by which British subjects every- 
 where are bound to encourage and protect each other. 
 But I have supposed the law passed and presented. The 
 Governor would say in this case, as he now invariably 
 says — as Your Lordship admits he must say, if urged to 
 provoke a foreign war : " Gentlemen, you are exceeding 
 your powers. To legislate for your own advantage is one 
 thing ; to legislate directly against your brethren at home, 
 for the advantage of foreigners, is another. This bill 
 must be either modified or rejected, or reserved for Her 
 Majesty's assent before it can go into operation." If 
 the parties urging it persisted, a dissolution might be 
 tried, and an appeal to British subjects, in a case where 
 the Governor was clearly right, and his advisers wrong, 
 would never be made in vain ; particularly when aided 
 by the Constitutional opposition, which, under a system 
 of responsibility and manly competition, would exist in 
 every Colony. But if it failed ; if such an almost im- 
 possible thing were upon the cards, as that a majority 
 could be found in Nova Scotia to sustain such an act, or 
 anything bearing a resemblance to it, then a case would 
 have occurred for the interference of the Imperial 
 authorities, who should say to us frankly. If you will 
 come into unnatural and hostile collision, the weakest 
 has the most to fear.
 
 230 GOVERXMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 Had Your Lordship been as familiar with the mode of 
 dealing -with such subjects as most Colonists are who 
 have watched the proceedings of Colonial Assemblies, 
 you would have been satisfied that no danger was to be 
 apprehended from violent collisions about matters of 
 tnide. When a new duty is proposed in Nova Scotia, 
 or a reduction suggested, the first question asked on all 
 sides is, will the proposition violate the letter, or does 
 it even run counter to the spirit of the Imperial acts ? 
 If it does, in eight cases out of ten, the person bringing 
 the measure forward drops it, on being assured of the 
 fact. In the ninth case, where a doubt exists as to the 
 policy and wisdom of Imperial legislation, it is found, on 
 inquiry, that the clause which seemed to press upon us, 
 originated in a wide view over the whole field of com- 
 merce, which British statesmen, often better than others 
 whose positions afford fewer advantages, are enabled to 
 take, and that its repeal would inflict an injury and not 
 confer a benefit. The tenth case is perhaps one in which 
 the Imperial Parliament, either from haste, or prejudice, 
 or insufficient information, has committed an error in 
 political economy, or inflicted a wound upon Colonial 
 without benefiting British industry. In this case (and 
 they only occur once in a great while) no one ever dreams, 
 that, as Your Lordship expresses it, the Imperial Legis- 
 lature is to be " overruled " by that of the Colony. We 
 never doubt but that an appeal to the good sense and 
 justice of our brethren over the water will be successful. 
 A bill is passed, perhaps, to meet the difficulty ; and an 
 explanation of the facts and reasoning in which it origi- 
 nated, is sent with it, in the form of an address to the 
 throne, and in most cases is found to be successful. 
 
 This is the mode at present. What reason is there to 
 suppose that it would be much changed, if we had an 
 Executive Council, whose powers and responsibilities did 
 not extend to matters of general commerce, already pro- 
 vided for by Imperial Legislation ? If we are so fond of 
 violent conflicts and factious opposition, what hinders us 
 from indulging our propensities now ? Shall we be less 
 considerate the more kindly we are treated ? Shall we 
 have less respect for Imperial legislation, when we see 
 that it leaves us the entire management of our domestic 
 affairs, and only deals with those great interests which 
 transcend our authority and are beyond our control ?
 
 NEED OF PROTEST 231 
 
 Suppose twelve Nova Scotians, who are not responsible 
 to any authority under Heaven, are made accountable 
 to the rest of their countrj^men, shall we have a man 
 the more for forcible resistance than we have now — or 
 a gun, a pike, a bomb, or a barrel of powder ? 
 
 I have thus, My Lord, gone over the arguments urged 
 by Your Lordship in the speech of the 3d June. I have 
 omitted none that appear to me to have the slightest 
 bearing upon the great question at issue, and I trust I 
 have given to each a fair and satisfactory answer. I 
 have wTitten not only under a solemn sense of duty, but 
 with a full assurance that sophistry, woven around this 
 question, either on one side of the Atlantic or the other, 
 would be torn to shreds in the conflict of acute and 
 vigorous minds now engaged in its discussion. Had 
 Your Lordship, in announcing the decision of the Cabinet, 
 forborne to state the reasons upon which that decision 
 was founded, I might, like counsel at the bar under 
 similar circumstances, have felt myself compelled to 
 acquiesce in a judgment, neither the justice nor the 
 policy of which I could fathom. But when the argu- 
 ments were stated, and when I saw a question involving 
 the peace and security of six extensive Provinces, and 
 the freedom and happiness of a million and a half of 
 British subjects, disposed of by a mode of reasoning 
 which I knew to be deceptive and unsound, — when I 
 saw, in fact, that the parties claiming their rights were 
 to be turned out of court, with all the arguments and all 
 the evidence upon their side, I felt that to remain silent 
 would be to deserve the social and political degradation 
 which this unjust decision was to entail on my country- 
 men and myself ; to earn the Helot mark of exclusion 
 from the blessings of that Constitutional freedom, which 
 our forefathers struggled to bequeathe ; and which we , 
 should never cease to demand, as a patrimony that runs 
 with our blood, and cannot be rightfully severed from 
 our name. 
 
 Letter IV. 
 
 My Lord, — The business of factious demagogues, of all 
 parties, is to find fault with everything, to propose nothing 
 practical, to oppose whatever is suggested, to misrepresent
 
 2^2 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 and to defame. The object of honest and rational 
 poHticians ought to be to understand each other — to deal 
 frankl}', abhorring concealment, that mistakes may not 
 be made about facts, terms, or intentions ; to deal fairly, 
 giving credit for a desire to elicit truth, and a wish to 
 weigh in a just balance both sides of every question. 
 Having put before you such evidence as I hope will lead 
 Your Lordship's mind to the conclusion that the system 
 by which the North American Colonies are at present 
 governed, must be abandoned, it is not improbable that 
 Your Lordship may inquire what it is that we are desirous 
 to substitute for that system ? The demand is a reason- 
 able one. The party who seek this change are bound to 
 prove that they have a safe and intelligible remedy for 
 the evils of which they complain. If I cannot show to 
 Your Lordship that, without endangering the authority 
 of the mother country over her Provinces, weakening the 
 constitutional powers of the crown, or trenching on the 
 high privileges and wide range of duty assigned to the 
 Imperial Parliament, a better form of government than 
 that which I am anxious to overturn — one more nearly 
 conforming to the practice and spirit of the Constitution, 
 as understood at home — to the wants and peculiar situa- 
 tion of these Colonies, and less repugnant to the feelings 
 and prejudices of Englishmen everywhere, can be estab- 
 lished, then I must quit the field of argument, and can- 
 not complain if Your Lordship adheres to your own 
 opinions. 
 
 From what has been already written, it will be seen 
 that I leave to the Sovereign, and to the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, the uncontrolled authority over the military and 
 naval force distributed over the Colonies ; that I carefully 
 abstain from trenching upon their right to bind the whole 
 empire, by treaties and other diplomatic arrangements, 
 with foreign States ; or to regulate the trade of the 
 Colonies with the mother country, and with each other, 
 I yield to them also the same right of interference which 
 they now exercise over Colonies, and over English in- 
 corporated towns ; whenever a desperate case of factious 
 usage of the powers confided, or some reason of state, 
 affecting the preservation of peace and order, call for 
 that interference. As the necessity of the case, the 
 degree and nature of this interference, would always be 
 fully discussed by all parties concerned, I am not afraid
 
 PROPOSED NEW SYSTEM 233 
 
 of these great powers being often abused, particularly as 
 the temptations to use them would be much lessened if 
 the internal administration were improved. 
 
 The Colonial Secretary's duties should be narrowed to 
 a watchful supervision over each Colony, to see that the 
 authority of the Crown was not impaired, and that acts 
 of Parliament and public treaties were honestly and 
 firmly carried out ; but he should have no right to appoint 
 more than two or three officers in each Province, and 
 none to intermeddle in any internal affair, so long as the 
 Colonial government was conducted without conflict with 
 the Imperial government, and did not exceed the scope 
 of its authority. This would give him enough to do, 
 without heaping upon him duties so burdensome and 
 various that they cannot be discharged Mdth honor by 
 any man, however able ; nor with justice or safety to the 
 millions whose interests they affect. His responsibility 
 should be limited to the extent of his powers ; and, as 
 these would be familiar to every Englishman, exposure 
 and punishment would not be difficult, in case of ignor- 
 ance, incapacity, or neglect. 
 
 I have shown, in the illustration drawn from the city 
 of Liverpool, that most Governors come out to Colonies 
 so ignorant of their geography and topography, climate, 
 productions, commerce, resources, and wants ; and above 
 all, of the parties, passions, and prejudices which divide 
 them ; and of the character, talents, and claims of the 
 men by whom the population are influenced and led ; 
 that for the first six or twelve months they are like over- 
 grown boys at school. It is equally clear, that while the 
 business of government must move on, and the adminis- 
 tration commence from the day on which the new 
 Governor arrives, the schoolmasters, from whom all his 
 facts are derived — from whom he gathers his views of 
 internal affairs, and his impressions, not only of different 
 parties, but of individuals of each party, — are the irre- 
 sponsible Executive Councillors, whom the present system 
 calls around him ; and who, possessed of such advantages, 
 rarely fail, before he can by any possibility escape from 
 their toils, to embroil him with the popular branch of 
 the Legislature, and the mass of the people by whom it 
 is sustained. 
 
 Now let us suppose, that when a Governor arrives in 
 Nova Scotia, he finds himself surrounded, not by this
 
 234 r!OVERN:\[ENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 irrosponsiblo Council, who represent nothing except the 
 whims of liis predecessors and the interests of a few 
 f;nniUes (so small in point of numbers, that but for the 
 influence Avhich ofhce and the distribution of patronage 
 give them, their relative weight in the country would be 
 ridiculously diminutive), — but by men who say to him, 
 " May it please Your Excellency, there was a general 
 election in this Province last month, or last year, or the 
 year before last, and an administration was formed upon 
 the results of that election. We, who compose the 
 Council, have ever since been steadily sustained by a 
 majority of the commons, and have reason to believe 
 that our conduct and policy have been satisfactory to 
 the country at large." A Governor thus addressed, 
 would feel that at all events he was surrounded by those 
 who represented a majority of the population ; who pos- 
 sessed the confidence of an immense body of the electors, 
 and who had been selected b}'- the people who had the 
 deepest interest in his success, to give him advice and 
 conduct the administration. If he had doubts on this 
 point — if he had reason to believe that any factious com- 
 bination had obtained office improperly, and wished to 
 take the opinions of the country ; or if the Executive 
 Council sought to drive him into measures not sanctioned 
 by the charter ; or exhibited a degree of grasping selfish- 
 ness which was offensive and injurious, he could at once 
 dissolve the Assembly, and appeal to the people : who 
 here, as in England, would relieve him from doubt and 
 difficulty ; and, fighting out the battle on the hustings, 
 rebuke the Councillors if they were wrong. This would 
 be a most important point gained in favor of the Governor ; 
 for now he is the slave of an irresponsible Council, which 
 he cannot shake off ; and is bound to act by the advice 
 of men, who, not being accountable for the advice they 
 give, and having often much to gain and nothing to lose 
 by giving bad advice, may get him into scrapes every 
 month, and lay the blame on him. The Governors would, 
 in fact, have the power of freeing themselves from 
 thraldom to the family compacts, which none of them 
 can now escape by the exercise of any safe expedient 
 known to our existing Constitutions. It will be seen 
 too, that by this system, whatever sections or small 
 parties might think or say, the Governor could never, 
 by any possibility, become, what British Governors have
 
 COUNCIL UNDER OLD SYSTEM 235 
 
 of late been everywhere, embroiled with the great body 
 of the inhabitants over whom he was sent to preside. 
 The Governor's responsibility would also be narrowed to 
 the care of the Queen's prerogative, the conservation of 
 treaties, the military defence, and the execution of the 
 Imperial acts ; the local administration being left in the 
 hands of those who understood it, and who were re- 
 sponsible. His position would then be analogous to that 
 of the Sovereign — he could do no wrong in any matter 
 of which the Colonial Legislature had the right to judge ; 
 but would be accountable to the crown, if he betrayed 
 the Imperial interests committed to his care. 
 
 Executive Councillors now are either heads of depart- 
 ments, or members of the two branches who are generally 
 favorable to the policy of these, and disposed to leave 
 their emoluments intact. One or two persons, of more 
 independent character, and slightly differing from the 
 others upon a few points, are sometimes admitted ; but 
 a vast preponderance in favor of the views of the official 
 compact, is always, as a matter of course, maintained. 
 The heads of departments are always very well paid for 
 their trouble in governing the country, by the enormous 
 official salaries they receive ; their colleagues either are 
 looking to office, or have means of providing for their 
 relatives and friends ; while, if it should so happen, that 
 such a thing as a Colonial Executive Councillor can be 
 found, for any length of time, in office, who has not 
 served himself or his friends, the title, and the conscious- 
 ness of possessing for life the right to approach and advise 
 every Governor, and give a vote upon every important 
 act of administration, without a possibility of being dis- 
 placed, or called to account for anything said or done, 
 is no mean reward for the small amount of labor and time 
 bestowed. Formerly, these people, in addition to other 
 benefits, obtained for themselves and their friends im- 
 mense tracts of crown land. This resource is now cut 
 off, by the substitution, of sales for free grants ; but, 
 looking at the Executive Council, or Cabinet, as it exists 
 in any of the North American Provinces at present, we 
 find a small knot of individuals, responsible neither to 
 the Queen, the Secretary of State, the Governor, nof'the 
 people ; who owe their seats to neither, but to their 
 relatives and friends, through whose influence and in- 
 trigues they have been appointed ; and who, while they
 
 230 GOVERNINIENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 possess among them some of the best salaries, and nearly 
 all the patronage of the eountry, have a common interest 
 in promoting extravagance, resisting economy, and keep- 
 ing up the system exactly as it stands. It will be per- 
 ceived, that such a body as this may continue to govern 
 a Colony for centuries ; like the Old Man of the Mountain, 
 who got upon Sinbad's back, ordinary exertions cannot 
 shake it off. To understand more clearly how un- 
 English, how anti-constitutional, how dangerous this body 
 is, it is only necessary to contrast it with what it ought 
 to resemble, but never does. In England, the govern- 
 ment of the country is invariably carried on by some 
 great political party, pledged to certain principles of 
 foreign or domestic policy, which the people for the time 
 approve ; but the cabinet in a Colony is an official party, 
 who have the power for ever to keep themselves and 
 their friends in office, and to keep all others out, even 
 though nineteen out of every twenty of the population 
 are against them. What would the people of England 
 say, if some twenty families, being in possession of the 
 Treasury, Horse Guards, Admiralty, Colonial office, had 
 the power to exclude Whigs, Tories, and Radicals ; to 
 laugh at hostile votes in the Commons, and set the country 
 at defiance ; to defend each other against the crown and 
 the people ; to cover ignorance, incapacity, corruption, 
 and bad faith ? Would they bear such a state of things 
 for a week ? And yet Your Lordship seems to think 
 that we should bear it, for an indefinite period, with 
 patience. 
 
 Now, for this body, I propose to substitute one sus- 
 tained by at least a majority of the Electors ; whose 
 general principles are known and approved ; whom the 
 Governor may dismiss, whenever they exceed their 
 powers ; and who may be discharged by the people 
 whenever they abuse them. Who, instead of laying the 
 blame, when attacked, upon the Governor, or the Secre- 
 tary of State, shall be bound, as in England, to stand up 
 and defend, against all comers, every appointment made 
 and every act done under their administration. One of 
 the first results of this change would be, to infuse into 
 every department of administration a sense of account- 
 ability, which now is nowhere found — to give a vigorous 
 action to every vein and artery now exhibiting torpidity 
 and languor — and to place around the Governor, and at
 
 COUNCIL UNDER TWO SYSTEMS 237 
 
 the head of every department of public affairs, the ablest 
 men the Colony could furnish ; men of energy and talent, 
 instead of the brainless sumphs,^ to whom the task of 
 counselling the Governor, or administering the affairs of 
 an extensive department, is often committed under the 
 present system. In England, whether Whigs, Tories or 
 Radicals are in, the Queen is surrounded, and the public 
 departments managed, by some of the ablest men the 
 kingdom can produce. But suppose a mere official fac- 
 tion could exclude all these great parties from power, 
 how long would the government possess the advantage 
 of superior abilities to guide it ? Would it not at once 
 fall far below the intellectual range which it now in- 
 variably maintains ? 
 
 But, it may be asked, would not the sudden introduc- 
 tion of this system work injustice to some who have 
 taken offices, in the expectation of holding them for life. 
 Perhaps it might, but even if this were unavoidable, the 
 interests of individuals should give way to the public 
 good. The Boroughmongers had the same objections to 
 the reform act ; recorders and town clerks to that which 
 cleansed the corporations. This, like all minor difficulties, 
 might easily be provided for ; and I am sure that there 
 are but few of those seeking to establish responsible 
 government, who desire to overturn even a bad system 
 in a spirit of heartless vindictiveness. 
 
 The Colonies, having no hereditary peerage, the Legis- 
 lative Council has been constructed to take its place. From 
 the difficulty of making it harmonize with the popular 
 branch, some politicians in Lower Canada — and it was said 
 that the Earl of Durham, at first, inclined to the opinion — 
 thought it might be abolished. I think there is no neces- 
 sity for this ; first, because it would destroy the close 
 resemblance which it is desirable to maintain between 
 our Institutions and those of the mother country ; and 
 again, because a second legislative chamber, not entirely 
 dependent upon popular favor, is useful to review 
 measures, and check undue haste or corruption in the 
 popular branch. Besides, I see no difficulty in maintain- 
 ing its independence, and yet removing from it the char- 
 acter of annual conflict with the representative body, by 
 which it has been everywhere distinguished. 
 
 The main object of the Executive Council being the 
 
 1 " Blockheads " ; a Scottish word.
 
 23S GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 preservation of a system by which they enjoy honors, 
 office and patronage, uncontrolled and uninfluenced by 
 the people ; and they having the nomination of Legisla- 
 tive Councillors, of course they have always selected a 
 majority of those whose interests and opinions were their 
 own, and who could help them to wrestle with, and fight 
 oil' the popular branch. Hence the constant collision, 
 and the general outcry against the second chamber. 
 The simple remedy for all this appears to be, to intro- 
 duce the English practice : let the people be consulted 
 in the formation of the Executive Council ; and then the 
 appointments to the Legislative will be more in accord- 
 ance with public sentiment and the general interest, 
 than they are now. I should have no objection to the 
 Legislative Councillors holding their seats for life, by 
 which their independence of the Executive and of the 
 people would be secured, provided they were chosen 
 fairly by those to whom, from time to time, the con- 
 stituency, as at home, entrusted the privilege ; and not 
 as they are now selected, to serve a particular purpose, 
 and expressly to wrangle, rather than to harmonize with 
 the popular branch. The House of Lords includes men 
 selected by all the administration which the people of 
 Britain have called into power. The Houses of Lords, 
 in the Colonies, have been created by all the adminis- 
 trations which the people never could influence or control. 
 
 Some members of the second branch should, of course, 
 have seats in the Executive Council, because in that 
 Chamber also, the acts and the policy of the government 
 would require to be explained ; but here, as in England, 
 though very desireable, it would not be essential, that 
 the administration should always be sustained by a 
 majority in the upper House. 
 
 One of the first effects of a change of system would be 
 a decided improvement in the character of all the Colonial 
 Assemblies. The great centre of political power and in- 
 fluence would, in the Provinces, as at home, be the House 
 of Commons. Towards that body the able, the industrious, 
 the eloquent, and the wealthy, would press with ten times 
 the ardor and unanimity which are now evinced ; because 
 then, like its great prototype in Britain, it would be an 
 open and fair arena, in which the choice spirits of the 
 country would battle for a share in its administration, 
 a participation in its expenditure, and in the honor and
 
 IMPROVED LEGISLATURE 239 
 
 influence which public employment confers. Now a bon 
 vivant, who can entertain an aide-de-camp ; a good- 
 looking fellow, who dances with a Governor's lady ; or 
 a cunning one, who can wheedle a clerk or an luider- 
 secretary in Downing Street, may be called to take a 
 part in governing a Province for the period of his natural 
 life. Then, these disreputable and obscure channels of 
 advancement would be closed ; and the country would 
 understand the reason, and feel the necessity for every 
 such appointment ; and the population would be driven to 
 cultivate those qualities which dignify and adorn our 
 nature, rather than debase it. Now, any wily knave or 
 subservient fool feels that his chance is as good as that 
 of the most able and upright man in the Colony ; and far 
 better, if the latter attempts to pursue an independent 
 course ; then, such people would be brought to their 
 proper level, and made to win their honors fairly before 
 they were worn. 
 
 Another improvement would be the placing of the 
 government of a Colony, as it always is in England, in a 
 majority in the Commons, watched, controlled, and yet 
 aided by a constitutional opposition. Under the present 
 system, the government of a Colony is the opposition of 
 the Commons, and often presents in that body the most 
 unseemly and ridiculous figure. Numberless instances 
 might be given of this. The three Executive Councillors 
 who sit in the Assembly of Nova Scotia, have been resist- 
 ing, in miserable minorities, on a dozen divisions during 
 the last two sessions, votes by which the Commons re- 
 corded a want of confidence in them and their party ; 
 and, in fact, the government, instead of taking the lead 
 in public measures with the energy and ability which 
 should belong to a government, cannot take a single step 
 in the Assembly without the sanction of its opponents. 
 Every emergency that arises, and for which an adminis- 
 tration ought to be secure of a majority, presents some 
 absurd illustration of the system. When the border diffi- 
 culties with the State of Maine occurred last winter, the 
 government of Nova Scotia had not the power to move 
 a single man of the militia force (the laws having expired), 
 or to vote a single shilling, until the majority came for- 
 ward, as they always have done, in the most honorable 
 manner, and, casting aside all political differences, passed 
 laws for embodying the militia, and granted £100,000 to
 
 240 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 carry on the war. But, will Your Lordship believe, will 
 it be credited in England, that those who voted that 
 money ; a\ ho were responsible to their constituents for 
 its expenditure, and without whose consent (for they 
 formed two-thirds of the Commons) a shilling could not 
 have been drawn, had not a single man in the local 
 cabinet by whom it was to be spent ; and by whom, in 
 that trying emergency, the Governor would be advised. 
 Nor are things better when the Legislature is not in 
 session. In consequence of the establishment of steam 
 navigation, a dispatch was sent out this spring, after the 
 House was prorogued, requiring the Governor of this 
 Province to put the main roads in thorough repair. Of 
 course he had no means to accomplish the object, nor 
 could his Executive Council guarantee that a single shilling 
 thus expended would be replaced, or that a vote of censure 
 would not be passed upon him if he spent one ; and to 
 obviate the difficulty, they were seen consulting and en- 
 deavoring to propitiate the members of the majority whose 
 places, upon such terms, they are contented to occupy ; 
 and to which, so far as I am concerned, if such liumUia- 
 tions are to be the penalty, they are heartily welcome. 
 
 It has been objected to the mode proposed, that it 
 would lead to the rotation of office, or extensive dis- 
 missals of subordinates, practised in the United States. 
 But no person abhors that system more than myself ; nor 
 has it found any favor in the Colonies, where the English 
 practice is preferred, of removing the heads of depart- 
 ments only. To those who are afraid of the turmoO and 
 excitement that would be produced, it is only necessary 
 to say, that if upon the large scale on which the principle 
 is applied at home, there is no great inconvenience felt, 
 how much less have we to fear where the population is 
 not so dense, the competition not so active, nor the prizes 
 so gigantic. A ministry that in England lasts two or 
 three years is supposed to fulfil its mission ; and a quad- 
 rennial bill is considered unnecessary, because Parlia- 
 ment, on the average, seldom sits longer than three or 
 four years. As, under a system of responsibility, the 
 contest for power would be fought out here as it is in 
 England, chiefly on the hustings ; an administration 
 would, therefore, last in Nova Scotia until the quad- 
 rennial bill was passed, for six years certainly — two years 
 more than the Governor, unless specially continued, is
 
 EVILS OF OLD SYSTEM 241 
 
 expected to hold his appointment ; and if it managed 
 judiciously, there would be nothing to prevent it from 
 holding the reins for twenty or thirty years. Of course, 
 an Executive Council in the Colonies should not be ex- 
 pected to resign upon every incidental and unimportant 
 question connected with the details of government ; but, 
 whenever a fair and decisive vote, by which it was 
 evident that they had lost the confidence of the country, 
 was registered against them, they should either change 
 their policy, strengthen their hands by an accession of 
 popular talents and principles, or abandon their seats, 
 and assume the duties and responsibilities of opposition. 
 If there was any doubt as to what the nature of such 
 votes should be, the Parliamentary usage would be the 
 guide on this, as on all minor matters. 
 
 One of the greatest evils of the present form of govern- 
 ment is, that nothing like system or responsibility can be 
 carried into any one branch of the public service. There 
 are, exclusive of militia and road commissions, nearly 
 nine hundred offices to be filled, in the Province of Nova 
 Scotia alone ; all essential to the administration of internal 
 affairs ; not one of them having anything to do with 
 Imperial interests. And will it be believed in England, 
 that the whole of this patronage is in the hands of a body 
 whom the people can never displace ? that the vast 
 majority in the Commons have not the slightest influ- 
 ence in its distribution ? while the greatest idiot, who 
 gives his silent and subservient vote in the minority, is 
 certain of obtaining his reward ? But the evil does not 
 stop here. It is utterly impossible for the people either 
 to bring to punishment, or to get rid of a single man of 
 the whole nine hundred, if the local government chooses 
 to protect him. 
 
 Perhaps the most cruel injury that the system inflicts 
 upon the Colonists, arises from the manner in which they 
 are compelled to conduct their internal improvements. 
 This has been noticed by Lord Durham. But perhaps 
 His Lordship did not fully comprehend the reasons which 
 render the mode — however anomalous and injurious — in 
 some degree acceptable to the constituency, in order that 
 other evils may be prevented, which might be a great 
 deal worse. It will be perceived that the nine hundred 
 offices already referred to, are generally distributed by 
 the irresponsible official party in such a way as to buy 
 
 16
 
 •24'2 COVERNIMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 their peace, or strengthen their influence in the country. 
 Let us see how this operates in practice. Suppose a 
 county sends to the Assembly four representatives, all 
 of whom support the local government ; the patronage 
 of that county is of course at their disposal, to strengthen 
 their hands, and keep down all opposition ; but should 
 the wliole be hostUe to the compact, then it is used to 
 foster opposition, and create a party to displace them. 
 If there is a division of sentiment among the members, 
 those who support are always aided in mortifying and 
 getting rid of those who attack the government. Though 
 but one of the four is an adherent of the compact, every 
 man in the county knows, that his influence is worth 
 much more than that of the other three ; that, while one 
 can obtain any favour he wants for a friend or partizan, 
 the others cannot, unless by the barter of a corrupt vote 
 or the sacrifice of principle, even obtain justice. Now, 
 if besides these nine hundred offices, about five hundred 
 commissions for the expenditure of the surplus revenues 
 of the country upon roads, bridges, and internal im- 
 provements, were given over, to be disposed of in the 
 same way, the hands of the compact would be so much 
 strengthened, that it would be still more easy to create 
 a party in a county, to endanger the seat of any member 
 who ventured to give an independent vote. To obviate 
 this risk, which was seen at an early period to menace 
 the independence of the Commons, it was determined 
 that the members from each county should recommend 
 the commissioners for the expenditure of moneys within 
 it ; and this, being acquiesced in by the Governors for 
 some time before its political bearing was much regarded 
 by the compact, has gro^vTi into usage which they have 
 not ventured openly to attack ; although, as they still 
 contend that the right of appointment is in the Execu- 
 tive, they seldom fail to show their power and vent their 
 feelings, by petty alterations almost every year. The 
 advantages of this arrangement are, that the majority 
 of the constituency — and not the minority, as in every 
 other case — distribute the patronage under this branch 
 of expenditure ; and, as the members who name com- 
 missioners have a great deal of local knowledge, and are, 
 moreover, responsible to the people, they can be called 
 to account if they abuse this trust. But still, from the 
 very nature of things, it is liable to abuse. Road com-
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF PATRONAGE 243 
 
 missions may be multiplied, and sums unwisely expended, 
 to secure votes at the next election ; or to reward, not a 
 good road maker, but a zealous partizan. The Execu- 
 tive has not the control it would have if these men were 
 selected by the government ; and the legislative power, 
 which should be used to unmask corruption, is sometimes 
 abused to afford it shelter. The remedy which our com- 
 pacts always suggest, like all their remedies for political 
 discrepancies, aims at the extension of their own influ- 
 ence and the firmer establishment of their own power. 
 They are loud, upon all occasions, in denouncing the cor- 
 ruption of the road system. The minority in the Assembly 
 are eloquent on the same theme ; while, through the 
 columns of some newspaper in their pay, they are always 
 pouring forth complaints, that the roads are wretchedly 
 bad and will never be better until the expenditure is 
 placed in their hands. It will be perceived, however, 
 that to follow their advice, would be to make what is 
 admitted on all hands to have its evils, a great deal 
 worse ; because, if these nominations are taken from 
 those who possess local information, and given to men 
 who have little or none, who will not be advised by those 
 who have, and who can be called to account by no power 
 known to the Constitution ; besides a great deal more of 
 blundering being the result, the partial responsibility, 
 which now makes the system barely tolerable, would be 
 entirely removed. Political partizans would still be 
 rewarded ; but, instead of all parties in the country 
 sharing the patronage (for members of the minority, as 
 well as of the majority, make these appointments), it 
 would be confined to those only who supported the com- 
 pact ; and who, however imbecile, ignorant, or corrupt, 
 would then be, as every other officer in the Colony is now, 
 independent of any description of popular control. If 
 any doubt could be entertained as to whether the public 
 would lose or gain by the change, evidence enough might 
 be gathered ; for some of the vilest jobs and most flagrant 
 cases of mismanagement that disgrace the history of the 
 road service in Nova Scotia, have been left as monuments 
 of the ignorance or folly of the compact, whenever they 
 have taken these matters into their own hands. 
 
 But, make the Governor's advisers responsible to the 
 Assembly, and the representatives would at once resign 
 to them the management of such affairs. It would then 
 
 IG— 2
 
 244 OOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 bo the business of the Executive, instead of leaving the 
 road service to the extemporaneous zeal or corrupt 
 management of individuals, to come prepared, at the 
 commencement of each session, ^vith a general review 
 of the whole system ; and, supported by its majority, 
 to suggest and to carry a compreliensive and intelligible 
 scheme, embracing the whole of this service, accounting 
 for the previous year's expenditure and appointments, 
 and accepting the suggestions of members as to the plans 
 of the current year. We should then have an Executive 
 to which every commissioner would be directly account- 
 able ; to which he could apply for instructions from 
 January to December ; and which, being itself responsible, 
 would be careful of its proceedings ; and yet, being more 
 independent than individual members are in dealing with 
 their own constituents, would be more firm and unyield- 
 ing where it was right. This is the simple, and I am 
 satisfied the only safe remedy for the abuses of the road 
 system. To take the distribution of commissions from 
 fifty men, possessed of much local knowledge and partially 
 responsible, to give it to twelve others, having less in- 
 formation and subject to no control, would be an act of 
 madness. Fortunately, in this, as in all other cases, we 
 have no occasion to seek for new theories, or try unsafe 
 experiments ; let us adopt the good old practices of our 
 ancestors and of our brethren; let us "keep the old 
 paths," in which, while there is much facility, there is no 
 danger. 
 
 My Lord, there is an argument used against the intro- 
 duction of Executive responsibility, by Sir Francis Head, 
 which it may be well to notice, because it has been caught 
 up by shallow thinkers everywhere, and is often urged 
 with an air of triumph, that, to those who look beyond 
 the surface, is somewhat ridiculous. It is said, if this 
 principle had been in operation, Papineau and Mackenzie 
 would have been ministers in the respective Provinces 
 they disturbed ! But, do those who urge this objection 
 ever stay to inquire, whether, if there had been responsi- 
 bility in the Canadas, either of these men could have 
 assumed so much consequence as to be able to obstruct 
 the operations of government, and create a rebellion in 
 a British Province 1 Nothing made a dictator tolerable 
 in ancient Rome but a sense of common danger, arising 
 out of some unusual 'and disastrous posture of affairs,
 
 PAPINEAU AND MACKENZIE 245 
 
 which rendered it necessary to confide to an individual 
 extraordinary powers — to raise one man far above all 
 others of his own rank — to substitute his will for the 
 ordinary routine of administration, and to make the words 
 of his mouth the law of the land. When the danger 
 passed away, the dictator passed away with it. Power, 
 no longer combined in one mighty stream, the eccentric 
 violence of which, though useful might be destructive, 
 was distributed over the surface of society, and flowed 
 again through a thousand small but well established 
 channels, everywhere stimulating and refreshing, but no- 
 where exciting alarm. In political warfare, this practice 
 of the ancients has been followed by the moderns with 
 good success. O'Connell in Ireland, and Papineau and 
 Mackenzie in Canada, grew into importance, from the 
 apparent necessity which existed for large masses of men 
 to bestow upon individuals unlimited confidence, and 
 invest them with extraordinary powers. I wish that the 
 two latter, instead of provoking the maddest rebellions 
 on record, had possessed the sound sense and consum- 
 mate prudence which have marked every important step 
 of the former's extraordinary career. But, who believes, 
 that if Ireland had had " justice," instead of having it 
 to seek, that ever such a political phenomenon as the 
 great agitator would have appeared, to challenge our 
 admiration and smite the oppressors with dismay ? And 
 who dreams that, but for the wretched system upheld in 
 all the Colonies, and the entire absence of responsibility, 
 by which faction or intrigue were made the only roads to 
 power, either of the Canadian demagogues would ever 
 have had an inducement, or been placed in a position to 
 disturb the public peace ? I grant that even under the 
 forms which I recommend, such men as Papineau and 
 Mackenzie might have existed ; that they might have 
 become conspicuous and influential ; and that it is by 
 no means improbable that they would have been Execu- 
 tive Councillors of their respective Provinces, advising 
 the Governors, and presiding over the administration of 
 their internal affairs. But suppose they had ; would not 
 even this have been better than two rebellions — the scenes 
 at Windsor, St. Charles and St. Eustache — the frontier 
 atrocities — and the expenditure of three millions sterling, 
 which will be the cost before the accounts are closed ? 
 Does any man in his senses believe, if Mackenzie or Bid-
 
 2 to COVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 welP could liavo guided the internal policy and dispensed 
 the local i)alrouage according to the British mode, that 
 either of them M'ould have been so mad as to dream of 
 turning Upper Canada into a Republic ; when, even if 
 they succeeded, they could only hope to be Governors 
 for a few years, with powers very much more restricted, 
 and salaries not more ample, than were theirs for life, or 
 as long as they preserved their majority. Possessed of 
 honours and substantial power, (not made to feel that they 
 who could most effectually serve the crown, were excluded 
 by a false system from its favour, that others less richly 
 endowed might rise upon their ruins), would these men 
 have madly rushed into rebellion with the chances before 
 them of expatriation or of an ignominious death ? 
 
 You well know, my Lord, that rebels have become 
 exceedingly scarce at home, since the system of letting 
 the majority govern has become firmly established ; and 
 yet they were as plenty as blackberries in the good old 
 times, when the sovereigns contended, as Sir Francis Head 
 did lately, that they only were responsible. Turn back 
 and you will find that they began to disappear altogether 
 in England about 1688, and that every political change 
 which makes the Executive more completely responsible 
 to the Legislature and the Legislature to the country at 
 large, renders the prospects of a new growth, " small by 
 degrees and beautifully less." And yet, my Lord, who 
 can assure us, that if the sovereigns had continued, as of 
 old, alone responsible ; if hundreds of able men, all 
 running the same course of honourable ambition, had not 
 been encomraged to watch and control each other ; and 
 if the system of governing by the minority and not by 
 the majority, and of excluding from power all who did 
 not admire the mode, and quarrelled with the court, had 
 existed down to the present day ; — who, I ask, will assure 
 us, that Chatham and Fox, instead of being able ministers 
 and loyal men, might not have been sturdy rebels ? Who 
 can say that even Your Lordship, possessed of the strong 
 attachment to liberty which distinguishes your family, 
 might not, — despairing of all good government under such 
 a system, instead of using your influence to extend by 
 peaceful improvements the happiness of the people, — be 
 
 1 M. S. Bidwell was a prominent Upper Canadian Eeformer of 
 American origin, and advocated the union of the two countries, but he 
 does not seem to have countenanced the open rebelhon of Mackenzie.
 
 THE EXAMPLE OF IRELAND 247 
 
 at this moment in the field at their head, and struggling, 
 sword in hand, to abate the power of the crown ? So 
 long as the irresponsibility principle was maintained in 
 Scotland, and the viceroys and a few bishops and courtiers 
 engrossed the administration, there were such men as 
 Hume and Lindsay, and such things as assemblies in 
 Glasgow, general tables in Edinburgh, and armed men in 
 every part of that noble country, weakening the govern- 
 ment, and resisting the power of the crown ; and up to 
 the period when Lord Normanby assumed the govern- 
 ment of Ireland, and it became a principle of administra- 
 tion that the minority were no longer to control the 
 majority and shut them out from all the walks of honour- 
 able ambition, what was the attitude in which Mr. 
 O'Connell stood towards the sovereign ? Was it not one 
 of continual menace and hostility, by which the latter 
 was degraded, and the former clothed with a dangerous 
 importance ? And what is his attitude now ? Is it not 
 that of a warm-hearted supporter of the Queen, whose 
 smiles are no longer confined to a faction but shed over 
 a nation, every man of which feels that he is free to 
 obtain, if he has ability and good fortune to deserve, the 
 highest honours in her power to bestow? Daniel O'Connell 
 (and perhaps it may be said that his tail suggested the 
 comparison) is no longer a political comet blazing towards 
 the zenith, and filling the terror-stricken beholders with 
 apprehensions of danger and a sense of coming change ; 
 but a brilliant planet, revolving in an orbit with the 
 extent of which all are familiar, and reflecting back to 
 the source of light and honour the beams which it is proud 
 to share. Who any longer believes that O'Connell is to 
 shake the empire and overturn the throne ? And Vho 
 doubts, had he despaired of justice, but he too might have 
 been a rebel ; and that the continued application to Ireland 
 of the principles I denounce, would have revived the scenes 
 and the sufferings through which she passed in 1798 ? 
 
 If, my Lord, in every one of the three great kingdoms 
 from which the population of British America derive their 
 origin, the evils of which we complain were experienced, 
 and continued until the principles we claim as our birth- 
 right became firmly established, is it to be expected that 
 we shall not endeavour to rid ourselves, by respectful 
 argument and remonstrance, of what cost you open and 
 violent resistance to put down ? Can an Englishman, an
 
 24S GOVERN^IENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 Irishman, or a Scotchman, be made to bcHeve, by passing 
 a' month upon^the sea, that the most stirring periods of his 
 history are but a cheat and a delusion ; that the scenes 
 which lie has been accustomed to tread with deep emotions 
 are but mementos of the folly, and not, as he once fondly 
 believed, of the wisdom and courage of his ancestors ; 
 that the principles of civil liberty, which from childhood 
 he has been taught to cherish and to protect by forms 
 of stringent responsibility, must, with the new light break- 
 ing in upon him on this side of the Atlantic, be cast aside 
 as an useless incumbrance ? No, my Lord, it is mad- 
 ness to suppose that these men, so remarkable for carry- 
 ing their national characteristics into every part of the 
 world where they penetrate, shall lose the most honourable 
 of them all, merely by passing from one portion of the 
 empire to another. Nor is it to be supposed that Nova 
 Scotians, New Brunswdckers, and Canadians — a race 
 sprung from the generous admixture of the blood of the 
 three foremost nations of the world — proud of their 
 parentage and not unworthy of it, to whom every stirring 
 period of British and Irish history, every great principle 
 which they teach, every phrase of freedom to be gleaned 
 from them, are as familiar as household words, can be in 
 haste to forget what they learnt upon their parents' 
 knees ; what those they loved and honoured clung to with 
 so much pride, and regarded as beyond all price. Those 
 who expect them thus to belie their origin, or to disgrace 
 it, may as soon hope to see the streams turn back upon 
 their fountains. My Lord, my countrymen feel, as they 
 have a right to feel, that the Atlantic, the great high- 
 way of communication with their brethren at home, 
 should be no barrier to shut out the civil privileges and 
 political rights, which more than anything else make 
 them proud of the connection ; and they feel also, that 
 there is nothing in their present position or their past 
 conduct to warrant such exclusion. Whatever impres- 
 sion may have been made by the wholesome satire where- 
 with one of my countrymen^ has endeavoured to excite 
 the others to still greater exertions ; those who fancy that 
 Nova Scotians are an inferior race to those who dwell 
 upon the ancient homestead, or that they will be con- 
 
 1 T. C. Haliburton (1796-1865), Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, who in 
 Sam Slick, tlie ClocJcmaker , published in 1837, had poked much good- 
 humoured fun at his fellow-countrymen.
 
 COLONIAL LIBERTIES 249 
 
 tented with a less degree of freedom, know little of them. 
 A country that a century ago was but a wilderness, and 
 is now studded with towns and villages, and intersected 
 with roads, even though more might have been done 
 under a better system, affords some evidence of industry. 
 Nova Scotian ships, bearing the British flag into every 
 quarter of the globe, are some proofs of enterprise ; and 
 the success of the native author, to whom I have alluded, 
 in the wide field of intellectual competition, more than 
 contradicts the humorous exaggeration by which, while 
 we are stimulated to higher efforts, others may be for a 
 moment misled. If then our right to inherit the Con- 
 stitution be clear ; if our capacity to maintain and enjoy 
 it cannot be questioned ; have we done anything to justify 
 the alienation of our birthright ? Many of the original 
 settlers of this Province emigrated from the old Colonies 
 when they were in a state of rebellion — not because they 
 did not love freedom, but because they loved it under the 
 old banner and the old forms ; and many of their descen- 
 dants have shed their blood, on land and sea, to defend 
 the honour of the crown and the integrity of the empire. 
 On some of the hardest fought fields of the Peninsula, my 
 countrymen died in the front rank, with their faces to the 
 foe. The proudest naval trophy of the last American 
 war was brought by a Nova Scotian intoRthe harbour of 
 his native town ;^ and the blood that flowed from Nelson's 
 death wound in the cockpit of the Victory, mingled with 
 that of a Nova Scotian stripling beside him, struck down 
 in the same glorious fight.^ Am I not then justified, my 
 Lord, in claiming for my countrymen that Constitution, 
 which can be withheld from them by no plea but one 
 unworthy of a British statesman — the tyrant's plea of 
 power ? I know that I am ; and I feel also, that this is 
 not the race that can be hood-winked with sophistry, or 
 
 1 On June 6 (Whit Sunday), 1813, the American frigate Chesapeahe, 
 captured off Boston Harbour by the British frigate Shannon, was 
 carried a prize into Halifax. Captain Broke having been severely 
 wounded, and his first lieutenant Idllcd, the Shannon was navigated 
 into Halifax by the second lieutenant, Wallis, afterwards Admiral Sir 
 Provo Wallis (1791-1892), a well-known Nova Scotian. Owing to 
 its being till 190.'j the summer head-quarters of the North Atlantic 
 squadron, and garrisoned by British troops, Halifax has always given 
 a great number of officers and men to the British army and navy. 
 
 3 Sir George Augustus Wcstphal (1785-1875), at that time a mid- 
 shipman.
 
 250 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 mado to su])niit to injustice witliout complaint. All sus- 
 picion of disloyalty wc cast aside, as the product of 
 ignorance or cupidity ; we seek for nothing more than 
 British subjects are entitled to ; but we will be contented 
 with nothing less. 
 
 My Lord, it has been said, that if this system of re- 
 sponsibility were established, it would lead to a constant 
 struggle for office and influence, wliich would be injurious 
 to the habits of our population, and corrupt the integrity 
 of public men. That it would lead to the former I admit ; 
 but that the latter would be a consequence I must take 
 leave to deny, until it can be shown, that in any of the 
 other employments of life, fair competition has that effect. 
 Let the bar become the bar only of the minority, and how 
 long would there be honour and safety in the profession ? 
 Let the rich prizes to be won in commerce and finance be 
 confined to a mere fragment, instead of being open to the 
 whole population ; and I doubt whether the same benefits, 
 the same integrity, or the same satisfaction would grace 
 the monopoly, that now spring from an open, fair, and 
 manly competition, by which, while individuals prosper, 
 wealth and prosperity are gathered to the State. To be 
 satisfied that this fair competition can with safety, and 
 the greatest advantage, be carried into public as well as 
 private affairs, it is only necessary to contrast the example 
 of England with that of any Continental nation where 
 the opposite system has been pursued. And if, in Eng- 
 land, the struggle for influence and office has curbed cor- 
 ruption and produced examples of consistency, and an 
 adherence to principle extremely rare in other countries, 
 and in none more so than in the Colonies, where the 
 course pursued strikes at the very root of manly inde- 
 pendence, why should we apprehend danger from its 
 introduction, or shrink from the peaceful rivalry it may 
 occasion ? But, my Lord, there is another view that 
 ought to be taken of this question. Ought not British 
 statesmen to ask themselves, is it wise to leave a million 
 and a half of people, virtually excluded from all partici- 
 pation in the honourable prizes of public life ? There is 
 not a weaver's apprentice, or a parish orphan in England, 
 that does not feel that he may, if he has the talent, rise 
 through every grade of office, municipal and national, to 
 hold the reins of government and influence the destinies 
 of a mighty empire. The Queen may be hostile, the Lords
 
 COLONIAL DISABILITIES 251 
 
 may chafe, but neither can prevent that weaver's appren- 
 tice or that parish orphan from becoming prime minister 
 of England. Then look at the United States, in which 
 the son of a mechanic in the smallest town, of a squatter 
 in the wildest forest, may contend on equal terms with 
 the proudest, for any office in twenty-eight different 
 States ; and having won as many as contents him, may 
 rise, through the national grades, to be President of the 
 Union. There are no family compacts to exclude these 
 aspirants ; no little knots of irresponsible and self-elected 
 Councillors, to whom it is necessary to sell their principles 
 and before whom the manliness of their nature must be 
 prostrated, before they can advance. But in the Colonies, 
 where there are no prizes so splendid as these, is it wise 
 or just to narrow the field, and confine to little cliques 
 of irresponsible politicians what prizes there are ? No, 
 my Lord, it is neither just nor wise. Every poor boy in 
 Nova Scotia (for we have the feelings of pride and am- 
 bition common to our nature) knows that he has the same 
 right to the honours and emoluments of office, as he would 
 have if he lived in Britain, or the United States ; and he 
 feels, that while the great honours of the empire are almost 
 beyond his reach, he ought to have a chance of dispensing 
 the patronage and guiding the administration of his native 
 country, without any sacrifice of principle or diminution 
 of self-respect. 
 
 My Lord, I have done. If what has been written cor- 
 rects any error into which Your Lordship or others may 
 have fallen, and communicates to some, either in Britain 
 or the Colonies, information upon a subject not generally 
 understood, I shall be amply repaid. Your Lordship will 
 perhaps pardon me for reminding you, that, in thus 
 eschewing the anonymous, and putting my name to an 
 argument in favour of Executive responsibility for the 
 North American Colonies, I am acting under a sense of 
 deep responsibility myself. I well know that there is 
 not a press in the pay of any of the family compacts, 
 that will not misrepresent my motives and pervert my 
 language ; that there is not an overpaid and irresponsible 
 official, from Fundy to the Ottawa, whose inextinguish- 
 able hostility I shall not have earned for the remainder 
 of my life. The example of Your Lordship will, how- 
 ever, help me to bear these burdens with patience. You 
 have lived and prospered, and done the State good
 
 252 GOVERNMENT IN MARITIME PROVINCES 
 
 service, and yet thousands of corrupt boroughmongers 
 and irresponsible corporators formerly misrepresented 
 and hated you. Should I live to see the principles for 
 which I contend, operating as beneficially over British 
 North America, as those immortal acts, which provoked 
 Your Lordship's enemies, do in the mother country, I 
 shall be gratified by the reflection, that the patriotic and 
 honourable men now contending for the principles of the 
 British Constitution, and by whose side, as an humble 
 auxiliary, I am proud to take my stand, whatever they 
 may have suffered in the struggle, did not labour in vain. 
 I have the honour to be, with the highest respect, 
 Your Lordship's humble admirer. 
 
 And most obedient servant, 
 
 Joseph Howe.
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 As the result of Lord Durham's report, the English 
 Ministry decided to unite the two Canadas. On June 10, 
 1839, however, Lord John Russell announced in the 
 House of Commons that, " after the very strong protest 
 against an Union by the Legislative Assembly of Upper 
 Canada, the Government would certainly not feel justified 
 in pressing forward legislation upon the subject during 
 this session." The Bill passed in that year, therefore, 
 dealt only with a revision of " the powers vested in the 
 Governor and Special Council of Lower Canada," and the 
 Union Bill, which was drawn up and printed, was not 
 pressed to a second reading, Lord John Russell announcing 
 on June 28 that " it was the intention of Her Majesty's 
 Government, having prepared that Bill, to send it to 
 Canada, with instructions to obtain information." The 
 task of obtaining this information was entrusted to the 
 new Governor-General, the Right Hon. Charles Poulett 
 Thomson, previously President of the Board of Trade. 
 He reached Quebec on September 17, 1839, and for the 
 next two years the history of Canada is little more than 
 the record of his multifarious activities, A Bill for the 
 reunion of the two provinces was drawn up under his 
 instructions, differing in many respects from that of 1839 ; 
 its form is said to be largely due to Chief Justice Stuart, of 
 Lower Canada. This Bill was sent home, and passed, 
 
 253
 
 '2-A RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 with some changes, on July 23, 1840.^ By its terms, the 
 Union \mis to come into operation on the issue by the 
 Governor-General of a Royal Proclamation. This was 
 issued on February 5, 1841, and the Union came into 
 effect five days later. ^ On June 14, 1841, the first 
 Parliament of the united Canadas met at Kingston, which 
 had been chosen as capital by the Governor-General, who 
 had in the previous August been raised to the peerage 
 under the title of Baron Sydenham of Sydenham in 
 Kent and Toronto in Canada. Sydenham's aim was to 
 introduce a form of responsible government which should 
 at the same time preserve the direct responsibility of 
 the Governor to the Colonial Office. By his marvellous 
 adroitness he succeeded in preserving an equilibrium 
 destined to be upset soon after his death. 
 
 Under the stress of work his health gave way, and he 
 was compelled to forward his resignation to England ; but 
 before it could take effect he died, on September 19, 1841, 
 of the effect of a fall from his horse. But though his term 
 of office had been short, he had compressed into it so much 
 varied work that he hardly exaggerated when, in forward- 
 ing his resignation to Lord John Russell, he said : " The 
 task which, by Her Majesty's commands, I undertook 
 two years ago is entirely completed, and I have the satis- 
 faction of feeling assured that the great objects of my 
 mission are answered. The Union of the two Canadas is 
 fully perfected, and the measures incidental to that great 
 change have been successfully carried into effect. Effec- 
 tive departments for every branch of the public service 
 
 1 The Bill of 1839 will be found in the printed Public Bills for 
 that year (vol. i.). The Bill of 1840, both in its original form and as 
 amended in Committee, wiU be found in the Public Bills of 1840 
 (vol. i.). In its final form it is given in Houston, op. cit. 
 
 2 On February 10. Dent, The Last Forty Years (Toronto, 1881), 
 notices that this was the anniversary of the Treaty of 176B, and also 
 of the according of the royal assent to the suspension of the Con- 
 stitution of Lower Canada in 1838.
 
 SYDENHAM'S INSTRUCTIONS 255 
 
 in this province have been constituted, and the future 
 harmonious working of the Constitution is, I have e very- 
 reason to believe, secured." 
 
 Below are given his instructions from the Colonial 
 Secretary, Lord John Russell, certain letters which 
 passed between him and Lord John during his term of 
 office, and his speech at the opening of the first Parlia- 
 ment of the united Canadas. Certain private letters 
 are also included from his Life, which was written 
 in 1843 by his brother, George Poulett Scrope, M.P. 
 The other letters and papers are taken from Parlia- 
 mentary Accounts and Papers, 1840, vol. xxxi., and 
 1841, vol. iii. 
 
 Lord John Russell to the Right Hon. C. Poulett 
 Thomson. , 
 
 Downing Street, 
 
 1th Seiitemher, 1839. 
 
 Sir, — The Queen having been pleased to confide to you 
 the Government of the British provinces in North America, 
 I now transmit to you the various Commissions under the 
 Great Seal, which authorize you to assume and execute 
 that office. The intimate knowledge which, as one of 
 Her Majesty's confidential advisers, you have acquired, 
 of the progress of Canadian affairs during the last few 
 years, and of the views of Her Majesty's Government on 
 that subject, relieves me from the necessity of entering 
 on various explanations, which it would otherwise have 
 been my duty to afford you. But it is fit that I should on 
 the present occasion record for your guidance the inten- 
 tions of the Ministers of the Crown on the principal topics 
 of Canadian policy, on which you will be called, as the 
 governor of those provinces, to co-operate with them. 
 
 The Bill introduced into the House of Commons during 
 the present session of Parliament, embodied, as you are 
 aware, the results of deliberate reflection on the various 
 suggestions contained in the reports of the Earl of 
 Durham. The hope of passing tliat measure into a law 
 before the Parliamentary recess was defeated'by various
 
 256 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 circumstances Avhich occurred, and especially by the in- 
 telligence Avhich, in the commencement of the month of 
 June, reached us from the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper 
 Canada, of the state of public opinion in that colony, 
 as expressed by the resolutions of the Council and As- 
 sembly. We have never concealed from ourselves that 
 the success of any plan for the settlement of Canadian 
 affairs must depend on the concurrence and support of 
 the provinces themselves. To learn their deliberate 
 wishes, and to obtain their co-operation by frank and un- 
 reserved personal intercourse, will therefore be the first 
 and most important of the duties which you will be called 
 upon to perform. 
 
 In our anxiety thus to consult, and as far as may be 
 possible, to defer to public opinion in the Canadas on the 
 subject of constitutional changes. Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment must be understood as entertaining a very strong 
 conviction in favour of the policy of the measure which 
 they have proposed for the adoption of Parliament. 
 Attaching minor importance to the subordinate details of 
 that Bill, we have found no sufficient reason for distrusting 
 the principles on wliich it proceeds. These are — a legis- 
 lative Union of the two provinces — a just regard to the 
 claims of either province in adjusting the terms of that 
 Union — the maintenance of the three estates of the pro- 
 vincial legislature — the settlement of a permanent civil 
 list for securing the independence of the judges, and to 
 the executive government that freedom of action which 
 is necessary for the public good — and the establishment 
 of a system of local government by representative bodies, 
 freely elected in the various cities and rural districts. 
 From any of these principles Her Majesty's Government 
 would be most reluctant to recede. After a full investiga- 
 tion of every other plan which has been suggested they 
 have not been able to discover in any but this, the reason- 
 able hope of a satisfactory settlement. It wiU, therefore, 
 be your first duty to endeavour to obtain for that measure, 
 such an assent in its general principles, and such a correc- 
 tion of its details, as may render it acceptable to the pro- 
 vinces, and productive of permanent advantage. There 
 are various modes by which this object may be accom- 
 plished, and in giving an outline of them, Her Majesty has 
 commanded me to express to you her reliance upon your 
 judgment, to be formed upon the spot, as to the emj)loy
 
 PROPOSED UNION 257 
 
 merit of such as may be most conducive to the content- 
 ment and advantage of her Canadian subjects. 
 
 1. You may appoint, by authority of the executive, a 
 certain number of persons of weight and experience, 
 selected from each province, to frame articles of Union, to 
 be afterwards proposed to the legislature of Upper Canada. 
 
 2. You may assemble the legislature of Upper Canada, 
 and propose to them the appointment of a certain number 
 of Commissioners, to confer with others named by the 
 special Council of Lower Canada. 
 
 3. If you find that your overtures to the assembly of 
 Upper Canada are not met in a fair, concihatory, and 
 reasonable spirit, you may proceed to dissolve the present 
 assembly, and appeal to the sense of the inhabitants of 
 the province.^ But in the late unsettled state of the pro- 
 vince, in the presence of repressed disaffection, with the 
 necessity of a second dissolution before the assembly of 
 the united province can meet — this step must not be re- 
 sorted to, without the gravest deliberation. 
 
 In whatever method you may proceed. Her Majesty's 
 Government will expect to receive from you, founded on 
 competent authority, such a plan of representation, with 
 a division into cities and districts, as may enable them to 
 lay the scheme before Parliament with confidence in the 
 data on which it has been formed, and in the justice of 
 the general arrangement. 
 
 I will not now argue on a further supposition, viz., that 
 from difficulty of detail, or mutual disinclination, the plan 
 of Union may be found altogether impracticable. Should 
 you find, after all your efforts, that such is the result, 
 you wiU lose no time in communicating to me, for Her 
 Majesty's information, the grounds of your opinion, and 
 the nature of any alternative which may seem to you more 
 conducive to the general good. 
 
 But above all things, it is important to avoid unneces- 
 sary delay. The discussion, which has already been pro- 
 tracted at the expense of so much evil, and still greater 
 hazard to the interests of the Canadian provinces, and of 
 this kingdom, cannot be too speedily brought to a close. 
 Her Majesty's Government will, therefore, anxiously 
 await the result of your inquiries as to the state of public 
 
 ^ The tact of Sydenham carried through the measure without any 
 changes either in the Special Council of Lower Canada or in the 
 Legislature of Upper C!anada. 
 
 17
 
 258 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 opinion in the Canadas respecting the proposed Union, 
 and the terms on \\'hich, in your opinion, it should be 
 otToc'tod. I earnestly trust tliat it may be received in 
 this country by a period sufficiently early to enable us to 
 communicate it to Parliament at the commencement, or 
 soon after the commencement, of the session of 1840, and 
 then to proceed at once with such measures as may be 
 required to meet the exigencies of the case. 
 
 The intelligence which has reached me from Upper 
 Canada, makes it probable that you may be called upon 
 for some explanation of the views of the Ministers of the 
 Crown, on a question respecting which the Bill to which 
 I have referred is necessarily silent, y I allude to the 
 nature and extent of the control which the popular 
 branch of the united legislature will be admitted to exer- 
 cise over the conduct of the executive government, and 
 the continuance in the public service of its principal 
 officers. But it is evidently impossible to reduce into 
 the form of a positive enactment a constitutional prin- 
 ciple of this nature. The importance of maintaining the 
 utmost possible harmony between the policy of the 
 legislature and of the executive government admits of 
 no question, and it wiU of course be your anxious en- 
 deavour to call to your counsels and to employ in the 
 public service those persons who, by their position and 
 character, have obtained the general confidence and 
 esteem of the inhabitants of the province. 
 
 The military defence of the Canadas is another subject 
 of common interest to both provinces, on which it is 
 necessary that you should be apprized of the views of 
 Her Majesty's Government. In the correspondence 
 between Lord Glenelg and Sir John Colborne, and espe- 
 cially in the despatches of the latter, you will find a full 
 discussion of the plans which have been devised for that 
 purpose. Amongst them is a scheme for extended for- 
 tifications, to be erected and maintained at an expense, 
 which it is not evident will be compensated by any 
 equivalent advantage. For the present, at least, not- 
 withstanding the deference so justly due to the opinions 
 of that distinguished Officer, the Mnisters of the Crown 
 cannot recommend the adoption of this scheme. On the 
 other hand, the plan suggested from this country and 
 sanctioned by Sir John Colborne, of creating military 
 settlements on the frontier, on the principle of veteran
 
 EMIGRATION AND THE LAND QUESTION 259 
 
 battalions, appears to the Ministers of tlie Crown as at 
 once the most effective and the most economical plan of 
 defence which could be pursued.^ Measures will be taken, 
 with the least possible delay, for carrjdng it into effect ; 
 and in the mean time you will discourage and prevent, 
 as far as may be compatible with the public safety, either 
 the augmentation, or the continuance on foot of the 
 volunteers, or the sedentary corps, which were embodied 
 during the last winter as a reinforcement to the regular 
 army. On all subjects of this nature, however, you wiU 
 consult Sir Richard Jackson,^ whose judgment and military 
 knowledge will be of the greatest service to you. 
 
 The only topic which it remains to notice, as affecting 
 the two Canadian provinces alike, is that of raising an 
 emigration fund from the proceeds of the sales of the 
 Crown lands. Unfortunately, the very elaborate report 
 communicated to me by Lord Durham on this subject, 
 serves but to confirm, and to place in a still clearer light, 
 the difficulties by which, as we were previously aware, the 
 promotion of this most important object is obstructed. 
 Such is the extent of land alienated, and so inconsiderable 
 the proportion which still remains vested in the Crown, 
 that the hope of rendering any effectual aid to emigration 
 by the sale of such lands, cannot at present be reasonably 
 entertained. The necessary preliminary to the introduc- 
 tion of any such system, would be the resumption of the 
 large tracts of land held by grantees in a barren and un- 
 profitable state. This could be effected only by the im- 
 position of a tax on uncleared land, and by enactments for 
 the collection of that tax, to insure the due execution of 
 the law. In the Lower Province there exists, at the 
 present time, no authority by which such a tax could be 
 imposed. In the Upper Province it is hardly to be 
 expected that, in the present state of affairs, the diffi- 
 culties which encompass the subject will be effectually 
 overcome. Amongst the benefits to be anticipated from 
 the union of the provinces, it is not the least important 
 that the united legislature would be able to act upon 
 subjects of this nature with a great comparative freedom 
 from the undue bias of local interests, and with a large view 
 to the permanent improvement of the provinces. 
 
 ^ Nothing seema to have been done in this matter. 
 2 The Commander-in-Chief of the forces, who, after Sydenham's 
 death, carried on the government till the arrival of Sir Charles Bagot. 
 
 17—2
 
 2m RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Such being the principal subjects of common interest 
 to the two provinces, to which your attention will be 
 innnocliately called, 1 have next to notice those which will 
 relate exclusively to the province of Lower Canada. 
 
 The Act which has been passed in the last session of 
 Parliament, in amendment of the Act of the first year of Her 
 ^Majesty's reign, providing for the temporary administra- 
 tion of the Government of Lower Canada, will relieve you 
 and the Special Council from many of the impediments 
 by which your immediate predecessor has been en- 
 countered in the attempt to promote the internal interests 
 of the province. Sir John Colborne's despatches, and 
 especially that of the 15th of March, 1839,^ have pointed 
 out very clearly many objects of great public utility, 
 which he was unable to advance, in consequence of the 
 restrictions under which the legislative powers confided 
 to him and to the Special Council were exercised. To 
 these your attention will of course be given. Much as the 
 suspension of constitutional government in Lower Canada 
 is to be regretted, it mil not be without a very consider- 
 able compensation, if, during the interval, arrangements 
 should be maturely and wisely made for securing to the 
 people at large the benefit of those social institutions 
 from which, in former times, the thoughts of the local 
 legislature were diverted, by the controversies which then 
 agitated the provincial society. 
 
 The establishment of Municipal Institutions for the 
 management of all local affairs, will be among the most 
 important of the subjects to which your attention will be 
 called. On this subject I would refer you to the report 
 of the Earl of Durham, and the Appendix marked C, 
 by which it is accompanied. Although the commis- 
 sioners whom his Lordship appointed to investigate the 
 question were unable, from the shortness of the time, to 
 submit to him any conclusive recommendations respecting 
 it, the information which they collected will prove of 
 much advantage to you. On the importance of such 
 institutions I need not enlarge. Your acquaintance with 
 the system of municipal government in this country, wall 
 point out to you that there is no mode in which local 
 affairs can be so properly administered, and that they 
 form, at the same time, the most appropriate and effec- 
 
 1 Colborne's despatches for 1838 are found in Accounts and Papers^ 
 1839, vol. xxxii., and for 1839 in Accounts and Papers, 1840, vol. xxxi-
 
 FINANCES OF UPPER CANADA 261 
 
 tual means of training the great body of the people to the 
 higher branches of legislation. 
 
 The promotion of education among ail classes of the 
 people will also engage your earnest attention. On this 
 subject I can add nothing to the information afforded by 
 the reports of the Earl of Gosford,^ and his colleagues, 
 and of the Earl of Durham. It will afford Her Majesty's 
 Government the most sincere satisfaction to co-operate 
 with you in any measures which you may adopt for the 
 furtherance of tliis important object. 
 
 In any view which can now be taken of the affairs of 
 British North America, it is obvious that those of Upper 
 Canada must occupy a very prominent place. I am per- 
 suaded that the zeal for the public good, and the superi- 
 ority to considerations of a nature merely personal, by 
 which the present Lieutenant-Governor has been distin- 
 guished during his long career of public service, will 
 obviate the risk of any dissatisfaction being entertained 
 by him, if you should find it necessary, for a time, to 
 assume in person the administration of the government of 
 Upper Canada, and during that period, to supersede him 
 in the discharge of his functions. In the prosecution, 
 therefore, of your endeavour to obtain as much agreement 
 as possible in the plan to be hereafter submitted to the 
 Imperial Parliament, you will not hesitate to repair to 
 Toronto. When there, you would, of course, avail your- 
 self of the experience which Sir George Ai"thur has ac- 
 quired, and of the assistance which he will have both the 
 ability and the disposition to afford you. 
 
 The first topic which will engage your attention in 
 Upper Canada is the present financial state of the pro- 
 vince. This has been most elaborately explained in the 
 Lieutenant-Governor's recent despatches. Embarrass- 
 ing as the immediate state of the question is, it is yet 
 gratifying to learn from those communications, that the 
 difficulties in which the provincial treasury is involved, 
 originate in causes which do not affect the wealth or the 
 ultimate resources of the province. Having undertaken 
 great internal improvements, especially those of the 
 Well and and Rideau canals,^ with inadequate resources, 
 
 ^ An Irish nobloman sent out to Canada as High Commissioner in 
 1885, and soon afterwards appointed Governor, 
 
 2 The Welland Canal connects Lalces Erie and Ontario, thus over- 
 coming the obstacle to navigation presented by Niagara Falls. Its
 
 262 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 the works have been very imperfectly completed, and the 
 returns are absorbed in a succession of repairs, which 
 would not have been required if the canals had been 
 originally formed with a greater command of capital. 
 These works having also been effected by borrowed 
 money, the loans have been raised at a higher rate of 
 interest than would have been required if the credit of 
 the province had not been diminished by the absorption 
 of its revenue in such undertakings. Further, it appears 
 that the provincial treasury might have been recruited 
 with no perceptible addition to the public burdens, if it 
 had been possible to increase, to a moderate extent, 
 the duties of import on goods introduced for con- 
 sumption. But, under the combined influence of these 
 causes, the expenditure has at length far exceeded 
 the receipt ; and some measures for reinstating the 
 provincial treasury in a secure condition have become 
 indispensable.^ 
 
 Her Majesty's Government willingly acknowledge the 
 great advantage which will arise from extending to Upper 
 Canada such aid as the revenue of Great Britain could 
 afford, consistently with a due regard to the interest of 
 this Idngdom, and of the other members of the empire at 
 large. This is, however, a subject for distinct considera- 
 tion. For the present I shall confine my attention to the 
 remedial measures adopted by the local legislature in 
 their last session. 
 
 Of these, the first was the raising a loan by Government 
 debentures, which was sanctioned by a Bill, entitled " An 
 Act to afford further facilities to negociate debentures for 
 the completion of certain works." 
 
 This Bill was reserved for the signification of Her 
 Majesty's pleasure, and has been confirmed by the Queen 
 in Council. 
 
 early construction was marked by unscrupulous jobbery. (See Kings- 
 ford, X. 245-250, 333.) The Rideau Canal, or rather system of canals, 
 was built between 1817 and 1832, connecting Kingston and Ottawa by 
 means of the Cataraqui and Rideau Rivers. It was designed mainly as 
 a military work, to give an alternative route from Toronto to Montreal, 
 should the Americans, as in 1813, control for a time the hne of the 
 St. Lawrence. (See Kingsford, x. 221-222.) 
 
 1 " The province was on the verge of bankruptcy. The annual 
 revenue was £78,000 ; the interest on the debt, £65,000 ; the expenses 
 of the Government, £55,000; so there was an annual deficiency of 
 £42,000" (Kingsford, x. 507).
 
 BILLS REJECTED BY THE CROWN 263 
 
 The second financial measure of the year was the enact- 
 ment of a Bill, authorizing the issue of treasury notes to 
 the amount of £250,000 sterhng, for £1 each. This Bill 
 has also been reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's 
 pleasure. I regret to state that Her Majesty cannot be 
 advised to confirm it. The issue of such an amount of 
 small inconvertible paper money, as a resource for sustain- 
 ing the public credit, is not to be justified even by the 
 present exigency of public affairs. The effect of the 
 measure on the currency and monetary transactions of 
 Upper Canada, and on the value of private property 
 throughout the province, must be such as to counter- 
 balance any advantage which could be obtained from 
 this temporary relief. If the credit of the country can 
 be made available to sustain for a time the transactions 
 of the local treasury in a less hazardous and objectionable 
 form, you will accede to any plan of that nature. It is 
 only as a temporary expedient that any such resource 
 will be requisite ; and it is of great importance to the 
 future welfare of the province, that the scheme devised 
 to meet the pressure of the passing day should not be such 
 as to preclude the early return to a more salutary course 
 of financial operations. 
 
 A third measure of the same general character has been 
 adopted by the local legislature, to provide for the in- 
 demnity of the sufferers by hostile incursions from the 
 United States. The Bill for this purpose, entitled " An 
 Act to ascertain and provide for the payment of all just 
 claims arising from the late rebellion and invasions of 
 this province," has also been reserved for the signification 
 of Her Majesty's pleasure. I fear that Her Majesty's 
 assent to this Bill, in its present form, cannot be given. 
 The objection is not to the measure itself, in the pro- 
 priety of which Her Majesty's GJovernment entirely con- 
 cur ; but we think it impossible to advise The Queen to 
 assent to an Act, which, if so sanctioned, would, by the 
 terms of the preamble, convey a pledge from Her 
 Majesty that the charge of this indemnity should be 
 ultimately borne by the British treasury. The principle 
 involved in this declaration is of too much importance 
 to be thus incidentally recognised, even supposing it to 
 be right that it should be admitted at all. Neither could 
 Her Majesty properly affirm, in so solemn a manner, her 
 acquiescence in this claim on the revenue of this country,
 
 264 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 unless it had hvvn previously sanctioned by Parliament, — 
 a sanction which has not been, and which could not 
 hitherto have been, obtained. If a similar Bill should be 
 passed, with, the omission of the preamble, you will readily 
 concur in the enactment of it.^ 
 
 The Legislature of Upper Canada have also passed a 
 Bill, which has in Uke maimer been reserved, for settling 
 a ci\il list on Her Majesty in exchange for the Crown 
 revenues of the province. It is with sincere regret that 
 I am compelled to announce that this is also a measure 
 from__which, in its present form, the assent of the Crown 
 must be wdtlilield. The effect of it is to exclude from the 
 protection of the grant the clergy, who at present derive 
 their maintenance from the Crown revenue, and of whom 
 the great majority have resorted to Upper Canada on the 
 assurance that their stipends would be thus secured to 
 them. Now as this charge has been lawfully fixed upon 
 the Crown revenue, and as the Crown has no other re- 
 source from which it could be paid, it is impossible to 
 accept the proposed civil list on such terms. Anxious 
 as Her Majesty's Government are to defer to the repre- 
 sentatives of the people of Upper Canada in all matters 
 connected with the internal government of that province, 
 they cannot consent to a measiu-e which would practically 
 involve a vio]ation of the pledged faith of the Crown. We 
 cannot decline the obhgation of maintaining the rights 
 of the clergy in question ; and I can only express my hope 
 that the local legislature may concur with the JVIinisters 
 of the Crown as to the propriety of re-enacting this Bill, 
 with the addition of the charge necessary for the main- 
 tenance of those rights. The burthen will cease with 
 the lives of the present incumbents, and is now in the 
 course of a progressive diminution. 
 
 The last of the reserved Bills of the late Session has 
 reference to the long controverted subject of the clergy 
 reserves. To this Bill the Royal assent could not have 
 lawfully been given, tmtil it had been laid for 30 days 
 before either House of Parliament. It was not until the 
 15th August that I received from the Lieutenant-Governor 
 the document necessary to enable me to fulfil the requisi- 
 tion of the Constitutional Act of 179L It was, therefore, 
 
 ^ Such an Act, confined to Upper Canada, was passed in the first 
 session of the Legislature of the United Provinces. For the EebeUion 
 Losses Bill in Lower Canada, see p. 813.
 
 CLERGY RESERVES 265 
 
 impossible that the Bill should be finally enacted by the 
 Queen in Council until after the commencement of the 
 Parliamentary Session of 1840. But had this difficulty 
 not arisen, there were other motives which would have 
 eJEfectually prevented the acceptance of this measure by 
 Her Majesty. Parliament delegated to the local legisla- 
 ture the right of appropriating the clergy reserves, and 
 the effect of the Bill is to retransfer this duty from the 
 local legislature to Parliament, with a particular restric- 
 tion. I am advised by the law officers of the Crown that 
 this is an unconstitutional proceeding. It is certainly 
 unusual and inconvenient. Her Majesty cannot assume 
 that Parliament will accept this delegated office, and if it 
 should not be so accepted the confirmation of the Bill 
 would be productive of serious prejudice, and of no sub- 
 stantial advantage. It would postpone indefinitely the 
 settlement of a question which it much concerns the wel- 
 fare of the provinces to bring to a close ; besides I can- 
 not admit that there exist in this country greater facilities 
 than in Upper Canada for the adjustment of this con- 
 troversy ; on the contrary, the provincial legislature will 
 bring to the decision of it an extent of accurate informa- 
 tion as to the wants and general opinions of society in 
 that country, in which Parliament is unavoidably de- 
 ficient. For all these reasons Her Majesty will decline 
 to give her assent to this Bill.^ 
 
 I have thus adverted to the principal topics which will 
 engage your attention as Governor-General of British 
 North America, in reference to the two Canadas, omitting 
 many minor questions which will form the subject of 
 future correspondence, and passing by for the present all 
 that relates to the affairs of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
 and Prince Edward Island. I reserve these for considera- 
 tion hereafter. 
 
 Finally, I am commanded to direct that in all the pro- 
 vinces of British North America you will inculcate upon 
 the minds of The Queen's subjects Her Majesty's fixed 
 determination to maintain the connexion now subsisting 
 
 ^ Sydenham succeeded in getting a J5ill passed in the last session of 
 the Legislature of Upper Canada, dividing the reserves among tho 
 various recognized religious bodies in the province. This was declared 
 ultra vires by the law oflicers of the Crown in England, but a similar 
 measure was passed by the Imperial Parliament. The (]uestion was 
 not finally settled till 1854, when the reserves were secularized, with 
 compensation for liolders of life interests.
 
 2GG RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 botwiHMi tliom and the United Kingdom, and to exercise 
 the higii authority with which She has been invested by 
 the favour of Divine Providence, for the promotion of 
 their happiness and the security of her dominions.^ 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) J. Russell. 
 
 Downing Street, 
 Uth October, 1839. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 It appears from Sir George Arthur's despatches 
 that you may encounter much difficulty in subduing the 
 excitement which prevails on the question of what is 
 called " Responsible Government." I have to instruct 
 you, however, to refuse any explanation which may be 
 construed to imply an acquiescence in the petitions and 
 addresses upon this subject. I cannot better commence 
 this despatch than by a reference to the resolutions of 
 both houses of Parliament, of the 28th April and 9th May, 
 in the year 1837. 
 
 The Assembly of Lower Canada having repeatedly 
 pressed this point, Her Majesty's confidential advisers at 
 that period thought it necessary not only to explain their 
 views in the communications of the Secretary of State, 
 but expressly called for the opinion of Parliament on the 
 subject. The CrowTi and the two houses of Lords and 
 Commons having thus decisively pronounced a judgment 
 upon the question, you will consider yourself precluded 
 from entertaining any proposition on the subject. 
 
 It does not appear, indeed, that any very definite 
 meaning is generally agreed upon by those who call 
 themselves the advocates of this principle ; but its very 
 vagueness is a source of delusion, and if at all encouraged, 
 would prove the cause of embarrassment and danger. 
 
 The constitution of England, after long struggles and 
 
 ^ On May 3, 1841, Lord John Russell again wrote to Lord Sydenham 
 (Parliame7itary Accounts and Papers, 1841, vol. iii. ; Corresjwndence 
 Relative to the Affairs of Canada, p. 36) : " In any measures which 
 may be adopted it must be taken for granted that Her Majesty persists 
 in the determination to maintain at all hazards Her Royal Authority 
 in Canada. Neither the honour of Her Majesty's Crown, nor the 
 support due to Her loyal subjects in British North America, nor the 
 provident care of the interests of the Empire at large, would permit any 
 deviation from this fixed principle of British policy."
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE THEORY 267 
 
 alternate success, has settled into a form of government 
 in which the prerogative of the Crown is undisputed, but 
 is never exercised without advice. Hence the exercise 
 only is questioned, and however the use of the authority 
 may be condemned, the authority itself remains un- 
 touched. 
 
 This is the practical solution of a great problem, the 
 result of a contest which from 1640 to 1690 shook the 
 monarchy, and disturbed the peace of the country. 
 
 But if we seek to apply such a practice to a colony, we 
 shall at once find ourselves at fault. The power for which 
 a minister is responsible in England, is not his own power, 
 but the power of the Crown, of which he is for the time 
 the organ. It is obvious that the executive councillor 
 of a colony is in a situation totally different. The Governor 
 under whom he serves, receives his orders from the Crown 
 of England. But can the colonial council be the advisers 
 of the Crown of England ? Evidently not, for the Crown 4" 
 
 has other advisers, for the same functions, and with 
 superior authority. 
 
 It may happen, therefore, that the Governor receives at 
 one and the same time instructions from the Queen, and 
 advice from his executive council, totally at variance with 
 each other. If he is to obey his instructions from Eng- 
 land, the parallel of constitutional responsibility entirely 
 fails ; if, on the other hand, he is to follow the advice of 
 his council, he is no longer a subordinate officer, but an 
 independent sovereign. 
 
 There are some cases in which the force of these objec- 
 tions is so manifest, that those who at first made no dis- 
 tinction between the constitution of the United Kingdom, 
 and that of the colonies, admit their strength. I allude 
 to the questions of foreign war, and international rela- 
 tions, whether of trade or diplomacy. It is now said that 
 internal government is alone intended. 
 
 But there are some cases of internal government, in 
 which the honour of the Crown or the faith of Parliament, 
 or the safety of the state, are so seriously involved, that 
 it would not be possible for Her Majesty to delegate her 
 authority to a ministry in a colony. 
 
 I will put for illustration some of the cases which have 
 occurred in that very province where the petition for a 
 responsible executive first arose — I mean Lower Canada. 
 
 During the time when a large majority of the assembly
 
 268 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 oi" Lt)wor Canada followed M. Papincau as their leader, 
 it was obviously the aim of that gentleman to discourage 
 all who did their duty to the Crown within the province, 
 and to deter all who should resort to Canada with British 
 habits and feelings from without. I need not say that 
 it would have been impossible for any minister to sup- 
 port, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the 
 measures which a ministry, headed by M. Papineau, 
 would have imposed upon the Governor of Lower Canada ; 
 British officers punished for doing their duty ; British 
 emigrants defrauded of their property ; British merchants 
 discouraged in their lawful pursuits, — would have loudly 
 appealed to Parliament against the Canadian ministry, 
 and would have demanded protection. 
 
 Let us suppose the Assembly as then constituted, to 
 have been sitting when Sir John Colborne suspended two 
 of the judges.^ Would any councillor, possessing the con- 
 fidence of the Assembly, have made himself responsible 
 for such an act ? And yet the very safety of the province 
 depended on its adoption. Nay, the very orders of which 
 your Excellency is yourself the bearer, respecting Messrs. 
 Bedard and Panet,^ would never be adopted, or put in 
 execution by a ministry depending for existence on a 
 majority led by M. Papineau. 
 
 Nor can anyone take upon himself to say that such 
 cases will not again occur. The principle once sanc- 
 tioned, no one can say how soon its appHcation might 
 be dangerous, or even dishonourable, while all will 
 agree that to recall the power thus conceded would be 
 impossible. 
 
 t^Tiile I thus see insuperable objections to the adoption 
 of the principle as it has been stated, I see little or none 
 to the practical views of colonial government recom- 
 mended by Lord Durham, as I understand them. The 
 Queen's Government have no desire to thwart the repre- 
 sentative assemblies of British North America in their 
 measures of reform and improvement. They have no 
 wish to make those provinces the resource for patronage 
 at home. They are earnestly intent on giving to the 
 talent and character of leading persons in the colonies, 
 advantages similar to those which talent and character, 
 
 ^ These two gentlemen had been suspended in 1838 by Sir John 
 Colborne for factious sympathy with the rebels. In 1841 they were 
 reinstated by the home Government. (Kingsford, x. 188-191.)
 
 ENGLISH CONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICE 269 
 
 employed in the public service, obtain in the United 
 Kingdom. Her Majesty has no desire to maintain any 
 system of policy among her North American subjects 
 which opinion condemns. In receiving the Queen's com- 
 mands, therefore, to protest against any declaration at 
 variance with the honour of the Crown, and the unity of 
 the empire, you are at the same time instructed to 
 announce Her Majesty's gracious intention to look to the 
 affectionate attachment of her people in North America, 
 as the best security for permanent dominion. 
 
 It is necessary for this purpose that no official miscon- 
 duct should be screened by Her Majesty's representative 
 in the provinces ; and that no private interests should be 
 allowed to compete with the general good. 
 
 Your Excellency is fully in possession of the principles 
 which have guided Her Majesty's advisers on this subject ; 
 and you must be aware that there is no surer way of 
 earning the approbation of The Queen, than by main- 
 taining the harmony of the executive with the legislative 
 authorities. 
 
 While I have thus cautioned you against any declara- 
 tion from which dangerous consequences might hereafter 
 flow, and instructed you as to the general line of your 
 conduct, it may be said that I have not drawn any specific 
 line beyond which the power of the Governor on the one 
 hand, and the privileges of the Assembly on the other, 
 ought not to extend.^ But this must be the case in any 
 mixed government. Every political constitution in which 
 different bodies share the supreme power, is only enabled 
 to exist by the forbearance of those among whom this 
 power is distributed. In this respect the example of 
 England may well be imitated. The sovereign using the 
 prerogative of the Crown to the utmost extent, and the 
 House of Commons exerting its power of the purse, to 
 carry all its resolutions into immediate effect, would pro- 
 duce confusion in the country in less than a twelvemonth. 
 So in a colony : the Governor thwarting every legitimate 
 proposition of the Assembly ; and the Assembly con- 
 tinually recurring to its power of refusing supplies, can 
 but disturb all political relations, embarrass trade, and 
 retard the prosperity of the people. Each must exercise 
 a wise moderation. The Governor must only oppose the 
 wishes of the Assembly where the honour of the Crown, 
 or the interests of the empire are deeply concerned ; and
 
 270 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 the AssoniMy must be ready to modify some of its 
 measures for tlie sake of harmony, and from a reverent 
 attachment to the authority of Great Britain. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) J. Russell. 
 
 Downing Street, 
 
 16th October, 1839. 
 
 I am desirous of directing your attention to the tenure 
 on which public offices in the gift of the Crown appear 
 to be held throughout the British Colonies. I find that 
 the governor himself and every person serving under him 
 are appointed during the royal pleasure, but with this 
 important difference. The Governor's commission is, in 
 fact, revoked whenever the interests of the public service 
 are supposed to require such a change in the administra- 
 tion of local affairs. But the commissions of all other 
 public officers are very rarely indeed recalled, except for 
 positive misconduct. I cannot learn that during the 
 present or the two last reigns, a single instance has oc- 
 curred of a change in the subordinate colonial officers, 
 except in cases of death or resignation, incapacity or 
 misconduct. This system of converting a tenure at 
 pleasure into a tenure for life, originated probably in the 
 practice, which formerly prevailed, of selecting all the 
 higher class of colonial functionaries from persons who, 
 at the time of their appointment, were resident in this 
 country ; and, amongst other motives which afforded such 
 persons a virtual security for the continued possession of 
 their places, it was not the least considerable, that, except 
 on those terms, they were unwilhng to incur the risk and 
 expense of transferring their residence to remote, and 
 often to unhealthy climates. But the habit which has 
 obtained of late years of preferring, as far as possible, 
 for places of trust in the colonies, persons resident there, 
 has taken away the strongest motive which could thus 
 be alleged in favour of a practice to which there are many 
 objections of the greatest weight. It is time, therefore, 
 that a different course should be followed, and the object 
 of my present communication is to announce to you the 
 rules which will be hereafter observed on this subject in 
 the province of Lower Canada.
 
 TENURE OF PUBLIC OFFICES 271 
 
 You will understand, and will cause it to be made 
 generally laiown, that hereafter the tenure of colonial 
 offices held during Her Majesty's pleasure, will not be 
 regarded as equivalent to a tenure during good behaviour ; 
 but that not only will such officers be called upon to 
 retire from the public service as often as any sufficient 
 motives of public policy may suggest the expediency of 
 that measure, but that a change in the person of the 
 governor will be considered as a sufficient reason for any 
 alterations which his successor may deem it expedient to 
 make in the list of public functionaries, subject of course 
 to the future confirmation of the sovereign. 
 
 These remarks do not extend to judicial offices, nor are 
 they meant to apply to places which are altogether 
 ministerial, and which do not devolve upon the holders 
 of them duties, in the right discharge of which the char- 
 acter and policy of the government are directly involved. 
 They are intended to apply rather to the heads of depart- 
 ments than to persons serving as clerks or in similar 
 capacities under them. Neither do they extend to officers 
 in the service of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. 
 The functionaries who will be chiefly, though not exclu- 
 sively, affected by them, are the Colonial Secretary, the 
 Treasurer, or Receiver-General, the Surveyor-General, the 
 Attorney and Solicitor-General, the Sheriff or Provost 
 Marshal, and other officers, who, under different designa- 
 tions from these, are entrusted with the same or similar 
 duties. To this list must also be added the members 
 of the council, especially in those colonies in which 
 the Legislative and Executive Councils are distinct 
 bodies. 
 
 The application of these rules to officers to be hereafter 
 appointed will be attended with no practical difficulty. 
 It may not be equally easy to enforce them in the case 
 of existing officers, and especially of those who may have 
 left this country for the express purpose of accepting the 
 offices they at present fill. Every reasonable indulgence 
 must be shown for the expectations which such persons 
 have been encouraged to form. But even in these in- 
 stances it will be necessary that the right of enforcing 
 these regulations should be distinctly maintained in prac- 
 tice, as well as in theory, as often as the public good may 
 clearly demand the enforcement of them. It may not 
 be unadvisable to compensate any such officers for their
 
 272 RESrONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 disappoint iiKMit, oven by pecuniary grants, when it may 
 appear unjust to dispense Avith their services without 
 such an indemnity. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) J. Russell. 
 
 Government House, Montreal, 
 18th November, 1839. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that 
 having summoned the Special Council by proclamation 
 to meet on INIonday, the 11th instant, I then submitted 
 to them the question of the re-union of the two provinces 
 of Upper and Lower Canada, and solicited their opinion 
 respecting it. 
 
 On Thursday, the 14th instant, I received from that 
 body the address of which, and of my answer, I have the 
 honour to enclose copies ; and I likewise transmit an 
 extract from the journals, from which your Lordship will 
 learn their proceedings. 
 
 I beg your Lordship to remark, that the members com- 
 posing the Special Council remain the same as during the 
 administration of my predecessor. It may be necessary 
 hereafter, in the exercise of my discretion, to make some 
 alterations, with a view to increase the efficiency of that 
 body ; but I felt, that as the opinions of Her Majesty's 
 Government in regard to the union are well known, it 
 was extremely desirable that I should, if possible, submit 
 the consideration of that important question to a Council 
 in whose selection I had myself had no voice. 
 
 It appeared to me that to secure due weight in the 
 mother country to the judgment of a body so constituted, 
 it was indispensable to avoid even the possibility of an 
 imputation that I had selected for its members those only 
 whose opinions coincided with my own. 
 
 I had moreover every reason to believe, from the 
 motives which guided my predecessor in his choice, that 
 the Council contains a very fair representation of the 
 state of feeling in the different districts of the province. 
 
 For these reasons I determined on making no altera- 
 tion whatever ; and it is with great satisfaction that I 
 can now refer to the opinions of this body adopted almost 
 unanimously. Their views as to the urgency of the union,
 
 OPINION IN LOWER CANABA 273 
 
 and the advantages likely to result from it to the province, 
 are set forth in their address in terms so forcible as to 
 leave me nothing to say with reference to their opinion. 
 But I must add, that it is my decided conviction, grounded 
 upon such other opportunities as I have enjoyed since my 
 arrival in this country of ascertaining the state of public 
 feeling, that the speedy adoption of that measure by 
 Parliament is indispensable to the future peace and 
 prosperity of this province. 
 
 All parties look with extreme dissatisfaction at the 
 present state of government. Those of British origin, 
 attached by feeling and education to a constitutional form 
 of Government, although they acquiesced at the time in 
 the establishment of arbitrary power, as a refuge from a 
 yet worse despotism, submit with impatience to its con- 
 tinuance, and regret the loss, through no fault of their 
 own, of what they consider as their birthright. Those 
 of the French Canadians who remained loyal to their 
 Sovereign and true to British connexion share the same 
 feelings. Wliilst among those who are less well-affected 
 or more easily deceived, the suspension of all constitu- 
 tional rights affords to reckless and unprincipled agitators 
 a constant topic of excitement. 
 
 All parties, therefore, without exception, demand a 
 change. On the nature of that change there exists un- 
 doubtedly some difference of opinion. 
 
 In a country so lately convulsed, and where passions 
 are still so much excited, extreme opinions cannot but 
 exist ; and accordingly, while some persons advocate an 
 immediate return to the former constitution of this pro- 
 vince, others propose either the entire exclusion from 
 political privileges of all of French origin, or the partial 
 dismemberment of the province, with the view of con- 
 ferring on one portion a representative system, while 
 maintaining in the other a despotism. 
 
 I have observed, however, that the advocates of these 
 widely different opinions have generally admitted them 
 to be their aspirations, rather than measures which could 
 practically be adopted, and have been unable to suggest 
 any course except the union, by which that at which 
 they aim, namely, constitutional government for them- 
 selves, could be permanently and safely established. 
 
 There exists, too, even amongst these persons, a strong 
 and prevailing desire that the Imperial Legislature should 
 
 18
 
 ^74 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 take the settlement of Canadian affairs at once into its 
 own hands rather than that it should be delayed by a 
 reference to indi\adual opinions, or to the schemes which 
 may be put forward by different sections of local parties. 
 The large majority, however, of those whose opinions 
 I have had the opportunity of learning, both of British 
 and French origin, and of those, too, whose character 
 and station entitle them to the greatest authority, advo- 
 cate warmly the establishment of the union, and that 
 upon terms of perfect fairness, not merely to the two 
 provinces, but to the two races within this province. 
 Of the extent to which this feeling, with regard to the 
 upper province, is carried, your Lordship will find a 
 most conclusive proof in the resolution of the Special 
 Council respecting the debt of Upper Canada. By this 
 resolution a large sum, owing by that province on account 
 of public works of a general nature, is proposed to be 
 charged on the joint revenues of the United Province. 
 Upon other details of the arrangement the same feeling 
 prevails. It would be, however, useless for me to trouble 
 your Lordship %vith respect to them, until I have had the 
 opportunity of ascertaining the views and opinions enter- 
 tained by the people of Upper Canada. If, however, as 
 I trust, the principle of re-union should meet with their 
 assent, I am of opinion that it can only be in consequence 
 of demands of an unwarrantable character upon their part, 
 that difficulty will arise in settling the principal terms. 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) C. Poulett Thomson. 
 
 Enclosure 1. 
 
 To his Excellency the Right Honourable Charles Poulett 
 Thomson, one of Her Majesty's most Honourable 
 Privy Council, Governor-General of British North 
 America, and Captain-General, and Governor-in- 
 Chief, in and over the Provinces of Lower Canada 
 and Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunsmck, 
 and the Island of Prince Edward, and Vice-Admiral 
 of the same. 
 
 May it please your Excellency, 
 
 We, Her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the 
 Special Council for the affairs of Lower Canada, at a 
 meeting convened by your Excellency, under the authority
 
 PROPOSED TERMS OF UNION 275 
 
 and in pursuance of the statute in this behalf provided, 
 beg leave respectfully to return to your Excellency our 
 thanks for your considerate care of the interests of this 
 province, in having called our attention to Her Majesty's 
 gracious message to both Houses of the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment, relative to the reunion of the provinces of Upper 
 and Lower Canada, upon which important subject your 
 Excellency has been pleased to desire the opinion of the 
 Special Council. 
 
 In conformity with the desire of your Excellency, we 
 have applied our deliberate consideration to the various 
 complex interests and objects involved in the measure 
 of reuniting the two provinces, and we most heartily 
 express our humble gratitude to Her Majesty, for having 
 granted her high sanction to a measure, which from our 
 local knowledge and the experience we have had of the 
 government of these provinces, and of their past and 
 present political state, we deem to be essential to their 
 future peace and welfare, and for the good, constitutional, 
 and efficient government of them, under the protecting 
 care and authority of Her Majesty, and the adoption of 
 which we are intimately convinced has become of indis- 
 pensable and urgent necessity. 
 
 In considering this contemplated measure, we have 
 directed our attention to a few of the more prominent 
 and important provisions, fit, as we conceive, to be em- 
 braced in it ; and the views entertained by us on them, 
 as well as on the measure itself, we have embodied in 
 certain resolutions, which we have now the honour 
 humbly to submit to your Excellency, as containing our 
 opinion on the important subject, respecting which it has 
 pleased your Excellency to consult us. 
 
 (Signed) J. Stuart, Chairman. 
 
 Special Council, Montreal, 
 
 Uth November, 1839. 
 
 Special Council, 
 Wednesday, loth November, 1839. 
 
 Resolved — That under existing circumstances, in order 
 to provide adequately for the peace and tranquillity, 
 and the good, constitutional, and efficient govern- 
 ment of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, 
 
 18—2
 
 270 RESrONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 the reunion of these provinces under one legislature, 
 in the opinion of this Council, has become of indis- 
 pensable and urgent necessity. 
 
 Resolved — That the declared determination of Her 
 Majesty, conveyed in Her gracious message to Parlia- 
 ment to reunite the provinces of Upper and Lower 
 Canada, is in accordance with the opinion entertained 
 by this Council, and receives their humble and ready 
 acquiescence. 
 
 Resolved — That among the principal enactments, which, 
 in the opinion of this Council, ought to make part 
 of the Imperial Act for reuniting the provinces, it is 
 expedient and desirable that a suitable civil list 
 should be provided for securing the independence of 
 the judges, and maintaining the executive govern- 
 ment in the exercise of its necessary and indispensable 
 functions. 
 
 Resolved — That regard being had to the nature of the 
 public debt of Upper Canada, and the objects for 
 which principally it was contracted, namely, the 
 improvement of internal communications, aHke useful 
 and beneficial for both provinces, it would be just 
 and reasonable, in the opinion of this Council, that 
 such part of said debt, as has been contracted for 
 this object, and not for defraying expenses of a local 
 nature, should be chargeable on the revenues of both 
 provinces.^ 
 
 Resolved — That the adjustment and settlement of the 
 terms of the reunion of the two provinces, may, in 
 the opinion of this Council, with all confidence be 
 submitted to the wisdom and justice of the Imperial 
 Parliament, under the full assurance that provisions 
 of the nature of those already mentioned, as well as 
 such others as the measure of reunion may require, 
 will receive due consideration. 
 
 Resolved — That in the opinion of this Council, it is most 
 expedient with a view to the security of Her Majesty's 
 North American provinces, and the speedy cessation 
 of the enormous expense now incurred by the parent 
 state for the defence of Upper and Lower Canada, 
 that the present temporary legislature of this pro- 
 vince should, as soon as practicable, be succeeded by 
 
 1 Especially the Welland Canal and that at Cornwall, which had 
 been left unfinished through lack of funds.
 
 OPINION IN LOWER CANADA 277 
 
 a permanent legislature, in which the people of these 
 two provinces may be adequately represented, and 
 their constitutional rights exercised and main- 
 tained. 
 
 Toronto, 
 20th November, 1839. 
 
 ^ I have succeeded in Lower Canada in far less time 
 and with greater ease than I could have expected from 
 Sir John Colborne's account to me of the state of feel- 
 ing, especially in his own council. The fact is, that his 
 council ran riot, and did not know how to proceed. I 
 have given them my opinion strongly, at the same time 
 that I expressed my willingness to hear and give due 
 weight to theirs. This course has shortened business (for 
 there is a strong wish to be guided by the Home Govern- 
 ment), and produced unanimity. So far, therefore, as the 
 Lower Province is concerned, I look upon the Union as 
 settled. The decision, too, I have reason to know, gives 
 the greatest satisfaction to the Province generally, and 
 nearly all are prepared to accept the measure, if it can be 
 carried through Parliament, with the utmost cordiality. 
 The fact is, that all parties there are dead-sick of the 
 present state of things, and desire a return to Constitu- 
 tional Government. Of course the extremes have their 
 different crotchets for arriving at this end. The ultra 
 French desire an immediate return to the old Constitu- 
 tion. The ultra-British the disfranchisement of the 
 French Canadians. But even they have been satisfied, 
 I believe, by a little management and a good deal of 
 firmness, that both were equally out of the question, 
 and have now joined with the great mass who hold 
 the middle opinion in favour of the Union measure. 
 The Canadien and the Moyitreal Herald lie down to- 
 gether upon this point. In short, the unanimity is 
 wonderful. 
 
 I have now the Upper Province to deal with, which 
 will, I fear, be a more difficult matter. But I do not 
 despair ; and certainly, so far as all the real interests of 
 the country are concerned, the Union is far more neces- 
 sary to Upper Canada than to the other. If it were 
 possible, the best thing for Lower Canada would be a 
 
 ^ In his biography we are not told to whom this and the following 
 letter were addressed by Sydenham.
 
 278 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 despotism for ten years more ; for, in truth, the people 
 are not yet tit for the higher class of self-government — 
 scarcely indeed, at present, for any description of it ; 
 and by carrying oneself the measures which a House of 
 Assembly Avill probably never carry, one might gradually 
 tit them for both, and at all events, leave them an amount 
 of good institutions which the United Legislature, when 
 it came, could not destroy. But in Upper Canada the 
 case, as it appears to me, is widely different. The state 
 of things here is far worse than I had expected. The 
 country is split into factions animated with the most 
 deadly hatred to each other. The people have got into 
 the habit of talking so much of separation, that they begin 
 to believe in it. The Constitutional party is as bad or 
 worse than the other, in spite of all their professions of 
 lo^^alty. The finances are more deranged than we believed 
 even in England. The deficit £75,000 a year, more than 
 equal to the income. All public works suspended. 
 Emigration going on fast jrom the province. Every 
 man's property worth only half what it was. When 
 I look to the state of Government, and to the depart- 
 mental administration of the province, instead of being 
 surprised at the condition in which I find it, I am only 
 astonished it has been endured so long. I know that, 
 much as I dislike Yankee institutions and rule, / would 
 not have fought against them, which thousands of these 
 poor fellows, whom the Compact call rebels, did, if it were 
 only to keep up such a Government as they got. The 
 excitement upon " Responsible Government " is great. 
 Not that I believe the people understand what they are 
 clamouring for by that word ; but that they feel the 
 extreme uneasiness of their situation, owing to financial 
 embarrassments, and hate the dominant party in the 
 Government with intense hatred. I do not wonder at 
 the cry for Responsible Government, when I see how 
 things have been managed. 
 
 Then the Assembly is such a House ! Split into half 
 a dozen different parties. The Government having 7ione 
 — and no one man to depend on ! Think of a House in 
 which half the members hold places, yet in which the 
 Government does not command a single vote ; in which 
 the place-men generally vote against the Executive ; and 
 where there is no one to defend the Government when 
 attacked, or to state the opinion or views of the Governor !
 
 NECESSITY OF UNION 279 
 
 How, with a popular assembly, Government is to be con- 
 ducted under such circumstances is a riddle to me. I 
 am now more than ever satisfied that the Union affords 
 the only chance of putting an end to the factions that 
 distract the country ; the only means of recruiting its 
 finances by persuading Great Britain to help the Upper 
 Canada Exchequer ; the only means by which the present 
 abominable system of government can be broken up, and 
 a strong and powerful administration, both departmental 
 and executive, be formed. And unless the people will 
 assent to the general outline of it, and Parliament "svill 
 then carry the details, upon which they would never 
 agree, mth a high hand, the province is lost. From all 
 that I can hear or see, I would not give a year's pur- 
 chase for our hold of it, if some great stroke is not given 
 which shall turn men's thoughts from the channel in 
 which they now run, and give a fresh impetus to public 
 works, emigration, and the practical improvement of the 
 country's resources. 
 
 It is indeed a pity to see this province in such a state. 
 It is the finest country I ever knew, even what I have 
 seen of it in a circle of thirty or forty miles from here ; 
 and by the accounts I receive the upper part is even 
 superior. Lower Canada is not to be named in com- 
 parison. The climate, the soil, the water-power, and 
 facilities of transport, finer than anytliing in North 
 America. 
 
 Whether in their present state of violent excitement 
 I shaU be able to persuade the people to come to reason- 
 able terms, I cannot venture to say ; but I am sure it is 
 
 the last and only chance. After having brought 
 
 and to think that the French Canadians ought to 
 
 have their full share of the representation, I shall not 
 despair of any thing. But what I hear, and have as yet 
 seen, of the House of Assembly, is not encouraging. If 
 they are not willing, however, I shall appeal to the people 
 without hesitation ; for the state of things admits of no 
 delay, and no half measures. 
 
 12th December, 1839. 
 
 I am not a bit afraid of the responsible government 
 cry. I have already done much to put it down in its 
 inadmissible sense ; namely, the demand that the council
 
 280 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 shall be responsible to the assembly, and that the governor 
 shall take their advice, and be bound by it. In fact, this 
 demand has been made much more for the people than 
 hy them. And I have not met with anyone who has not 
 at once admitted the absurdity of claiming to put the 
 council over the head of the governor. It is but fair, 
 too, to say that everything has in past times been done 
 by the different governors to excite the feelings of the 
 people on this question. First, the executive council has 
 generally been composed of the persons most obnoxious 
 to the majority of the assembly. And next, the governor 
 has taken extreme care to make every act of his own go 
 forth to the public on the responsibility of the executive 
 council. So the people have been carefully taught to 
 believe that the governor is nobody, and the executive 
 council the real power, and that by the governor himself. 
 At the same time they have seen that power placed in 
 the hands of their opponents. Under such a system it 
 is not to be wondered at if our argument founded on the 
 responsibility of the governor to the home government 
 falls to the ground. I have told the people plainly that, 
 as I cannot get rid' of my responsibility to the home 
 government, I \Vs\\. place no responsibiHty on the council ; 
 that they are a council for the governor to consult, but 
 no more. And I have yet met with no "responsible 
 government " man who was not satisfied with the doctrine. 
 In fact there is no other theory which has common sense. 
 Either the governor is the sovereign or the minister. If 
 the first, he may have ministers, but he cannot be re- 
 sponsible to the government at home, and all colonial 
 government becomes impossible. He must therefore be 
 the minister, in which case he cannot be under the control 
 of men in the colony. 
 
 Toronto, 
 16^7; September, 1840. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of a 
 copy of the Act for re-uniting the Provinces of Upper and 
 Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada. 
 
 I have carefully perused the Act, and I observe with 
 regret that some alterations have been made from the 
 original plan which I transmitted, which wiU create diffi- 
 culty and embarrassment here, especially the restrictions
 
 MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS 281 
 
 introduced in the schedule for the Civil list, to which I 
 before called your attention. There is nothing, however, 
 in those changes which will, I believe, offer any insuperable 
 obstacle to the working of the Act. 
 
 But it is with the deepest mortification that I find that 
 the whole of the system for the establishment of local 
 government has been omitted from the Bill, and that Her 
 Majesty's Government and Parliament have contented 
 themselves with the simple legislative re-union of the two 
 Provinces, without providing any machinery by which 
 they can be satisfactorily governed when united, or 
 guarding against those evils which have been so severely 
 felt from the absence of local government, and the con- 
 sequent assumption by the assemblies of functions which 
 did not properly belong to them, evils which will now be 
 increased tenfold, after the two provinces shall have been 
 placed under one government and one legislature. 
 
 I need scarcely recall to your Lordship's attention the 
 circumstances connected with this measure. In the year 
 1839, when the affairs of the Canadas were under the 
 consideration of Her Majesty's Government, and it was 
 determined, upon the recommendation of the Earl of 
 Durham, to re-unite the provinces, the Cabinet was so 
 deeply impressed with the truth of his declaration, of the 
 absolute necessity of the establishment by Parliament of 
 a system of local government simultaneously with the 
 measure for the union, that the plan then submitted and 
 embodied in the Bill of that year, proceeded altogether 
 upon that principle. Five districts were created apart 
 from the central legislature, and the whole frame of the 
 measure was erected in accordance with it. I need not 
 either remind your Lordship that whilst this was the 
 unanimous opinion of the Cabinet, those members of it 
 who really took a deep interest in Canadian matters 
 entertained so strongly the opinion of the necessity of 
 enforcing this principle, that they would not have assented 
 to any plan which involved its exclusion. The Bill of 
 1839 was withdrawn, and I was deputed to obtain the 
 assent of the people and legislature of the two Canadas 
 to the union, and to transmit a plan for effecting it, and 
 for the future government of the two provinces. But in 
 the instructions with which I was honoured with a view 
 to my proceedings, I was emphatically told that one of 
 the most important principles to be kept in view in any
 
 282 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 measures for the future government of the Canadas was 
 " the establishment of a system of local government by 
 representative bodies freely elected in the various cities, 
 and rural districts." " That after a full investigation of 
 every other plan which has been suggested, Her Majesty's 
 Government have not been able to discover in any but 
 this the reasonable hope of a satisfactory settlement." 
 '* That attaching minor importance to the details," " they 
 cannot depart from these principles." 
 
 Accordingly, in pursuance of the duty assigned to me, 
 and having obtained the assent of the legislators of the 
 two provinces to the terms of the union as they affected 
 each in its relation to the other, or to the Crown, I trans- 
 mitted such a plan for local government as, whilst it 
 entirely established the principle for which Her Majesty's 
 Government contended, and the adoption of which they 
 and I deemed indispensable, altogether removed the defects 
 of the scheme of last year, and was generally acceptable 
 to the people. This plan received the cordial appro- 
 bation of Her Majesty's Government. Your Lordship 
 did not indeed deem it expedient to introduce to Parlia- 
 ment the clauses for carrying out the provisions for the 
 system which I transmitted to you, but you did more, 
 for you called upon Parliament to enable me to provide 
 all the necessary machinery myself, subject to the leading 
 principles which I had recommended. 
 
 Under such circumstances I should have been far less 
 surprised to find the Union Bill abandoned altogether by 
 the Government, than this most essential part of it with- 
 dra^vn. I should certainly have infinitely preferred that 
 the Bill should have been deferred, rather than deprived 
 of what rendered it safe, or gave a fair chance of its being 
 advantageous. 
 
 For if, before my better acquaintance with these 
 colonies, the information which I could acquire from the 
 reports of others and from general reasoning, had satisfied 
 me of the necessity, to use the words of Lord Durham, 
 " of making the establishment of good municipal institu- 
 tions for the whole country a part of the colonial con- 
 stitution ;" the opportunity I have now had of studying 
 the state of the British North American provinces — of 
 observing the social condition of the people, and the 
 working of the constitutions under which they have been 
 governed — has convinced me that the cause of nearly all
 
 MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS 283 
 
 the difficulty in the government of every one of them, is 
 to be found in the absence of any well organized system of 
 local government. 
 
 Owing to this, duties the most unfit to be discharged by 
 the general legislature are thrown upon it ; powers equally 
 dangerous to the subject and to the Crown are assumed 
 by the Assembly. The people receive no training in 
 those habits of seK-government which are indispensable 
 to enable them rightly to exercise the power of choosing 
 representatives in Parliament. No field is open for the 
 gratification of ambition in a narrow circle, and no oppor- 
 tunity given for testing the talents or integrity of those 
 who are candidates for popular favour. The people 
 acquire no habits of self-dependence for the attainment of 
 their own local objects. Whatever uneasiness they may 
 feel — whatever little improvement in their respective 
 neighbourhoods may appear to be neglected, affords 
 grounds for complaint against the executive. All is 
 charged directly upon the Government, and a host of dis- 
 contented spirits are ever ready to excite these feelings. 
 On the other hand, while the Government is thus brought 
 directly in contact with the people, it has neither any 
 officer in its own confidence in the different parts of these 
 extended provinces from whom it can seek information, 
 nor is there any recognized body enjoying the public con- 
 fidence with whom it can communicate, either to deter- 
 mine what are the real wants and wishes of the locality, 
 or through whom it may afford explanation. 
 
 Hence the readiness with which a demand for organic 
 changes in the constitution has been received by the people. 
 
 Upon every consideration, therefore, I am of opinion 
 that it was our duty to seize the first opportunity of 
 supplying, through the Imperial Legislature, this capital 
 omission in the constitution of these colonies, by the 
 establishment of a good system of local government ; 
 and although the Act would, in fact, only have extended 
 to the Canadas, I entertain no doubt that with such an 
 authority before them, similar provisions would have 
 been adopted by tlie legislatures in Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, where the defect is no less glaring. 
 
 But it may be said, why not trust to the provincial 
 legislatures for the establishment of such institutions if 
 they are needed ? 
 
 Lord Durham has given the reply wliicli certainly
 
 284 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 appeared last year conclusive to Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, and the correctness of which I can now confirm — • 
 " That it is vain to expect that such a sacrifice of power 
 will be voluntarily made by a representative body ;" and 
 to this I may also add, that although, after a considerable 
 time and much excitement, the people might compel 
 their representatives to establish such a system, it is so 
 easy to mislead them by representations against taxa- 
 tion ; although no more is in fact intended than to give 
 the power of taxation by themselves for their own local 
 objects : and the argument in favour of its being the duty 
 of the Government to find money for all their wants, is so 
 specious and popular, that it would probably be some 
 time before the people exerted themselves strenuously 
 for this purpose ; and when they did, I greatly doubt 
 whether it would be possible to obtain those checks 
 against abuse without which the system would fail ; and 
 which it was my object to introduce in the manner sub- 
 mitted by me to Her Majesty's Government and approved 
 by them. 
 
 With reference, therefore, to the future interests of all 
 Her Majesty's North American possessions, I deeply 
 deplore the determination which has been taken ; whilst 
 with regard to the immediate and practical matter before 
 me — namely, the government of the two Canadas under 
 the Union Act, I confess that I am almost at a loss to 
 conceive how it is proposed that it should be conducted. 
 
 Under the provisions of the Union Act, not only will 
 the general affairs of a country 1,200 miles long be placed 
 under the direction of one executive authority, thus 
 distant from places where it may be called upon to act ; 
 but the local concerns of every district, and even village, 
 through that vast extent of territory must be more or 
 less under its superintendence, and that too in matters 
 of which it can know little or nothing. The provision 
 by which the initiative of all money votes is confined to 
 the Governor, is a most valuable and important change 
 in the constitution of these provinces ; but it places a 
 responsibility on the executive which can only be exer- 
 cised under a system which relieves the public funds from 
 demands for every little paltry expenditure, and confines 
 their application to matters of general utility. As the 
 Act now stands, the executive government will be called 
 upon to propose every grant of £5 or £10 for a road or a
 
 MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS 285 
 
 bridge 600 or 700 miles from the seat of government ; 
 of the merits of which it can know nothing, and of which 
 it can learn nothing, except through representations which 
 it has no opportunity of testing. If it acts, therefore, 
 it will probably act wrong ; if it does not, it is at once 
 exposed to the reproach of having neglected the interest 
 of the locality which it was bound to consider and ad- 
 vance. Whilst these duties are imposed upon it, too, no 
 means whatever are afforded by which it can acquire 
 information, or exercise the slightest control. In Upper 
 Canada it is true that there is some machinery in the 
 different districts now established by law, which will pre- 
 vent the executive from being wholly powerless. There 
 is an organization in each district of sheriffs, grand juries, 
 &c., and the magistrates possess under the provincial 
 laws certain powers which, although defective, still afford 
 the means of going on. But in Lower Canada this is 
 entirely wanting ; and the division there for judicial pur- 
 poses is of a character which affords no assistance whatever 
 with respect to the rural districts of the province. The 
 hand of the Government is entirely unknown and unfelt 
 throughout them. If I had to seek for information from 
 any place from 10 to 150 miles from Quebec or Montreal, 
 I possess no means whatever of obtainmg it, except from 
 the authorities called into existence by the rebellion, and 
 for whose permanency there is no security whatever. If 
 the executive seeks to know the opinion of the people 
 with regard to any improvement, there is no one to whom 
 application can be made. In a word, every country dis- 
 trict throughout the whole of the vast province of Lower 
 Canada, is as completely cut off from any connection with 
 the executive, as if it were on the other side of the Atlantic, 
 and under a different form of government. 
 
 I certainly was impressed with the opinion that the 
 existence of this state of things must be fully known to 
 Her Majesty's government, and that after the dclib(n-ate 
 judgment that had been arrived at last year, and the in- 
 structions I had received, it was, therefore, unnecessary 
 for me to have repeated any statement, or have furnished 
 any fresh argument in support of the principle of local 
 government.^ 
 
 1 Writing at the same time to a friend, Lord Sydenham expressed 
 himself still more forcibly : " Without ;i breakwater of this kind hetwc^on 
 the Central Government and the people, f^'overnnienl with an Assembly
 
 2SC, RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 It remains for mo, however, now only to consider the 
 course which 1 can pursue under the determination which 
 has been arrived at. 
 
 Entertaining so strongly as I do the conviction that 
 the principal advantages intended by the Union Act are 
 defeated by the omission of this part of the scheme, I 
 confess that I should strongly incline to defer acting 
 upon the powers conferred by it, and proclaiming the 
 Union at all, until Parliament had again had an oppor- 
 tunity of reconsidering these clauses. But I must acknow- 
 ledge that the delay which would thus arise, and the 
 reopening the Canada question in England, where un- 
 fortunately, all that relates to this country is so little 
 understood, would be probably attended with greater 
 evils, and I cannot, therefore, take on myself the respon- 
 sibility of recommending that course. 
 
 But failing this, it would be far more grateful to me, 
 with the opinions I hold on this subject, that Her 
 Majesty's Government should confide the attempt to 
 work out this new^ measure to other hands than mine, 
 and nothing but the anxiety which I feel to discharge 
 
 is impossible La Lower Canada, and most difficult in Upper Canada ; 
 
 and it is absurd to expect that any good system can or will be established 
 by the Provincial Legislature, even if time admitted of its being proposed 
 to them. No colonial Legislature will divest itself of the great power it 
 now possesses of parcelling out sums of money for every petty local 
 job ; and although by the Union BUI the uiitiative of money votes will 
 be confined to the Government, this provision will become null, because 
 the moment the Executive is called upon to pro\dde for all these local 
 expenses, with the details of which it cannot be acquainted, it must 
 renounce the task, and leave it in the hands of the members themselves. 
 A distinct principle must be laid down, that all purely local expenses 
 be borne by the locahties themselves, settled and voted by them, and 
 that only gi-eat works be paid for out of the provincial funds. 
 
 "... Since I have been in these provinces, I have become more 
 and more satisfied that the capital cause of the misgovernment of them 
 is to be found in the absence of local government, and the consequent 
 exercise by the Assembly of powers wholly inappropriate to its func- 
 tions. Members are everywhere chosen only with reference to the 
 extent of job for their particular district which the}' can carry. Who- 
 ever happens to lead a party in the House, of twelve or fourteen 
 members, may at once obtain a majority for his pohtical views by 
 jobbing with other members for votes upon them, or, by rejecting then- 
 jobs as the penalty of refusal, oust them from their seats. . . . The 
 estabhshment of municipal government by Act of ParUament is as 
 much a part of the intended scheme of government for the Canadas 
 as the union of the two Legislatmres, and the more important of the 
 two." — Life, pp. 198-4.
 
 PLANS OF SYDENHAM 287 
 
 my duty to the Queen to the last, and the deep interest 
 which I now take in what concerns these provinces, 
 would lead me to attempt the task under circumstances 
 which I consider almost hopeless. 
 
 I am wiUing, however, if required, to yield to that con- 
 sideration, and, above all, to the feelings of the people here, 
 of whose confidence I have lately received so many and 
 such flattering proofs, and I shall endeavour to work out 
 the Act as it stands, by such means as I possess. 
 
 For Upper Canada it is out of my power to make any 
 provision. In Lower Canada, however, I shall, with the 
 assistance of the Special Council, provide such a system 
 as may supply a part at least of what was intended to be 
 given under the provisions of the Bill ; at all events to the 
 extent which is necessary to carry out fully the different 
 ordinances of that body which have already passed, and 
 provide for some local organization for the wants of the 
 country districts. The Council will, under any circum- 
 stances, meet the middle of next month, to complete its 
 labours preparatory to the Union ; and I shall then pro- 
 pose to them measures to this effect. 
 
 I shall then be able to proclaim the Union at the earliest 
 period at which, looking to the time when the elections 
 could be held, and to the financial concerns of both 
 provinces, it would be possible, namely at the beginning of 
 January. The elections will take place as soon afterwards 
 as they conveniently can, and when the united Parliament 
 meets, I shall propose to them, on the part of the Govern- 
 ment, to adopt for the whole province a system of local 
 government which will already have been in operation 
 here, with such additions as may appear necessary.^ 
 
 1 Both in Upper and in Lower Canada Sydenham carried out the 
 plan here outhned, and on August 28, 1841, was able to write to his 
 brother : " My last feat has been to carry the Municipal District IMU for 
 Upper Canada, word for word after my own Ordinance for the Lower 
 Province ; thereby not only giving the complement to the Union (for 
 you know I always declared that witliout such institutions the Union 
 could not work), but setting up my own particular legislation by the 
 sanction of the United Parliament. . . . J3ut the trouble I have had 
 to do this has completely justified all my anticipations of the next to 
 impossibility of our getting such a measure through a Provincial 
 Assembly, and the utter hopelessness of the effort, but for the course 
 which I followed of dictating it, whilst 1 was dictator, for one part of 
 the province first. One party hated the measure because it was to 
 give power to the people ; another because it placed that power under 
 wholesome control by the Crown ; a third because it deprived the
 
 288 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 Downing Strkkt, 
 
 25th October, 1840. 
 
 INIy Lord, 
 
 I have received your Lordship's Despatch, No. 160, 
 of the 16th September, pointing out the injurious con- 
 sequences which you anticipate from the departure in 
 the Act for the reunion of Canada from the Bill which you 
 had proposed, and more particularly from the omission 
 of legislative provision for local government. 
 
 Partaking as I do in the general opinions which you 
 have expressed on this subject, I nevertheless could not 
 supply the want of Canadian authority for the muni- 
 cipal clauses, which induced Sir R. Peel and Lord Stanley, 
 friendly as they were to the Bill, to support their omission. 
 I may also observe that Mr. Gillespie and others in this 
 country well acquainted with Canada, concurred in the 
 objections made to those clauses in the House of Commons. 
 
 The benefit of municipal government being so great, 
 it is difficult to conceive that the legislature of the United 
 Province can long resist the introduction of a system so 
 useful to the interests, and so directly tending to increase 
 the power of the people, when recommended warmly and 
 repeatedly by the executive of the province and supported 
 by the Crown. 
 
 I have, Sic, 
 
 (Signed) J. Russell. 
 
 Government House, Kingston, 
 25th June, 1841. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship 
 herewith the copy of the Speech with which, on the 
 15th instant, I opened the Session of the Legislature, 
 
 members of the Assembly of all their past power of jobbing. But I 
 beat them all three, to the utter astonishment of the spectators ; and 
 at last carried my work — the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the 
 Bill — by a majority of forty-two to twenty-nine." 
 
 Under Sydenham's system municipal officers were largely nominated 
 by the Crown. In 1845 this was changed in Lower Canada, and an 
 elective system set up. In 1849 the Municipal Coi'porations Act did 
 the same for Upper Canada. These Acts are still the foundation of 
 the municipal systems of the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. (See 
 TJniversity of Toronto Studies : History and Economics, vol. ii., No. 2 ; 
 Municipal Government in Ontario, by Adam Shortt.j
 
 FIRST UNITED PARLIAMENT 289 
 
 together with copies of the caddresses presented to me in 
 answer by both houses, and of my repKes to those Ad- 
 dresses. ^ The Legislature had been summoned, as your 
 Lordship is aware, for the 14th instant ; but as it was 
 necessary, in compHance with the 33rd clause of the Union 
 Act, that the Assembly should, in the first instance, 
 proceed to elect their Speaker, I abstained, in conformity 
 with the opinion of my Law Advisers, from meeting the 
 Parliament until that preliminary had been completed. 
 This departure from former practice was, as your Lordship 
 will perceive, the necessary result of that provision of the 
 Union Act which, contrary to the Parliamentary usage in 
 England, invests the Assembly with the absolute power 
 of selecting their Speaker without reference to the Execu- 
 tive Authority. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) Sydenham. 
 
 Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative 
 Council, and Gentlemen of the House of As- 
 sembly, 
 
 I have deemed it right to assemble you at the 
 earliest period which the circumstances of the Province 
 and the duties imposed upon me by the Imperial Act for 
 the Union of the Canadas, under which this Legislature is 
 constituted, have admitted ; and it is with sincere satis- 
 faction that I now meet you to deliberate on the great 
 and important interests committed to our charge. 
 
 A subject of Her Majesty, an inhabitant of this Pro- 
 vince, has been forcibly detained in the neighbouring 
 States charged with a pretended crime. No time was lost 
 by the Executive of this Province in remonstrating against 
 this proceeding, and provision was made for insuring to 
 the individual the means of defence pending the further 
 action of Her Majesty's Government. The Queen's 
 Representative at Washington has since been instructed 
 to demand his release. Of the result of that demand I 
 am not yet apprised, but I have the Queen's commands 
 to assure her faithful subjects in Canada of her Majesty's 
 
 ^ The speech is given below. The addresses, which merely ex- 
 pressed willingness to carry out the reforms proposed, are omitted. 
 
 19
 
 290 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 fixi^d doterniination to protect them with the whole 
 weight of licr power. ^ 
 
 Arrangements were completed during the course of last 
 summer by which, under the directions of the Treasury, 
 the rates of Postage between all parts of this Colony and 
 the United Kingdom were greatly reduced ; and a more 
 speedy and regular conveyance of letters between different 
 parts of this Province has since been established by ar- 
 rangements made by the Deputy Postmaster-General 
 under my directions. A commission has been appointed 
 by me to inquire into and report upon the Post-ofhce 
 system of British North America, and I confidently antici- 
 pate that the result of its labours will be the establishment 
 of a plan securing improvements in the internal communi- 
 cation by post within the Colony equal to those which we 
 have already obtained in the communication with the 
 mother-country , 
 
 Many subjects of deep importance to the future welfare 
 of the Province demand your early attention, upon some 
 of which I have directed bills to be prepared, which will 
 be submitted for your consideration. 
 
 Amongst them, first in importance at the present junc- 
 ture of affairs is the adoption of measures for developing 
 the resources of the Province by well-considered and 
 extensive public works. The rapid settlement of the 
 country — the value of every man's property within it — 
 the advancement of his future fortunes are deeply affected 
 by this question. The improvement of the Navigation 
 from the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Huron to the Ocean 
 
 1 After his abortive rebellion, William Lyon Mackenzie fled to the 
 United States, and gathered a band of ruffians, who entrenched them- 
 selves on Navy Island, in the Niagara River, where they set up a pro- 
 visional Government. On the night of December 29, 1837, a small 
 American steamer, the Caroline, which was supplying them with 
 provisions, was attacked by Canadian volunteers while at anchor on 
 the American side, captured, and set on fire. In the struggle an 
 American was kUled. This naturally aroused great excitement in the 
 United States, and the British and American Governments came within 
 measurable distance of war. 
 
 On November 12, 1840, Alexander McLeod, a Canadian citizen, was 
 arrested whUe on a visit to the State of New York, and charged with 
 complicity in this so-called " murder and arson." After spending some 
 time in prison, McLeod was put on trial in October, 1841, and acquitted. 
 Under the circumstances, his hanging would have meant war. (See 
 Dent, The Last Forty Tears, vol. i., pp. 164 78; Scrope, Life of 
 Lord Sydenham, pp. 224-6.)
 
 PUBLIC WORKS AND EMIGRATION 291 
 
 — the establishment of new internal communications in 
 the inland districts are works requiring a great outlay, 
 but promising commensurate returns. To undertake 
 them successfully large funds will undoubtedly be re- 
 quired, and the financial condition of the Province, as it 
 stands at present, would seem to forbid the attempt. 
 But I have the satisfaction of informing you that I 
 have received authority from Her Majesty's government 
 to state that they are prepared to call upon the Imperial 
 Parliament to afford their assistance towards these im- 
 portant undertakings. In the full belief that peace and 
 tranquillity will be happily re-established in this province, 
 under the constitution settled by Parliament, and that 
 nothing but a relief from its most pressing difficulties is 
 wanting to its rapid advancement to prosperity, they 
 will propose to Parliament, by affording the guarantee 
 of the Imperial Treasury for a loan to the extent of 
 no less than a million and a half sterling, to aid the 
 Province, for the double purpose of diminishing the 
 pressure of the interest on the public debt, and of enabling 
 it to proceed with those great public undertakings whose 
 progress during the last few years has been arrested by 
 the financial difficulties. I shall direct a measure to be 
 submitted to you embracing a plan for this purpose, and 
 I shall lay before you, for your information and that of the 
 people of Canada, extracts from the despatches which 
 convey to me this most gratifying assurance. 
 
 In immediate connexion with the outlay of capital upon 
 public works is the subject of emigration and the disposal 
 and settlement of the public lands. There exist within 
 this Province no means so certain of producing a healthy 
 flow of immigration from the mother-country, and of 
 ultimately establishing the immigrant as a settler and pro- 
 prietor within the Colony, as the power of affording sure 
 employment for his labour on his first arrival. The 
 assistance of Parliament for the public works which may 
 be undertaken here, will in great measure provide for this ; 
 but with a view further to aid immigration, I am author- 
 ized to declare to you that Her Majesty's government are 
 prepared to assist in facilitating the passage of the immi- 
 grant from the port at which ho is landed to the place 
 where his labour may be made available, and that a vote 
 of money for this purpose will be proposed to the Imperial 
 Parliament. The conditions which Her Majesty's govern- 
 
 19—2
 
 292 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 ment attach to this measure will be submitted to you at 
 the same time that 1 shall draw your attention to a scheme 
 for the settlement and disposal of the public funds. 
 
 It appears highly desirable that the principle of local 
 self-government, which already prevails to some extent 
 throughout that part of the Province which was formerly 
 Upper Canada, should receive a more extended applica- 
 tion there, and that the people should exercise a greater 
 degree of power over their own local affairs. I have 
 directed a measure upon this subject to be submitted to 
 you, and I solicit your earnest attention to the establish- 
 ment of such a form of local government for those districts 
 of the Province which are unprovided with it, as may 
 ensure satisfaction to the people whilst it preserves in- 
 violate the prerogative of the Cro^n, and maintains the 
 administration of justice pure from party and popular 
 excitement. 
 
 A due provision for the education of the people is one 
 of the first duties of the State, and in this Province, espe- 
 cially, the want of it is grievously felt. The establish- 
 ment of an efficient system by which the blessings of in- 
 struction may be placed within the reach of all is a work 
 of difficulty ; but its overwhelming importance demands 
 that it should be undertaken. I recommend the con- 
 sideration of that subject to your best attention, and I 
 shall be most anxious to afford you in your labours all 
 the co-operation in my power. If it should be found 
 impossible so to reconcile conflicting opinions as to obtain 
 a measure which may meet the approbation of all, I trust 
 that at least steps may be taken by which an advance to 
 a more perfect system may be made, and the difficulty 
 under which the people of this Province now labour may 
 be greatl}^ diminished, subject to such improvements 
 hereafter as time and experience may pomt out.^ 
 
 Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, 
 
 The financial accounts of the Province Avill be 
 immediately laid before you, and I shall direct the esti- 
 mates for the public service to be submitted to you with 
 
 1 Primary and secondary education were at this time in a vevy bad 
 state, especially in Lower Canada. Since the appointment in 1844 of 
 the Rev. Egerton Ryerson as Superintendent of Education in Upper 
 Canada, and in 1855 of Mr. P. J. O. Chauveau to the same position in 
 the Lower Province, steady progress has been made.
 
 IMPERIAL AID 293 
 
 the least possible delay. I rely upon your co-operation 
 in the financial measures which it will be my duty to pro- 
 pose to you for taking advantage of the assistance which 
 her Majesty's Government propose to afford, and for 
 carrying into effect the public improvements which are 
 deemed most desirable. I shall earnestly endeavour that 
 whatever you may appropriate for this latter purpose 
 shall be economically employed and rendered effective.^ 
 
 Honourable Gentlemen and Gentlemen, 
 
 In your wisdom and prudence I confide for the 
 regulation of the different important matters which must 
 necessarily come before you. Canada, united under a 
 constitution which the Imperial Legislature has framed 
 with an earnest desire for the welfare of this portion of the 
 British Empire, cannot fail to prosper under prudent and 
 sage counsels. The generous aid which I have already 
 announced to you, the determination which I am also 
 empowered to state upon the part of the Government to 
 devote annually a large sum for the military defences of 
 the Province — the fixed and settled determination which 
 I have the Queen's commands to declare that her North 
 American possessions shall be maintained at all hazards 
 as part of Her Empire, are pledges of the sincerity with 
 which the mother-country desires to promote the pros- 
 perity of Canada, and to assist in the well-working of the 
 new institutions which it has established. The eyes of 
 England are anxiously fixed upon the result of this great 
 experiment. Should it succeed, the aid of Parliament in 
 your undertakings, the confidence of British capitalists 
 in the credit you may require from them, the security 
 which the British people will feel in seeking your shores, 
 and establishing themselves upon your fertile soil, may 
 carry improvement to an unexampled height. The rapid 
 advance of trade and of immigration within the last 
 eighteen months, afford ample evidence of the effects of 
 tranquillity in restoring confidence and promoting pros- 
 perity. May no dissensions mar the flattering prospect 
 which is open before us. May your efforts be steadily 
 
 1 Up to this tirao public works in Upper Canada had been carried 
 out by a separate Coinniission for each enterprise — Commissions some- 
 times corrupt and nearly always unskilled. Under Sydenham a 
 President of the Board of Works, with a seat in the Executive Council, 
 was appointed.
 
 204 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 directed to the creat practical improvements of which 
 the Province stands so much in need, and under the bless- 
 ing of that Providence which has hitherto preserved this 
 portion of the British dominions, may your counsels be 
 so guided as to ensure to the Queen attached and loyal 
 subjects, and to United Canada a prosperous and con- 
 tented people.
 
 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 II 
 
 The compromise maintained by Sydenham was rudely 
 disturbed during the term of office of Sir Charles Metcalfe. 
 How far did the relation of the Governor to his Executive 
 Council resemble that of the British Sovereign to her 
 constitutional advisers, and how far was the Governor 
 responsible to the Colonial Office, and the functions of 
 the Council merely advisory ? On this question the 
 Governor and his Council were in direct opposition. 
 Metcalfe's views on the point are clearly stated in his 
 reply made toward the end of 1843, to an address from 
 the Warden and Councillors of the Gore District of Upper 
 Canada : 
 
 With reference to your views of responsible govern- 
 ment, I cannot tell you how far I concur in them without 
 knowing your meaning, which is not distinctly stated. 
 
 If you mean that the Governor is to have no exercise 
 of his own judgment in the administration of the Govern- 
 ment, and is to be a mere tool in the hands of the Council, 
 then I totally disagree with you. That is a condition to 
 which I never can submit, and which Her Majesty's 
 Government, in my opinion, can never sanction. 
 
 If you mean that every word and deed of the Governor 
 is to be previously submitted for the advice of the Council, 
 then you propose what, besides being unnecessary and 
 useless, is utterly impossible, consistently with the duo 
 despatch of business. 
 
 If you mean that the patronage of the Crown is to bo 
 surrendered for exclusive party purposes, to the Council, 
 instead of being distributed to reward merit, to meet just 
 
 295
 
 290 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 claims, aiul to proiuote the efficiency of the public service, 
 then we are again at issue. Such a surrender of the pre- 
 rogative of the Crown is, in my opinion, incompatible with 
 the existence of a British Colony.^ 
 
 If you mean that the Governor is an irresponsible 
 officer, who can, without responsibility, adopt the advice 
 of the Council, then you are, I conceive, entirely in error. 
 The undisputed functions of the Governor are such that 
 he is not only one of the hardest-worked servants of the 
 colony, but also has more responsibilities than any other 
 officer in it. He is responsible to the Crown and Parlia- 
 ment and the people of the mother-country for every act 
 that he performs, or su£Eers to be done, whether it origi- 
 nates with himself or is adopted on the advice of others ; 
 he could not divest himself of that responsibility by 
 pleading the advice of the Council. He is also virtually 
 responsible to the people of this colony, and practically 
 more so than even to the mother-country ; every day 
 proves it, and no resolutions can make it otherwise. 
 
 But if, instead of meaning any of the above-stated 
 impossibilities, you mean that the Government should be 
 administered according to the well-understood wishes 
 and interests of the people ; that the Resolutions of Sep- 
 tember, 1841, should be faithfully adhered to f that it 
 should be competent to the Council to offer advice on all 
 occasions, whether as to patronage or otherwise, and 
 that the Governor should receive it with the attention 
 due to his constitutional advisers, and consult with them 
 on all cases of adequate importance ; that there should be 
 a cordial co-operation and sympathy between him and 
 them ; that the Council should be responsible to the 
 Provincial Parliament and people ; and that when the 
 acts of the Governor are such as they do not choose to 
 be responsible for, they should be at liberty to resign ; 
 then, I entirely agree with you, and see no impractica- 
 bihty in carrying on responsible government in a colony 
 on that footing, provided that the respective parties en- 
 gaged in the undertaking be guided by moderation, 
 honest purpose, common sense and equitable minds, 
 devoid of party spirit. 
 
 ^ It was on a question of patronage that the final breach between 
 Metcalfe and his Council had occurred. 
 
 - Cited in Houston, oj). cit,, pp. 303-4 ; and, with one omitted, in 
 Dent, Last Forty Years, i. 149-50, and Scrope, o]}. cit., 259-60.
 
 EARL GREY'S NEW POLICY 297 
 
 Metcalfe's resignation of the Governor-Greneralship 
 preceded by a few months the fall of the Conservative 
 Ministry of Sir Robert Peel, and the accession of Lord 
 John Russell, with Earl Grey as Secretary of State for 
 War and for the Colonies. The history of the colonial 
 policy of that Administration has been told by its chief .^ 
 It was decided to give to the colonies responsible govern- 
 ment in the fullest sense of the words. The principle was 
 laid down that " this country has no interest whatever in 
 exercising any greater influence in the internal affairs of 
 the colonies, than is indispensable either for the purpose 
 of preventing any one colony from adopting measures 
 injurious to another, or to the Empire at large. "^ 
 
 In Nova Scotia the controversy had become as acute as 
 in Canada, and an attempt of the Lieutenant-Governor, 
 Lord Falkland, to imitate the policy of Sydenham had not 
 met with success. To his successor were sent instructions, 
 in which the principles of responsible government are 
 stated by the Colonial Office with the greatest clearness, 
 and which the good sense of Sir John Harvey carried 
 out with a tact which made the period of transition brief 
 and comparatively uneventful. 
 
 Earl Grey to Lieutenant-Governor Sir John 
 Harvey, K.C.B. 
 
 Downing Street, 
 
 3 November, 1846. 
 
 I have received your Despatch of the 15th September, 
 marked " Private and Confidential," in which you com- 
 municate to me your views upon the state of affairs 
 which you have found on arriving in Nova Scotia. 
 
 Circumstances prevented me from answering your 
 Despatch, as you wished me to have done, by the packet 
 
 1 The Colonial Policij of Lord John Ruasell'a Administration, by 
 Earl Grey (London : 1853, two vols.). 
 
 2 Earl Grey, op. cit., i. 17.
 
 298 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 whioli left England (in the 3d instant ; but the interval 
 which has since ehxpscd has enabled me to devote more 
 time to the consideration of the questions which you 
 have brought under my notice than the brief space 
 between the arrival and the departure of the North 
 American packet would have allowed me to do. 
 
 I perceive, from your representation of the position of 
 affairs in Nova Scotia, that there are questions to be deter- 
 mined in respect to the government of that province of 
 no ordinary difficulty, and that it is of the utmost im- 
 portance that the first measures of your administration 
 should be preceded by the most careful deliberation. The 
 knowledge which I possess of the local politics of Nova 
 Scotia is at present too limited to enable me, with con- 
 fidence in my own judgment, to give you any positive 
 and detailed directions as to the course which circum- 
 stances may require you to adopt in the present conjunc- 
 ture ; but though it is out of my power to give you such 
 instructions, there are certain general principles which 
 ought, as I conceive, to govern your conduct in this 
 and in similar cases ; and which, as they admit of being 
 stated, ought, I think, to be communicated to you for 
 your guidance. 
 
 I shall advert first to the important topic of the com- 
 position of the Legislative Council. In making appoint- 
 ments to this body, it ought undoubtedly to be the 
 object of the administrator of the Government so to 
 compose it as to make it fairly represent the opinion of 
 the majority of the intelligent members of the com- 
 munity ; but supposing the selection of the present 
 members to have been ill-advised, and that the Council 
 in consequence is not in harmony with public opinion, 
 the question arises, what is then the proper course to be 
 adopted ? Under such circumstances there are two 
 considerations to which it is necessary to advert. First, 
 that it is impossible to allow the Legislative Council to 
 obstruct permanently the passing of measures called for 
 by public opinion, and sent up by the popular branch of 
 the Legislature. Secondly, that it is a serious evil to be 
 compelled to make an addition to the members of this 
 body for the purpose of changing the character of the 
 majority ; since each such addition creates both a pre- 
 cedent and a necessity for a similar and perhaps larger 
 addition whenever a change in public feeling gives the
 
 LEGISLATIVE AKD EXECUTIVE COUNCILS 299 
 
 ascendancy to a new party in the assembly. It is difficult 
 to reconcile these almost conflicting considerations, but 
 this, in my opinion, may be attempted with the greatest 
 hopes of success, by adopting as a rule that an addition 
 is not to be made to the Legislative Council with a view 
 to changing the character of the majority, except under 
 circumstances of clear and obvious necessity. An antici- 
 pation that public business will be impeded because there 
 is a majority in the Legislative Council attached to the 
 political party which has not the confidence of the colony 
 is insufficient to justify the appointment of additional 
 members. Practical inconvenience must have actually 
 arisen, and to a serious extent, before resort can with pro- 
 priety be had to any measure for increasing the number 
 of the Council. If that body be found obstructing per- 
 tinaciously the progress of public business, and the passing 
 of laws which public opinion demands, an addition to it 
 would then be felt to be a just and necessary measure, 
 and would not excite the same indignation, on the part 
 even of those against whom it might be directed, as would 
 be the case if adopted on lighter grounds ; while the prob- 
 ability is that the members of the Legislative Council, 
 knowing that if it should become necessary this measure 
 must ultimately be resorted to, will shrink from creating 
 the necessity by obstinately opposing themselves to the 
 real opinion of the intelligent classes of the community. 
 ***** 
 
 I come now to the second question which you have 
 submitted to me in your Despatch, namely, the propriety 
 of dissolving the present House of Assembly. 
 
 ***** 
 
 /l am of opinion that under all the circumstances of the 
 case, the best course for you to adopt is to call upon the 
 members of your present Executive Council to propose 
 to you the names of the gentlemen whom they would 
 recommend to supply the vacancies, which I understand 
 to exist, in the present Board. If they should be suc- 
 cessful in submitting to you an arrangement to which no 
 valid objection arises, you will of course continue to carry 
 on the government through them, so long as it may be 
 possible to do so satisfactorily, and as they possess the 
 necessary support from the Legislature. /' Should the 
 present Council fail in proposing to you an arrangement
 
 300 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 which it would be proper for you to accept, it would then 
 be your natural course, in coiiformity with the practice in 
 analogous cases in this country, to apply to the opposite 
 party, and should you be able, through their assistance, 
 to form a satisfactory Council, there will be no impro- 
 priety in dissolving the Assembly upon their advice^ 
 such a measure, under those circumstances, being the 
 only mode of escaping from the difficulty which would 
 otherwise exist of carrying on the government of the 
 province upon the principles of the constitution.^ 
 
 The object with which I recommend to you this course, 
 is that of making it apparent that any transfer whicih 
 may take place of political power from the hands of one 
 party in the province to those of another is the result not 
 of an act of yours but of the wishes of the people them- 
 selves, as shown by the difficulty experienced by the 
 retiring party in carrying on the government of the pro- 
 vince according to the forms of the constitution. To 
 this I attach great importance ; I have therefore to in- 
 struct you to abstain from changing your Executive 
 Council until it shall become perfectly clear that they are 
 unable, mth such fair support from yourself as they have a 
 right to expect, to carry on the government of the province 
 satisfactorily, and command the confidence of the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Of whatsoever party j^our Council may be composed, 
 it will be your duty to act strictly upon the principle you 
 have yourself laid down in the memorandum delivered to 
 the gentlemen with whom you have communicated, that, 
 namely, " of not identifying yourself with any one party," 
 but instead of this, " making yourself both a mediator 
 and a moderator between the influential of all parties." 
 In giving, therefore, all fair and proper support to your 
 council for the time being, you will carefully avoid any 
 acts which can possibly be supposed to imply the slightest 
 personal objection to their opponents, and also refuse to 
 assent to any measures which may be proposed to you by 
 your council w^hich may appear to you to involve an 
 improper exercise of the authority of the Crown for party 
 rather than for public objects. In exercising, however, 
 this power of refusing to sanction measures which may 
 be submitted to you by your council, you must recollect 
 
 ^ For the political incidents of the time, see Longley, op. cit., 
 pp. 103-113.
 
 GOVERNOR AND EXECUTIVE 301 
 
 that this power of opposing a check upon extreme 
 measures proposed by the party for the time in the govern- 
 ment, depends entirely for its efficacy upon its being used 
 sparingly, and with the greatest possible discretion. A 
 refusal to accept advice tendered to you by your council 
 is a legitimate ground for its members to tender to you 
 their resignation, a course they would doubtless adopt 
 should they feel that the subject on which a difference 
 had arisen between you and themselves was one upon 
 which public opinion would be in their favour. Should 
 it prove to be so, concession to their views must, sooner 
 or later, become inevitable, since it cannot be too dis- 
 tinctly acknowledged that it is neither possible nor de- 
 sirable to carry on the government of any of the British 
 provinces in North America in opposition to the opinion of 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 Clearly understanding, therefore, that refusing to accede 
 to the advice of your council for the time being upon a 
 point on which they consider it their duty to insist, must 
 lead to the question at issue being brought ultimately 
 under the decision of public opinion, you will carefully 
 avoid allowing any matter not of very grave concern, or 
 upon which you cannot reasonably calculate upon being 
 in the end supported by that opinion, to be made the 
 subject of such a difference. And if, unfortunately, such 
 a difference should arise, you will take equal care that its 
 cause and the grounds of your own decision are made 
 clearly to appear in written documents capable of being 
 publicly quoted. 
 
 The adoption of this principle of action by no means 
 involves the necessity of a blind obedience to the wishes 
 and opinions of the members of your Council ; on the 
 contrary, I have no doubt that if they see clearly that your 
 conduct is guided, not by personal favour to any par- 
 ticular men or party, but by a sincere desire to promote 
 the public good, your objections to any measures proposed 
 will have great weight with the Council, or should they 
 prove unreasonable, with the Assembly, or, in last resort, 
 with the public. 
 
 Such are the general principles upon which the con- 
 stitutions granted to the North American colonies render 
 it necessary that their government should be conducted. 
 It is, however, I am well aware, far easier to lay down 
 these general principles than to determine in any parti-
 
 302 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 cular case what is tliat line of conduct which an adherence 
 to them should prescribe. In this your own judgment 
 and a careful consideration of the circumstances in which 
 you are placed must be your guide ; and I have only, in 
 conclusion, to assure you that Her Majesty will always be 
 anxious to put the most favourable construction upon j'our 
 conduct in the discharge of the arduous duties imposed 
 upon you by the high situation you hold in Her service. 
 
 Earl Grey to Lieut.-Governor Sir John Harvey, 
 
 K.C.B. 
 
 Downing Street, 
 
 31 March, 1847. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I have already acknowledged the receipt of your 
 Despatch of the 2d February, enclosing two letters to 
 yourself from your Executive Council, and I now propose 
 to communicate the conclusions at which I have arrived 
 after that attentive consideration which I have felt due, 
 as well to the intrinsic merits of the views stated by your 
 advisers, as to the respectable source from which the 
 statement emanates. 
 
 In doing so, it will be convenient that I should at the 
 same time advert to the correspondence which, soon after 
 your assumption of the government of Nova Scotia, you 
 had with Mr. Howe and his friends. 
 
 Upon a careful comparison of these very able papers, 
 in which the members of your Council and their political 
 opponents have stated their respective views as to the 
 manner in which the Executive Government of Nova 
 Scotia ought to be conducted, I am led to the conclusion 
 that there is not in reality so wide a difference of prin- 
 ciple between the confhcting parties as would at first sight 
 appear to exist, and that it may not be impossible to chalk 
 out a system of administration to be hereafter adopted, 
 to which, without the sUghtest sacrifice of consistency, 
 both might assent. 
 
 On the one hand, I find that the members of your 
 Council declare that they " desire in no degree to weaken 
 the responsibility of the Provincial Government to the 
 Legislature," and I gather from the general tenor of their 
 papers of the 28th and 30th of January, that they are 
 aware that, in the present state of affairs, and of public
 
 STATUS OF OFFICIALS 303 
 
 opinion in Nova Scotia, it is necessary that the Governor 
 of the province should, in administering its affairs, have 
 the advice and assistance of those who can command the 
 confidence of the Legislature, and more especially of that 
 branch of the Legislature which directly represents the 
 people. 
 
 On the other hand, I can hardly doubt that the gentle- 
 men of the opposite party who have insisted so strongly 
 upon the necessity of what is termed " responsible govern- 
 ment," would admit the justice and importance of many 
 of the arguments which have been used, in order to show 
 the danger and inconvenience of making the general 
 tenure of offices in the colonial service to depend upon the 
 fluctuations of political contests in the Assembly. I am 
 the more convinced that the gentlemen of the opposition 
 will recognise the force of these arguments, because I 
 observe in the various papers in which they have stated 
 their views, frequent references, either direct or implied, 
 to the practice of this country, as that which affords the 
 best model for imitation in laying down rules as to the 
 manner in which the government of Nova Scotia should 
 be carried on. Now there is scarcely any part of the 
 system of government in this country which I consider 
 of greater value than that, which though not enforced by 
 any written law, but deriving its authority from usage 
 and public opinion, makes the tenure of the great majority 
 of officers in the public service to depend upon good 
 behaviour. Although, with the exception of those who 
 hold the higher judicial situations, or situations in which 
 judicial independence has been considered to be necessary, 
 the whole body of public servants in the United Kingdom 
 hold their offices technically during the pleasure of the 
 Crown, in practice all but the very small proportion of 
 offices which are distinguished as political, are held 
 independently of party changes, nor are those who have 
 once been appointed to them ever in point of fact removed, 
 except in consequence of very obvious misconduct or un- 
 fitness. Thus, in fact, though the legal tenure, " during 
 good behaviour," is rare, tenure during good behaviour, 
 in the popular sense of the term, may be said to be the 
 general rule of our public service. 
 
 The exception is in the case of those high public servants 
 whom it is necessary to invest with such discn^tion as 
 really to leave in their hands the whole direction of the
 
 304 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 policy of the (Mnpirc in all its various departments. Such 
 power must, witli a representative government, be subject 
 to constant control by Parliament, and is therefore ad- 
 ministered only by such persons as from time to time 
 enjoy the confidence of Parliament as well as of the Crown. 
 These heads of departments, or Ministers, together with 
 their immediate subordinates who are required to repre- 
 sent or support them in Parliament, are almost invariably 
 members of one or other House, and hold their offices 
 only as long as they enjoy the confidence of Parliament. 
 Though it is not without some inconveniences, I regard 
 this system as possessing upon the whole very great 
 advantages. We owe to it that the public servants of 
 this country, as a body, are remarkable for their experi- 
 ence and knowledge of public affairs, and honourably 
 distinguished by the zeal and integrity with which they 
 discharge their duties, without reference to party feeling ; 
 we owe to it also, that as the transfer of power from one 
 party in the State to another is followed by no change in 
 the holders of any but a few of the highest offices, political 
 animosities are not in general carried to the same height, 
 and do not so deeply agitate the whole frame of society 
 as in those countries in which a different practice prevails. 
 The system with regard to the tenure of office which has 
 been found to work so well here, seems well worthy of 
 imitation in the British American Colonies, and the small 
 population and limited revenue of Nova Scotia, as well 
 as the general occupation and social state of the com- 
 munity, are, in my opinion, additional reasons for abstain- 
 ing, so far as regards that province, from going further 
 than can be avoided, without giving up the principle of 
 executive responsibility, in making the tenure of offices 
 in the public service dependent upon the result of party 
 contests. In order to keep the Executive Government 
 in harmony with the Legislature, it is doubtless necessary 
 that the direction of the internal policy of the colony 
 should be entrusted to those who enjoy the confidence 
 of the Provincial Parliament, but it is of great moment 
 not to carry the practice of changing public officers 
 further than is absolutely necessary for the attainment 
 of that end, lest the administration of public affairs 
 should be deranged by increasing the bitterness of party 
 spirit, and subjecting the whole machinery of Government 
 to perpetual change and uncertainty.
 
 NECESSARY CHANGES 305 
 
 In the practical application of these views, there will, 
 I am aware, be room for considerable difference of opinion. 
 
 In this, as in all questions of classification, varpng 
 circumstances and the various views taken by different 
 men, will give rise to discussions and occasional altera- 
 tions with respect to particular offices. Your acquaint- 
 ance with what has passed, and is passing in the mother 
 country, will suggest to you instances in which the ques- 
 tion has been raised, whether a particular office should 
 or should not be a Parliamentary office ; and some in 
 which different offices have been deliberately removed 
 from the one into the other class. 
 
 The question how many of the public officers in Nova 
 Scotia ought to be regarded as political, is one to be deter- 
 mined on the general principles I have before laid down, 
 and with reference to various considerations arising from 
 the peculiar exigencies of the public service, and the 
 finances and social state of the colony. The practical 
 end of responsible government would be satisfied by the 
 removability of a single public officer, provided that 
 through him public opinion could influence the general 
 administration of affairs. Without quite assenting to the 
 too modest estimate which your present Council have 
 given of the resources of the province, I admit that the 
 smallness of the community, its want of wealth, and the 
 comparative deficiency of a class possessing leisure and 
 independent incomes, preclude it from, at present, enjoy- 
 ing a very perfect division of public employments. Small 
 and poor communities must be content to have their work 
 cheaply and somewhat roughly done. Of the present 
 members of your Council, the Attorney-general and Pro- 
 vincial Secretary, to whom the Solicitor-general should 
 perhaps be added, appear to me sufficient to constitute 
 the responsible advisers of the Governor. The holders 
 of these offices should henceforth regard them as held on 
 a political tenure. And, with a view to that end, the 
 Provincial Secretary should be prepared, in the event of 
 any change, to disconnect from his office that of the clerk- 
 ship of the Council, wliich seems to be one that should on 
 every account be held on a more permanent tenure.^ 
 
 1 In 184B, on the coming into office in Nova Scotia of the Liberal 
 Party, a Cabinet of nine responsible advisers was considered necessary. 
 Earl Grey made some objections, but finally gave way. (See Longlcy, 
 op. cit.y pp. 110-112; IIowc, o]}, cit., pp. 569-573.) 
 
 20
 
 306 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 It is possible that in the event of any change being 
 rendered necessary by the course of events in the Pro- 
 vincial Parliament, the party succeeding to power might 
 insist on increasing this number of political offices, by 
 adding to the Hst of those to be so regarded. In case 
 such a question should arise, I must leave it to your dis- 
 cretion, on a view of various local and temporary circum- 
 stances, wliich I am unable at present to appreciate, to 
 form your own decision with respect to any such demand. 
 I should feel no objection to somewhat increasing the 
 number of political offices (for instance, by appointing a 
 financial secretary and a responsible chief of the depart- 
 ment of public lands and works), should the expense of 
 doing so, without injustice to those now in the public 
 service, be found to be not more than the colonial revenue 
 would conveniently bear. But I rely on your using your 
 influence to resist that disposition, which a party succeed- 
 ing to power often exhibits, to throw open the various 
 offices of emolument to their friends, without sufficient 
 regard to the mischiefs thereby permanently entailed on 
 the pubhc service. And it is but due to what I have seen 
 of the conduct of the principal advocates of responsible 
 government in Nova Scotia, to express my reliance on 
 their public spirit and sober estimate of their country's 
 position and interests, as the most effectual safeguard 
 against any abuse of power. 
 
 There is another safeguard which, even with the less 
 considerate members of any party, you will, I think, find 
 sufficient to protect the public interests against any great 
 disposition unnecessarily to place offices hitherto held on 
 what has practically been a tenure of good behaviour, 
 on one of a more precarious nature. However desirous 
 the people of Nova Scotia may be to establish the prin- 
 ciple of responsible government, they would, I feel assiu-ed, 
 shrink from effecting any reform, however just or neces- 
 sary, at the cost of injustice to individuals. Now, when 
 individuals have engaged in the public service under a 
 belief, sanctioned by custom, that they obtained a tenure 
 of their offices during good behaviour, it would be most 
 unjust to change that tenure to one of dependence on a 
 parhamentary majority, without ensuring them a pro- 
 vision that would make up for the loss of official income. 
 I think that the consideration that the grasping at any 
 particular office would necessitate the provision of an
 
 NECESSARY CHANGES 307 
 
 adequate pension for its occupant, will be a salutary check 
 on any disposition to carry party government beyond its 
 just limits. 
 
 This condition must be applied to the removal of those 
 public officers who now have seats in your Executive 
 Council, unless where they have clearly accepted office 
 on an understanding to the contrary effect. I cannot 
 suppose that the necessity of providing the requisite 
 pensions will be deemed by the Assembly an unreasonable 
 accompaniment of the establishment of parliamentary 
 government. And hereafter I think it would be proper 
 to recognise as an invariable rule, that no person should 
 without such provision be deprived of any office (except 
 upon the ground of unfitness or misconduct), unless he 
 had accepted it on the distinct understanding that it was 
 to be held virtually, as well as nominally, during pleasure. 
 
 I entertain a strong conviction that the adoption of 
 such a rule will be found conducive not only to the in- 
 terests of the holders of offices, but also to those of the 
 public, and to a true economy of the public money. As 
 I have already observed, it is impossible to expect that 
 men of superior capacity will devote themselves to the 
 public service unless they are assured that their employ- 
 ment will be permanent, or are offered emoluments so 
 large as to make up for the uncertainty of the tenure by 
 which they are enjoyed. If the emoluments of public 
 employment are small, and its tenure at the same time 
 uncertain, a strong temptation is given to the holders to 
 endeavour to make up for these disadvantages by irregular 
 gains, and thus to give rise to practices equally injurious 
 to the community in a pecuniary and in a moral point of 
 view. 
 
 You will observe that, in the preceding observations, 
 I have assumed that those only of the public servants, 
 who are to be regarded as removable on losing the con- 
 fidence of the Legislature, are to be members of the 
 Executive Council. This I consider to follow from the 
 principles I have laid down. Those public servants, who 
 hold their offices permanently, must upon that very 
 ground be regarded as subordinate, and ought not to bo 
 members of either house of the Legislature, by which 
 they would necessarily be more or less mixed up in party 
 struggles ; and, on the other hand, those who are to have 
 the general direction of affairs exercise that function by 
 
 20—2
 
 308 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 virtue of their responsibility to the Legislature, which 
 implies their being removable from office, and also that 
 they should be members either of the Assembly or of the 
 Legislative Council. But this general direction of affairs, 
 and the control of all subordinate officers, it is the duty of 
 the Governor to exercise through the Executive Council ; 
 hence the seats in that Council must be considered as in 
 the nature of political offices, and if held in connexion 
 with other offices must give to these also a political 
 character. This, however, leads me to observe, that if 
 only two or three of the principal offices are to be regarded 
 as political, it may very probably be advisable to assign 
 salaries to two or three of the Executive Councillors as 
 such. The Executive Council has duties of a very im- 
 portant character to perform ; those duties, and the 
 defects in the manner in which they had then generally been 
 discharged I find thus described in a confidential despatch 
 which the late Lord Sydenham, then Mr. P. Thomson, ad- 
 dressed to Lord J. Russell, from Halifax, in the year 1840^ : — 
 " The functions of the Executive Council, on the other 
 " hand are, it is perfectly clear, of a totally different 
 " character. They are a body upon whom the Governor 
 " must be able to call at any or at all times for advice ; 
 " with whom he can consult upon the measures to be sub- 
 " mitted to the Legislature, and in whom he may find 
 " instruments, within its walls, to introduce such amend- 
 " ments in the laws as he may think necessary, or to defend 
 " his acts and his policy. It is obvious, therefore, that 
 " those who compose this body must be persons whose 
 " constant attendance on the Governor can be secured ; 
 " principally, therefore, officers of the Government itself ; 
 " but, when it may be expedient to introduce others, men 
 " holding seats in one or other House, taking a leading part 
 " in political life, and, above all, exercising influence over 
 " the Assembly." 
 
 " The last, and, in my opinion, by far the most serious 
 " defect in the Government is the utter absence of power 
 " in the Executive, and its total want of energy to attempt 
 " to occupy the attention of the country upon real im- 
 " provements, or to lead the Legislature in the prepara- 
 
 1 In July, 1840, Sydenham had found time to visit Halifax, and to 
 allay, though not to settle, the political agitation.
 
 PROPOSED CHANGES 309 
 
 " tion and adoption of measures for the benefit of the 
 " colony. It does not appear to have occurred to any 
 " one that it is one of the first duties of the Government 
 " to suggest improvements where they are wanted. That 
 " the constitution having placed the power of legislation 
 •' in the hands of an Assembly and a Council, it is only 
 " by acting through these bodies that this duty can be 
 " performed, and that if these proper and legitimate 
 " functions of Government are neglected, the necessary 
 " result must be, not only that the improvements which 
 " the people have a right to expect will be neglected, 
 " and the prosperity of the country checked, but that the 
 " popular branch of the Legislature will misuse its power, 
 " and the popular mind be easily led into excitement, 
 " upon mere abstract theories of government, to which 
 " their attention is directed as the remedy for the uneasi- 
 " ness they feel." 
 
 In this view of the proper functions of the Executive 
 Council I entirely concur ; but I greatly doubt whether 
 they could be adequately discharged by a Council com- 
 posed of only two or three persons holding offices in the 
 public service, and of gentlemen serving gratuitously. 
 It is hardly possible to expect that those so serving 
 should devote any large portion of their time to their 
 public duties, and it therefore appears to me highly 
 desirable that salaries should be assigned to at least 
 one or two seats in the Executive Council. 
 
 On such terms as these, which I have thus detailed, 
 it appears to me that the peculiar circumstances of Nova 
 Scotia present no insuperable obstacle to the immediate 
 adoption of that system of parliamentary government 
 which has long prevailed in the mother country, and 
 which seems to be a necessary part of representative 
 institutions in a certain stage of their progress. 
 
 I have thought it due to you to enter thus fully into 
 the practical difficulties to be encountered in giving effect 
 to those general principles which, in my despatch of the 
 3d of November, I laid down for your guidance in the selec- 
 tion of your responsible advisers. I am in hopes that 
 the present despatch will leave you in no doubt as to the 
 course to be pursued by you in the event of any changes 
 of which you may anticipate the contingency. I owed 
 it to you to make myself clearly understood on this point ; 
 and I trust that what I have now said, will be regarded by
 
 310 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 your Council as amounting to such a declaration of my 
 views as was requested by them in their letter of the 
 30th January. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 (Signed) Grey. 
 
 Lord Elgin/ sent as Governor-General to Canada in 
 1847, had received similar instructions, and was fully 
 determined to execute them. His ideals, and the diffi- 
 culties which he met with in carrying them out, are shown 
 in liis correspondence, taken partly from his Letters and 
 Journals, edited by Theodore Walrond in 1873, and 
 partly from Parliamentary Papers and Reports, 1849, 
 
 vol. XXXV. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 1847. 
 
 Several causes co-operate together to give to personal 
 and party interests the overweening importance which 
 attaches to them in the estimation of local politicians. 
 There are no real grievances here to stir the depths of 
 the popular mind. We are a comfortable people, with 
 plenty to eat and drink, no privileged classes to excite 
 envy, or taxes to produce irritation. It were ungrateful 
 to view these blessings mth regret, and yet I believe 
 that they account in some measure for the selfishness of 
 public men and their indifference to the higher aims of 
 statesmanship. 
 
 The comparatively small number of members of which 
 the popular bodies who determine the fate of provincial 
 administrations consist, is also, I am inclined to think, 
 unfavourable to the existence of a high order of principle 
 and feeling among official personages. A majority of ten 
 in an assembly of seventy may probably be, according to 
 Cocker, equivalent to a majority of 100 in an assembly 
 of 700. In practice, however, it is far otherwise. The 
 defection of two or three individuals from the majority of 
 ten puts the administration in peril. Thence the per- 
 petual patchwork and trafficking to secure this vote and 
 
 ^ It is not the least of Earl Grey's services to his country that he 
 selected Lord Elgin — at the time a political opponent — for the Govern- 
 ment of Canada.
 
 GOVERNOR UNDER NEW SYSTEM 311 
 
 that, which (not to mention other evils) so engrosses the 
 time and thoughts of ministers, that they have not leisure 
 for matters of greater moment. It must also be remem- 
 bered that it is only of late that the popular assemblies 
 in this part of the world have acquired the right of deter- 
 mining who shall govern them — of insisting, as we phrase 
 it, that the administration of affairs shall be conducted 
 by persons enjojang their confidence. It is not wonderful 
 that a privilege of this kind should be exercised at first 
 with some degree of recklessness, and that, while no great 
 principles of policy are at stake, methods of a more ques- 
 tionable character for winning and retaining the con- 
 fidence of these arbiters of destiny should be resorted to. 
 My course in these circumstances, is, I think, clear and 
 plain. It may be somewhat difficult to follow occasion- 
 ally, but I feel no doubt as to the direction in which it 
 lies. I give to my ministers all constitutional support, 
 frankly and without reserve, and the benefit of the best 
 advice that I can afford them in their difficulties. In 
 return for this, I expect that they will, in so far as it is 
 possible for them to do so, carry out my views for the 
 maintenance of the connexion with Great Britain and the 
 advancement of the interests of the province. On this 
 tacit understanding we have acted together harmoniously 
 up to this time, although I have never concealed from 
 them that I intended to do nothing which may prevent 
 me from working cordially with their opponents, if they 
 are forced upon me. That ministries and oppositions 
 should occasionally change places, is of the very essence 
 of our constitutional system, and it is probably the most 
 conservative element which it contains. By subjecting 
 all sections of politicians in their turn to official responsi- 
 bilities, it obliges heated partisans to place some restraint 
 on passion, and to confine within the bounds of decency 
 the patriotic zeal with which, when out of place, they are 
 wont to be animated. In order, however, to secure these 
 advantages, it is indispensable that the head of the 
 Government should show that he has confidence in the 
 loyalty of all the influential parties with which he has to 
 deal, and that he should have no personal antipathies to 
 prevent him from acting with leading men. 
 
 I feel very strongly that a Governor-General, by acting 
 upon these views with tact and firmness, may hope to 
 establish a moral influence in the province which will go
 
 ?A-2 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 far to coinponsate for the loss of power consequent on 
 the siirrondor of patronage to an executive responsible 
 to the local Parliament. Until, however, the functions 
 of liis office, under our amended colonial constitution, 
 are more clearly defined — until that middle term which 
 shall reconcile the faithful discharge of his responsibility 
 to the Imperial Government and the province with the 
 maintenance of the quasi-monarchical relation in which he 
 now stands towards the community over which he pre- 
 sides, be discovered and agreed upon, he must be content 
 to tread along a path which is somewhat narrow and 
 slippery, and to find that incessant watchfulness and some 
 dexterity are requisite to prevent him from falling, on the 
 one side into the neant of mock sovereignty, or on the 
 other into the dirt and confusion of local factions. 
 
 To HIS WiFE.i 
 
 1847. 
 I still adhere to my opinion that the real and effectual 
 vindication of Lord Durham's memory and proceedings 
 will be the success of a Governor-General of Canada tvho 
 works out his views of government fairly. Depend upon it, 
 if this country is governed for a few years satisfactorily, 
 Lord Durham's reputation as a statesman will be raised 
 beyond the reach of cavil. I do not indeed know whether 
 I am to be the instrument to carry out this work, or be 
 destined, like others who have gone before me, to break 
 down in the attempt ; but I am still of opinion that the 
 thing may be done, though it requires some good-fortune 
 and some qualities not of the lowest order. I find on my 
 arrival here a very weak Government, almost as much 
 abused by their friends as by their foes, no civil or private 
 secretary, and an immense quantity of arrears of business. 
 It is possible, therefore, that I may not be able to bear 
 up against the difficulties of my situation, and that it 
 may remain for some one else to effect that object, which 
 many reasons would render me so desirous to achieve. 
 
 ' Daughter of Lord Durham.
 
 REBELLION LOSSES BILL 313 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 Government House, Montreal, 
 April 30, 1849. 
 I regret to state that rioting, attended with some 
 consequences much to be regretted, though happily with 
 no injury to Hfe, or, except in one instance, to person, 
 has taken place in the city of Montreal during the last 
 few days. I hasten to furnish your Lordship with an 
 account of what has actually occurred, lest you should 
 be misled by exaggerated reports conveyed through the 
 United States. 
 
 2. In consequence of the unexpected arrival of vessels 
 with merchandize at the Port of Quebec, it became 
 necessary for me to proceed, on a short notice, to Parlia- 
 ment, on Wednesday last, in order to give the Royal 
 Assent to a Customs Bill which had that day passed the 
 Legislative Council ; and I considered that, as this neces- 
 sity had arisen, it would not be expedient to keep the 
 public mind in suspense by omitting to dispose, at the 
 same time, of the other Acts in which the two branches 
 of the local Parliament had at an earlier period of the 
 session concurred, and which still awaited my decision. 
 Among these was the Act to provide for the indemnifica- 
 tion of parties in Lower Canada whose property was de- 
 stroyed during the Rebellion in 1837 and 1838, with 
 respect to which, as your Lordship is aware, much excite- 
 ment has unhappily been stirred. 
 
 3. I herewith enclose, for your Lordship's perusal, a 
 printed copy of the Act in question, and I shall not fail 
 by the first mail to furnish you with full information 
 respecting its character and objects, the circumstances 
 which led to its introduction, and the grounds on which 
 I resolved, after much reflection, to sanction it. No 
 money can be paid under it as indemnity for a con- 
 siderable period, so that Her Majesty's power of dis- 
 allowance can be exercised with effect, should Her 
 Majesty be so advised, notwithstanding the course 
 which I have taken. As I am writing this Despatch in 
 haste, with a view to its transmission by way of New 
 York, I shall confine myself for the present to a statement 
 of the proceedings by which the peace of the (nty has 
 been disturbed.
 
 314 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 4. In order, however, to render this narrative intel- 
 ligible, I must premise that for some time past the House 
 of Assembly, as at present constituted, has been the 
 object of bitter denunciation, and not unfrequently of 
 reckless menace, on the part of a certain portion of the 
 press of the province, and more especially of that of Mon- 
 treal. Your Lordship will probably recollect that the 
 ])ody in question is the product of a general election 
 which took place about 18 months ago, under the auspices 
 of the political party now in opposition, and after a dis- 
 solution, to which I had recourse on their advice, for the 
 purpose of strengthening them in their position as a 
 Government. The result of this measure was in the last 
 degree unfavourable to those who had recommended it ; 
 not, however, so much so in Lower Canada, where the 
 complexion of the representation was little affected by the 
 dissolution,^ as in the Upper Province, where several con- 
 stituencies, among which were some of the most populous, 
 rejected conservative in favour of liberal candidates. On 
 a question of confidence raised at the commencement of 
 the session, immediately after the general election, the 
 Administration was defeated by a majority of more than 
 two to one, and a change of Government, as a matter of 
 course, ensued. 
 
 5. This alteration in the political complexion of the 
 Assembly, and the change of Government consequent 
 upon it, were therefore clearly and distinctly traceable 
 to a revulsion of sentiment in the British constituencies 
 of Upper Canada. In Lower Canada nothing had occurred 
 to account for either. This circumstance has, however, 
 failed to secure for the decisions of the popular representa- 
 tive body either forbearance or respect from a certain 
 section of those who profess to be emphatically the sup- 
 porters of British interests. To denounce the Parliament 
 as French in its composition, and the Government as sub- 
 ject to French influences, has been their constant object, 
 and the wildest doctrines have been broached mth respect 
 to the right which belongs to a British minority of re- 
 dressing by violence any indignity to which it may be 
 subjected from such a source. I have now before me an 
 
 1 The actual figures were, that while the previous Parliament had 
 contained sixteen avowed Conservatives from Lower Canada, and 
 several waverers, only six of these survived the General Election, 
 including not a single French Canadian.
 
 FEELING OF BRITISH MINORITY 315 
 
 article that appeared in one of the principal English news- 
 papers of Montreal at a very early period of the session, 
 of which I transcribe the concluding paragraph, as illus- 
 trative of the temper and language in which, even at that 
 time, and before the public mind had been excited by the 
 discussion of the Rebellion Losses Bill, a portion of the 
 press ventured to criticise the proceedings of the local 
 Parliament. The article treats of a measure affecting 
 the townships, to which, I believe, no great objection was 
 raised in Parliament. It terminates, however, in the 
 words — " We are very glad of it — the sooner the cloven 
 " foot is made visible the better : the obvious intention 
 " of that majority, composed of Frenchmen, aided by 
 " traitorous British Canadians, is to force French institu- 
 " tions still further upon the British minority in Lower 
 " Canada. The intention is obvious, as we said, and we 
 " are glad that it is openly shown. We trust that the 
 " party of the Government will succeed in every one of 
 " their obnoxious measures. When French tyranny 
 " becomes insupportable we shall find our Cromwell. 
 " Sheflfield, in the olden times, used to be famous for its 
 " keen and well-tempered whittles ; well, they make 
 " bayonets there now, just as sharp and just as well- 
 " tempered. When we can stand tyranny no longer, it 
 " will be seen whether good bayonets in Saxon hands 
 " will not be more than a match for a mace and a 
 " majority." 
 
 6. To persons accustomed to the working of constitu- 
 tional government in well-ordered communities, it may 
 seem incredible that such language should be employed 
 by the organs of any respectable party in reference to a 
 body comprising the freely-chosen representatives of a 
 constituency, formed on a most popular basis ; but the 
 cause of the anomaly is apparent enough to all who are 
 acquainted with the history of Canada. For a series of 
 years the popular representative body and the Executive, 
 supported by the Legislative Council, were, in the Lower 
 Province especially, in a condition of almost constant 
 antagonism. To revile the one was the surest test of 
 patriotism ; to denounce the other, of loyalty. In a 
 society singularly democratic in its structure, where 
 diversities of race supplied special elements of confusion, 
 and where consequently it was most important that con- 
 stituted authority should be respected, the moral influ-
 
 316 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 ence of law and Government was enfeebled by the exist- 
 ence of perpetual strife between the powers that ought to 
 have afforded to each other a mutual support. No state 
 of affairs could be imagined less favourable to the extinc 
 tion of national animosities, and to the firm establishment 
 of the gentle and benignant control of those liberal insti- 
 tutions which it is England's pride and privilege to bestow 
 upon her children. 
 
 7. I am not without hope that a steady adherence to 
 the principles of constitutional Government, and the con- 
 tinuance of harmony between the co-ordinate branches of 
 the Legislature, may lead in process of time to the correc- 
 tion of these evils ; meanwhile, however, I must ascribe 
 mainly to the cause which I have assigned the tone of 
 arrogant defiance with which the resolutions, not of the 
 Government only, but also of the Parliament, are treated 
 by parties who happen for the moment to be unable to 
 make their views prevail with either, and the acts of vio- 
 lence to which this inflammatory language has in the 
 present instance led. 
 
 8. That many persons conscientiously disapprove of 
 the measure respecting rebellion losses in Lower Canada 
 which has been introduced by the Government, and which 
 the local Parliament has passed by large majorities, and 
 that in the minds of others it stirs national antipathies 
 and recollections of former conflicts, which designing 
 politicians seek to improve to their own selfish ends, 
 cannot, I fear, be doubted. It is therefore emphatically a 
 measure which should have been approached with calm- 
 ness and caution, by all at least who are not directly 
 interested in the issue. Unfortunately, however, this 
 has been by no means the case. Not only have appeals 
 to passion of the most reckless description proceeded 
 from the local press, but they have received encourage- 
 ment from quarters from which they had little right to 
 look for it. Passages such as the following, in which a 
 London journal of influence treats of the British popula- 
 tion as affected by the measure in question : — " They are 
 " tolerably able to take care of themselves, and we very 
 " much misconstrue the tone adopted by the Enghsh press 
 " and Enghsh public in the province if they do not find 
 " some means of resisting the heavy blow and great dis- 
 *' couragement which is aimed at them," are read with 
 avidity, and construed to mean that sympathy will be
 
 RIOTS AT MONTREAL 317 
 
 extended from influential quarters at home to those who 
 seek to annul the obnoxious decision of the local Legisla- 
 ture, whatever be the means to which they resort for the 
 attainment of that end. 
 
 9. The scenes by which the city of Montreal has been 
 lately disgraced, are the natural fruits of an agitation of 
 this character, operating on a people of excitable temper, 
 who have been taught to believe that a race which 
 they despise, and over which they have been wont 
 to exercise dominion, has obtained through the opera- 
 tion of a constitutional system an authority which 
 it could not otherwise have acquired. Hence, more 
 especially, their vehement indignation against me per- 
 sonally, and the conviction, in many cases I doubt 
 not perfectly sincere, that I have been guilty of a 
 serious dereliction of duty because I have not, as my 
 predecessors have often done before me, consented to 
 place myself in the front of an agitation to counteract the 
 policy of Parliament. The nature of the constitutional 
 doctrines which practically obtain in this section of the 
 community, is curiously exemplified by the fact, that it 
 is not the passage of the Bill by an overwhelming majority 
 of the representatives of the people, or the acquiescence 
 of the Council, but the consent of the Governor which 
 furnishes the pretext for an exhibition of popular 
 violence. 
 
 10. When I left the House of Parliament after giving the 
 Royal Assent to several Bills, to which I have referred, 
 I was received with mingled cheers and hootings by a 
 crowd by no means numerous which surrounded the 
 entrance to the building. A small knot of individuals 
 consisting, it has since been ascertained, of persons of a 
 respectable class in society pelted the carriage with mis- 
 siles which they must have brought with them for the 
 purpose. Within an hour after this occurrence, a notice, 
 of which I enclose a copy, issued from one of the news- 
 paper offices, calling a meeting in the open air. At the 
 meeting inflammatory speeches were made. On a sudden, 
 whether under the effect of momentary excitement, or 
 in pursuance of a plan arranged beforehand, the mob 
 proceeded to the House of Parliament where the members 
 were still sitting, and breaking the windows set fire to 
 the building and burned it to the ground. By this 
 wanton act public property of considerable value, in-
 
 318 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 eluding two oxcpllent libraries, has been utterly destroyed. 
 Having achieved their object the crowd dispersed, appar- 
 ently satisfied with W'hat they had done. The members 
 were permitted to retire unmolested, and no resistance was 
 offered to the military who appeared on the ground after 
 a brief interval, to restore order, and aid in extinguishing 
 the flames. During the two following days a good deal ol" 
 excitement prevailed in the streets, and some further acts 
 of incendiarism were perpetrated. Since then the mili- 
 tary force has been increased, and the leaders of the dis- 
 affected party have shown a disposition to restrain their 
 follow'ers, and to direct their energies towards the more 
 constitutional object of petitioning the Queen for my 
 recall, and the disallowance of the obnoxious Bill. The 
 proceedings of the House of Assembly will also tend to 
 awe the turbulent. I trust, therefore, that the peace of 
 the city will not be again disturbed. The newspapers 
 which I enclose contain full, and I believe pretty accurate, 
 accounts of all that has occurred since Wednesday last.^ 
 
 11. The ministry are blamed for not having made 
 adequate provision against these disasters ; that they by 
 no means expected that the hostility to the Rebelhon 
 Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages 
 which have been perpetrated during the last few weeks 
 is certain. Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by 
 them to the menaces of the opposition press. It must be 
 admitted, however, that their position w^as one of con- 
 siderable diiiiculty. The civil force of Montreal — a city 
 containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different races, 
 with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in 
 constant activity — consists of two policemen under the 
 authority of the Government, and seventy appointed by 
 the Corporation. To oppose, therefore, effectual resistance 
 to any considerable mob, recourse must be had in all cases 
 either to the military or to a force of civilians enrolled 
 for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented 
 themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either 
 of these courses until the disposition to tumult on the 
 part of the populace unhappily manifested itself in overt 
 acts. More especially was it of importance to avoid any 
 measure which might have had a tendency to produce a 
 collision between parties on a question on which their 
 
 ' For an account of the proceedings, at this time, see Dent, o^. cit., ii. 
 143-177 ; Pope, Sir John Maedonald, i. 65-69.
 
 OPINION OF ASSEMBLY 319 
 
 feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course 
 pursued is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except 
 in the case of some of the ministers themselves, no destruc- 
 tion of private property. 
 
 12. The proceedings in the Assembly have been im- 
 portant. I enclose the copy of an address which has been 
 voted to me by a majority of 36 to 16, expressive of ab- 
 horrence at the outrages which have taken place in the 
 city of Montreal, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval 
 of my just and impartial administration of the Govern- 
 ment with my late as well as my present advisers. Some 
 of the opposition approve of the course which 1 have 
 taken with respect to the Rebellion Losses Bill, as appears 
 from the speeches of Messrs. Wilson and Galt,^ of which 
 reports are given in the newspapers which I enclose. 
 Mr. Wilson is an influential member of the Upper Canada 
 conservative party, and Mr. Gait's views are the more 
 important, because he has been returned to Parliament 
 only a few days ago by a Lower Canadian constituency 
 which comprises a large British population. Generally, 
 however, as the amendments they have moved to the 
 address show, they desire to avoid committing themselves 
 on this point. The votes against the Address may be 
 thus classed : Sir A. M'Nab ^ and his party ; my late 
 ministers and their party ; and Mr. Papineau. The first 
 acts with perfect consistency in voting as he has done on 
 this question ; for he has always contended that govern- 
 ment conducted on British principles is unsuited to 
 Canada. The course of the second class is less intelligible ; 
 for, until the day on which they resigned their ofhces into 
 my hands, they uniformly expressed approval of the prin- 
 ciples on which my conduct as Governor-General was 
 guided ; and these, as your Lordship well knows, have 
 undergone no change with the change of administration. 
 Mr. Papineau's vote conveys a useful lesson which will 
 not, I trust, be lost on persons who had been induced to 
 believe that the persecution of which I am now the object 
 is really attributable to my having shown undue lenity to 
 those who were led by him into rebellion. 
 
 13. I have now furnished your Lordship with as clear 
 a statement of these important occurrences as I can give, 
 
 1 i\Ir. A. T. Gait, member for Sherbrooke. 
 
 ■■' Member for Hamilton, leader of the High Tory Party from Upper 
 Canada, the remnant of the Family Compact.
 
 320 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 and I can concludo by assuring you tliat the city is ])ei'- 
 fectly tranquil, and that there is no present likelihood of 
 a renewal of disturbances. A few days will show what 
 echo the proceedings of the violent party awaken in Upper 
 Canada, and to what extent they are followed by reaction. 
 Meanwhile it is my firm conviction that if this dictation 
 be submitted to, the government of this province by con- 
 stitutional means will be impossible, and that the struggle 
 bct\\een overbearing minorities, backed by force, and 
 majorities resting on legality and established forms, 
 wliich has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving 
 capital from the province, and producing a state of chronic 
 discontent, will be perpetuated. At the same time, I 
 think that if I am unable to recover that position of 
 dignified neutrality between contending parties which it 
 has been my unremitting study to maintain, and from 
 which I would appear to have been for the moment driven 
 — not, as I firmly believe, through any fault of my own, 
 but by the unreasoning violence of faction — it may be 
 a question with your Lordship whether it would not be 
 for the interests of Her Majesty's service that I should be 
 removed from my high office to make way for one who 
 should not indeed hold views at variance -with mine with 
 respect to the duties of a constitutional Governor, but 
 who should have the advantage of being personally un- 
 obnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's subjects within 
 the province. 
 
 To THE Duke of Newcastle. 
 
 Quebec, 
 February 18, 1853. 
 
 Now that the bonds formed by commercial protection 
 and the disposal of local offices are severed, it is very de- 
 sirable that the prerogative of the Crown, as the fountain 
 of honour, should be employed, in so far as this can pro- 
 perly be done, as a means of attaching the outlying parts 
 of the empire to the throne. Of the soundness of this 
 proposition as a general principle no doubt can, I presume, 
 be entertained. It is not, indeed, always easy to apply 
 it in these communities, where fortunes are precarious, 
 the social system so much based on equality, and public 
 services so generally mixed up with party conflicts. 
 But it should never, in my opinion, be lost sight of, and
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE EMPIRE 321 
 
 advantage should be taken of all favourable opportunities 
 to act upon it. 
 
 There are two principles which ought, I think, as a 
 general rule to be attended to in the distribution of 
 Imperial honours among colonists. Firstly, they should 
 appear to emanate directly from the Crown, on the advice, 
 if you will, of the Governors and Imperial Ministers, but 
 not on the recommendation of the local executives. 
 And, secondly, they should be conferred, as much as 
 possible, on the eminent persons who are no longer 
 actively engaged in political life. If these principles be 
 neglected, such distinctions wiU, I fear, soon lose their 
 value. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 Toronto, 
 March 23, 1850. 
 
 Lord John's speech on the colonies seems to have been 
 eminently successful at home. It is calculated, too, I 
 think, to do good in the colonies ; but for one sentence, 
 the introduction of which I deeply deplore — the sting in 
 the tail. Alas for that sting in the tail !^ I much fear 
 that when the liberal and enlightened sentiments, the 
 enunciation of which by one so high in authority is so 
 well calculated to make the colonists sensible of the advan- 
 tages which they derive from their connection with Great 
 Britain, shall have passed away from their memories, 
 there will not be wanting those who will remind them that, 
 on this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister of England, 
 amid the plaudits of a full senate, declared that he looked 
 forward to the day when the ties which he was endeavour- 
 ing to render so easy and mutually advantageous would 
 be severed. And wherefore this foreboding ? or, perhaps, 
 
 1 This was the speech delivered in the House of Coininons on 
 February 8, 1850. Lord John ended by saying : " I anticipate, 
 indeed, with others that some of the colonies may so grow in popu- 
 lation and wealth that they may say, ' Our strength is suflicicnt to 
 enable us to be independent of England. The link is now become 
 onerous to us. The time is como when we think we can, in amity and 
 alliance with England, maintain our independence.' I do not think 
 that that time is yet approaching, liut let us make them, as far as 
 possible, fit to govern themselves ; let us give them, as far as we can, 
 the capacity of ruling their own affairs ; lot tliom increase in wealth 
 and population, and, wliatover may happen, wo of this great I'lmpire 
 shall have tlie consolation of saying that we have contributed to the 
 happiness of the world." 
 
 21
 
 322 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 I ought not to use the term foreboding, for really to judge 
 by the comments of the press on tliis declaration of Lord 
 John's, I should be led to imagine that the prospect of 
 these sucking democracies, after they have drained their 
 old mother's life-blood, leaving her in the lurch, and setting 
 up as rivals, just at the time when their increasing strength 
 might render them a support instead of a burden, is one 
 of the most cheering which has of late presented itself to 
 the English imagination. But wherefore then this antici- 
 pation — if foreboding be not the correct term ? Because 
 Lord John and the people of England persist in assuming 
 that the Colonial relation is incompatible with maturity 
 and full development. And is this really so incontestable 
 a truth that it is a duty not only to hold but to proclaim 
 it ? Consider for a moment what is the effect of pro- 
 claiming it in our case. We have on this continent two 
 great empires in presence, or rather, I should say, two 
 great Imperial systems. In many respects there is much 
 similarity between them. In so far as powers of self- 
 government are concerned it is certain that our colonists 
 in America have no reason to envy the citizens of any 
 state in the Union. The forms differ, but it may be shown 
 that practically the inhabitants of Canada have a greater 
 power in controlling their own destiny that those of 
 l^lichigan or New York, who must tolerate a tariff imposed 
 by twenty other states, and pay the expenses of war 
 undertaken for objects which they profess to abhor. 
 And yet there is a difference between the two cases ; a 
 difference, in my humble judgment, of sentiment rather 
 than substance, which renders the one a system of life 
 and strength, and the other a system of death and decay. 
 No matter how raw and rude a territory may be when it 
 is admitted as a state into the Union of the United States, 
 it is at once, by the popular belief, invested with all the 
 dignity of manhood, and introduced into a system which, 
 despite the combativeness of certain ardent spirits from 
 the South, every American believes and maintains to be 
 immortal. But how does the case stand with us ? No 
 matter how great the advance of a British colony in wealth 
 and civilisation ; no matter how absolute the powers of 
 self-government conceded to it, it is still taught to believe 
 that it is in a condition of pupilage from which it must 
 pass before it can attain maturity. For one, I have never 
 been able to comprehend why, elastic as our constitutional
 
 BALDWIN ON DISMEMBERMENT 323 
 
 system is, we should not be able, now more especially 
 when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, 
 to render the links which bind them to the British Crown 
 at least as lasting as those which unite the component 
 parts of the Union. . . . One thing is, however, indis- 
 pensable to the success of this or any other system of 
 Colonial Government. You must renounce the habit of 
 telling the Colonies that the Colonial is a provisional 
 existence. You must allow them to believe that, without 
 severing the bonds which unite them to Great Britain, 
 they may attain the degree of perfection, and of social 
 and political development, to which organised com- 
 munities of free men have a right to aspire. 
 
 Since I began this letter I have, I regret to say, con- 
 firmatory evidence of the justice ot the anticipations I 
 had formed of the probable effect of Lord John's declara- 
 tion. I enclose extracts from two newspapers, an 
 annexationist, the Herald of Montreal, and a quasi annexa- 
 tionist, the Mirror of Toronto. You will note the use they 
 make of it. I was more annoyed, however, I confess, by 
 what occurred yesterday in Council. We had to deter- 
 mine whether or not to dismiss from his offices a gentle- 
 man who is both M.P.P., Q.C., and J.P., and who has 
 issued a flaming manifesto in favour, not of annexation, 
 but of an immediate declaration of independence as a 
 step to it. I will not say anything of my own opinion on 
 the case, but it was generally contended by the members 
 of the Board, that it would be impossible to maintain that 
 persons who had declared their intention to throw off their 
 allegiance to the Queen, with a view to annexation, ^ were 
 unfit to retain offices granted during pleasure, if persons 
 who made a similar declaration with a view to indepen- 
 dence were to be differently dealt with. Baldwin^ had 
 Lord John's speech in his hand. He is a man of singu- 
 larly placid demeanour, but he has been seriously ill, so 
 possibly his nerves are shaken — at any rate I never saw 
 him so much moved. " Have you read the latter part of 
 "Lord J. Russell's speech ?" he said to me. I nodded 
 assent. "For myself," he added, "if the anticipations 
 " therein expressed prove to be well founded, my interest 
 " in public affairs is gone for ever. But is it not hard 
 " upon us while we are labouring, through good and evil 
 
 1 Sec p. 335. 
 
 2 At tliis time joint premier with Sir L. H. Lafontaine. 
 
 21—2
 
 324 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 " report, to thwart the designs of those who would dis- 
 " member the Empire, that our adversaries should be 
 " informed that the difference between them and the 
 " Prime Minister of England is only one of time ? If the 
 " British Government has really come to the conclusion 
 " that we are a burden to be cast off whenever a 
 " favourable opportunity offers, surely we ought to be 
 " warned." 
 
 I replied that while I regretted as much as he could do 
 the paragraph to which he referred, I thought he some- 
 what mistook its import : that I believed no man living 
 was more opposed to the dismemberment of the Empire 
 than Lord J. Russell : that I did not conceive that he had 
 any intention of deserting the Colonies, or of inviting them 
 to separate from England ; but that he had in the sentence 
 in question given utterance to a purely speculative, and 
 in my judgment most fallacious, opinion, which was 
 shared, I feared, by very many persons both in England 
 and the Colonies : that I held it to be a perfectly unsound 
 and most dangerous theory, that British Colonies could 
 not attain maturity without separation, and that my 
 interest in labouring with them to bring into full play the 
 principles of Constitutional Government in Canada would 
 entirely cease if I could be persuaded to adopt it. I 
 said all this, I must confess however, not without mis- 
 giving, for I could not but be sensible that, in spite of all 
 my allegations to the contrary, my audience was disposed 
 to regard a prediction of this nature, proceeding from a 
 Prime Minister, less as a speculative abstraction than as 
 one of that class of prophecies which work their own 
 fulfilment. I left the Council Chamber disheartened, 
 with the feeling that Lord J. Russell's reference to the 
 manhood of Colonies was more likely to be followed by 
 practical consequences than Lamartine's famous " quand 
 " Vheure aura sonne " invocation to oppressed nationalities. 
 It is possible, indeed, that I exaggerate to myself the prob- 
 able effects of this declaration. Politicians of the Bald- 
 vnr\ stamp, with distinct views and aims, who having 
 struggled to obtain a Government on British principles, 
 desire to preserve it, are not, I fear, very numerous in 
 Canada ; the great mass move on with very indefinite 
 purposes, and not much inquiring whither they are going. 
 Of one thing, however, I am confident : there cannot be 
 any peace, contentment, progress, or credit in this colony
 
 COLONIAL INDEPENDENCE 325 
 
 while the idea obtains that the connection with England 
 is a millstone about its neck which should be cast off, as 
 soon as it can be conveniently managed. What man in 
 liis senses would invest his money in the public securities 
 of a country where questions affecting the very founda- 
 tions on which public credit rests are in perpetual agita- 
 tion ; or would settle in it at all if he could find for his 
 foot a more stable resting-place elsewhere ? I may, 
 perhaps, be expressing myself too unreservedly with 
 reference to opinions emanating from a source which I 
 am no less disposed than bound to respect. As I have 
 the means, however, of feeling the pulse of the colonists 
 in this most feverish region, I consider it to be always 
 my duty to furnish you with as faithful a record as 
 possible of our diagnostics. And, after all, may I not with 
 all submission ask, Is not the question at issue a most 
 momentous one ? What is it indeed but this : Is the 
 Queen of England to be the Sovereign of an Empire, 
 growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age, 
 striking its roots deep into fresh earth and drawing new 
 supplies of vitality from virgin soils ? Or is she to be 
 for all essential purposes of might and power, Monarch 
 of Great Britain and Ireland merely — her place and that 
 of her line in the world's history determined by the pro- 
 ductiveness of 12,000 square miles of a coal formation, 
 which is being rapidly exhausted, and the duration of the 
 social and political organization over which she presides 
 dependent on the annual expatriation, with a view to its 
 eventual alienization, of the surplus swarms of her born 
 subjects ? If Lord J. Russell, instead of concluding his 
 excellent speech with a declaration of opinion which, as 
 I read it, and as I fear others \^dll read it, seems to make 
 it a point of honour with the Colonists to prepare for 
 separation, had contented himself with resuming the 
 statements already made in its course, with showing that 
 neither the Government nor Parliament could have any 
 object in view in their Colonial policy but the good of the 
 Colonies, and the establishment of the relation between 
 them and the mother-country on the basis of mutual 
 affection ; that, as the idea of maintaining a Colonial 
 Empire for the purpose of exercising dominion or dispens- 
 ing patronage had been for some time abandoned, and 
 that of regarding it as a hot-bed for forcing commerce and 
 manufactures more recently renounced, a greater amount
 
 326 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 of free action and self-government might be conceded to 
 British Colonies without any breach of Imperial Unity, 
 or the violation of any principle of Imperial Policy, than 
 had under any scheme yet devised fallen to the lot of the 
 component parts of any Federal or Imperial system ; if 
 he had left these great truths to work their effect without 
 hazarding a conjecture which will, I fear, be received as 
 a suggestion, with respect to the course which certain 
 wayAvard members of the Imperial family may be expected 
 to take in a contingency still confessedly remote, it would, 
 I venture with great deference to suljmit, in so far at 
 least as public feeling in the Colonies is concerned, have 
 been safer and better. 
 
 You draw, I know, a distinction between separation 
 with a view to annexation and separation with a view to 
 independence. You say the former is an act of treason, 
 the latter a natural and legitimate step in progress. 
 There is much plausibility doubtless in this position, 
 but, independently of the fact that no one advocates 
 independence in these Colonies except as a means to the 
 end, annexation, is it really tenable ? If you take your 
 stand on the hypothesis that the Colonial existence is 
 one with which the Colonists ought to rest satisfied, then, 
 I think, you are entitled to denounce, without reserve or 
 measure, those who propose, for some secondary object, 
 to substitute the Stars and Stripes for the Union Jack. 
 But if, on the contrary, you assume that it is a provisional 
 state, which admits of but a stunted and partial growth, 
 and out of which all communities ought in the course of 
 nature to strive to pass, how can you refuse to permit 
 your colonies here, when they have arrived at the proper 
 stage in their existence, to place themselves in a condition 
 which is at once most favourable to their security and to 
 their perfect national development ? What reasons can 
 you assign for the refusal, except such as are founded on 
 selfishness, and are, therefore, morally worthless ? If you 
 say that your great lubberly boy is too big for the nursery, 
 and that you have no other room for him in your house, 
 how can you decline to allow him to lodge vnth his elder 
 brethren over the way, when the attempt to keep up an 
 establishment for himself would seriously embarrass him ?
 
 RIVAL SYSTEMS 327 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 Toronto, 
 November 1, 1850. 
 
 Sir H. Bulwer spent four days with us, and for many 
 reasons I am glad that he has been here. He leaves us 
 knowing more of Canada than he did when he came. I 
 think too that both he and Sir E. Head return to their 
 homes re-assured on many points of our internal policy, 
 on which they felt doubtful before, and much enlightened 
 as to the real position of men and tilings in this province. 
 
 With one important truth I have laboured to impress 
 them, and I hope successfully. It is this : that the faith- 
 ful carrying out of the principles of Constitutional Govern- 
 ment is a departure from the American model, not an 
 approximation to it, and, therefore, a departure from 
 republicanism in its only workable shape. Of the sound- 
 ness of this view of our case I entertain no doubt what- 
 ever ; and though I meet with few persons to whom it 
 seems to have occurred (for the common belief of super- 
 ficial observers is that we are republicanising the colonies), 
 I seldom fail in bringing it home to the understanding of 
 any intelligent person with whom I have occasion to 
 discuss it. The fact is, that the American system is our 
 old Colonial system with, in certain cases, the principle 
 of popular election substituted for that of nomination by 
 the Crown. Mr. Filmore stands to his Congress very 
 much in the same relation in wh'ch I stood to my As- 
 sembly in Jamaica. There is the same absence of effec- 
 tive responsibility in the conduct of legislation, the same 
 want of concurrent action between the parts of the poli- 
 tical machine. The whole business of legislation in the 
 American Congress, as well as in the State Legislatures, 
 is conducted in the manner in which railway business was 
 conducted in the House of Commons at a time when it is 
 to be feared that, notwithstanding the high standard of 
 honour in the British Parliament, there was a good deal 
 of jobbing. For instance, our Reciprocity measure was 
 pressed by us at Washington last session, just as a Railway 
 Bill in 1845 or 184G would have been pressed in Parlia- 
 ment. There was no Government to deal with. The 
 interests of the Union, as a whole and distinct from local 
 and sectional interests, had no organ in the representative 
 bodies ; it was all a question of canvassing this member
 
 32S RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 of Congress or the other. It is easy to perceive that, 
 under such a system, jobbing must become not the excep- 
 tion but the rule. 
 
 Now I feel very strongly, that when a people have been 
 once thoroughly accustomed to the working of such a 
 Parliamentary system as ours, they never will consent 
 to revert to this clumsy irresponsible mechanism. 
 Whether we shall be able to carry on the war here long 
 enough to allow the practice of Constitutional Govern- 
 ment and the habits of mind which it engenders to take 
 root in these provinces, may be doubtful. But it may 
 be worth your while to consider whether these views do 
 not throw some light on affairs in Europe. If you part 
 with constitutional monarchies there, you may possibly 
 get sometliing much more democratic ; but you cannot, I 
 am confident, get American republicanism. It is the 
 fashion to say, " of course not ; we cannot get their 
 federal system ;" but this is not the only reason, there 
 are others that lie deeper. Look at France, where they 
 are trying to jumble up the two things, a head of the State 
 responsible to the people who elect him, and a ministry 
 responsible to the Government. 
 
 To THE Duke of Newcastle. 
 
 Marcli 26, 1853. 
 
 It is argued that, by the severance of the connection, 
 British statesmen would be relieved of an onerous respon- 
 sibility for colonial acts of which they cannot otherwise 
 rid themselves. Is there not, however, some fallacy in 
 this ? If by conceding absolute independence the British 
 Parliament can acquit itself of the obligation to impose 
 its will upon the Colonists, in the matter, for instance, of 
 a Church Establishment, can it not attain the same end 
 by declaring that, as respects such local questions, the 
 Colonists are free to judge for themselves ? How can it be 
 justifiable to adopt the former of these expedients, and 
 sacrilegious to act upon the latter ? 
 
 The true policy, in my humble judgment, is to throw 
 the w^hole weight of responsibility on those who exercise 
 the real power, for, after all, the sense of responsibility is 
 the best security against the abuse of power ; and, as 
 respects the connection, to act and speak on this hjrpo- 
 thesis — that there is nothing in it to check the develop-
 
 RIVAL SYSTEMS 329 
 
 ment of healthy national life in these young communities. 
 I believe that this policy vnR be found to be not only the 
 safest, but also (an important consideration in these days) 
 the most economical. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 Toronto, 
 December 17, 1850. 
 
 Although, as you observe, it seems to be rather idle in 
 us to correspond on what may be termed speculative 
 questions, when we have so much pressing business on 
 hand, I venture to say a few words in reply to your letter 
 of the 23rd ult., firstly, because I presume to dissent 
 from some of the opinions which you advance in it ; and, 
 secondly, because I have a practical object of no small 
 importance in view in calling your attention to the con- 
 trasts which present themselves in the working of our 
 institutions, and those of our neighbours in the States. 
 My practical object is this : when you concede to the 
 Colonists Constitutional Government in its integrity, you 
 are reproached with leading them to Republicanism and 
 the American Union. The same reproach is hurled with 
 anathemas against your humble servant. Lord Stanley, 
 if I rightly remember, in the debate on Ryland's case last 
 year, stated amid cheers, that if you were in the habit of 
 consulting the ministers of the Crown in the Colony before 
 you placed persons on the colonial pension list, he had no 
 hesitation in saying you had already established a re- 
 public in Canada ! Now I believe, on the contrary, that 
 it may be demonstrated that the concession of Constitu- 
 tional Government has a tendency to draw the Colonists 
 the other way ; firstly, because it slakes that thirst for self- 
 government which seizes on all British communities when 
 they approach maturity ; and, secondly, because it 
 habituates the Colonists to the working of a political 
 mechanism, which is both intrinsically superior to that of 
 the Americans, and more unlike it than our old Colonial 
 system. 
 
 Adopting, however, the views with respect to the superi- 
 ority of the mechanism of our political system to that of 
 our neighbours, which I have ventured to urge, you pro- 
 ceed to argue that the remedy is in their hands ; that 
 without abandoning their republicanism they and their
 
 330 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 confreres in France have nothing to do but to dismiss 
 their Presidents and to substitute our constitution with- 
 out a King, the body without the head, for their own, to 
 get rid of the inconveniences which they now experience ; 
 and you quote with approbation, as an embodiment of 
 this idea, the project submitted by M. Grevy and the Red 
 RepubHcans to the French Constituent Assembly. 
 
 Now here I confess I cannot go along with you, and the 
 difference between us is a very material one ; for if the 
 monarch be not an indispensable element in our constitu- 
 tional mechanism, and if we can secure all the advantages 
 of that mechanism without him, I have drawn the ^v^ong 
 moral from the facts. You say that the system the Red 
 Republicans would have established in France would have 
 been the nearest possible approach to our own. It is 
 possible, I think, that we may be tending towards the like 
 issues. It is possible, perhaps probable, that as the House 
 of Commons becomes more democratic in its composition, 
 and consequently more arrogant in its bearing, it may 
 cast off the shackles which the other powers of the State 
 impose on its self-"will, and even utterly abolish them ; 
 but I venture to believe that those who last till that day 
 comes, will find that they are living under a very different 
 constitution from that which we now enjoy ; that they 
 have traversed the interval which separates a temperate 
 and cautious administration of public affairs resting on the 
 balance of powers and interests, from a reckless and over- 
 bearing tyranny based on the caprices and passions of 
 an absolute and irresponsible body. You talk somewhat 
 lightly of the check of the CrowTi, although you acknow- 
 ledge its utility. But is it indeed so light a matter, even 
 as our constitution now works ? Is it a light matter that 
 the Crown should have the power of dissolving Parlia- 
 ment ; in other words, of deposing the tyrant at ^^n\\. ? 
 Is it a light matter that for several months in each year 
 the House of Commons should be in abeyance, during 
 which period the nation looks on Ministers not as slaves 
 of Parliament, but servants of the Crown ? Is it a light 
 matter that there should still be such respect for the 
 monarchical principle, that the servants of that visible 
 entity yclept the Crown are enabled to carry on much 
 of the details of internal and foreign administration with- 
 out consulting Parliament, and even without its cogni- 
 sance ? Or do you suppose that the Red Republicans,
 
 RIVAL SYSTEMS 331 
 
 when they advocated the nomination of a Ministry of the 
 House of Assembly with a revocable mandat, intended to 
 create a Frankenstein^ endowed with powers in some cases 
 paramount to, and in others running parallel with, the 
 authority of the omnipotent body to which it owed its 
 existence ? My own impression is, that they meant a set 
 of delegates to be appointed, who should exercise certain 
 functions of legislative initiation and executive patronage 
 so long as they reflected clearly, in the former the passions, 
 and in the latter the interests of the majority for the time 
 being, and no longer. 
 
 It appears to me, I must confess, that if you have a 
 republican form of government in a great country, with 
 complicated internal and external relations, you must 
 either separate the executive and legislative departments, 
 as in the United States, or submit to a tyranny of the 
 majority, not the more tolerable because it is capricious 
 and wielded by a tjrrant with many heads. Of the two 
 evils I prefer the former. 
 
 Consider, for a moment, how much more violent the 
 proceedings of majorities in the American Legislatures 
 would be, how much more reckless the appeals to popular 
 passion, how much more frequently the permanent in- 
 terests of the nation and the rights of individuals and 
 classes would be sacrificed to the object of raising political 
 capital for present uses, if debates or discussions affected 
 the tenure of office. I have no idea that the executive 
 and legislative departments of the State can be made to 
 work together with a sufficient degree of harmony to give 
 the maximum of strength and of mutual independence to 
 secure freedom and the rights of minorities, except under 
 the presidency of Monarchy, the moral influence of which, 
 so long as a nation is monarchical in its sentiments, cannot, 
 of course, be measured merely by its recognised power. 
 
 To Mr. Gumming Bruce. 
 
 September, 1852. 
 As respects the matter of the report, ^ I am disposed to 
 believe that, viewing the question with reference to per- 
 sonal interests exclusively, my removal from hence would 
 
 ^ Sic. " Monster" is meant. 
 
 2 I.e., that he was to be recalled by the Ministry, headed by Lord 
 Derby, which had recently come into power.
 
 332 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 not be any disadvanta<2;e to me. But, as to my work hero, 
 — there is the rub. Is it to be all undone ? On this 
 point I must speak frankly. I have been possessed {I 
 use the word advisedly, for I fear that most persons in 
 England still consider it a case of possession) with the idea 
 that it is possible to maintain on tliis soil of North 
 America, and in the face of Republican America, British 
 connection and British institutions, if you give the latter 
 freely and trustingly. Faith, when it is sincere, is always 
 catching ; and I have imparted this faith, more or less 
 thoroughly, to all Canadian statesmen wdth whom I have 
 been in official relationship since 1848, and to all intelligent 
 Englishmen with whom I have come in contact since 1850 
 — as witness Lord WharnclifiPe, Waldegrave, Tremen- 
 heere, &c. &c. Now if the Governor ceases to possess this 
 faith, or to have the faculty of imparting it, I confess I 
 fear that, ere long, it will become extinct in other breasts 
 likewise. I believe that it is equally an error to imagine 
 with one old-fashioned party, that you can govern such 
 dependencies as this on the antiquated bureaucratic 
 principle, by means of rescripts from Downing Street, in 
 defiance of the popular legislatures, and on the hypothesis 
 that one local faction monopolises all the loyalty of the 
 Colony ; and to suppose with the Radicals that all is done 
 when you have simply told the colonists "to go to the 
 devil their own way." I believe, on the contrary, that 
 there is more room tor the exercise of influence on the part 
 of the Governor under my sj^stem than under any that 
 ever was before devised ; an influence, however, wholly 
 moral — an influence of suasion, sympathy, and modera- 
 tion, which softens the temper while it elevates the aims 
 of local politics. 
 
 It is true that on certain questions of public policy, 
 especially with regard to Church matters, views are pro- 
 pounded by my ministers which do not exactly square with 
 my pre-conceived opinions, and which I acquiesce in, so 
 long as they do not contravene the fundamental principles 
 of morality, from a conviction that they are in accordance 
 with the general sentiments of the community. 
 
 It is true that I do not seek the commendation bestowed 
 on Sir F. Head for bringing men into his councils from 
 the Liberal party, and telling them that they should enjoy 
 only a partial confidence ; thereby allowing them to retain 
 their position as tribunes of the people in conjunction
 
 ROLE OF GOVERNOR 333 
 
 with the 'prestige of advisers of the Crown by enabling 
 them to shirk responsibihty for any acts of government 
 which are unpopular. It is true that I have always said 
 to my advisers, " while you continue my advisers you 
 shall enjoy my unreserved confidence ; and en revanche 
 you shall be responsible for all acts of government." 
 
 But it is no less certain that there is not one of them 
 who does not know that no inducement on earth would 
 prevail with me to bring me to acquiesce in any measures 
 which seemed to me repugnant to public morals, or Im- 
 perial interests ; and I must say that, far from finding in 
 my advisers a desire to entrap me into proceedings of 
 which 1 might disapprove, I find a tendency constantly 
 increasing to attach the utmost value to my opinion on 
 all questions, local or general, that arise. 
 
 To THE Colonial Secretary, Sir George Grey. 
 
 Quebec, 
 December 18, 1854. 
 
 I readily admit that the maintenance of the position 
 and due influence of the Governor is one of the most 
 critical problems that have to be solved in the adaptation 
 of Parliamentary Government to the Colonial system : 
 and that it is difficult to over-estimate the importance 
 which attaches to its satisfactory solution. As the Im- 
 perial Government and Parliament gradually withdraw 
 from legislative interference, and from the exercise of 
 patronage in Colonial affairs, the office of Governor tends 
 to become, in the most emphatic sense of the term, the 
 link which connects the Mother-country and the Colony, 
 and his influence the means by which harmony of action 
 between the local and imperial authorities is to be pre- 
 served. It is not, however, in my humble judgment, by 
 evincing an anxious desire to stretch to the utmost con- 
 stitutional principles in his favour, but, on the contrary, 
 by the frank acceptance of the conditions of the Parlia- 
 mentary system, that this influence can be most surely 
 extended and confirmed. Placed by his position above 
 the strife of parties — holding office by a tenure less pre- 
 carious than the ministers who surround him — having no 
 political interests to serve but that of the community 
 whose affairs he is appointed to administer — his opinion 
 cannot fail, when all cause for suspicion and jealousy i?\
 
 334 RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 
 
 removed, to have great weight in the Colonial Councils, 
 while he is set at liberty to constitute himself in an 
 especial manner the patron of those larger and higher 
 interests — such interests, for example, as those of educa- 
 tion, and of moral and material progress in all its branches 
 — which, unlike the contests of party, unite instead ot 
 dividing the members of the body politic. The mention 
 of such influences as an appreciable force in the administra- 
 tion of public affairs may provoke a sneer on the part of 
 persons who have no faith in any appeal which is not 
 addressed to the lowest motives of human conduct ; but 
 those who have juster views of our common nature, and 
 who have seen influences that are purely moral wielded 
 with judgment, will not be disposed to deny to them a 
 high degree of efficacy.
 
 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 The frequent changes in British economic policy, which 
 culminated in 1846 in the repeal of the Corn Laws, and 
 the consequent withdrawal of the preference given to 
 Canadian wheat and flour, bore hard on Canadian farmers 
 and millers, especially as colonial shipping was still 
 hampered by the Navigation Acts. An acute commercial 
 crisis followed, and was the cause of the issue early in 
 1849 of the celebrated Annexation Manifesto, which is 
 given below. This document emanated from Montreal, 
 the chief commercial and shipping town of the province, 
 and was largely signed by prominent business men of 
 both political parties. ^ \Vith it are given some explana- 
 tory letters of Lord Elgin. 
 
 So much of the discontent as was legitimate dis- 
 appeared on the repeal of the Navigation Acts in June, 
 1849, and on the negotiation by Lord Elgin in 1854 of 
 a Treaty of Reciprocity in natural products with the 
 United States. The question of peaceful annexation did 
 not again become an issue in Canadian politics till 1887- 
 
 1 Nine hundred and sixty-nine signatures were appended. Among 
 them were those of two Queen's Counsellors and of several Justices 
 of the Peace. Of these all who did not explicitly disavow their signa- 
 tures were removed from oilice by the Governor- General, with the 
 approval of his Cabinet. 
 
 In after-years, when Conservative speakers frequently attempted to 
 brand their opponents with " disloyalty," a reminder that in his 
 petulant youth the speaker had signed this manifesto was a not unusual 
 retort. See an interesting account of the feeling of the time by Sir 
 John Macdonald, who was pressed to sign, but refused, in Joseph Pope, 
 Sir John Macdunald, vol. i., pp. 71, 72, 
 
 yy5
 
 336 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 1891, when a movement in its favour again originated 
 in commercial considerations, and again passed away. 
 
 To THE People of Canada, 
 
 The number and magnitude of the evils that 
 afflict our country, and the universal and increasing 
 depression of its material interests, call upon all persons 
 animated by a sincere desire for its welfare to combine 
 for tlie purpose of inquiry and preparation, with a view 
 to the adoption of such remedies as a mature and dis- 
 passionate investigation may suggest. 
 
 Belonging to all parties, origins, and creeds, but yet 
 agreed upon the advantage of co-operation for the per- 
 formance of a common duty to ourselves and our country, 
 growing out of a common necessity, we have consented, 
 in view of a brighter and happier future, to merge in 
 oblivion all past differences, of whatever character, or 
 attributable to whatever source. In appealing to our 
 fellow colonists to unite with us in this our most needful 
 duty, we solemnly conjure them, as they desire a suc- 
 cessful issue and the welfare of their country, to enter 
 upon the task, at this momentous crisis, in the same 
 fraternal spirit. 
 
 The reversal of the ancient policy of Great Britain, 
 whereby she withdrew from the colonies their wonted 
 protection in her markets, has produced the most 
 disastrous effects upon Canada. In surveying the actual 
 condition of the country, what but ruin or rapid decay 
 meets the eye ! Our provincial Government and civic 
 corporations embarrassed ; our banking and other securi- 
 ties greatly depreciated ; our mercantile and agricultural 
 interests alike unprosperous ; real estate scarcely saleable 
 upon any terms ; our unrivalled rivers, lakes, and canals, 
 almost unused ; whilst commerce abandons our shores ; 
 the circulating capital, amassed under a more favourable 
 system, is dissipated, with none from any quarter to 
 replace it ! Thus, without available capital, unable to 
 effect a loan with foreign states or with the mother 
 country, although offering security greatly superior to 
 that which readily obtains money both from the United 
 States and Great Britain, when other than colonists are 
 the applicants. Crippled, therefore, and checked in the 
 full career of private and public enterprise, this posses- 
 sion of the British Crown — our country — stands before
 
 GLOOMY SITUATION 337 
 
 the world in humiliating contrast with its immediate 
 neighbours, exhibiting every symptom of a nation fast 
 sinking to decay. 
 
 With superabundant water power, and cheap labour, 
 especially in Lower Canada, we have yet no domestic 
 manufactures ; nor can the most sanguine, unless under 
 altered circumstances, anticipate the home growth or 
 advent from foreign parts, of either capital or enter- 
 prise, to embark in this great source of national wealth. 
 Our institutions, unhappily, have not that impress of 
 permanence which can alone impart security and inspire 
 confidence ; and the Canadian market is too limited to 
 tempt the foreign capitaUst. 
 
 Whilst the adjoining States are covered with a net- 
 work of thriving railways, Canada possesses but three 
 lines, which, together, scarcely exceed 50 miles in length, 
 and the stock in two of which is held at a depreciation 
 of from 50 to 80 per cent. — a fatal symptom of the 
 torpor overspreading the land. 
 
 Our present form of provincial Government is cum- 
 brous, and so expensive as to be ill suited to the cir- 
 cumstances of the country ; and the necessary reference 
 it demands to a distant Government, imperfectly 
 acquainted with Canadian affairs and somewhat in- 
 different to our interests, is anomalous and irksome. 
 Yet, in the event of a rupture between two of the most 
 powerful nations of the world, Canada would become 
 the battle-field and the sufferer, however little her 
 interests might be involved in the cause of quarrel or the 
 issue of the contest. 
 
 The bitter animosities of political parties and factions 
 in Canada, often leading to violence, and, upon one 
 occasion, to civil war, seem not to have abated with 
 time ; nor is there, at the present moment, any prospect 
 of diminution or accommodation. The aspect of parties 
 becomes daily more threatening towards each other, and, 
 under our existing institutions and relations, little hope 
 is discernible of a peaceful and prosperous administra- 
 tion of our affairs, but difficulties will, to all appearance, 
 accumulate until government becomes impracticable. In 
 this view of our position, any course that may promise 
 to efface existing party distinctions and place entirely 
 new issues before the people must be fraught with 
 undeniable advantages. 
 
 22
 
 338 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 Among the statesmen of the mother country — among 
 the sagacious observers of the neighbouring republic — 
 in Canada — and in all British North America — amongst 
 all classes, there is a strong prevailing conviction that 
 a political revolution in this country is at hand. Such 
 forebodings cannot readily be dispelled, and they have, 
 moreover, a tendency to realize the events to which they 
 point. In the meanwhile, serious injury results to 
 Canada from the effect of this anticipation upon the 
 more desirable class of settlers, who naturally prefer a 
 country under fixed and permanent forms of government 
 to one in a state of transition. 
 
 Having thus adverted to some of the causes of our 
 present evils, we would consider how far the remedies 
 ordinarily proposed possess sound and rational induce- 
 ments to justify their adoption : — 
 
 1. " The revival of protection in the markets of 
 
 the United Kingdom." 
 This, if attainable in a sufficient degree, and guaran- 
 teed for a long period of years, would ameliorate the 
 condition of many of our chief interests ; but the policy 
 of the empire forbids the anticipation. Besides, it would 
 be but a partial remedy. The millions of the mother 
 country demand cheap food ; and a second change from 
 protection to free trade would complete that ruin which 
 the first has done much to achieve. 
 
 2. " The protection of home manufactures." 
 Although this might encourage the growth of a manu- 
 facturing interest in Canada, yet, without access to the 
 United States market, there would not be a sufficient 
 expansion of that interest, from the want of consumers, 
 to work any result that could be admitted as a " remedy " 
 for the numerous evils of which we complain. 
 
 3. "A Federal Union of the British American 
 
 Provinces." 
 The advantages claimed for that arrangement are free 
 trade between the different provinces, and a diminished 
 government expenditure. The attainment of the latter 
 object would be problematical, and the benefits antici- 
 pated from the former might be secured by legislation 
 under our existing system. The markets of the sister 
 provinces would not benefit our trade in timber, for 
 they have a surplus of that article in their own forests ; 
 and their demand for agricultural products would be
 
 PROPOSED REMEDIES 339 
 
 too limited to absorb our means of supply. Nor could 
 Canada expect any encouragement to her manufacturing 
 industry from those quarters. A Federal Union, there- 
 fore, would be no remedy. 
 
 4. " The independence of the British North 
 
 American colonies as a Federal Republic." 
 The consolidation of its new institutions from elements 
 hitherto so discordant — the formation of treaties with 
 foreign powers — the acquirement of a name and character 
 among the nations — would, we fear, prove an over-match 
 for the strength of the new republic. And, having 
 regard to the powerful confederacy of the States conter- 
 minous with itself, the needful military defences would 
 be too costly to render independence a boon, whilst it 
 would not, any more than a Federal Union, remove those 
 obstacles which retard our material prosperity. 
 
 5. " Reciprocal free trade with the United States, 
 
 as respects the products of the farm, the 
 
 forest, and the mine." 
 If obtained, this would yield but an instalment of the 
 many advantages which might be otherwise secured. 
 The free interchange of such products would not intro- 
 duce manufactures to our country. It would not give 
 us the North American continent for our market. It 
 would neither so amend our institutions as to confer 
 stability nor ensure confidence in their permanence ; nor 
 would it allay the violence of parties, or, in the slightest 
 degree, remedy many of our prominent evils. 
 
 6. Of all the remedies that have been suggested for 
 
 the acknowledged and insufferable ills with 
 which our country is afflicted, there re- 
 mains but one to be considered. It pro- 
 pounds a sweeping and important change 
 in our political and social condition, in- 
 volving considerations which demand our 
 most serious examination. This remedy 
 consists in a " Friendly and peaceful 
 separation from British connexion, and a 
 union upon equitable terms with the great 
 North American confederacy of sovereign 
 States." 
 We would premise, that towards Great Britain we 
 entertain none other than sentiments of kindness and 
 respect. Without her consent we consider separation as 
 
 22—2
 
 r^40 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 neithor practicable nor desirable. But the colonial 
 policy of the parent state, the avowals of her leading 
 statesmen, the public sentiments of the empire, present 
 unmistakable and significant indications of the appre- 
 ciation of colonial connexion. That it is the resolve of 
 England to invest us with the attributes, and compel us 
 to assume the burdens of independence, is no longer 
 problematical. The threatened withdrawal of her troops 
 from other colonies — the continuance of her military 
 protection to ourselves only on the condition that we 
 shall defray the attendant expenditure, betoken inten- 
 tions towards our country, against which it is weakness 
 in us not to provide. An overruling conviction, then, 
 of its necessity, and a high sense of the duty we owe to 
 our country, a duty we can neither disregard nor post- 
 pone, impel us to the idea of separation ; and whatever 
 negotiations may eventuate with Great Britain, a grateful 
 liberality on the part of Canada should mark every 
 proceeding. 
 
 The proposed Union would render Canada a field for 
 American capital, into which it would enter as freely 
 for the prosecution of public works and private enter- 
 prise as into any of the present States. It would equalize 
 the value of real estate upon both sides of the boundary, 
 thereby probably doubling at once the entire present 
 value of property in Canada, whilst, by giving stability 
 to our institutions and introducing prosperity, it would 
 raise our public, corporate, and private credit. It would 
 increase our commerce both with the United States and 
 foreign countries, and would not necessarily diminish to 
 any great extent our intercourse with Great Britain, 
 into which our products would for the most part enter 
 on the same terms as at present. It would render our 
 rivers and canals the highway for the immigration to, 
 and exports from, the West, to the incalculable benefit 
 of our country. It would also introduce manufactures 
 into Canada as rapidly as they have been introduced into 
 the Northern States ; and to Lower Canada especially, 
 where water privileges and labour are abundant and 
 cheap, it would attract manufacturing capital, enhancing 
 the value of property and agricultural produce, and 
 giving remunerative employment to what is at present 
 a comparatively non-producing population. Nor would 
 the United States merely furnish the capital for our
 
 UNION WITH UNITED STATES 341 
 
 manufactures. They would also supply for them the 
 most extensive market in the world, without the inter- 
 vention of a Custom-House officer. Railways would 
 forthwith be constructed by American capital as feeders 
 for all the great lines now approaching our frontiers ; 
 and railway enterprise in general would doubtless be as 
 active and prosperous among us as among our neighbours. 
 The value of our agricultural produce would be raised 
 at once to a par with that of the United States, while 
 agricultural implements and many of the necessaries of 
 life, such as tea, coffee, and sugar, would be greatly 
 reduced in price. 
 
 The value of our timber would also be greatly enhanced 
 by free access to the American market, where it bears 
 a high price, but is subject to an onerous duty. At the 
 same time there is every reason to believe that our ship- 
 builders, as weU at Quebec as on the Great Lakes, would 
 find an unlimited market in all the ports of the American 
 continent. It cannot be doubted that the shipping trade 
 of the United States must greatly increase. It is eq\ially 
 manifest that, with them, the principal material in the 
 construction of ships is rapidly diminishing, while we 
 possess vast territories, covered with timber of excellent 
 quality, which would be equally available as it is now, 
 since under the free trade system our vessels would sell 
 as well in England after annexation as before. 
 
 The simple and economical State Government, in 
 which direct responsibility to the people is a distinguish- 
 ing feature, would be substituted for a system at once 
 cumbrous and expensive. 
 
 In place of war and the alarms of war with a neigh- 
 bour, there would be peace and amity between this 
 country and the United States. Disagreement between 
 the United States and her chief, if not only, rival among 
 nations would not make the soil of Canada the sanguinary 
 arena for their disputes, as under our existing relations 
 must necessarily be the case. That such is the unenviable 
 condition of our state of dependence upon Great Britain 
 is known to the whole world, and how far it may conduce 
 to keep prudent capitalists from making investments 
 in the country, or wealthy settlers from selecting a 
 fore-doomed battle-field for the home of themselves 
 and their children, it needs no reasoning on our part to 
 elucidate.
 
 342 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 But other advantages than those having a bearing on 
 our material interests may be foretold. It would change 
 the ground of political contest between races and parties, 
 allay and obliterate those irritations and conflicts of 
 rancour and recrimination which have hitherto disfigured 
 our social fabric. Already in anticipation has its har- 
 monious influence been felt — the harbinger may it be 
 hoped of a lasting oblivion of dissensions among all 
 classes, creeds, and parties in the country. Changing 
 a subordinate for an independent condition, we would 
 take our station among the nations of the earth. We 
 have now no voice in the affairs of the Empire, nor do we 
 share in its honours or emoluments. England is our 
 parent State, with whom we have no equality, but 
 towards whom we stand in the simple relation of 
 obedience. But as citizens of the United States 
 the public service of the nation would be open to us — 
 a field for high and honourable distinction on which 
 we and our posterity might enter on terms of perfect 
 equality. 
 
 Nor would the amicable separation of Canada from 
 Great Britain be fraught with advantages to us alone. 
 The relief to the Parent State from the large expendi- 
 ture now incurred in the military occupation of the 
 country — the removal of the many causes of collision 
 with the United States, which result from the con- 
 tiguity of mutual territories so extensive, the benefit 
 of the larger market which the increasing prosperity of 
 Canada would create, are considerations which in the 
 minds of many of her ablest statesmen, render our 
 incorporation with the United States a desirable con- 
 summation. 
 
 To the United States also the annexation of Canada 
 presents many important inducements. The with- 
 drawal from the borders of so powerful a nation, by 
 whom in time of war the immense and growing com- 
 merce of the lakes would be jeopardized, the ability 
 to dispense with the costly but ineffectual revenue 
 establishment over a frontier of many hundred miles, — 
 the large accession to their income from our Customs, — 
 the unrestricted use of the St. Lawrence, the natural 
 highway from the Western States to the ocean, — are 
 objects for the attainment of which the most substantial 
 equivalents would undoubtedly be conceded.
 
 NEED OF RECIPROCITY 343 
 
 Fellow Colonists : 
 
 We have thus laid before you our views and convic- 
 tions on a momentous question, involving a change 
 which, though contemplated by many of us with varied 
 feelings and emotions, we all believe to be inevitable — 
 one which it is our duty to provide for and lawfully to 
 promote. 
 
 We address you without prejudice or partiality, — in 
 the spirit of sincerity and truth, — in the interest of our 
 common country, — and our single aim is its safety and 
 welfare. If to your judgment and reason our object 
 and aim be at this time deemed laudable and right, 
 we ask an oblivion of past dissensions ; and from all, 
 without distinction or origin, party or creed, that earnest 
 and cordial co-operation in such lawful, prudent and 
 judicious means as may best conduct us to our common 
 destiny. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 November 8, 1849. 
 
 The fact is, that although both the States and Canada 
 export to the same neutral market, prices on the Canada 
 side of the line are lower than on the American, by the 
 amount of the duty which the Americans levy. So long 
 as this state of things continues there will be discontent 
 in this country ; deep, growing discontent. You will not, 
 I trust, accuse me of having deceived you on this point. 
 I have always said that I am prepared to assume the 
 responsibility of keeping Canada quiet, with a much 
 smaller garrison than we have now, and without any tax 
 on the British consumer in the shape of protection to 
 Canadian products, if you put our trade on as good a 
 footing as that of our American neighbours ; but if things 
 remain on their present footing in this respect, there is 
 nothing before us but violent agitation, ending in con- 
 vulsion or annexation. It is better that I should worry 
 you with my importunity, than that I should be charge- 
 able with having neglected to give you due warning. 
 You have a great opportunity before you — obtain 
 reciprocity for us, and I venture to predict that you will 
 be able shortly to point to this liithorto turl)ulent colony 
 with satisfaction, in illustration of the tendency of self-
 
 344 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 govornnient and freedom of trade to beget contentment 
 and material progress. Canada will remain attached to 
 England, though tied to her neither by the golden links 
 of protection, nor by the meshes of old-fashioned colonial 
 office jobbing and chicane. But if you allow the Ameri- 
 cans to withhold the boon, which you have the means of 
 extorting, if you will, I much fear that the closing period 
 of the connection between Great Britain and Canada 
 Avill be marked by incidents which will damp the ardour 
 of those who desire to promote human happiness by 
 striking shackles either off commerce or off men. 
 
 To Lord John Russell. 
 
 It is of such vital importance that your Lordship 
 should rightly apprehend the nature of these difficulties, 
 and the state of public opinion in Canada at this con- 
 juncture, that I venture, at the hazard of committing 
 an indiscretion, to add a single observation on this head. 
 Let me then assure your Lordship, and I speak advisedly in 
 offering this assurance, that the disaffection now existing 
 in Canada, whatever be the forms with which it may 
 clothe itself, is due mainly to commercial causes. I do 
 not say that there is no discontent on political grounds. 
 Powerful individuals and even classes of men are, I am 
 well aware, dissatisfied with the conduct of affairs. 
 But I make bold to affirm that so general is the belief 
 that, under the present circumstances of our commercial 
 condition, the colonists pay a heavy pecuniary fine for 
 their fidelity to Great Britain, that nothing but the 
 existence to an unwonted degree of political content- 
 ment among the masses has prevented the cry for annexa- 
 tion from spreading, like wildfire, through the Province. 
 This, as your Lordship will perceive, is a new feature in 
 Canadian politics. The plea of self-interest, the most 
 powerful weapon, perhaps, which the friends of British 
 connection have wielded in times past, has not only been 
 wrested from my hands, but transferred since 1846 to 
 those of the adversary. I take the liberty of mentioning 
 a fact, which seems better to illustrate the actual con- 
 dition of affairs in these respects than many arguments. 
 I have lately spent several weeks in the district of Niagara.
 
 COST OF BRITISH CONNEXION 345 
 
 Canadian Niagara is separated from the state of New York 
 by a narrow stream, spanned by a bridge, which it takes 
 a foot passenger about three minutes to cross. The in- 
 habitants are for the most part U.E. loyahsts,^ and 
 differ little in habits or modes of thought and expression 
 from their neighbours. Wheat is their staple product — 
 the article which they exchange for foreign comforts 
 and luxuries. Now it is the fact that a bushel of wheat 
 grown on the Canadian side of the line has fetched this 
 year in the market, on an average, from 9d. to Is. less 
 than the same quantity and quality of the same article 
 grown on the other. Through their district council, a 
 body elected under a system of very extended suffrage, 
 these same inhabitants of Niagara have protested against 
 the Montreal annexation movement. They have done 
 so (and many other district councils in Upper Canada 
 have done the same) under the impression that it would 
 be base to declare against England at a moment when 
 England has given a signal proof of her determination to 
 concede constitutional Government in all its plenitude 
 to Canada. I am confident, however, that the large 
 majority of the persons who have thus protested, firmly 
 believe that their annexation to the United States would 
 add one-fourth to the value of the produce of their 
 farms. 
 
 I need say no more than this to convince your Lord- 
 ship, that while this state of things subsists (and I much 
 fear that no measure but the establishment of reciprocal 
 trade between Canada and the States, or the imposition 
 of a duty on the produce of the States when imported 
 into England, will remove it), arguments will not be 
 wanting to those who seek to seduce Canadians from 
 their allegiance. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 It is not for me to dispute the point with free-traders, 
 when they allege that all parts of the Empire are suffering 
 from the effects of free-trade, and that Canadians must 
 take their chance with others. But I must be permitted 
 to remark, that the Canadian case differs from others, 
 
 1 United Empire Loyalista, i.e., descendants of the Loyalists of the 
 American War.
 
 346 THE ANNEXATION MOVEMENT 
 
 both as respects the immediate cause of the suffering, 
 and still more as respects the means which the sufferers 
 possess of finding for themselves a way of escape. As to 
 the former point I have only to say that, however severe 
 the pressure in other cases attendant on the transition 
 from protection to free-trade, there is none which pre- 
 sents so peculiar a specimen of legislative legerdemain 
 as the Canadian, where an interest was created in 1843 
 by a Parliament in which the parties affected had no 
 voice, only to be knocked down by the same Parliament 
 in 1846. But it is the latter consideration which con- 
 stitutes the speciality of the Canadian case. What in 
 point of fact can the other suffering interests, of which 
 the Times writes, do ? There may be a great deal of 
 grumbling, and a gradual move towards republicanism, 
 or even communism ; but this is an operose and empirical 
 process, the parties engaged in it are full of misgivings, 
 and their ranks at every step in advance are thinned by 
 desertion. Not so with the Canadians. The remedy 
 offered to them, such as it is, is perfectly definite and 
 intelligible. They are invited to form a part of a com- 
 munity, which is neither suffering nor free-trading, which 
 never makes a bargain without getting at least twice 
 as much as it gives ; a community, the members of 
 which have been within the last few weeks pouring into 
 their multifarious places of worship, to thank God that 
 they are exempt from the ills which afflict other men, 
 from those more especially which afflict their despised 
 neighbours, the inhabitants of North America, who 
 have remained faithful to the country which planted 
 them. 
 
 Now, I believe, that if these facts be ignored, it is 
 quite impossible to understand rightly the present state 
 of opinion in Canada, or to determine wisely the course 
 which the British Government and Parliament ought to 
 pursue. It may suit the policy of the English free-trade 
 press to represent the difficulties of Canada as the con- 
 sequence of having a fool for a Governor-General ; but, 
 if it be permitted me to express an opinion on a matter of 
 so much delicacy, I venture to doubt whether it w^ould 
 be safe to act on this hypothesis. My conviction on the 
 contrary is, that motives of self-interest of a very gross 
 and palpable description are suggesting treasonable 
 courses to the Canadian mind at present, and that it is
 
 IMPERIAL IDEALS 347 
 
 a political sentiment, a feeling of gratitude for what has 
 been done and suffered this year in the cause of Canadian 
 self-government, which is neutralising these suggestions. 
 
 To Earl Grey. 
 
 November 16, 1849. 
 
 Very much, as respects the result of this annexation 
 movement, depends upon what you do at home. I can- 
 not say what the effect may be if the British Government 
 and press are lukewarm on the subject. The annexa- 
 tionists will take heart, but in a tenfold greater degree 
 the friends of the connection will be discouraged. If it 
 be admitted that separation 7nust take place, sooner or 
 later, the argument in favour of a present move seems 
 to be almost irresistible. I am prepared to contend that 
 with responsible government, fairly worked out with 
 free-trade, there is no reason why the colonial relation 
 should not be indefinitely maintained. But look at my 
 present difficulty, which may be increased beyond 
 calculation, if indiscreet expressions be made use of 
 during the present crisis. The English Government 
 thought it necessary, in order to give moral support to 
 their representative in Ireland, to assert in the most 
 solemn manner that the Crown never would consent to 
 the severance of the Union ; although, according to the 
 O'Connell doctrine, the allegiance to the Crown of the 
 Irish was to be unimpaired notwithstanding such sever- 
 ance. But when I protest against Canadian projects 
 for dismembering the empire, I am always told " the most 
 eminent statesmen in England have over and over again 
 told us, that whenever we chose we might separate. 
 Why, then, blame us for discussing the subject ?"
 
 THE TARIFF CONTROVERSY 
 
 When the Canadian tariff of 1859 proved to be of a 
 distinctly Protective character, various petitions against 
 it were sent from British Chambers of Commerce, and on 
 August 13 the Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, 
 ^^Tote to the Governor-General, Sir Edmund Head, 
 sayingi : 
 
 I have the honour to transmit to you the copy of a 
 memorial which has been addressed to me by the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce and manufacturers at Sheffield, repre- 
 senting the injury anticipated to their commerce by the 
 increased duties which have been imposed on imports 
 by the late Canada tariff. 
 
 I request that you will place this representation in the 
 hands of your Executive Council, and observe to that 
 body that I cannot but feel that there is much force 
 in the argument of the Sheffield manufacturers. Prac- 
 tically, this heavy duty operates differentially in favour 
 of the United States, in consequence of the facility for 
 smuggling which so long a line of frontier affords, and 
 the temptation to embark in it which a duty of 20 per 
 cent, offers. Regarded as a fiscal expedient, the measure 
 is impolitic ; for, whilst any increase of contraband trade 
 must be at the expense of the Exchequer, the diminution 
 of foreign importations will probably more than neutralise 
 the additional revenue derived from the higher duty. 
 
 Wlienever the authenticated act of the Canadian 
 Parliament on this subject arrives, I may probably feel 
 that I can take no other course than signify to you the 
 Queen's assent to it, notwithstanding the objections 
 
 1 Parliamentary Beports and Papers^ 1864, xli : Papers relating to 
 Customs Duties, Canada, pp. 11, 12. 
 
 348
 
 FISCAL INDEPENDENCE 349 
 
 raised against the law in this country ; but I consider it 
 my duty no less to the colony than to the Mother Country, 
 to express my regret that the experience of England, 
 which has fully proved the injurious effect of the pro- 
 tective system, and the advantage of low duties upon 
 manufactures, both as regards trade and revenue, should 
 be lost sight of, and that such an Act as the present 
 should have been passed. I much fear the effect of the 
 law will be that the greater part of the new duty will be 
 paid to the Canadian producer by the colonial consumer, 
 whose interests, as it seems to me, have not been suffi- 
 ciently considered on this occasion. 
 
 In reply, Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. T. Gait, the Canadian 
 Finance Minister, sent a report to a special Committee 
 of the Canadian Executive Council, which was forwarded 
 by it to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with the 
 brief remark that " The Committee concur in the views 
 expressed by the Minister of Finance." 
 
 In this report Gait, before replying in detail to the 
 economic objections of His Grace, made the following 
 vigorous statement on the constitutional question : 
 
 It is to be deeply regretted that His Grace should have 
 given to so great a degree the weight of his sanction to 
 the statements in the Memorial, without having previously 
 afforded to the Government of Canada the opportunity 
 of explaining the fiscal policy of the province, and the 
 grounds upon which it rests. The representations upon 
 which His Grace appears to have formed his opinions are 
 those of a provincial town in England, professedly 
 actuated by selfish motives ; and it may fairly be claimed 
 for Canada, that the deliberate acts of its Legislature, 
 representing nearly three millions of people, should not 
 have been condemned by the Imperial Government on 
 such authority, until the fullest opportunity of explana- 
 tion had been afforded. It is believed that nothing in 
 the Legislation of Canada warrants the expressions of 
 disapproval which arc contained in the Despatcli of 
 His Grace, but that, on the contrary, due regard has been 
 had to the welfare and prosperity of Her Majesty's 
 Canadian subjects.
 
 350 THE TARIFF CONTROVERSY 
 
 From expressions used by His Grace in reference to 
 the Scanction of the Provincial Customs Act, it would 
 appear that he had even entertained the suggestion of 
 its disallowance ; and though happily Her Majesty has 
 not been so advised, yet the question having been thus 
 raised, and the consequences of such a step, if ever 
 adopted, being of the most serious character, it becomes 
 the duty of the Provincial Government distinctly to state 
 what they consider to be the position and rights of the 
 Canadian Legislature. 
 
 Respect to the Imperial Government must always 
 dictate the desire to satisfy them that the policy of this 
 country is neither hastily nor unwisely formed ; and that 
 due regard is had to the interests of the Mother Country 
 as well as of the Province. But the Government of 
 Canada acting for its Legislature and people cannot, 
 through those feelings of deference which they owe to 
 the Imperial authorities, in any way waive or diminish 
 the right of the people of Canada to decide for them- 
 selves both as to the mode and extent to which taxation 
 shall be imposed. The Provincial Ministry are at aU 
 
 . times ready to afiord explanations in regard to the acts 
 of the Legislature to which they are party ; but subject 
 to their duty and allegiance to Her Majesty, their re- 
 sponsibility in all general questions of policy must be 
 to the Provincial Parliament, by whose confidence they 
 administer the affairs of the country ; and in the imposi- 
 tion of taxation, it is so plainly necessary that the Ad- 
 ministration and the people should be in accord, that the 
 former cannot admit responsibility or require approval 
 beyond that of the local Legislature. Self-government 
 would be utterly annihilated if the views of the Imperial 
 Government were to be preferred to those of the people 
 of Canada. It is therefore the duty of the present 
 Government distinctly to affirm the right of the Canadian 
 Legislature to adjust the taxation of the people in the 
 way they deem best, even if it should unfortunately 
 happen to meet the disapproval of the Imperial Ministry. 
 Her Majesty cannot be advised to disallow such Acts, 
 unless her advisers are prepared to assume the administra- 
 tion of the affairs of the Colony irrespective of the views 
 of its inhabitants. 
 
 The Imperial Government are not responsible for the 
 
 . debts and engagements of Canada. They do not main-
 
 FISCAL INDEPENDENCE 351 
 
 tain its judicial, educational, or civil service ; they con- 
 tribute nothing to the internal government of the country, 
 and the Provincial Legislature acting through a Ministry 
 directly responsible to it, has to make provision for all 
 these wants ; they must necessarily claim and exercise 
 the widest latitude as to the nature and extent of the 
 burthens to be placed upon the industry of the people. 
 The Provincial Government believes that His Grace must 
 have their own conviction on this important subject ; 
 but, as serious evil would have resulted had His Grace 
 taken a different course, it is wiser to prevent future com- 
 plication by distinctly stating the position that must be 
 maintained by every Canadian Administration.
 
 FEDERATION 
 
 The question of a Federal Union of the scattered pro- 
 vinces of British North America had never been wholly 
 forgotten by the leaders of Canadian thought and opinion.^ 
 In 1864 it came suddenly to the front. Misunderstand- 
 ings between French and English had made the Union 
 of 1841 unworkable, and brought about an absolute 
 deadlock in the Canadian Legislature. Between May, 
 1861, and June, 1864, two general elections were held, 
 and three Governments were formed and defeated. As 
 a result of this, in June, 1864, the chief men of both 
 parties united in a coalition Ministry pledged to carry 
 Federation.2 
 
 ^ For a list of the chief references to the subject from 1784 to 1867, 
 see George Johnson, Alphabet of First Things m Canada (3rd edi- 
 tion, Ottawa, 1897), pp. 55-61. 
 
 - Of the leaders, Mr. (afterwards Sir) John A. Macdonald was the 
 most prominent Conservative, and Mr. George Brown the chief Liberal. 
 The following confidential Memorandmn, drawn up at the time, shows 
 the progress of the negotiations (see Pope, op. cit., vol. i., pp. 344-50) : 
 
 " The Government are prepared to state that, immediately after the 
 prorogation, they will addi-ess themselves, in the most earnest manner, 
 to the negotiation for a confederation of all the British North American 
 Provinces. 
 
 " That, failing a successful issue to such negotiations, they are 
 prepared to pledge theinselves to legislation during the next session of 
 Parliament for the purpose of remedying existing difficulties by intro- 
 ducing the federal principle for Canada alone, coupled with such 
 provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the North- 
 western Territory to be hereafter incorporated into the Canadian 
 system. 
 
 " That for the purpose of carrying on the negotiations and settling 
 the details of the promised legislation, a Koyal Commission shall be 
 issued, consisting of three members of the Government and three 
 
 352
 
 QUEBEC CONFERENCE 353 
 
 At about the same time the Legislatures of the pro- 
 vinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 
 Edward Island, where the idea of Union had been fre- 
 quently discussed, authorized a Convention on the subject 
 of a Maritime Union. To this Conference, which met 
 at Charlottetown on September 1, 1864-, the Canadian 
 Government obtained permission to send delegates, and 
 such progress was made that the Conference adjourned to 
 meet later in the year at Quebec, to discuss the wider 
 question. Here they were joined by representatives 
 from Newfoundland, and from October 10 to 28 secret 
 sessions were held, at which seventy-two resolutions were 
 passed, which formed the basis of all subsequent dis- 
 cussion.^ These resolutions were submitted by the 
 delegates to their respective Legislatures, and after many 
 
 members of the Opposition, of whom Mr. Brown shall be one ; and the 
 Government pledge themselves to give all the influence of the Adminis- 
 tration to secure to the said Commission the means for advancing the 
 great object in view. 
 
 "That, subject to the House permitting the Government to carry 
 through the public business, no dissolution of Parliament shall take 
 place, but the Administration will again meet the present House." 
 
 Shortly after 6 p.m. the parties met at the sanae place, when Mr. Brown 
 stated that, without communicating the contents of the confidential 
 paper entrusted to him, he had seen a sufficient number of his friends 
 to warrant him in expressing the belief that the bulk of his friends 
 would, as a compromise, accept a measure for the Federative Union of 
 Canada, with provision for the future admission of the ]\raritime 
 Colonies and the North -West Territory. To this it was replied that 
 the Administration could not consent to waive the larger question ; but, 
 after considerable discussion, an amendment to the original proposal 
 was agreed to in the following terms, subject to the approval, on Monday', 
 of the Cabinet and of His Excellency : 
 
 " The Government are prepared to pledge themselves to bring in a 
 measure next session for the purpose of removing existing difhculties 
 by introducing tlie federal principle into Canada, coupled witli such 
 provisions as will permit the Maritime rrovinces and the North -West 
 Territory to be incorporated into tlie same system of government. 
 
 "And the Government will seek, l)y sending representatives to the 
 Lower Provinces and to I'higland, to secure the assent of those interests 
 which are beyond the control of our own legislation to sucli a measure 
 as may enable all ]5ritisli North America to l)e united under a General 
 Legislature based upon the foderr,! principle." 
 
 ^ See Houston, op. cit., Appendix F. 
 
 23
 
 354 FEDERATION 
 
 fluctuations and disappointments/ in December, 1866, 
 deputations from Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Nova 
 Scotia, and New Brunswick, met in London under the 
 presidency of the Colonial Secretary, Lord Carnarvon, 
 and worked out the details of the British North America 
 Act (30 and 31 Victoria, cap. 3), which was signed by 
 the Queen on March 29, 1867, and came into operation 
 on July 1 of the same year.* 
 
 The debates in the Canadian Parliament in the session 
 of 1865, on the motion to adopt the " Quebec Resolu- 
 tions," were printed in the same year under the title 
 of Debates in the Parliament of Canada on the Con- 
 federation of British North America, and form a closely 
 
 1 In the negotiations of 1865-66, and in the discussions at London, 
 Sir John Macdonald showed to especial advantage. See the interesting 
 passage in the Letters of Frederic, Lord Blackford, edited by G. E. 
 Marindin (London, 1896) : 
 
 " They held many meetings, at which I was always present. Lord 
 Carnarvon was in the chair, and I was rather disappointed in his 
 power of presidency. Macdonald was the ruling genius and spokes- 
 man, and I was very greatly struck by his power of management 
 and adroitness. The French delegates were keenly on the watch for 
 anything which weakened then- securities; on the contrary, the Nova 
 Scotia and New Brunswick delegates were very jealous of concession 
 to the a rieree provmce ; while one main stipulation in favour of the 
 French was open to constitutional objections on the part of the Home 
 Government. 
 
 " Macdonald had to argue the question with the Home Government 
 on a point on which the slightest divergence from the narrow lines 
 already agreed on in Canada was watched for — here by the French 
 and there by the English — as eager dogs watch a rat-hole ; a snap on 
 one side might have provoked a snap on the other, and put an end to 
 the concord. He stated and argued the case with cool, ready fluency, 
 while at the same time you saw that every word was measured, and 
 that, while he was making for a point ahead, he was never for a 
 moment unconscious of any of the rocks among which he had to 
 Bteer" (pp. 301-302). 
 
 It must not be forgotten that from the first the Imperial Government 
 used all its influence, direct and indirect, in favour of the scheme. But 
 for the almost unconstitutional steps taken by the Governor-General, 
 Lord Monck, and bj'more than one Lieutenant-Governor, it is doubtful 
 if all the wisdom of Macdonald and all the fire of Brown could have 
 carried Federation. Consult Pope, ojy. cit., pp. 296-303, 372-73. 
 
 2 See Joseph Pope, Confederation Documents, in which a number 
 of drafts of the Act are given.
 
 STEPS TOWARD FEDERATION 355 
 
 printed volume of 1,032 pages, from which we have 
 taken the following extracts : 
 
 Monday, February 6, 1865, 
 
 Hon. Attorney-General Macdonald : I have the honour 
 of being charged, on behalf of the Government, to 
 submit a scheme for the Confederation of all the 
 British North American Provinces — a scheme which 
 has been received, I am glad to say, with general, if 
 not universal, approbation in Canada. The scheme, as 
 propounded through the press, has received almost no 
 opposition. While there may be occasionally, here 
 and there, expressions of dissent from some of the 
 details, yet the scheme as a whole has met with 
 almost universal approval, and the Government has the 
 greatest satisfaction in presenting it to this House. 
 This subject, which now absorbs the attention of the 
 people of Canada, and of the whole of British North 
 America, is not a new one. For years it has more or 
 less attracted the attention of every statesman and 
 politician in these provinces, and has been looked upon 
 by many far-seeing politicians as being eventually the 
 means of deciding and settling very many of the vexed 
 questions which have retarded the prosperity of the 
 colonies as a whole, and particularly the prosperity of 
 Canada. The subject was pressed upon the public 
 attention by a great many writers and politicians ; but 
 I believe the attention of the Legislature was first for- 
 mally called to it by my honourable friend the Minister 
 of Finance.^ Some years ago, in an elaborate speech, 
 my honourable friend, while an independent member of 
 Parliament, before being connected with any Government, 
 pressed his views on the Legislature at great length and 
 with his usual force. But the subject was not taken up 
 by any party as a branch of their policy, until the forma- 
 tion of the Cartier-Macdonald Administration in 1858, 
 when the Confederation of the colonies was announced 
 as one of the measures whicli they pledged themselves to 
 attempt, if possible, to bring to a satisfactory conclusion. 
 In pursuance of that promise, the letter or despatch, 
 which has been so much and so freely commented upon 
 in the press and in this House, was addressed by three of 
 
 1 Mr. A. T. Gait. 
 
 23—2
 
 356 FEDERATION 
 
 the member.s of that Administration to the Colonial Office. 
 The subject, however, though looked upon with favour 
 by the country, and though there were no distinct ex- 
 pressions of opposition to it from any party, did not begin 
 to assume its present proportions until last session. 
 Then, men of all parties and all shades of politics became 
 alarmed at the aspect of affairs. They found that such 
 was the opposition between the two sections of the pro- 
 vince, such was the danger of impending anarchy, in 
 consequence of the irreconcilable differences of opinion, 
 with respect to representation by population, between 
 Upper and Lower Canada, that unless some solution of 
 the difficulty was arrived at, we would suffer under a 
 succession of weak governments, — weak in numerical 
 support, weak in force, and weak in power of doing good. 
 All were alarmed at this state of affairs. We had election 
 after election, — we had ministry after ministry, with the 
 same result. Parties were so equally balanced, that the 
 vote of one member might decide the fate of the Adminis- 
 tration, and the course of legislation for a year or a series 
 of years. This condition of things was well calculated 
 to arouse the earnest consideration of every lover of his 
 country, and I am happy to say it had that effect. None 
 were more impressed by this momentous state of affairs, 
 and the grave apprehensions that existed of a state of 
 anarchy destroying our credit, destroying our prosperity, 
 destroying our progress, than were the members of this 
 present House ; and the leading statesmen on both sides 
 seemed to have come to the common conclusion, that 
 some step must be taken to relieve the country from the 
 dead-lock and impending anarchy that hung over us. — 
 With that view, my colleague, the President of the 
 Council,! made a motion founded on the despatch ad- 
 dressed to the Colonial Minister, to which I have referred, 
 and a committee was struck, composed of gentlemen of 
 both sides of the House, of all shades of political opinion, 
 without any reference to whether they were supporters 
 of the Administration of the day or belonged to the 
 Opposition, for the purpose of taking into calm and full 
 deliberation the evils which threatened the future of 
 Canada. That motion of my honourable friend resulted 
 most happily. The committee, by a wise provision, — 
 and in order that each member of the committee might 
 
 ^ Mr. George Brown.
 
 STEPS TOWARD FEDERATION 357 
 
 have an opportunity of expressing his opinions without 
 being in any way compromised before the public, or with 
 his party, in regard either to his political friends or to his 
 political foes, — agreed that the discussion should be 
 freely entered upon without reference to the political 
 antecedents of any of them, and that they should sit with 
 closed doors, so that they might be able to approach 
 the subject frankly and in a spirit of compromise. The 
 committee included most of the leading members of the 
 House, — I had the honour myself to be one of the num- 
 ber, — and the result was that there was found an ardent 
 desire, — a creditable desire, I must say, — displayed by 
 all the members of the committee to approach the sub- 
 ject honestly, and to attempt to work out some solution 
 which might relieve Canada from the evils under which 
 she laboured. The report of that committee was laid 
 before the House, and then came the political action of 
 the leading men of the two parties in this House, which 
 ended in the formation of the present Government. The 
 principle upon which that Government was formed has 
 been announced, and is known to all. It was formed for 
 the very purpose of carrying out the object which has noAV 
 received to a certain degree its completion, by the resolu- 
 tions I have had the honour to place in your hands. As 
 has been stated, it was not without a great deal of diffi- 
 culty and reluctance that that Government was formed. 
 The gentlemen who compose this Government had for 
 many years been engaged in political hostilities to such 
 an extent that it affected even their social relations. 
 But the crisis was great, the danger was imminent, and 
 the gentlemen who now form the present Administration 
 found it to be their duty to lay aside all personal feelings, 
 to sacrifice in some degree their position, and even to run 
 the risk of having their motives impugned, for the sake 
 of arriving at some conclusion that would be satisfactory 
 to the country in general. The present resolutions were 
 the result. And, as I said before, I am proud to believe 
 that the country has sanctioned, as I trust that the repre- 
 sentatives of the people in this House will sanction, the 
 scheme which is now submitted for the future govern- 
 ment of Britisli North America. Everything seemed to 
 favour the project, and everything seemed to show that 
 the present was the time, if ever, when this great union 
 between all Her Majesty's subjects dwelling in British
 
 358 FEDERATION 
 
 North America should be earned out. When the Gov- 
 ernment Avas formed, it was felt that the difficulties in 
 the way of effecting a union between all the British North 
 American Colonies were great — so great as almost, in 
 the opinion of many, to make it hopeless. And with 
 that view it was the policy of the Government, if they 
 could not succeed in procuring a union between all the 
 British North American Colonies, to attempt to free the 
 country from the dead-lock in which we were placed in 
 Upper and Lower Canada, in consequence of the differ- 
 snce of opinion between the two sections, by having a 
 severance to a certain extent of the present union between 
 the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and the sub- 
 stitution of aFederal Union between them. Most of us, how- 
 ever, I may say, all of us, were agreed — and I believe every 
 thinking man will agree — as to the expediency of effecting 
 a union between all the provinces, and the superiority 
 of such a design, if it w^ere only practicable, over the 
 smaller scheme of having a Federal Union between Upper 
 and Lower Canada alone. By a happy concurrence of 
 events, the time came when that proposition could be 
 made with a hope of success. By a fortunate coinci- 
 dence the desire for union existed in the Lower Provinces, 
 and a feeling of the necessity of strengthening themselves 
 by collecting together the scattered colonies on the sea- 
 board, had induced them to form a convention of their 
 own for the purpose of effecting a union of the Maritime 
 Provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 
 Edward Island, the legislatures of those colonies having 
 formally authorized their respective governments to 
 send a delegation to Prince Edward Island for the pur- 
 pose of attempting to form a union of some kind. WTiether 
 the union should be federal or legislative was not then 
 indicated, but a union of some kind was sought for the 
 purpose of making of themselves one people instead of 
 three. We, ascertaining that they were about to take 
 such a step, and knowing that if we allowed the occasion 
 to pass, if they did indeed break up all their present 
 political organizations and form a new one, it could not 
 be expected that they would again readily destroy the 
 new organization which they had formed, — the union of 
 the three provinces on the sea-board, — and form another 
 with Canada, knowing this, we availed ourselves of the 
 opportunity, and asked if they would receive a deputation
 
 CONFERENCE AT CHARLOTTETOWN 359 
 
 from Canada, who would go to meet them at Char- 
 lottetown, for the purpose of laymg before them the ad- 
 vantages of a larger and more extensive union, by the 
 junction of all the provinces in one great government 
 under our common Sovereign. They at once kindly 
 consented to receive and hear us. They did receive us 
 cordially and generously, and asked us to lay our views 
 before them. We did so at some length, and so satis- 
 factory to them were the reasons v/e gave ; so clearly, in 
 their opinion, did we show the advantages of the greater 
 union over the lesser, that they at once set aside their own 
 project, and joined heart and hand with us in entering 
 into the larger scheme, and trying to form, as far as they 
 and we could, a great nation and a strong government.^ 
 Encouraged by this arrangement, which, however, was 
 altogether unofhcial and unauthorized, we returned to 
 Quebec, and then the Government of Canada invited the 
 several governments of the sister colonies to send a depu- 
 tation here from each of them for the purpose of con- 
 sidering the question, with something like authority from 
 their respective governments. The result was, that 
 when we met here on the 10th of October, on the first 
 day on which we assembled, after the full and free dis- 
 cussions which had taken place at Charlottetown, the 
 first resolution now before this House was passed unani- 
 mously, being received with acclamation, as in the 
 opinion of every one who heard it, a proposition which 
 
 ^ A less heroic account of these proceedings was given by the 
 Hon. John S, Macdonald, afterwards Premier of Ontario : "In 
 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, a union 
 took place between the Government and the Opposition, for the 
 purpose of arranging a plan by which these provinces should be joined 
 together. They had the authority of their respective Governments 
 and Legislatures before entering into that conference. They met 
 together by deliberate arrangement, with full consent, unlike the 
 manner in which the gentlemen opposite precipitated themselves into 
 a union fever, growing out of a political contingency. Wlien the 
 delegates went to Charlottetown, from their respective provinces, to 
 treat of matters of great importance to the people of those provinces, 
 and considered it to be a desirable object to obtain tlie union of the 
 Maritime Provinces, they were interrupted in their deliberations by the 
 members of the Canadian Government. Greater inducements were 
 then oifered them, and they were fillod with higher hopes and expecta- 
 tions of the good things to be derived from the Confederation of all the 
 provinces. Lieutenant- governorships, chief -justiceships and life- 
 memberships of the Legislative Council were all held out in the pro- 
 spective by the C^anadian IMinisters."
 
 360 FEDERATION 
 
 ought to receive, and would receive, the sanction of each 
 government and each people. The resolution is, " That 
 the best interests and j^resent and future prosperity of 
 British North America will be promoted by a Federal 
 Union under the Crown of Great Britain, provided such 
 union can be effected on principles just to the several 
 provinces." It seemed to all the statesmen assembled — 
 and there are great statesmen in the Lower Provinces, 
 men who would do honour to any government and to any 
 legislature of any free country enjoying representative 
 institutions — it was clear to them all that the best in- 
 terests and present and future prosperity of British North 
 America would be promoted by a Federal Union under 
 the Crown of Great Britain. And it seems to me, as to 
 them, and I think it will so appear to the people of this 
 country, that, if we wish to be a great people ; if we wish 
 to form — using the expression which was sneered at the 
 other evening — a great nationality, commanding the 
 respect of the world, able to hold our own against all 
 opponents, and to defend those institutions we prize : if 
 we wish to have one system of government, and to estab- 
 lish a commercial union, with unrestricted free trade, 
 between people of the five provinces, belonging, as they 
 do, to the same nation, obeying the same Sovereign, 
 owning the same allegiance, and being, for the most 
 part, of the same blood and lineage : if we wish to be able 
 to afford to each other the means of mutual defence and 
 support against aggression and attack — this can only be 
 obtained by a union of some kind between the scattered 
 and weak boundaries composing the British North 
 American Provinces. 
 
 The very mention of the scheme is fitted to bring 
 with it its ow^n approbation. Supposing that in the 
 spring of the year 1865. half a million of people were 
 coming from the United Kingdom to make Canada 
 their home, although they brought only their strong 
 arms and willing hearts ; though they brought neither 
 skill nor experience nor wealth, would we not receive 
 them with open arms, and hail their presence in Canada 
 as an important addition to our strength ? But when, 
 by the proposed union, we not only get nearly a 
 million of people to join us — when they contribute not 
 only their numbers, their physical strength, and their 
 desire to benefit their position, but when we know that
 
 ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS 361 
 
 they consist of old-established communities, having a 
 large amount of realized wealth, — composed of people 
 possessed of skill, education and experience in the ways 
 of the New World — people who are as much Canadians, I 
 may say, as we are — people who are imbued with the 
 same feelings of loyalty to the Queen, and the same 
 desire for the continuance of the connection with the 
 IMother Country as we are, and at the same time have a 
 like feeling of ardent attachment for this, our common 
 country, for which they and we would alike fight and 
 shed our blood, if necessary — when all this is considered, 
 argument is needless to prove the advantage of such a 
 union. 
 
 There were only three modes — if I may return for a 
 moment to the difficulties with which Canada was sur- 
 rounded — only three modes that were at all suggested, 
 by which the dead-lock in our affairs, the anarchy we 
 dreaded, and the evils which retarded our prosperity, 
 could be met or averted. One was the dissolution of the 
 union between Upper and Lower Canada, leaving them 
 as they were before the union of 184L I believe that 
 that proposition, by itself, had no supporters. It was 
 felt by everyone that, although it was a course that 
 would do away with the sectional difficulties which ex- 
 isted — though it would remove the pressure on the part 
 of the people of Upper Canada for representation 
 based upon population — and the jealousy of the people 
 of Lower Canada lest their institutions should be attacked 
 and prejudiced by that principle in our representation ; 
 yet it was felt by every thinking man in the province that 
 it would be a retrograde step, which would throw back 
 the country to nearly the same position as it occupied 
 before the union — that it would lower the credit enjoyed 
 by United Canada — that it would be the breaking up of 
 the connection which had existed for nearly a quarter of 
 a century, and, under which, although it had not been 
 completely successful, and had not allayed altogether the 
 local jealousies that had their root in circumstances which 
 arose before the union, our province, as a whole, had 
 nevertheless prospered and increased. It was felt that a 
 dissolution of the union would have destroyed all the 
 credit that wo have gained by being a united province, 
 and would have left us two weak and inc^ffective govern- 
 ments, instead of one powerful and united people.
 
 362 FEDERATION 
 
 The next mode suggested was the granting of represen- 
 tation by population. Now, we all know the manner in 
 which that question was and is regarded by Lower Canada ; 
 that while in Upper Canada the desire and cry for it was 
 dai]y augmenting, the resistance to it in Lower Canada 
 was proportionably increasing in strength. Still, if some 
 such means of relieving us from the sectional jealousies 
 which existed between the two Canadas, if some such 
 solution of the difficulties as Confederation had not been 
 found, then representation by population must eventually 
 have been carried ; no matter though it might have been 
 felt in Lower Canada as being a breach of the Treaty of 
 Union, no matter how much it might have been felt by 
 the Lower Canadians that it would sacrifice their local 
 interests, it is certain that in the progress of events 
 representation by population would have been carried ; 
 and, had it been carried — I speak here of my own indi- 
 vidual sentiments — I do not think it would have been 
 for the interest of Upper Canada. For though Upper 
 Canada would have felt that it had received what it 
 claimed as a right, and had succeeded in establishing its 
 right, yet it would have left the Lower Province with a 
 sullen feeling of injury and injustice. The Lower 
 Canadians w^ould not have worked cheerfully under such 
 a change of system, but would have ceased to be what 
 they are now — a nationality, with representatives in 
 Parliament, governed by general principles, and dividing 
 according to their political opinions — and would have 
 been in great danger of becoming a faction, forgetful of 
 national obligations, and only actuated by a desire to 
 defend their own sectional interests, their own laws, and 
 their own institutions. 
 
 The third and only means of solution for our diffi- 
 culties was the junction of the provinces either in a 
 Federal or a Legislative Union. 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. But,
 
 FEDERATION OR UNION 363 
 
 on looking at the subject in the Conference, and discussing 
 the matter as we did, most unreservedly, and with a 
 desire to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, we found 
 that such a system was impracticable. In the first place, 
 it would not meet the assent of the people of Lower 
 Canada, because they felt that in their peculiar position — 
 being in a minority, with a different language, nationality 
 and religion from the majority — in case of a junction 
 with the other provinces, their institutions and their 
 laws might be assailed, and their ancestral associations, 
 on which they prided themselves, attacked and pre- 
 judiced ; it was found that any proposition which in- 
 volved the absorption of the individuality of Lower 
 Canada — if I may use the expression — would not be 
 received with favour by her people. We found too, that 
 though their people speak the same language and enjoy 
 the same system of law as the people of Upper Canada, 
 a system founded on the common law of England, there 
 was as great a disinclination on the part of the various 
 Maritime Provinces to lose their individuality, as separate 
 political organizations, as we observed in the case of 
 Lower Canada herself. Therefore, we were forced to 
 the conclusion that we must either abandon the idea of 
 union altogether, or devise a system of union in which 
 the separate provincial organizations would be in some 
 degree preserved. So that those who were, like myself, 
 in favour of a Legislative Union, were obliged to modify 
 their views and accept the project of a Federal Union as 
 the only scheme practicable, even for the Maritime Pro- 
 vinces. Because, although the law of those provinces is 
 founded on the common law of England, yet every one 
 of them has a large amount of law of its own — colonial 
 law framed by itself, and affecting every relation of life, 
 such as the laws of property, municipal and assessment 
 laws ; laws relating to the liberty of the subject, and to 
 all the great interests contemplated in legislation ; we 
 found, in short, that the statutory law of the different 
 provinces was so varied and diversified that it was almost 
 impossible to weld them into a Legislative Union at once. 
 Why, sir, if you only consider the innumerable subjects 
 of legislation peculiar to new countries, and that every 
 one of those five colonies had particular laws of its own, 
 to which its people have been accustomed and are 
 attached, you will see the difficulty of effecting and work-
 
 304 FEDERATION 
 
 ing a Legislative Union, and bringing about an assimila- 
 tion of the local as well as general laws of the whole of 
 the provinces. We in Upper Canada understand from 
 the nature and operation of our peculiar municipal law, 
 of which we know the value, the difficulty of framing a 
 general system of legislation on local matters which would 
 meet the wishes and fulfil the requirements of the several 
 provinces. Even the laws considered the least important, 
 respecting private rights in timber, roads, fencing, and 
 innumerable other matters, small in themselves, but in 
 the aggregate of great interest to the agricultural class, 
 who form the great body of the people, are regarded as 
 of great value by the portion of the community affected 
 by them. And when we consider that every one of the 
 colonies has a body of law of this kind, and that it will 
 take years before those laws can be assimilated, it was 
 felt that at first, at all events, any united legislation 
 would be almost impossible. I am happy to state — 
 and indeed it appears on the face of the resolutions them- 
 selves — that, as regards the Lower Provinces, a great 
 desire was evinced for the final assimilation of our laws. 
 One of the resolutions provides that an attempt shall be 
 made to assimilate the laws of the Maritime Provinces 
 and those of Upper Canada, for the purpose of eventually 
 establishing one body of statutory law, founded on the 
 common law of England, the parent of the laws of all 
 those provinces. 
 
 One great objection made to a Federal Union was 
 the expense of an increased number of legislatures. I 
 will not enter at any length into that subject, because 
 my honourable friends, the Finance Minister and the 
 President of the Council, v/ho a.re infinitely more com- 
 petent than myself to deal with matters of this kind — • 
 matters of account — will, I think, be able to show that 
 the expenses under a Federal Union will not be greater 
 than those under the existing system of separate govern- 
 ments and legislatures. Here, where we have a joint 
 legislature for Upper and Lower Canada, which deals not 
 only with subjects of general interest common to all 
 Canada, but with all matters of private right and of 
 sectional interest, and with that class of measures known 
 as " private bills," we find that one of the greatest sources 
 of expense to the country is the cost of legislation. We 
 find, from the admixture of subjects of a general, with
 
 FINANCIAL ECONOMIES 365 
 
 those of a private character in legislation, that they 
 mutually interfere with each other ; whereas, if the 
 attention of the Legislature was confined to measures of 
 one kind or the other alone, the session of Parliament 
 would not be so protracted and therefore not so expensive 
 as at present. In the proposed Constitution all matters 
 of general interest are to be dealt with by the General 
 Legislature ; while the local legislatures will deal with 
 matters of local interest, which do not affect the Con- 
 federation as a whole, but are of the greatest importance 
 to their particular sections. By such a division of labour 
 the sittings of the General Legislature would not be so 
 protracted as even those of Canada alone. And so with 
 the local legislatures, their attention being confined to 
 subjects pertaining to their own sections, their sessions 
 would be shorter and less expensive. Then, when we 
 consider the enormous saving that will be effected in 
 the administration of affairs by one General Government 
 — when we reflect that each of the five colonies has a 
 government of its own with a complete establishment of 
 public departments and all the machinery required for 
 the transaction of the business of the country — that each 
 has a separate executive, judicial and militia system — 
 that each province has a separate ministry including a 
 Minister of Militia, with a complete Adjutant- General's 
 Department — that each has a Finance Minister with a 
 full Customs and Excise staff — that each Colony has as 
 large and complete an administrative organization, with 
 as many Executive officers as the General Government 
 will have — we can well understand the enormous saving 
 that will result from a union of all the colonies, from their 
 having but one head and one central system. 
 
 We, in Canada, already know something of the advan- 
 tages and disadvantages of a Federal Union. Although we 
 have nominally a Legislative Union in Canada — although 
 we sit in one Parliament, supposed constitutionally to re- 
 present the people without regard to sections or localities, 
 yet we know, as a matter of fact, that since the union in 
 1841, we have had a Federal Union ; that in matters 
 affecting Upper Canada solely, members from that sec- 
 tion claimed and generally exercised the right of ex- 
 clusive legislation, while members from Lower Canada 
 legislated in matters affecting only their own section. 
 We have had a Federal Union in fact, though a Legis-
 
 366 FEDERATION 
 
 lative Union in name ; and in the hot contests of late 
 years, if on any occasion a measure affecting any one 
 section were interfered with by the members from the 
 other — if, for instance, a measure locally affecting Upper 
 Canada were carried or defeated against the wishes of its 
 majority, by one from Lower Canada, — my honourable 
 friend the President of the Council and his friends de- 
 nounced with all their energy and ability such legislation 
 as an infringement of the rights of the Upper Province. 
 Just in the same way, if any act concerning Lower 
 Canada Avere pressed into law against the wishes of the 
 majority of her representatives, by those from Upper 
 Canada, the Lower Canadians would rise as one man and 
 protest against such a violation of their peculiar rights. 
 The relations between England and Scotland are very 
 similar to that which obtains between the Canadas. The 
 union between them, in matters of legislation, is of a 
 federal character, because the Act of Union between the 
 two countries provides that the Scottish law cannot be 
 altered, except for the manifest advantage of the people 
 of Scotland. This stipulation has been held to be so 
 obligatory on the Legislature of Great Britain, that no 
 measure affecting the law of Scotland is passed unless it 
 receives the sanction of a majority of the Scottish members 
 in Parliament. No matter how important it may be for 
 the interests of the empire as a whole to alter the laws of 
 Scotland — no matter how much it may interfere with the 
 symmetry of the general law of the United Kingdom, 
 that law is not altered, except with the consent of the 
 Scottish people, as expressed by their representatives in 
 Parliament. Thus, we have, in Great Britain, to a 
 limited extent, an example of the working and effects of 
 a Federal Union, as we might expect to witness them in 
 our own Confederation. 
 
 The whole scheme of Confederation, as propounded 
 by the Conference, as agreed to and sanctioned by 
 the Canadian Government, and as now presented for 
 the consideration of the people and the Legislature, 
 bears upon its face the marks of compromise. Of 
 necessity there must have been a great deal of mutual 
 concession. When we think of the representatives of 
 five colonies, all supposed to have different interests, 
 meeting together, charged with the duty of protect- 
 ing those interests and of pressing the views of their
 
 NEED OF COMPROMISE 367 
 
 own localities and sections, it must be admitted that 
 had we not met in a spirit of conciliation, and with an 
 anxious desire to promote this union ; if we had not been 
 impressed with the idea contained in the words of the 
 resolution — " That the best interests and present and 
 future prosperity of British North America would be 
 promoted by a Federal Union under the Crown of Great 
 Britain," — all our efforts might have proved to be of no 
 avail. If we had not felt that, after coming to this con- 
 clusion, we were bound to set aside our private opinions 
 on matters of detail, if we had not felt ourselves bound to 
 look at what was practicable, not obstinately rejecting 
 the opinions of others nor adhering to our own ; if we had 
 not met, I say, in a spirit of conciliation, and with an 
 anxious, overruling desire to form one people under one 
 government, we never would have succeeded. With 
 these views, we press the question on this House and the 
 country. I say to this House, if you do not believe that 
 the union of the colonies is for the advantage of the 
 country, that the joining of these five peoples into one 
 nation, under one sovereign, is for the benefit of all, then 
 reject the scheme. Reject it if you do not believe it to 
 be for the present advantage and future prosperity of 
 yourselves and your children. But if, after a calm and 
 full consideration of this scheme, it is believed, as a whole, 
 to be for the advantage of this province — if the House and 
 country believe this union to be one which Avill ensure for 
 us British laws, British connection, and British freedom 
 — and increase and develop the social, political and 
 material prosperity of the country, then I implore this 
 House and the country to lay aside all prejudices, and 
 accept the scheme which we offer. I ask this House to 
 meet the question in the same spirit in which the delegates 
 met it. I ask each member of this House to lay aside his 
 own opinions as to particular details, and to accept the 
 scheme as a whole if he think it beneficial as a whole. 
 As I stated in the preliminary discussion, we must con- 
 sider this scheme in the liglit of a treaty. By a happy 
 coincidence of circumstances, just when an Administra- 
 tion had been formed in Canada for the purpose of 
 attemptmg a solution of the difficulties under which we 
 laboured, at the same time the Lower Provinces, actuated 
 by a similar feeling, appointed a Conference with a view 
 to a union among themselves, without being cognizant of
 
 368 FEDERATION 
 
 the position the government was taking in Canada. If 
 it had not been for this fortunate coincidence of events, 
 never, perhaps, for a long series of years would we have 
 been able to bring this scheme to a practical conclusion. 
 But we did succeed. We made the arrangement, agreed 
 upon the scheme, and the deputations from the several 
 governments represented at the Conference went back 
 pledged to lay it before their governments, and to ask the 
 legislatures and people of their respective provinces to 
 assent to it. I trust the scheme will be assented to as a 
 whole. I am sure this House will not seek to alter it 
 in its unimportant details ; and, if altered in any im- 
 portant provisions, the result must be that the whole will 
 be set aside, and we must begin de novo. If any im- 
 portant changes are made, every one of the colonies will 
 feel itself absolved from the implied obligation to deal 
 with it as a treaty, each province will feel itself at liberty 
 to amend it ad libitum so as to suit its own views and 
 interests ; in fact, the whole of our labours will have been 
 for nought, and we will have to renew our negotiations 
 with all the colonies for the purpose of establishing some 
 new scheme. I hope the House will not adopt any such 
 a course as will postpone, perhaps for ever, or at all 
 events for a long period, all chances of union. All the 
 statesmen and public men who have written or spoken on 
 the subject admit the advantages of a union, if it were 
 practicable : and now when it is proved to be practicable, 
 if we do not embrace this opportunity the present favour- 
 able time will pass away, and we may never have it again. 
 Because, just so surely as this scheme is defeated, will 
 be revived the original proposition for a union of the 
 Maritime Provinces, irrespective of Canada ; they will 
 not remain as they are now, powerless, scattered, helpless 
 communities ; they will form themselves into a power, 
 which, though not so strong as if united with Canada, 
 will, nevertheless, be a powerful and considerable com- 
 munity, and it will be then too late for us to attempt to 
 strengthen ourselves by this scheme, which, in the words 
 of the resolution, " is for the best interests, and present 
 and future prosperity of British North America." 
 
 If we are not blind to our present position, we must see 
 the hazardous situation in which all the great interests of 
 Canada stand in respect to the United States. I am no 
 alarmist. I do not believe in the prospect of immediate
 
 DANGER FROM UNITED STATES 369 
 
 war. I believe that the common sense of the two nations 
 will prevent a war ; still we cannot trust to probabilities. 
 The Government and Legislature would be wanting in 
 their duty to the people if they ran any risk. We know 
 that the United States at this moment are engaged in a 
 war of enormous dimensions — that the occasion of a 
 war with Great Britain has again and again arisen, and 
 may at any time in the future again arise. We cannot 
 foresee what may be the result ; we cannot say but that 
 the two nations may drift into a war as other nations have 
 done before. It would then be too late when war had 
 commenced to think of measures for strengthening our- 
 selves, or to begin negotiations for a union with the sister 
 provinces. At this moment, in consequence of the ill- 
 feeling which has arisen between England and the United 
 States — a feeling of which Canada was not the cause — in 
 consequence of the irritation which now exists, owing to 
 the unhappy state of affairs on this continent, the Reci- 
 procity Treaty, it seems probable, is about to be brought 
 to an end^ — our trade is hampered by the passport system, 
 and at any moment we may be deprived of permission 
 to carry our goods through United States channels — the 
 bonded goods system may be done away with,^ and the 
 winter trade through the United States put an end to. 
 Our merchants may be obliged to return to the old system 
 of bringing in during the summer months the supplies for 
 the whole year. Ourselves already threatened, our 
 trade interrupted, our intercourse, political and com- 
 mercial, destroyed, if we do not take warning now when 
 we have the opportunity, and, while one avenue is threat- 
 ened to be closed, open another by taking advantage of 
 the present arrangement and the desire of the Lower 
 Provinces to draw closer the alliance between us, we may 
 suffer commercial and political disadvantages it may take 
 long for us to overcome.^ 
 
 1 The Reciprocity Treaty arranged by Lord Elgin (p. 335) was to 
 last for ten years, at the end of which time it could bo tcruiinated by 
 either party at one year's notice. This notice was given by the United 
 States, and the Treaty expired in March, 1866. 
 
 2 Goods imported into Canada, and passing en i oufe through tho 
 United States, are not examined by the American custom authorities 
 if assurance is given that they will not bo opened during transit. Tho 
 same privilege is extended by Canada to goods destined for tho United 
 States. 
 
 3 This argument was used by several spcalccrs. In tho Upper 
 House, Sir E. P. Tach6 said: "If tho opportunity which now pre- 
 
 24
 
 .^70 FEDERATION 
 
 Tho Conference having come to the conclusion that 
 a Icgishitive union, pure and simple, was impracticable, 
 our next attempt was to form a government upon 
 federal principles, which would give to the General 
 Government the strength of a legislative and admini- 
 strative union, while at the same time it preserved that 
 liberty of action for the different sections which is 
 allowed by a Federal Union. And I am strong in the 
 belief that we have hit upon the happy medium in those 
 resolutions, and that we have formed a scheme of govern- 
 ment which unites the advantages of both, giving us the 
 strength of a legislative union and the sectional freedom of 
 a federal union, with protection to local interests. In doing 
 so we had the advantage of the experience of the United 
 States. It is the fashion now to enlarge on the defects of 
 the Constitution of the United States, but I am not one of 
 those who look upon it as a failure. I think and believe 
 that it is one of the most skilful works which human 
 intelligence ever created ; is one of the most perfect 
 organizations that ever governed a free people. To say 
 that it has some defects is but to say that it is not the 
 work of Omniscience, but of human intellects. We are 
 happily situated in having had the opportunity of watch- 
 ing its operation, seeing its working from its infancy till 
 now. It was in the main formed on the model of the 
 Constitution of Great Britain, adapted to the circum- 
 stances of a new country, and was perhaps the only 
 practicable system that could have been adopted under 
 the circumstances existing at the time of its formation. 
 We can now take advantage of the experience of the 
 last seventy-eight years, during which that Constitution 
 has existed, and I am strongly of the belief that we have, 
 in a great measure, avoided in this system which we pro- 
 pose for the adoption of the people of Canada, the de- 
 fects which time and events have shown to exist in the 
 American Constitution. 
 
 In the first place, by a resolution which meets with 
 the universal approval of the people of this country, 
 we have provided that for all time to come, so far as 
 we can legislate for the future, we shall have as the 
 
 sented itself were allowed to pass by unimproved, whether we would 
 or would not, we would be forced into the American union by violence, 
 and if not by violence, would be carried upon an inclined plane which 
 would carry us thither insensibly."
 
 BRITISH AND AMERICAN SYSTEMS 371 
 
 head of the executive power, the Sovereign of Great 
 Britain. No one can look into futurity and say what 
 will be the destiny of this country. Changes come over 
 nations and peoples in the course of ages. But, so far 
 as we can legislate, we provide that, for all time to come, 
 the Sovereign of Great Britain shall be the Sovereign 
 of British North America. By adhering to the mon- 
 archical principle, we avoid one defect inherent in the 
 Constitution of the United States. By the election of the 
 President by a majority and for a short period, he never 
 is the sovereign and chief of the nation. He is never 
 looked up to by the whole people as the head and front of 
 the nation. He is at best but the successful leader of a 
 party. This defect is all the greater on account of the 
 practice of re-election. During his first term of office, he 
 is employed in taking steps to secure his own re-election, 
 and for his party a continuance of power. We avoid this 
 by adhering to the monarchical principle — the Sovereign 
 whom you respect and love. I believe that it is of the 
 utmost importance to have that principle recognized, so 
 that we shall have a Sovereign who is placed above the 
 region of party — to whom all parties look up — who is 
 not elevated by the action of one party nor depressed by 
 the action of another, who is the common head and sove- 
 reign of all. 
 
 In the Constitution we propose to continue the system 
 of Responsible Government, which has existed in this 
 province since 1841, and which has long obtained in 
 the Mother Country. This is a feature of our Consti- 
 tution as we have it now, and as wo shall have it in 
 the Federation, in which, 1 think, we avoid one of the 
 great defects in the Constitution of the United States. 
 There the President, during his term of office, is in a great 
 measure a despot, a one-man power, with the command 
 of the naval and military forces — with an immense amount 
 of patronage as head of the Executive, and with the veto 
 power as a branch of the legislature, perfectly uncontrolled 
 by responsible advisers, his cabinet being departmental 
 officers merely, whom he is not obliged by the Con- 
 stitution to consult with, unless he chooses to do so. With 
 us the Sovereign, or in this country the Representative of 
 the Sovereign, can act only on the advice of liis ministers, 
 those ministers being responsible to the people through 
 Parliament. 
 
 24—2
 
 :\1'2 FEDERATION 
 
 Prior to the formation of the American Union, as 
 we aU know, the different states which entered into it 
 were separate colonies. They had no connection with 
 each other further than that of having a common 
 sovereign, just as with us at present. Their constitu- 
 tions and their laws were different. They might and did 
 legislate against each other, and when they revolted against 
 the Mother Country they acted as separate sovereignties, 
 and carried on the war by a kind of treaty of alliance 
 against the common enemy. Ever since the union was 
 formed the difficulty of what is called the " State Rights " 
 has existed, and this had much to do in bringing on the 
 present unhappy war in the United States. They com- 
 menced, in fact, at the wrong end. They declared by 
 their Constitution that each state was a sovereignty in 
 itself, and that all the powers incident to a sovereignty 
 belonged to each state, except those powers which, by 
 the Constitution, were conferred upon the General 
 Government and Congress. Here we have adopted a 
 different system. We have strengthened the General 
 Government. We have given the General Legislature all 
 the great subjects of legislation. We have conferred on 
 them, not only specifically and in detail, all the powers 
 which are incident to sovereignty, but we have expressly 
 declared that all subjects of general interest not distinctly 
 and exclusively conferred upon the local governments 
 and local legislatures, shall be conferred upon the General 
 Government and Legislature. — We have thus avoided 
 that great source of weakness which has been the cause 
 of the disruption of the United States. We have avoided 
 all conflict of jurisdiction and authority, and if this Con- 
 stitution is carried out, as it will be in full detail in the 
 Imperial Act to be passed if the colonies adopt the 
 scheme, we will have in fact, as I said before, all the 
 advantages of a legislative union under one administra- 
 tion, with, at the same time, the guarantees for local 
 institutions and for local laws, which are insisted upon by 
 so many in the provinces now, I hope, to be united. 
 
 I think it is well that, in framing our Constitution — 
 although my honourable friend the member for Hoche- 
 laga^ sneered at it the other day, in the discussion on 
 the Address in reply to the speech from the Throne — our 
 first act should have been to recognize the sovereignty 
 1 Mr. A, A. Dorion,
 
 BRITISH CONNEXION 373 
 
 of Her Majesty. I believe that, while England has no 
 desire to lose her colonies, but wishes to retain them, 
 while I am satisfied that the public mind of England 
 would deeply regret the loss of these provinces — yet, if 
 the people of British North America after full deliberation 
 had stated that they considered it was for their interest, 
 for the advantage of the future of British North America 
 to sever the tie, such is the generosity of the people of 
 England, that, whatever their desire to keep these colonies, 
 they would not seek to compel us to remain unwilling sub- 
 jects of the British Crown. If therefore, at the Confer- 
 ence, we had arrived at the conclusion, that it was for the 
 interest of these provinces that a severance should take 
 place, I am sure that Her Majesty and the Imperial Par- 
 liament would have sanctioned that severance. We 
 accordingly felt that there was a propriety in giving a 
 distinct declaration of opinion on that point, and that, in 
 framing the Constitution, its first sentence should declare, 
 that " The Executive authority or government shall be 
 vested in the Sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, and be administered according to 
 the well understood principles of the British Constitution, 
 by the Sovereign personally, or by the Representative of 
 the Sovereign duly authorized." That resolution met 
 with the unanimous assent of the Conference. The de- 
 sire to remain connected with Great Britain and to retain 
 our allegiance to Her Majesty was unanimous. Not a 
 single suggestion was made, that it could, by any possi- 
 bility, be for the interest of the colonies, or of any section 
 or portion of them, that there should be a severance of 
 our connection. Although we knew it to be possible that 
 Canada, from her position, might be exposed to all the 
 horrors of war, by reason of causes of hostility arising 
 between Great Britain and the United States — causes 
 over which we had no control, and which we had no 
 hand in bringing about — yet there was a unanimous 
 feeling of willingness to run all the hazards of war, if 
 war must come, rather than lose the connection between 
 the Mother Country and these colonies. We provide that 
 " the Executive authority shall be administered by the 
 Sovereign personally, or by the Representative of the 
 Sovereign duly authorized." It is too much to expect 
 that the Queen should vouchsafe us her personal govern- 
 ance or presence, except to pay us, as the heir apparent
 
 374 FEDERATION 
 
 of the Throne, our future Sovereign has already paid us, 
 the graceful compliment of a visit. The Executive 
 authority must therefore be administered by Her Majesty's 
 Representative, We place no restriction on Her Majesty's 
 prerogative in the selection of her representative. As it 
 is now, so it will be if this Constitution is adopted. The 
 Sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice. Whether 
 in making her selection she may send us one of her own 
 famil}^ a Royal Prince, as a Viceroy to rule over us, or 
 one of the great statesmen of England to represent her, 
 we know not. We leave that to Her Majesty in all con- 
 fidence. But we may be permitted to hope, that when the 
 union takes place, and we become the great country 
 which British North America is certain to be, it will be 
 an object worthy the ambition of the statesmen of 
 England to be charged with presiding over our destinies. 
 
 Let me now invite the attention of the House to the 
 provisions in the Constitution respecting the legislative 
 power. The sixth Resolution says, " There shall be a 
 general legislature or parliament for the federated pro- 
 vinces, composed of a Legislative Council and a House of 
 Commons." This resolution has been cavilled at in the 
 English press as if it excluded the Sovereign as a portion 
 of the Legislature, In one sense, that stricture was just 
 — because in strict constitutional language, the Legislature 
 of England consists of King, Lords and Commons. But, 
 on the other hand, in ordinary parlance we speak of " the 
 King and his Parliament," or " the King summoning his 
 Parliament," the three estates — Lords spiritual, temporal 
 Lords, and the House of Commons, and I observe that 
 such a \\Titer as Hallam occasionally uses the word Par- 
 liament in that restricted sense. At best it is merely a 
 verbal criticism,^ The legislature of British North 
 America will be composed of King, Lords, and Commons, 
 The Legislative Council will stand in the same relation to 
 the Lower House, as the House of Lords to the House of 
 Commons in England, having the same power of initiating 
 all matters of legislation, except the granting of money. 
 As regards the Lower House, it may not appear to matter 
 much, whether it is called the House of Commons or House 
 of Assembly. It will bear whatever name the Parliament 
 of England may choose to give it, but " The House of 
 
 1 This objection was met by Section 17 of tlie British North 
 America Act.
 
 FEDERAL LEGISLATURE 375 
 
 Commons " is the name we should prefer, as showing that 
 it represents the Commons of Canada, in the same way 
 that the English House of Commons represents the 
 Commons of England, with the same privileges, the 
 same parliamentary usage, and the same parliamentary 
 authority. In settling the constitution of the Lower 
 House, that which peculiarly represents the people, it 
 was agreed that the principle of representation based on 
 population should be adopted, and the mode of applying 
 that principle is fully developed in these resolutions. 
 When I speak of representation by population, the House 
 will of course understand, that universal suffrage is not 
 in any way sanctioned, or admitted by these resolutions, 
 as the basis on which the constitution of the popular 
 branch should rest. In order to protect local interests, 
 and to prevent sectional jealousies, it was found requisite 
 that the three great divisions into which British North 
 America is separated, should be represented in the Upper 
 House on the principle of equality. There are three great 
 sections, having different interests, in this proposed Con- 
 federation. We have Western Canada, an agricultural 
 country far away from the sea, and having the largest 
 population, who have p.gricultural interests principally to 
 guard. We have Lower Canada, with other and separate 
 interests, and especially with institutions and laws which 
 she jealously guards against absorption by any larger, 
 more numerous, or stronger power. And we have the 
 Maritime Provinces, having also different sectional in- 
 terests of their own, having, from their position, classes 
 and interests which we do not know in Western Canada. 
 Accordingly, in the Upper House — the controlling and 
 regulating, but not the initiating, branch (for we know 
 that here as in England, to the Lower House will prac- 
 tically belong the initiation of matters of great public 
 interest), in the House which has the sober second- 
 thought in legislation — it is provided that each of those 
 great sections shall be represented equally by 24 mem- 
 bers. The only exception to that condition of equality 
 is in the case of Newfoundland, whicli has an interest of 
 its own, lying, as it does, at the mouth of the great river 
 St. Lawrence, and more connected, perhaps, with Canada 
 than with the Lower Provinces. It has, comparatively 
 speaking, no common interest with the other Maritime 
 Provinces, but has sectional interests and sectional claims
 
 376 FEDERATION 
 
 of its own to be protected. It, therefore, has been 
 dealt with separately, and is to have a separate represen- 
 tation in the Upper House, thus varying from the equality 
 established between the other sections. 
 
 As may be well conceived, great difference of opinion 
 at first existed as to the constitution of the Legislative 
 Council. In Canada the elective principle prevailed ; in 
 the Lower Provinces, with the exception of Prince Edward 
 Island, the nominative principle was the rule. We found a 
 general disinclination on the part of the Lower Provinces 
 to adopt the elective principle ; indeed, I do not think 
 there was a dissenting voice in the Conference against the 
 adoption of the nominative principle, except from Prince 
 Edward IsLind. The delegates from New Brunswick, Nova 
 Scotia and Newfoundland, as one man, were in favour 
 of nomination by the Crown. And nomination by the 
 Crown is of course the system which is most in accord- 
 ance with the British Constitution. We resolved then, 
 that the constitution of the Upper House should be in 
 accordance with the British system as nearly as circum- 
 stances would allow. An hereditary Upper House is 
 impracticable in this young country. Here we have 
 none of the elements for the formation of a landlord 
 aristocracy — no men of large territorial positions — no 
 class separated from the mass of the people. An heredi- 
 tary body is altogether unsuited to our state of society, 
 and would soon dwindle into nothing. The only mode of 
 adapting the English system to the Upper House, is by 
 conferring the power of appointment on the Crown (as 
 the English peers are appointed), but that the appoint- 
 ments should be for life. The arguments for an elective 
 Council are numerous and strong ; and I ought to say so, 
 as one of the Administration responsible for introducing 
 the elective principle into Canada. I hold that this 
 principle has not been a failure in Canada ; but there 
 were causes — which we did not take into consideration at 
 the time — why it did not so fully succeed in Canada as 
 we had expected. One great cause was the enormous 
 extent of the constituencies and the immense labour 
 which consequently devolved on those who sought the 
 suffrages of the people for election to the Council. For 
 the same reason the expense — the legitimate expense — 
 was so enormous that men of standing in the country, 
 eminently fitted for such a position, were prevented from
 
 CONSTITUTION OF COUNCIL 377 
 
 coming forward. At first, I admit, men of the first 
 standing did come forward, but we have seen that in 
 every succeeding election in both Canadas there has been 
 an increasing disinclination, on the pa,rt of men of stand- 
 ing and political experience and weight in the country, to 
 become candidates ; while, on the other hand, all the 
 young men, the active politicians, those who have re- 
 solved to embrace the life of a statesman, have sought 
 entrance to the House of Assembly. The nominative 
 system in this country was to a great extent successful, 
 before the introduction of responsible government. Then 
 the Canadas were to a great extent Crown colonies, and 
 the upper branch of the legislature consisted of gentlemen 
 chosen from among the chief judicial and ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, the heads of departments, and other men of 
 the first position in the country. Those bodies com- 
 manded great respect from the character, standing, and 
 weight of the individuals composing them, but they had 
 little sympathy with the people or their representatives, 
 and collisions with the Lower House frequently occurred, 
 especially in Lower Canada. When responsible govern- 
 ment was introduced, it became necessary for the 
 Governor of the day to have a body of advisers who had 
 the confidence of the House of Assembly, which could 
 make or unmake ministers as it chose. The Lower House 
 in effect pointed out who should be nominated to the 
 Upper House ; for the ministry, being dependent alto- 
 gether on the lower branch of the legislature for support, 
 selected members for the Upper House from among their 
 political friends at the dictation of the House of Assembly. 
 The Council was becoming less and less a substantial 
 check on the legislation of the Assembly ; but under the 
 system now proposed, such will not be the case. No 
 ministry can in future do what they have done in Canada 
 before, — they cannot, with the view of carrying any 
 measure, or of strengthening the party, attempt to over- 
 rule the independent opinion of the Upper House, by 
 filling it with a number of its partisans and political sup- 
 porters. The provision in the Constitution, that the 
 Legislative Council shall consist of a limited number of 
 members — that each of the great sections shall appoint 
 twenty-four members and no more, will prevent the 
 Upper House from being swamped from time to time by 
 the ministry of the day, for the purpose of carrying out
 
 378 FEDERATION 
 
 their own schemes or pleasing their partisans. The fact 
 of tlie government being prevented from exceeding a 
 limited number will preserve the independence of the 
 Upper House, and make it, in reality, a separate and dis- 
 tinct chamber, having a legitimate and controlling influ- 
 ence in the legislation of the country. The objection has 
 been taken that in consequence of the Crown being de- 
 prived of the right of unlimited appointment, there is a 
 chance of a dead-lock arising between the two branches 
 of the legislature ; a chance that the Upper House being 
 altogether independent of the Sovereign, of the Lower 
 House, and of the advisers of the Crown, may act inde- 
 pendently, and so independently as to produce a dead- 
 lock. I do not anticipate any such result. In the first 
 place we know that in England it does not arise. There 
 would be no use of an Upper House, if it did not exercise, 
 when it thought proper, the right of opposing or amending 
 or postponing the legislation of the Lower House, It 
 would be of no value whatever were it a mere chamber 
 for registering the decrees of the Lower House. It must 
 be an independent House, having a free action of its 
 own, for it is only valuable as being a regulating body, 
 calmly considering the legislation initiated by the popular 
 branch, and preventing any hasty or ill considered legis- 
 lation which may come from that body, but it will never 
 set itself in opposition against the deliberate and under- 
 stood wishes of the people.^ Even the House of Lords, 
 
 ^ Nothing is more remarkable in these debates than the contrast 
 between the care with which the fathers of confederation discussed the 
 composition of the Upper House, their fear that it might become too 
 powerful, and its subsequent failure to become an efficient part in the 
 machine of government. Brown was as much afraid of a dead-lock as 
 was Macdonald. In the course of his speech he said : " It has been 
 said that, though you may not give the power to the Executive to 
 increase the numbers of the Upper House, in the event of a dead- 
 lock, you might limit the term for which the members are appointed. 
 I was myself in favour of that proposition. I thought it would 
 be well to provide for a more frequent change in the composition 
 of the Upper House, and lessen the danger of the chamber being 
 largely composed of gentlemen whose advanced years might forbid the 
 punctual and vigorous discharge of their public duties. Still, the 
 objection made to this was very strong. It was said : ' Suppose you 
 appoint them for nine years, what will be the effect ? For the last 
 three or four years of their term they would be anticipating its expiry, 
 and anxiously" looking to the Administration of the day for reappoint- 
 ment ; and the consequence would be that a third of the members 
 would be under the influence of the Executive,' The desire was to
 
 CONSTITUTION OF COUNCIL 379 
 
 which, as an hereditary body, is far more independent than 
 one appointed for Hfe can be, whenever it ascertains what 
 is the cahn, deUberate will of the people of England, 
 yields, and never in modern times has there been, in fact 
 or act, any attempt to overrule the decisions of that 
 House by the appointment of new peers, excepting, per- 
 haps, once in the reign of Queen Anne. It is true that 
 in 1832 such an increase was threatened in consequence 
 of the reiterated refusal of the House of Peers to pass the 
 Reform Bill. I have no doubt the threat would have 
 been carried into effect, if necessary ; but every one, even 
 the Ministry who advised that step, admitted that it 
 would be a revolutionary act, a breach of the Constitu- 
 tion to do so, and it was because of the necessity of pre- 
 venting the bloody revolution which hung over the land, 
 if the Reform Bill had been longer refused to the people 
 of England, that they consented to the bloodless revolu- 
 tion of overriding the independent opinion of the House 
 of Lords on that question. Since that time it has never 
 been attempted, and I am satisfied it will never be at- 
 tempted again. Only a year or two ago the House of 
 Lords rejected the Paper Duties Bill, and they acted quite 
 constitutionally, according to the letter and, as many 
 think, according to the spirit of the Constitution in doing 
 so. Yet when they found they had interfered with a 
 subject which the people's house claimed as belonging of 
 right to themselves, the verj?- next session they abandoned 
 their position, not because they were convinced they had 
 done wrong, but because they had ascertained what was 
 the deliberate voice of the representatives of the people 
 on the subject. In this country, we must remember, that 
 the gentlemen who will be selected for the Legislative 
 Council stand on a very different footing from the peers 
 of England. They have not like them any ancestral 
 associations or position derived from history. They have 
 not that direct influence on the people themselves, or on 
 the popular branch of the legislature, which the peers of 
 England exercise, from their great wealth, their vast 
 territorial possessions, their numerous tenantry, and that 
 
 render the Upper House a thoroughly independent body — one that 
 would be in the best position possible to canvass dispassionately tho 
 interests of this House, and stand up for tho public interests in opposi- 
 tion to hasty or partisan legislation."
 
 3 so FEDERATION 
 
 prestige Avitli which the exalted position of their class for 
 centuries lias invested them. The members of our Upper 
 House will be like those of the Lower, men of the people, 
 and from the people. The man put into the Upper House 
 is as much a man of the people the day after, as the day 
 before his elevation. Springing from the people, and one 
 of them, he takes his seat in the Council with all the 
 sympathies and feelings of a man of the people, and when 
 he returns home, at the end of the session, he mingles 
 with them on equal terms, and is influenced by the same 
 feelings and associations and events as those which 
 affect the mass around him. And is it, then, to be sup- 
 posed that the members of the upper branch of the 
 legislature will set themselves deliberately at work to 
 oppose what they know to be the settled opinions and 
 wishes of the people of the country ? They will not do 
 it. There is no fear of a dead-lock between the two 
 houses. There is an infinitely greater chance of a dead- 
 lock between the two branches of the legislature, should 
 the elective principle be adopted, than with a nominated 
 chamber — chosen by the Crown, and having no mission 
 from the people. The members of the Upper Chamber 
 would then come from the people as well as those of the 
 Lower House, and should any difference ever arise be- 
 tween both branches, the former could say to the members 
 of the popular branch : " We as much represent the 
 feelings of the people as you do, and even more so ; we 
 are not elected from small localities and for a short period ; 
 you as a body v/ere elected at a particular time, when the 
 public mind was running in a particular channel ; you 
 were returned to Parliament, not so much representing 
 the general views of the country, on general questions, 
 as upon the pa,rticular subjects which happened to engage 
 the minds of the people when they went to the polls. We 
 have as much right, or a better right, than you to be 
 considered as representing the deliberate v/ill of the 
 people on general questions, and therefore we will not 
 give way." There is, I repeat, a greater danger of an irre- 
 concilable difference of opinion between the two branches 
 of the legislature, if the upper be elective, than if it holds 
 its commission from the Crown. Besides, it must be 
 remembered that an Upper House, the members of which 
 are to be appointed for life, would not have the same 
 quality of permanence as the House of Lords ; our
 
 CONSTITUTION OF COUNCIL 381 
 
 members would die ; strangers would succeed them, 
 whereas son succeeded father in the House of Lords. 
 Thus the changes in the membership and state of 
 opinion in our Upper House would always be more 
 rapid than in the House of Lords. To show how 
 speedily changes have occurred in the Upper House, as 
 regards life members, I will call the attention of the 
 House to the following facts : — At the call of the House, 
 in February, 1856, forty-two life members responded ; 
 two years afterwards, in 1858, only thirty-five answered 
 to their names ; in 1862 there were only twenty- five life 
 members left, and in 1864, but twenty-one. This shows 
 how speedily changes take place in the life membership. 
 But remarkable as this change has been, it is not so great 
 as that in regard to the elected members. Though the 
 elective principle only came into force in 1856, and 
 although only twelve men were elected that year, and 
 twelve more every two years since, twenty-four changes 
 have already taken place by the decease of members, by 
 the acceptance of office, and by resignation. So it is 
 quite clear that, should there be on any question a 
 difference of opinion between the Upper and Lower 
 Houses, the government of the day being obliged to 
 have the confidence of the majority in the popular 
 branch — would, for the purpose of bringing the former 
 into accord and sympathy with the latter, fill up any 
 vacancies that might occur, with men of the same 
 political feelings and sympathies with the Govern- 
 ment, and consequently with those of the majority 
 in the popular branch ; and all the appointments of 
 the Administration would be made with the object of 
 maintaining the sympathy and harmony between the 
 two houses. There is this additional advantage to be 
 expected from the limitation. To the Upper House 
 is to be confided the protection of sectional interests ; 
 therefore is it that the three great divisions are there 
 equally represented, for the purpose of defending such 
 interests against the combinations of majorities in the 
 Assembly. It will, therefore, become the interest of each 
 section to be represented by its very best men, and the 
 members of the Administration who belong to each sec- 
 tion will see that such men are chosen, in case of a vacancy 
 in their section. For the same reason each state of the 
 American Union sends its two best men to represent itq
 
 382 FEDERATION 
 
 interests in the Senate, It is provided in the Constitu- 
 tion that in the first selections for the Council, regard shall 
 be had to those who now hold similar positions in the 
 different colonies > This, it appears to me, is a wise pro- 
 vision. In all the provinces, except Prince Edward Island, 
 there are gentlemen who hold commissions for the Upper 
 House for life. In Canada, there are a number who hold 
 under that commission ; but the majority of them hold 
 by a commission, not, perhaps, from a monarchical point 
 of view so honourable, because the Queen is the fountain 
 of honour, — but still, as holding their appointment from 
 the people, they may be considered as standing on a par 
 with those who have Her Majesty's commission. There 
 can be no reason suggested why those who have had ex- 
 perience in legislation, whether they hold their positions 
 by the election of the people or have received preferment 
 from the Crown — there is no valid reason why those men 
 should be passed over, and new men sought for to form 
 the Legislative Council of the Confederation. It is, 
 therefore, provided that the selection shall be made from 
 those gentlemen who are now members of the upper 
 branch of the Legislature in each of the colonies, for seats 
 in the Legislative Council of the General Legislature. 
 The arrangement in this respect is somewhat similar to 
 that by which Representative Peers are chosen from the 
 Peers of Scotland and Ireland, to sit in the Parliament of 
 the L^nited Kingdom. In like manner, the members of 
 the Legislative Council of the proposed Confederation will 
 be first selected from the existing Legislative Councils of 
 the various provinces. 
 
 In the formation of the House of Commons, the 
 principle of representation by population has been pro- 
 vided for in a manner equally ingenious and simple. 
 The introduction of this principle presented at first 
 the apparent difficulty of a constantly increasing body 
 until, with the increasing population, it would become 
 inconveniently and expensively large. But by adopting 
 the representation of Lower Canada as a fixed standard 
 — as the pivot on which the whole would turn — that 
 province being the best suited for the purpose, on account 
 of the comparatively permanent character of its popula- 
 
 1 This provision was omitted in the British North America Act, but 
 its intention was followed in the selection of the original seventy-two 
 Senators.
 
 REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION 383 
 
 tion, and from its having neither the largest nor least 
 number of inhabitants — we have been enabled to over- 
 come the difficulty I have mentioned. We have intro- 
 duced the system of representation by population without 
 the danger of an inconvenient increase in the number of 
 representatives on the recurrence of each decennial 
 period. The whole thing is worked by a simple rule of 
 three. For instance, we have in Upper Canada 1,400,000 
 of a population ; in Lower Canada 1,100,000. Now, the 
 proposition is simply this — if Lower Canada, Avith its 
 population of 1,100,000, has a right to 65 members, 
 how many members should Upper Canada have, with 
 its larger population of 1,400,000 ? The same rule applies 
 to the other provinces — the proportion is always observed 
 and the principle of representation by population carried 
 out, while, at the same time, there will not be decennially 
 an inconvenient increase in the numbers of the Lower 
 House. At the same time, there is a constitutional pro- 
 vision that hereafter, if deemed advisable, the total num- 
 ber of representatives may be increased from one hundred 
 and ninety-four, the number fixed in the first instance. In 
 that case, if an increase is made. Lower Canada is still to 
 remain the pivot on which the whole calculation will turn. 
 If Lower Canada, instead of sixty-five, shall have seventy 
 members, then the calculation will be, if Lower Canada 
 has seventy members, with such a population, how many 
 shall Upper Canada have with a larger population ? I 
 was in favour of a larger House than one hundred and 
 ninety-four, but was overruled. I was perhaps singular 
 in the opinion, but I thought it would be well to com- 
 mence with a larger representation in the lower branch. 
 The arguments against this were, that, in the first place, 
 it would cause additional expense ; in the next plaoe, that 
 in a new country like this, we could not get a sufficient 
 number of qualified men to be representatives. My reply 
 was that the number is rapidly increasing as we increase 
 in education and wealth ; that a larger field would be 
 open to political ambition by having a larger body of 
 representatives ; that by having numerous and smaller 
 constituencies, more people would be interested in the 
 working of the union, and that there would be a wider 
 field for selection for leaders of governments and leaders 
 of parties. These are my individual sentiments — which, 
 perhaps, I have no right to express here — but I was over-
 
 384 FEDERATION 
 
 ruled, and we fixed on the number of one hundred and 
 ninety-four, which no one will say is large or extensive, 
 when it is considered that our present number in Canada 
 alone is one hundred and thirty. The difference between 
 one hundred and thirty and one hundred and ninety-four 
 is not great, considering the large increase that will be 
 made to our population when Confederation is carried 
 into effect. 
 
 While the principle of representation by population 
 is adopted with respect to the popular branch of the 
 legislature, not a single member of the Conference, as 
 I stated before, not a single one of the representatives 
 of the government or of the opposition of any one of the 
 Lower Provinces was in favour of universal suffrage. 
 Every one felt that in this respect the principle of the 
 British Constitution should be carried out, and that 
 classes and property should be represented as well as 
 numbers. Insuperable difficulties would have presented 
 themselves if we had attempted to settle now the qualifi- 
 cation for the elective franchise. We have different 
 laws in each of the colonies fixing the qualification of 
 electors for their own local legislatures ; and we therefore 
 adopted a similar clause to that which is contained in the 
 Canada Union Act of 1841, viz., that all the laws which 
 affected the qualification of members and of voters, which 
 affected the appointment and conduct of returning 
 officers and the proceedings at elections, as well as the 
 trial of controverted elections in the separate pro- 
 vinces, should obtain in the first election to the Con- 
 federate Parliament, so that every man who has now a 
 vote in his own province should continue to have a vote 
 in choosing a representative to the first Federal Parlia- 
 ment. And it was left to the Parliament of the Con- 
 federation, as one of their first duties, to consider and to 
 settle by an act of their own the qualification for the 
 elective franchise, which would apply to the whole Con- 
 federation. In considering the question of the duration 
 of Parliament, we came to the conclusion to recommend 
 a period of five years. I was in favour of a longer period. 
 I thought that the duration of the local legislatures should 
 not be shortened so as to be less than four years, as at 
 present, and that the General Parliament should have 
 as long a duration as that of the United Kingdom. I 
 was willing to have gone to the extent of seven years ; but
 
 CONSTITUTION OF LEGISLATURE 385 
 
 a term of five years was preferred, and we had the example 
 of New Zealand, a precedent which was carefully con- 
 sidered, not only locally, but by the Imperial Parliament, 
 and which gave the provinces of those islands a general 
 parliament with a duration of five years. But it was a 
 matter of little importance whether five years or seven 
 years was the term, the power of dissolution by the Crown 
 having been reserved. I find, on looking at the duration 
 of parliaments since the accession of George III. to the 
 Throne, that excluding the present parliament, there 
 have been seventeen parliaments, the average period of 
 whose existence has been about three years and a half. 
 That average is less than the average duration of the 
 parliaments of Canada since the union, so that it was not 
 a matter of much importance whether we fixed upon five 
 or seven years as the period of duration of our General 
 Parliament. 
 
 A good deal of misapprehension has arisen from the 
 accidental omission of some words from the 24th reso- 
 lution. It was thought that by it the local legisla- 
 tures were to have the power of arranging hereafter, 
 and from time to time of readjusting, the different 
 constituencies and settling the size and boundaries of 
 the various electoral districts. The meaning of the 
 resolution is simply this, that for the first General Parlia- 
 ment, the arrangement of constituencies shall be made by 
 the existing local legislatures ; that in Canada, for in- 
 stance, the present Canadian Parliament shall arrange 
 what are to be the constituencies of Upper Canada, and 
 to make such changes as may be necessary in arranging 
 for the seventeen additional members given to it by the 
 Constitution ; and that it may also, if it sees fit, alter the 
 boundaries of the existing constituencies of Lower Canada. 
 In short, this Parliament shall settle what shall bo the 
 different constituencies electing members to the first 
 Federal Parliament. And so the other provinces, the 
 legislatures of which will fix the limits of their several 
 constituencies in the session in which they adopt the new 
 Constitution. Afterwards the local legislatures may alter 
 their own electoral limits as they please, for their own 
 local elections. But it would evidently be unproper to 
 leave to the Local Legislature the power to alter the con- 
 stituencies sending members to the General Legislature 
 after the General Legislature shall liave been called into 
 
 25
 
 386 FEDERATION 
 
 existence. Were this the case, a member of the General 
 Legislature might at any time find himself ousted from 
 his seat by an alteration of his constituency by the Local 
 Legislature in his section. No ; after the General Parlia- 
 ment meets, in order that it may have full control of its 
 own legislation, and be assured of its position, it must 
 have the full power of arranging and re-arranging the 
 electoral limits of its constituencies as it pleases, such 
 being one of the powers essentially necessary to such a 
 Legislature. 
 
 I shall not detain the House by entering into a con- 
 sideration at any length of the different powers con- 
 ferred upon the General Parliament as contradistin- 
 guished from those reserved to the local legislatures ; 
 but any honourable member on examining the list of 
 different subjects which are to be assigned to the General 
 and Local Legislatures respectively, will see that all the 
 great questions which affect the general interests of the 
 Confederacy as a whole, are confided to the Federal Par- 
 liament, while the local interests and local laws of each 
 section are preserved intact, and entrusted to the care 
 of the local bodies. As a matter of course, the General 
 Parliament must have the power of dealing with the 
 public debt and property of the Confederation. Of 
 course, too, it must have the regulation of trade and com- 
 merce, of customs and excise. The Federal Parliament 
 must have the sovereign power of raising money from 
 such sources and by such means as the representatives 
 of the people will allow. It will be seen that the local 
 legislatures have the control of all local works ; and it is 
 a matter of great importance, and one of the chief ad- 
 vantages of the Federal Union and of local legislatures, 
 that each province will have the power and means of 
 developing its own resources and aiding its own progress 
 after its own fashion and in its own way. Therefore all 
 the local improvements, all local enterprises or under- 
 takings of any kind, have been left to the care and 
 management of the local legislatures of each province. 
 It is provided that all " lines of steam or other ships, 
 railways, canals and other works, connecting any two or 
 more of the provinces together or extending beyond the 
 limits of any province," shall belong to the General 
 Government, and be under the control of the General 
 Legislature. In like manner " lines of steamships be-
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS 387 
 
 tween the Federated Provinces and other countries, 
 telegraph communication and the incorporation of 
 telegraph companies, and all such works as shall, although 
 lying within any province, be specially declared by the 
 Acts authorizing them, to be for the general advantage," 
 shall belong to the General Government. For instance, 
 the Welland Canal, though lying wholly within one 
 section, and the St. Lawrence Canals in two only, may be 
 properly considered national works, and for the general 
 benefit of the whole Federation. Again, the census, 
 the ascertaining of our numbers and the extent of our re- 
 sources, must, as a matter of general interest, belong to 
 the General Government. So also with the defences of 
 the country. One of the great advantages of Con- 
 federation is, that we shall have a united, a concerted, 
 and uniform system of defence. We are at this moment 
 with a different militia system in each colony — in some 
 of the colonies with an utter want of any system of de- 
 fence. We have a number of separate staff establish- 
 ments, without any arrangement between the colonies as 
 to the means, either of defence or offence. But, under 
 the union, we will have one system of defence and one 
 system of militia organization. In the event of the Lower 
 Provinces being threatened, we can send the large militia 
 forces of Upper Canada to their rescue. Should we have 
 to fight on our lakes against a foreign foe, we will have 
 the hardy seamen of the Lower Provinces coming to our 
 assistance and manning our vessels. We will have one 
 system of defence and be one people, acting together alike 
 in peace and in war. The criminal law too — the deter- 
 mination of what is a crime and what is not and how crime 
 shall be punished — is left to the General Government. 
 This is a matter almost of necessity. It is of great im- 
 portance that we should have the same criminal law 
 throughout these provinces — that what is a crime in 
 one part of British America, should be a crime in every 
 part — that there should be the same protection of life 
 and property as in another. It is one of the defects in 
 the United States system, that each separate state has or 
 may have a criminal code of its own, — that what may be 
 a capital offence in one state, may be a venial offence, 
 punishable slightly, in another. But under our Consti- 
 tution we sliall have one; body of criminal law, based on 
 the criminal law of England, and operating equally 
 
 25—2
 
 388 FEDERATION 
 
 throughout British America, so that a British American 
 belonging to what province he may, or going to any other 
 part of the Confederation, knows what his rights are in 
 that respect, and what his punishment will be if an offender 
 against the criminal laws of the land. I think this is 
 one of the most marked instances in which we take ad- 
 vantage of the experience derived from our observations 
 of the defects in the Constitution of the neighbouring 
 Republic. The 33rd provision is of very great import- 
 ance to the future well-being of these colonies. It com- 
 mits to the General Parliament the " rendering uniform 
 all or any of the laws relative to property and civil rights 
 in Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New- 
 foundland and Prince Edward Island, and rendering 
 uniform the procedure of all or any of the courts in these 
 provinces."^ The great principles which govern the laws 
 of all the provinces, with the single exception of Lower 
 Canada, are the same, although there may be a divergence 
 in details ; and it is gratifying to find, on the part of the 
 Lower Provinces, a general desire to join together with 
 Upper Canada in this matter, and to procure, as soon as 
 possible, an assimilation of the statutory laws and the 
 procedure in the courts, of all these provinces. At 
 present there is a good deal of diversity. In one of the 
 colonies, for instance, they have no municipal system at 
 all. In another, the municipal system is merely per- 
 missive, and has not been adopted to any extent.^ 
 Although, therefore, a legislative union was found to be 
 almost impracticable, it was understood, so far as we 
 could influence the future, that the first act of the Con- 
 federate Government should be to procure an assimilation 
 of the statutory law of all those provinces, which has, as 
 its root and foundation, the common law of England. 
 But to prevent local interests from being over-ridden, 
 the same section makes provision, that, while power is 
 given to the General Legislature to deal with this subject, 
 no change in this respect should have the force and 
 
 1 The Criminal Laws of the four original provinces were assimilated 
 in 1869. The Criminal Code of the Dominion was consolidated in 
 1892, mainly by the work of Sir John Thompson. The Civil Laws of 
 the various provinces differ somewhat from each other, but there is 
 now a Bar Association of the Dominion, which is endeavouring to 
 assimilate them in certain matters. 
 
 2 Save in Upper and Lower Canada, there was at this time no real 
 municipal system in any of the British North American Colonies.
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS 389 
 
 authority of law in any province until sanctioned by the 
 
 Legislature of that province. The General Legislature is 
 to have power to establish a general Court of Appeal for 
 the Federated Provinces. Although the Canadian Legis- 
 lature has always had the power to establish a Court of 
 Appeal, to which appeals may be made from the courts 
 of Upper and Lower Canada, we have never availed our- 
 selves of the power. Upper Canada has its own Court of 
 Appeal, so has Lower Canada. And this system will 
 continue until a General Court of Appeal shall be estab- 
 lished by the General Legislature. The Constitution 
 does not provide that such a court shall be established. 
 There are many arguments for and against the establish- 
 ment of such a court. But it was thought wise and ex- 
 pedient to put into the Constitution a power to the General 
 Legislature, that, if after full consideration they think it 
 advisable to establish a General Court of Appeal from all 
 the Superior Courts of all the provinces, they may do so.^ 
 I shall not go over the other powers that are conferred on 
 the General Parliament. Most of them refer to matters 
 of financial and commercial interest, and I leave those 
 subjects in other and better hands. Besides all the 
 powers that are specifically given, the 37th and last item 
 of this portion of the Constitution confers on the General 
 Legislature the general mass of sovereign legislation, the 
 power to legislate on " all matters of a general character, 
 not specially and exclusively reserved for the local govern- 
 ments and legislatures." This is precisely the provision 
 which is wanting in the Constitution of the United States. 
 It is here that we find the v/eakness of the American 
 system — the point where the American Constitution 
 breaks down. It is in itself a wise and necessary pro- 
 vision. We thereby strengthen the Central Parliament, 
 and make the Confederation one people and one govern- 
 ment, instead of five peoples and five governments, with 
 merely a point of authority connecting us to a limited 
 and insufficient extent. 
 
 With respect to the local governments, it is provided 
 that each shall be governed by a chief executive officer, 
 who shall be nominated by the General Government. 
 As this is to be one united province, with the local 
 governments and legislatures subordinate to the General 
 
 ^ Such a Supreme Court was establiwhecl in 1875, but appeal may be 
 made from it to the Judicial Connuittcc of the Privy Council.
 
 390 FEDERATION 
 
 Government and Legislature, it is obvious that the chief 
 executive officer in each of the provinces must be sub- 
 ordinate as well. The General Government assumes 
 towards the local governments precisely the same posi- 
 tion as the Imperial Government holds with respect to 
 each of the colonies now ; so that as the Lieutenant- 
 Governor of each of the different provinces is now 
 appointed directly by the Queen, and is directly re- 
 sponsible, and reports directly to Her, so will the 
 executives of the local governments hereafter be sub- 
 ordinate to the Representative of the Queen, and be re- 
 sponsible and report to him.^ Objection has been taken 
 that there is an infringement of the Royal prerogative in 
 giving the pardoning power to the local governors, who 
 are not appointed directly by the Crown, but only in- 
 directly by the Chief Executive of the Confederation, who 
 is appointed by the Crown. This provision was inserted 
 in the Constitution on account of the practical difficulty 
 which must arise if the power is confined to the Governor- 
 General. For example, if a question arose about the dis- 
 charge of a prisoner convicted of a minor offence, say in 
 Newfoundland, who might be in imminent danger of 
 losing his life if he remained in confinement, the exercise 
 of the pardoning power might come too late if it were 
 necessary to wait for the action of the Governor-General. 
 It must be remembered that the pardoning power not 
 only extends to capital cases, but to every case of con- 
 viction and sentence, no matter how trifling — even to the 
 case of a fuie in the nature of a sentence on a criminal 
 conviction. It extends to innumerable cases, where, if 
 the responsibility for its exercise were thrown on the 
 General Executive, it could not be so satisfactorily dis- 
 charged. Of course there must be, in each province, a 
 legal adviser of the Executive, occupying the position of 
 our Attorney-General, as there is in every state of the 
 American Union. This officer will be an officer of the 
 Local Government ; but, if the pardoning power is re- 
 served for the Chief Executive, there must, in every case 
 where the exercise of the pardoning power is sought, be 
 
 ^ From 1867 to 1896 the tendency of the Conservatives was to 
 minimize the powers of the Provincial Legislatures, that of the 
 Liberals to uphold " Provincial Rights." The decisions of the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privj- Council tended to strengthen the authoritj' of 
 the provinces. See C. E. W. Biggar, Sir Oliver Mowat (2 vols., 1905).
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS 391 
 
 a direct communication and report from the local law 
 officer to the Governor-General. The practical incon- 
 venience of this was felt to be so great, that it was thought 
 well to propose the arrangement we did, without any 
 desire to infringe upon the prerogatives of the Crown, for 
 our whole action shows that the Conference, in every 
 step they took, were actuated by a desire to guard 
 jealously these prerogatives. It is a subject, however, 
 of Imperial interest, and if the Imperial Government 
 and Imperial Parliament are not convinced by the 
 arguments we will be able to press upon them for the 
 continuation of that clause, then, of course, as the over- 
 ruling power, they may set it aside. ^ 
 
 There are numerous subjects which belong, of right, both 
 to the Local and the General Parliaments. In all these 
 cases it is provided, in order to prevent a conflict of 
 authority, that where there is concurrent jurisdiction in the 
 General and the Local Parliaments, the same rule should 
 apply as now applies in cases where there is concurrent 
 jurisdiction in the Imperial and in the Provincial Parlia- 
 ments, and that when the legislation of the one is adverse 
 to or contradictory of the legislation of the other, in all 
 such cases the action of the General Parliament must 
 overrule, ex necessitate, the action of the Local Legis- 
 lature. We have introduced also all those provisions 
 which are necessary in order to the full working out of 
 the British Constitution in these provinces. We provide 
 that there shall be no money votes, unless those votes are 
 introduced in the popular branch of the Legislature on 
 the authority of the responsible advisers of the Crown — • 
 those with whom the responsibility rests of equalizing 
 revenue and expenditure — that there can be no expenditure 
 or authorization of expenditure by Address or in any other 
 way unless initiated by the Crown on the advice of its 
 responsible advisers. . . . 
 
 ^ This provision was objected to by the Colonial Secretary. Writing 
 to the Hon. Oliver Mowat, on August 2H, 1873, Macdonald said: "You 
 will remember that I was always strongly in favour of the pardoning 
 power being entrusted to the Lieutenant-Governors of the different 
 provinces. This was a provision in the Quebec resolutions; but Mr. 
 Cardwcll, then Colonial Secretary, objected to it; and in 1800-18(37, when 
 we were settling the 13. N. A. Act, Lord Carnarvon, his successor, took 
 the same position. Wo argued with him very strongly, and I thought 
 we had the best of the argument ; but wo found it of no avail, as ho 
 declined positively to surrender tho royal prerogative." — Pope, Sir 
 John Macdonald, i. 275.
 
 392 FEDERATION 
 
 The last resolution of any importance is one which, 
 although not affecting the substance of the Constitu- 
 tion, is of interest to us all. It is that " Her Majesty 
 the Queen be solicited to determine the rank and name 
 of the federated provinces." I do not know whether 
 there will be any expression of opinion in this House 
 on this subject — whether we are to be a vice-royalty, 
 or whether we are still to retain our name and rank as 
 a province. But I have no doubt Her Majesty will 
 give the matter Her gracious consideration, that She 
 will give us a name satisfactory to us all, and that the 
 rank She will confer upon us will be a rank worthy of our 
 position, of our resources, and of our future. ^ Let me 
 again, before I sit down, impress upon this House the 
 necessity of meeting this question in a spirit of com- 
 promise, with a disposition to judge the matter as a 
 whole, to consider whether really it is for the benefit and 
 advantage of the country to form a Confederation of all 
 the provinces ; and if honourable gentlemen, whatever may 
 have been their preconceived ideas as to the merits of 
 the details of this measure, whatever may still be their 
 opinions as to these details, if they really believe that the 
 scheme is one by which the prosperity of the country will 
 be increased, and its future progress secured, I ask them 
 to yield their own views, and to deal with the scheme 
 according to its merits as one great whole. 2 One argu- 
 ment, but not a strong one, has been used against this 
 Confederation, that it is an advance towards indepen- 
 dence. Some are apprehensive that the very fact of our 
 forming this union will hasten the time when we shall 
 be severed from the mother country. I have no appre- 
 hension of that kind. I believe it will have the contrary 
 
 1 See p. 147, note 2. 
 
 2 Brown also insisted very strongly on this point. There was Uttle 
 popular enthusiasm for the measure, and its framers dreaded the 
 result of an appeal to the country. Thus, writing on October 8, 
 1866, to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Leonard Tilley, Macdonald says : " It 
 appears to us to be important that the Bill should not be finally settled 
 until just before the meeting of the British Parliament. The measure 
 must be carried j^jer saltuni, and no echo of ic must reverberate through 
 the British provinces till it becomes law. If the delegation had been 
 complete in England, and they had prepared the measure in August 
 last, it would have been impossible to keep its provisions secret until 
 next January. There will be few important clauses in the measure 
 that will not offend some interest or individual, and its publication 
 would excite a new and fierce agitation on this side of the Atlantic."
 
 BRITISH CONNECTION 393 
 
 effect. I believe that as we grow stronger, that as it 
 is felt in England we have become a people, able from our 
 union, our strength, our population, and the develop- 
 ment of our resources, to take our position among the 
 nations of the world, she will be less willing to part with 
 us than she would be now, when we are broken up into 
 a number of insignificant colonies, subject to attack piece- 
 meal without any concerted action or common organiza- 
 tion of defence. I am strongly of opinion that year by 
 year, as we grow in population and strength, England 
 will more and more see the advantages of maintaining the 
 alliance between British North America and herself. Does 
 any one imagine that, when our population, instead of 
 three and a half, will be seven millions, as it will be ere 
 many years pass, we would be one whit more willing than 
 now to sever the connection with England ? Would not 
 those seven millions be just as anxious to maintain their 
 allegiance to the Queen and their connection with the 
 Mother Country, as we are now ? Will the addition to 
 our numbers of the people of the Lower Provinces in 
 any way lessen our desire to continue our connection with 
 the Mother Country 1 I believe the people of Canada 
 East and West to be truly loyal. But, if they can by 
 possibility be exceeded in loyalty, it is by the inhabitants 
 of the Maritime Provinces. Loyalty with them is an 
 overruling passion. In all parts of the Lower Provinces 
 there is a rivalry between the opposing political parties 
 as to which shall most strongly express and most effectively 
 carry out the principle of loyalty to Her Majesty, and 
 to the British Crown. When this union takes place, 
 we will be at the outset no inconsiderable people. We 
 find ourselves with a population approaching four 
 millions of souls. Such a population in Europe would 
 make a second, or at least, a third rate power. And with 
 a rapidly increasing population — for I am satisfied 
 that under this union our population will increase in a 
 still greater ratio tlian ever before — with increased 
 credit — with a higher position in the eyes of Europe — 
 with the increased security we can offer to immigrants, 
 who would naturally prefer to seek a new home in what 
 is known to them as a great country, than in any one 
 little colony or another — with all this I am satisfied that, 
 great as has been our increase in the last twenty-five 
 years since the union between Upper and Lower Canada,
 
 394 FEDERATION 
 
 our future progress, during the next quarter of a century, 
 ■will be vastly greater. And when, by means of this 
 rapid increase, we become a nation of eight or nine 
 millions of inhabitants, our alliance will be worthy of 
 being sought by the great nations of the earth. I am 
 proud to believe that our desire for a permanent alliance 
 will be reciprocated in England. I know that there is 
 a party in England — but it is inconsiderable in numbers, 
 though strong in intellect and power — which speaks of 
 the desirability of getting rid of the colonies ; but I be- 
 lieve such is not the feeling of the statesmen and the 
 people of England. I believe it will never be the de- 
 liberately expressed determination of the Government of 
 Great Britain. The colonies are now in a transition 
 state. Gradually a different colonial system is being 
 developed — and it will become, year by year, less a case 
 of dependence on our part, and of overruling protection 
 on the part of the Mother Country, and more a case of a 
 healthy and cordial alliance. Instead of looking upon us 
 as a merely dependent colony, England wdll have in us a 
 friendly nation — a subordinate but still a powerful 
 people — to stand by her in North America in peace or 
 in war. The people of Australia will be such another 
 subordinate nation. And England will have this ad- 
 vantage, if her colonies progress under the new colonial 
 system, as I believe they will, that, though at war with 
 all the rest of the world, she will be able to look to the 
 subordinate nations in alliance with her, and owning 
 allegiance to the same Sovereign, who will assist in 
 enabling her again to meet the whole world in arms, 
 as she has done before. And if, in the great Napoleonic 
 war, with every port in Europe closed against her com- 
 merce, she was yet able to hold her own, how much more 
 will that be the case when she has a colonial empire 
 rapidly increasing in power, in wealth, in influence, 
 and in position ? It is true that we stand in danger, 
 as we have stood in danger again and again in Canada, 
 of being plunged into war and suffering all its dreadful 
 consequences, as the result of causes over which we have 
 no control, by reason of this connection. This, how- 
 ever, did not intimidate us. At the very mention of 
 the prospect of a war some time ago, how were the 
 feelings of the people aroused from one extremity of 
 British America to the other, and prepa,rations made for
 
 BRITISH CONNECTION 395 
 
 meeting its worst consequences. Although the people 
 of this country are fully aware of the horrors of war — 
 should a war arise, unfortunately, between the United 
 States and England, and we all pray it never may — 
 they are still ready to encounter all perils of that kind, for 
 the sake of the connection with England. There is not 
 one adverse voice, not one adverse opinion on that 
 point. We all feel the advantages we derive from our 
 connection with England. So long as that alliance is 
 maintained, we enjoy, under her protection, the privileges 
 of constitutional liberty according to the British system. 
 We will enjoy here that which is the great test of consti- 
 tutional freedom — we will have the rights of the minority 
 respected. In all countries the rights of the majority 
 take care of themselves, but it is only in countries like 
 England, enjoying constitutional liberty, and safe from 
 the tyranny of a single despot or of an unbridled demo- 
 cracy, that the rights of minorities are regarded. So 
 long, too, as we form a portion of the British Empire, we 
 shall have the example of her free institutions, of the 
 high standard of the character of her statesmen and 
 public men, of the purity of her legislation, and the up- 
 right administration of her laws. In this younger 
 country one great advantage of our connection with Great 
 Britain will be, that, under her auspices, inspired by her 
 example, a portion of her empire, our public men will be 
 actuated by principles similar to those which actuate the 
 statesmen at home. These, although not material, 
 physical benefits, of which you can make an arithmetical 
 calculation, are of such overwhelming advantage to our 
 future interests and standing as a nation, that to obtain 
 them is well worthy of any sacrifices we may be called 
 upon to make, and the people of this country are ready 
 to make them. We should feel, also, sincerely grateful 
 to beneficent Providence that we have had the oppor- 
 tunity vouchsafed us of calmly considering this great 
 constitutional change, this peaceful revolution — that we 
 have not been hurried into it, like the United States, 
 by the exigencies of war — that we have not had a violent 
 revolutionary period forced on us, as in other nations, 
 by hostile action from without, or by domestic dissensions 
 within. Here we are in peace and prosperity, under the 
 fostering government of Great Britain — a dependent 
 people, with a government having only a limited and
 
 396 FEDERATION 
 
 delegated authority, and yet allowed, Avithout restric- 
 tion, and without jealousy on the part of the Mother 
 Country, to legislate for ourselves, and peacefully and 
 deliberately to consider and determine the future of 
 Canada and of British North America. It is our happi- 
 ness to know the expression of the will of our Gracious 
 Sovereign, through Her Ministers, that we have her full 
 sanction for our deliberations, that Her only solicitude 
 is that we shall adopt a system which shall be really for 
 our advantage, and that She promises to sanction what- 
 ever conclusion after full deliberation we may arrive at 
 as to the best mode of securing the well-being — the 
 present and future prosperity of British America. It is 
 our privilege and happiness to be in such a position, and 
 we cannot be too grateful for the blessings thus con- 
 ferred upon us. I must apologise for having detained 
 you so long — for having gone perhaps too much into 
 tedious details with reference to the questions bearing on 
 the Constitution now submitted to this House. In con- 
 clusion, I would again implore the House not to let 
 this opportunity pass. It is an opportunity that may 
 never recur. At the risk of repeating myself, I would 
 say, it was only by a happy concurrence of circum- 
 stances, that we were enabled to bring this great question 
 to its present position. If we do not take advantage of 
 the time, if we show ourselves unequal to the occasion, 
 it may never return, and we shall hereafter bitterly and 
 unavailingly regret having failed to embrace the happy 
 opportunity now offered of founding a great nation 
 under the fostering care of Great Britain, and our Sove- 
 reign Lady, Queen Victoria. 
 
 Attorney - General Cartier^ : Confederation was, as it 
 were, at this moment almost forced upon us. We could 
 not shut our eyes to what w^as going on beyond the 
 lines, where a great struggle was going on between two 
 Confederacies, at one time forming but one Confederacy. 
 We saw that a government, established not more than 
 eighty years ago, had not been able to keep together the 
 family of states which had broke up four or five years 
 since. We could not deny that the struggle now in pro- 
 
 ^ The only speech which we have given in full is that of Macdonald, 
 but it must be remembered that in the earher stages of the movement 
 Cartier, Brown, and Gait were at least equally important.
 
 NECESSITY OF FEDERATION 397 
 
 gress must necessarily influence our political existence. 
 We did not know what would be the result of that great 
 war — whether it would end in the establishment of two 
 Confederacies or in one as before. However, we had to 
 do with five colonies, inhabited by men of the same 
 sympathies and interests, and in order to become a great 
 nation they required only to be brought together under 
 one General Government. The matter resolved itself 
 into this, either we must obtain British North American 
 Confederation or be absorbed in an American Con- 
 federation. Some entertained the opinion that it was 
 unnecessary to have British North American Con- 
 federation to prevent absorption into the vortex of 
 American Confederation. Such parties were mistaken. 
 We knew the policy of England towards us — that she 
 was determined to help and support us in any struggle 
 with our neighbours. The British Provinces, separated 
 as at present, could not defend themselves alone, and the 
 question resolved itself into this : shall the whole strength 
 of the empire be concentrated into Prince Edward Island 
 or Canada, as the case may be, in case of a war with the 
 United States — or shall the provinces be left to fight 
 single-handed, disunited ? We were not sufficiently 
 united. We had our duties, with regard to England, to 
 perform. In order to secure the exercise of her power 
 in our defence we must help her ourselves. We could 
 not do this satisfactorily or efficiently unless we had a 
 Confederation. When all united, the enemy would 
 know that, if he attacked any part of those provinces 
 — Prince Edward Island or Canada — he would have to 
 encounter the combined strength of the empire. Canada, 
 separate, would be, although comparatively strong in 
 population and wealth, in a dangerous position should 
 a war ensue. When we had organized our good defensive 
 force, and united for mutual protection, England would 
 send freely here both men and treasure for our defence. 
 He had stated before audiences in the Lower Provinces 
 that, as far as territory, population and wealth were 
 concerned, Canada was stronger than any of the other 
 provinces, but at the same time was wanting in one 
 element necessary to national greatness — the maritime 
 one ; and that, owing to the large trade and commerce 
 of Canada, extensive communication with Great Britain 
 jit all seasons was absolutely necessary. Twenty years
 
 398 FEDERATION 
 
 ago our commerce for the year could be managed by 
 communication with Great Britain in the summer months 
 only. At present, however, this system was insufficient, 
 and for winter communication with the sea-board we 
 were left to the caprice of our American neighbours, 
 through whose territory we must pass. He had also 
 alluded to the bonding system, which if the Americans 
 were to withdraw, Canada would be left in winter with- 
 out any winter harbours. Canada, having two or three 
 elements of national greatness — territory and population 
 — wanted the maritime element ; and as hej] had said, 
 the Lower Provinces had this element and a sea-board, 
 but not a back country or large population, which 
 Canada possessed, — and for the mutual benefit and pros- 
 perity of all the provinces, all these elements ought to 
 be united together. Those who pretended that the 
 British North American Provinces would be in as safe a 
 position, remaining separate, while they belonged to the 
 British Crown, as under Confederation, were under a great 
 misapprehension. Now was the time for us to form a 
 great nation of the several provinces. Now was the 
 time to look the matter in the face and adopt the only 
 safe and prudent course open to us in the shape of Con- 
 federation. He maintained it was necessary for our own 
 commercial interests, prosperity and efficient defence. 
 That was what we had now to discuss, and not the 
 manner in which Confederation was to be brought about, 
 which would be discussed when the details of the scheme 
 came up for consideration. At present the question 
 was : Was Confederation of the British North American 
 Provinces necessary in order to increase our strength 
 and power and secure to us the continuance of the benefits 
 of British connection ? He had no doubt that the 
 measure was necessary for those objects. It would be 
 observed that the English speaking opponents of the 
 scheme, in Lower Canada, pretended a fear of this element 
 being absorbed by the French Canadian ; while the oppo- 
 nents, composed of the latter origin — of men who might 
 be called the old Papineau Tail — whose sole idea was 
 annexation to the United States — said they were afraid 
 of the extinction of French Canadian nationality in the 
 great Confederation. The annexation party in Mon- 
 treal, including the followers of Mr. John Dougall, the 
 proprietor of the Witness, opposed the scheme on the
 
 FEAR OF AMERICAN ANNEXATION 399 
 
 ground of supposed danger to the British of Lower 
 Canada. The annexation party could not, however, be 
 supposed to be sincere in their opposition to the scheme — 
 except in so far as they desired to carry Canada into the 
 American Union. The absorption of this province into 
 the United States had long been contemplated, as would 
 be seen from the 7th article in the original draft of the 
 American Constitution, which he would read. It was as 
 follows : " Art. 7. Canada, according to this Confedera- 
 tion and joining in the measures of the United States, 
 shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages 
 of this union ; and shall be equally with any other of the 
 United States, solemnly bound to a strict observance of, 
 and obedience to, these articles ; as shall be also any other 
 colony which shall be admitted into this Confederacy. 
 The eleven votes in Congress shall be increased in pro- 
 portion as the Confederacy is extended. But, except 
 Canada, no other colony shall be admitted into the Con- 
 federacy without the assent of eleven or more votes, as 
 the case may require, by the Confederation being ex- 
 tended." By that article, no new state could go into the 
 union except by the vote of the number of states re- 
 quired to admit a new partner. But, as regarded Canada, 
 no such assent was required ; on knocking at the door 
 of the union, she would, as a matter of course, be ad- 
 mitted. The honourable gentleman went on to say that 
 the papers lately contained a report of a meeting at the 
 Institut Canadien of Montreal, where it was resolved 
 that it was for the interests of Lower Canada — in the 
 interests of the French Canadians, were the province to 
 become a part of the American Union. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Dorion said that was not the case. The 
 honourable gentleman had misquoted what had passed 
 there. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Cartier said he was right. If resolutions 
 were not passed, sentiments were expressed to that effect. 
 Then the organ of the Institute — UOrdre, he thought — 
 had set forth that the interests of Lower Canada would 
 be better secured by annexation to the United States 
 than entering into a Confederation with the British 
 American Provinces. It was no wonder, then, that the 
 French Canadian annexationists betrayed their purpose 
 in opposition to British North American Confederation, 
 g,nd that their English-speaking colleagues pretended a
 
 400 FEDERATION 
 
 fear of the rights of their class being jeopardized under 
 Confederation. We knew their object in this — that they 
 were aware that as soon as this project was adopted, there 
 would be no avail in any cry of separation to form a 
 part of the American Union. . . . 
 
 Some parties — through the press and by other modes 
 — pretended that it was impossible to carry out Federa- 
 tion, on account of the diflEerences of races and religions. 
 Those who took this view of the question were in error. 
 It was just the reverse. It was precisely on account 
 of the variety of races, local interests, etc., that the 
 Federation system ought to be resorted to, and would 
 be found to work well. We were in the habit of seeing 
 in some public journals, and hearing from some public 
 men, that it was a great misfortune indeed there should 
 be a difference of races in this colony — that there should 
 be the distinction of French Canadian from British 
 Canadian. Now, he desired on this point to vindicate 
 the rights, the merits, the usefulness, so to speak, of those 
 belonging to the French Canadian race. In order to 
 bring these merits and this usefulness more prominently 
 before his hearers, it would be only necessary to allude 
 to^the ^efforts made by them to sustain British power 
 on this continent, and to point out their adherence to 
 British supremacy in trying times. We were all con- 
 versant with the history of the circumstances which had 
 brought about the difficulties between England and her 
 former American colonies in 1775. Lower Canada, — or 
 rather he should say, the Province of Quebec, for the 
 colony was not then known by the name of Canada, 
 but was called the Province of Quebec, — contained the 
 most dense population of any British colony in North 
 America at that time. The accession of Lower Canada 
 was of course an object of envy to the other American 
 colonies, and strenuous efforts were made by those who 
 had resolved to overthrow British power on this conti- 
 nent to induce Canada to ally herself to their cause. As 
 early as 1775, the French Canadians were solemnly 
 addressed in a proclamation by General Washington, who 
 called upon them to abandon the flag of their new masters, 
 inasmuch as they could not expect anything from those 
 who differed from them in language, in religion, in race, 
 and in sympathies. But what was the conduct of the 
 French Canadian people under these circumstances —
 
 LOYALTY OF FRENCH 401 
 
 what was the attitude of the clergy and the seigniors ? 
 It was right in treating this chapter of our history, to 
 render justice to whom justice was due, and it was truth 
 to say that the seigniors, forming, as they did, the 
 educated class of our population at that early epoch, had 
 fully understood that the object and aim of those who 
 appealed to them was the downfall of the monarchical 
 system in America. A few years only had elapsed at 
 that time since the transfer of the country and its popu- 
 lation from the Crown of France to the Crown of Great 
 Britain ; but even within that brief interval of time, they 
 were enabled to appreciate the advantages of their new 
 position, notwithstanding the fact that they were still 
 struggling and complaining. The people, as well as the 
 clergy and aristocracy, had understood that it was better 
 for them to remain under the English and Protestant 
 Crown of England, rather than to become republicans. 
 They were proof against the insidious offers of George 
 Washington ; and not only so, but when the Americans 
 came as invaders, they fought against the armed forces 
 of Arnold, Montgomery, and others. Attempts were made 
 to excite hostility to Federation on the ground that, under 
 the regime of a local legislature, the English Protestant 
 minority would not be fairly dealt with. He thought 
 the way in which the French Canadians had stood by 
 British connection, when there were but few British in 
 the province, was a proof that they would not attempt to 
 deal unjustly now by the British minority, when their 
 numbers were so much greater.^ On this point, appealing 
 to the evidence of history, he would quote from the work 
 which he had already quoted. At a time when there 
 were, perhaps, hardly a few hundred English Protestant 
 
 1 The Premier, Sir E. P. Tache, and the Hon. T. D'Arcy McGee also 
 spoke strongly against the possibihty of French domination. McGeo 
 quoted with great effect a passage from the Digest of the Si/nod Minutes 
 of the Presbi/terian Church of Canada : " About tlie year 1790 the Pres- 
 byterians of Montreal of all denominations, both ] British and American, 
 organized themselves into a Church, and in the following year secured 
 the services of the llev. Jolm Young. At this time they met in tho 
 Recollct Roman CathoUc Cliurch, but in the year following they erected 
 tho edifice which is now known as the St. Gabriel Street Church — tho 
 oldest Protestant cliurch in the province. In their early minutes wo 
 find them, in acknowledgment of the kindness of tho riccollet Fathers, 
 presenting them with ' one box of candles, 66 pounds, at 8d., and one 
 hogshead of Spanish wine at £G 5s.' " 
 
 26
 
 402 FEDERATION 
 
 residents in Lower Canada, the address in the name of 
 ^^'ashington, to which he had already briefly referred, 
 was circulated throughout the country by Arnold's invad- 
 ing army. It made the most earnest appeals to the 
 Lower Canadians to join the other colonies. . . . (The 
 honourable gentleman here read a number of extracts from 
 General Washington's proclamation, addressed to the in- 
 habitants of Canada.) It appeared by this address that 
 the most tempting offers and promises had been made by 
 the republican general ; but they had failed, nevertheless, 
 to accomplish the desired effect. This, however, was 
 not the only trait of this nature in the history of the 
 French Canadian people. There was another despatch, 
 or rather proclamation, issued in 1778, by Baron 
 D'Estaing, commander of the French fleet, which was acting 
 in aid of the American revolutionary party. (The honour- 
 able gentleman read some extracts from this proclama- 
 tion.) . . . D'Estaing had appealed to their ancestry and 
 their prejudices ; he had invoked the names of Levis 
 and Montcalm, and endeavoured to influence their clergy ; 
 but the French Canadians understood their position too 
 well. If they had their institutions, their language and 
 their religion intact to-day, it was precisely because of 
 their adherence to the British Crown. Had they yielded 
 to the appeals of Washington and Baron D'Estaing, it 
 is probable that there would not have been now a vestige 
 of British power on this continent. But, with the dis- 
 appearance of British power, they too would have 
 disappeared as French Canadians. These historical facts 
 taught that there should be a mutual feeling of gratitude 
 from the French Canadians towards the British, and 
 from the British towards the French Canadians, for our 
 present position, that Canada is still a British colony. 
 He had had occasion, a moment ago, to refer to the 
 French Canadian clergy in connection with D'Estaing's 
 address, and he would say this, to their honour and 
 credit, that, if to-day Canada was a portion of the British 
 Empire, it was due to the conservatism of the French 
 Canadian clergy. It was a pleasure to him thus to be 
 able to quote from these old documents proofs of the 
 honour, loyalty, and liberality of the French Canadian 
 people. He was as devoid of prejudice as any honour- 
 able gentleman in this House ; but when he heard or 
 read the statements occasionally made, that there was
 
 LOYALTY OF FRENCH 403 
 
 some danger that, under the Federation system, the 
 French Canadians would have too much power, and 
 that the power thus obtained would be used to the 
 prejudice of the British and Protestant minority — the 
 history of the past, in many instances, was the best 
 reply to such attacks. Baron D'Estaing issued his 
 tempting proclamation in 1778, and it was sent into 
 Canada frequently afterwards, and circulated at the 
 instigation of Rochambeau and Lafayette ; but our 
 clergy and our aristocracy, the leaders of our people in 
 these days, saw that it was not their interest to cast 
 their lot with the democratic element — they knew 
 the hollo wness of democracy. We found ourselves at 
 the present day discussing the question of the Federa- 
 tion of the British North American Provinces, while the 
 great Federation of the United States of America was 
 broken up and divided against itself. There was, how- 
 ever, this important difference to be observed in con- 
 sidering the action of the two peoples. They had 
 founded Federation for the purpose of carrying out and 
 perpetuating democracy on this continent ; but we, who 
 had the benefit of being able to contemplate republicanism 
 in action during a period of eighty years, saw itvS defects, 
 and felt convinced that purely democratic institutions 
 could not be conducive to the peace and prosperity of 
 nations. We were not now discussing the great problem 
 presented to our consideration, in order to propagate 
 democratic principles. Our attempt was for the purpose 
 of forming a Federation with a view of perpetuating the 
 monarchical element. The distinction, therefore, be- 
 tween ourselves and our neighbours was just this : — In 
 our Federation the monarchical principle would form the 
 leading feature, while on the other side of the lines, 
 judging by the past history and present condition of the 
 country, the ruling power was the will of the mob, the 
 rule of the populace. Every person who had conversed 
 with the most intelligent American statesmen and 
 writers must have learned that they all admitted that 
 the governmental powers had become too extended, 
 owing to the introduction of universal suffrage, and mob 
 rule had consequently supplanted legitimate authority ; 
 and we now saw the sad spectacle of a country torn by 
 civil war, and brethren fighting against brctliren. The 
 question for us to ask ourselves was this : Shall we bo 
 
 26—2
 
 404 FEDERATION 
 
 content to remain separate — shall we be content to 
 maintain a mere provincial existence, when, by com- 
 bining together, we could become a great nation ? It 
 had never yet been the good fortune of any group of 
 communities to secure national greatness with such 
 facility. In past ages, warriors had struggled for years 
 for the addition to their country of a single province. 
 We had, too, for instance, in our own days, the case of 
 Napoleon III., who, after great expenditure of blood 
 and treasure in the Italian difficulty, had acquired 
 Savoy and Nice, by which he had obtained an addition 
 of nearly one million inhabitants to France — only one 
 million souls, and if any person were for a moment to 
 make a calculation of the value of the provinces acquired 
 on one side, and the great cost on the other, he would at 
 once see the great disproportion between the one and the 
 other, and so ascertain the fact that the territory acquired 
 did not compensate the outlay. 
 
 Here, in British North America, we had five different 
 communities inhabiting five separate colonies. We had 
 the same sympathies, and we all desired to live under 
 the British Crown. We had our commercial interests 
 besides. It was of no use whatever that New Bruns- 
 wick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland should have 
 their several custom houses against our trade, or that 
 we should have custom houses against the trade of 
 those provinces. In ancient times, the manner in 
 which a nation grew up was different from that of 
 the present day. Then the first weak settlement in- 
 creased into a village, which, by turns, became a town 
 and a city, and the nucleus of a nation. It was not so 
 in modern times. Nations were now formed by the 
 agglomeration of communities having kindred interests 
 and sympathies. Such was our case at the present 
 moment. Objection had been taken to the scheme now 
 under consideration, because of the words " new nation- 
 ality." Now, when we were united together, if union 
 were attained, we would form a political nationality with 
 which neither the national origin, nor the religion of any 
 individual, would interfere. It was lamented by some 
 that we had this diversity of races, and hopes were ex- 
 pressed that this distinctive feature would cease. The 
 idea of unity of races was Utopian — it was impossible. 
 Distinctions of this kind would always exist, Dis-
 
 STRENGTH FROM DIVERSITY OF RACE 405 
 
 similarity, in fact, appeared to be the order of the physical 
 world and of the moral world, as well as in the political 
 world. But with regard to the objection based on this 
 fact, to the effect that a great nation could not be formed 
 because Lower Canada was in great part French and 
 Catholic, and Upper Canada was British and Protestant, 
 and the Lower Provinces were mixed, it was futile and 
 worthless in the extreme. Look, for instance, at the 
 United Kingdom, inhabited as it was by three great 
 races. Had the diversity of race impeded the glory, the 
 progress, the wealth of England ? Had they not rather 
 each contributed their share to the greatness of the 
 Empire ? Of the glories of the senate, the field, and the 
 ocean, of the successes of trade and commerce, how much 
 was contributed by the combined talents, energy and 
 courage of the three races together ? In our own Federa- 
 tion we should have Catholic and Protestant, English, 
 French, Irish and Scotch, and each by his efforts and his 
 success would increase the prosperity and glory of the 
 new Confederacy. He viewed the diversity of races in 
 British North America in this way : we were of different 
 races, not for the purpose of warring against each other, 
 but in order to compete and emulate for the general wel- 
 fare. We could not do away with the distinctions of 
 race. We could not legislate for the disappearance of 
 the French Canadians from American soil, but British 
 and French Canadians alike could appreciate and under- 
 stand their position relative to each other. They were 
 placed like great families beside each other, and their 
 contact produced a healthy spirit of emulation. It was 
 a benefit rather than otherwise that we had a diversity 
 of races. Of course, the difficulty, it would be said, 
 would be to deal fairly by the minority. In Upper 
 Canada the Catholics would find themselves in a minority ; 
 in Lower Canada the Protestants would be in a minority, 
 while the Lower Provinces were divided. Under such 
 circumstances, would any one pretend that either the 
 local or general governments would sanction any in- 
 justice ? What would be the consequence, even sup- 
 posing any such thing were attempted by any one of 
 the local governments ? It would be censured every- 
 where. Whether it came from Upper Canada or from 
 Lower Canada, anyattempt to deprive the minority of their 
 rights would be at once thwarted. Under the Federal
 
 406 FEDERATION 
 
 system, grianting to the control of the General Government 
 these large questions of general interest in which the differ- 
 ences of race or religion had no place, it could not be pre- 
 tended that the rights of either race or religion could be 
 invaded at all. We were to have a General Parliament to 
 deal with the matters of defence, tariff, excise, public works, 
 and these matters absorbed all individual interest. Now, 
 he would ask those self-styled nationalists who accused 
 him of bartering fifty-eight counties in Lower Canada to 
 John Bull, and his honourable colleague beside him 
 (Hon. Mr. BrowTi) — he would ask them, under what 
 supposition could they think it possible for any injustice 
 to be done to the French Canadians by the General 
 Government ? 
 
 He came now to the subject of Local Governments. 
 We could easil}'' understand how a feeling against the 
 Federation project was raised in the minds of a few 
 of the British residents of Lower Canada by fears of 
 such difficulties as those which occurred in the days of 
 Mr. Papineau, relative to the passing of laws relating 
 to commercial matters. These difficulties had been of 
 a very inconvenient nature, ]\Ir. Papineau not being a 
 commercial man, and not understanding the import- 
 ance of these measures. He considered Mr. Papineau 
 was right in the struggle he maintained against the 
 oligarchy at that time in power ; but he had never 
 approved of the course he took with reference to com- 
 mercial matters, and in opposition to measures for the 
 improvement of the country. But this precedent could 
 not be urged as an objection to Federation, inasmuch as 
 it would be for the General Government to deal with our 
 commercial matters. There could be no reason for 
 well-grounded fear that the minority could be made to 
 suffer by means of any laws affecting the rights of pro- 
 perty. If any such enactments were passed, they would 
 fall upon the whole community. But even supposing 
 such a thing did occur, there was a remedy provided 
 under the proposed Constitution. The magnitude of the 
 scheme now submitted was, perhaps, the reason why 
 those who had not made themselves conversant with the 
 question felt some apprehension in contemplating it ; 
 but, when we came to discuss it clause by clause, he 
 would be ready to state that no interest would be harmed 
 in any way if Federation took place. It was true that
 
 HETEROGENEITY OF OPPOSITION 407 
 
 opposition was being offered in Montreal, by Mr. John 
 Dougall, of the Witness. And, while referring to the 
 opponents of Federation, he could not help adverting to 
 the strange manner in which extremes met and worked 
 in unison to oppose Federation. For instance, we had 
 the party who formerly composed what might be styled 
 Mr. Papineau's Tail — the extreme democratic party — 
 joined with Mr. Dougall's Tail. This scheme, he re- 
 peated, met with the approval of all moderate men. 
 The extreme men, the socialists, democrats and annexa- 
 tionists were opposed to it. The French Canadian oppo- 
 nents of the project were, it appeared, afraid that their 
 religious rights would suffer under the new arrangement. 
 Fancy the celebrated Institut Ganadien, of Montreal, under 
 the lead of citizen Blanchet, taking religion under their 
 protection ! Mr. Dougall loudly proclaimed that the 
 British Protestant minority would be entirely placed at 
 the mercy of the French Canadians. He (Cartier) thought 
 the arguments of the young French gentlemen belonging 
 to the national democratic party who cried out that their 
 religion and nationality would be destroyed, ought in 
 all reason to be sufficient to satisfy the scruples and calm 
 the fears of Mr. Dougall. The True Witness, which was 
 also one of the enemies of the scheme, said that if it were 
 adopted the French Canadians were doomed ; while his 
 brother in violence, the Witness, said that the Protestants 
 were doomed. At a meeting recently held in Montreal on 
 the subject, he observed that Mr. Cherrier had enrolled 
 himself among the enemies of the project. Well, this fine, 
 quiet, old gentleman announced that he had come out of 
 liis political retirement for the purpose of opposing Federa- 
 tion. All he could say was that he never knew Mr. Cherrier 
 was a strong politician. However, it appeared that he 
 had come out once more on the political stage for the 
 purpose of opposing this villainous scheme, which was 
 intended to destroy the nationality and religion of the 
 French Canadians — all brought about by that confounded 
 Cartier ! Allusion had been made to the opinion of the 
 clergy. Well, he would say that the opinion of the clergy 
 was for Confederation. Those who were high in autliority, 
 as well as those who occupied more humble positions, were 
 in favour of Federation, not only because they saw in it 
 so much security for all they held dear, but because it 
 was just to their Protestant fellow-subjects as well,
 
 408 FEDERATION 
 
 because they were opposed to political bickering and 
 strife. This opposition to a state of political dissension 
 and trouble was the general feeling of the clergy, and 
 because they saw in Confederation a solution of those 
 difhculties which had existed for some time, due regard 
 being had to just rights, they were favourable to the 
 project. — The fact, however, was that when we saw 
 such extreme opponents as Mr. Clerk, of the True Witness, 
 Mr. Dougall, of the Witness, and the young gentlemen of 
 the Institut Canadien combined to resist Confederation, 
 because each j)arty argued it would produce the most 
 widely different results — we" might look upon this fact, 
 he repeated, as one of the strongest arguments in favour 
 of Confederation. We had, on the other hand, all the 
 moderate men, all that was respectable and intelligent, 
 including the clergy, favourable to Federation. He did 
 not, of course, mean to say that there were not respect- 
 able opponents to the project — what he did mean, how- 
 ever, was that it met general approval from the classes 
 referred to. 
 
 He was opposed, he might as well state most dis- 
 tinctly, to the democratic system which obtained in 
 the United States. In this country of British North 
 America we should have a distinct form of government, 
 the characteristic of which would be to possess the mon- 
 archical element. When we had Confederation secured, 
 there was not the least doubt but that our Government 
 would be more respectable — that it would have more 
 prestige, and command more respect from our neigh- 
 bours. The great want under the American form — the 
 point which they all admitted formed the great defect — 
 was the absence of some respectable executive element. 
 How was the head of the United States Government 
 chosen ? Candidates came forward, and of course each 
 one was abused and villified as corrupt, ignorant, in- 
 capable and unworthy by the opposite party. One of 
 them attained the presidential chair ; but even while in 
 that position he was not respected by those who had 
 opposed his election, and who tried to make him appear 
 the most corrupt and contemptible being in creation. 
 Such a system could not produce an executive head who 
 would command respect. Under the British system 
 ministers might be abused and assailed ; but that abuse 
 never reached the Sovereign. Whether we were made a
 
 INCREASE OF TRADE 409 
 
 kingdom or a viceroyalty — whatever name or grade was 
 assigned to us — we would undoubtedly have additional 
 prestige. He would now conclude his remarks by asking 
 honourable gentlemen to consider well this scheme. It 
 was his hope, his cherished hope, that it would be adopted 
 by the House. The time was opportune, as his honourable 
 colleague had so ably stated last evening ; the oppor- 
 tunity might never offer itself again in such a facile and 
 propitious manner. We knew we had, in all our proceed- 
 ings, the approbation of the Imperial Government. So 
 if these resolutions were adopted by Canada, as he had no 
 doubt they would, and by the other Colonial Legislatures, 
 the Imperial Government would be called upon to pass a 
 measure which would have for its effect to give a strong 
 central or general government and local governments, 
 which would at once secure and guard the persons, the 
 properties and the civil and religious rights belonging to 
 the population of each section. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Gait : It is a matter for regret on the part 
 of all of us that the trade between these colonies — subject 
 all to the same Sovereign, connected with the same 
 empire — has been so small. Intercolonial trade has 
 been, indeed, of the most insignificant character ; we 
 have looked far more to our commercial relations with the 
 neighbouring — though a foreign, — country, than to the 
 interchange of our own products, which would have re- 
 tained the benefits of our trade within ourselves ; hostile 
 tariffs have interfered with the free interchange of the 
 products of the labour of all the colonies, and one of the 
 greatest and most immediate benefits to be derived from 
 their union will spring from the breaking down of these 
 barriers and the opening up of the markets of all the 
 provinces to the different industries of each. In this 
 manner we may hope to supply Newfoundland and 
 the great fishing districts of the Gulf, with the agricul- 
 tural productions of Western Canada ; we may hope to 
 obtain from Nova Scotia our supply of coal ; and the 
 manufacturing industry of Lower Canada may hope to 
 find more extensive outlets in supplying many of those 
 articles which are now purchased in foreign markets. 
 For instance, Newfoundland produces scarcely anything 
 by agriculture, manufactures liardly an article of cloth- 
 ing, and a considerable trade may thus be expected to 
 arise ; while, instead of having payments made, as thoy
 
 410 FEDERATION 
 
 are now, through Lombard Street, they will be made 
 through our own bankers in Montreal and elsewhere. 
 If we require to find an example of the benefits of free 
 commercial intercourse, we need not look beyond the 
 effects that have followed from the working of the 
 Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. In one 
 short year from the time when that treaty came into 
 operation, our trade in the natural productions of the two 
 countries swelled from less than $2,000,000 to upwards 
 of 820,000,000 per annum, and now, when we are threat- 
 ened with an interruption of that trade — when we have 
 reason to fear that the action of the United States will 
 prove hostile to the continuance of free commercial 
 relations with this country — when we know that the 
 consideration of this question is not grounded on just 
 views of the material advantages resulting to each 
 country — but that the irritation connected with political 
 events exercises a predominant influence over the minds 
 of American statesmen, i it is the duty of the House to pro- 
 vide, if possible, other outlets for our productions. If 
 we have reason to fear that one door is about to be 
 closed to our trade, it is the duty of the House to endeavour 
 to open another ; to provide against a coming evil of the 
 kind feared by timely expansion in another direction ; 
 to seek by free trade with our own fellow-colonists for 
 a continued and uninterrupted commerce which will not 
 be liable to be disturbed at the capricious will of any 
 foreign country. On this ground, therefore, we may well 
 come to the conclusion that the union between these 
 colonies is demanded alike on account of their extensive 
 resources, and because of the peculiar position in which 
 they stand relatively to each other, to Great Britain, 
 and to the United States. All these are questions which 
 fall within the province of the General Government, as 
 proposed in the resolutions before the House, and what- 
 ever may be the doubts and fears of any one with respect 
 to the details of the organization by which it is proposed 
 to work the new system of Confederation, no one can 
 doubt that the great interests of trade and commerce will 
 be best promoted and developed by being entrusted to 
 
 ^ One of the chief reasons for the American denunciation of the 
 Reciprocity Treaty was anger at Canadian manifestations of sympathy 
 with the South during the Civil War.
 
 HISTORY OF MOVEMENT 411 
 
 one central power, which will wield them in the common 
 interest.! 
 
 Hon. George Brown : It is with no ordinary gratifi- 
 cation I rise to address the House on this occasion. I 
 cannot help feeling that the struggle of half a life-time 
 for constitutional reform — the agitations in the country, 
 and the fierce contests in this chamber — the strife and the 
 discord and the abuse of many years, — are all compen- 
 sated by the great scheme of reform which is now in your 
 hands. The Attorney- General for Upper Canada, as 
 well as the Attorney-General for Lower Canada, in ad- 
 dressing the House last night, were anxious to have it 
 understood that this scheme for uniting British America 
 under one government, is something different from " re- 
 presentation by population," — is something different 
 from " joint authority," — but is in fact the very scheme 
 of the Government of which they were members in 1858, 
 Now, sir, it is all very well that my honourable friends 
 should receive credit for the large share they have con- 
 tributed towards maturing the measure before the House ; 
 but I could not help reflecting while they spoke, that if 
 this was their very scheme in 1858, they succeeded 
 wonderfully in bottling it up from all the world except 
 themselves, and I could not help regretting that we had 
 to wait till 1864 until this mysterious plant of 1858 was 
 forced to fruition. For myself, sir, I care not who gets 
 the credit of this scheme, — I believe it contains the best 
 features of all the suggestions that have been made in 
 the last ten years for the settlement of our troubles ; and 
 the whole feeling in my mind now is one of joy and thank- 
 fulness that there were found men of position and in- 
 fluence in Canada who, at a moment of serious crisis, 
 had nerve and patriotism enough to cast aside political 
 partisanship, to banish personal considerations, and unite 
 for the accomplishment of a measure so fraught with 
 advantage to their common country. It was a bold step 
 in the then existing state of public feeling for many mem- 
 bers of the House to vote for the Constitutional Com- 
 mittee moved for by me last session — it was a very bold 
 step for many of the members of that committee to speak 
 
 1 Gait was at this timo Finance Minister. The remainder of his 
 speech was devoted to a statement of the arrangements made for taking 
 over the debts of the colonies, and of the economies made possible by 
 Federation.
 
 412 FEDERATION 
 
 and vote candidly upon it — it was a still bolder thing for 
 many to place their names to the report that emanated 
 from that committee, — but it was an infinitely bolder step 
 for the gentlemen who now occupy these treasury benches, 
 to brave the misconceptions and suspicions that would 
 certainly attach to the act, and enter the same Govern- 
 ment. And it is not to be denied that such a Coalition 
 demanded no ordinary justification. But who does not 
 feel that every one of us has to-day ample justification 
 and reward for all we did in the document now under 
 discussion ? But seven short months have passed away 
 since the Coalition Government was formed, yet already 
 are we submitting a scheme well weighed and matured, 
 for the erection of a future empire, — a scheme which has 
 been received at home and abroad with almost universal 
 approval. . . . Since the Coalition was formed, and its 
 policy of Federal union announced, there have been no 
 fewer than twenty-five parliamentary elections — fourteen 
 for members of the Upper House, and eleven for members 
 of the Lower House. At the fourteen Upper House con- 
 tests, but three candidates dared to show themselves 
 before the people in opposition to the Government 
 scheme ; and of these, two were rejected, and one — only 
 one — succeeded in finding a seat. At the eleven contests 
 for the Lower House, but one candidate on either side of 
 politics ventured to oppose the scheme, and I hope that 
 even he will yet cast his vote in favour of Confederation. 
 Of these twenty-five electoral contests, fourteen were in 
 Upper Canada, but not at one of them did a candidate 
 appear in opposition to our scheme. And let it be ob- 
 served how large a portion of the country these twenty- 
 five electoral districts embraced. It is true that the 
 eleven Lower House elections only included that number 
 of counties, but the fourteen Upper House elections 
 embraced no fewer than forty counties. Of the 130 con- 
 stituencies, therefore, into which Canada is divided for 
 representation in this chamber, not fewer than fifty have 
 been called on since our scheme was announced to pro- 
 nounce at the polls their verdict upon it, and at the whole 
 of them but four candidates on both sides of politics 
 ventured to give it opposition. Was I not right then in 
 asserting that the electors of Canada had, in the most 
 marked manner, pronounced in favour of the scheme ? 
 And will honourable gentlemen deny that the people and
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF SOLUTION 413 
 
 press of Great Britain have received it with acclamations 
 of approval ? — that the Government of England have 
 cordially endorsed and accepted it ? — aye, that even the 
 press and the public men of the United States have 
 spoken of it with a degree of respect they never before 
 accorded to any colonial movement ? Sir, I venture to 
 assert that no scheme of equal magnitude, ever placed 
 before the world, was received with higher eulogiums, 
 with more universal approbation, than the measure we 
 have now the honour of submitting for the acceptance of 
 the Canadian Parliament. And no higher eulogy could, 
 I think, be pronounced than that I heard a few weeks 
 ago from the lips of one of the foremost of British states- 
 men, that the system of government we proposed seemed 
 to him a happy compound of the best features of the 
 British and American Constitutions. And well, Mr. 
 Speaker, might our present attitude in Canada arrest the 
 earnest attention of other countries. Here is a people 
 composed of two distinct races, speaking different 
 languages, with religious and social and municipal and 
 educational institutions totally different ; with sectional 
 hostilities of such a character as to render government 
 for many years well-nigh impossible ; with a Constitution 
 so unjust in the view of one section as to justify any 
 resort to enforce a remedy. And yet, sir, here we sit, 
 patiently and temperately discussing how these great 
 evils and hostilities may justly and amicably bo swept 
 away for ever. We are endeavouring to adjust har- 
 moniously greater difficulties than have plunged other 
 countries into all the horrors of civil war. We are striving 
 to do peacefully and satisfactorily what Holland and 
 Belgium, after years of strife, were unable to accomplish. 
 We are seeking by calm discussion to settle questions that 
 Austria and Hungary, that Denmark and Germany, 
 that Russia and Poland, could only crush by the iron 
 heel of armed force. We are seeking to do without 
 foreign intervention that which deluged in blood the 
 sunny plains of Italy. We are striving to settle for ever 
 issues hardly less momentous than those that have rent 
 the neighbouring republic and are now exposing it to all 
 the horrors of civil war. Have we not then, Mr. Speaker, 
 great cause of thankfulness that we have found a better 
 way for the solution of our troubles than that which has 
 entailed on other countries such deplorable results ?
 
 414 FEDERATION 
 
 And should not every one of us endeavour to rise to the 
 magnitude of the occasion, and earnestly seek to deal with 
 this question to the end in the same candid and con- 
 ciliatory spirit in which, so far, it has been discussed ? 
 The scene presented by this chamber at this moment, I 
 venture to affirm, has few parallels in history. One 
 hundred years have passed away since these provinces 
 became by conquest part of the British Empire. I speak 
 in no boastful spirit — I desire not for a moment to excite 
 a painful thought — what was then the fortune of war of 
 the brave French nation, might have been ours on that 
 well-fought field. I recall those olden times merely to 
 mark the fact that here sit to-day the descendants of the 
 victors and the vanquished in the fight of 1759, with all 
 the differences of language, religion, civil law, and social 
 habit, nearly as distinctly marked as they were a century 
 ago. Here we sit to-day seeking amicably to find a 
 remedy for constitutional evils and injustice com- 
 plained of — by the vanquished ? No, sir — but com- 
 plained of by the conquerors ! Here sit the repre- 
 sentatives of the British population claiming justice — 
 only justice ; and here sit the representatives of the 
 French population, discussing in the French tongue 
 whether we shall have it.^ One hundred years have 
 passed away since the conquest of Quebec, but here sit 
 the children of the victor and the vanquished, all avow- 
 ing hearty attachment to the British Crown — all earnestly 
 deliberating how we shall best extend the blessings of 
 British institutions — how a great people may be estab- 
 lished on this continent in close and hearty connection 
 with Great Britain. Where, sir, in the page of history, 
 shall we find a parallel to this ? Will it not stand as an 
 imperishable monument to the generosity of British rule ? 
 And it is- not in Canada alone that this scene is being 
 witnessed. Four other colonies are at this moment 
 occupied as we are — declaring their hearty love for the 
 parent State, and deliberating with us how they may 
 best discharge the great duty entrusted to their hands, 
 and give their aid in developing the teeming resources of 
 these vast possessions. And well, IVIr. Speaker, may the 
 
 * By the Union Act, Upper and Lower Canada elected an equal 
 number of representatives. From 1852 onwards Upper Canada had 
 an increasing superiority in population, and Brown had fought long 
 and hard to have the representation changed accordingly.
 
 VAST RESOURCES OF CANADA 415 
 
 work we have unitedly proposed rouse the ambition and 
 energy of every true man in British America. Look, sir, 
 at the map of the continent of America, and mark that 
 island (Newfoundland) commanding the mouth of the 
 noble river that almost cuts our continent in twain. 
 Well, sir, that island is equal in extent to the kingdom of 
 Portugal. Cross the straits of the mainland, and you 
 touch the hospitable shores of Nova Scotia, a country as 
 large as the kingdom of Greece. Then mark the sister 
 province of New Brunswick — equal in extent to Denmark 
 and Switzerland combined. Pass up the river St. Law- 
 rence to Lower Canada — a country as large as France. 
 Pass on to Upper Canada, — twenty thousand square miles 
 larger than Great Britain and Ireland put together. 
 Cross over the continent to the shores of the Pacific, and 
 you are in British Columbia, the land of golden promise, 
 — equal in extent to the Austrian Empire. I speak not 
 now of the vast Indian Territories that lie between — • 
 greater in extent than the whole soil of Russia — and that 
 will ere long, I trust, be opened up to civilization under 
 the auspices of the British American Confederation. 
 Well, sir, the bold scheme in your hands is nothing less 
 than to gather all these countries into one — to organize 
 them all under one government, with the protection of 
 the British flag, and in heartiest sympathy and affection 
 with our fellow-subjects in the land that gave us birth. 
 Our scheme is to establish a government that will seek 
 to turn the tide of European emigration into this northern 
 half of the American continent — that will strive to de- 
 velop its great natural resources — and that will en- 
 deavour to maintain liberty, and justice, and Christianity 
 throughout the land. . . . 
 
 No constitution ever framed was without defect ; no 
 act of human wisdom was ever free from imperfection ; 
 no amount of talent and wisdom and integrity com- 
 bined in preparing such a scheme could have placed 
 it beyond the reach of criticism. And the framers of 
 this scheme had immense special difficulties to over- 
 come. We had the prejudices of race and language 
 and religion to deal with ; and we had to encounter 
 all the rivalries of trade and commerce, and all the 
 jealousies of diversified local interests. To assert, then, 
 that our scheme is without fault, would be folly. It 
 was necessarily the work of concession ; not one of the
 
 416 FEDERATION 
 
 tliirty-thrce framors 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. But, Mr. Speaker, admitting 
 all this — admitting all the difficulties that beset us — 
 admitting frankly that defects in the measure exist — I 
 say that, taking the scheme as a whole, it has my cordial, 
 enthusiastic support, without hesitation or reservation. 
 I believe it will accomplish all, and more than all, that 
 we, who have so long fought the battle of parliamentary 
 reform, ever hoped to see accomplished. I believe that, 
 while granting security for local interests, it will give free 
 scope for carrying out the will of the whole people in 
 general matters — that it will draw closer the bonds that 
 unite us to Great Britain — and that it will lay the foun- 
 dations deep and strong of a powerful and prosperous 
 people. And if the House will allow me to trespass to 
 a somewhat unusual degree on its indulgence, I am satis- 
 fied that I can clearly establish that such are the results 
 fairly to be anticipated from the measure. 
 
 There are two views in which this scheme may be re- 
 garded, namely, the existing evils it will remedy, and the 
 ncAV advantages it will secure for us as a people. Let us 
 begin by examining its remedial provisions. First, then, 
 it applies a complete and satisfactory remedy to the in- 
 justice of the existing system of parliamentary represen- 
 tation. The people of Upper Canada have bitterly 
 complained that though they numbered four hundred 
 thousand souls more than the population of Low^er 
 Canada, 8.nd though they have contributed three or four 
 pounds to the general revenue for every pound con- 
 tributed by the sister province, yet the Lower Canadians 
 send to Parliament as many representatives as they do. 
 Now, sir, the measure in your hands brings this injustice to 
 an end ; — it sweeps away the line of demarcation between 
 the two sections on all matters common to the whole pro- 
 vince ; it gives representation according to numbers wher- 
 ever found in the House of Assembly ; and it provides a 
 simple and convenient sj^stem for readjusting the repre- 
 sentation after each decennial census . . . Hitherto we 
 in Upper Canada have been paying a vast proportion of 
 the taxes, with little or no control over the expenditure. 
 But, under this plan, by our just influence in the Lower 
 Chamber, we shall hold the purse strings. If, from this
 
 NOMINATION VERSUS ELECTION 417 
 
 concession of equality in the Upper Chamber, we are re- 
 strained from forcing through measures which our friends 
 of Lower Canada may consider injurious to their interests, 
 we shall, at any rate, have power, which we never had 
 before, to prevent them from forcing through whatever 
 we may deem unjust to us. I think the compromise a 
 fair one, and am persuaded that it will work easily and 
 satisfactorily. But it has been said that the members 
 of the Upper House ought not to be appointed by the 
 Crown, but should continue to be elected by the people at 
 large. On that question my views have been often 
 expressed. I have always been opposed to a second 
 elective chamber, and I am so still, from the conviction 
 that two elective houses are inconsistent with the right 
 working of the British parliamentary system. I voted, 
 almost alone, against the change when the Council was 
 made elective, but I have lived to see a vast majority of 
 those who did the deed wish it had not been done. It is 
 quite true, and I am glad to acknowledge it, that many 
 evils anticipated from the change, when the measure was 
 adopted, have not been realized. I readily admit that 
 men of the highest character and position have been 
 brought into the Council by the elective system, but it 
 is equally true that the system of appointment brought 
 into it men of the highest character and position. 
 Whether appointed by the Crown or elected by the 
 people, since the introduction of parliamentary govern- 
 ment, the men who have composed the Upper House of 
 this Legislature have been men who would have done 
 honour to any legislature in the world. But what we 
 most feared was, that the Legislative Councillors would 
 be elected under party responsibilities ; that a partisan 
 spirit would soon show itself in the chamber ; and that 
 the right would soon be asserted to an equal control 
 with this House over money bills. That fear has not been 
 realized to any dangerous extent. But is it not possible 
 that such a claim might ere long be asserted ? Do we not 
 hear, even now, mutterings of a coming demand for it ? 
 Nor can we forget that the elected members came into 
 that chamber gradually ; that the large number of old 
 appointed members exercised much influence in main- 
 taining the old forms of the House, the old style of debate, 
 and the old barriers against encroachment on the privi- 
 leges of the commons. But the appointed mc^mbers of 
 
 27
 
 418 FEDERATION 
 
 the Council aro gradually passing away, and when the 
 elective element becomes supreme, who will venture 
 to affirm that the Council would not claim that power 
 over money bills which this House claims as of right 
 belonging to itself ? Could they not justly say that they 
 represent the people as well as we do, and that the control 
 of the purse strings ought, therefore, to belong to them 
 as much as to us ? It is said they have not the power. 
 But what is to prevent them from enforcing it ? Sup- 
 pose we had a conservative majority here, and a reform 
 majority above — or a conservative majority above a.nd a 
 reform majority here — all elected under party obliga- 
 tions — what is to prevent a deadlock between the 
 chambers ? It may be called unconstitutional — but 
 what is to prevent the Councillors (especially if they feel 
 that in the dispute of the hour thej^ have the country at 
 their back) from practically exercising all the powers 
 that belong to us ? They might amend our money bills, 
 they might throw out all our bills if they liked, and bring 
 to a stop the whole machinery of government. And 
 what could we do to prevent them ? . . . 
 
 The second feature of this scheme as a remedial 
 measure is, that it removes, to a large extent, the in- 
 justice of which Upper Canada has complained in financial 
 matters. We in Upper Canada have complained that 
 though we paid into the public treasury more than 
 three-fourths of the whole revenue, we had less control 
 over the system of taxation and the expenditure of the 
 public moneys than the people of Lower Canada. Well, 
 sir, the scheme in your hand remedies that. The absurd 
 line of separation between the provinces is swept away 
 for general matters ; we are to have seventeen additional 
 members in the house that holds the purse ; and the tax- 
 payers of the country, wherever they reside, will have 
 their just share of influence over revenue and expenditure. 
 We have also complained that immense sums of public 
 money have been systematically taken from the public chest 
 for local purposes of Lower Canada, in which the people 
 of Upper Canada had no interest whatever, though com- 
 pelled to contribute three-fourths of the cash. Well, sir, 
 this scheme remedies that. All local matters are to be 
 banished from the General Legislature ; local govern- 
 ments are to have control over local affairs, and if our 
 friends in Lower Canada choose to be extravagant, they
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TAXATION 419 
 
 will have to bear the burden of it themselves. No longer 
 shall we have to complain that one section pays the cash 
 while the other spends it ; hereafter, they who pay will 
 spend, and they who spend more than they ought will 
 have to bear the brunt. It was a great thing to accom- 
 plish this, if we had accomplished nothing more — for 
 if we look back on our doings of the last fifteen years, I 
 think it will be acknowledged that the greatest jobs per- 
 petrated were of a local character — that our fiercest 
 contests were about local matters that stirred up sectional 
 jealousies and indignation to its deepest depth. We have 
 further complained that if a sum was properly demanded 
 for some legitimate local purpose in one section, an 
 equivalent sum had to be appropriated to the other as 
 an offset — thereby entailing prodigal expenditure, and 
 unnecessarily increasing the public debt. Well, sir, this 
 scheme puts an end to that. Each province is to de- 
 termine for itself its own wants, and to find the money 
 to meet them from its own resources. But, sir, I am told 
 that though .true it is that local matters are to be sepa- 
 rated and the burden of local expenditure placed upon 
 local shoulders, we have made a,n exception from that 
 principle in providing that a subsidy of eighty cents per 
 head shall be taken from the federal chest and granted 
 to the local governments for local purposes. Undoubtedly 
 this is the fact — and I do not hesitate to admit that it 
 would have been better if this had been otherwise. I 
 trust I commit no breach of discretion in stating that in 
 ('onference I was one of the strongest advocates for 
 defraying the whole of the local expenditures of the local 
 governments by means of direct taxation, and that there 
 were liberal men in all sections of the provinces who 
 would gladly have had it so arranged. But, Mr. Speaker, 
 there was one difficulty in the way — a difficulty which 
 has often before been encountered in this world — and that 
 difficulty was sdmply this, it could not be done. We 
 could neither have carried it in Conference nor yet in 
 any one of the existing provincial legislatures. Our 
 friends in Lower Canada, I am afraid, have a constitu- 
 tional disinclination to direct taxation, and it was obvious 
 that if the Confederation scheme had had attached to it 
 a provision for the imposition of such a system of taxation, 
 my honourable friends opposite would have had a much 
 better chance of success in blowing the bellows of agita- 
 
 27—2
 
 420 FEDERATION 
 
 tion than they now have. The objection, moreover, was 
 not confined to Lower Canada — all tlie Lower Provinces 
 stood in exactly the same position. They have not a 
 municipal system such as we have, discharging many of 
 the functions of government ; but their General Govern- 
 ment performs all the duties which in Upper Canada 
 devolve upon our municipal councils, as well as upon 
 Parliament. If then the Lower Provinces had been 
 asked to maintain their customs duties for federal pur- 
 poses, and to impose on themselves by the same act 
 direct taxation for all their local purposes, the chances 
 of carrying the scheme of union would have been greatly 
 lessened. But I apprehend that if we did not succeed 
 in putting this matter on the footing that would have 
 been the best, at least we did the next best thing. Two 
 courses were open to us — either to surrender to the local 
 governments some source of indirect revenue, some tax 
 which the General Government proposed to retain, — or 
 to collect the money by the federal machinery, and dis- 
 tribute it to the local governments for local purposes. 
 And we decided in favour of the latter. . . . 
 
 There is another great evil in our existing system 
 that this scheme remedies ; it secures to the people of 
 each province full control over the administration of 
 their own internal affairs. We in Upper Canada have 
 complained that the minority of our representatives, 
 the party defeated at the polls of Upper Canada, have 
 been, year after year, kept in office by Lower Canada 
 votes, and that all the local patronage of our section 
 has been dispensed by those who did not possess the con- 
 fidence of the people. Well, sir, this scheme remedies 
 that. The local patronage will be under local control, 
 and the wishes of the majority in each section will be 
 carried out in all local matters. We have complained 
 that the land system was not according to the views of 
 our western people ; that free lands for actual settlers 
 was the right policy for us — that the price of a piece of 
 land squeezed out of an immigrant was no consideration 
 in comparison with the settlement among us of a hardy 
 and industrious family ; and that tlie colonization road 
 system was far from satisfactory. Well, sir, this scheme 
 remedies that. Each province is to have control of its 
 own crown lands, crown timber and crown minerals, — 
 and \vill be free to take such steps for developing them as
 
 LOCAL MATTERS AND EDUCATION 421 
 
 each deems best. We have complained that local works 
 of various kinds — roads, bridges and landmg piers, court 
 houses, gaols and other structures — have been erected 
 in an inequitable and improvident manner. Well, sir, 
 this scheme remedies that ; all local works are to be 
 constructed by the localities and defrayed from local 
 funds. And so on through the whole extensive details 
 of internal local administration will this reform extend. 
 The people of Upper Canada will have the entire control 
 of their local matters, and will no longer have to betake 
 themselves to Quebec for leave to open a road, to select 
 a county town, or appoint a coroner. But I am told that 
 to this general principle of placing all local matters under 
 local control, an exception has been made in regard to 
 the common schools. The clause complained of is as 
 follows : — 
 
 6. Education ; saving the rights and privileges which the Protestant 
 or Cathohc minority in both Canadas may possess as to their Denomi- 
 national Schools at the time when the Union goes into operation. 
 
 Now, I need hardly remind the House that I have 
 always opposed and continue to oppose the system of 
 sectarian education, so far as the public chest is con- 
 cerned. I have never had any hesitation on that point. 
 I have never been able to see why all the people of the 
 province, to whatever sect they may belong, should not 
 send their children to the same common schools to re- 
 ceive the ordinary branches of instruction. I regard the 
 parent and the pastor as the best religious instructors — ■ 
 and so long as the religious faith of the children is un- 
 interfered with, and ample opportunity afforded to the 
 clergy to give religious instruction to the children of their 
 flocks, I cannot conceive any sound objection to mixed 
 schools. But while in the Conference and elsewhere I 
 have always maintained this view, and always given my 
 vote against sectarian public schools, I am bound to 
 admit, as I have always admitted, that the sectarian 
 system, carried to the limited extent it has yet been in 
 Upper Canada, and confined as it chiefly is to cities and 
 towns, has not been a very great practical injury. The 
 real cause of alarm was that the admission of the sectarian 
 principle was there, and that at any moment it might 
 be extended to such a degree as to split up our scliool 
 system altogether. There are but a hundred separate
 
 422 FEDERATION 
 
 schools in Upper Canada, out of some four thousand, and 
 all Roman Catholic. But if the Roman Catholics are 
 entitled to separate schools and to go on extending their 
 operations, so are the members of the Church of England, 
 the Presbyterians, the Methodists, and all other sects. 
 No candid Roman Catholic will deny this for a moment ; 
 and there lay the great danger to our educational fabric, 
 that the separate system might gradually extend itself 
 until the whole country was studded with nurseries of 
 sectarianism, most hurtful to the best interests of the 
 province, and entailing an enormous expense to sustain 
 the hosts of teachers that so prodigal a system of public 
 instruction must inevitably entail. Now it is known 
 to every honourable member of this House that an Act 
 was passed in 1863, as a final settlement of this sectarian 
 controversy. I was not in Quebec at the time, but if 
 I had been here I would have voted against that bill, 
 because it extended the facilities for establishing separate 
 schools. It had, however, this good feature, that it was 
 accepted by the Roman Catholic authorities, and carried 
 through Parliament as a final compromise of the question 
 in Upper Canada. When, therefore, it was proposed 
 that a provision should be inserted in the Confederation 
 scheme to bind that compact of 1863 and declare it 
 a final, settlement, so that we should not be compelled, 
 as v/e have been since 1849, to stand constantly to our 
 arms, awaiting fresh attacks upon our common school 
 system, the proposition seemed to me one that was not 
 rashly to be rejected. I admit that, from my point of 
 view, this is a blot on the scheme before the House ; it 
 is, confessedly, one of the concessions from our side that 
 had to be made to secure this great measure of reform. 
 But assuredly, I, for one, have not the slightest hesitation 
 in accepting it as a necessary condition of the scheme 
 of union, and doubly acceptable must it be in the eyes of 
 honourable gentlemen opposite, who were the authors of 
 the bill of 1863. But it was urged that though this 
 arrangement might perhaps be fair as regards Upper 
 Canada, it was not so as regards Lower Canada, for there 
 were matters of which the British population have long 
 complained, and some amendments to the existing 
 School Act were required to secure them equal justice. 
 Well, when this point was raised, gentlemen of all parties 
 in Lower Canada at once expressed themselves prepared
 
 THE MARITIME PROVINCES 423 
 
 to treat it in a frank and conciliatory manner, with a view- 
 to removing any injustice that might be shown to exist ; 
 and on this understanding the educational clause was 
 adopted by the Conference. . . . 
 
 Viewed then, Mr. Speaker, from a merely Canadian 
 standpoint ^ — viewed solely as a remedial measure — I fear- 
 lessly assert that the scheme in your hands is a just and 
 satisfactory remedy for the evils and injustice that have so 
 long distracted the province, and so strongly do I feel this, 
 that were every word of objection urged against our union 
 with the Maritime Provinces just and true to the very 
 letter, I would not hesitate to adopt the union as the price 
 of a measure of constitutional reform in Canada, so just 
 and so complete as now proposed. But, Mr. Speaker, so 
 far from the objections urged against union with the 
 Maritime Provinces being sound, so far from union with 
 them being a drawback to this measure, I regard it as 
 the crowning advantage of the whole scheme. Sir, I 
 make no pretension to having been in past years an 
 advocate of the immediate union of the British American 
 Colonies. I always felt and always said that no states- 
 man could doubt that such was the best and almost the 
 certain future destiny of these colonies ; but I doubted 
 greatly whether the right time for the movement had yet 
 arrived. I knew little of the Maritime Provinces or the 
 feelings of their people ; the negotiations for a union were 
 likely to be difficult and long protracted, and I was un- 
 willing to accept the hope of a measure so remote and so 
 uncertain in lieu of the practical remedy for practical 
 evils in Canada which we were earnestly seeking to obtain, 
 and which our own Legislature had the power immediately 
 to grant. But of late, sir, all this has been changed. 
 The circumstances are entirely altered. A revolution 
 has occurred in Great Britain on the subject of colonial 
 relations to the parent state — the Government of the 
 United States has become a great warlike power — our 
 commercial relations with the republic are seriously 
 threatened — and every man in British America has now 
 placed before him for solution the practical question, 
 What shall be done in view of the changed relations on 
 which we are about to enter ? Shall we continue to 
 
 ^ He had been speaking of the extent to which internal difTerences 
 had frightened the IJritish and foreign capitalist. Later on he applied 
 the same argument to the question of immigration.
 
 424 FEDERATION 
 
 struggle along as isolated communities, or shall we unite 
 cordially together to extend our commerce, to develop 
 the resources of our country and to defend our soil ? But 
 more than this — many of us have learned, since we last 
 met here, far more of the Maritime Provinces than we 
 ever did before. We have visited the Maritime Pro- 
 vinces — we have seen the country — we have met the 
 people and marked their intelligence and their industry and 
 their frugality — we have investigated their public affairs 
 and found them satisfactory — we have discussed terms of 
 union with their statesmen and found that no insuperable 
 obstacle to union exists, and no necessity for long delay. 
 We come to the consideration of the question to-day in 
 a totally different position from what we ever did before — 
 and if the House will grant me its indulgence, I think I 
 can present unanswerable arguments to show that this 
 union of all British America should be heartily and 
 prompth^ accepted by all the provinces. I am in favour 
 of a union of the British American Colonies, first, 
 because it will raise us from the attitude of a number 
 of inconsiderable colonies into a great and powerful 
 people. . . . "V^Hien recently in England, I was charged 
 to negotiate with the Imperial Government for the 
 openmg up of the North-Vv^est territories. In a few da^ys 
 the papers will be laid before the House, and it will then 
 be seen whether or not this Government is in earnest in 
 that matter. Sir, the gentlemen who formed the Con- 
 ference at Quebec did not enter upon their work with 
 the miserable idea of getting the advantage of each other, 
 but with a due sense of the greatness of the work they had 
 on hand, with an earnest desire to do justice to all, and 
 keeping always in mind that what would benefit one 
 section in such a union must necessarily benefit the 
 whole. It has always appeared to me that the opening 
 up of the North-West ought to be one of the most cherished 
 projects of my honourable friends from Lower Canada. 
 During the discussion on the question for some years back 
 I had occasion to dip deep in North- West lore — into those 
 singularly interesting narratives of life and travels in 
 the North-West in the olden time, and into the liistory 
 of the struggles for commercial domination in the great 
 fur-bearing regions, — and it has always struck me that 
 the French Canadian people have cause to look back with 
 pride to the bold and successful part they played in the
 
 THE NORTH-WEST 425 
 
 adventures of those days. Nothing perhaps has tended 
 more to create their present national character than the 
 vigorous habits, the power of endurance, the aptitude 
 for out-door Kfe, acquired in their prosecution of the 
 North- West fur trade. Well may they look forward with 
 anxiety to the realization of this part of our scheme, 
 in confident hope that the great north-western traffic 
 shall, be once more opened up to the hardy French 
 Canadian traders and voyageurs. Last year furs to the 
 value of £280,000 stg. ($1,400,000) were carried from 
 that territory by the Hudson's Bay Company — smuggled 
 off through the ice-bound regions of James's Bay, that 
 the pretence of the barrenness of the country and the 
 difficulty of conveying merchandise by the natural route 
 of the St. Lawrence may be kept up a little longer. Sir, 
 the carrying of merchandise into that country, and 
 bringing down the bales of pelts ought to be ours, and 
 must ere long be ours, as in the days of yore, and when 
 the fertile plains of that great Saskatchewan territory are 
 opened up for settlement and cultivation, I am con- 
 fident that it will not only add immensely to our annual 
 agricultural products, but bring us sources of mineral and 
 other wealth on which at present we do not reckon. . . . 
 Hon. T. D'Arcy McGee : Whatever the private writer 
 in his closet may have conceived, whatever even the 
 individual statesman may have designed, so long as the 
 j)ublic mind was uninterested in the adoption, even in 
 the discussion of a change in our position so momentous 
 as this, the union of these separate provinces, the indi- 
 vidual laboured in vain — perhaps, sir, not wholly in 
 vain, for although his work may not have borne fruit 
 then, it was kindling a fire that would ultimately light 
 up the whole political horizon, and herald the dawn of a 
 better day for our country and our people. Events 
 stronger than advocacy, events stronger than men, have 
 come in at last like the fire behind the invisible writing 
 to bring out the truth of these writings and to impress 
 tliem upon the mind of every thoughtful man who has 
 considered the position and probable future of these 
 scattered provinces. Before I go further into the details 
 of my subject, I will take this opportunity of congratu- 
 lating this House and the public of all the provinces upon 
 the extraordinary activity which has been given to this 
 subject since it has become a leading topic of public dis-
 
 42G FEDERATION 
 
 cussion in the maritime, and what I may call relatively 
 to them, the inland provinces. It is astonishmg how 
 active has been the public mind in all those communities 
 since the subject has been fairly launched. I have 
 ^^'atched with great attention the expression of public 
 opinion in the Lower Provinces as well as in our own, and 
 I am rejoiced to find that even in the smallest of the pro- 
 vinces I have been able to read writings and speeches 
 which would do no discredit to older and more cultivated 
 communities — articles and speeches worthy of any press 
 and of any audience. The provincial mind, it would seem, 
 under the inspiration of a great question, leaped at a 
 single bound out of the slough of mere mercenary struggles 
 for office, and took post on the high and honourable ground 
 from which alone this great subject can be taken in in all 
 its dimensions, — had risen at once to the true dignity of 
 this discussion with an elasticity that does honour to the 
 communities that have exhibited it, and gives assurance 
 that we have the metal, the material, out of which to 
 construct a new and vigorous nationality. We find in 
 the journals and in the speeches of public men in the 
 Lower Provinces a discussion of the first principles of 
 government, a discussion of the principles of constitutional 
 law, and an intimate knowledge and close application of 
 the leading facts in constitutional history, which gives to 
 me at least the satisfaction and assurance that, if we never 
 went farther in this matter, we have put an end for the 
 present, and I hope for long, to bitterer and smaller con- 
 troversies. We have given the people some sound 
 mental food, and to every man who has a capacity for 
 discussion we have given a topic upon which he can fitly 
 exercise his powders, no longer gnawing at a file and 
 wasting his abilities in the poor effort of advancing the 
 ends of some paltry faction or party. I can congratulate 
 this House and province and the provinces below, that 
 such is the case, and I may observe, with some satis- 
 faction, that the various authors and writers seem to 
 be speaking or writing as if in the visible presence of all 
 the colonies. They are no longer hole-and-corner celebri- 
 ties : they seem to think that their words will be scanned 
 and weighed afar off as well as at home. . . . 
 
 All, even honourable gentlemen who are opposed to this 
 union, admit that we must do something, and that that 
 something must not be a mere temporary expedient. We
 
 CHANGE IN BRITISH POLICY 427 
 
 are compelled, by warning voices from within and with- 
 out, to make a change, and a great change. We all, with 
 one voice, who are unionists, declare our conviction that 
 we cannot go on as we have gone ; but you, who are all 
 anti-unionists, say — " Oh ! that is begging the question ; 
 you have not yet proved that." Well, Mr. Speaker, what 
 proofs do the gentlemen want ? I presume there are 
 three influences which determine any great change in the 
 course of any individual or state. First — his patron, 
 owner, employer, protector, ally, or friend ; or, in politics, 
 " Imperial connection." Secondly, his partner, comrade, 
 or fellow-labourer, or near neighbour. And, thirdly, 
 the man himself, or the state itself. Now, in our case, 
 all three causes have concurred to warn and force us into 
 a new course of conduct. What are these warnings ? 
 We have had at least three. The first is from England, 
 and is a friendly warning. England warned us by several 
 matters of fact, according to her custom, rather than 
 by verbiage, that the colonies had entered upon a new 
 era of existence, a new phase in their career. She has 
 given us this warning in several different shapes — when 
 she gave us " Responsible Government " — when she 
 adopted Free Trade — when she repealed the Navigation 
 laws — and when, three or four years ago, she com- 
 menced that series of official despatches in relation to 
 militia and defence which she has ever since poured in 
 on us, in a steady stream, always bearing the same 
 solemn burthen — " Prepare ! prepare ! prepare !" These 
 warnings gave us notice that the old order of things 
 between the colonies and the Mother Country had 
 ceased, and that a new order must take its place. About 
 four years ago, the first despatches began to be addressed 
 to this country, from the Colonial Office, upon the sub- 
 ject. From that day to this there has been a steady 
 stream of despatches in this direction, either upon par- 
 ticular or general points connected with our defence ; 
 and I venture to say that, if bound up together, the 
 despatches of the lamented Duke of Newcastle alone 
 would make a respectable volume — all notifying this 
 Government, by the advices they conveyed, that the 
 relations — the military apart from the political and com- 
 mercial relations of this province to the Mother Country 
 had changed ; and we were told in the most explicit 
 language that could be employed, that we were no
 
 428 FEDERATION 
 
 longer to consider ourselves, in relation to defence, in 
 the same position we formerly occupied towards the 
 IMother Country. Well, these warnings have been friendly 
 warnings ; and if we have failed to do our part in regard 
 to them, we must, at all events, say this, that they were 
 addressed to our Government so continuously and so 
 strenuously that they freed the Imperial power of the 
 responsibility for whatever might follow, because they 
 showed to the colonies clearly what, in the event of cer- 
 tain contingencies arising, they had to expect. We may 
 grumble or not at the necessity of preparation England 
 imposes upon us, but, whether we like it or not, we have, 
 at all events, been told that we have entered upon a new 
 era in our military relations to the rest of the Empire. 
 Then, sir, in the second place, there came what I may 
 call the other warning from without — the American 
 warning. Republican America gave us her notices in 
 times past, through her press, and her demagogues and 
 her statesmen, — but of late days she has given us much 
 more intelligible notices — such as the notice to abrogate 
 the Reciprocity Treaty, and to arm the lakes, contrary to 
 the provisions of the addenda to the treaty of 1818. She 
 has given us another notice in imposing a vexatious pass- 
 port system ; another in her avowed purpose to construct 
 a ship canal round the falls of Niagara, so as " to pass 
 war vessels from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie ;" and yet 
 another, the most striking one of all, has been given to 
 us, if we will only understand it, by the enormous ex- 
 pansion of the American army and navy. . . . 
 
 Mr. A. A. Dorion : I should have desired to make 
 my remarks to the House in French, but considering 
 the large number of honourable members who are not 
 familiar with that language, I think it my duty to 
 speak at the present time in English. In rising on this 
 occasion to address the House on the important question 
 submitted to us, I must say I do so with an unusual 
 degree of embarrassment, not only on account of the 
 importance of the subject of our deliberations, but also 
 because I have to differ from many of those with whom 
 I have been in the habit of acting ever since I first entered 
 into political life. Yet, INIr. Speaker, when I consider 
 the questions raised by the resolutions submitted by the 
 Government, I find that whether they be purely political 
 ones, such as the proposal to restrict the influence and
 
 SAME SCHEME ALREADY REJECTED 429 
 
 control of the people over the Legislature of the country 
 by substituting a Chamber nominated by the Crown for 
 an Elective Legislative Council, or whether they are 
 purely commercial in their character, such as that re- 
 garding the Intercolonial Railway, or the larger question 
 of Coiifederation itself, I still hold the same views that 
 I held, in common with others who have now changed 
 their opinions, when the subjects were jfirst mooted. 
 And as I have not heard, since the first opening of this 
 debate, any reason for substituting a nominated for an 
 elective Upper Chamber that was not fully argued out 
 in 1856, when, by an overwhelming majority of this 
 House, it was decided that the elective principle should 
 prevail — as I have not heard any reason why we should 
 pledge our credit and resources to the construction of the 
 Intercolonial Railway, even previous to any estimate of 
 its cost being made, that was not urged in 1862 when the 
 question was before the country — nor any reason for 
 intercolonial union that was not raised in 1858, when the 
 present Hon. Finance Minister pressed the question on 
 the attention of the Imperial authorities — I do not see 
 on what ground these several subjects which were then 
 so unpopular, and those views which were then almost 
 universally repudiated, should now be more favourably 
 considered by the people of this country — I fail to per- 
 ceive why those once unpalatable measures, now coupled 
 with additions to the burdens of the people, should have 
 grown into the public favour. I cannot understand why 
 I or any members of this House should change our views 
 merely because certain other members have, when we 
 do not conscientiously think such change would be for 
 the benefit of the country. 
 
 This scheme, sir, is submitted to us on two grounds ; 
 first, the necessity for meeting the constitutional diffi- 
 culties which have arisen between Upper and Lower 
 Canada, owing to the growing demands on the part 
 of Upper Canada for representation by population ; 
 and, secondly, the necessity for providing more effi- 
 cient means for the defence of the country than now 
 exist. These are the only two grounds we have heard 
 stated for the propositions now submitted to us ; and, 
 sir, I shall apply myself to explain my views on these 
 two subjects, and also upon the scheme i generally. 
 When on the first question, X trust I shall be permitted
 
 430 FEDERATION 
 
 to go a little into the history of the agitation for repre- 
 sentation by population, for I owe it to myself, to my 
 constituents and the country. My name has been used 
 in various ways. It has sometimes been said that I was 
 entirely favourable to representation by population — at 
 other times that I was entirely favourable to the Con- 
 federation of the provinces, and I will now endeavour, 
 once more, to state as clearly as possible what my real 
 views have been and still are. The first time represen- 
 tation by population was mooted in this House, on be- 
 half of Upper Canada, was, I believe, in the Session of 
 1852, when the Conservative party took it up, and the 
 Hon. Sir Allan Macnab moved resolutions in favour of 
 the principle. We then found the Conservatives arrayed 
 in support of this constitutional change. It had been 
 mooted before on behalf of Lower Canada, but the Upper 
 Canadians had all opposed it. I think two votes were 
 taken in 1852, and on one of these occasions the Hon. 
 Attorney-General West (Hon. J. A. Macdonald) voted 
 for it ; it came up incidentally. In 1854 the Macnab- 
 Morin coalition took place, and we heard no more of 
 representation by population from that quarter — that 
 is, as mooted by the Conservative party, who from that 
 moment uniformly opposed it on every occasion. It was, 
 however, taken up by the present Hon. President of the 
 Council, the member for South Oxford, and with the 
 energy and vigour he brings to bear on every question he 
 takes in hand, he caused such an agitation in its behalf 
 as almost threatened a revolution. As the agitation in 
 the country increased, so did the vote for it in this House 
 increase, and on several occasions I expressed my views 
 upon the subject. I never shirked the question — I 
 never hesitated to say that something ought to be done 
 to meet the just claims of Upper Canada, and that 
 representation based on population was in the abstract 
 a just and correct principle. I held, at the same time, 
 there were reasons why Lower Canada could not grant 
 it ; I entreated Lower Canadian representatives to show 
 themselves disposed to meet the views of Upper Canada 
 by making, at any rate, a counter proposition ; and in 
 1856, when Parliament was sitting in Toronto,^ I, for the 
 
 1 After the riots of 1849 (see p. 317), the seat of Government was 
 removed from Montreal, and ParUament sat for periods of four years 
 alternately at Quebec and Toronto, until 1866, when the seat of Govern- 
 ment was permanently established at Ottawa.
 
 DORION'S PAST ATTITUDE 431 
 
 first time, suggested that one means of getting over the 
 difficulty would be to substitute for the present Legis- 
 lative union a Confederation of the two Canadas, by- 
 means of which all local questions could be consigned to 
 the deliberations of local legislatures, with a central 
 government having control of commercial and other 
 questions of common or general interest. I stated that, 
 considering the different religious faith, the different 
 language, the different laws that prevailed in the two 
 sections of the country, this was the best way to meet 
 the difficulty ; to leave to a general government questions 
 of trade, currency, banking, public works of a general 
 character, etc., and to commit to the decision of local 
 legislatures all matters of a local bearing. At the same 
 time I stated that, if these views should not prevail, I 
 would certainly go for representation by population, with 
 such checks and guarantees as would secure the interests 
 of each section of the country, and preserve to Lower 
 Canada its cherished institutions. This speech, sir, has 
 been twisted in all sorts of ways. I have heard it quoted 
 to prove that I was in favour of representation by popula- 
 tion, pure and simple ; that I was ui favour of a Con- 
 federation of the provinces and for several other pur- 
 poses, just as it suited the occasion or the purpose of 
 those who quoted it. The first time the matter was put 
 to a practical test was in 1858. On the resignation of 
 the Macdonald-Cartier Administration, the Brown-Dorion 
 Government was formed, and one of the agreements 
 made between its members was that the constitutional 
 question should be taken up and settled, either by a 
 Confederation of the two provinces or by representation 
 according to population, with such checks and guarantees 
 as would secure the religious faith, the laws, the language, 
 and the peculiar institutions of each section of the country 
 from encroachments on the part of the other. The sub- 
 ject came up again in the latter part of 1859, when the 
 Toronto Convention took place. I should, however, first 
 say that, when the Brown-Dorion Administration was 
 formed, the Hon. the President of the Council urged very 
 strongly that representation by population should be 
 taken up as the metliod by which to settle the consti- 
 tutional question ; while, on the contrary, I saw the 
 difficulty of so taking it up, even with such checks and 
 guarantees as were spoken of, and made the counter-
 
 432 FEDERATION 
 
 proposition that a Confederation of the two provinces 
 should be formed. Of course as our Administration was 
 so short-lived, the subject was not discussed in all its 
 bearings ; but if we could have come to an agreement on 
 one or the other mode, that one would have been sub- 
 mitted as the solution for the evils complained of — it 
 being however distinctly understood that I would not 
 attempt to carry any such measure through without 
 obtaining for it a majority from Lower Canada. I would 
 never have tried to make any change in the Constitution 
 without ascertaining that the people in my own section 
 of the province were in favour of such a change. To 
 return to the Toronto Convention. I was invited to 
 attend it, but though I was unable to do so, certain com- 
 munications took place, and a meeting of the liberal 
 members of the House from Lower Canada was held, and 
 a document issued, signed by the present Minister of 
 Agriculture (Hon. Mr. McGee), Hon. Mr. DessauUes, 
 Hon. Mr. Drummond, and myself. The document was 
 given to the public for the purpose of setting forth the 
 views which we held as to the settlement of the difficulty. 
 Pretended extracts have been given from that document, 
 as from my speech, to attempt to prove all sorts of things 
 as being my views, but I can show most clearly that the 
 proposition made in it was just that which had been 
 made in 1858, viz., the Confederation of the two pro- 
 vinces, with some joint authority for both. Both at that 
 time, and at the time of the formation of the Brown- 
 Dorion Administration, various suggestions were made 
 as to the carrying out of the plan of confederating the 
 two Canadas. Some thought that two entirely distinct 
 legislatures should be formed ; one local for Lower 
 Canada, another local for Upper Canada, with a general 
 legislature acting for both. Others suggested the idea 
 that the same legislature might fulfil all purposes ; that 
 the same body might meet and deliberate on questions of 
 common interest, and that the members for each section 
 might then separate and discuss all matters of a sectional 
 character. Others, again, said the same result might be 
 obtained by having but one legislature, and insisting 
 that no laws affecting either section of the province should 
 be carried, unless with the support of a majority from the 
 section affected by them. These three plans were sug- 
 gested — the first to have two entirely distinct legislative
 
 LIBERAL POLICY IN 1859 433 
 
 bodies, one for general purposes, others for local ones ; 
 the second, to have one legislature, of which the parts 
 should have the right to act separately for local objects 
 after general business had been disposed of ; the third, 
 to have but one body, but to resolve that no legislative 
 act of a local nature should pass without the consent of a 
 majority of the representatives from that locality. The 
 document to which I have just referred, issued in October, 
 1859, contained this language on the subject : — 
 
 Your Committee are impressed with the conviction that whether we 
 consider the present needs or the probable future condition of the 
 country, the true, the statesman-Uke solution is to be sought in the 
 substitution of a purely federative for the present legislative union ; 
 the former, it is believed, would enable us to escape all the evUs, and 
 to retain all the advantages, appertaining to the existing union. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The proposition to federalize the Canadian union is not new. On the 
 contrary, it has been frequently mooted in Parliament and the press 
 during the last few years. It was no doubt suggested by the example 
 of the neighbouring States, where the admirable adaptation of the federal 
 system to the government of an extensive territory, inhabited by people 
 of divers origins, creeds, laws and customs, has been amply demon- 
 strated ; but shape and consistency were first imparted to it in 1856, 
 when it was formally submitted to Parliament by the Lower Canada 
 Opposition, as offering, in their judgment, the true corrective of the 
 abuses generated under the present system. 
 
 The document further went on to say (I am translating 
 from the document published by the Lower Canada 
 liberals in 1859) :— 
 
 The powers delegated to the General or Federal Government ought 
 to be those only which are essential for the ends of the Confederation, 
 and consequently we ought to reserve for the sub-divisions as ample 
 powers as possible. Customs, finance, laws regulating the currency, 
 patent rights, Crown lands and tliose public works which are of 
 common interest for all parts of the province, ought to be the principal, 
 if not the only subject submitted to the control of the Federal Govern- 
 ment; while all that belongs to matters of a purely local character, 
 such as education, the administration of justice, the militia, the laws 
 relating to property, police, etc., ought to be referred to tlie local 
 governments, whose powers ought generally to extend to all subjects 
 which would not be given to the General Government. The system 
 thus proposed would in no way diminish the impoi'tance of the colony 
 nor impair its credit, while it presents the advantage of being suscep- 
 tible, without any disturbance of the federal economy, of such territorial 
 extension as circumstances may hereafter render desirable. 
 
 Well, sir, I have not a word of all this to take back. I 
 still hold to the same views, the same opinions. I still 
 
 28
 
 434 FEDERATION 
 
 think that a Federal union of Canada might hereafter 
 extend so as to embrace other territories either west or 
 east ; that such a system is well adapted to admit of 
 territorial expansion without an}?- disturbance of the 
 federal economy, but I cannot understand how this plain 
 sentence should be considered by the Hon. President of 
 the Council, or by other honourable members who have 
 spoken in the other House, as any indication that I have 
 ever been in favour of Confederation with the otlier British 
 Provinces. There is nothing I have ever said or written 
 that can be construed to mean that I was ever in favour 
 of such a proposition. On the contrary, whenever the 
 question came up I set my face against it. I asserted 
 that such a confederation could only bring trouble and 
 embarrassment, that there was no social, no commercial 
 connection between the provinces proposed to be united 
 ■ — nothing to justify their union at the present juncture. 
 Of course I do not say that I shall be opposed to their 
 Confederation for all time to come. Population may 
 extend over the wilderness that now lies between the 
 Maritime Provinces and ourselves, and commercial inter- 
 course may increase sufficiently to render Confederation 
 desirable. My speeches have been paraded of late in all 
 the ministerial papers — misconstrued, mistranslated, falsi- 
 fied in every way — for the purpose of making the public 
 believe that in former times I held different views from 
 those I now do. A French paper has said that I called 
 with all my heart for the Confederation of the provinces — 
 {que fappelais de tous mes voeux la confederation des pro- 
 vinces). But 1 say here, as I said in 1856, and as I said 
 in 1861 also, that I am opposed to this Confederation 
 now. In the Mirror of Parliament, which contains a 
 report, though a very bad one, of my speech in 1861, I 
 find that I said on that occasion : — 
 
 The time maj' come when it will be necessary to have a Confedera- 
 tion of aU the provinces ; . . . but the present time is not for such a 
 scheme. 
 
 This is the speech which has been held to signify that I 
 was anxious for Confederation, that I should like nothing 
 better. Why ? I distinctly said that though the time 
 might come when it would become necessary, it w^as not 
 desirable under existing circumstances. In 1862 I was not 
 in Parliament ; the Cartier-Macdonald Administration
 
 LIBERAL POLICY IN 1862 435 
 
 was dismissed, and my honourable friend, the member for 
 Cornwall (Hon. John S. Macdonald), was called upon 
 to form a new one. He applied to Mr. Sicotte to form 
 the Lower Canada section, while he himself undertook 
 the formation of the Upper Canada portion. The ques- 
 tion of representation by population then necessarily 
 came up for settlement — this time at the hands of the 
 Liberal party who had voted for it year after year — and 
 when I came down to Quebec, summoned by telegraph, 
 1 found the arrangements made, the policy of the new 
 government was settled, representation by population 
 was excluded. The Liberal party from Upper Canada, 
 sir, to my surprise, had decided that it was not to be 
 taken up — that they were going into office just as the 
 Conservative party had done before on a similar occasion 
 in 1854 ; they decided that they would sustain an Ad- 
 ministration which made it a closed question, and whose 
 members all pledged themselves to vote against it. 
 
 Mr. Rankin : No, no. 
 
 Mr. Dor ion : If not, I was misinformed. I certainly 
 understood that the Administration was formed on the 
 understanding that every member of it should vote 
 against the question of representation by population 
 whenever it came up, and that the Upper Canada party 
 would support the Administration so formed. At any 
 rate the Upper Canada Liberal party supported, for 
 eleven months, a government pledged to exclude repre- 
 sentation by population from the category of open ques- 
 tions, and agreed to lay that question aside. I hear an 
 honourable gentleman say it was not so, that he did not 
 agree to lay aside representation by population then, but if 
 he did not then has he not done so since ? He declared at a 
 public meeting the other day that representation by popu- 
 lation was no cure for the evils afflicting Upper Canada. 
 The members from Upper Canada who had joined the 
 Macdonald-Sicotte Government had certainly abandoned 
 representation by population, by entering into an Ad- 
 ministration which bound every one of them to vote 
 against it. The Hon. Provincial Secretary^ had stated 
 publicly in Ottawa, in January, 1864, that it liad been 
 abandoned by the Liberal party at the Toronto Conven- 
 tion in 1859 ; and although he had at tlic time been 
 soundly abused for this by the Olohe and by tliose of his 
 
 1 Hon. Wm. MacDougall, a prominent liberal. 
 
 28—2
 
 4.S6 FEDERATION 
 
 part}' who look to the Globe as their political gospel, he 
 had now the satisfaction of seeing tiie honourable member 
 for Lambton,^ and some others who formerly held very 
 strong views on this question, acknowledge, as they had 
 done at a public meeting held at Toronto about three 
 weeks ago, that they also considered representation bj'' 
 population as applied to Canada no remedy for the Upper 
 Province, and that it was not a measure the Liberals 
 ought to insist upon, and that it had been abandoned. 
 Yes, the question was in effect abandoned when in 
 November, 1859, six hundred delegates from all parts 
 of Upper Canada attended the Reform Convention at 
 Toronto, and agreed to advocate a Confederation of the 
 two Canadas, by giving to each province a local legis- 
 lature, wdth some joint authority, to carry on the general 
 business common to both. The honourable member on 
 my left 2 was present on the occasion, and has told 
 me that he never saw a more respectable, a more edu- 
 cated, or more intelligent assemblage brought together 
 in such numbers to discuss public questions. But that 
 scheme did not attract much attention out of the Con- 
 vention. It took no hold on the popular mind. Shortly 
 before that, in 1858, the present Hon. Finance Minister, 
 who then sat on the cross-benches, made a speech of 
 two or three hours' duration, in which, with all that force 
 and ability for wdiich he is distinguished, he expounded 
 and advocated the Confederation of the whole of the 
 British North American Provinces. He was then assisted 
 in its advocacy by the present Hon. Minister of Agri- 
 culture ; and, subsequently, on becoming a member of 
 the Cartier-Macdonald Administration, he went to 
 England and drew the attention of the Imperial authori- 
 ties to the scheme of Confederation of all those provinces. 
 The Hon. Finance Minister received an answer not very 
 encouraging ; and that which he received from this 
 country was still less encouraging. Though the Admini- 
 stration w^as formed with the understanding of effecting 
 the Confederation of all the provinces, and it was the 
 main plank of their platform, they never dared to sub- 
 mit the question to Parliament at all. Subsequently, 
 JLn 1861, the honourable member for South Oxford^ 
 
 ^ Mr. Alex. Mackenzie, afterwards (1873-78) Premier of the Dominion. 
 2 Hon. L. H. Helton, member for Chateauguay 
 ■' Hon. George Brown,
 
 RIGHTS OF MINORITIES 437 
 
 brought forward a motion based on the resolution at 
 the Toronto Convention. I spoke and voted for it. It 
 was in perfect accord with a notice I had given in 1856, 
 and which was read here by the Hon. President of the 
 Council a few nights ago, and with my often-repeated 
 declarations that I was willing to adopt some measure 
 calculated to remove existmg difficulties, without doing 
 injustice to either section ; but while I was willing to do 
 justice to Upper Canada, I always declared that I would 
 not do so by sacrificing the interests of Lower Canada, 
 or placing her in the position of having to beg for justice 
 at tlie hands of the sister province. I always stated that 
 the difference existing in the religious faith of the people 
 of the two sections, in their language, in their laws, in 
 their prejudices even — for there are prejudices which 
 are respectable and ought to be respected — would pre- 
 vent any member from Lower Canada, representing a 
 French constituency, from voting for representation by 
 population, pure and simple, and thereby placing the 
 people of Lower Canada in the position of having to trust 
 for the protection of their rights to the people of Upper 
 Canada, who would thereby have the majority in the 
 Legislature. There is at this moment a movement on 
 the part of the British Protestants in Lower Canada to 
 have some protection and guarantee for their educational 
 establishments in this province put into the scheme of 
 Confederation, should it be adopted ; and far from find- 
 ing fault with them, I respect them the more for their 
 energy in seeking protection for their separate interests. 
 T know that majorities are naturally aggressive and 
 how the possession of power engenders despotism, and 
 I can understand how a majority, animated this moment 
 by the best feelings, might in six or nine months be 
 willing to abuse its power and trample on the rights of 
 the minority, while acting in good faith, and on what it 
 considered to be its right. We know also the ill feelings 
 that might be engendered by such a course. I think 
 it but just that the Protestant minority should be pro- 
 tected in its rights in everything that was dear to it as 
 a distinct nationality, and should not lie at the discretion 
 of the majority in this respect, and for this reason I am 
 ready to extend to my Protestant fellow-citizens in Lower 
 Canada of British origin, the fullest justice in all things, 
 and I wish to see their interests as a minority guaranteed
 
 438 FEDERATION 
 
 and protected in every scheme which may be adopted. 
 With these views on the question of representation, I 
 pronounced in favour of a Confederation of the two Pro- 
 vinces of Upper and Lower Canada, as the best means 
 of protecting the varied interests of the two sections. 
 But the Confederation I advocated was a real confedera- 
 tion, giving the largest powers to the local governments, 
 and merely a delegated authority to the General Govern- 
 ment — in that respect differing in toto from the one now 
 proposed, which gives all the powers to the Central 
 Government, and reserves for the local governments the 
 smallest possible amount of freedom of action. There 
 is nothing besides in what I have ever written or said that 
 can be interpreted as favouring a Confederation of all the 
 provinces. This I always opposed. There is no breach 
 of confidence in my saying that in the conversations I 
 had with the Hon. President of the Council, previous to 
 his accepting office,^ since he has referred to them himself 
 in a speech which he made when re-elected at South 
 Oxford, I positively declined to support any proposition 
 for the Confederation of all the provinces. Very true, 
 sir, I did not refuse to vote for it in committee. I did 
 not vote at all — I was not present when the vote was 
 taken, but I did not conceal my opposition to it. In that 
 speech the Hon. President of the Council also said : — 
 
 Before the negotiations were gone through with, I warned the 
 Hon. Messrs. Holton and Dorion to take action, but they refused me. 
 I felt all the pain of a refusal, but they left me no resource. When 
 the question was asked me by the Government, I said I wanted six 
 members — four from Upper and two from Lower Canada. When asked 
 how many supporters I could bring from Lower Canada, I replied 
 that since Hon. Mr. Dorion did not act, I could bring no supporters. 
 
 So, sir, I have the best evidence possible to repudiate the 
 accusation that I was in favour of Confederation of all 
 the provinces in the fact that, before there was any 
 question at all as to who should go into the Government, 
 1 stated — and that in the hearing of several honourable 
 members now present — that I would have nothing to 
 do with it because I did not conceive it would be for the 
 interest of the country to have such a Confederation, at 
 all events at the present time. Now, sir, I think I have 
 shown that I neither favoured representation by popula- 
 tion pure andsimple, nor a Confederation of the Pro- 
 
 1 In June, 1864.
 
 GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY 439 
 
 vinces ; and when honourable gentlemen state that the 
 necessity of settling the question of representation is 
 the origin of this Federation scheme, they labour under a 
 grave misapprehension. There is nothing further from 
 the fact. The representation question was almost alto- 
 gether abandoned — was played out ; there was no agita- 
 tion about it, and certainly less than there had been for 
 the last ten years. The honourable member for South 
 Oxford, after adopting the views of the Toronto Con- 
 vention, still persisted in advocating representation by 
 population, but so changed was the feeling that he could 
 hardly get a debate on the motion he made last session 
 for a committee to consider the constitutional difficulties. 
 There is another cause for this Confederation scheme 
 of which representation by population was made the pre- 
 text. It is not so well known, but far more powerful. 
 In the year 1861 Mr. Watkin was sent from England 
 by the Grand Trunk Railway Company. He came 
 with the distinct view of making a large claim on the 
 country for aid, but in the then temper of the people, he 
 soon found that he could not expect to obtain that. 
 Thinking that if he only could put some new scheme 
 afloat which would give a decent pretext to a well dis- 
 posed Government, he would quietly get the assistance 
 required, he immediately started for the Lower Pro- 
 vinces, and came back after inducing people there to 
 resuscitate the question of the Intercolonial Railway. 
 Parties were readily found to advocate it, if Canada 
 would only pay the piper. A meeting of delegates took 
 place, resolutions were adopted, and an application was 
 made to the Imperial Government for a large contribu- 
 tion to its costs, in the shape of an indemnity for carrying 
 the troops over the road. Mr. Watkin and Hon. Mr. 
 Vankoughnet, who was then a member of the Govern- 
 ment, went to England about this scheme, but the 
 Imperial authorities were unwilling to grant the required 
 assistance, and rejected their propositions. Mr. Watkin, 
 although baffled in his expectations, did not give up his 
 project.^ He returned again to Canada, and by dint of 
 perseverance, induced my honourable friend on my riglit 
 (Hon. J. S. Macdonald) and other honourable members 
 of his Cabinet to enter into his views. As to the ad- 
 
 ^ See Canada and the United States : Becollections, 1851-1886, by 
 Sir Ed. W. Watkin (London, 1887).
 
 440 FEDERATION 
 
 vantages of the Intercolonial Railway, I have not the 
 slightest idea that my honourable friend had any suspicion 
 Avhat soever of the motives which animated these Grand 
 Trunk oi^cials, and that their object was to have another 
 haul at the public purse for the Grand Trunk, but this 
 was the origin of the revival of the scheme for constructing 
 the Intercolonial Railway. 
 
 Hon. J. S. Macdonald : We found the project then 
 left to us as a legacy by the Cartier-Macdonald Ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Hon. A. A. Dorion : So it was. The Macdonald- 
 Sicotte Government found the matter so far advanced 
 that an arrangement had been made for a meeting of 
 delegates of the several provinces to consider again this 
 railway scheme, the other project having failed. At 
 this meeting of delegates, which took place in September, 
 1862, a new scheme for building the Intercolonial was 
 adopted, by which Canada was to pay five-twelfths and 
 the Lower Provinces seven-twelfths. So unpopular was 
 this arrangement that when its terms were made known, 
 if a vote of the people had been taken upon it, not ten 
 out of every hundred, from Sandwich to Gaspe, would 
 have declared in its favour, although Canada was only to 
 pay five-twelfths of its cost. This project having failed, 
 some other scheme had to be concocted for brmging aid 
 and relief to the unfortunate Grand Trunk — and the 
 Confederation of the British North American Provinces 
 naturally suggested itself to the Grand Trunk officials as 
 the surest means of bringing with it the construction of 
 the Intercolonial Railway. Such was the origin of this 
 Confederation scheme. The Grand Trunk people are 
 at the bottom of it ; ^ and I find that at the last meeting 
 of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, Mr, Watkin did 
 in advance congratulate the shareholders and bond- 
 holders on the bright prospects opening before them, by 
 the enhanced value which will be given to their shares 
 and bonds, by the adoption of the Confederation scheme 
 and the construction of the Intercolonial as part of the 
 scheme. I repeat, sir, that representation by population 
 had very little to do with bringing about this measure. 
 
 1 This opinion was widely held at the time, and was strengthened 
 by the fact that the Hon. George E. Cartier was the solicitor in Canada 
 for the Grand Trunk Eailway. See Sir Eichard Cartwright, Memories 
 of Confederation (1906).
 
 INCONSISTENCY OF MINISTERS 441 
 
 The Tache-Macdonald Government were defeated be- 
 cause the House condemned them for taking without 
 authority $100,000 out of the public chest for the Grand 
 Trunk Railway, at a time when there had not been a party 
 vote on representation by population for one or two 
 sessions. Those who had been the loudest in their 
 advocacy of it had let it drop. I was tracked through 
 Lower Canada as being willing to sell Lower Canada, 
 grant representation by population, and destroy Lower 
 Canadian institutions. I thank God, sir, I never insulted 
 Upper Canada, like some of those who reviled me. I 
 never compared the people of Upper Canada to so many 
 codfish. 1 I showed, on the contrary, that I was always 
 willing to meet the just claims of Upper Canada. Well, 
 without any demand whatever for the agitation of this 
 question, the moment the Government was defeated and 
 there was a necessity for resigning or going before the 
 people, these gentlemen opposite prepared to embrace 
 their greatest opponents and said to themselves, " We 
 will make everything smooth, we will forget past diffi- 
 culties, provided we can but keep our seats. I hear 
 a voice, sir, which is well known in this House, the 
 voice of the Attorney - General West, saying "Hear, 
 hear." But what was the course of that honourable 
 gentleman last year, when the honourable member for 
 South Oxford had a committee appointed to whom was 
 referred the despatch written by his three colleagues, the 
 Minister of Finance, the Attorney-General East and the 
 Hon. Mr. Ross, who is now no longer a minister ? He 
 voted against the appointment of the committee, and, 
 after it was named, as a member of it, he voted against 
 the principle of Confederation. . . . The last vote taken 
 in that committee was about the middle of June, the 
 very day of the crisis, and the honourable gentleman 
 voted against the principle of Confederation of all the 
 provinces, in accordance with the opinions he again and 
 again expressed in this House, as being opposed to all 
 Confederation whatever. When I state that these 
 gentlemen only found out that Confederation was a 
 panacea for all evils, a remedy for all ills, when their 
 seats as ministers were in danger, I come to this con- 
 
 ^ Speaking on the subject of " Representation by Population," Cartier 
 had told the House that the excess of population in Upper Canada had no 
 more right to representation than so many codfish in the Bay of Gaspd.
 
 442 FEDERATION 
 
 elusion quite legitimately, from facts which, are well 
 known to this House. 
 
 But, sir, it would probably be of very little moment 
 whether I was formerly in favour of Confederation or 
 against it, or whether the Hon. Attorney-General West 
 was in favour of Confederation or opposed to it, if 
 the scheme proposed to us were an equitable one, or 
 one calculated to meet the wishes of the people of 
 this country ; but, as I said a minute ago, the scheme 
 was not called for by any considerable proportion 
 of the population. It is not laid before the House 
 as one which was demanded by any number of the 
 people ; it is not brought down in response to any call 
 from the people ; it is a device of men who are in diffi- 
 culties, for the purpose of getting out of them. The 
 members of the Tache-Macdonald Government could not 
 appeal to the country after their defeat upon the question 
 whether they were justified in taking $100,000 out of the 
 public chest, in addition to the millions they had pre- 
 viously taken, without the consent of Parliament ; so, 
 having either to give up their seats or evade that par- 
 ticular issue, they abandoned all their previous opinions, 
 and joined the honourable member for South Oxford in 
 carrying out this Confederation scheme. 
 
 I come now to another point, viz., is the scheme presented 
 to us the same one that was promised to us by the Adminis- 
 tration when it was formed ? This, sir, might be but of 
 slight importance if the manner in which this proposed 
 Constitution was framed had not a most unfortunate bear- 
 ing on the scheme itself ; but it is a grave matter, since 
 the scheme is so objectionable, especially as we are gravely 
 told that it cannot be amended in the least, but that it is 
 brought down as a compact made between the Government 
 of this country and delegates from the governments of 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Prince 
 Edward Island — as a treaty which cannot be altered or 
 amended in any particular. The plain meaniiig of this is, 
 sir, that the Lower Provinces have made out a Constitu- 
 tion for us, and we are to adopt it. This fact will appear 
 the more clearly when it is considered, as was pointed 
 out, much to my surprise, by the honourable member 
 for Hastings (Mr. T. C. Wallbridge), that in the Con- 
 ference the vote was taken by provinces, putting Upper 
 and Lower Canada, with nearly 2,500,000 people, on no
 
 ALTERATIONS IN SCHEME 443 
 
 higher level than Prince Edward Island, with its 80,000 
 — on the same level with New Brunswick, with its 250,000 
 — on the same level as Nova Scotia, with its 330,000. . . . 
 In order to show, Mr. Speaker, that I am not mistaken 
 in what I state, that this scheme is not the one which it 
 was announced in the formation of this Administration 
 was to be brought down — in order to prove, indeed, that 
 it was then determined not to bring down such a measure, 
 — I will cite a declaration made by members of the 
 Government as to the negotiations which took place at 
 its formation. I will read from the Quebec Morning 
 Chronicle of June 23rd : — 
 
 The Hon. Attorney-General Macdonald, in explaining the negotia- 
 tions read the following memorandum : 
 
 Memoranduvi. — Confidential. 
 
 The Government are prepared to state that immediately after the 
 prorogation, they will address themselves, in the most earnest manner, 
 to the negotiation for a Confederation of all the British North American 
 Provinces. 
 
 That failing a successful issue to such negotiations, they are prepared 
 to pledge themselves to legislation during the next Session of Parlia- 
 ment for the purpose of remedying the existing difficulties by intro- 
 ducing the Federal principle for Canada alone, coupled with such 
 provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the North- 
 western Territory to be hereafter incorporated into the Canadian 
 system. 
 
 That for the purpose of carrying on the negotiations and settling the 
 details of the promised legislation, a Koyal Commission shall be issued, 
 composed of three members of the Government and three members of 
 the Opposition, of whom Mr. Brown shall be one, and the Government 
 pledge themselves to give all the influence of the Administration to 
 secure to the said Commission the means of advancing the great object 
 in view. 
 
 This was the first memorandum communicated to the 
 member for South Oxford, but that honourable member did 
 not accept it. This memorandum proposed the scheme 
 which is now brought to the House, and I repeat, that 
 scheme was not accepted by the honourable member for 
 South Oxford, but an understanding was come to, which 
 is to be found in the next memorandum, which was 
 communicated to the House in these terms : — 
 
 The Government are prepared to pledge themselves to bring in a 
 measure next session for the purpose of removing existing difficulties, 
 by introducing the Federal principle into (!anada, coupled with such 
 provisions as will permit the Maritime Provinces and the North-West 
 Territory to be incorporated into the same system of govex'nmcnt.
 
 444 FEDERATION 
 
 And tho Government will seek, by sending representatives to the 
 Lower Provinces and to England, to secure the assent of those interests 
 which are beyond the control of our own legislation to such a measure 
 as will enable all British North America to be united under a General 
 Legislature based upon the Federal system. 
 
 There is a vast difference, Mr. Speaker, between these 
 two propositions. The first was that the Government 
 would pledge themselves to seek a Confederation of the 
 British American Provinces, and if they failed in that to 
 federate the two Canadas, and this was rejected ; the 
 second, which was accepted by the President of the 
 Council, pledged the Government to bring in a measure 
 for the Confederation of the two Canadas, with provision 
 for the admission of the other provinces when they 
 thought proper to enter. 
 
 But, sir, I may be asked, granting all this, grant- 
 ing that the scheme brought do"svn is not the scheme 
 promised to us, what difference our bringing in the 
 provinces at once can make ? This T will endeavour 
 to explain. When they went into the Conference, hon- 
 ourable gentlemen opposite submitted to have the votes 
 taken by provinces. Well, they have now brought 
 us in, as was natural under the circumstances, the 
 most conservative measure ever laid before a Parlia- 
 ment. The members of the Upper House are no longer 
 to be elected, but nominated, and nominated by whom ? 
 By a Tory or Conservative Government for Canada, by 
 a Conservative Government in Nova Scotia, by a Con- 
 servative Government in Prince Edward Island, by a 
 Conservative Government in Newfoundland, the only 
 Liberal Government concerned in the nomination being 
 that which is controlled by the liberal party in New 
 Brunswick, whose fate depends on the result of the 
 elections that are now going on in that province. Such 
 a scheme would never have been adopted if submitted 
 to the liberal people of Upper Canada. When the 
 Government went into that Conference they were bound 
 by the majoritv, especially since they voted by provinces, 
 and the 1,400^^000 of Upper Canada with the 1,100,000 
 of Lower Canada — together 2,500,000 people — were over- 
 ridden by 900,000 people of the Maritime Provinces. 
 Were we not expressly told that it was the Lower Pro- 
 vinces who would not hear of our having an elective 
 Legislative Council ? If, instead of going into Conference
 
 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 445 
 
 with the people of the Lower Provinces, our Government 
 had done what they pledged themselves to do, that is, 
 to prepare a Constitution themselves, they would never 
 have dared to bring in such a proposition as this which 
 is now imposed upon us by the Lower Colonies — to have 
 a Legislative Council, with a fixed number of members, 
 nominated by four Tory governments. Why, taking the 
 average time each councillor will be in the Council to be 
 fifteen to twenty years, it will take a century before its 
 complexion can be changed. For all time to come, so 
 far as this generation and the next are concerned, you 
 will find the Legislative Council controlled by the in- 
 fluence of the present Government. And is it to be 
 believed that, as promised in the document we are con- 
 sidering, such a Government as we have " will take care 
 of the Opposition, or consider their right to be repre- 
 sented in the Council "? Sir, I thank the delegates for 
 their kind solicitude for the Opposition, but I do not 
 believe they will do anything of the kind. Have we not 
 heard the Hon. Attorney-General West, a few nights 
 ago, state, turning to his followers, " If I were to advise 
 the nomination, I should advise the selection of the best 
 men I could find — and of course of my own party "? . . . 
 How long will the system work without producing 
 a collision between the two branches of the Legislature 'i 
 Suppose the Lower House turns out to be chiefly liberal, 
 how long will it submit to the Upper House, named by 
 conservative administrations which have taken ad- 
 vantage of their temporary numerical strength to bring 
 about such a change as is now proposed ? Remember, 
 sir, that, after all, the power, the influence of the popular 
 branch of the Legislature is paramount. We have seen 
 constitutions like that of England adopted in many 
 countries, and where there existed a nobility, such as 
 in France in 1830, the second chamber was selected from 
 this nobility. In Belgium, where the Constitution is 
 almost a facsimile of that of England, but where there 
 are no aristocracy, they adopted the elective principle 
 for the Upper House, and nowhere in the world is there 
 a fixed number for it, unless it is also elective. It must 
 be fresh in the memory of a great many members of this 
 House how long the House of Lords resisted the popular 
 demand for reform, and great difficulties were threatened. 
 At last in 1832 the agitation had become so great that
 
 44 G FEDERATION 
 
 the CJovornment determined to nominate a sufficient 
 number of peers to secure the passage of the Reform Bill. 
 The members of the House had to choose between 
 allowing the measure to become law, or seeing their influ- 
 ence destroyed by the addition of an indefinite number 
 of members. They preferred the first alternative, and 
 thereby quieted an excitement, which if not checked in 
 time, might have created a revolution in England. The 
 influence of the Crown was then exerted in accordance 
 with the views of the people ; but here we are to have 
 no such power existing to check the action of our Upper 
 Chamber, and no change can be made in its composition 
 except as death might slowly remove its members. I 
 venture to prophesy, sir, that before a very short time 
 has elapsed a dead-lock may arise, and such an excite- 
 ment be created as has never yet been seen in this country. 
 Now, if this Constitution had been framed by the mem- 
 bers of our Government, we could change some of its 
 provisions — this provision would most certainly be 
 altered — there is not a man in the Liberal ranks who 
 dare vote for such a proposition as this, that could go 
 before his constituents and say, " I have taken away the 
 influence and control of the people over the Upper 
 Chamber, and I have created an entirely independent 
 body, to be chosen by the present governments of the 
 several provinces." But no, the Constitution is in the 
 nature of a compact, a treaty, and cannot be changed. 
 But, sir, the composition of the Legislative Council be- 
 comes of more importance when we consider that the 
 governors of the local legislatures are to be appointed 
 by the General Government, as well as the Legislative 
 Council ; their appointment is to be for five years, and 
 they are not to be removed without cause. I will venture 
 upon another prediction, and say we shall find there will 
 be no such thing as responsible government attached to 
 the local legislatures. There will be two, three, or 
 four ministers chosen by the lieutenant-governors, who 
 will conduct the administration of the country, as was 
 formerly done in the times of Sir Francis Bond Head, Sir 
 John Colborne, or Sir James Craig. You will have govern- 
 ments, the chief executives of which will be appointed 
 and hold office at the will of the Governor. If that is 
 not to be the case, why do not honourable gentlemen lay 
 their scheme before us ? Is this House, sir, going to vote
 
 UNDUE INFLUENCE OF CROWN 447 
 
 a Constitution with the Upper House as proposed, with- 
 out knowing what sort of local legislatures we are to have 
 to govern us ? Suppose, after we have adopted the main 
 scheme, the Government come down with a plan for 
 settling the local legislatures upon which great differences 
 of opinion will arise, may it not happen then that the 
 majority from Lower Canada will unite with a minority 
 from Upper Canada and impose upon that section a local 
 Constitution distasteful to a large majority of the people 
 of Upper Canada ? The whole scheme, sir, is absurd from 
 beginning to end. It is but natural that gentlemen with 
 the views of honourable gentlemen opposite want to keep 
 as much power as possible in the hands of the Govern- 
 ment — that is the doctrine of the conservative party 
 everywhere — that is the line which distinguishes the 
 tories from the whigs — the tories always side with the 
 Crown, and the liberals always want to give more power 
 and influence to the people. The instincts of honourable 
 gentlemen opposite, whether you take the Hon. Attorney- 
 General East or the Hon. Attorney-General West, lead 
 them to this — they think the hands of the Crown should 
 be strengthened and the influence of the people, if pos- 
 sible, diminished — and this Constitution is a specimen of 
 their handiwork, with a Governor-General appointed by 
 the Crown ; with local governors also, appointed by the 
 Crown ; with legislative councils, in the General Legis- 
 lature, and in all the provinces, nominated by the Crown ; 
 we shall have the most illiberal Constitution ever heard 
 of in any country where constitutional government pre- 
 vails. The Speaker of the Legislative Council is also to 
 be appointed by the Crown ; this is another step back- 
 wards, and a little piece of patronage for the Govern- 
 ment. We have heard in a speech lately delivered in 
 Prince Edward Island or New Brunswick, I forget which, 
 of the allurements offered to the delegates while here in 
 the shape of prospective appointments as judges of the 
 Court of Appeal, Speaker of the Legislative Council, and 
 local governors, as one of the reasons assigned for the 
 great unanimity which prevailed in the Conference. . , . 
 
 I now come to another point. It is said that this Con- 
 federation is necessary for the purpose of providing a 
 better mode of defence for this country. There may be 
 people who think that by adding two and two together 
 you make five. I am not of that opinion. I cannot see
 
 448 FEDERATION 
 
 how by adding the 700,000 or 800,000 people, the in- 
 liabitants of the Lower Provinces, to the 2,500,000 
 inhabitants of Canada, you can multiply them so as to 
 make a much larger force to defend the country than 
 you have at present. Of course the connection with the 
 British Empire is the link of communication by which the 
 whole force of the Empire can be brought together for 
 defence. But the position of this country under the 
 proposed scheme is very evident. You add to the fron- 
 tier four or five hundred more miles than you now have, 
 and an extent of country immeasurably greater in pro- 
 portion than the additional population you have gained ; 
 and if there is an advantage at all for the defence of the 
 country, it will be on the part of the Lower Provinces and 
 not for us. And as we find that we are about to enter 
 into a very large expenditure for this purpose of defence 
 — this having been formally announced in a speech 
 delivered by the President of the Council at Toronto — 
 and as Canada is to contribute to that expenditure to 
 the extent of ten-twelfths of the whole, the other pro- 
 vinces paying only two-twelfths, it follows that Canada 
 will pay ten-twelfths also of the cost of defence, which, 
 to defend the largely extended country we will have to 
 defend, will be much larger than if we remained alone. 
 ... It appears then that our course is to put " the 
 military and naval defences " into " a most complete and 
 satisfactory condition." Now I find that, accordmg to 
 these resolutions, the General Government is to have 
 control of " the military and naval defences," but, of 
 course, the cost of them is not stated. This I contend, 
 then, that if the military and naval defences of all the 
 provinces are to be provided for by the General Govern- 
 ment, and if you have to increase the militia for this pur- 
 pose, the Lower Provinces will pay only their proportion 
 of two-tweKths, and Canada, while obtaining no greater 
 defensive force than at present, will have to pay five 
 times as much as we are now paying. Why, sir, take 
 the line dividing New Brunswick from Maine and you find 
 it separates on the one side 250,000, thinly scattered over 
 a vast territory, from 750,000 on the other, compact and 
 powerful. These 250,000 Canada will have to defend, 
 and it will have to pledge its resources for the purpose 
 of providing means of defence along that extended line. 
 And, if rumour be true, the Intercolonial Railway, this
 
 INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY 449 
 
 so-called great defensive work, is not to pass along Major 
 Robinson's line. The statement has been made — I have 
 seen it in newspapers usually well informed — that a new 
 route has been found that will satisfy everybody or 
 nobody at all ; and while I am on this point I must say 
 that it is most singular that we are called upon to vote 
 these resolutions, and to pledge ourselves to pay ten- 
 twelfths of the cost of that railway, without knowing 
 whether there will be ten miles or one hundred miles of 
 it in Lower Canada, or whether it Avill cost $10,000,000 
 or $20,000,000. . . . We have heard for some time past 
 that the engineer, IVIr. Fleming, is prepared to make his 
 report. Why is it not forthcoming ? — why has it been 
 kept back ? The representatives of the people in this 
 House will show an utter disregard of their duty if they 
 do not insist upon having that report, and full explana- 
 tions respecting the undertaking, as well as the scheme 
 for the constitution of the local governments, before they 
 vote upon the resolutions before the House. It is folly 
 to suppose that this Intercolonial Railway will in the least 
 degree be conducive to the defence of the country.^ We 
 have expended a large sum of money — and none voted 
 it more cordially and heartily than myself — for the pur- 
 pose of opening a military highway from Gaspe to Rim- 
 ouski ; and that road, in case of hostilities with our 
 neighbours, would be found of far greater service for the 
 transport of troops, cannon and all kinds of munitions of 
 war, than any railway following the same or a more 
 southern route possibly can be. That road cannot be 
 effectually destroyed ; but a railway lying in some places 
 not more than fifteen or twenty miles from the frontier, 
 will be of no use whatever, because of the readiness with, 
 which it may be attacked and seized. An enemy could 
 destroy miles of it before it would be possible to resist 
 him, and in time of difficulty it would be a mere trap for 
 the troops passing along it, unless we had almost an army 
 
 1 Brown and Dorion had been personal friends and political allies 
 for years, but on the question of Federation the political alliance was 
 broken. As to the Intercolonial llailway, Brown said: "The Inter- 
 colonial Railway will give ua at all times access to the Atlantic through 
 British territory. As a commercial enterprise it has not, I apprehend, 
 any considerable merit ; as a work of defence it has, however, many 
 advocates : but if the union of the provinces is to go on, it is an 
 absolute necessity ; and as the price of union, were there no other 
 argument in its favour, I heartily go for it." 
 
 29
 
 450 FEDERATION 
 
 to keep it open. Upon this question of defence, we have 
 heard so much during the past two or three years that I 
 think it is time now we should have some plain explana- 
 tions about it. We heard the other day from the honour- 
 able member for West Montreal ^ — and I am always glad 
 to quote him, he is usually so correct — that in less than 
 a year the American army, the army of the Northern 
 States, was increased from 9,000 to 800,000 men ready for 
 service, and that in less than four years they were able to 
 put to sea a fleet which, in point of numbers — I do not 
 say in armament or value — was equal to the entire naval 
 force of England. Well, the honourable gentleman might 
 have gone further and shown that within a period of 
 four years the Northern States have called into the field 
 2,300,000 men — as many armed men as we have men, 
 women and children in the two Canadas — and that we 
 hear every day of more being raised and equipped. It 
 is stated that, in view of these facts, it is incumbent upon 
 us to place ourselves in a state of defence. Sir, I say it 
 here candidly and honestly, that we are bound to do 
 everything we can to protect the country, but we are 
 not bound to ruin ourselves in anticipation of a supposed 
 invasion which we could not repel, even with the assist- 
 ance of England. The battles of Canada cannot be 
 fought on the frontier, but on the high seas and at the 
 great cities on the Atlantic coast ; and it will be nothmg 
 but folly for us to cripple ourselves by spending fifteen 
 or twenty millions a year to raise an army of 50,000 
 men for the purpose of resisting an invasion of the country. 
 The best thing that Canada can do is to keep quiet, and 
 to give no cause for war. Let the public opinion of this 
 country compel the press to cease the attacks it is every 
 day making upon the Government and people of the 
 United States ; and then if war does come between 
 England and the States — even if from no fault of ours — 
 we will cast in our lot with England and help her to fight 
 the battle ; but in the meantime it is no use whatever to 
 raise or keep up anything like a standing army. . . . The 
 honourable member for Peterborough^ stated the other 
 day, and correctly I believe, that the place for our militia 
 was behind the fortifications of our fortified places, 
 where they would count for something and would be of 
 
 1 The Hon. T. D'Arcy McGee. 2 The Hon. F. W. Haultain.
 
 UNDUE CENTRALIZATION 451 
 
 some use. No doubt of this. Why, sir, it is absurd to 
 speak of defending this country with such a force as we 
 could maintain when we have the recent example before 
 our eyes of a country in Europe possessing as large a 
 defensive force, literally wiped off the map by an in- 
 vading army of some 75,000 or 80,000 men. The king- 
 dom of Denmark consists now of only two small islands — 
 less by far, in extent, than one of our large counties ; and 
 this dismemberment has been forced upon it, although it 
 had a standing army of 30,000 men, and the feeling of 
 the whole population was in favour of the war. I do not 
 use this argument for the purpose of showing that some- 
 thing ought not to be done respecting our militia. I am 
 willing that we should make sacrifices, if necessary, for 
 the purpose of organizing it thoroughly ; but I am de- 
 cidedly opposed to a standing army, and do not believe 
 we could raise an army now that would be able to with- 
 stand the force that could be sent against it. We have 
 sent to the frontier 2,000 men, whose services for a year 
 will cost us 1 1,500,000 ; and at the same rate of expendi- 
 ture, 50,000 men would cost us over thirty millions of 
 money. Now, if the whole defence of the country is 
 to rest upon us, I ask again what would such a force 
 amount to ? 
 
 Now, sir, when I look into the provisions of this 
 scheme, I find another most objectionable one. It is 
 that which gives the General Government control over 
 all the acts of the local legislatures. What difficulties 
 may not arise under this system ? Now, knowing 
 that the General Government will be party in its 
 character, may it not for party purposes reject laws 
 passed by the local legislatures and demanded by a 
 majority of the people of that locality ? This power 
 conferred upon the general Government has been com- 
 pared to the veto power that exists in England in respect 
 to our legislation ; but we know that the statesmen of 
 England are not actuated by the local feelings and 
 prejudices, and do not partake of the local jealousies, 
 that prevail in the colonies. The local governments 
 have therefore confidence in them, and respect for their 
 decisions ; and generally, when a law adopted by a 
 colonial legislature is sent to them, if it does not clash 
 with the policy of the Empire at large, it is not dis- 
 allowed, and more especially of late has it been the 
 
 29—2
 
 452 FEDERATION 
 
 policy of the Imperial Government to do whatever the 
 colonies desire in this respect, when their wishes are con- 
 stitutionally expressed. The axiom on which they seem 
 to act is that the less they hear of the colonies the better. 
 But how different will be the result in this case, when the 
 General Government exercises the veto power over the 
 acts of local legislatures. Do you not see that it is quite 
 possible for a majority in a local government to be opposed 
 to the General Government ; and that in such a case the 
 minority would call upon the General Government to 
 disallow the laws enacted by the majority ? The men 
 who will compose the General Government will be de- 
 pendent for their support upon their political friends in 
 the local legislatures, and it may so happen that, in order 
 to secure this support, or in order to serve their own 
 purposes or that of their supporters, they will veto laws 
 which the majority of a local legislature find necessary 
 and good. We know how high party feeling runs some- 
 times upon local matters even of trivial importance, and 
 we may find parties so hotly opposed to each other in the 
 local legislatures, that the whole power of the minority may 
 be brought to bear upon their friends who have a majority 
 in the General Legislature, for the purpose of preventing 
 the passage of some law objectionable to them but de- 
 sired by the majority of their own section. What will 
 be the result of such a state of things but bitterness 
 of feeling, strong political acrimony and dangerous 
 agitation ? . . . 
 
 But, sir, respecting the defences of the country, I 
 should have said at an earlier stage of my remarks 
 that this scheme proposes a union not only with Nova 
 Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and 
 Newfoundland, but also with British Columbia and 
 Vancouver's Island. Although I have not been able to 
 get the information from the Government — for they do 
 not seem to be very ready to give information — yet I 
 understand that there are despatches to hand, stating 
 that resolutions have been adopted in the Legislature of 
 British Columbia asking for admission into the Con- 
 federation at once. I must confess, Mr. Speaker, that it 
 looks like a burlesque to speak as a means of defence of a 
 scheme of Confederation to unite the whole country 
 extending from Newfoundland to Vancouver's Island, 
 thousands of miles intervening without any communica-
 
 LEGISLATIVE UNION 453 
 
 tion, except through the United States or around Cape 
 Horn. 
 
 Hon. Attorney-General C artier : There is an Inter- 
 oceanic Railway to be built. 
 
 Hon. Mr. Doriori : Yes, I suppose that is another 
 necessity of Confederation, to which we may soon look 
 forward. Some western extension of this Grand Trunk 
 scheme for the benefit of Messrs. Wat kin and Company, of 
 the new Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
 So far as Lower Canada is concerned, I need hardly 
 stop to point out the objections to the scheme. It is 
 evident, from what has transpired, that it is intended 
 eventually to form a legislative union of all the provinces. 
 The local governments, in addition to the General Govern- 
 ment, will be found so burdensome, that a majority of 
 the people will appeal to the Imperial Government for 
 the formation of a legislative union. I may well ask 
 if there is any member from Lower Canada, of French 
 extraction, who is ready to vote for a legislative union. 
 What do I find in connection with the agitation of this 
 scheme ? The honourable member for Sherbrooke (Mr. 
 Gait) stated at the dinner to the delegates given at 
 Toronto, after endorsing everything that had been said 
 by the Hon. President of the Council : — 
 
 "We may hope that, at no far distant day, we may become willing to 
 enter into a legislative union instead of a federal union, as now 
 proposed. We would all have desired a legislative union, and to see 
 the power concentrated in the Central Government as it exists in 
 England, spreading the asgis of its protection over all the institutions 
 of the land, but we found it was impossible to do that at first. We 
 found that there were difficulties in the way which could not be 
 overcome. 
 
 Honourable members from Lower Canada are made aware 
 that the delegates all desired a legislative union, but it 
 could not be accomplished at once. This Confederation 
 is the first necessary step towards it. The British 
 Government is ready to grant a Federal union at once, 
 and when that is accomplished the French element will 
 be completely overwhelmed by the majority of British 
 representatives. What then would prevent tlio Federal 
 Government from passing a set of resolutions in a similar 
 way to those we are called upon to pass, without sub- 
 mitting them to the people, calling upon the Imperial 
 Government to set aside the Federal form of government
 
 454 FEDERATION 
 
 and give a legislative union instead of it ? Perhaps the 
 people of Upper Canada think a legislative union a most 
 desirable thing. 1 can tell those gentlemen that the 
 people of Lower Canada are attached to their institutions 
 in a manner that defies any attempt to change them in 
 that way. They will not change their religious institu- 
 tions, their laws and their language, for any consideration 
 whatever. A million of inhabitants may seem a small 
 affair to the mind of a philosopher who sits down to write 
 out a constitution. He may think it would be better 
 that there should be but one religion, one language and 
 one system of laws, and he goes to work to frame institu- 
 tions that will bring all to that desirable state ; but I 
 can tell honourable gentlemen that the history of every 
 country goes to show that not even by the power of the 
 sword can such changes be accomplished. We have 
 the history of the Greek race, having at one time a popu- 
 lation of six millions, dwindling down to seven hundred 
 thousand, and w'e find them even then, after several 
 centuries of oppression, rising up and asserting their 
 rights. We have the same circumstance in the history 
 of Belgium, which was united to Holland with a view to 
 secure the assimilation of the two countries, but fifteen 
 years of trial had hardly elapsed when the whole of the 
 Belgium people and Government rose en masse to protest 
 against that union, and to assert their separate nation- 
 ality. Sir, it is not only from the history of the past we 
 may derive the lesson, but we have the circumstances 
 of the present generation to guide us. I am astonished 
 to see the honourable member for Montreal West helping 
 a scheme designed to end in a legislative union, the 
 object of which can only be to assimilate the whole people 
 to the dominant population. In that honourable gentle- 
 man's own country the system has produced nothing but 
 a dissatisfied and rebellious people. Is it desirable that 
 in this country then we should pass a measure calculated 
 to give dissatisfaction to a million of people ? You 
 may ascertain what the cost of keeping dow^n a million 
 of dissatisfied people is by the scenes that have been and 
 are now transpiring on the other side of the line, where 
 a fifth of the people of the United States has risen and 
 has caused more misery and misfortune to be heaped 
 upon that country than could have been wrought in 
 centuries of peaceful compromising legislation. Sir, if
 
 RIGHTS OF MINORITIES 455 
 
 a legislative union of the British American Provinces 
 is attempted, there will be such an agitation in this 
 portion of the province as was never witnessed before — 
 you will see the whole people of Lower Canada clinging 
 together to resist by all legal and constitutional means 
 such an attempt at wresting from them those institutions 
 that they now enjoy. They would go as a body to the 
 Legislature, voting as one man, and caring for nothing 
 else but for the protection of their beloved institutions 
 and law, and making government all but impossible. 
 The ninety Irish members in the British House of Com- 
 mons, composed as it is of nearly seven hundred members, 
 by voting together have caused their influence to be felt, 
 as in the grants to the Maynooth College and some 
 other questions. It would be the same Avay with the 
 people of Lower Canada, and a more deplorable state of 
 things would be the inevitable result. The majority 
 would be forced by the minority to do things they would 
 not, under the circumstances, think of doing. This is a 
 state so undesirable that, although I am strongly opposed 
 to the proposed Federal union, I am still more strongly 
 opposed to a legislative union. Those who desire a 
 legislative union may see from this what discordant 
 elements they would have to deal with in undertaking 
 the task, and what misery they would bring upon the 
 country by such a step. I know there is an apprehension 
 among the British population in Lower Canada that, 
 with even the small power that the Local Government 
 will possess, their rights will not be respected. How, 
 then, can it be expected that the French population can 
 anticipate any more favourable result from the General 
 Government, when it is to possess such enormous powers 
 over the destinies of their section of the country ? Ex- 
 perience shows that majorities are always aggressive, and it 
 cannot well be otherwise in this instance. It therefore 
 need not be wondered at that the people of Lower Canada, 
 of British origin, are ready to make use of every means 
 to prevent their being placed at the mercy of a pre- 
 ponderating population of a different origin. I agree 
 with them in thinking that they ought to take nothing on 
 trust in this matter of entering upon a new state of politi- 
 cal existence, and neither ought we of French origin to 
 do so, in relation to the General Government, however 
 happy our relations to each other may be at present. . . .
 
 456 FEDERATION 
 
 Hon. Solicitor - General Langevin : The honourable 
 member for Hochelaga told us the other day that the 
 plan of a Confederation was adopted and moved by the 
 present Administration for the mere purpose of stifling 
 the cry of representation by population. Well, and if 
 it really were so, where does the honourable member find 
 the harm in it ? Is it not most important that we should 
 stop that cry for representation based on population, 
 in our present condition ? Representation by popula- 
 tion would have left us Lower Canadians in an inferior 
 position relatively to that of Upper Canada — would 
 have conferred on the latter the privilege of legislating 
 for us, not only in general, but in local matters. The 
 honourable member for Hochelaga ought to have been the 
 last to reproach the present Government with having, by 
 this measure of Confederation, stopped the cry for repre- 
 sentation based on population. In 1854, the honourable 
 member admitted, as he himself acknowledges, that repre- 
 sentation based on population was just in principle, and the 
 consequence of that admission was fatal. The consequence 
 was that the honourable member was compelled to keep in 
 the same track until the formation of the Brown-Dorion 
 Administration in 1858 — an Administration which had 
 no very long existence. . . . The question of representa- 
 tion based on population must be met ; that question 
 must be settled. To say that we will grant it is to wish 
 to place us in a position of inferiority, and I, for my part, 
 will never consent to place my section of the province 
 in that position. 
 
 Then there is another alternative that is proposed — 
 annexation to the United States. I do not believe there 
 is a single member in the House or out of the House 
 who would consent to that. But it is a question which 
 must be examined when discussing that of Confedera- 
 tion, because it is one of the alternatives offered to us, 
 and out of which we have to make a selection. . , . What 
 would be the fate of the French-Canadians in the case of 
 annexation to the United States ? Let us profit by the 
 example of the French race in the United States, and 
 enquire what has been the fate of the French in Louis- 
 iana ? "What has become of them ? What has become 
 of their language, their customs, their manners and their 
 institutions ? After the war, hardly a trace will remain 
 to show that the French race has passed that way. So
 
 IMPORTANCE OF DETAILS 457 
 
 far as religion is concerned, we might not find ourselves 
 so badly ofJ ; but we live in peace at the present day and 
 are perfectly comfortable ; Catholics and Protestants 
 have the same rights and religious liberty, and they live 
 as peacefully together as if there was but one religion in 
 the land.^ 
 
 Hon. Christopher Dunhin :^ I am bound to repeat at the 
 outset, that no one can do justice to a question like this, 
 and start with the idea of at all ignoring details. Here is a 
 measure proposed for our acceptance, embodied in seventy- 
 two resolutions, resolutions which affirm a great many 
 more than seventy-two propositions, connected with 
 almost every principle known to have reference to the 
 theory and practice of popular government. I say it is 
 a scheme which is as complex and as vast as one can 
 well imagine, and declamation about first principles can 
 be of no real use in its discussion — can avail only to mis- 
 lead in reference to it. We have to deal with no mere 
 abstract question of a nationality, or of union or dis- 
 union, or of a federal as opposed to a legislative union. 
 It is idle to talk vaguely about the maintenance of British 
 connection, or to go into magnificent speculations about 
 the probable results of independence, or blindly to urge 
 this scheme as a sure preventative of annexation to the 
 United States. These cheap and easy generalities are 
 thoroughly unreliable. The only question is, How is 
 this plan, in its entirety, going to work ? And this 
 question is one which is not easy to answer ; it is one 
 requiring much patience, and a close examination of 
 details. I may further take leave to say at starting, that 
 I do not approach this question from any new point of 
 view whatever. Always I have been, and now I am, a 
 unionist in the strictest and largest sense of the term. 
 I desire to perpetuate the union between Upper and 
 Lower Canada. I desire to see developed the largest 
 
 ^ Similarly, Sir E. P. Tache said : '-If a Federal Union were ob- 
 tained, it would be tantamount to a separation of tlio provinces, and 
 Lower Canada would thereby preserve its autonomy, with all the 
 institutions whicli it held so dear, and over which they could exercise 
 the watchfulness and surveillance necessary to preserve them unim- 
 paired." This he repeated in French, in order to make sure that the 
 point might be fully grasped by all his audience. 
 
 2 Mr. Christopher Dunkin was at this time member for the couilty 
 of Brome, in Lower Canada. His speech lasted for two sittings, and in 
 the printed report occupies sixty-two pages, or about 47,000 worda.
 
 458 FEDERATION 
 
 union that can possibly be developed (I care not by what 
 name you call it) between all the colonies, provinces, and 
 dependencies of the British Crown. I desire to maintain 
 that intimate union which ought to subsist, but which 
 unfortunately does not subsist as it ought, between the 
 Imperial Government and all those dependencies. I am 
 a unionist, who especially does not desire to see the pro- 
 vinces of Upper and Lower Canada disunited. To my 
 mind, this scheme does not at all present itself as one of 
 union ; and if honourable gentlemen opposite will admit the 
 truth, they will acknowledge that, practically, it amounts 
 to a disunion between Upper and Lower Canada. I con- 
 fess that I am irreconcilably opposed to that portion of 
 the scheme. I repeat I do not care to see Upper and 
 Lower Canada more dissevered than they are ; on the 
 contrary, I wish to see them brought into closer union ; 
 and far from regarding this scheme as cementing more 
 closely the connection of these provinces with the British 
 Empire, I look upon it as tending rather towards a not 
 distant disunion of these provinces from the British 
 Empire. . . . 
 
 If I could be astonished at anything in politics, Mr. 
 Speaker, I should be astonished at the attempt which 
 has been made by some honourable gentlemen on the 
 Treasury benches to represent the state of the public 
 feeling on this subject as not having that mere sudden, 
 sensational, unreliable character which I have ascribed 
 to it. Long forgotten expressions of individual opinion ; 
 clauses said to have formed part of bills not to be 
 found, and not known to have been even drawn ; 
 motions threatened but never made, the small party 
 fencings of past times, from bsfore the days of the 
 Canada Trade Act downwards, have been pressed into 
 service to meet the exigencies of a hard case. Well, I 
 shall not follow out that line of argument : it is not worth 
 while. We all know that, from tlie time of the union of 
 Canada, at all events until very lately indeed, nothing 
 like serious discussions of the propriety or impropriety of 
 a Federal union, or of any union at all, of the aggregate of 
 these British American Provinces, has ever so little 
 occupied the public mind. . . . 
 
 It can hardly be denied, Mr. Speaker, that there 
 is a good deal of practical objection to the plan of 
 shifting representation districts, which is what this
 
 SHIFTING CONSTITUENCIES 459 
 
 system adopts, and what the system of the United 
 States adopted. Every ten years the representation 
 from each province in the House of Commons is to be 
 changed or readjusted by a rule which, for all practical 
 purposes, is essentially the same as that of the United 
 States. Of course we have not the little addition of 
 the allowance for the three-fifths of the slave popula- 
 tion which they have ; but decennially we are to take 
 the population of the several provinces, and by a rule 
 in all essentials common to the two systems, we are to 
 declare how many representation districts are to be 
 allowed to each province. Now, the result of that system 
 must be that we can have no lasting constituencies 
 for the future House of Commons. These represen- 
 tation districts cannot be kept to correspond with 
 our municipal, business or registration districts, or with 
 our districts for representation in our provincial legis- 
 latures. We are to have a set of special, shifting districts 
 for the mere purpose of electing our Federal House of 
 Commons. I must say that this principle is not, from a 
 British point of view, a sound one. What we ought to 
 do is, to try to establish in this country of ours a set of 
 representation districts as permanent and as closely 
 coinciding with our territorial divisions existing for other 
 purposes, as circumstances will allow us to have them ; 
 subdividing or otherwise altering them, or erecting new 
 ones, only as occasion may be found to require. 
 
 Hon. Attorney-General Cartier : We will do that for 
 the local parliaments. 
 
 Mr. Dunkin : Perhaps so, and perhaps not. That 
 distinction, however, is just what I complain of. We 
 are to change our districts for purposes of representation 
 in the local parliaments, if we like, but not unless we like. 
 These subdivisions of our provinces may thus, in the 
 main, be permanent. But for representation in the 
 Federal Parliament we are, at each of these decennial 
 periods, to have a general readjustment of the whole 
 country, so as to divide each province anew into its due 
 number of aliquot parts. This is an innovation on our 
 usages, greatly for the worse. It goes to destroy that 
 character of reality, convenience and stability which — 
 if our system, as a whole, is to have such a character — 
 had need be maintained to the utmost extent practicable, 
 in respect of our constituencies and of our minor terri-
 
 400 FEDERATION 
 
 torial delimitations generally. This changing every ten 
 years brings together electors who have not been in the 
 habit of acting with each other. In England they do 
 nothing of this sort ; they do not change their limits 
 lightl^^ The several bodies of men who send repre- 
 sentatives to the Imperial House of Commons have the 
 habit of so coming together, as bodies not likely to be 
 broken up. We ought to keep this as an element of our 
 Constitution, but it is carefully eliminated from it. , . . 
 For all legislative purposes, we must look to have all 
 our territorial divisions open to frequent, one might say 
 perpetual, reconstruction ; and this subject perpetually 
 to the disturbing influences of the party warfare of the 
 hour. The exigencies of that warfare, we may be sure, 
 will tell ; and whatever the party in the ascendant, 
 whether in the country at large or locally, will find 
 means in this part of our machinery for advancing its 
 ends — means not quite of the sort to commend themselves 
 to one's approval. . . . 
 
 In the United States, as is admitted, the Senate 
 does a certain part of what we undertake here to 
 do by means of a Cabinet. The Federal check so ex- 
 ercised by the Senate renders unnecessary, for any 
 Federal purposes, the existence of a Cabinet. Indeed 
 they do not want a Cabinet for any purpose at all. It 
 is not of their system. But here, with our chief 
 magistrate not elected, we must have one. And yet, 
 how are we to make it work, engrafted on a system 
 which, in its essentials, is after all more American than 
 British ? This is what I have now come to. 1 have to 
 ask honourable gentlemen opposite how they are going to 
 organize their Cabinet, for these provinces, according 
 to this so-called Federal scheme ? I think I may defy 
 them to show that the Cabinet can be formed on any 
 other pnnciple than that of a representation of the several 
 provinces in that Cabinet. It is admitted that the pro- 
 vinces are not really represented to any Federal intent in 
 the Legislative Council. The Cabinet here must dis- 
 charge all that kind of function, which in the United 
 States is performed, in the Federal sense, by the Senate. 
 And precisely as in the United States, wherever a Federal 
 check is needed, the Senate has to do Federal duty as an 
 integral part of the Executive Government, so here, 
 when that check cannot be so got, we must seek such
 
 UNWIELDINESS OF CABINET 461 
 
 substitute for it as we may, in a Federal composition of 
 the Executive Council ; that is to say, by making it dis- 
 tinctly representative of the provinces. Well, I must 
 say that this sort of thing is utterly variant from, and in- 
 consistent with British practice and British principle ; 
 with the constitutional system which makes the whole 
 Cabinet responsible for every act of government. The 
 British Cabinet is no Cabinet of sections, but a unit. . . . 
 But now, if this Executive Council is to have in it, as I 
 am sure it must have, in order to work at all, a repre- 
 sentation of the different provinces, all or nearly all of 
 them, let us look for a moment at what will have to be 
 its number. There are two ways of calculating this — 
 two sets of data on which to go. Either we must go 
 upon what I may call the wants of the component parts, 
 or we may start from the wants of the country as a whole. 
 Suppose, then, we start from the wants of the different 
 provinces. I take it that no section of the Confederation 
 can well have less than one representative in the Cabinet. 
 Prince Edward Island will want one ; Newfoundland, 
 one. A difficulty presents itself with regard to Lower 
 Canada. On just the same principle upon which Lower 
 Canada wants, for Federal ends, to have a proper repre- 
 sentation in the Executive Council, on that same principle 
 the minority populations in Lower Canada will each want, 
 and reasonably want, the same thing. We have three 
 populations in Lower Canada — the French-Canadians, 
 the Irish Catholics, and the British Protestants. In 
 other words, there are the Catholics and the non- 
 Catholics, and the English-speaking and the non-English- 
 speaking, and these two cross-lines of division cut our 
 people into the three divisions I have just indicated. 
 Well, if in a government of this Federal kind the different 
 populations of Lower Canada are to feel that justice is 
 done them, none of them can be there ignored. The 
 consequences of ignoring them might not be very com- 
 fortable. Heretofore, according to general usage, the 
 normal amount of representation for Lower Canada in 
 the Executive Council has been six seats out of twelve. 
 Of those, four may be said legitimately to belong to the 
 French-Canadians, one to the Irish Catholics, and one to 
 the British Protestant class. Everyone is satisfied that 
 that is about the fairest thing that can be done. There 
 have been times when these proportions have varied.
 
 402 FEDERATION 
 
 There have been exceptional times when the British Pro- 
 testant popuLxtion has had to put up with a Solicitor- 
 General out of the Cabinet, and has done so with no very- 
 loud complaint. There has never been a time, I think, 
 when there was not an Irish Catholic in the Cabinet. 
 There have been times when the number of French- 
 Canadians has been less than four, and there was then 
 much complaint. Six members — four, one and one — are 
 just about what you must give to please each section of 
 Lower Canada. Well, sir, if there are to be six for Lower 
 Canada, there must be six or seven for Upper Canada, 
 and you cannot very well leave less than three each for 
 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and, as I have said, 
 one each for Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island ; 
 and thus you have an Executive Council of twenty or 
 twenty-one members, besides all we might have to add 
 for other provinces ; and this, I rather think, is a little 
 too many. The thing could not be done ; for so large a 
 Cabinet could never work. Suppose then, on the other 
 hand, that we start with the idea of limiting the number 
 of our Executive Council to meet what I may call the 
 exigencies of the country as a whole. Eleven, twelve 
 or thirteen — the latter, as an honourable member observes, 
 is an unlucky number — will be as many as we can possibly 
 allow. Of this number one, as before, will be wanted for 
 Newfoundland and one for Prince Edward Island. If 
 one is wanted for each of the little provinces, New Bruns- 
 wick and Nova Scotia will be sorely discontented unless 
 they get, at least, two apiece ; and neither Lower Canada 
 nor Upper Canada will be contented with the three left 
 for each of them. And for Lower Canada, in particular, 
 how will anyone divide this intractable figure between 
 her French, Irish and British ? Shall we give them one 
 apiece, and ask the French-Canadian element to be con- 
 tent with one voice in a cabinet of a dozen ? — or, give 
 that element two, without satisfying it — so leaving out 
 either the Irish or the British, to its intense disgust ? — 
 or give the preponderating element the whole, to the 
 intense disgust of both the others ? It will be none too 
 easy a task, sir, I think, to form an Executive Council 
 with its three members for Lower Canada, and satisfy 
 the somewhat pressing exigencies of her creeds and 
 races. . . . 
 
 Let me take another feature of the scheme, or, I might
 
 PROVINCIAL CONSTITUTIONS 463 
 
 say, one absence of a feature from the scheme — the 
 non-provision of anything like provincial constitutions. 
 We are not told about them ; they are kept back com- 
 pletely in the dark ; it is part of the scheme that we 
 are not to know what it means them to be. It is part of 
 the scheme, too, from all appearance, that they may 
 not be at all alike. For anything I can see, Nova Scotia 
 will have a right under this scheme to devise a system of 
 responsible government, with a cabinet and two branches 
 of the legislature. New Brunswick, if it pleases, may 
 have only one legislative body, with or without respon- 
 sible government. So may the Prince Edward Island 
 people have anything they like ; and the people of New- 
 foundland may do what they like, and so may we in 
 Canada. Lower Canada may even have a constitution 
 of one kind, and Upper Canada one of a totally different 
 kind. There may be no two of our six or more local 
 constitutions framed on the same model. It seems to be 
 meant that these constitutions shall be as varied as the 
 people of the different provinces may see fit to make 
 them ; nay, there are even left to the people of the different 
 provinces the same large powers for amending them after- 
 wards. To be sure there is the grand power of dis- 
 allowance by the Federal Government, which we are told, 
 in one and the same breath, is to be possessed by it, but 
 never exercised. 
 
 Hon. Attorney-General Cartier : The presumption is, it 
 will be exercised m case of unjust or unwise legislation. 
 
 Mr. Dunkin : The hon. gentleman's presumption re- 
 minds me of one, perhaps as conclusive, but which 
 Dickens tells us failed to satisfy his Mr. Bumble. That 
 henpecked beadle is said to have said, on hearing of the 
 legal presumption that a man's wife acts under his con- 
 trol : "If the law presumes anything of the sort, the 
 law's a fool — a natural fool !" If this permission of 
 disallowance rests on a presumption that the legislation 
 of our provinces is going to be unjust or umvise, it may 
 be needed ; but under that idea, one might have done 
 better either not to allow, or else to restrict within 
 narrower limits, such legislation. If the promised non- 
 exercise of the power to disallow rests on a presumption 
 that all will be done justly and wisely in the provincial 
 legislatures, the legislative power is well given ; but then 
 there is no need, on the other hand, for the permission
 
 464 FEDERATION 
 
 to disallow. I repeat, this system, or no-system, aims 
 at nothing like uniformity between the general and 
 local constitutions, or between the local constitutions 
 themselves ; and in this respect, it is essentially at 
 variance with the much wiser system adopted in the 
 United States. It further allows of no real autonomy ; 
 in fact, the only trace of uniformity it can be said to have 
 about it, consists in its disallowance of all autonomy to 
 the provinces. 
 
 Now, let me take up those few features that un- 
 doubtedly are given to us, as characterizing our pro- 
 vincial system. Wide as we have seen the latitude is 
 which the provinces may take in framing their consti- 
 tutions, there are a few matters as to which the system 
 lays down an iron rule. There is the appointment of a 
 lieutenant-governor which is to be vested in the General 
 Government. It is not said in so many words that he 
 is to be a colonist, but I think it may be taken for granted 
 that he will be. It is not very likely that we shall get 
 any right honourable gentleman or eminent statesman, 
 from home, to come out here for an appointment of that 
 kind ; and I take for granted, therefore, that the General 
 Government yvHI always nominate Mr. Somebody or 
 other, of local distinction, to this office of lieutenant- 
 governor. . . . Suppose any of our politicians, whether 
 of this province or of any other in the Confederacy, say 
 Canada, Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, to be assuming 
 this role of lieutenant-governor in any of our provinces. 
 He has this disadvantage to begin with ; he has to that 
 moment been passing through that ordeal of abuse under 
 which every prominent public man in this country must 
 have suffered before attaining any distinction whatever. 
 No matter over what colony appointed, or from what 
 colony coming, a lieutenant-governor will have hard 
 cards to play, and will have very much to put up with 
 from the people over whom he is set, on this mere score 
 of his past political exploits. He has been known as a 
 politician, and will be held to be favourable or unfavour- 
 able to this party or that in the province he governs. 
 
 But how do we stand here, Mr. Speaker, as to the 
 attributes of our own provincial legislatures and govern- 
 ments, on the one hand, and those of the Federal power 
 on the other ? Do we follow American example, and 
 give so much to the union and the rest to the provinces ;
 
 DIVISION OF POWERS 465 
 
 or so much to them, and the rest to it ? Either rule 
 would be plain ; but this plan follows neither. It simply 
 gives us a sort of special list for each ; making much 
 common to both, and as to much more, not showing 
 what belongs to either. I cannot go now into detail 
 on this head. I can give no more than some few 
 specimens ; and I take first the three subjects of the 
 fisheries, agriculture, and immigration. These three 
 subjects are equally assigned to the General Legislature 
 on the one hand, and the Provincial Legislature on the 
 other. It is provided by the 45th resolution, that in 
 all such cases, wherever any statutes of the general 
 and local parliaments clash, those of the General Parlia- 
 ment shall override those of the local. So that in these 
 matters of the fisheries, agriculture and immigration, 
 either the local legislatures must not legislate at all, or 
 if they do the General Legislature may at any time undo 
 anything they may have done. One can easily foresee 
 any amount of clashing of authority in such cases. 
 Fishery regulations of all sorts — bounties perhaps ; the 
 thousand questions affecting agriculture. Or to take 
 just one that suggests itself as to immigration ; one 
 province wishes, perhaps, to encourage immigration of a 
 certain kind, say, for instance, from the continent of 
 Europe. It is a legitimate wish ; but the Federa,! Legis- 
 lature may, perhaps, in the varying shifts of public 
 opinion, adopt a different policy, and reverse all that the 
 province may have done. To what end give powers to 
 the local parliaments which may thus be taken away at 
 any moment by the Federal Legislature ? But, Mr. 
 Speaker, there are a hundred other cases as to which I 
 could satisfy the House, had I time for doing so, that 
 more or less of this confusion arises. Take the subject 
 of marriage and divorce for one — a subject on which there 
 is a great deal of local prejudice and feeling, and into 
 which even religious convictions largely enter. That 
 matter is given to the General Legislature. But on the 
 other hand the larger matter, civil rights — of which this 
 of marriage and divorce, from one point of view, forms 
 a mere part — is given to the local legislatures. I turn to 
 another matter, haphazard- — the subjects of railway 
 legislation, of railway incorporation, and of railway 
 amalgamation. What Legislature has power in these 
 matters under this scheme ? I am not sure that there 
 
 30
 
 466 FEDERATION 
 
 are not here as nice a lot of pretty little questions as one 
 would desire to see in a summer's day. . . . 
 
 We find it stated that "The seat of Government of the 
 Federated Provinces shall be Ottawa, subject to the royal 
 prerogative." It is distinctly laid down as a part of our 
 system that the royal prerogative, the right to change 
 the seat of the Federal Government at will, is to be 
 maintained. But I venture to say that the maintaining 
 of that right is simply inconsistent with the practical 
 working out of a federal system. And this is a matter 
 involving a good deal of anomaly, as honourable gentle- 
 men will see when they begin to think of it. The Governor 
 General or Viceroy, the all but king of this Confederacy, 
 with his all but ]mperial Government, and all but Im- 
 perial Legislature, constituted no matter how, resident 
 within the territorial jurisdiction of a subordinate pro- 
 vince ! The police of the federal capital, not federal 
 but provincial ! That thing won't do. . . . 
 
 We have a large class whose national feelings turn to- 
 wards London, whose very heart is there ; another large 
 class whose sympathies centre here at Quebec, or in a senti- 
 mental way may have some reference to Paris ; another 
 large class whose memories are of the Emerald Isle ; and 
 yet another whose comparisons are rather with Washing- 
 ton ; but have we any class of people who are attached, or 
 whose feelings are going to be directed with any earnest- 
 ness, to the city of Ottawa, the centre of the new nationality 
 that is to be created ? In the times to come, when men 
 shall begin to feel strongly on those questions that appeal 
 to national preferences, prejudices and passions, all talk 
 of your new nationality will sound but strangely. Some 
 other older nationality will then be found to hold the first 
 place in most people's hearts. . . . 
 
 It is proposed to adopt here a plan which has a direct 
 tendency to place on the floor of our House of Commons 
 a number of provincial delegations, and not a number of 
 independent members of parliament. The tendency is 
 therefore towards a system antagonistic to, and incon- 
 sistent with, those principles on which the British Consti- 
 tution reposes. With provincial delegations, rather than 
 members of parliament, on the floor of the Federal Legis- 
 lature, we are not likely to have that political longevity, 
 whether of men or parties, without which the British 
 system of government can hardly exist. . . .
 
 EXTRAVAGANCE ENCOURAGED 467 
 
 In all the provinces the provincial governments will, 
 in a quiet way, want money, and the provincial legis- 
 lators and people will want it yet more ; grants for 
 roads and bridges, for schools, for charities, for salaries, 
 for contingencies of the legislative body — for all manner 
 of ends they will be Avanting money, and where is it 
 to come from ? Whether the constitution of the Pro- 
 vincial Executive savours at all of responsible govern- 
 ment or not, be sure it will not be anxious to bring 
 itself more under the control of the legislature, or to make 
 itself more odious than it can help, and the easiest way 
 for it to get money will be from the General Government. 
 I am not sure, either, but that most members of the pro- 
 vincial legislatures will like it that way the best. It 
 will not be at all unpopular, the getting of money so. 
 Quite the contrary. Gentlemen will go to their con- 
 stituents with an easy conscience, telling them : " True, 
 we had not much to do in the Provincial Legislature, 
 and you need not ask very closely what else we did ; 
 but I tell you what, we got the Federal Government to 
 increase the subvention to our province by five cents a 
 head, and see what this gives you — $500 to that road — 
 SI, 000 to that charity — so much here, so much there. 
 That we have done ; and have we not done well ?" I 
 am afraid in many constituencies the answer would be : 
 " Yes, you have done well ; go and do it again." I am 
 afraid the provincial constituencies, legislatures and 
 executives will all show a most calf-like appetite for the 
 milking of this one most magnificent government cow. 
 . . . And even this is not all. Not only will you have 
 these comparatively direct demands — more or less in- 
 geniously, but always irresistibly — made, but you will 
 have demands made in a more indirect form which it 
 will be yet easier to carry, from their consequences not 
 being so clearly seen, and which will therefore be still 
 worse in their effects. I speak of that tremendous 
 catalogue of outlays which may be gone into without the 
 appearance of a grant to any particular province — the 
 costly favours which may be done in respect of inter- 
 provincial ferries, steamship lines between or from the 
 provinces, railways between or through the provinces, 
 telegraph lines, agriculture, immigration, quarantine, 
 fisheries, and so forth. There will be claims of every 
 description under all these heads ; and besides them there 
 
 30—2
 
 46S FEDERATION 
 
 will be the long roll of internal improvements of all kinds, 
 whether for the benefit of one or of more than one of the 
 provinces. For any local work in which it can be at all 
 pretended that it is of general interest, pressure may be 
 brought to bear upon the General Government and 
 Legislature, and whenever one province succeeds in 
 getting any such grant, every other province must be 
 dealt with in the same way. Compensation must be 
 made all round, and no human intellect can estimate 
 the degree of extravagance that before long must become 
 simply inevitable. Sir, with our Upper and Lower 
 Canada we have had pretty good proof of this. We know 
 that whenever anything has had to be done for one 
 section of this province, it has constantly been found 
 necessary to do something of the same or of some other 
 kind for the other. If either needed anything very badly, 
 then the ingenuity of the Minister of Finance had to be 
 exercised to discover something else of like value to give 
 the other. In one word, unless I am more mistaken 
 than I think I can be, these local governments will be 
 pretty good daughters of the horse-leech, and their cry 
 will be found to be pretty often and pretty successfully — 
 " Give, give, give !" . . . 
 
 We are going to be called upon to spend money for 
 yet another kindred purpose, and a large amount too 
 — and this, as a part of this scheme. Our star of empire 
 is to wing its way westward ; and we are to confederate 
 everything in its track, from Newfoundland to Van- 
 couver's Island, this last included. But, between us and 
 it, there lies the Hudson Bay territory. So, of course, 
 we must acquire that for confederation purposes ; and 
 the plan is, that before we get it we shall have to pay 
 for the elephant — though, after we get him, we may find 
 him costly and hard to keep. . . . 
 
 Disguise it how you may, the idea that underlies this 
 plan is this, and nothing else — that we are to create here 
 a something — kingdom, viceroyalty, or principality — 
 something that will soon stand in the same position 
 towards the British Crown that Scotland and Ireland 
 stood in before they were legislatively united with 
 England ; a something having no other tie to the Empire 
 than the one tie of fealty to the British Crown — a tie 
 which in the cases, first, of Scotland, and then of Ireland, 
 was found, when the pinch came, to be no tie at all ;
 
 RISK OF SEPARATION 469 
 
 which did not restrain either Scotland or Ireland from 
 courses so inconsistent with that of England as to have 
 made it necessary that their relations should be radically 
 changed, and a legislative union formed in place of a merely 
 nominal union. Suppose you do create here a kingdom 
 or a principality, bound to the Empire by this shadow 
 of a tie, the day of trial cannot be far distant, when this 
 common fealty will be found of as little use in our case 
 as it was in theirs ; when, in consequence, the question 
 will force itself on the Empire and on us, between entire 
 separation on the one hand, and a legislative union on 
 the other. But a legislative union of British America 
 with the United Kingdom must be, in the opinion of, one 
 may say, everybody at home and here, a sheer utter 
 impossibility ; and when the question shall come to be 
 whether we are so to be merged in the United Kingdom 
 or are to separate entirely from it, the answer can only 
 be — " At whatever cost, we separate." Sir, I believe 
 in my conscience that this step now proposed is one 
 directly and inevitably tending to that other step ; and 
 for that reason — even if I believed, as I do not, that it 
 bid fair to answer ever so well in the other respects — • 
 because I am an Englishman and hold to the connection 
 with England, I must be against this scheme. . . . 
 
 The real danger is not of war with the United States. It 
 is from what I may call their pacific hostility — from trouble 
 to be wrought by them within this country — trouble to 
 arise out of refusal of reciprocity — repeal of the bonding 
 system — custom - house annoyances — passport annoy- 
 ances ; from their fomenting difficulties here, and taking 
 advantage of our local jealousies ; from the multiplied 
 worries they may cause us by a judicious alternation of 
 bullying and coaxing, the thousand incidents which may 
 easily be made to happen if things are not going on quite 
 well in this country, and the people and government of 
 the States are minded to make us feel the consequences 
 of our not getting on quite so well as we might. Whether 
 the union of the States is restored or not, this kind of 
 thing can go on. The danger is, that either the united 
 United States, or those portions of the United States 
 which are near us, and which are really stronger than we 
 are, and enterprising enough and ambitious enough, and 
 not very fond of us, and not at all fond of the Mother 
 Country, not at all unwilling to strike a blow at her and
 
 470 FEDERATION 
 
 to make us subservient to their own interest and am- 
 bition — the danger is, I say, that the United States, or 
 those portions of the United States near us, may avail 
 themselves of every opportunity to perplex us, to embroil 
 us in trouble, to make us come within the disturbing 
 influences of their strong local attraction. — Now, to pre- 
 tend to tell me that the United States or the Northern 
 States, whichever you please, are going to be frightened, 
 from a policy of that kind, by our taking upon ourselves 
 great airs, and forming ourselves into a grand Con- 
 federation, is to tell me that their people are, like the 
 Chinese, a people to be frightened by loud noises and ugly 
 grimaces. I do not believe they are.
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 With some small changes, the British North America 
 Act still remains the Constitution of Canada. But just 
 as Lord Sydenham and Robert Baldwin, the founders 
 of Canadian municipal government, would view with 
 surprise some of its later developments, so the most far- 
 seeing of the "Fathers of Confederation" would wonder 
 not a little at the shape which forty years have given to 
 some of the features of their offspring. The development 
 has consisted more in the interpretation of the clauses 
 of the Act than in any great changes introduced into it, 
 and still more in the growth of unwritten rules and 
 formulas ; for though the British North America Act is 
 much easier to change than the Constitution of the 
 United States, it is considered by the great majority of 
 Canadians to possess not a little of the same sacro- 
 sanctity. 
 
 The task of interpretation has fallen largely to the 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which has been 
 to Canada a most valuable court of reference, at once 
 able and impartial. The need of such interpretation has 
 been specially necessary owing to the great increase in 
 the size of the Dominion. In 1870 the North-West 
 Territories were acquired from the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, and already the three provinces of Manitoba, 
 Saskatchewan, and Alberta, have been carved out of 
 the purchase. In 1871 British Columbia, and in 1873 
 
 471
 
 472 CONCLUSION 
 
 Prince Edward Island, entered the Dominion. With the 
 enormous development of the West ; with the opening 
 up of New Ontario and New Quebec ; with the super- 
 session of the cattle-ranch by the wheat-field, and of the 
 hunter and trapper by the miner, new and difficult 
 problems are asking for settlement. Politically Canada 
 is outgrowing the colonial status, and the problem of her 
 position within the Empire awaits solution. Within 
 her borders the old quarrel between French and English 
 is dying down, and with the growth of the country 
 economic questions are coming more and more to the fore. 
 The relations to the federal and provincial governments 
 of the great companies which control railways and 
 steamships, telegraphs and telephones ; the question of 
 public control and public ownership of her almost un- 
 rivalled resources — in a word, all the problems involved 
 in the words "private ownership," "State regulation," 
 " State ownership," with or without State working — are 
 coming to the front. 
 
 But such matters belong to the future, and do not as 
 yet admit of documentary illustration. May we not hope 
 that, even as the documents in this volume, if they are 
 in part the record of human error and of the little wisdom 
 'with, which this world is governed, are yet much more 
 the record of problems solved and errors overcome, so 
 also the same courage, honesty, and imagination may 
 find a solution for the still more subtle problems of the 
 future ? 
 
 BILLING AXD SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
 
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