presented to the 
 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 by 
 
 Canadian Government
 
 .\a). 
 
 -1'
 
 h
 
 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION
 
 CANADA 
 
 AND 
 
 THE CANADIAN QUESTION 
 
 BY 
 
 GOLDWIN SMITH, D.C.L. 
 
 WITH MAP. 
 
 ILonlJon $c flcto gork 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 TORONTO. HUNTER, ROSE AND CO., 
 
 180 1 
 
 All righU rttfrvtd
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Subject 
 
 The natural v. tlie jwlitical map — The Provinces of the Dominiou and their 
 economical relations — Tlie (juestion projiounded . . I'age 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Frf:xch Province 
 
 Canada proper a French colony — Dominion of the Papacy and the Church in 
 Quebec — The French peasantry and their lot — Rapid increase of their 
 numbers — Their occupations — Hold of the Church upon them — Wealth 
 of the Church — The Jesuit and his relation to education — The Parti 
 Roiujc — The Guibord affair — Recent change in the character of the 
 Church— Attitude of the Church towards the State, and towards the 
 British and Protestant population — Ecclesiastical pretensions and 
 nationalist aspirations — The Quebec Premier the champion of both — 
 He apostrophises the Tricolor — Relations between the British and 
 French race in the Province — Extrusion of the British — Protestant 
 strongholils — Exodus of French Canadians to New England— The Irisli 
 at Montreal ........ \ 
 
 CHAPTKi; 111 
 
 Tin: I'RITISII I'ROVINCES 
 
 Oiilaiio the core of the (JoiifecU'ration -Its chief industries — Structure of 
 ."Mjciety and Nocial Heiitinient — H!(ffct» of ilenjoiracy in the luiusclndtl and 
 on juvenile character — City life — The imbiic silioul systiiii - The
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Clmrchcs — Nationalities ami national societies — Canadian respect for 
 law — Public justice and the bench — Socinl life — The climate — Pastimes 
 — Commerce and industry — Trade orj^anisations — Social problems — City 
 government — Literature, Art, and Science — Journalism — Emigration and 
 native feeling towards the emigrant — Jligration of Canadians to the 
 United States — Practical fusion of the two nations — The Maritime 
 Provinces, Nova Scotia, New BruTiswick, and Prince Edward Island — 
 JIanitoba and the North- West — liritish Columbia . Page 24 
 
 CHAPTEli IV 
 French Canada before the Conquest 
 
 Jacques Cartier, the discoverer — Champlain, the founder of Quebec — Coming 
 of the Jesuits — Their missions, heroic exploits, and relations with the 
 Indian tribes — Ursuline convents and hospitals — Aims of the Jesuits — 
 Their rule — Jloral decadence of the Order — Foundation of Montreal — 
 The Sulpicians and their relations to the Jesuits — Failure of Quebec as a 
 colony — Epoch of Louis XIV. — Royal administration extended to the 
 colony — Colbert's commercial system and the Intendant Talon — The 
 fur trade — Bushranging — Passion for exploration, and feats of dis- 
 coverers — Abuses under Louis XV. — The parish clergy — Jloral state of 
 the colony — Contrast between the French and English colonists — The 
 Conquest ........ 64 
 
 CHAPTER Y 
 
 French Canada after the Conquest 
 
 What was to be done with Quebec ? — The question settled by the American 
 Revolution — ililitary rule — British concessions to the concpicred people 
 preserve their allegiance during the American invasion — The (Quebec Act — 
 Incoming of royalist refugees from the American colonies, and formation of 
 an oligarchy of conquest — With the French Revolution comes a re- 
 settlement of Quebec — Policy of Pitt — Attempt to separate the races by 
 dividing the colony into a French and a British Province — Failure of that 
 attempt — Political conflict between the two races in Lower Canada under 
 the Parliamentary Constitution— Want of information and of decision 
 on the part of the Home Government — British rule an improvement on 
 French rule — War of 1812 — The French Canadians again faithful to 
 Great Britain — Renewal of civil strife after the war — Ineffectual mission 
 of Lord Gosford — Rebellion breaks out and is suppressed — End of the 
 Constitution — Jlilitary opinion as to the value of Canada as a depend- 
 ency ......... 80
 
 CONTEXTS vn 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 History of Upper Canada 
 
 Upper Canada founded by the United Empire Lo}^alists — Their wrongs as a 
 vanquished party shut out from amnesty — Constitution of British 
 Canada — Simcoe its first Governor — Beginnings of political life and 
 controversy — Governorships of Hunter and Gore — "War of 1812 — The 
 Tory "Famil)- Compact" — Conflict between itand the Reformers — Leaders 
 of the Reformers, Mackenzie, Rolph, and Bid well — The clergy reserves and 
 other political issues — Demand for responsible government — Governorship 
 of Sir Francis Bond Head — Conflict between the Governor and the 
 Reformers — Rebellion breaks out and is suppressed — End of the governor- 
 ship of Sir Francis Bond Head .... Page 98 
 
 CHAPTER vn 
 
 The United Provinces 
 
 Mission of Lord Durham — His report on the situation — Re-union of the two 
 Provinces under a single Governor and legislature — Concession of 
 responsible government — The change carried into effect by Lord 
 Sydenham — Parties and politics under the new constitutional system — 
 Governorship of Sir Charles Bagot — An attempt of Lord Metcalfe as 
 Governor to restore the power of the Crown brings him into conflict with 
 the Assembly and the people — Practical end of monarchical government in 
 Canada — Governorship of Lord Elgin — Personal influence retained by him 
 under the new system — The Rebellion Losses Bill — Secularisation of the 
 clerg}' reserves — The reciprocity treaty — Failure of the policy of union to 
 bring about British ascendency or assimilate the French element — 
 Influence of the French in politics — Political combinations and jiarties — 
 The " Clear Grits " and the struggle for representation by population — 
 Series of ephemeral administrations — Political deadlock from which 
 refuge is sought in Confederation — Other motives for that measure — Mood 
 in which it was carried . . . I'Jl 
 
 CHAPTER Vni 
 
 The Federal Constitution 
 
 The monarcliical element of the Constitution — The Govenior-tJeneral— His 
 losH of jiolitical jiower — His social and other functions — Tlie ollice devoid 
 of constitutional value— Baronet<ies and knighthoods — Futility of
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 attt'iii|its to introiliK'o aristocracy into tlie New World — Canada in 
 reality a Federal Republic — Deviations of the Canadian Constitution from 
 the American model — Powers of the central government and legislature 
 — The veto power — The Canadian Senate compared with the American 
 Senate, and with the Uritish House of Lords — The Canadian House of 
 Commons and its composition — Localism in elections — Party government 
 — Weak points of the elective system — Provincial governments and 
 legislatures — The interpretation of the Constitution — The Supreme Court 
 — The Civil Service — The Judiciary — Canada practically independent of 
 tlio mother country — Canada allbrds no ]>recedent for Irish Homo IJule 
 — A written constitution a necessity of democracy — Ottawa as the seat of 
 government ....... Page 147 
 
 CHAi'TEK IX 
 Fruits of Confederation 
 
 Doubtful increase of military security — The incorporation of the North-West 
 — Resistance of the French half-breeds to the annexation — Federal rail- 
 roads, the Intercolonial and the Canadian Pacific — Adoption of a Pro- 
 tective tariff under the name of "National Policy" — Effects of that 
 measure, particularly in regard to the settlers of the North-West — Ap- 
 jtarent failure of Confederation to produce national unity — Aspiration of 
 French Canada to separate nationality continued and increased — (Question 
 of the Jesuits' estates — Renunciation of the national veto on provincial 
 legislation — Want of national union and of Dominion i>arties entails 
 government by corruption — The Pacific Railway scandal — Injury to the 
 political character of the people — Confiict of sectional with national 
 interests — The financial condition of the Dominion — The Exodus from 
 Canada to the United States . . . . . 192 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Thk Canadian Question 
 
 Dependence — The sanction of the mother country necessary for any change of 
 political relations — Canada considering the problem of her future — 
 Distinction between a colonj' and a colonial dependency — Misleading ase 
 of the term " Empire" — Supposed influence of sentiment on emigration 
 — The strength of England lies in herself, not in her dependencies — 
 England's protection of Canada precarious — Canada's complaints against 
 British diplomacy — Political tutelage no longer possible — Society in the 
 New World unalterably democratic — British interests in Canada — Value 
 of the filial sentiment and that of dependence compared . . 237
 
 CONTENTS ix 
 
 Independence — The "Canada First" movement — Its tendency to independ- 
 ence—That solution of the problem probable in itself — Obstacles to its 
 adoption— The moral of the movement . . . Page 253 
 
 Imperial Federation — Origin of the movement — Absence of any definite plan 
 — The scheme without precedent in history — What would be the object 
 of the Association ? — A limit to the effects of steam and telegraph in 
 annihilating distance — \\Tiat would be the relation of the Federal govern- 
 ment to the British monarchy ? — What diplomatic policy wouhl prevail < 
 — Complexities and embarrassments of the pro[)Osed system — Difiiculties 
 of setting the negotiations on foot — Difficulty of finding trustworthy 
 representatives of the colonies — A moral federation of the whole English- 
 speaking race more feasible — The colonies will not part with self-govern- 
 ment ........ 257 
 
 Political Union — "Annexation" an improper term — Union of Canada with 
 the American Republic might be on ei^ual and honourable terms, like 
 that of Scotland with England — Service which Canada, if admitted to the 
 Councils of the Union, might render to England — By entering the Union 
 Canada need not forfeit her peculiar character or her historical associa- 
 tions — The idea that the connection would be one of moral disparagement 
 unfounded — The evils and dangers of both countries substantially the 
 same — Objections on the ground of over-enlargement of territory and 
 populations — No line of political cleavage on the continent — Americans 
 ready to welcome Canada into the Union — No thought of conquest or 
 violent annexation — Difficulty of gauging Canadian sentiment — The 
 Canadian people certainly in favour of free trade with their continent — 
 Respecting their feeling as to political union nothing can be certainly 
 said — Difficulty of bringing such a union about on the American as 
 well as on the Canadian side — The primary forces will in the end 
 prevail ........ i.'07 
 
 C(nnviercial Union — Mr. Bayard on tiie subject — The name Commercial 
 Union adopted in contradistinction to Political Union. Account of the 
 movement — Her own continent the natural market of Canada — Re- 
 ciprocity of trade or reciprocity of tariffs the motto of the Conservative 
 leader — The continent an economical whole — Reciprocity the dictate of 
 nature — Si)ccial strength of the case with regard to the minerals of 
 Canada — The shipping interest of Canada needs the freedom of the 
 coasting-trade — The Americans on their side ready for Reciprocity — Policy 
 of Mr. Blaine — Answer to the as.sertion of Protectionists that tliere can- 
 not be a profitable trade between Canada and the United States — 
 Remarkable growth of tlie trade in eggs when free from duty — Prevalence 
 of smuggling under tlie present system — Special liard.sliips resulting from 
 the tariir to .Manitoba and the Maritime Provinces — Comparison of the 
 British with the American market— Ri-asons wliy the near market is tlie 
 l>e»t — Counter-propo.sal of an Imperial Zollvorein — Fatal objections to 
 that plan — I'ltforts of the Canadian (iovcrniniiit to open up m-w markets
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 — The natural intercstsof Canada all in favour of Recipiocity — Objections 
 to Coninu'rcial Union between tlie United States and Canada similar to 
 those made between England and Scotland — Ai)j)eal of I'roteetionists to 
 Imperial sentiment — Answer to the allegation that Commercial Union 
 would be annexation in disguise — Practical difliculties of the scheme 
 enhanced by the M'Kinlcy tarifl" — The policy of the M'Kinley Act not 
 likely to endure — A new commercial era apparently dawning for tlie 
 United States ...... Page 281 
 
 APPENDICES— 
 
 .1. Mr. Henry "\Y. Darling on Banking . . 303 
 
 Jj. Mr. Thomas Shaw on Agriculture in Ontario . 307 
 
 C. Mr. T. D. Ledyard on ]\Iining . . .321 
 
 GRIEVANCE OP CANADIAN SHIP- 
 OWNERS. {^^jL-t^^ ;37. 92 
 Ottawa, WEDNESDAT.-i^di^utatlon of Cana- 
 dian shipowners en^ag-ed in tha Transatlantic 
 trade had an Interview, this afternoon, with the 
 Hon. J. J. 0. Abbott, the Premier, They repre- 
 eented to him the loss caused to them by "ihe 
 lack of heavy freight in consequence of the 
 falling-off in the export of iron from Great 
 Britain to Cannda, which was dne to 
 increased production within the Dominion, 
 and urged the Fromipr to umka a substantial 
 reduction in the jron duties. Mr. Abbott pointed 
 out that to grant the request would be a violation 
 of the policy of the present Government, which 
 bftd been endorsed by the electorato at four 
 e:eneral elections. I
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SUBJECT 
 
 Whoever wishes to know what Canada is, and to understand 
 the Canadian question, should begin by turning from the 
 political to the natural map. The political map displays a 
 vast and unbroken area of territory, extending from the 
 boundary of the United States up to the North Pole, and 
 equalling or surpassing the United States in magnitude. 
 The physical map displays four separate projections of the 
 cultivable and habitable part of the Continent into arctic 
 waste. The four vary greatly in size, and one of them is- 
 very large. They are, beginning from the east, the Maritime 
 Provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward 
 Island ; Old Canada, comprising the present Provinces of 
 Quebec and Ontario ; the newly-opened region of the North- 
 West, comprising the Province of Manitoba and the districts 
 of Alberta, Athabasca, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan ; and 
 British Columbia. Tlie habitable and cultivable parts of 
 these blocks of territory are not contiguous, but are divided 
 from each other by great barriers of nature, wide and irre- 
 claimable wildernesses or manifold chains of mountains. 
 The Maritime Provinces are divided from Old Canada by the 
 wilderness of many hundred miles tluprnigh whicli the Inter- 
 
 B
 
 2 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ni.\i-. 
 
 colonial Eailway runs, hardly tak in l,^ u]) a passenger or a bale 
 of freight by the way. Old Canada is divided from Mani- 
 toba and the North-AVest by the great freshwater sea of Lake 
 Superior, and a wide wilderness on either side of it. Mani- 
 toba and tlic Nortli-West again are divided from British 
 Columbia by a triple range of mountains, the Eockies, the 
 Selkirks, and the Golden or Coast range. Each of the blocks, 
 on the other hand, is closely connected by nature, physically 
 and economically, with that portion of tlie habitable and 
 cultivable continent to the south of it which it immediately 
 adjoins, and in which are its natural markets — the ]\Iaritime 
 Provinces, with Maine and the New England States ; Old 
 Canada, with New York and with Pennsylvania, from which 
 she draws her coal; Manitoba and the North-West, with 
 Minnesota and Dakota, which share with her the Great 
 Prairie ; British Columbia, with the States of the Union on 
 the Pacific. Between the divisions of the Dominion there 
 is hardly any natural trade, and but little even of forced 
 trade has been called into existence under a stringent 
 system of protection. The Canadian cities are all on or 
 near the southern edge of the Dominion ; the natural cities 
 at least, for Ottawa, the political capital, is artificial. The 
 principal ports of the Dominion in winter, and its ports 
 largely throughout the year, are in the United States, trade 
 coming through in bond. Between the two provinces of Old 
 Canada, though there is no physical barrier, there is an 
 ethnological barrier of the strongest kind, one being British, 
 the other thoroughly French, while the antagonism of race 
 is intensified by that of religion. Such is the real Canada. 
 Whether the four blocks of territory constituting the 
 Dominion can for ever be kept by political agencies united 
 among themselves and separate from their Continent, of
 
 I THE SUBJECT 3 
 
 which geographically, economically, and with the exception 
 of Quebec ethnologically, they are parts, is the Canadian 
 question. 
 
 Where the subject is so complex and so disjointed, to 
 devise a satisfactory arrangement is not easy. Writers and 
 readers of the history of the Dominion too well know how 
 wanting it is in unity. For the special purpose of this work, 
 wliich is neither elaborate description nor detailed histoiy, 
 but the presentation of a case and of a problem, it seemed 
 best first, briefly to delineate the Provinces, which are the 
 factors of the case, then to sketch their political history, 
 leading up to Confederation, then to give an account ot 
 the Confederation itself, with its political sequel, up to the 
 present time, and finally to propound the problem. The 
 general reader, if any one answering to that description 
 ever takes up this work, may skip the chapter on the 
 Federal polity, the subject of which to the reader specially 
 interested in Colonial institutions will probably seem the 
 most important of all. To impart anything like liveliness to 
 a discussion of the British North America Act one must have 
 the touch of Voltaire. 
 
 The writer knows too well that he is on highly contro- 
 versial ground. All he can say is that the subject is clearly 
 and practically before the public mind ; that he has done liis 
 best to take his readers to the heart of it by setting the whole 
 case before them; that his oi)ini(jns have not been hastily 
 formed ; that they have not, so far as he is a\\aie, been 
 biassed by personal motives of any kind ; and that he does 
 not think that the lionour or the true interest of his native 
 country can fur a moment be absent from his breast.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE FRENCH PROVINCE ^ 
 
 The eldest first. Canada proper was a French colony. To 
 the hahitans, as the Quebec peasantry are called, it is a 
 French colony still ; for they know no Canadians but those 
 of their own race. French enterprise it was that first looked 
 down from the high-pooped barque, in which, without chart 
 or quadrant, it had braved the wide and wild Atlantic, upon 
 the St. Lawrence, then running between forests full of bears, 
 moose, and beavers, and roamed by a few human wolves in 
 the shape of Eed Indians. The true Canada is the river 
 explored by Jacques Cartier, with its shores, its affluents, and 
 the country of which it is the outlet. A royal river it is, 
 bearing on its broad breast of waters Atlantic steamers a 
 thousand miles from its mouth, and running between high 
 banks, while its rival, the Mississippi, spreads over vast flats of 
 mud ; its weak point being that the frost of Canadian winter 
 binds it half the year in chains which invention has been 
 tasked in vain to loose. Quebec and Montreal are the only 
 historic cities of the Dominion, and Quebec alone retains its 
 
 ^ With regard to tliis and the following chapter, the writer owes acknow- 
 ledgment to Picturesque Canada, edited by Principal Grant, D. D., and also to 
 the article by Dr. Prosper Bender, on the French Canadian Peasantry, in the 
 Magazine of American History, August. 1890.
 
 CHAP. II THE FRENCH rROVINCE 5 
 
 historic aspect. Eveu in Quebec there are in the way of 
 buildings but scanty remnants of the Bourbon days. But 
 the citadel, the prize of battle between the races, the key 
 and throne of empire, stills crowns the rock which stands a 
 majestic warder at the portal of the Upper St. Lawrence ; 
 and the city with its narrow, steep, and crooked streets, 
 crouching close under its guardian fortress, recalls an age of 
 military force and fear in contrast to the cities of the New 
 World, with their broad and straight streets spreading out 
 freely in the security of industrial peace. 
 
 Quebec is a surviving offset of the France of the Bourbons, 
 cut off by conquest from the mother country and her revolu- 
 tions. Its character has been perpetuated by isolation like 
 the form of an antediluvian animal preserved in Siberian 
 ice. Just now the ice is in appearance freezing harder than 
 ever, though there are ominous crackings and rumblings 
 which to the listening ear seem to portend dissolution, and 
 do certainly portend critical change. The Bourbon monarchy 
 is gone, and very faintly is its image replaced in the heart of 
 the French Canadian by that of the alien monarchy of Great 
 Britain, The aristocracy is gone, since the seigniories in- 
 stituted by Louis XIV — poor counterparts of Old World 
 seigniories even while they existed — have been bought up and 
 abolished, tliough a slight influence is retained by a few old 
 families. The power of the notary rests on a foundation of 
 adamant which no conquest or revolution can overthrow. 
 But it and all other powers, political or social, are small 
 compared with that of the priest. Quebec is a theocrOiCy. 
 Wliile Koine has been losing her hold on Old France and on 
 all the European nations, she has retained, nay tightened, it 
 here. The people are tlie shecj) of the priest. He is their 
 political as well as tlieir spiritual (;liier and nominates the
 
 6 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. 
 
 politician, -who serves the interest of the Cimrcii at Quebec 
 or at Ottawa. Tlie faith of the peasantry is medieval. It is 
 in Quebec alone on the Western Continent that miracles are 
 still performed. The shrine of Ste. Anne de Beaupre is 
 thronged with pilgrims and thickly hung with votive offerings, 
 though her cures are confined to ailments of a certain class, 
 chiefly nervous, and she has not restored a limb or healed 
 anybody of cancer. A bishop writing to the people of his 
 diocese about his visit to Eome assumes that they receive as 
 undoubted truth the legend of the three fountains marking 
 the three boundings of St Paul's head after it had been cut 
 off, and that of St. Zeno and his 10,203 companions in 
 martyrdom. Not only have the clergy been the spiritual 
 guides and masters of the French Canadian, they have been 
 the preservers and champions of his nationality, and they 
 have thus combined the influence of the tribune with that of 
 the priest. 
 
 The habitant is a French peasant of the Bourbon day. 
 The "Angelus" would be his picture, only that in the 
 " Angelus " the devotion of the man seems less thorough than 
 that of the woman, whereas the habitant and his wife are 
 alike devout. He is simple, ignorant, submissive, credulous, 
 unprogressive, but kindly, courteous, and probably, as his 
 wants are few, not unhappy. If, in short, there is an Arcadia 
 anywhere, in his village most likely it is to be found. He 
 tills in the most primitive manner his paternal lot, reduced 
 by subdivision, executed lengthways, to a riband-like strip, 
 with, if possible, a water-front ; the river having been the only 
 highway of an unprosperous colony when the lots were first 
 laid out. His food is home-raised, and includes a good deal 
 of peasoup, which affords jokes to the mockers. His raiment 
 is homespun, and beneath his roof the hum of the spinning-
 
 II THE FRENCH PROVINCE 7 
 
 wheel is still heard. His wife is the robust and active 
 partner of his toil. Their cabin, though very humble, is 
 clean. Such decorations as it has are religious. The Church 
 services are to the pair the poetry and pageantry of life. 
 If either reads anything it is the prayer-book. There are, 
 however, Chansotis Populaires, though probably more read by 
 the cultivated than by the people, and there is a folk-love 
 brought apparently from Old France, perhaps from the France 
 before Christianity.^ The domestic affections among the 
 hdbitans are strong ; that grand source of happiness at least 
 is theirs ; and two or more branches of the same family are 
 found living in harmony under the same roof The hahitant 
 is not cultivated or aspiring, but his life is above that of the 
 troglodyte of La Terre. 
 
 Close observers think that they can still trace the race 
 characters of the two districts of Old France from which the 
 French Canadians came, and distinguish the Breton Celt 
 from the more solid and shrewder Norman ; but the general 
 characteristics prevail. It is denied that tlie language is a 
 patois, such as a Parisian could not understand, though there 
 are in it old Breton and Norman words and phrases. 
 English words and phrases have also intruded, but these 
 French patriotism is now trying to weed out. 
 
 The Frencli Canadians breed apace. To them, as to the 
 Irish, the Church preaclies early marriage and speedy re-mar- 
 riage in the interest of morality, and to multiply the number 
 of the faitliful, perliaps also with an k'\v. to fees. From a 
 return Just laid before the Quebec Legishiturc it appears that 
 for the grant of a hundred acres of land bestowed as a reward 
 upon families boasting twelve or more children, there are 
 
 * Sec an interesting article by Mr. Edwiinl Fiirn-r, a dihtingiUHlieil Cun.iiliiiii 
 journaliBt, in the Atlantic Monthly for Ajiril, 1882.
 
 8 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 1009 claimants. One family numbers twenty-three ; a family 
 of twenty-six has been known. There is no saying what 
 bound there would be to the extension of the French if they 
 did not prefer pills made of paper with a likeness of the 
 Virgin to vaccination as a preventive of smallpox. As it is, 
 they are overflowing in multitudes into New England, and 
 threaten, in conjunction with the Irish, who are also settling 
 there in great numbers, to supplant the Puritan in his old 
 abode. They are also displacing the English in Eastern 
 Ontario, and making the politicians of the province feel 
 their power. The digestive forces of Canada have been too 
 ■weak to assimilate the French element even politically as 
 those of the great mass of American Englishry have assimil- 
 ated, sufficiently at least for the purposes of political union, 
 the French population of Louisiana. Instead of being 
 assimilated, the French Canadians assimilate, and Scotch 
 regiments disbanded among them have become French in 
 language, in religion, and in everything but name and face. 
 The factories of New England welcome the French not only 
 on account of the cheapness of their labour, but because they 
 are tractable, amenable to factory discipline, and not addicted 
 to industrial war. 
 
 Farming is not the only pursuit of the French Canadians 
 in their own country. With it they combine one of a more 
 stirring kind. They furnish a large proportion of the lumber- 
 men. The forest wealth of Canada is immense, though it is 
 now, unfortunately, being fast reduced not only by the axe, 
 but by forest fires, which the carelessness of trappers or 
 tramps kindles, and which are terrible in their destructive 
 range, while governments, their thoughts engrossed by the 
 party conflict, have left the forests to take care of themselves.^ 
 
 ^ In Ontario a forest-ranger has now been appointed, in the person of Mr. 
 Phipps, who had done good service in calling attention to the subject.
 
 II THE FRENCH PROVINCE 9 
 
 For lumbering winter, when the snow makes slides, is the 
 season, so that the French peasant may combine it with the 
 cultivation of his little farm. Picturesque writers dwell with 
 rapture on the romance of life in the lumber shanty, the 
 forest ringing with the axe, the glories of the winter land- 
 scape by sunlight and by moonlight, the healthiness of the 
 work, the vigour and skill which it calls forth, and the 
 joviality of the gangs, toucliing with poetry even " the huge 
 pan of fat pork fried and floating in gravy." ^ In the 
 dangerous work of guiding the logs down the stream, above 
 all, great nerve as well as agility is displayed. The lumber 
 shanty is also a school of temperance, for in it no liquor is 
 allowed. Nor does religion fail to say her mass there, or to 
 unpack her bale of ecclesiastical wares. 
 
 The land east of Quebec city is poor ; even with the help 
 of the lumber trade subsistence is rapidly outrun by popula- 
 tion, and if there were not this ready outflow into the 
 adjoining states of the American Union, Quebec would be a 
 second Ireland, and an analogy would be presented which 
 might be useful in teaching Irish reformers to deal with the 
 fundamental problem of congestion rather than try to feed 
 a heedless and thriftless people with statutory parliaments. 
 But the priest looks on emigration with an evil eye ; it takes 
 away his flock, and those who return, as not a few do when 
 they have earned some money in tlie New England factory, 
 are apt to bring back with them the mental liabits of a free 
 commonwealth. Schemes of" repatriation " have been formed, 
 but of course in vain, and desperate attempts are being made 
 to turn the current of emigration northwanls to Lake St. 
 Jolin. Shipment to the French settlement in Manitolia is 
 
 * See Picturesque Canada, vol. i., " I,uiiil»riiif,'," where a comjileto ami 
 very iiittresting descriiition of tlic Innlc ami all that iLJatcs to it will he 
 foun<l.
 
 10 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION <iiai'. 
 
 another device <»t" tlie sume jxilicy ; but tlie star ot" Kreiicli 
 colonisation in Manitoba is waning low. This is one quarter 
 from which danger threatens the Church's " ancient and 
 solitary reign." Another is the railway, which, by bringing 
 the peasant and his wife within the attraction of the city 
 with its luxuries and vanities, corrupts the rural simplicity 
 and contentment approved with good reason by the Church. 
 Hence fulminations of clerical wrath against social corruption 
 which would prove the Church's system a failure if tliey 
 were taken literally and without allowance for the fervour of 
 the pul[)it. 
 
 "While the people are poor the Church is, for such a 
 country, immensely rich. Not Versailles or the Pyramids 
 bespoke the power of the king more clearly than the great 
 Church and the monastery rising above the cabins bespeak 
 the power of the priest. Exactly how great the wealth of 
 the Church in Quebec is cannot be told ; no politician dares 
 to move for a return. A hundred millions of dollars 
 (£20,000,000 stg.) would probably be a low estimate of her 
 realised property, while her income is reckoned at ten 
 millions. Bishop Laval acquired from the Government the 
 seigniories of the Petit Nation, the Island of Jesus, and 
 Beaupre, the last of which, beginning a few miles below 
 Quebec, runs along the St. Lawrence for sixteen leagues, with 
 a depth of six leagues measured from the river.^ Favours 
 have more recently been obtained from obsequious govern- 
 ments, while all legal facilities are given by legislatures 
 not less obsequious. The Church has, by law transmitted 
 from the Bourbon days and recognised at the Conquest, the 
 right of taking from all members of her own communion 
 tithe (though the amount of the impost has been reduced to 
 
 ^ Parknian's Old liigime in Canada, p. 164.
 
 II THE FRENCH TROVINCE 11 
 
 a twenty -sixth) and money for building and repairing 
 churches.^ Classes for souls are everywhere a source of 
 revenue to her. She is always investing with profit. 
 Besetting the people from the cradle to the grave with her 
 friars and her nuns, she daily gathers in money, of which 
 none ever leaves her coft'ers, even for taxes, since she asserts 
 her sacred immunity from taxation. Lotteries, in spite of their 
 affinity to gambling, are sanctioned to add to the holy fund. 
 To add to the holy fund priests do not disdain to peddle 
 ecclesiastical amulets and trinkets.^ Nor does Ste. Anne 
 de Beaupre perforin her cures for nothing. Meantime the 
 mayor of St. Jean Baptiste, a village annexed to Montreal, 
 states that of the seventy-five hundred people of that village, 
 six thousand are too poor to protect themselves against small- 
 pox, and the city must come to their assistance, while Le 
 Canadicn of Quebec calls upon the governments of the 
 Dominion and the Province to provide work for the people 
 of the counties below Quebec whose crops are a failure, 
 
 ^ The tithe was by law only of cereals. The habitant took to growing 
 peas to evade the impost ; but the Church followed him up and he gave way. 
 Of late he has taken to growing hay, but the Church again follows him up, 
 and this time her exaction is the more severe because a heavy tax has been 
 imposed on hay by the United States. In cities, the Cliurch has begun to 
 impose a poll tax on those who do not pay tithes. The cure generally suc- 
 ceeds in collecting by ecclesiastical authority, though resort is sometimes had 
 to the Parish Commissioners' Courts. A district magistrate at Shcrbrooke, 
 not long ago, condemned a habilant to pay §4 (two years' tax of $"2 per 
 annum) imposed by the Bishop of St. Hyaciiithc. Tiie magistrate, who is a 
 lawyer of thirty years' .standing, based his decision partly un the decree of 
 the bishop and partly on the fact that defendant's family had the spiritual 
 services of the cure, for which ho awarded a quantum meruit. The case is 
 reported in the JUvue Lrrjale, a law report edited by a judge of the Superior 
 Court of .Montreal, without any iiuestion of its soundness. In the I'ntvince 
 there has also ])een a long struggle against [laying titlus to the movable niis- 
 sionaries. liut the Superior Court has also sustainetl this impost, tliongh the old 
 French edict declares that settled cures alone had the right to collect tithes. 
 
 ' See for this the article " lionianism in Canaila " in the I'lmlnjterian 
 Review, New York, July, 1886.
 
 12 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION cnAi'. 
 
 waniing tlicni that unless the Matane Ivailway be pushed on 
 to give the people bread there will be an exodus which will 
 be ruinous to the Dominion. The treasury of the Province 
 is empty, and her financiers are fain to levy political tribute 
 on the Confederation or to raid by taxation of financial com- 
 panies on the strongbox of the commercial Protestants at 
 Montreal. The Eeformation was perhaps to a greater extent 
 than is commonly supposed a movement of economical self- 
 preservation on the part of communities whose land and 
 wealth were being absorbed by the Church. 
 
 The champions of the Church say that for all that she 
 takes she gives full value in the shape of morality and 
 charity. Her charity, if it means tlie control of charitable 
 institutions, is not unconnected with her finance. It is 
 probably on financial grounds, in part, that she is at this 
 moment struggling to keep the lunatic asylums in her hands. 
 But she has made the people in her waj' moral, as well as 
 in her way religious. Her rule is almost Genevan in its 
 austerity ; balls and low dresses are denounced as well as 
 Opera Bouffe. The relations of the sexes are watched with a 
 jealous eye. Probably the most favourable specimen of the 
 Roman Catholic system anywhere to be found is in Quebec, 
 where, be it remembered, the Church has been under British 
 rule, linked to a British province, tempered in her action by 
 British influences, and stimulated by Protestant emulation 
 Nevertheless, looking to the condition of the people on the 
 one hand, and the vast array of churches, convents, and 
 rectories on the other, we are reminded of Edmond About's 
 saying about the peasantry of the Ptomagna, who were back- 
 ward and unprosperous though they had fourteen thousand 
 monks preaching to them the gospel of labour. 
 
 What the mind of the Church is respecting popular
 
 II THE FRENCH PROVINCE 13 
 
 education we kiiow from the history of countries such as 
 Southern Italy, Spain, the lioman Catholic provinces of 
 Austria, and the Spanish colonies in South America, where 
 she has had it all her own way. The Jesuit boasts of his 
 services to education in Canada and elsewhere : he has no 
 doubt cultivated the art to great perfection after his kind ; 
 but the objects of his attention as an educator have been 
 youths destined for the priesthood, or sons of the rich and 
 powerful whom it was his aim to draw into his net, and 
 to whom he imparts a set of showy and superficial accom- 
 plishments serving mainly to allay the thirst for truth. In 
 Quebec the Churcli has it not all her own way. She is 
 exposed to the rivalry and criticism of a body of Protestants 
 on the spot, and of a still larger body in the Dominion. She 
 has therefore taken up popular education, but she has taken 
 it up without zeal and given it an ecclesiastical turn. The 
 days may have gone by when by a Statute of the Province 
 of Quebec school trustees were authorised by law to sign 
 with a mark ; but illiteracy still prevails. The mayor of a 
 town cannot always write. Air. Arthur Buies, a French 
 Canadian journalist of eminence, cites a witness who, having 
 held a high official position, and lived in a rural district for 
 fifty years, deposes that among the men between twenty and 
 forty not one in twenty can read, and not one in fifty can 
 write ; that they will toll you that they have been at school 
 but have forgotten all they learned ; and that what the 
 " all " was you will be able to guess when you know that the 
 teachers were mostly young girls taken from the convents 
 with a salary of from 200 to 400 francs a year, and chosen 
 because their priests were unable to pay the convent tuition 
 fees.^ This account seems to be borne out by the inquiries 
 
 ' Arthur Huies, La Ldntrnxf, Montriml, 1881, p. 113.
 
 14 CAXADA AXD THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai>. 
 
 of the Massachusetts School Inspector among the French 
 Canadian imniit^iants in Massachusetts, though these are 
 likely to be not among the least active-minded or intelligent 
 of the community from which they come. In fact education 
 for the masses is probably little more than preparation for 
 tlie first communion. The series of school books in use in 
 the Province is highly ecclesiastical and very poor. 
 
 The school history is a characteristic work.i It scarcely 
 mentions British Canada, treats the British as alien intruders, 
 exults in French victories over them, imputes to them 
 insidious designs of crushing French nationality, and glorifies 
 the priesthood for having preserved it from their attacks. 
 Lord Durham, the author of the hated union with British 
 Canada, is accused of having scattered money broadcast for 
 that object, and Sir John Colborne is charged with ravaging 
 the country at the head of seven or eight thousand men when 
 the rebellion was over and order had been restored. The 
 Conquest, the pupil is tauglit to believe, was followed by 
 eighty years of persecution, of religious intolerance, and of 
 despotism, during which England was following, with 
 regard to Canada, the sinister policy which she had pur- 
 sued with regard to Ireland. This is a primer sanctioned 
 by the Council of Public Instruction in a province styled 
 British. There is at present no ill-feeling among the 
 French Canadians against Great Britain. British rule has 
 been too mild to provoke hatred. British Royalty when 
 it visits Quebec is perfectly well received. But Great 
 Britain is a foreign country to the French Canadian. 
 
 There is in Quebec a circle of French literary men con- 
 
 ^ Abrege d'llistoire du Canada a I'usage des Jeunes Etudiants de la Pro- 
 vince de Quebec, par F. X. Toussaint, Professcur h TEcole Normale-Laval. 
 Approuve par le Conseil de I'lnstruction Publiijue, Montreal, 1886.
 
 II THE FRENCH PROVIXCE 15 
 
 taining some names of eminence ; but it is hardly more 
 connected with the Church and her people than was the 
 literary circle of the eighteenth century with the Church 
 and her people in France. It draws its intellectual aliment 
 from Paris, where some of its members are Mell known, 
 and M. Frechette, the poet of French Canada, has won a 
 crown. Probably it is itself better known at Paris than in 
 Quebec. 
 
 In this Paradise of Faith there is a serpent called the Parti 
 Piongp, though it is not Dynamitard or Atheist, but merely 
 Liberal, or at most free-thinking, and opposed to clerical 
 domination. It had at Montreal a literary society called 
 tlie Iiutitut Canadien. This society, for taking heterodox 
 literature, was excommunicated as a body by the Church. 
 Guibord, one of its members, died under the ban, and the 
 Church refused to let him be buried in the Catholic cemetery 
 where he had owned a lot. The Provincial courts upheld 
 the sentence of the Church. But the Privy Council on 
 appeal, after debating the question, as Carlyle says, with the 
 iron gravity of Roman augurs, decided that men must, 
 according to the Canon Law, be excommunicated individually, 
 not in the lump ; consequently that Guibord had not lost 
 his right to burial in tlie cemetery. The Church sliowed 
 figlit, the militia were under orders, a huge block of granite 
 was prepared to protect the grave from desecration, a colli- 
 sion seemed to be impending, when the Bishop of Montreal 
 cut the knot by proclaiming that in whatever spot the 
 excommunicate miglit be laid that spot would thereby be 
 cut off from the n^st ol" th(; ground and deconsecrated; so 
 that in the rest of the ground the faithful might sleep 
 uncontamiiiated and in peace. 
 
 Till lately, however, the Church of Quclicd ri'inaintd a
 
 16 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 true daughter of the Church of monarchical France, and kept 
 her Gallican tradition, giving Ca?sar his due, and living at 
 peace with the civil power. But at length the same change 
 has passed over her which has passed over the Roman 
 Catholic Churches of Europe, since, having lost the allegiance 
 of the national governments, they have been compelled to 
 throw themselves for support on their spiritual centre, and to 
 exalt without limit the authority of the Pope. Ultrauion- 
 tanism has come, and in its van the Jesuit bearing with liiui 
 the Encyclical and Syllabus, his own work. Having, besides 
 his surpassing skill in intrigue, the ecclesiastical influences of 
 the time in his favour, he captures the Episcopate, fills the 
 Church with his spirit, extends his empire on all sides. The 
 Sulpician order, Gallican in sentiment, whose great seminary 
 rises over Montreal, after a bitter struggle goes down before 
 him, and resigns to him in part the cure of the wealthy city. 
 Against the University, the last fortress of Gallicanism or 
 Liberal Catholicism, his batteries have opened. From his 
 own pulpit, or through the lips of bishops who speak as he 
 prompts, he denounces Gallicanism as a pestilent error, brands 
 Liberal (Catholicism, the Catholicism of ^Montalembert and 
 Lacordaire, as insidious poison, reasserts in the language of 
 the Encyclical the medieval claims of the Papacy to domina- 
 tion over conscience and over the civil power, scornfully 
 repels the idea that the priest is to confine himself to the 
 sacristy, claims for him the right of interference in elections, 
 the censorship of literature and of the public press. Against 
 Protestantism and its pretended rights he proclaims open 
 war ; it has no rights, he says ; it is merely a triumphant 
 imposture ; no religion has any right, or ought to be treated 
 by the State as having any, but that of Pome. Pome is the 
 rightful sovereign of all consciences ; and will again, when she
 
 II THE FRENCH PROVIXCE 17 
 
 cau, assert her authority by the same means as before. Wal- 
 ls declared against religious liberty, progress, and the organic 
 principles of modern civilisation. On such a course the ship 
 of the French Church of Quebec is now steering, with the 
 Jesuit at the helm. If she holds on, a collision can hardly fail 
 to ensue. It has been said very truly that the Jesuit always 
 fails. This world would be strangely ordered if he did not. 
 His wisdom has never been equal to his craft. When by 
 craft he had got James II into his liands, he, by want of 
 wisdom, hurried the king along the road to ruin. He may 
 do the same with the Nationalist party and politicians of 
 (Quebec. In the history of the Order, as often as the marvel- 
 lous labours of the sons of Loyola iii majorcm Dei gloriam 
 seemed on the point of being crowned with success there has 
 come an afflavit Dcus et dissipati sunt. But though tlie 
 Jesuit has always failed, his failures have been tremendously 
 costly to humanity. 
 
 The ascendency of Ultramontanism has been aided by the 
 change which has taken place in the position of the clergy. 
 They used to hold their cures, under an ordinance of Louis 
 XIV, by a fixed tenure, like the freehold of an Englisli rector. 
 But they have now been put generally on the footing of mis- 
 sionaries, removable at the pleasure of the bishop. The old- 
 fashioned cure, a man something like the English rector of tlie 
 old school, quiet and sociable, is passing away, and his place 
 is being taken by a personage of a more stirring sjiirit, and 
 better suited to be the minister of Ullianionlaiic ambition. 
 
 With tliis advance of ecclesiastical i)ix'LL;u.^iuiis comes a 
 sympathetic growth of nationalist aspiration. The dream of 
 a French nation on this continent has long been liovering 
 before the minds of French Canadians, though it is hard to say 
 liow far the idea has ever assumed a distinct shape or formed a 
 
 C
 
 18 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 definite motive of action. The Abbe Gingvas in a pamphlet 
 some years ago, after glorifying the Dark Ages, justifying the 
 Inquisition, and reviving the claims of Innocent III, set forth 
 what he deemed the necessary policy of French Canadian 
 statesmen towards the Dominion, describing it as one of 
 conciliation, more or less elastic, with the creation of a papal 
 and French nationality always in view as its covert aim. 
 But now the twin movement has taken a more pronounced 
 form. M. Honore Mercier has risen to lead Ultramontanisni 
 and Nationalism at once, and has been raised by their joint 
 forces to the Premiership of the Province, while the old Con- 
 servative or Bleu party, which corresponded to the Gallican 
 party in the Church, has suffered a complete overthrow. M. 
 Mercier proclaims himself the devout liegeman of the Pope, 
 wears a papal decoration on his breast, seeks the papal 
 blessing before going into an election contest, champions all 
 ecclesiastical claims, restores to the Jesuits their estates, and 
 boasts to a great Roman Catholic assemblage at Baltimore 
 that he has thereby redressed the wrong done by George III. 
 At the same time he avows his Nationalism in language that 
 makes British ears tingle. At the unveiling of a joint 
 memorial to Brebceuf, the Jesuit martyr, and Jacques Cattier, 
 the French discoverer, he bids the Eed and Blue party of 
 Quebec blend their ensigns in the Tricolor. He celebrates 
 his political victory in a hall profusely decorated with French 
 flags, while only one Dominion flag is to be seen. " Gentle- 
 men," he says, pointing to the Tricolor, " this flag you know ; 
 it is the national flag. The government which you have you 
 know ; it is the national government. The party which 1 
 have before me I know. This flag, this government, and this 
 party are to-night honoured by the National Club. It is a 
 national triumph which we celebrate to-night, and not
 
 11 THE FRENCH PROVIXCE 19 
 
 national merely in name but national in tendencies, aspira- 
 tions, and sentiments." The French Canadian nation tele- 
 graphs its salutations to the Pope, and the Pope telegraphs 
 back his benediction to the French Canadian nation. On a 
 day in September 1887 the French flag was hoisted above 
 the British flag on the Parliament House of Quebec in honour 
 of the French frigate La Minerve. This was afterwards said 
 to have been an accident. It was an accident full of omen. 
 
 Between Old France and the Xew France of the priests a 
 gulf was set by the Atheist Revolution. There seems to have 
 been some change of feeling in the minds of the Quebec 
 clergy when Xapoleon restored the Church, and when after- 
 wards the old regime came back with the Bourbons. But 
 since 1830 Liberalism, with the interlude of the Empire, has 
 reigned again in Old France and repelled clerical sympathy. 
 The Liberals of Quebec cultivate their connection with the 
 mother country, who begins on her part to meet their 
 advances and to show renewed interest in her great colony. 
 But the moral sovereign of Quebec is the Pope, and the out- 
 come of this movement, if it bears fruit at all, will be a French 
 and Papal nation. The hearts of the French Canadians were, 
 however, deeply moved by the spectacle of the Franco-German 
 War. " If any one," said Sir George Cartier at that time. 
 ■' would know to-day how far we are Frenchmen, I answer : 
 ' Go into the towns, go into the country, accost the humblest 
 among us and relate to him tlie events of that gigantic struggle 
 which has fixed the attention of the world ; aniiounci' to him 
 that France is conquered ; then place your liand upon his 
 breast, and tell me what can make his heart beat if it be not 
 love for his country.' " 
 
 Lord Durham, coming immediately after what was called 
 a rebellion, but was really rather a war between the two races
 
 20 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 ill Lower Canada, describes not only the estrangement of the 
 races but tlieir mutual bitterness as extreme. The bitterness 
 has in great measure passed away ; the estrangement remains. 
 There is hardly any intermarriage ; marriages of Roman 
 Catholics with Protestants are in fact interdicted by the 
 Church of IJome. There is hardly any social intercourse 
 either of young or old. Lord Durham said that the two races 
 meet in the jury-box only for the utter subversion of justice. 
 In any political case, or any case in which an appeal can be 
 made to the sentiment of race, they meet only for the sub- 
 version of justice still : at least a disagreement of the jury is 
 sure to result. The politicians have to act with British 
 colleagues, with whom they must also associate. They have 
 to speak English, because while French as well as English is 
 recognised in the Parliament at Ottawa a member speaking 
 French only cannot produce much effect ; and some of them, 
 Mr. Laurier and ^Ir. Chapleau for example, are among the 
 very best English speakers. But constant intercourse is con- 
 fined to the leaders; the British and French members 
 generally, even at Ottawa, live much apart. 
 
 As the French population in Quebec increases, the British 
 population decreases ; it is likely in time to be thrust out 
 altogether from the whole of the Province except a quarter of 
 Montreal. In the city of Quebec there are now, it is believed, 
 not more than six or seven thousand British remaining, and, 
 as the shipbuilding trade has fled from its former seat, the 
 British element being bound up with commerce, it is likely 
 that the decline will go on. The eastern townships on the 
 south of the St. Lawrence were once entirely British, and 
 were under English law while the rest of the Province was 
 under the Custom of Paris ; but that district is now rapidly 
 passing into French hands. The Bishop has the power of
 
 a THE FRENCH PKOVIXCE 21 
 
 creating an ecclesiastical parish which by subtle links draws 
 after it the civil and the municipal parish. The British 
 farmer is harassed by an increase of his assessment as well 
 as by social influences adverse to his peace and comfort. He 
 becomes ready to sell out, and the Church advances money to 
 the Frenchmen for the purchase at an easy rate, Avhich she 
 can do with profit to herself, because in the Frenchman's 
 hands the farm becomes subject to tithe and Church repairs. 
 One Protestant church after another is closed and in one 
 parish alter another French is proclaimed as the only language 
 in which the records are to be kept. The commerce and 
 wealth of Montreal are still in Britisli hands, the reactionary 
 ecclesiasticism of the French being little propitious to com- 
 mercial pursuits. But commercial ^lontreal in French 
 Quebec is becoming an outpost of an alien territory ; 
 proposals have been made for transferring it from Quebec to 
 Ontario, close to the border of which it lies. Under the 
 present jurisdiction it runs no small risk of being despoiled 
 by the needy financiers of a separate race, as would Belfast if 
 the taxing power in Ireland w^ere committed to lioman 
 Catholic and Celtic hands. Meanwhile the liritish traders of 
 Montreal tliink of little Ijut tlieir trade, or of their pleasure, 
 and make no head against the progress of the foe. In truth 
 to make head something like a martyr spirit is required, for 
 the Church can puni.sli in liis trade or profession the man who 
 dares to show himself her enemy. Free and bold voices are 
 lieard, but they are few, and the ears to which they speak are 
 for tlie most part closed against anything whicli, by disturbing 
 (juiet, might interfere with thci interests of tratle. 
 
 The les.s Ultramontiuie (.•hnient of the iJ<iiiiaii ( "atholic 
 Cliurch still holds its ground in the Lival University at 
 ^,>iiebec, to which Liberals resort, and whicli has hitherto held
 
 22 CANAl^A AND TIIK e'ANAIUAN gUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 Jesuit ascendency at liay. Protestantism has its lloiirishinj^ 
 place ot'liigh education in McCiill University,at Montreal, while 
 the Church of Enj^dand has a small University at Lennoxville. 
 Amonjist the stronirest bulwarks of I'rotcstantism in the 
 Province is the Presbyteriau College at Montreal. 
 
 There are French Protestants in the Province to the 
 number, it is said, of about 10,000. These are by origin 
 converts from Eoman Catholicism, and may be regarded with 
 interest, as a recurrence of the tendency which gave birth to 
 the Huguenots, but seemed to have been thoroughly crushed 
 out of existence between Ultramontanism on the one hand 
 and Voltaire on the other. They have produced, in the 
 person of Mr. Joly, who was for a short time Provincial 
 Premier, the most thoroughly upright and the most univers- 
 ally respected among the public men of the Province. 
 
 The point at which the empire of the Church in Quebec 
 and the Jesuit's ideal polity are most threatened, is thejuuctio)i 
 with the American Republic, produced by the overflow already 
 noticed, of the French population into the north-eastern 
 States of the Union. This exodus the Church, while she 
 deplores and dreads it, is constantly augmenting, both by her 
 encouragement of ^early marriages and by her own absorption 
 of wealth. She may send her priests with the exiles and 
 try to extend her reign of childlike submission and unin- 
 quiring faith over Massachusetts ; but in this she will not 
 succeed. Xor will she be able to prevent the connection 
 between the French from being the conduit of American 
 ideas fatal to faith and tithes. Among the Eoman Catholics 
 of Quebec itself there are sectional divisions which may some 
 day lead to rupture, while the intellectual tendencies of the 
 age being what they are, the Parti Rouge is not likely to 
 decrease. There are those who suspect that even M. Mercier
 
 n THE FRENCH PROVINCE " 23 
 
 liimself is less narrow in his convictions than from his public 
 professions and actions has appeared. At this moment he is 
 said to be braving Ultramontane ire by transferring the 
 lunatic asylums from religious to secular keeping. But it is 
 in the quarter of the exodus that we may look with most 
 assurance for the beginning of the end. 
 
 In the meantime, however, the French Canadians in 
 Vermont, Xew Hampshire, and Massachusetts, remain French 
 Canadians. They form settlements by themselves. They 
 cling to their language and their religion. They remain in 
 close communication with those whom they have left be- 
 hind, and population circulates between the two divisions. 
 Thus New France now stretches across tlie Line into the 
 the United States, one section of her being on the British 
 side of the Line, the other section, the proportion of which 
 already amounts to two-sevenths, and is always increasing, 
 on the other side. Let those who dream of a war between 
 Canada and the United States ponder tliis fact, and remember 
 that they would have .to call upon one part of New France 
 to take arms in a British quarrel against the other part. 
 
 At Montreal there is a large settlement of Irish, who 
 show their gregarious tendency by dwelling together in a 
 quarter of the city called Griflintown. In the relations of 
 the Irish to the French Catholics difference of race sharpened 
 by industrial competition seems to predominate over identity 
 of religion, to the advantage of the British rrt)testants, whom 
 the combined force would overwhelm.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BRITIiSll PROVIXCES 
 
 Ontario, formerly Upper Canada, and better designated as 
 British Canada, was the nucleus and is the core of the 
 Confederation. It will be seen on the map, running out 
 between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie on one side, and Lake 
 Huron and the Georgian Bay on the other, Windsor on its 
 extreme point being almost a suburb of Detroit, thougli 
 separated from that city by the Detroit river. That great 
 tongue of land is its garden, but it has also fruitful fields 
 along the Upper St. Lawrence. It reaches far back into a 
 wilder and more arctic country, rich however in timber, and 
 still richer in minerals. The minerals would yield great 
 wealth if only the treasure-house in wliich an evil policy 
 keeps them locked could be opened by the key of free-trade. 
 "Rich by nature, poor by policy," might be written over 
 Canada's door. Rich she would be if she were allowed to 
 embrace her destiny and be a part of her own continent ; 
 poor, comparatively at least, she is in striving to remain a part 
 of Europe. At present the great industry of Ontario is 
 fanning. It is so still, in spite of the desperate efforts of 
 protectionist legislators to force her to become a manufactur- 
 ing country without coal. The farmers are usually freeholders, 
 but leaseholders are growing more common. Not a few of
 
 CHAP. Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 25 
 
 the farms are mortgaged, as are a good many of the farms in 
 the United States. Let this be noted by those who fancy 
 that to make a happy commonwealth they have only to do 
 away with landlords and divide the land among small pro- 
 prietors. The mortgagee is a landlord who never resides, never 
 helps the tenant, never reduces the rent. Much of the 
 money, however, borrowed in Ontario has been spent in 
 clearing or improving farms in a new country, and has 
 proved an excellent investment to the borrower. The farms 
 are generally from one to two hundred acres. The Canadian 
 farmer works with his own hands, unlike the British farmer 
 on a large farm who rides about and watches his men work. 
 If he has not sons to help him he hires a labourer, who gets 
 good wages, and lives with the farmer and his family, thus 
 having a rise in life ; for in England the farmer is now usually 
 too much a gentleman, and his wife is far too much a lady, to 
 live with the labourer. The system in Canada, however, has 
 of late been changing, and labourers' cottages are beginning 
 to be built. The labour-saving machines which are among 
 the wonderful products of American invention, and of which 
 the self-binder is the paragon, save the farmer much hire 
 of men. Canada flatters herself that she is ahead of England 
 in tlieir use. Nowhere probably on this continent is the 
 farming high ; the land having hitherto been abundant, the 
 farmer has preferred to work out his farm and move on. 
 Thus the yield in some districts has decreased ; it is said also 
 that the crops have suffered by the clearing of tlic land, wliich 
 exposes them to the cold winds. In a new country there is 
 a general tendency to lavishness and waste ; trees have been 
 recklessly cut down, and replanting has been neglected. 
 Hitherto the cliief products have been wheat and bailry ; but 
 a deluge of grain is now jiourin;^' <lo\\ii from tin- North- West,
 
 26 CANADA AND TUK CANADIAN QUESTION cuai-. 
 
 while till' .MKiiiley Act, if it stands, will sliiit out the barley 
 tVuiu the American market ; and the Canadian farmer is 
 turning his thouj^hts to cattle, which in this climate are free 
 from disease. The aspect of the farm-houses and farms in 
 Ontario will show even the passing traveller that agriculture 
 has prospered, though just now it is depressed and the value of 
 farm property has gone down. The Canadian farmer, howevei", 
 t(t earn liis living out of the land has to work hard and to bargain 
 hani. Terhaps to the English gentleman who turns farmer in 
 Canada the second is almost as unfamiliar as the first. The 
 season of the Canadian farmer's hardest work is the short and 
 hot summer by which his crops are brought rapidly on. In 
 the winter he carries his grain to market in his sleigh over 
 the good roads which the snow then makes for liim, looks after 
 his cattle, or gets his implements into order, and has more time 
 for rest and social enjoyment. His diet is not so good as it 
 ought to be ; partly because he cannot bear to keep for him- 
 self anything that his farm produces if it will fetch a good 
 price ; partly because his cookery is vile. So say those who 
 know him best.^ Fried pork, bread ill-baked, heavy pies, 
 coarse and strong green tea, account for the advertisements of 
 pills which everywhere meet the eye, and perhaps in part for 
 the increase of lunacy. From liquor, however, the Canadian 
 farmer abstains. He has become temperate without coercive 
 law, and for him prohibition is an impertinence. He is alto- 
 gether a moral man and a good citizen, honest, albeit close, as 
 indeed he needs to be, in his dealings. He supports his 
 minister and his schoolmaster, though both perhaps on a 
 rather slender pittance. Such is the basis of society in 
 British Canada. Apparently it is sound. The agrarian 
 revolutionist, at all events, has little chance of disturbing a 
 
 ^ See Mr. Shaw's paper in the Appendix.
 
 in THE BRITISH PROVINCES 27 
 
 community of substantial freeholders, each of them tilling the 
 land which his father or his not very remote ancestor won, 
 not from a subjugated race with the Norman sword, but from 
 the wilderness with the axe and the plough. Where the 
 basis of society is sound, we can attbrd to tliink and speak 
 freely about the rest. 
 
 In British Canada, as in the United States, we see that 
 the world gets on without the squire or any part of the 
 manorial system. In Canada, as in the United States, the 
 rich live in cities ; they have no country houses ; they go in 
 summer to watering-places on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, 
 or more commonly in the United States, to Europe, or to the 
 cottages which stud the shores and islets of the Muskoka 
 Lakes. Not that the total absence of the manorial system 
 does not make itself felt in American civilisation. Wealth, 
 at all events, is the worse for having no rural duties. 
 
 A yeoman proprietor of one or two hundred acres, let the 
 agrarian reformers of England observe, is not a peasant pro- 
 prietor or of kin to the peasant characters of Zola. Let them 
 observe also that America has been organised for the system 
 from the beginning. In England to introduce peasant pro- 
 prietorship you would have to pull down all the farm build- 
 ings and build anew for the small holdings. In France you 
 had only to burn the chateaux. 
 
 In this fundamental respect of yeoman pruprietorshij), 
 without a landed gentry, the structure of society in liritish 
 Canada is identical with its structure in llic United States. 
 It is identical in all fundamental respects. ( 'unadian sentiment 
 may be free from the rev(jluLionary tinge and the tendency to 
 indiscriminate sympatliy with rebellion unhappily contracted 
 by American sentiment in tli(! contest with (ieorgc III ; but 
 it is not less thoroughly democratic. In everything the
 
 28 CANADA AND I'lIK CANADIAN gUKSTION chap. 
 
 pleasure autl convenience of the masses are consulted. In 
 politics everybody bows the knee to the people. Where there 
 is wealth there will be social distinctions, and opulence even 
 at Toronto sometimes ventures to put a cockade in the coach- 
 man's hat. Titled visitors who come either to Canada or to 
 the United States have too much reason to know that the 
 worship of rank is personal, and can survive under any social 
 system. But aristocracy is a hateful word to the Canadian 
 as well as to the American ear. It is politically a word 
 wherewith to conjure backwards. Any exhibition of the 
 tendency would be fatal to an aspirant. If a citizen has a 
 pedigree, real or factitious, he must be content to feed his 
 eyes on it as it hangs on his own wall. 
 
 Wealth everywhere is power, and everywhere to a certain 
 extent commands social position. This is the case in Toronto 
 and the other cities of British Canada. But wealth in 
 Toronto society has not everything quite its own way. 
 There is a circle, as there is a circle even at New York, 
 which it does not entirely command. Nor does a young man 
 forfeit his social position by taking to any reputable calling. 
 In that respect we have decidedly improved on the sentiment 
 of the Old World. 
 
 One sign of the pervading democratic sentiment is the 
 servant difficulty, about which a continual wail from the 
 mistresses of households fills the social air. The inexperience 
 of masters and mistresses who have themselves risen from 
 the ranks, the dulness of small households which makes 
 servants restless, and the rate of wages in other employments, 
 may in part be the causes of this ; but the main cause 
 probably is the democratic dislike of service. Barely, if ever, 
 will you see a native American servant, and in Canada the 
 domestics are chiefly immigrants. The work in the factory
 
 II THE BRITISH PROVIXCES 29 
 
 may be much harder, and the treatment less kind than in the 
 household ; generally they are ; but the hours of work over, 
 the girl calls no one mistress, and she can do what she likes 
 in the evenings and on Sundays. In tlie household the 
 democratic scorn of service is unpleasantly apt to display itself 
 by mutiny. Ladies complain that the parts of mistress and 
 servant are reversed, and that it is the servant that requires 
 a character of the mistress. People begin to wonder how the 
 relation is to be kept up, and they talk of flats, hotels, and 
 restaurants, a recourse to which would be very injurious to 
 domestic life and affection. It has been suggested that the 
 cliildren of families may have again, as they did in former 
 days, to help in the housework. They would probably like any- 
 thing which gave vent to their bodily energies almost as well as 
 play. Dishonesty on the other hand among domestics appears 
 to be rare, and a Canadian servant is less punctilious than an 
 English servant in mixing different kinds of work. Another 
 unattractive manifestation of the democratic spirit is the be- 
 haviour, in cities at least, of the lower class of Canadian boys, 
 of which even the most silver-tongued of governors-general 
 could not bring himself to speak M'ith praise. Neither the 
 schoolmaster nor anybody else dares effectually to correct the 
 young citizens. Something may perhaps be due to the 
 extensive and increasing employment, from economical 
 motives, of women as teachers. There are those at least who 
 think that this practice is not favourable to subordination or 
 to the cultivation of some manly points of character ; while 
 others contend tliat the gentler infhience is tlie stronger. The 
 question as to the effect likely to Ijc i)roduced on the character 
 of a nation by the substitution of the schoolmistress for the 
 school nia.ster is at all events worthy of consideration. Apart 
 however from any special cause, no one can be surprised at
 
 30 CANADA AND THH CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 hearing tliiiL in u new und ciiule democracy there is a want of 
 respect for authority, and of courage in exercising it, which 
 makes itself felt throughout the social frame, and on wliich 
 the young rowdy soon learns to presume. No wonder juvenile 
 crime is on tlie increase. 
 
 It was to be expected that in the democratic hemisphere 
 fustian would at first he inclined to take its revenge on 
 broadcloth for the predominance of broadcloth in the Old 
 World. Eoughnesses of this kind, with the servant difficulty 
 and the boy anarchy, are the joltings in the car of human 
 progress on its road to the glorious era of perfect order and 
 civilisation, combined with perfect equality, which the 
 generation after next will see. Meantime the general 
 texture and habits of society are not easily changed. The 
 social ways of man, his social distinctions and his social 
 courtesies, are still much the same in Ijritish Canada and the 
 United States that they are in Old England. 
 
 A city in British Canada differs in no respect from an 
 American city of the second class. It is laid out in straight 
 streets crossing each other at right angles, with trams for the 
 street car — the family chariot of democracy, which by carry- 
 ing the working man easily to and from his work enables 
 him to live in the suburbs, where he gets a better house and 
 better air. Xor does city life in Canada differ from that 
 in the United States. It is equally commercial, and though 
 the scale is smaller than that of Wall Street the strain is 
 almost as great. People are glad to escape to the freshness 
 of something like primitive life on a ]\Iuskoka islet, or even 
 to get more entirely rid of civilisation and its cares by 
 " camping out " on a lake side. Of late there has been in 
 Canada as elsewhere a great rush of population to the cities. 
 Toronto has grown with astonishing rapidity at the expense
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 31 
 
 of the smaller towns and villages, and fortunes have been 
 made by speculations in real estate. The cause of this is 
 believed to be partly education, which certainly breeds a 
 distaste for farm work. Another cause is the railway, which 
 brings the people to the cities first to shop or see exhibitions, 
 and, when they have thus tasted of city pleasures and shows, 
 to live. The passion for amusement and excitement grows in 
 Canada as fast as elsewhere. Railways, moreover, have killed 
 or reduced some country employments, such as those of carriers 
 and innkeepers. This tendency to city life is universal, and it 
 may be said that what is universal is not likely to be evil. 
 But the people cannot afford to be so well housed in 
 the city as they are in the village ; their children grow 
 up in worse air, physical and moral ; and though they have 
 more of crowd and bustle they have really less of social 
 life, because in the village they all know each other, 
 while in the city they do not know their next-door neigh- 
 bour. In the cities the people will be brought under 
 political influences different from those of the country, 
 and a change of political character, with corresponding 
 consequences to the commonwealth, can hardly fail to 
 ensue. 
 
 The learned professions, and not only the learned pro- 
 fessions but all the callings above manual labour, such as 
 those of clerks and of assistants in stores, are almost as 
 much overstocked in Canada as they are iu the United 
 States. An advertisement for a secretary at £140 a year 
 brings seventy -two aj)plications. Let young Knglishnien 
 who think of emigrating note this. There has been many a 
 sad case of disappointment. We have had educated gentle- 
 men, when they liad spent what they brought with them, 
 reduced to manual labour, lia])py if they could get that.
 
 32 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai>. 
 
 The Public School system iu Canada is much the same 
 as in the United States, and as in the United States is 
 regarded as the sheet anchor of democracy. The primary 
 schools arc free ; at the High Schools a small fee as a rule 
 is paid,' At Toronto University there are no fees for 
 University lectures, but the youth during his course has to 
 board himself, so that except to the people of the University 
 town the education cannot be said to be free. If it were 
 we should be in danger of having a population of penniless 
 and socialistic graduates. As it is there are more than 
 graduates enough. In the city of Toronto in one year 
 .S600,000 were levied for Public Schools, including the 
 expenditure on sites, buildings, and repairs, besides the 
 sum expended on High Schools and Separate Schools, 
 amounting to nearly $100,000 more. Grumblers then began 
 to challenge the principle of tlie system, and to ask why the 
 ]nan who has one child or none should be called upon for 
 the schooling of the man who has six, when three-fourths 
 probably of the people who use the schools are able to pay 
 for themselves. The answer is that with a popular suffrage 
 ignorance is dangerous to the commonwealth. Unluckily 
 there is reason to believe that of the class likely to be 
 dangerous a good many escape the operation of the 
 system. It appeared from a recent report of the ]\Iinister of 
 Education that 25 per cent of the children are not in 
 school at all, while of those on the register the attendance 
 was not more than half the roll. The attendance is higher 
 in cities than it is in the country, where the weather in the 
 winter season is a serious obstacle ; but iu the cities and 
 towns it is only about 60 per cent. Attendance is legally 
 
 * The trustees have the option of remitting the fee, ami this is commonly 
 done as a reward for proficiency in the public school.
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 33 
 
 compulsory, but the law is a dead letter ; nor is the well-to-do 
 artisan anxious to have the ragged waif in the school at his 
 child's side. In the New England of early days, the first 
 and classical seat of the system, the Common School would 
 answer strictly to its name. It would be really common to 
 a group of families, all of whom might take a personal 
 interest in it. This would be a different thing from a great 
 State machine maintained by taxing the whole community 
 for the benefit of a certain portion of it, taking education 
 entirely out of the hands of parents and extinguishing, as it 
 must, the sense of parental duty in that respect. In 
 American commonwealths, however, the system of free 
 education, expedient or inexpedient, just or unjust, is a 
 fixture. But British statesmen had better inquire before 
 they take the leap. Some people it seems propose to give 
 not only free education but free breakfasts. Bribery in the 
 old days of corruption was petty ; now it is being raised in 
 scale and dignity by demagogues who bribe whole classes 
 out of the public funds. When it is understood that instead 
 of working and saving you may vote yourself the earnings 
 and savings of other people, industry will lose some of its 
 charm. 
 
 The Public Schools, saving the Separate Schools for 
 IJonjan Catholics, are secular. To satisfy the religious feelings 
 of the people some passages of Scripture of an undogmatic 
 character are read without comment. This in strictness is a 
 deviation from the secular priiicij)le : thoroughgoing secular- 
 ists object, and there has been a guod deal of ct)ntr()versy 
 on the subject. The practice is defended on the ground that 
 the moral code of the community is a necessary part of edu- 
 cation, and that the etliics of th(^ gospel, ajiaiL i'nnn any- 
 thing dogniatir;, are still tlie moral code c)f llu; community. 
 
 IJ
 
 84 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Clergymen are by law allowed access at certain liours, but 
 this privilege is not used. The organ of religious education 
 is the Sunday School. Of these there are said to be in 
 Ontario nearly 4000, more than half of the number being 
 ^lethodists, with 40,000 unpaid teachers. The Sunday 
 School is made attractive by entertainments, picnics, and 
 excursions. 
 
 The New AVorld has produced no important novelty in 
 religion. Universalism, the only new sect of importance, is 
 but Methodism with Eternal Punishment left out. Upon that 
 doctrine in almost all the Churches, as well of Canada as of 
 the United States, the humanitarianism of democracy has 
 acted as a solvent. Perhaps the Presbyterian Church should 
 be excepted. At least a very eminent preacher of that 
 church in Toronto, who had breathed a doubt some years 
 ago, was compelled to explain, after a debate in Knox 
 Church which recalled the debates of the primitive councils. 
 The two Presbyterian Churches had just united, but their 
 distinctive characters were still visible, like those of two 
 streams which have run together yet not perfectly com- 
 mingled, and the men of the Free Kirk exceeded those of 
 the Old Kirk in orthodox rigour. Freedom from an 
 Establishment begets tolerance as well as equality : the co- 
 operation of the ministers, of all Protestant Churches at 
 least, in good works is almost enforced by public opinion ; 
 dogmatic differences are softened or forgotten, and among the 
 masses of the laity practically disappear. There is even talk 
 of Christian union. Old - standing organisations, with the 
 interests attached to them, are in the way ; but economy may 
 in time enforce, if not union, some arrangement which, by a 
 friendly division of the spiritual field, shall enable a village, 
 which neither knows nor cares anything about dogma, to
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROYIXCES 35 
 
 feed one pastor instead of starving three. Of the Protestant 
 Churches in Ontario the largest and the most spreading is 
 ^Methodism, strong in its combination of a powerful clergy 
 with a democratic participation of all members in church work ; 
 strong also in its retention of the circuit system, which saves it 
 from the troubles bred in other voluntary churches by the 
 restlessness of congregations which grow weary of hearing 
 the same preacher. The Presbyterian Church is that of the 
 Scotch, here, as everywhere, a thrifty, wise, and powerful 
 clan. The Baptists also maintain their ground by their 
 austere and scriptural purity, though the great principle of 
 which they were the first cliampions and martyrs, separation 
 of the Church from the State, is no longer in so much need 
 of champions or in any need of martyrs. Amidst the grow- 
 ing indifference about dogma, the question between infant 
 and adult baptism would not in itself be enough to support 
 a church. The Anglican Church in Canada, as in England, 
 may almost be said to be two churches — one Protestant, the 
 other neo-Catholic — under the same roof. The two live in 
 uneasy union, and hard is the part of their bishop. They 
 are held together by a body of laity unspeculative and at- 
 tached to the Prayer-book. Neo-Catholicism gains ground 
 fast among the clergy ; even a college founded by Low 
 Churchmen to stem tiuj niovemeut finds itself tuining out 
 High Churchmen. The Mass, the Confessional, the monastic 
 system, Protestants say, are creeping in. Still the Englisli 
 of tlie wealthier class, wliatever their opinions, geniMally 
 adhere to their old Churcli : so do the English of tlus poorest 
 class, who are unused to paying for their religion, and among 
 whom tlie Anglican clergy are very active. All the Pro- 
 testant Churches, even that of the Paptists, liave relaxed 
 their Puritanism of form and become ii'Sthetic : ihuich aiclii-
 
 36 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 tccture, music, flowers, have <,fenerally been introduced. The 
 metropolitan church of the Methodists at Toronto is a 
 Cathedral. There is a tendency also in preaching to become 
 lively, perhaps sensational. The most crowded cliurch on 
 Sunday evenings in Toronto is one in which tlie preacher 
 handles the topics of the day with the freedom of the plat- 
 form, and amidst frequent applause and laughter. The 
 Church of Eome, of course, stands apart with the Encyclical 
 and Syllabus in her hand waiting till the time for putting 
 them in execution shall arrive. In Ontario she is mainly 
 the church of the Irish, the race which is now nearly her 
 last hope. She does not appear to gain by conversion. She 
 must be gaining, however, in wealth, for her churches and 
 convents continue to rise. Her prelates affect hierarchical 
 state, go about in the insignia of their order, and claim a 
 social rank as princes or nobles of a Universal Church, which 
 the other clergies are now inclined to challenge. In Ontario 
 she has succeeded in obtaining for herself Separate 
 Schools supported by the State. Upon this question also 
 issue is about to be joined. Apart from ecclesiastical pre- 
 tensions, and the desire to make tlie child a churchman first 
 and a citizen afterwards, there seems to be no justification 
 for the privilege. Roman Catholic children attend public 
 schools in the districts where their sect is not numerous 
 enough to claim a division of the rates without the slightest 
 prejudice to their religion. There is no feeling whatever 
 against Eoman Catholicism apart from the feeling against 
 priestly domination or aggression, while in politics the 
 Church is only too strong. A Protestant holding high 
 offices has been seen on his knee before a Cardinal. Orange- 
 ism itself in Canada is political, not religious : it still carries 
 in its processions the effigy of William of Orange ; but it is
 
 jii THE BRITISH PROVIXCES 37 
 
 a bulwark not of Protestantism, but of a Tory Government ; 
 and it goes to the poll and eats at the same party- 
 table with the Eoman Catholic, and even with the Ultra- 
 montane. Xortli America has had no Torquemada or 
 Alexander Borgia, and has not been the scene of priestly 
 persecution or of papal crime. 
 
 In the streets of Toronto tlie drum of the Salvation Army 
 is still heard. Other revivals have for the most part quickly 
 passed away, but this endures. So far at all events it has in 
 it the genuine spirit of Christianity that it points the road 
 to excellence and happiness not through the reform of others, 
 much less through dynamite, blood, and havoc, but through 
 self-reform. 
 
 Wherever books find their way criticism and scepticism 
 must now go with them. There is in Toronto an Agnostic 
 circle, active-minded and militant. What is at work in 
 minds beyond that circle nobody can telL But there is no 
 falling off in the outward signs of religion. Churches 
 are built as fast as the city grows ; their costliness as well 
 as their number increases, and they are wonderfully well 
 filled. Sunday is pretty strictly kept, though there is 
 an agitation for Sunday street cars and the strong Sabba- 
 tarians have failed to put down Sunday boats. With 
 regard to the whole of tlie American continent this appear 
 ance not only of undiminished but of increased life in 
 the Churches while free inquiry is making inroads, of whicli 
 those who read cannot help being conscious, on old beliefs, is 
 an enigma which the result alone can solve. lievision of 
 creeds is in the air, and it is probable that among the laity of 
 all the Protestant Churches there has been formed a sort of 
 Christian Theism in wliich many, without formulating it, 
 repose. The tide of scepticism does not beat so iiercely
 
 88 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 against Free Churches as against an Estahlishment. To 
 suppose that all the religion is hollow or mere custom would 
 be* absurd. We must conclude that people in general still 
 find comfort in worship. Nor can it be doubted that belief 
 in God and in conscience as the voice of God is still the 
 general foundation of Canadian morality. 
 
 "With the British are mingled in Ontario a large number 
 of Irish, who, as in the United States and everywhere else, 
 cling to the cities, follow the priest to the tliird generation, 
 band together, do a great deal of the political as well 
 as of the liquor trade, and cherish a hatred of England not so 
 bitter, at least not so violent in its manifestations, as that 
 which is cherished by their race in the United States. There 
 are also Scotch-Irish, whose ways are those of the Scotch. 
 There is a settlement of Germans in Waterloo County who 
 remain German, and make excellent farmers and citizens, 
 though they would vote against the prohibition of lager. 
 Gaelic is still spoken in Highland settlements. There is a 
 French settlement in Essex county, beside the Detroit 
 river, a relic of the era of old French fur -trading and 
 adventure. Before the fall of slavery Canada was the asylum 
 of the fugitive slave, as was made known to the world by the 
 famous case of Anderson the slave who had killed a man in 
 escaping from bondage, and whose extradition when demanded 
 was refused, or at least evaded, by the Canadian Courts, the 
 Home Government showing its resolution to support Canada 
 in upholding the right of asylum. Hence there are in 
 Canada a number of negroes, of whom some have done well, 
 in spite of the obstacles of race and climate, and one has 
 attained wealth by an invention. There are scatterings of 
 other races, the last arrival being the Italian with his grinding 
 organ and, we hope, without his knife. The increase of
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 39 
 
 wealth and speculation has not failed to attract the Jew, 
 who brings with him his tribal exclusiveness, his tribal 
 code, his tribal ways in trade. If there is a feeling 
 against him here it is not religious, for on the American 
 continent, while open irreligiou still gives offence, each man 
 is free in every respect to choose his own religion. 
 
 In the Eastern part of the Province, a non-British ele- 
 ment of a more ominous kind appears. The French population 
 of Quebec is overflowing that district and has already in two 
 or three counties almost supplanted the British. It intro- 
 duces its own ecclesiastical system, and imports its own 
 language into the public schools. Opposition has been 
 aroused, and the advance of the French language in the 
 schools has been for the moment checked, but it is difficult 
 to get party politicians to act with vigour against an invader 
 who has the power of turning several elections. The French 
 press on compactly, acting as a unit in their own interest ; 
 and it is not likely that the limit of their extension in 
 Ontario has yet been reached. 
 
 Nationalities are not so easily ground down in a small 
 community as they are when thrown into the hopper of the 
 mighty American mill. National societies, or societies which 
 partake of the nationalist character, such as the St. George's 
 Society, the Sons of England, the St. Andrew's Society, the 
 Catholic Celtic League, and the Orange Order, are strong, and 
 their strength gives umbrage to those who see in it a detrac- 
 tion from loyalty to the commonwealth. The passion for 
 a.ssociation is powerful over the whole continent and gives 
 birth, besides the National Societies, the Orange Order, and 
 the Freemasons, to Knights of Pythias, Good Templars, Odd- 
 fellows, Knights of the Maccaljees, Forfsters, lioyul Black 
 Knights of Ireland, and other brotherhoods, benevolent and
 
 40 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION « hai>. 
 
 social High-sounding titles of office and resplendent regalia 
 probably iorin part of the attraction. On a wide continent, 
 liowever, without ancient centres or bonds of union, a man 
 would feel almost like a grain in a vast heap of shifting sand 
 if he did not attach himself to some brotherhood. Some of 
 the brotherhoods march through the streets in military array 
 and iro throu<di drill. In industrial communities there is a 
 paradoxical union of love of military show and glory 
 with dislike of standing armies and of military service. The 
 Americans have elected four or five soldiers to the Presidency, 
 besides nominating others as candidates, while England has 
 had only two military Prime Ministers, Stanhope, who did 
 not owe his position to achievements in war, and the Duke of 
 Wellington, who was a great European diplomatist and the 
 real head of his political party. The reception of the Cana- 
 dian Volunteers when they returned from Eish Creek, Cut 
 Knife, and Batoche, eclipsed the reception of the British 
 army when it returned from the Alma and Inkerman, 
 
 The respect for law which prevails in all States of the 
 Union on which slavery has not left its taint, and which is the 
 salt of American democracy, prevails not less among British 
 Canadians. It extends to the judges, who, as a body, have 
 well deserved the confidence of the people. When a master 
 of the press who had trampled at his pleasure on the 
 characters and feelings of his fellow-citizens in general 
 assailed a judge whose decision had offended him, he 
 was made at once to feel that opinion was against him 
 and he slunk away. Some time ago a little clan of local 
 desperadoes was lawlessly slain by some of the people whom 
 its outrages had provoked, and the local jury refused to 
 convict the slayers. This is about the only case of the kind, 
 and though deplorable in itself and generally deplored, it was
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 41 
 
 like some of the cases of lynching in the United States, in part a 
 proof not so much of lawlessness as of the general respect for 
 law. Where no rural police is needed, and none consequently 
 is maintained, when brigandage does appear there is no way 
 of dealing with it except through the Vigilance Committee. 
 Justice in all Canadian courts keeps her gown though not her 
 wig, while in the United States the gown is worn by the 
 Judges of the Supreme Court only. The American or 
 Canadian citizen does not need to be impressed so much as 
 the British peasant ; but everybody needs to be impressed, and 
 the Canadian custom is the better. Canadian judges are 
 underpaid. One eminent advocate, after taking a seat on the 
 Bench, found his income so much reduced that he returned 
 to the Bar. It is needless to say that this is false economy, 
 and that there can be no expedition of business without a 
 presiding judge of sufficient eminence thoroughly to control 
 his Court. Democracy, though lavish in general expenditure, 
 which it does not count, is niggardly in salaries, wliich each 
 man compares witli his own earnings. Canada, like the 
 United States, has discarded the Old World distinction between 
 barrister and solicitor. Both sorts of work are taken by the 
 same firm, Tlie system of firms saves a barrister at all events 
 from the sadness of waiting year after year in solitary 
 chambers for briefs which do not come. 
 
 Canada flatters herself that in her Courts, as in those of 
 England, criminal justice is more prompt and sure than it is in 
 the United States, wlieresuch are the cliicaneries,thedelays,and 
 the weakness of opinion that to get a murderer lianged is very 
 difficult, liowever certain his guilt may be. It must be owned, 
 however, that in the recent Birchall case we had a display of sen- 
 sationalism which showed how faint is the boundary wliich 
 divides our society from the society of the United States.
 
 42 CANADA AND THK CANADIAN QUESTION cmai'. 
 
 Toronto is said to be English, and likes to have that 
 reputation. Of the leaders of society some are Englisli by 
 birth, and all of them keep up the connection by going a 
 good deal to England. This habit grows with the shortening 
 of the passage and the cheapness of the sojourn ; not with the 
 best results to Canada, for unless the chiefs of society every- 
 where will remain at their posts and do their duty, the edifice 
 cannot stand. Canadian boys and youths are sometimes sent 
 to the public schools and universities of England, but seldom, 
 it is believed, with good results. What the boy or youth 
 gains by superior teaching he is likely to lose by estrange- 
 ment from the social and industrial element in which his life 
 is to be spent, and by contracting tastes suitable rather to the 
 mansions of the British gentry than to Canadian homes. 
 English fashion perhaps presses rather heavily on us. We 
 are apt to outvie London in the heaviness of our dinners and 
 the formality with which they are exchanged, and the once 
 pleasant afternoon tea has become a social battue. ]\Irs. 
 Grundy has too much power. The easy sociability, however, 
 which delights and refreshes is everywhere with difliculty 
 attained. The man who said that others might make the 
 laws of a nation if they would let him make its ballads ouglit 
 to have bargained also for the making of the games. English 
 games and sports are the fashion in Canada, as indeed they 
 are among the young men of wealth in the United States, 
 Cricket is kept up in face of great difficulties, for in a com- 
 mercial community men cannot afford to give two days to 
 a game, while Canadian summer scorches the turf, and there 
 are few school playing-fields and no village greens. Baseball, 
 which is the game of the continent, is played in two hours, 
 and requires no turf. Lacrosse is called the Canadian game, 
 but it is Indian in its origin, and some think that to Indians
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 43 
 
 it belongs. Football is also much played, aud under the 
 regular English rule, everything being kicked except the ball. 
 In Toronto the red coat of the English fox-hunter is seen, 
 though it is not to be supposed that foxes can be preserved 
 among democratic hen roosts or freely chased over democratic 
 farms. At ]\Iontreal, under the theocracy, you may see a real 
 fox chased over fences as stift' as an English fox-hunter could 
 desire. The Turf, the gambling table of England, has its 
 minor counterpart in her colony. Yachting and rowing are 
 popular, and Toronto has produced the first oarsman of 
 the world : unhappily these also have brought betting in their 
 train. The Scotchman keeps up his Scotch love of curling 
 and of golf. Imitations are generally unsuccessful, and it 
 was not likely that an imitation of the British sporting man 
 or anything British would be an exception to the rule. But 
 Anglomania, whatever it may be worth either to the imitators 
 or to the imitated, is as strong among the same class in the 
 United States as it is in Canada. It angers the loyal Ee- 
 publican and draws from him bitter jests. Nor can the rich 
 men of Toronto be fonder of tracing their pedigrees to England 
 than are the rich men of the United States. 
 
 A winter of five months or more, during which cattle must 
 be housed, the thermometer falling sometimes to fifteen 
 or twenty below zero ; a vast thaw ; a joyous rush into bud 
 and leaf, unlike the slow step of English spring ; a summer 
 which, after two or three weeks, turns the country from green 
 to brown, ripens the best of apples, in favoured spots poaches, 
 and brings the humming bird ; a clear bright autmnn — such 
 is Ontario's year. The great lakes temper the extremes in 
 their neighbourhood whilo they cloud tlie winter l)rightness. 
 The stillness of Canadian winter has departed with the 
 sheltering forests. After winter has set in there is generally
 
 44 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciixr. 
 
 a recurrence of the warm weather, with a golden haze in tlie 
 air, whieh fancy styles Indian sunnner. Canadians du not 
 wish to liave Canada regarded as a winter country, nor do 
 they quite like to see pictures of the toboggan or snow-slide, 
 the snow-shoe, and the ice-boat sent to England as the symbols 
 of their life. It is true, however, that the winter is long, and 
 that a good deal of the pastime is connected with it. To suit 
 the climate a Canadian house ought to be simple in form, so 
 as to be easily warmed, with broad eaves to shed the snow, 
 and a deep veranda as a summer room ; and what is suitable 
 is also fair to the eye. But servile imitation produces gables, 
 mansard roofs, and tow^ers, just as fashion clothes Canadian 
 women in Parisian dresses. Canadians are often told by 
 those who wish to flatter them that as a northern race they 
 must have some great destiny before them. But stove heat is 
 not less enervating than the heat of the sun. The Northern 
 tribes which conquered the Eoman Empire had no stoves, and 
 they had undergone the most rigorous process of natural 
 selection, both by exposure to frost and by tribal war. 
 
 Considering that of all the banks of British Canada not 
 one in the last twenty years has failed to pay its depositors 
 in full, and that only of one have the notes been at a dis- 
 count, and this only for a few hours, it may safely be said 
 that Canadian commerce is sound. Englishmen who have 
 speculated have lost ; especially if their concern was owned 
 on one side of the Atlantic and managed on the other. I>ut 
 those who have invested in known banks or companies have, 
 it is believed, seldom had reason to complain. The banks 
 everywhere, as the great organs of the commercial system, 
 have enemies in the Socialists, who would wreck and 
 plunder them if they could. Governments also everywhere 
 are haunted by tlie fancy that, because it is their duty to
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 45 
 
 stamp the coin, they have a right to the profits of the money 
 trade, and they are sometimes inclined to legislate accordingly.^ 
 But their inclination has been hitherto kept within bounds. 
 
 Canadian industry can hardly be said to present any 
 special feature, saving that, owing to the severity of the 
 winter, there is more or less of a close season in out-of-door 
 trades, which, with high wages during the rest of the year, 
 must always be trying to industrial character. Industrial 
 questions, trade unionism, its aims and methods, its conflict 
 with capital and free labour, the upheaval of the labour world 
 by strikes, are the same in Canada as in the United States 
 and England. Canada is, in fact, included in the American 
 organisation of the Knights of Labour, which has thus in a 
 way industrially annexed her. Toronto has her anti-poverty 
 society, for the nationalisation of land. She has Socialism more 
 or less pronounced. She has her Socialistic journalists 
 instilling class hatred into the heart of the working man, 
 inciting the " toiler " to an attack on the "spoiler," and blowing 
 the trumpet of industrial war. The storm may be less 
 violent in the bay than on the wide ocean, but it is part of 
 the universal storm. 
 
 Toronto was startled at hearing that four per cent of her 
 people had been receiving some kind of relief. Xot a few of 
 the recipients probably were new-comers or wanderers, and 
 few were actual paupers. But these cities have lived fast, 
 and the cares and problems of maturity are already upon 
 them. Still tliey recoil from the idea of a poor law, and 
 indeed from any regular form of public relief. There is a 
 notion that public relief pauperises. The sentiment is to be 
 
 ' In the Appendix will bu found a note on the 8|)ecial bunking syHtcni of 
 ("anada, in contrast with that of t}io United States, by .Mr. lli-nry \V. 
 I)arlinf(, formerly president of tlie Canadian IJank of Commerce and of the 
 Toronto I'oard of Tr.idi-.
 
 46 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 respected, but that which really pauperises is relief unwisely 
 given, as private charity is too apt to be. What, after all, is 
 free education but a vast system of public relief, though 
 received for the most part by those who are not in need ? 
 
 City government in Canada presents the same problems 
 which it presents in the United States, and is likely soon to 
 present on the grandest scale in London, now endowed with 
 representative administration. These elective governments of 
 cities are survivals from the Middle Ages, when each city 
 was a little commonwealth in itself, when its rulers were 
 concerned chiefly with the guardianship of franchises and the 
 regulation of trade, when there was little thought of anything 
 sanitary or scientific, when every man was his own police- 
 man, and when, moreover, the city was a social unit, and the 
 chief men lived in the heart of it, took the lead, and were 
 mayors and aldermen. A city is now merely a densely 
 peopled district in special need of scientific administration. 
 Its social unity is gone, and the chief men live in suburban 
 mansions and are above taking part in municipal affairs, 
 while nobody knows the citizens of his street. Com- 
 bination for the purpose of selecting aldermen is out 
 of the question, and you come by a fell necessity under the 
 rule of the ward politician, which means maladministration, 
 waste, neglect of public health, and too often jobbery and 
 corruption. New York with its Tammany is the climax to 
 which city government of this kind tends. Toronto has 
 no Tammany, and has had no Tweed. But her debt is heavy, 
 and she is just now much exercised by the problem of 
 administration. Even if there is nothing worse, the ephemeral 
 character of a government annually elected, and with the 
 minds of its members always set on re-election, would pre- 
 clude foresight and system. Spasmodic attempts at reform
 
 Ill THE BEITISH PROVINCES 47 
 
 are made, but their eftect dies away. No one looks for a 
 radical cliauge. A board of commissioners, which some pro- 
 pose, would no doubt be a vast improvement ; but it would 
 be very difficult to get the people to part to that extent with 
 their power, though they would be amply repaid in assurance 
 of health and comfort, while the power after all really resides 
 not in the people, as tliey fancy, but in those who manage the 
 elections. Sometliiug, however, is being done in the way 
 of a devolution of the aldermanic power on skilled health 
 officers and engineers. Economy there can hardly be where 
 the money and the power of voting it away are in different 
 hands. There is one city on the continent with the admini- 
 stration of which now everybody, at least everybody 
 who has anything to lose, seems to speak with confidence and 
 satisfaction : this is "Washington, which as a Federal district 
 is administered by three commissioners appointed by the 
 President of the United States. Washington has a heavy 
 debt, but this was contracted some time ago. The 
 counties are governed by elective councils, with reeves, which 
 have not very much to do or to spend. Against these no 
 complaint is heard. Of provincial legislation and politics 
 there will be something to be said presently in connection 
 with those of the Dominion. 
 
 Canada is a political expression. This must be borne in 
 mind when we speak of Canadian Literature. The writer in 
 Ontario has no field l)eyond liis own Province ;iiid Montreal, 
 lietween him and the Maritime Provinces is inter})osed French 
 Quebec. ^lanitoba is far olf and thinly peopled. To expect 
 a national literature is therefore unfair. A literature there 
 is fully as large and as liigh in quality as could be reasonably 
 looked for, and of a character thoroughly healthy. Perha])S 
 a kind critic might say that it still retains something of the
 
 48 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 old English sobriety of style, and is comparatively free from 
 the straining for effect which is the bane of the best literature 
 of the United States. The area is not large enough to 
 support a magazine, though the attempt has more than once 
 been made. It is hardly large enough to support a literary 
 paper. Ontario reads the magazines of the United States, 
 especially the illustrated magazines in which New York 
 leads the world. Canada has been at a disadvantage alongside 
 of the United States in falling under British copyright law, 
 and also in having her booksellers cut off by the tariff from 
 their natural centre of distribution at New York. To fill an 
 order at once a double duty must be paid. Let it be 
 remembered also that it is difficult for the sapling of 
 Colonial literature to grow beneath the mighty shadow of 
 the parent tree. It is not so long since the United States 
 were without writers of mark. Even now have they pro- 
 duced a great poet ? 
 
 To make a centre of Art is still harder than to make a 
 literary centre, because art requires models. There can 
 barely be said to be an art centre in the United States. Eor 
 art, people are likely long to go to Europe. Of millionaires 
 Canada has not many, and such as there are can hardly be 
 expected to give high prices for pictures and statues where 
 they have no connoisseurs to advise them. Ontario, however, 
 has produced a school of landscape painters the merit of 
 which has been recognised in England. For subjects the 
 painter has to go to the Eocky Mountains, the more poetic 
 Selkirks, the magnificent coast-scenery of British Columbia, 
 the towering cliffs of the Saguenay, or the shores and 
 shipping of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Ontario has 
 pleasant spots, but little of actual beauty or of grandeur, if 
 we except Thunder Bay, with some other points on the shore
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 4» 
 
 of Lake Superior, and the unpaintable Niagara.^ In a new 
 country there can be few historic or picturesque buildings, 
 so that the painter's landscape must lack historic or human 
 interest. Nor can there be anything like the finished 
 loveliness of England. The gorgeous hues of Canadian 
 autumn and the glories of Canadian sunset are nearly all, 
 and these often reproduced will tire. That the love of 
 beauty and the desire to possess objects of beauty are not 
 wanting, the stranger may learn by a glance at the display 
 in the Toronto stores or at the house architecture of the new 
 streets, which, whether the style be the best or not, un- 
 questionably aspires to beauty and does not always miss its 
 aim. The rows of trees planted along all the streets and the 
 trim little lawns are proof of taste and refinement which 
 cannot fail to please. 
 
 Science, as well as literature and art, has its centres in 
 old countries. But from these, unlike literature and art, it 
 can be imported by the student. Medical science is 
 imported into Canada, as is believed, in full perfection. 
 Canadian surgery performs the most difficult operations with 
 success. The traveller who is borne safely on the Canadian 
 Pacific Kailroad along the gorges and over the chasms of the 
 Eocky Mountains will acknowledge the skill and daring of 
 the Canadian engineer as he will acknowledge in all details 
 of the service the excellence of Canadian railway administra- 
 tion. In the International Bridge at Buffalo is seen anothei- 
 Canadian achievement. Ontario is a network of railways ; 
 
 ' I'f'rliaiis some of the most jtiftun-stfue .sconery in Ontario is to lie lounJ 
 in tlie Diindaa Valley, on the Grand Rivir, ami among the Hluo Alonntains 
 west of Collingwood. Fine is tlic view from tjiieenston Heij^lits, looking 
 down tlie Niagara Hiver to Lake Ontario. The lake scenery in the .Muskoka 
 District, and in the region arounil I'eterboro, is also attractive ; so is the 
 river scenery at the outlet of Lake Ontario, among the Thousand Islands 
 of the St. I^awrcnce. 
 
 E
 
 50 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 probably she has mure iiiilos of tlieiii in pro])ovtioii to her 
 population than any otlier district in tiie workl ; and if they 
 pay no dividends on their stock the British capitalist who 
 has been the chief investor may have the satisfaction of 
 thinking how much he has done to promote the material 
 civilisation of a great colony. In tlie use of agricultural 
 machinery the Province, it has already been said, believes 
 herself to have outrun the mother country. The dearness of 
 labour here, as in the United States, has stimulated the 
 invention or adoption of its substitutes. The streets of 
 Toronto are a maze of wires, telegraphic and telephonic, and 
 the chief thoroughfares are lit with the electric light. Every 
 office, almost every house, of any pretensions, has its 
 telephone, and converses not only with the rest of the city 
 but with places fifty miles off. In what some people are 
 still pleased to call Canadian wilds life is almost vexed with 
 improvements. 
 
 Journalism labours under the same disadvantage as 
 literature in respect to the smallness of the area. With less 
 than two millions of people, with an attainable circulation 
 for any one paper of hardly more than twenty-five thousand, 
 and considering the expense of telegraphic intelligence, how 
 can a provincial press be maintained on a metropolitan 
 scale ? In fact, journalism, so far as the morning papers 
 are concerned, has a hard life. It bears up however, 
 and Toronto reads at breakfast time the debates in the 
 British House of Commons of the evening before, looks on 
 as well as the Londoner at all that is going on in the world, 
 and shares in full measure the unification of humanity by 
 the electric wire. The Canadian Press is, in the main, 
 American not English in its character. It aims at the 
 lightness, smartness, and crispness of Xew York journalism
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 51 
 
 rather than at the solidity of the London Times. There is an 
 interchange of writers with Xew York. Enterprise in the 
 collection of gossip and scandal is now a feature of the press 
 in all countries and everywhere bears the same relation to 
 taste and truth. 
 
 Canada, when the value of the connection is under dis- 
 cussion, is always set down as a place where an Englishman 
 can find a home. A sudden change has come over the 
 attitude of the occupants of the American continent on the 
 subject of Emigration. Till lately the portals were opened 
 wide and all the destitute of the earth were bidden to come 
 in. It was the boast of America that she was the asylum of 
 nations. Xow the door is half shut, and there are a good 
 many who, if they could, would shut it altogether. Malthus 
 has his day again. The world has grown afraid of being 
 over-peopled. j\Ioreover, the Trade Unions want to close tlie 
 labour market. They have forced the Canadian Govern- 
 ment to give up assisting emigration, and they w atch with a 
 jealous eye anything like assistance to emigration on the 
 other side of the water. There is, however, still a demand 
 in Canada for farm labourers, and the Labourer if he is steady 
 and industrious will do well and earn wages which in a few 
 years will enable him to own a farm. There is a demand 
 also for domestic servants, if they come prepared to be useful, 
 and not with the notion that a colony is a place of high wages 
 and no work. For teachers or clerks, it has ah-eady been 
 said, there is absolutely no room unless lliey have been 
 engaged beforehand. The Trade Unions dechire that there is 
 no room for mechanics and take every one by the throat who 
 says that a good mechanic may still do well. Setting the 
 cost of living against tlie liigher rate of wages, it is doubtful 
 whether a British mechanic ini])rovcs his lot by coming tu
 
 62 CANADA AND TlIK CANADIAN Ql'E.STION chai-. 
 
 Caiiiula. J louse rent is liitj;h, clothes are dear, and a great 
 deal of fuel is required. The difl'erence in the cost of fuel 
 would soon equal the difference between the price of a ticket 
 to Canada and a ticket to New Zealand. One cannot helji 
 wondering that a poor man who works out of doors and who 
 does not dream of repeating the exploits of Attila and Clovis 
 should choose a country where the winter is severe. 
 
 Tlie notion that an Englishman enjoys a preference in 
 Canada is pleasant, but not well founded. He is rather ajjt 
 to be an object of jealousy. Anything like favour shown to 
 him gives umbrage. The appointment of three English 
 Professors in Toronto University roused a feeling which 
 lingered long. From the political abuse of England which 
 constantly offends an Englishman in the American Press, 
 and which is largely a homage paid to Irish sentiment, the 
 Canadian Press of course is free ; but social allusions may be 
 sometimes seen not of a friendly kind. If the writers are 
 Irish or Socialists, still the allusions appear. The jealousy 
 is, perhaps, a legacy of the times when most of the high 
 places and good things were in the hands of emigrants from 
 the Imperial country.^ At all events, it has been with truth 
 said that in any candidature no nationality is so weak as the 
 English. In the United States, on the contrary, while there 
 is a traditional prejudice against England, against the indi- 
 vidual Englishman there is none. He is perfectly welcome 
 to any employment or appointment that he can get. How- 
 ever, an Englishman intending to emigrate had better turn 
 
 ^ A trace of this feeling lingers in a passage embodied in Osgood's Handbook 
 of the Maritime Provinces. "The Nova Scotians have not hitherto sought to 
 qualify themselves by culture and study for public honours and preferments 
 because they knew that all the offices in the jirovince would be filled by 
 British carpet-baggers." It is not here only that the term "carpet-bagger" 
 has been seen.
 
 Ill THE BRITISH rROVINCES 53 
 
 his thought first to Australia and New Zealand where there 
 is no prejudice either against him or his country, and the 
 Irish are not so strong. These remarks have reference, 
 of course, only to the emigrant who goes to a colony to 
 push his fortunes in competition with the natives, not to 
 him who goes to live on his own patrimony or the farm 
 which he has bought, seeking nothing beyond. Nor does 
 what has been said apply to ]\Ianitoba, and the recent 
 settlements of the North-West. There all alike are new- 
 comers, and no one has to encounter any jealousy or pre- 
 judice whatever. 
 
 Lord Durham said in his famous Eeport on Canada : 
 ■ There is one consideration in particular which has occurred 
 to every observant traveller in these our colonies, and is a 
 subject of loud complaint within the colonies. I allude to the 
 striking contrast wliich is presented between the American 
 and the British sides of the frontier line, in respect to every 
 sign of productive industry, increasing wealth, and progres- 
 sive civilisation. By describing one side, and reversing the 
 picture, the other would be also described." That this was so 
 in Lord Durham's day was not the fault of Canadian hands, 
 brains, or hearts. It is not the fault of Canadian hands, 
 brains, or hearts if the contrast, though softened, still exists 
 and is noticed by the stranger who passes from the southern 
 to the northern shore of Lake Ontario and the St, Lawrence, 
 as he compares Windsor, Hamilton, London, Kingston, and 
 even Toronto, with Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, and Oswego. 
 The cause is the exclusion of Canada from the commercial 
 pale of her continent, and tlie result would be the same if an 
 equal portif)n of England were cut olf from tlie rest. Tlie 
 standard of living and of niiitcrial civilisulidii is neces- 
 sarily higlier in the wealthier country. Let thi- tiavcllcr
 
 64 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN ()UEST10N chap. 
 
 inakr due allowance for this if lu( misses an air ol" homelike 
 comfort in a Canadian house or if he does n(tt find luxury in 
 a Canadian country iini. 
 
 It has been said that the want of duties, such as 
 country life provides for the rich in England, is felt in 
 Canada ; though it is of course not felt nearly so much in 
 a country where millionaires are rare as it is in the United 
 States, where they abound in every great city. Politics un- 
 happily are repulsive, and a man born to independence is not 
 inclined to put his neck under the galling yoke of party ; 
 otherwise the public service would be the natural occupation 
 of the rich. They might still take part in social effort ; they 
 might help to keep the press in good hands ; they might 
 even exercise a political influence outside party, and corrective 
 of its spirit. As it is, the heirs of wealth on the American 
 continent are too often men of pleasure, spending half their 
 time and money in London or I'aris, while as their wealth 
 excites envy they are a dangerous class. But men who have 
 no duty laid upon them will seldom make duties for them- 
 selves, and in this sense at least the Gospel is still true, 
 which says that it is easier for a camel to go through a 
 needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. 
 
 From British as well as from French Canada there is a 
 constant flow of emigration to the richer country, and the 
 great centres of employment. Dakota and the other new 
 States of the American West are full of Canadian farmers ; 
 the great American cities are full of Canadian clerks and men 
 of business, who usually make for themselves a good name. 
 It is said that in Chicago there are 25,000. Hundreds 
 of thousands of Canadians have relatives in the United 
 States. Canadians in great numbers — it is believed as many
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 55 
 
 as 40,000 — enlisted in the American army during the civil 
 "war. There is a Lodge of the Grand Army at Ottawa. 
 A young Canadian thinks no more of going to push his 
 fortune in New York or Chicago than a young Scotchman 
 thinks of going to Manchester or London. The same is the 
 case in the higher callings as in the lower : clergymen, those 
 of the Church of England as well as those of other churches, 
 freely accept calls to the other side of the Line. So do 
 professors, teachers, and journalists. The Canadian churches 
 are in full communion with their American sisters, and send 
 delegates to each other's Assemblies. Cadets educated at 
 a Military College to command the Canadian army against 
 the Americans, have gone to practise as Civil Engineers 
 in the United States. The Benevolent and National Societies 
 have branches on both sides of the Line, and hold con- 
 ventions in common. Even the Orange Order has now its 
 lodges in the United States, where the name of President is 
 substituted in the oath for that of the Queen. American 
 labour organisations, as "vve have seen, extend to Canada. 
 The American Science Association met the other day 
 at Toronto. All the reforming and philanthropic move- 
 ments, such as the Temperance movement, the Women's 
 Rights' movement, and the Labour movements, with their 
 conventions, are continental. Intermarriages between Cana- 
 dians and Americans are numerous, so numerous as scarcely 
 to be remarked. Americans are the chief owners of 
 Canadian mines, and large owners of Canadian timber 
 limits. The railway system of the continent is one. The 
 winter ports of Canada are those of" tin; United States. 
 Canadian banks trade largely in the American market, and 
 some have branches there. There is almost a currency 
 union, American bank-bills connnonly passing at par in
 
 56 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION <hai'. 
 
 Ontario, wliile tliose of remote Canadian Provinces pass at 
 par only by special arrangement. American gold passes at 
 par, while silver coin is taken at a small discount : in 
 "Winnipeg even the American nickel is part of the common 
 currency. The Dominion bank-bills, though payable in gold, 
 are but half convertible, because Avliat the Canadian banks 
 want is not British but American gold. Canadians go to the 
 American watering-places, while Americans pass the sunnner 
 on Canadian lakes. Canadians take American periodicals, 
 to which Canadian writers often contribute. They resort 
 for special purchases to New York stores, or even those of the 
 Border cities. Sports are international ; so are the Base Ball 
 organisations ; and the Toronto " Nine " is recruited in the 
 States. All the New-World phrases and habits are the same 
 on both sides of the Line. The two sections of the English- 
 speaking race on the American continent, in short, are in a 
 state of economic, intellectual, and social fusion, daily be- 
 coming more complete. Saving the special connection of a 
 limited circle with the Old Country, Ontario is an American 
 State of the Northern type, cut off from its sisters by a 
 customs line, under a separate government and Hag. 
 
 The Maritime I'rovinces, — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, 
 and Prince Edward Island, — cover, at least tlie first two of 
 them cover, the area of the old i'rench Acadie, which, sub- 
 merged by the tide of conquest, shows itself only in the 
 ruined fortifications of Louisbourg, once the Acadian 
 Gibraltar, in remains of the same kind at Annapolis, and in 
 a relic of the French population. The name, with the lying 
 legend of British cruelty connected with it, has been em- 
 balmed not in amber, but in barley-sugar, by the WTiter of
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVIXCES 57 
 
 Evangeline} The Maritime I'roviiices — the cultivable and 
 habitable parts of them at least — lie a thousand miles away 
 from Ontario, with the French Province between. But they 
 are, like Ontario, British colonies, and in the main identical 
 with it in all social and political respects. Allowance has 
 only to be made, in the cases of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
 wick, for less of farming and more of mining, of shipping, 
 and, in proportion, of lumbering. Prince Edward Island is a 
 farming community with rich lands, almost cut ofif from the 
 mainland in winter, insular in character, keeping in the 
 ancient paths, and well satisfied with itself. Nova Scotia has 
 a source of wealth specially her own, in her rich mines of 
 bituminous coal. She is also a great fruit-growing country, 
 and Burke would not have called her " a hard-featured brat," 
 at least he would have confined his epithet to her Atlantic 
 front, if he had been eating Annapolis apples. Halifax and 
 St. John are the two winter ports of the Dominion. The 
 harbour of St. John, the tide being here strong, is always 
 open ; tlie magnificent basin of Halifax is very seldom closed. 
 To society at Halifax the presence of the garrison and the 
 squadron lend a military and naval hue. 
 
 The newly-opened region of the North -West is as far from 
 Ontario as Italy is from England, while it forms an integral 
 part of the great prairie region to which belong Minnesota 
 and Dakota. It now embraces the province of j\Ianitoba and 
 the districts of Alberta, Athabasca, Assiniboia, and Saskat- 
 chewan, carved out of the North-West, and admiiiislL'red 
 
 ' Lieut. -Govenior Sir Adams Archibald, Mr. I'lirknian, and Dr. Kings- 
 ford liavc completely disjiosed of this fiction, and bliown that tlu' dt-portntioii 
 of the Acadians was u measure of necessity, to whidi recourse was liad only 
 when forbearance was exliausted. The blatno really rests on tlie vile and 
 murderous intrigues of the j)riest Lc Loutre. The commander of the troops 
 Winslow, was an American.
 
 68 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 as Ti'iTitories on a system huriowed from the Ameiicun (Jon.sti- 
 tution. The North-West was the vast hunting-ground of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, and the field of a singular and noble 
 service, the members of which passed a great part of their 
 lives in lonely arctic posts far away from civilisation and 
 human intercourse, save with wild Indians, getting one mail 
 from P^ngland in the year, yet losing nothing of their character 
 as highly civilised men. The Company was one of that great 
 group formed in the early days of commercial adventure, most 
 of which outlived their usefulness and have now quitted the 
 scene, but without the support of which, in an age when the 
 globe was unexplored, when international law was hardly 
 known, when piracy and brigandage were rife, when on 
 barbarous shores the trader could look only to his fellow - 
 trader for protection, commerce would scarcely have ventured 
 to put off into the unknown. That the Company should try 
 to keep its hunting-ground intact and bar out settlement from 
 it, by representing it as unfit for cultivation, was no more 
 than might have been expected. The region is a series of 
 vast steppes. It is a sensation not to be forgotten which you 
 experience as, standing upon the platform of the railway car 
 on the road from St. Paul, you shoot out upon that oceanic 
 expanse of prairie, purple with evening, while an electric 
 light perhaps shines on tlie horizon like a star of advancing 
 civilisation. What is the extent of the fertile land in the 
 North- West, and how great are the capabilities of the region 
 is hardly yet known, but it is known that they are vast. The 
 balance wavered at first between tlie fertility of the soil on 
 one hand, and the rigour of the climate on the other. The 
 discovery of abundant fuel was required to turn the scale, 
 and coal in abundance, though not of the first q\iality, has 
 been found. The wheat is the very best, the root crops and
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 59 
 
 vegetables are superb. The enemies of the fanner are the 
 late and early frosts. The grasshopper, another old enemy, 
 has hardly appeared in force since the settlement. Just before 
 harvest time the weather is no commonplace topic, and a deep 
 anxiety broods over the land, ]\Iore tlian once the hope of a 
 rich harvest has been blighted. It is idle to deny that the 
 summer is short. But the yield is so abundant that fat years 
 make up for lean years. Experience will teach its lessons, 
 and already the farmer is learning not to trust too much to 
 wheat-growing, but to mix with it the keeping of cattle, 
 which, notwithstanding the cold, are said to do well. The 
 prairie grass turns to a natural hay, which furnishes winter 
 food. In summer nothing can be balmier or more life-giving 
 than the prairie air, nothing more charming than the prairie 
 gay with flowers. In winter the glass falls sometimes to forty 
 below zero, or even lower, but the people tell you that the 
 cold is not felt because it is dry ; perhaps also because all the 
 settlers there being young, their blood is warm. If they do 
 not want the thread of aged lives to be cut by the winter's 
 shears they will have to build solid houses, for which happily, 
 in Manitoba at least, they have good building stone and 
 brick. Xot to feel the cold in a wooden shanty, with the 
 snow driving through its chinks in forty below zero, blood 
 must be warm indeed. Emigrants should not go to tlie 
 North-West without the means of providing themselves with 
 good houses, warm clothes, and fuel. This region, however, 
 does not, like Minnesota, lie in the zone of blizzards. It 
 might have been thought that on tlie prairie, where agricul- 
 tural macliines have full swing, in a climate whore close 
 dwelling has advantages, material and social, lar^c I'arming 
 would, if anywhere, have succeeded, whih^ its success might 
 liave been the inauguration of a new industrial and social
 
 60 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN ()UESTION niAP. 
 
 system, liui (Hi (liu iicll Farm it was tried iii tlie ablest 
 hands, and did noi pay. It seems that nothing will make 
 farming pay but the sweat of the owner's brow and the close- 
 ness of the owner's fist. Winnipeg shows by the mixture of 
 rough shanties with buildings of a better class and some of 
 the Jiighest class, that she rose but yesterday out of the 
 prairie. She has only just recovered from the demoralisation 
 of commerce by " the boom," a wild burst of gambling in real 
 estate which raged at her birth and drew to her a loose 
 population. But as the centre of distribution, of govern- 
 ment, of law, of education, and above all of railways, she can 
 hardly fail to thrive. If Manitoba and the rest of the region 
 till up slowly, the fault lies, as w'ill hereafter appear, not in 
 anything that nature has failed to do, but in things which 
 man has done. In situation Brandon is superior to Winnipeg. 
 The dead level of the prairie line is broken, and there is a 
 general cheerfulness in the landscape which cradles the 
 thriving young town. The journey seems long over a steppe 
 monotonous as the sea, and with a horizon equally level, to 
 Calgary, where you find yourself in the ranch country, undu- 
 lating and park-like, with the range of the Rockies full in 
 view. 
 
 The immigration has been of a motley sort, and not all of 
 the kind which forms the best material for a new community. 
 The Mennonites work very hard, are thrifty, and will no 
 doubt give up their exclusiveness and become citizens in 
 time, since military service, conscientious dislike of which 
 was the ground of their isolation, has no existence in their 
 new home. The Icelanders, used to such a climate, do well. 
 The Skye crofters have hardly been farmers ; they are children 
 of a mild though damp climate ; and it was not to be expected 
 that their settlements would look more prosperous than they
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 61 
 
 do. It is lucky that the idea of importing Irish and planting 
 them in shanties over a large district was given up. The 
 Irish are not farmers ; they are spade husbandmen, wlio have 
 hardly handled a plough and have never seen a machine. 
 Nor are they pioneers. Their hearts would have sunk in the 
 solitude, and they would have gone off to their kinsmen in 
 the United States. Young Englishmen as a class have not 
 done well ; they have energy and pluck, but not steady 
 industry, self-denial, or the habit of saving. The jesters of 
 the North-West call " remittances from home " the English- 
 man's harvest. Of a good many tlie Mounted Police is the 
 last haven. What the North -West needs is the floating 
 population of the continent, farmers to the manner born. To 
 send East- Londoners, who have hardly seen a plough, to the 
 climate and the life of the North -West, is cruel kindness, 
 and so it has proved. 
 
 If the North- West fills up, Old Canada will be dwarfed, 
 and, supposing Confederation to endure, the centre of power 
 will shift westward, though the loss by Ottawa of all control 
 over the North-West is perhaps the more likely result. 
 
 British Columbia again is separated from the North-West 
 by a triple range of mountains, the Rockies, the Selkirks, the 
 Golden or Coast range, in traversing which tlie raciflc Railway 
 proclaims the glory of Canadian science. This Province is 
 the Pacific slope of the mountain range, clothed with pine of 
 the noblest size, though not deemed equal in quality to that 
 of Nova Scotia, but hardly within reach of the lumberman 
 except on the lower fringe. Her flora is Pacific, so com- 
 pletely does she belong to that side of the world. Of 
 unwooded land BritLsh Columbia has not much, while clearing, 
 where tlie timber is so lieavy, wouM bi; too costly ; but she 
 has coal at Nanaimo, .she has jjlenty of salmon for canning,
 
 62 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai- 
 
 and she is understood to be very rich in minerals. There is 
 a project for opening her mineral wealth by a railway carried 
 through the mountain region in concert with the American 
 government. Her climate is warm compared with that of 
 other provinces in the same latitude, and she has an open 
 though daniji and raw winter. The vegetation is tropical, 
 not in variety, but in luxuriance. Nothing can be more 
 impressive than a ride in the forest, through the vast and 
 silent arcade of pines and cedars, so gigantic that they almost 
 shut out the sky. The coast scenery, with views of the 
 American Snow mountains, is superb, though one might wish 
 that the "Olympian Range" had a less pedantic name.-^ 
 Vancouver is the leading port of British Columbian commerce. 
 She hopes to have a great Asiatic trade and become a mighty 
 city. Land is accordingly held in that city at fabulous prices, 
 which those will pay who share the gorgeous dream. Victoria 
 sleeps in beauty over her little pile of earnings from the gold- 
 washings and from the trade of early days. Her cottage 
 villas with their rose gardens have an English look, and she 
 prides herself on being English in character and spirit. As 
 she is on an island where the railway cannot reach her there 
 seems to be not much chance of her reawakening to any active 
 commercial life. The most lively thing about her at present 
 is the Chinese Colony, where we come into contact with the 
 advance guard of that countless host which, bar it out with 
 laws and poll-taxes on immigration as you will, hunger driving 
 it on and capital craving for its cheap labour, can hardly be 
 arrested in its march, and may some day possess the coast of 
 the Pacific. 
 
 ^ Canadian and American mountains have often names too prosaic. 
 Peaks, instead of being called, like Swiss peaks, the Storm peak, the Silver 
 peak, the Peak of Thunder, the Maiden, are called after railway directors 
 and politicans.
 
 Ill THE BRITISH PROVINCES 63 
 
 It is ill the Xortli-West and in British Columbia that the 
 Red Indian is now chiefly to be seen ; for among those on the 
 Eastern Eeserves there is little of the pure blood. The race, 
 every one says, is doomed. It has fallen into the gulf between 
 the hunter state and that of the husbandman. "Whisky has con- 
 tributed to its ruin. The sudden disappearance of the buffalo, 
 which is the most surprising event in natural history, has 
 deprived the hunter of subsistence. Little will be lost by 
 humanity. The Eed Indian has the wonderful powers of 
 enduring hunger and fatigue which the hunter's life engenders ; 
 he has the keenness of sense indispensable in tracking game : 
 he seems to have no other gift. Ethnologists may find it 
 instructive to study a race without a history and without a 
 future ; but the race will certainly not be a factor in New 
 World civilisation. INIusical Indian names of places and 
 rivers, Indian relics in museums, Indian phrases, such as 
 " going on the warpath " and " burying the hatchet " — these 
 and nothing more apparently will remain of the aborginal 
 man in North America. His blood is not on the head of the 
 British Government, which has always treated him witli 
 humanity and justice.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST^ 
 
 Jacques Cartier, though venerated as the founder of the 
 French Colony, was only the discoverer of the St. Lawrence 
 (1535). He made trial of the climate by wintering at Quebec, 
 where he lost many of his crew by cold, hunger, and scurvy, 
 and he opened relations with the Indians in a rather sinister 
 way by kidnapping a chief with three of his tribe. But he 
 formed no permanent settlement : Roberval, his contemporary 
 and successor in the enterprise, totally failed. The real 
 founder of Canada did not appear on the scene until seventy 
 years after. This was Samuel de Champlain (1G03-35), 
 one of that striking group of characters to which the 
 sixteenth century gave birth, and which combined the force, 
 hardihood, and romance of feudalism with the larger views 
 and higher objects of the Reformation era. The man would 
 have been a crusader in the thirteenth century who in the 
 sixteenth was a maritime adventurer and the founder of a 
 colony. Champlain, though it does not appear that he ever 
 was of the Reformed faith, and though he ultimately became 
 
 ^ The principal sources of this and the following historical sketch, besides 
 the Relalions des Jesuitcs and Le Clercq's L' l^slahlisscment de la Foi, are Mr. 
 Parkinan's narratives, and the histories of Garneau, Christie, Miles, MacMullen, 
 and Kingsford, with Cavendish's Debates in the British House of Commons, 
 in 1774.
 
 CHAP. IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 65 
 
 coBnected with the Jesuits, had fought for Henry IV, and 
 must therefore have belonged to the more liberal and patriotic 
 party of Eoman Catholics. At this time there was beginning 
 to be an exodus of Huguenots to New France, like that of the 
 persecuted Puritans to New England, which came a few years 
 afterwards. Henry IV seems to have encouraged the move- 
 ment, seeing perhaps how the tide was running in France and 
 guessing what was in store, when his protection should have 
 been withdrawn, for the party to which he had belonged. 
 Had New France been colonised by Huguenots, bringing with 
 them the energy, the industry, the intelligence, and the love 
 of freedom which marked them in their own country. New 
 England would have had a formidable rival, and to the French, 
 not to the English race and tongue the American continent 
 might now belong. French writers look back with a v/istful 
 eye to the glory that might have been. As it was, Quebec, 
 with France herself and everything belonging to her, fell into 
 the hands of the Catholic Reaction, and of its incarnation and 
 apostle the Jesuit. The Jesuit of course devoutly excluded 
 the Huguenot, carefully searching vessels lest they should 
 have brought over any one tainted with the pestilence of 
 heresy. Not only did he exclude the Huguenot, but as far as 
 possible he excluded the Jansenist. By this he did the 
 Colony incomparably more harm than he ever, by his boasted 
 activity as a civiliser and educator, did it good. In fact, 
 during the early stages of its history, while it remained under 
 Jesuit domination, it was not a colony at iill. It was a Jesuit 
 mission grafted on a station of the fur trade. 
 
 The Jesuit missionaries, who came to the settlement in 
 1025, (lid for tlie glory of Cod ;iiid of ilieir ()|(|(m- things 
 which have found in our own day a biilliiuit and synipithetic 
 chronicler. Our accounts of tlieir ex))loils are derived from 
 
 I'
 
 66 CANADA AND TllK CAXAIHAN nUKSTION chai'. 
 
 " lielatious," written by themselves and published in France, 
 for the purpose of exalting the name of the Order, exciting 
 sympathy with it, and opening the purses of the devout, all 
 of which purposes, not excepting the last, they effectually 
 served. Nor is it possible to put unreserved confidence in 
 the naiTatives of men the most sensible of whom lived in an 
 atmosphere of miracle, divine and diabolical, saw demons 
 aiming darts at them, received supernatural warnings, and 
 beheld fiery crosses traversing the sky. Yet there can be no 
 doubt that Jesuitism had in New France its heroes and its 
 martyrs. It had martyrs who, with a fortitude which 
 nothing but sincere enthusiasm could have sustained, braved 
 tlie perils and hardships of the wilderness, endured the worse 
 horrors of life in the Indian hut, and underwent without 
 flinching at the hands of the Iroquois tortures equal phy- 
 sically at least to those whicli their European brethren were 
 inflicting, or causing to be inflicted, on heretics in the dungeons 
 of the Inquisition. These were at all events victories of the 
 higher over the lower man. It was certain that the Order 
 would draw into it at first some pure enthusiasts ; and 
 it was likely that these would wish to go, and would by the 
 policy of the Order be sent, rather to the missionary field 
 than to that of European propagandism and intrigue. 
 Jesuitism is redeemed by its missionary element imper- 
 sonated in Xavier and Breboeuf. It was their own version of 
 Christianity of course that the Sons of Loyola taught. I'erhaps 
 it was a Christianity in some respects not uncongenial to the 
 Indian. "You burn your enemies," said a Jesuit to an 
 Algonquin chief, " and God does the same." In the pictures 
 of lost souls tormented by demons which were presented to 
 them, the Indian might see his own practices ascribed to the 
 Supreme Being. An Indian woman whom the Fathers were
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 67 
 
 trying to convert, refused to be sent to Heaven wlien tliey 
 had told her that her dead children were in Hell. Nor can 
 their philosophic eulogist forbear smiling at the frivolity, not 
 to say fetichism, of some of their religious ideas and practices. 
 The missionaries are always looking out with peculiar eager- 
 ness for dying childreji whom, by baptism, in the furtive 
 administration of which rather equivocal stratagems are 
 sometimes employed, they send, as they think, straight from 
 Hell to Paradise. Their thaumaturgy might justify the 
 Indian in calling them, as he did, the French medicine men. 
 In spite of all the self-devotion of the Fathers and all 
 their heroism, their missions came almost to naught. They 
 had the misfortune to be confronted by the Iroquois, of all 
 Eed Indians and of all savages the most valiant, the most 
 politic, and the most fiendish. Champlain, by allying himself 
 with the Huron enemies of the Iroquois, rashly stirred the 
 terrible swarm. By the Iroquois the Hurons, among whom 
 the Jesuits had planted their missionaries and made converts, 
 were overthrown, and in 1649 utterly destroyed. To a Huron 
 it naturally appeared hard that this should be the reward of 
 allegiance to the true God ; nor does it seem impossible that 
 by the change the convert may have lost something of the 
 warlike character necessary to save him in the ruthless 
 struggle for existence. A few of the Iroquois themselves 
 were afterwards converted, and the descendants of such con- 
 verts, under the name of the Caughnawagas, steer the tourist 
 down the Lachine rapids to Montreal. Mr. Tarkman gives 
 the Jesuit credit for having by contact softened the manners 
 of the Indians generally ; but this seems hardly consistent 
 with his own statements that the Fathers connived at tin* 
 torture of prisoners by their Imlian convt-rls, and that wiien 
 the Jesuits liad become, as in course of time they did, more
 
 68 CANADA AND TllK CANADIAN QUESTION cHAr. 
 
 political than missionary, the converts were launched in 
 scalping parties against the colonists of New p]ngland. 
 
 The palm of religious heroism must be shared by the 
 Jesuits with the Ursulines. The " Kelations " of the Jesuits 
 had fired the liearts of devout women in France with the 
 same missionary enthusiasm, mingled, as the historian fails 
 not to see, with a yearning for personal distinction. These 
 women performed miracles as hospital nurses and as angels of 
 charity in the struggling and suffering settlements, while they 
 were props of a system under which the Colony could hardly 
 be anything but a hospital and an almshouse. A hospital 
 was founded at Montreal, to afford a theatre for the religious 
 activity of these ladies, before there was any need of one, and 
 when the money and the labour were sorely required for 
 other purposes by a settlement feebly struggling for existence. 
 Marie de I'lncarnation seems to have rivalled St. Catherine 
 or St. Theresa in the intensity of her self-devotion, in her 
 erotic transports, and in all that is most characteristic of 
 a female saint. Jeanne le Ber, another saint, was the 
 Simeon Stylites of her sex : she shut herself up for twenty 
 years in a cell behind the altar, rarely speaking, and inflicting 
 on herself incredible mortifications. This might be seraphic, 
 but it was not a practical model for the settler's wife. 
 
 If the heroic efforts of the Jesuit as missionary were 
 baffled by adverse circumstances, as the organiser of a colony 
 he failed through the inherent and fatal falsity of his ideal. 
 His object, as he avowed, was to make Quebec a Northern 
 Paraguay, in other words, a community of human sheep 
 absolutely devoted and submissive to their ecclesiastical 
 shepherd. But human sheep are not colonial pioneers. Nor 
 was the ascetic view of the world or the palm held out to 
 self-torturing saintship likely to stimulate the agricultural
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 69 
 
 or commercial ctl'ort necessary to place a colony on a sound 
 material basis. The Puritans of New England, it has been 
 justly observed, however austere and however narrow might 
 be their religion, believed in a Giver of material as well as 
 spiritual blessings, and in the material as well as in the 
 spiritual sphere laboured with all their might to carry into 
 effect the Divine intention. To make a Paraguay, moreover, it 
 was necessary that the temporal and spiritual powers should 
 be united in the hands of the priest. To bring this about 
 w^as in New France, as everywhere else, the Jesuit's constant 
 aim. "With the help of devout Governors he to a great 
 extent succeeded, and the result was that petitions were sent 
 to France praying " that an end might be put to the Gehenna 
 produced by the union of the temporal with the spiritual 
 power." The moral code under Jesuit rule was Genevan in 
 its rigour as well as ultra-ecclesiastical in its formality. For 
 breach of its ordinances men were whipped like dogs. 
 It was enforced, as was complained at the time, not only by 
 the confessional, but by a system of espionage which made 
 the Jesuit master of all family secrets and tyrant of all house- 
 holds. To the Jesuit his Canadian realm seemed a spiritual 
 Paradise and the Gate of Heaven, albeit the blessed souls in 
 it lived in constant peril of famine and of the tomahawk. 
 Put it seemed by no means a Paradi.se to some untamed 
 spirits, whose energy as pioncer.s, tliough unhallowed, the 
 Colony perhaps could ill ullonl t(j lose. 'J'licsc lied fidni 
 it to the free life of the forest, and became as bushrangurs the 
 peqjetual scandal of the Government. A genuine and great 
 service was done by the priests in opposing the brandy trade, 
 which was playing havoc among the Indians, and we need 
 n(jt regard the insinuation of a governor with whom they had 
 quarrelled, that they wished them.selvcs to engro.ss the profits
 
 70 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN ijUKSTION <iiai'. 
 
 of the trade. It is ])vobal)li', however, that before its fall, the 
 Order had become not only ])()litical but coiiiniercial in (i)iiebec, 
 as it had in Europe, where the scandalous bankruptcy of one 
 of its commercial houses was among the immediate causes of 
 its suppression. One of the governors at least reports that it 
 was getting the fur trade into its hands. It shared the 
 inevitable fate of all the Orders, which, l»eginning witli a 
 seraphic ideal and a renunciation of all worldly goods, fell 
 from their unattainable aim into corporate ambition, pursuit 
 of inordinate wealth, and a corruption which, contrasted with 
 their professions, brought on them hatred, contempt, and at 
 last the whirlwind of destruction. 
 
 Quebec, the Paradise of the Jesuits, had a competitor 
 and an object of jealousy in Montreal, founded in 1G42 by 
 Maisonneuve, whose figure belongs to the same group as that 
 of Ciiamplain, though he was more of a religious devotee. 
 Montreal was under the influence of the Sulpicians, a branch 
 of whose Order, the Recollets, had preceded the Jesuits in 
 the Canadian Mission. Quebec accused Montreal of Jansen- 
 ism and received with a slight sneer of incredulity Montreal 
 miracles, even when they were so little trying to a child-like 
 faith as that of the man's head which talked after being 
 severed from the body. Sulpicianism, on the other hand, 
 spoke with delicate irony of the Jesuit Eelations, and in- 
 sinuated a comparison between them and the tales of the 
 East Indian traveller who made a valiant soldier, when he 
 had fired away his last bullet, load his musket with his own 
 teeth. After the lapse of two centuries and a half this 
 battle between Jesuit and Sulpician, Ultramontane and Gal- 
 ilean, has been renewed. 
 
 As an agricultural or commercial settlement New France 
 remained a failure, its only trade being the fur trade, while
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 71 
 
 the Iroquois incessantly prowled around it like wolves and 
 picked ofif the tillers of the fields who worked with the 
 loaded arquebuse by their sides. The Home Government 
 generally had its hands full of home troubles and dis- 
 tractions, while such aid as was sent from private sources 
 was sent not to the colony but to the mission. Eichelieu, 
 when engaged in reorganising the monarchy on the centralis- 
 ing principle, did not fail to turn his thoughts to the colony. 
 He reformed the Constitution of the Commercial Company, 
 which was in fact its only government other than the priest- 
 hood, and sent it soldiers, though in numbers wholly in- 
 adequate to its defence. But then came tlie troubles of the 
 Fronde. When these were past, and over the wreck of 
 feudal independence rose in all its might and glory the 
 administrative despotism of Louis XIY, a dead-lift eHbrt was 
 made to inspire life, after the autocratic fashion, into tlie 
 colony, and make it the starting-point of a French and 
 Catholic empire which, extinguishing the English and Dutch 
 colonies, should eml^race tlie whole of the continent. The 
 regiment of Carignan-Salieres was sent out in IGGo and 
 repressed the Iroquois, while a not less potent agency in the 
 salvation of the Settlement was the advent, as governor, of 
 Frontenac, the Clive of Quebec. By the side of the i)lumed 
 governor, who, like the governors of provinces in France 
 represented the feudal aristocracy surviving in its state and 
 in its military character under the king, though shorn of its 
 political and military power, came in less showy costume the 
 itoyal Intendant, to whom in all administrative matters the 
 power had Ijeen transferred. 'i'he Intenilant 'I'alon was a 
 colonial Colbert — able, active, and ujiright like his ciiief ; and, 
 like liis chief, he did all that could b(! done under the radi- 
 cally false system of monopoly and protectionism to animate
 
 72 CANADA AND rilK CANADIAN QUESTION ciui'. 
 
 and foster trade. To recruit tlie population, which between 
 asceticism and the Iroquois was at a very low ebb, large con- 
 signnients of young women were shipped out by despotic fiat 
 from France, and marriage was encouraged in the same style 
 by means of premiums on offspring and penalties on celibacy. 
 Feudalism, such as it was in France since its teeth had been 
 drawn by the Monarchy — feudalism, that is not poUtical or 
 military but only manorial — was imported into the colony as 
 the land system of the French realm ; and a number of 
 seigniories were carved out under which the settlers held 
 their lands as ce7isitaires, like the copyholders under an 
 English manor, though with the feudal forms of investiture 
 instead of entry on the court roll. The militia was kept in 
 the hands of a king's officer, and the criminal jurisdiction of 
 the seignior was very small. Some of the feudal incidents, 
 such as the obligation to use the lord's mill and oven, must 
 have been almost a dead letter ; but there was an oppressive 
 fee to the lords on sales. So much of democracy there was 
 on the American soil even under Bourbon rule that the 
 peasant would brook no name that savoured of villeinage, 
 but styled himself the habitant. The colony was also en- 
 dowed witli a noblesse formed out of rather sorry materials, 
 such as the disbanded officers of the Carignan regiment and 
 plebeian settlers whose vanity led them to buy social 
 rank. The result, as plainly appears and might have 
 been surely foreseen, was not a genuine aristocracy, but a 
 false caste of insolence, idleness, and vagabondage, though 
 the genius of the New World so far asserted itself that 
 the colonial gentleman, unlike the gentleman of the mother 
 country, was permitted without loss of rank to engage in 
 trade. 
 
 In New as in Old France the despotism was absolute.
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 73 
 
 The Supreme Council which was instituted at this time 
 (1663), and ousted the Commercial Company from all polit- 
 ical power, was only another name for the rule of the Eoyal 
 Governor, of the Intendant, and in matters ecclesiastical of 
 the Bishop. The Intendant by his decrees regulated not 
 only the police but commercial and civil life. Of the local 
 self-government, which formed the soul and the hope of New 
 England, not a germ was allowed to appear. One Governor 
 conceived the idea of providing the colony with a minia- 
 ture counterpart of the States-General ; but he was at once 
 given to understand that the Court, far from wishing to 
 extend the venerable institution to the colonies, w^as disposed 
 to regard it as obsolete at home. It is needless to say that 
 no organ or expression of public opinion was allowed. The 
 colony was of course under the French criminal law, with its 
 arbitrary imprisonment and judicial torture. 
 
 Louis XIV, albeit devout, and more devout than ever 
 when he had fallen under the influence of the Maintenon, 
 still meant to be King of the Church as well as of the State. 
 He had not even shrunk, when his royal dignity was in 
 question, from bullying the Pope. Relations were somewhat 
 strained between the representatives of the Royal power and 
 the head of the Church, Bishop Laval. This prelate, whose 
 name is still great in French Canada and is borne by the 
 Laval University, was the paragon of asceticism in his day. 
 He lay on a bed full of vermin ; he ate tainted meat ; the 
 wonder is that he escaped canonisation. He was a last 
 ally of the Jesuits, and a champion of the doctrines which 
 they then preached and are now again preaching on the same 
 field respecting the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, 
 the independence and liberty of the Church, and the duty of 
 the State to submit to the ('liurch in case of any conflict
 
 74 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. 
 
 between them.' Laval, \\\\o paiticulavly prided himself uii 
 his humility, had frequent disputes with the Governors about 
 precedence, in which the Governors showed more spirit than 
 is shown by politicians when threatened with ecclesiastical 
 displeasure at the present day. They said to the churchman 
 in effect, like their precursor Toutrincourt, " It is your busi- 
 ness to obey me on earth and to guide me to heaven." A 
 curb, and a strong curb, was legally imposed on the Episcopal 
 power and ambiliou by the Royal ordinance, which decreed 
 that the tenure of the curSs should be fixed, as in France, and 
 that they should be no longer removable at the Bishop's will. 
 It is needless to say that Monopoly and Protectionism 
 failed to give new life to industry and commerce. Decrees 
 forbidding merchants to trade with the Indians, forbidding 
 them to sell goods at retail except in August, September, and 
 October, forbidding trade anywhere above Quebec, forbidding 
 the sale of clothing or domestic articles ready-made, forbidding 
 trade with the New England Colonies, that is with the natural 
 market, forbidding any one to go there without a passport — 
 decrees giving a monopolist company power to make domi- 
 ciliary visits for the discovery and destruction of foreign 
 goods, ordering that vessels engaged in foreign commerce 
 should be treated as pirates, and that every one found with 
 an article of foreign manufacture in his possession should 
 be fined - — with other like ordinances, produced the same sort 
 of results which similar policy, pursued by men less excus- 
 able in error than Colbert and Talon, is now pro- 
 ducing in the same field. Nor could exclusion from the 
 natural market be compensated in those days any more than 
 
 ^ See Parkman's Old Eegime in Canada, p. 166, where tlie Jesuit Father 
 Braun is cited. 
 
 - Parkman's Old Rigime, p. 290.
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 75 
 
 in these by the creation of a forced market in the West 
 Indies or elsewhere. An attempt of the beneficent King to 
 speed the plough by the introduction of negro slavery had no 
 better success, being baffled at once by the climate. The 
 colony made nothing and produced nothing except beaver 
 skins, to be exported to France in payment for the supplies 
 of all kinds which it drew thence. It was consequently 
 bankrupt, coin fled from it, giving place to bad paper, and at 
 last to card money. Even the trade in beaver skins was so 
 bedevilled by monopoly and government regulation that at 
 one time the company destroyed three-fourths of the stock on 
 their hands to avert a glut. In the fur trade, however, was 
 such life as the colony had apart from the activity of the 
 clergy. Into this were drawn all those who preferred the 
 freedom of the forest to the paternal despotism of the In- 
 tendant and the priest. A strange and wild life it was. The 
 bushrangers {coureurs des hois) threw off civilisation, lived 
 with the Indians, intermarried with them, learned Indian 
 habits, became more than half Indians themselves, and some- 
 times were made chiefs of Indian tribes. They took to war- 
 paint and feathers. They took even to scalping, and were in 
 consequence treated by Wolfe as out of the laws of war. 
 They regarded themselves, however, as gentlemen, and it is 
 said that some of the best families in Quebec are descended 
 from this stock. 
 
 Closely connected with the spirit of this roving life was 
 the adventurous passion for discovery, which reached its 
 climax in the marvellous exploration of the Mississippi by 
 La Salle. As explorers the French were not less superior to 
 the staid and plodding New Knghindcr than they were 
 inferior to him in industry, commerce, and the qualitit\s 
 requisite for building uj) a coinnionwcalth. To the .Jesuit
 
 76 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ( hai-. 
 
 luissioiiarios, too, is due tlu' credit of ^V(»IHk■liul cx}ilur;itioii, 
 uotably on tlie Upper Lakes. Jt was natural also that in the 
 magnificence of their schemes, military and territorial, the 
 French should have the pre-eminence. With no other basis 
 than a settlement of a few thousands of people on the St. 
 Lawrence they aspired to the extension of their Empire by a 
 chain of military posts westward to the IVIississippi and down 
 its whole course to New" Orleans. In their vaulting ambition 
 the men of New France were true Frenchmen. 
 
 Supposing a despotic administration to be inspired by 
 probity and beneficence, its eye cannot see nor can its arm 
 reach across the Atlantic. Colbert meant very well to tlie 
 colony, and even his King meant well. But after Louis XIV 
 and Colbert came Louis XV and the Eegency, Pompadour 
 and Dubois. Then began in the unhappy dependency a reign 
 of unbridled corruption and abuse. Peculation and extortion 
 to an enormous extent were carried on by a gang of officials, 
 at the head of which was the Intendant P>igot, whose chateau 
 near Quebec was a sort of outpost of the Pare aux Cerfs. It 
 is astonishing that, vexed as they were with imposts, pillaged 
 as they were by scoundrels in office, and harassed as they 
 were by compulsory service in the militia and on public 
 works, the peasants of Quebec should have remained true as 
 they did to their King and to France. Pompadour was not 
 so hostile as Maintenon to Huguenots, and would not have 
 opposed their settling in New France. But the Huguenot was 
 now extinct ; in his place had come Voltaire. 
 
 The historian bespeaks our sympathy and admiration, 
 not only for the missionary, but for the parish priest, who 
 went about through the sparse settlements of a wild peasantry, 
 along the inhospitable shore, performing Mass, baptising, con- 
 fessing, and preaching, in defiance of great hardship and no
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 77 
 
 small peril. These men, no doubt, after the downfall of 
 asceticism, kept alive such religion and such morality as there 
 was. But of morality there seems in the closing days of the 
 colony to have been as little as there was of industry or 
 trade. The soldiery, the bushrangers, the fur trade and its 
 roystering fciirs, the association with the Indians, the habits 
 and examples of Pompadourian Intendants, appear by their 
 united agencies of corruption to have morally ruined the 
 Northern Paraguay, Of education there had never been any 
 except that wliich the Jesuits gave to the boys destined for 
 the priesthood, or to the sons of the few people of quality. 
 French gaiety remained ; so, we are told, did the polisli of 
 French manners, and the Colonists, we are also told, spoke 
 French well. 
 
 The French colonist, however, if he was backward in 
 the arts of peace was not to be despised in war. This he 
 showed in the long conflict with the P^nglish colonies and 
 their mother country whicli fills tlie closing period of this 
 history. The very absence of industrial and connnercial 
 pursuits preserved the military character. The bushranger 
 was the best of bushfighters and could act in perfect unison 
 with his savage comrade the Ped Indian. The New Fng- 
 landers, tliuugh they came of tlie Ironside blood and had the 
 making of the best soldiers in them, were not soldiers, but 
 tradcirs and mechanics. Wolfe speaks very disparagingly of 
 liis Colonial Pangers. The first capture of Louisbourg by a 
 Colonial army supported only by a British fleet was a stroke 
 of luck, due to the mutinous state of the garrison and the 
 weakness of the Commandant. ^Moreover the English colonies 
 were divided in their councils : tlu'y had with the inde- 
 pendence and self-reliance the still-necketlness of republicans, 
 and the weakness in joint action which it entails. It was
 
 78 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 very lianl to bring each colony to take its part in any 
 common enterprise or furnish its contingent to any common 
 force. The French, on the other hand, were united under 
 the absolute command of tlie Koyal Governor, who could call 
 them all to arms and dispose of everything they had for the 
 Kin^f's service. Nor were the French nobles, by whom the 
 governorship was held, ill-fitted for the military part of their 
 work. Frontenac especially was a man of great genius for 
 war as well as of iron character ; he left a name dreaded by 
 the English Colonists and renowned in Canadian history, 
 though sullied by his murderous employment of the savage ; 
 not that anybody abstained from the use of this vile 
 auxiliary, whose subsequent introduction into the revolu- 
 tionary war by the British was not the horrible innovation 
 which rhetoric painted it, tliough assuredly it was a crime 
 as well as a blunder. Superior as they were in population 
 and in wealth, the English colonies might have been lost 
 had they not been united, as far as they were capable of 
 union, and supported by their mother country. As soon as 
 her arm, after a long and desperate struggle, had laid low 
 their formidable rival and assured tlieir safety, she was made 
 to feel what had been their real tie to her. 
 
 The conquest of Quebec is familiar to all ; and has been 
 narrated by Mr. Parkman in the two most cliarming volumes, 
 perhaps, even of his charming series. If he fails in anytliing, 
 perhaps it is in not perfectly painting the character of Wolfe, 
 one of the most interesting, if not one of the most important 
 or dazzling, figures in military history. Near the famous 
 battle-field on which the steadiness of the British soldier, 
 reserving his fire for the decisive volley while his comrades 
 were falling fast around him, determined that to his race, not 
 to the French, should belong the New World and its hopes,
 
 IV FRENCH CANADA BEFORE THE CONQUEST 79 
 
 stands the monument raised by the victor to the joint memory 
 of "Wolfe and Montcalm. The warlike aristocracy of France 
 and the military duty of England could not have encountered 
 each other in more typical forms. Voltaire, more philosopher 
 and philanthropist than patriot, celebrated by a feast the 
 transfer of New France from the realm of despotism to that of 
 freedom. Mr. Parkman says : " A happier calamity never 
 befell a people than the conquest of Canada by the British 
 arms."
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST (1759) 
 
 Quebec had been won. What was to be done witli it ? The 
 higliest wisdom said, " Add it to the New England Colonies 
 by which it will soon be assimilated, and leave the whole 
 independent, content with the Empire of British civilisation 
 over the New World, and with the moral supremacy which 
 the mother country, provided the filial tie remains unbroken, 
 is sure to retain." Cromwell had meditated giving the 
 Colonies Jamaica. But such a policy was beyond the 
 ken of the statesmen of that day, and few even among the 
 calmest observers had any conception of it. We must re- 
 member, moreover, that in times before Adam Smith a 
 distant dependency seemed to everybody to have real value 
 inasmuch as the Imperial country monopolised its trade. 
 Still the question remained whether Quebec should be left 
 French and governed as a conquest or made English. That 
 question was settled by the American Eevolution, which 
 compelled the Imperial Government to court the French of 
 Quebec and respect their nationality. That a revolt of the 
 American colonies would follow when the curb of French 
 rivalry had been removed was surmised by clear-sighted 
 men at the time, albeit it would be hard to accuse England 
 of blindness, because she failed to foresee that the requital
 
 CHAP. V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 81 
 
 of her supreme effort on behalf of her American colonists 
 would be their secession. Mr. Samuel Adams and the rest 
 of the Boston counterparts of Wilkes and Home Tooke, who 
 fomented the quarrel till it became revolution and civil war, 
 should have had a little patience and waited till Quebec 
 had been not only conquered but made Englisli. To make 
 her English as she then was would not have been hard. 
 Her French inhabitants of the upper class, had, for the 
 most part, quitted her after the conquest and sailed with 
 their property for France. There remained only 70,000 
 peasants, to whom their language was not so dear as it was 
 to a member of the Institute, who knew not the difference 
 between codes so long as they got justice, and among whom, 
 harsh and abrupt change being avoided, the British tongue 
 and law might have been gradually and painlessly introduced. 
 
 While the war lasted, and for a short time afterwards, the 
 government was military, and the ultimate policy of the 
 British Government with regard to the conquered Province 
 was in suspense. That the government sliould at first be 
 military was inevitable, and French writers who speak of this 
 with indignation must remember what was the conduct of 
 the House of Bourbon or of the French Eepublic to countries 
 overrun by their armies. They should remember the plan 
 which was sanctioned by Louis XIV for the treatment of 
 New York in case it should be conquered, and according to 
 which Protestantism would have been uprooted, all property 
 confiscated, tlie inhabitants generally dei)urted, and tliose who 
 remained put to convict labour on the fortifications. 
 
 The Americans called upon the Canadians to join them 
 in their revolt. But the Canadians liad already begun to 
 ta.ste the fruits of the Conquest. Tliey liad been released 
 from tlie vexations of constant military service and allowed 
 
 (;
 
 82 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 to till their farms. Their religion had been respected to a 
 greater extent even than was required by the terms of the 
 Treaty of Cession. Not only were the parish clergy left in 
 possession of their tithes, but tlie religious orders also, saving 
 the anti-national Jesuits, had been left in possession of their 
 estates. Bourbon despotism and corruption had departed. 
 Instead of arbitrary tribunals, trial by jury had been intro- 
 duced, though the habitant at first hardly understood the 
 boon, while the Seignior thought it a derogation from his 
 ragged dignity to be judged by shopkeepers and peasants. 
 The Puritans, or rather ex-Puritans of New England, had 
 made the retention of Eoman Catholicism in Quebec one of 
 the counts in their indictment of the British Government. 
 In an address to the British people they spoke of the religion 
 of the Canadians as one " that had drenched Great Britain in 
 blood and disseminated impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, 
 and rebellion through every part of the world." Afterwards, 
 •calling the French Canadians to freedom, they treated the 
 religious question in a different strain. " We are too well- 
 acquainted," they said, " with the liberality of sentiment dis- 
 tinguishing your nation to imagine that difference of religion 
 will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us. You know 
 that the transcendent nature of freedom elevates the minds of 
 those who unite in the cause above all such low-minded 
 infirmities. The Swiss Cantons furnish a memorable proof of 
 this truth ; their union is composed of Catholic and Protest- 
 ant States, living in the utmost concord and peace with each 
 other ; and they are thereby enabled, ever since they bravely 
 vindicated their freedom, to defy and defeat every tyrant that 
 has invaded them." The Quebec clergy, however, did not 
 forget the former and as they probably thought more sincere 
 manifesto. Their weight was cast into the other scale, and
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 83 
 
 their chief, the Bisliop of Quebec, exhorted his people to be 
 true to British allegiance aud repel the American invaders. 
 To the blandishments of Franklin aud his coadjutors the 
 priests replied that Great Britain had kept her faith, preserved 
 to the French people their laws and customs, shielded their 
 religion, left the monasteries their estates, and even ordered 
 the military authorities to pay honour to Catholic processions.^ 
 Nor did the Seigniors like the look of revolution. The 
 peasantry were slow to move, rejoicing to have got back to 
 their homesteads and thinking that it was not their quarrel ; 
 the city of Quebec narrowly escaped capture by the Americans 
 under Arnold and ^lontgomery; but the behaviour of the 
 invaders helped to stir up the people against them, and the 
 Province was saved. The Governor, Sir Guy Carleton, was a 
 man worthy to command. Had he been in the place of the 
 torpid Howe, the heavy Clinton, or the light Burgoyne, there 
 might have been a ditferent tale to tell. 
 
 The danger, however, had determined the policy of the 
 British Government and led to the practical abandonment, as 
 it proved for ever, of the thought of Anglicising Quebec. 
 The settlement embodied in the Quebec Act, framed by Lord 
 North's government, not only secured to the French people 
 the free exercise of their religion and to the priesthood its 
 revenues, but established the French civil law and French 
 procedure without juries. It put an end to the military 
 dictatorship by giving the Province a governing Council 
 which was to be partly composed of Catholics ; an Elective 
 Assembly could not have been safely given to people recently 
 conquered, nor did the French themselves dt-inand it; they 
 had been accustomed only to obey, and were satisfied if tlicir 
 rulers were just. TIk; (^)ut'b('c. Act was ojjjiosed as anti- 
 
 ' Oarncau'8 History of Cmuidn, BcU'h tditioii, v<il. ii, j). 118.
 
 84 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 British by C'hatlKUii almost wilh his last l)reatli. It was 
 opposed also by Ikirke, but not on tlie ground oi' hostility to 
 the Koman Catholic religion. " There is," said Lurke, " 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 con- 
 quest 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 
 would govern it. "We know He suffers the sun to shine upon 
 the righteous and the unrighteous ; and we ought to suller all 
 classes without distinction to enjoy equally the right of wor- 
 shipping God according to the light He has been pleased to 
 give them." The earth of England unhappily was to gasp 
 and gape for the healing shower for another half-century. 
 Burke's view as to the treatment of the conquered was noble, 
 but it would have extinguished conquest altogether. Yet 
 Burke himself was no enemy to aggrandisement by war. 
 
 By this time, however, it was not only with the French, 
 or with the difficulty which their nationality presented, that 
 the British Government had to deal. After the Conquest a 
 number of British adventurers, for the most part it seems not 
 of a high class, had settled in the Province and had at once 
 got its commerce — for which the French peasants had no 
 turn — into their hands. Presently came a crowd of American 
 Royalists, driven into exile by the lievolution, and full at 
 once of extreme British feeling and of wounded pride. These
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 85 
 
 men aspired to being an oligarchy of con(|uest. At the same 
 time they thought that tliey ought to carry the British Con- 
 stitution, with all the liberties and privileges which it gave 
 them, on the soles of their feet. Both as a limit to their 
 ascendency, and as a curtailment of their British freedom, the 
 Quebec Act was hateful to them, and they laboured vehe- 
 mently, with all the engines which they could command 
 at home, for its repeal. So far they succeeded that Habeas 
 Corpus was restored. The troubles which lasted till 1841 
 had now begun. 
 
 In 1791 came, with the progress of the French Iicvolution, 
 another crisis of opinion in England, and in connection with it 
 a resettlement of Quebec. The political date of the discussion 
 is marked by the quarrel between Burke and Fox. Pitt now 
 laid his hand to the work. His plan for putting an end to 
 the strife between the conquering and the conquered race 
 was separation. He divided Canada into two provinces — 
 Lower Canada for the French and Upper Canada for the 
 British, many of whom had fled to those wilds from the 
 United States after the revolutionary war. This policy was 
 approved by Burke. "For us to attempt," said Burke, "to 
 amalgamate two populations composed of races of men diverse 
 in language, laws, and habitudes, is a complete absurdity. 
 Let the proposed constitution be founded on man's nature, 
 the only solid basis for an enduring government." Bitt was 
 scarcely acting in harmony with this oracle when he bestowed 
 on tiie French as well as on the r>ritisli Province an exact 
 counterpart, or what was supposed to be an exact counter- 
 part, of the liritish Constitution. Each Province was to liave, 
 besides the Oovc-rnor wlio represented the Crown, a legislative 
 council nominated by the (Jrown to represent th(! House of 
 Lords, and an Assitinltly elected by the p(!0ple to rejiresent
 
 86 CANADA AND THK CANADIAN ()UESTION (;nAi>. 
 
 the House of Coiinnoiis. The CJoveriiur was furnished with 
 an Executive Council, the counterpart of the Privy Council, 
 at least as the I'rivy Council was in the days when it really 
 advised the sovereign, not of the modern Cabinet. Of the 
 extension of the Cabinet system to a dependency nobody then 
 dreamed. It was assumed that the Crown would govern 
 through its representative, and shape its own policy with the 
 aid of ministers chosen by itself, much as it had in Tudor 
 England, thoujih with a general recfard for the wants and wishes 
 of the people signified through their representatives in an 
 Assembly. The whole British polity, civil and ecclesiastical, 
 was to be reproduced. Provision was made for an aristocracy 
 by empowering the Crown to annex hereditary seats in the 
 Upper House to titles of nobility. Provision was also made 
 for a Church Establishment by setting apart an eighth, or, as 
 the Church construed the Act, a seventh, of the Crown lands 
 as Clergy Eeserves. The genius of the New AVorld repelled 
 from the outset the attempt to introduce aristocracy made by 
 Pitt, as it had, though not so decisively, repelled the similar 
 attempt made by Louis XIV. The attempt to introduce a 
 Church Establishment took more effect, and was destined to 
 be the cause of much trouble. The Test Act being declared 
 not to extend to Canada, both Houses of the Legislature and 
 all the offices were thrown open to Roman Catholics. Pitt 
 thus carried what it might have been hoped would prove the 
 first instalment of Catholic Emancipation. Prejudice against 
 the Roman Catholic Church had yielded, even in the breasts 
 of British Tories, to the hatred of the common enemy, the 
 Atheist Revolution, while to aristocracy the French signiories 
 became more congenial than ever. In the British Province 
 British law, both civil and criminal, was established ; in the 
 French Province was established the criminal law of England
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 87 
 
 with the civil hiw of France, based on the custom of Paris. 
 By giving up Lower Canada to the French and to French law, 
 the Act of 1V91 finally decided that French nationality 
 should be preserved, and that British civilisation should not 
 take its place. Thenceforth England brooded like a mis- 
 guided mother-bird upon an egg from which, by a painful 
 and dangerous process, she was to hatch a French Canadian 
 nation. Xew France would soon have been cut otf from her 
 mother country by the Kevolution and the war which 
 followed. From the rest of the continent she was cut off by 
 race, language, and religion. She would in all probability 
 have come to naught had she not been placed under the regis 
 of conquerors powerful enough to protect her nationality and 
 constrained to protect it by their fears. 
 
 Pitt's policy missed its mark. The two races were not 
 separated by the division of the I'rovince. The British still 
 clung to the trade of Quebec, which their commercial energy 
 had begun to develop, and still struggled to maintain their 
 political ascendency over the conquered race. Their strong- 
 holds were in the Executive, in the Legislative Council 
 appointed by the Crown, and in Downing Street, to which 
 they had almost exclusive access. The stronghold of French 
 patriotism was the elective Assembly, in which the French 
 soon had a large majority. The French did not at first care 
 for free institutions, nor were they fit for them : an autocratic 
 governor ruling llicni justly, syiii]Kitlit'tically, and economi- 
 cally, would have suited them nnich better than any parlia- 
 ment. Neither their priesthood nor their seigniors liked 
 anything of a republican cast. liut they grasped the votes 
 which Imperial legislation had jiut intu their hands as 
 W(;aj)ons to be used for tlu; protection of their nationality 
 and for the overthrow of the oligarchy of Conquest. The
 
 88 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ihai'. 
 
 situation was luuch the same that it would have been in 
 Ireland had the Catholic Celts been admitted to Parliament 
 and formed a majority of the popular House, while the House 
 of Lords, the Castle, and the influence of the Imperial 
 Government had remained in the hands of a Protestant 
 minority. Had the demand of the French for an elective 
 Upper House been conceded, the British minority would, as 
 Lord John Eussell said at the time, have been left absolutely 
 at the mercy of the French. Patriot leaders soon appeared, 
 and oratory could not fail in a community of Frenchmen. 
 The English had brought with them the Press. To combat 
 British journalism French journalism soon started into life, 
 and, among the French who could read, became an organ of 
 perpetual agitation. The battle-fields were the control of the 
 revenue and the civil list, the composition of the Legisla- 
 tive Council (which the patriots desired to make elective 
 that they might fill it with men of their own party), and 
 the tenure of the judges, whom they wished to make 
 irremovable, like the judges in England, in order to dim- 
 inish the power of the Crown, besides minor and per- 
 sonal questions about which party feelings were aroused. 
 Controversies about the land law also arose and set the 
 seigniorial patriots among the French somewhat at cross 
 purposes with the patriots pure and simple. The commer- 
 cial interest, which was entirely British, clashed with the 
 agricultural interest, which was mainly French. There was 
 constant strife between the Upper Chamber, which was in the 
 hands of the British, who filled it with placemen, and the 
 Lower Chamber, which was in the hands of the French ; the 
 Upper Chamber perpetually putting its veto upon the legisla- 
 tion of the Lower Chamber. The French, untrained in English 
 constitutional government, went beyond the bounds of con-
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 89 
 
 stitutional opposition. Gallic temper often broke out, and 
 governors, struggling painfully to maintain their authority, 
 and at the same time to pour oil upon the waters, became the 
 objects of fiery remonstrance, sometimes even of insult thinly 
 veiled. The Home Government, looking on from afar, in the 
 days before steam communication and ocean telegraphs, knew 
 not what to make of the fray or how to deal with it. Its 
 own policy was not clearly defined, nor did it know whether 
 it meant really to bestow Parliamentary government on a 
 dependency or not. So far was it from understanding the 
 situation that in 1839 we find Lord Durham informing it, 
 with the pomp of a momentous revelation, that the confiict 
 in French Canada was one not of political opinion but of 
 race. Moreover, power in Downing Street was always chang- 
 ing hands, and was wielded one day by a Tory and the next 
 by a Liberal or a Tory of a more Liberal brand. Governors 
 correspondingly different in character were sent out : now a 
 military martinet like Haldimand, now a reactionary aristo- 
 crat like the Duke of Eichmond, anon a conciliator like 
 Prevost or Gosford. The governors who made themselves 
 popular with the French were of course regarded as traitors 
 and detested by the British. Sir James Craig, who is said to 
 have usually addressed civilians as if they needed the cat-o'- 
 nine tails, seemed to the British just the man for that country. 
 There were still among the British political leaders some who 
 clung desperately to the policy of ascendency, and contended 
 that the Province ought to be Anglicised, and might l>e 
 Anglicised if it were handled with resolution, i're-eiiiinent 
 among them was Chief Justice Sewell, a sort of Canadian 
 Fitzgibbon. These men oftcai got the ear of the Governor, 
 to wlioiii tlieir circle had almost exclusively social access, 
 and, when tlic Home Guvernnu'iit was Tory, the ear of the
 
 90 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION cuxv. 
 
 Home Goverunu'iit. As llie net result, a loyal thutigh liberal 
 historian has to say that " the government of Canada was one 
 continued blunder from the day in wliich Amherst signed the 
 capitulation of Montreal to the union of the Provinces," and 
 that it presented a painful contrast to the resolute treatment 
 of Louisiana by the Americans, who had at once introduced 
 their laws and language. It is doubtful whether his parallel 
 is perfectly correct, but he is certainly right as to his facts. 
 
 The British minority was reinforced, its sense of superiority 
 was increased, and the enmity between it and the French 
 majority was aggravated by the settlement in the district 
 south of the St. Lawrence, called the Eastern Townships, of a 
 colony of English farmers whose improved and energetic 
 cultivation presented a contrast to the slovenly agriculture of 
 the French.^ Angry questions as to the representation of the 
 Eastern Townships in the Assembly and as to the extension 
 of the French civil law to that district were at the same time 
 added to the budget of discord. 
 
 Nevertheless, compared with the rule of the Bourbons, 
 the British rule was beneficent, and the Province, however 
 discontented, had improved. M. Papineau, the rebel that 
 was to be, drew the contrast at the hustings between tlie 
 government under which he was living and that of former 
 days. " Then," said he, " trade was monopolised by privileged 
 companies, public and private property often pillaged, personal 
 liberty daily violated, and the inhabitants dragged year after 
 year from their homes and families to shed their blood from 
 the shores of the great lakes, from the banks of the Mississippi 
 and the Ohio to Kova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's 
 Bay. Now religious toleration, trial by jury. Habeas Corpus, 
 afford legal and equal security to all, and we need submit to 
 
 ^ See Lord Durham's Report.
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 91 
 
 no laws but tliose of our own making. All these advantages 
 have become our birthright, and will, I hope, be the lasting 
 inheritance of our posterity. To secure them let us only- 
 act as British subjects and freemen." An eminent American 
 judge avowed to the writer that he saw witli pleasure the 
 extension of the British Empire, because with British domin- 
 ion went the reign of law under which no man could be de- 
 prived of property or right otherwise than by legal process. 
 In the hearts of the upper and more Conservative classes 
 the British Crown had perhaps taken the place of the French 
 Crown as an object of loyalty, though of a loyalty far less 
 intense. There had been for a time ditliculties with the 
 French Church. The ticklish question had been raised 
 whether the King of Great Britain had not either stepped 
 into the place of the King of France and inherited the French 
 King's control over ecclesiastical appointments, or even 
 become ecclesiastically supreme as he was in England. But 
 the point had been waived by the prudence of a government 
 which felt its need of clerical support, and the French clergy 
 were pretty well contented with their relation to the State. 
 They were more than contented with the conduct of England 
 in waging war against the Eevolutionary Atheism of France, 
 and gave tlianks to God for having snatclied the people of 
 Canada from dependence on an impious nation which had 
 overturned the altars.^ 
 
 Tlius it came to pass that, in 1812, when war broke out 
 between England and tlie United States, the French Canadians 
 were once more true to England. The seigniors were as 
 much opposed as ever to Itepublicanism. The priests, though 
 they might have less reason than before to droad the in- 
 tolerance of Puritanism, had been set more than ever against 
 
 ' OariKaH's History, vol. ii, p. '2'2^>.
 
 92 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 democnxcy by its alliance with Atheism in tlicir muther 
 country, wliile the national aspirations wliich had now 
 become strong in the French breast recoiled from the prospect 
 of absorption in the population of the United States. In the 
 person of De Salaberry, a brilliant captain appeared of 
 the French race, but trained in the British service. His 
 victory at Chateauguay over a vastly superior force was 
 among the most famous exploits of the war. French Canada, 
 the Americans probably expected, would fall at once into 
 their arms. But they had overrated the attractiveness of 
 Republican institutions to the Frenchman, and had falsely 
 assumed that the British and their rule were as odious in the 
 French Canadian's eye as in their own. Americans are fond 
 of dilating on the harsh features of the English character, 
 which they say make England hateful to all men of other 
 races, and from which they flatter themselves that their own 
 character has become in three generations entirely free. But 
 they have twice offered French Canada liberation from the 
 yoke, welcoming her at the same time to their own arms, and 
 twice she has answered them with bullets. It was the saying 
 of an eminent French Canadian that the last gun in defence of 
 British dominion on this continent would be fired by a 
 Frenchman. True, the saying was expressive less of loyalty 
 to Great Britain than of desire to preserve under her pro- 
 tection a nationality separate from the United States, and 
 perhaps a theocracy untouched by Republican influence ; yet 
 it could hardly have been uttered if England had been hate- 
 ful. About British unsociability too much has been said. 
 It is true that such characters as are suited for command 
 are generally less amiable than strong. But in India, saving 
 the sympathetic disturbance set up in Oude by the Sepoy 
 mutiny, there has not been a political insurrection since the
 
 V FRENCH CAXADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 93 
 
 formation of the British Empire, and when liussiun invasion 
 threatened, all the feudatories came forward of their own 
 accord with contributions to the defence. Enjijland M'as riuht 
 in ceding the Ionian Isles, but no bitter recollection of her 
 rule, it is believed, lingers there. The Corsicans put them- 
 selves into her hands, and the Sicilians after 1815 would 
 gladly have remained under her protectorate. The Egyptians 
 do not want to be rid of the British, though France wants to 
 see them out of Egypt. How did France, the reputed paragon 
 of sociability, get on with the Sicilians in the days of the 
 Sicilian Vespers, with the Germans at a later date, or with 
 the nations whose territories her armies occupied under 
 Xapoleon ? How does she get on with the Algerian tribes ? 
 The Americans, happily for themselves, have not yet been 
 tried in this way. 
 
 The war with the Americans over, civil strife began again. 
 This is the proper phrase. Tlie French, the mass of them at 
 least, were not fighting against British government or connec- 
 tion, but against the ascendency of the other race in ollice and 
 in the Legislative Council. Their feeling towards the British 
 government was rather that of disappointed and weary suitors 
 than of rebels ; they mistrusted its knowledge more than its 
 intentions. They cried like their forbears in France, "AJi, 
 si le Roi le savait ! " Matters, however, went from bad to 
 worse. For four successive years the Assembly stopped the 
 supplies, so far at least as lay in its power ; for the Crown had 
 a fixed civil list and certain revenues of its own, besides 
 the privilege, in extreme need, of falling back on the Im]»erial 
 treasury ; it could even turn the tables on tlie McmlxM-s of 
 the Assembly by causing tlie Legislative Council to throw 
 out the Jiill for tlieir pay. 
 
 Since the year ISUO revolution had once more broken
 
 94 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 loose in France, and the infection had spread to some of the 
 French leaders and to some active spirits among the yonng 
 lawyers and journalists. A few of the British in Lower 
 Canada were also touched by it and joined the French patriots 
 against tlieir own race. Though there had been a good deal 
 of talk about popular education, the French people were still 
 very ignorant ; out of eighty-seven thousand of them whose 
 names were affixed to a petition only nine thousand could 
 ■write ; and their minds were thus open to any delusions 
 which the leaders chose to propagate. Just at this time civil 
 discord was approaching the revolutionary point in Upper 
 Canada, and though the two movements were distinct and 
 had different sources, there was a sympathy between tliem, 
 and the leaders were in close communication. Papineau, a 
 great popular orator, put liimself at the head of the Frencli 
 malcontents, and Nelson at the head of the British. When 
 the crisis was approaching the Home Government became 
 alive to the danger. The tocsin, in fact, was rung in ninety- 
 two resolutions passed by the Canadian Assembly, and 
 demanding, under the guise of a series of reforms, a practical 
 revolution. Lord Gosford was then sent out with two other 
 commissioners to inquire and advise. He preached concord 
 with much imction but with little success. He reported in 
 favour of some practical reforms, but against the change 
 which would liave made the Assembly master of the Govern- 
 ment, and on which that body had set its heart. To make 
 the Assembly master of the Government would have been not 
 only tantamount to abdication on the part of the Crown, but 
 would have entailed the abandonment of the British minority 
 to the mercy of the exasperated French. Eesolutions in the 
 sense of the Eeport were moved by Lord John Russell in the 
 House of Commons and carried in spite of the opposition of
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 95 
 
 Eoebuck, Moleswortli, and other Radicals who had espoused 
 the cause of the Canadian patriots. This was the signal for 
 insurrection. The French clergy either were off their guard, 
 or, there being on this occasion no danger to their religion 
 from New England I'uritans or FrencTi Atheists, wavered 
 between their love of order and their patriotism as French- 
 men. At all events, they interfered too late to prevent the 
 rising, though in time to render it if possible more hopeless. 
 All the British and even the Irish rallied at once round the 
 Government. Nelson proved himself a man of leading if not 
 of light, and, though untrained to arms, repulsed a British 
 detachment which attacked a hamlet in which he was 
 entrenched. Papineau ran away. Sir John Colborne, a 
 resolute veteran of Wellington's school, who was in connnand, 
 soon swept the rebellion out of existence, and flung the 
 American desperadoes who had come to join it over the 
 border. Some of the leaders were hanged ; martial law 
 reigned, and the Constitution of French Canada came to a 
 disastrous end. The next stage in the political history of the 
 Province is its union with British Canada, of M'hich we shall 
 presently take up the thread. 
 
 Among the documents in Christie's History of Lou-cr 
 Canada (vol. vi), is a paper on the troubled state of French 
 Canada, by a military man, whether Sir John Harvey, suc- 
 cessively governor of Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, 
 Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, or by Lieut.-General Evans, 
 is uncertain. The writer speaks with the frankness of his 
 profession. " To a peo])le," he says, " in no respect identified 
 with their rulers, French in their origin, their language, th(;ir 
 liabits, their sentiments, tlieir religion, — English in nothing 
 but in the glorious Constitution wliich that too liberal country 
 has conferred upon them, — the sole clfect of this boon has
 
 96 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 been to enable them to display in a constitutional manner 
 those feelings of suspicion, distrust, and dislike by whicli the 
 conduct of their representatives would warrant us in believing 
 them to be animated towards their benefactors. The House 
 of Assembly of Lo\ver Canada has not ceased to manifest 
 inveterate hostility to the interests of the Crown, it lias with- 
 held its confidence from the local government, and has through 
 this blind and illiberal policy neutralised, as far as it could, 
 every benefit which that government has wished to confer 
 upon the people ; and that the popular representatives have 
 acted in unison with the feelings of their constituents the 
 fact of their having invariably sent back those members 
 whose opposition to the government has been most marked 
 may be thought sufficiently to prove. Ought not such a people 
 to be left to themselves, to the tender mercies of their gigantic 
 neighbours, whose hewers of wood and drawers of water they 
 would inevitably become in six months after the protection 
 of the British fleets and armies had been withdrawn from 
 them ? The possession of this dreary corner of the world is 
 productive of nothing to Great Britain but expense. I repeat 
 that the occupation of Canada is in no respect compensated 
 by any solid advantage. Nevertheless, it pleases the people 
 of England to keep it much for the same reason that it pleases 
 a mastiff or a bull- dog to keep possession of a bare and 
 marrowless bone towards which he sees the eye of another 
 dog directed. And a fruitful bone of contention has it 
 proved, and will it prove, betwixt Great Britain and the 
 United States before Canada is merged in one of the divisions 
 of that Empire, an event, however, which will not happen 
 until blood and treasure have been profusely lavished in the 
 attempts to defend what is indefensible, and to retain what is 
 not worth havinij."
 
 V FRENCH CANADA AFTER THE CONQUEST 97 
 
 " This dreary corner of the world " may be relegated to 
 oblivion with Voltaire's quelques atyents de neige. The rest of 
 the quotation will provoke dissent. But the soldier has hit 
 the mark by saying that the only use which the French- 
 Canadians had made of the Constitution given them by Great 
 Britain was to renew in a constitutional form their struggle 
 against the power which had conquered them with tlie sword. 
 Not only were they enabled to renew the struggle but ta 
 renew it with success ; for the rebellion in both provinces, 
 though vanquished in the field of war, was victorious in the 
 political field and ended in the complete surrender of Imperial 
 power. It is the height either of generosity or of folly when 
 you have beaten people with arms to bestow on them the 
 means of beating you with votes. 
 
 Tlie French are not to be blamed in the slightest degree 
 for what they have done. Rather they are to be admired for 
 their patriotic constancy and the steadiness with which their 
 aim has been pursued. A British colony conquered by France 
 would have acted just as they have acted : it would have 
 used any political power which the conqueror gave it or whicli 
 it had extorted from his fears as an instrument for breaking 
 his yoke. The fact with which statesmen have to deal is that 
 the power has been so used by the people of New France 
 under the guidance of their clergy, and that Quebec at the 
 present day, thougli kindly enougli in its feelings towards 
 Great Britain, is not a British colony, liut a little French 
 nation. 
 
 H
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 
 HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA^ 
 
 Had the Americans been as wise and merciful after their first 
 
 as they were after their second civil war, and closed the strife 
 
 as all civil strife ought to be closed — with an amnesty — 
 
 British Canada would never have come into existence. It 
 
 was founded by the Loyalists driven by revolutionary 
 
 vengeance from their homes, who at the same time settled in 
 
 large numbers in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 
 
 Edward Island. These men were deeply wronged, and might 
 
 well cherish and hand down to their sons as they did the 
 
 memory of the wrong. Tliey had done nothing as a body to 
 
 put themselves out of the pale of mercy. They had fought 
 
 as every citizen is entitled and presumptively bound to fight 
 
 for the government under which they were born, to wliich 
 
 they owed allegiance, and which as they thought gave them 
 
 the substantial benefits of freedom. They had fought for a 
 
 connection which, though false, at all events since the colony 
 
 had grown able to shift for itself, and fraught with the peril 
 
 of discord, was still prized by the colonists generally, as 
 
 misht have been shown out of the mouth of all tlie revolu- 
 
 ' The chief sources of this historical sketch are MacMullen's Canada, 
 Read's Life of Simcoe, Coffin's War of 1812, Sir Francis Bond Head's 
 Narrative, Mr. Lindsey's Life of W. Lyon Mackenzie, Dent's Upper Canadian 
 Rebellion, and Lord Durham's Report.
 
 CHAP. VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 99 
 
 tionary leaders, including Samuel Adams, tlie principal 
 fomentor of the quarrel. The constitutional means of redress 
 had not been exhausted, nor was there any reason to despair 
 of obtaining a repeal of tlie Tea Duty as a repeal of the 
 Stamp Tax had been obtained. A group of Boston 
 republicans, who had been bent from the first, notwithstanding 
 their disclaimer, on bringing about independence, laboured 
 to excite the people and prevent reconciliation. The in- 
 telligence and property of the colonies, the bulk of it at 
 least, had been on the loyalist side till it was repelled by the 
 blundering violence of the government and its generals ; nor 
 would it have been possible to fix upon a point at which the 
 normal rule of civil duty was reversed and fidelity to the 
 Crown became treason to the commonwealth. Outrages had 
 been committed on both sides, as is always the case in civil 
 war. England, at all events, was bound in honour to protect 
 the refugees in their new home ; ^ otherwise she might have 
 listened to counsels of wisdom and withdrawn politically 
 from a continent in which she had no real interest but 
 those of amity and trade. If an empire antagonistic to the 
 United States is ever formed upon the north of them, 
 and if trouble to tliem ensues, they have to thank their 
 ancestors who refused amnesty to the vanquished in a civil 
 war. 
 
 British Canada, when it was severed from French Canaila 
 received by Pitt's Act the same Constitution. It was j)ro- 
 vided with a Governor, called in the case of the younger 
 province Lieutenant-Governor, to represent the Crown ; an 
 Executive Council to re])resent the Privy Council ; a Legisla- 
 tive Council iioniinatf'd liy lln- Ciown to represent the House 
 
 ' I'.fHiilfH jtrotcctin^; the LoyaliHfs' in tlnii- new lidiiif, Kn^^laiul votril 
 i:3,300,000 to iiKicimiify tli(;in for tlicir lost estates.
 
 100 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 i)f Lords ; and au Elective Assembly to represent the House 
 of Commons. This was called " the express image and 
 transcript of the British Constitution." But though it might 
 be the express image in form, it was far from being the ex- 
 press image in reality of Parliamentary Government as it 
 exists in Great Britain, or even as it existed in Great Britain 
 at that time. The Lieutenant-Governor, representing the 
 Crown, not only reigned but governed, with a ministry not 
 assigned to him by the vote of the Assembly, but chosen by 
 himself, and acting as his advisers, not as his masters. The 
 Assembly could not effectually control liis policy l)y with- 
 holding supplies, because the Crown, with very limited needs, 
 had revenues, territorial and casual, of its own. Thus the 
 imitation was, somewhat like the Chinese imitation of the 
 steam-vessel, exact in everything except the steam. But in the 
 new settlement there was other business than politics on 
 hand, and perhaps Parliamentary Government, party, and the 
 demagogue came quite as soon as they were needed. 
 
 British Canada had as her first Lieutenant-Governor, Sim- 
 coe, and save in one respect she could not have had a better. 
 Local history still fondly seeks to identify the spot Avhere he 
 pitched his tent — a tent which had belonged to Captain Cook 
 — when the shore of Lake Ontario, on which the fair city of 
 Toronto now stands, was a primeval forest, and the stillness 
 of the bay, now full of the puffing of steamers and the hum 
 of trade, was broken only by the settling of flocks of water- 
 fowl or by the paddling of the Indian's canoe. Simcoe had 
 a good estate in England, and had sat in the House of Com- 
 mons. He might have lived at home at his ease when he 
 chose to live under canvas in a Canadian winter and strufrde 
 with the difficulties of founding a commonwealth in Canadian 
 wilds. The love of active duty must have been strong in
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CAXADA 101 
 
 him. But the love of fighting Yankees was strong also, and 
 it led him at last into relations with Indians hostile to the 
 United States which alarmed the Home Government and cut 
 short his useful career. As colonel of the Queen's Eangers 
 in the revolutionary war he had served the Crown gallantly, 
 and at the same time had commanded the respect of his 
 opponents. His character in itself would have been enough 
 to prove that a patriot might be opposed to the revolution. 
 His intercourse with the better men on the other side re- 
 minds us of the letter of Sir William Waller, the Parlia- 
 mentary general, to a Royalist friend at the outbreak of the 
 Civil War in England, praying that the war, since it must 
 come, might be waged without personal animosity and in a 
 way of honour. The Due de Eochefoucauld Liancourt, the 
 paragon of French liberal aristocrats and of landlords, driven 
 into exile by the revolution, looks in on Governor Simcoe and 
 reports of him that he is "just, active, enlightened, brave, 
 frank, and possesses the confidence of the country, of the 
 troops, and of all those who join him in the administration 
 of public affairs, to which he attends with the utmost appli- 
 cation, preserving all the old friends of the King and neglect- 
 ing no means of procuring him new ones. He unites," says 
 the Due, " in my judgment all the qualities which his station 
 requires to maintain the important possession of Canada, if it 
 be possible that England can long retain it." The governor's 
 face, in his portrait, bespeaks force of character, honesty, 
 and good sense. His good sense lie showed by admitting, in 
 spite of his prejudice against the Americans, settlers from the 
 United States, though he was careful to guard his frontier 
 with a line of U.E. Loyalists, placing the Americans in the rear. 
 With all his fervent attachment to (Jreat liritaiii, he knew 
 at all events that Canada was on the American continent.
 
 102 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 At Niiigara, then the caiiital, in a log-house which De 
 Liancourt describes as small and miserable, but which if it 
 were now standing would be venerated by Ontario as much 
 as Eonie venerated tlie hut of Eomulus, Sinicoe assembled 
 for the first time the little yeoman Parliament of British 
 Canada with all the forms of monarchical procedure, and in 
 pbi'ase which not unsuccessfully imitated the buckram of a 
 Speech from the Throne, announced to his backwoods Lords 
 and Commons the reception of the "memorable Act," by 
 which the wisdom and beneficence of a most gracious Sover- 
 eign and the British Parliament had " imparted to them the 
 blessings of our invaluable Constitution," solemnly enjoining 
 them faithfully to discharge "the momentous trusts and 
 duties" thereby committed to their rough hands. The 
 meeting being at harvest time, and the harvest being of more 
 consequence than politics, out of the five legislative coun- 
 cillors summoned two only, and out of the sixteen assembly- 
 men summoned five only, attended. The good sense of those 
 present, however, seems to have risen to the level of their 
 legislative functions. Probably it showed itself now and for 
 some time afterwards by letting the governor legislate as he 
 pleased. The session over, they wended their way homeward, 
 some on horseback through pathless woods, camping out by 
 the way, or using Indian wigwams as their inns, some in bark 
 canoes along the shore of Lake Ontario and dowm the St. 
 Lawrence. It was not easy, as Simcoe found, to get a Par- 
 liament together in those days. 
 
 This was the heroic era before politics, unrecorded in any 
 annals, which has left of itself no monument otlier than the fair 
 country won by those obscure husbandmen from the wilder- 
 ness, or perhaps, here and there, a grassy mound, by this time 
 nearly levelled with the surrounding soil, in which, after their
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 103 
 
 life's partnership of toil and endurance, the pioneer and liis wife 
 rest side by side. " The backwoodsman," says history,^ " whose 
 fortunes are cast in the remote inland settlements of the pre- 
 sent day, far removed from churches, destitute of ministers 
 of the Gospel and medical men, witliout scliools, or roads, 
 or the many conveniences that make life desirable, can alone 
 appreciate or even understand the numerous difficulties and 
 hardships that beset the first settler among the ague-swamps 
 of Western Canada. The clothes on his back, with a rifle or 
 old musket and a well- tempered axe, were not unfrequently 
 the full extent of his worldly possessions. Thus lightly 
 equipped he took possession of his two hundred acres of 
 closely-timbered forest land and commenced operations. The 
 welkin rings again with his vigorous strokes, as huge tree 
 after tree is assailed and tumbled to the earth ; and the sun 
 presently shines in upon the little clearing. The best of the 
 logs are partially squared and serve to build a shanty ; the 
 remainder are given to the flames. Xow the rich mould, the 
 accumulation of centuries of decayed vegetation, is gathered 
 into little hillocks, into which potatoes are dibbled. Indian 
 corn is planted in another direction, and perhaps a little 
 wheat. If married, the lonely couple struggle on in their 
 forest oasis like the solitary traveller over the sands of Sahara 
 or a boat adrift on the Atlantic. The nearest neighbour lives 
 miles off, and when sickness comes they have to travel far 
 through the forest to claim human sympathy. r)Ut for- 
 tunately our nature, with elastic temperament, adapts itself 
 to circumstances. By and by the potatoes peep up, and 
 the corn - Ijladcs modestly show themselves around the 
 charred maple stum])S and girdled pines, and (lie pros- 
 ])ect of sufficiency of food gives consolation. As winter 
 
 ' ilacMuUen'a Canada, p. 232.
 
 104 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION cuap. 
 
 approaches, a deer now and then adds to the comforts of the 
 solitary people. Such were the mass of the first settlers 
 in Western Canada." 
 
 The rough lot, we trust, was cheered by health and hope, 
 while the loneliness and mutual need of support would knit 
 closer the tie of conjugal affection. To the memory of con- 
 querors who devastate the earth, and of politicians who vex 
 the life of its denizens with their struggles for power and 
 place, we raise sumptuous monuments : to the memory of 
 those who by their toil and endurance have made it fruitful 
 we can raise none. But civilisation, while it enters into the 
 heritage which the pioneers prepared for it, may at least look 
 with gratitude on their lowly graves. 
 
 With clergy the people in those days were very scantily 
 provided,^ and their work, with their home affections, must 
 have been their religion, the solemn and silent forest their 
 temple. When the clergyman came his life in going round 
 to settlements through an uncleared country was, as survivors 
 of the primitive era will tell you, almost as hard as that 
 of the backwoodsman himself. In due time the English of 
 Canada showed their kinship to those of New England by 
 setting up common schools, and their civilisation, though 
 backward and rude at first, developed itself generally on the 
 lines of their race. 
 
 Simcoe was followed by Hunter and Gore, about whom 
 not much is known, but who were evidently weaker men, and 
 failed to restrain wrong-doing which Simcoe had restrained. 
 Even of these, however, and of the whole line of Eoyal Gover- 
 nors in both Provinces, it may be said that whether they were 
 strong or weak, wise or unwise, popular or unpopular, there 
 rests not upon the name of any one of them the stain of 
 
 ^ MacMullen's Canada, p. 248.
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 105 
 
 dishonour.^ Neither British Canada nor French Canada in 
 British hands ever had an Intendant Bigot. The errors and 
 misdeeds of the Governors arose chiefly from their ignorance 
 of the country which they were sent to rule. On their arrival 
 they almost inevitably fell into the hands of the dominant 
 clique. The Home Government, from which they took their 
 orders, was if possible more ignorant than they were, and its 
 councils changed with every change of a party administration. 
 It was their doom, in short, to be the instruments of that 
 futile and pernicious attempt of the Old World to regulate 
 the lives of communities in the New World which is now 
 happily drawing to its close. For the character of the people, 
 and perhaps even for their material welfare, the imported 
 rule of men of honour, had they only been better informed 
 and more impartial, might in itself have been not less desir- 
 able than that of the party leaders who have succeeded them. 
 But party government, we w^ill hope, is not the end. 
 
 The colony was filling up with settlers from different 
 quarters. There came in, besides Englishmen, Scotchmen 
 who brought Presbyterianism and usually Liberal ideas with 
 them, Americans who had lived under a Republic, and Irish- 
 men, both Orange and Green. Political life began, though it 
 was still of little importance compared with the axe and the 
 plough. Even so early we hear of an ' independent ' Member 
 of Parliament who is killed in a duel, though we are not 
 told that the duel was owing to his difference of opinion witli 
 the Treasury Bench. On the more active and democratic 
 spirits the neighbourliood of the American liepublic could 
 
 ' Pttcr Ku.s,sell, wlio acted as adiiiiiiistrator between the^overnorsliips of 
 Simcoe and Hunter, appears to have disgraced liinisidf by raimcity in the 
 matter of Crown lands. Partinj^ presents to (lovernors were (jiieslionalile, but 
 probably had not been condemned in those days. No charge of actual cor- 
 rui)tion was ever made against a Kdviil (iovernor.
 
 106 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION tiiAi-. 
 
 not fail to tell. An iiuiependent Press was born in a log 
 hut, the embryo editorials being no doubt written and 
 printed by the same hand. Under Hunter and Gore abuses 
 had grown up, especially in the land department and in the 
 administration of justice. Reformers arose. Keform had its 
 proto-martyr in Thorpe, an English barrister sent out to a 
 Canadian judgeship, and apparently an upright man, who 
 for protesting against wrong was deprived of his place 
 through the influence of Governor Gore, misadvised probably 
 by the Council. Willcocks, an immigrant journalist, whom 
 the Governor had learned to regard as " an execrable monster 
 who would deluge the Province with blood," also testified in 
 prison to the liberty of the Press. But political conflicts 
 were suspended by the War of 1812. 
 
 Into that war the weak and unconscientious Madison 
 was forced by the violent party whose leading spirit was 
 Henry Clay, not for the reasons alleged, about which nothing 
 was afterwards said in the negotiations for peace, but mainly 
 in the hope of conquering Canada, and furthering the 
 ambitious ends of the party. England had the war with 
 Napoleon on her hands ; victory seemed likely to rest with 
 the oppressor of nations, and the United States, it was thought, 
 might share with him the glory and the booty. Let it never 
 be forgotten that the best part of the American people 
 opposed the war. Their attitude was marked by the com- 
 parative absence of attacks on Canada along the line of 
 Vermont and Maine ; though the loss and suffering fell most 
 on the maritime states of New England, and little on the 
 "West, which had driven the country into the war. Unprin- 
 cipled aggression met with its due reward. The American 
 invaders were repeatedly beaten by handfuls of Canadians, 
 and the names of Sir Isaac Brock, and his comrades-
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 107 
 
 ill-arms, including the Indian chief Tecumseh, were endeared 
 by heroic exploits to the country which they successfully 
 defended against tremendous odds. The first invader, 
 General Hull, and his army capitulated to a Canadian force 
 not half their number, and the Canadians conquered Michi- 
 gan. On Queenston Heights, the scene of Brock's deatli 
 and his army's victory, the idol of Canadian patriotism 
 sleeps beneath a monumental column which challenges by 
 its stateliness respect for Canadian art. Of the share which 
 French Canada and De Salaberry had in the defence men- 
 tion has already been made. As the war went on it became 
 more ferocious, and the inhuman burning of Niagara by the 
 Americans in mid- winter was avenged by havoc not less 
 inhuman, and by the burning of the Capitol at Washington. 
 Tlie Americans learned in time to fight well, and the 
 battle of Lundy's Lane, near the close, was the most desperate 
 of all. Till midnight the struggle went on, the roar of the 
 cannon and the rattle of the musketry contending with the 
 thunder of Niagara, and the loss on both sides was terrible. 
 The superiority of American resources also showed itself 
 upon the lakes ; the Canadian flotilla on Lake Erie was 
 totally destroyed, and Toronto, then called York, twice fell 
 into the hands of the enemy. When Napoleon had fallen, 
 the hands of Great Britain were free, the better party among 
 the Americans prevailed, and they were ready for peace. 
 Their aggression would have ended move disastrously than 
 it did had not Bakenham blindly dashed his army against 
 the cotton bales of New Orleans, and had the large force 
 which England was at last enabled to send to Canada been 
 placed under the command of a better scjldicr tlinii I'lcvost. 
 Americans say that the war did them good by consolidating 
 thi! iriiion. A nation has hardly a right to consolidate its
 
 108 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai>. 
 
 union by slaughtering and despoiling its unoffending neigh- 
 bours. l>ut slavery, from wliich the real danger of disruption 
 arose, was not weakened in its political intiuence ; on the 
 contrary it was strengthened by the war. Whatever attrac- 
 tion American institutions might before have had for 
 Canadians was counteracted or weakened by American 
 aggression. "Worst of all was the effect which the fratri- 
 cidal conflict inevitably had in renewing and envenoming the 
 schism of the Anglo-Saxon race. Before that time British 
 Canadians and Americans had hardly looked upon each 
 other as foreigners. Americans had freely settled and been 
 received as citizens in British Canada. Two generations 
 have not sufficed to efface the evil memories of 1812. 
 Ministers of discord, seeking to fan the dying embers of 
 international hatred, still appeal to the names of Brock and 
 his companions -in -arms, whose glory they sully by such 
 misuse.^ 
 
 The war over, the political stniggle began again — with all 
 the more intensity, perhaps, because the war had unsettled 
 the people and excited their combative propensities, while, 
 farming having been neglected, depression ensued as soon as 
 the military expenditure had ceased. In the course of the 
 next fifteen years a regular Eeform Party was born. It had 
 reason enough for its existence. The Government with all 
 
 ^ Injustice has been done to the niemor}' of General Proctor, whose nome 
 seems worthy to be coupled with that of ]5rock. He gained one brilliant 
 victory. It appears to be admitted that his retreat before Harrison's 
 immensely superior and far more effective army had become inevitable after 
 the destruction of the Canadian flotilla on Lake Erie. Even if, as the court- 
 martial on him pronounced, he did not conduct the retreat with judgment, 
 there seems to be no shadow of a pretence for charging him with personal 
 misconduct. The court-martial expressly acquitted him of any charge of 
 that kind. His name was coupled with a misfortune, which was not his 
 fault, and he seems not to have been popular in command ; but there is 
 apparently nothing to justify an impeachment of his courage.
 
 v[ HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 109 
 
 its patronage and iufluence, including the disposal of the 
 Crown lands, had fallen into the hands of a liing called the 
 " Family Compact " — a nickname borrowed, it seems, from 
 the diplomatic history of Europe rather than suggested by 
 the number of family alliances among the members. The 
 nucleus of the Family Compact was a group of United 
 Empire Loyalists who might not unnaturally deem them- 
 selves a privileged class. To this was added a number of 
 retired officers and other British gentlemen who had received 
 grants of lands but found themselves ill fitted for farming in 
 the bush, and better fitted for holding places under Govern- 
 ment, together with scions of genteel families in England, 
 sent out sometimes for the family's good. The Compact 
 formed a social aristocracy as well as a political ring. It 
 had, like all such political bodies, a tail less aristocratic than 
 itself. Its strongholds were Government House, the occu- 
 pant of which was all the more under its influence because 
 he had no other gentlemen witli whom to associate ; the 
 Executive Council, which was entirely in its hands, and the 
 Legislative Council or Upper House of Parliament, which it 
 also engrossed, and through which it was enabled to veto 
 any bills passed by the Elective Assembly. The Elective 
 Assembly, it will be borne in mind, could not effectually 
 coerce the Government and the Upper House, as the British 
 House of Commons had done, by stopping the supplies, the 
 Government having a fixed civil list and a territorial revenue 
 of its own, with the Imperial treasury whereon to fall back in 
 extreme need. In the Assembly itself tlie Family Compact was 
 able to control many seats, and sometimes a majority, through 
 the influence of the Government, aided by irregularities 
 in the representation. Its adherents filled the Bench, the 
 magistracy, the liigli jilaces of the legal profession, and tliose
 
 110 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 of the E[>iscopal Church, wliich at that time was virtually 
 established aud endowed by the State, liy grant or purchase, 
 its members had got into their hands nearly the whole of the 
 waste lauds of the Province, they were all-powerful in the 
 Chartered liauks, and at last shared among themselves almost 
 all offices of trust and profit.^ By the appropriation of tlie 
 public lands the Compact not only robbed the commonwealth, 
 but, as the lands were held for a rise, obstructed settlement 
 and retarded the progress of the country. It enhanced its 
 unpopularity by giving itself social airs, though the account 
 of its grand mansions, its trains of lackeys and its banquets, 
 found in some historians, are certainly overdone. Of its 
 mansions some remain and are of modest dimensions, nor 
 did its chief members leave great wealth. The Compact 
 showed its exclusiveness even towards British immigrants, 
 excluding them by jealous restrictions from free practice in 
 the legal and medical professions, " so that an Englishman 
 emigrating to Upper Canada found himself almost as much 
 an alien in the country as he would have been in the United 
 States." - The politics of the Compact were Tory, of course, 
 and it was ardently loyal to British connection, so long, at 
 least, as Toryism reigned at home. Like its counterpart in 
 England, it was closely allied with the Established Church. 
 Not all its leaders were jobbers : some were sincere lovers 
 of prerogative. Sir John Beverley Eobinson, for example, 
 Attorney-General, afterwards Chief Justice, and the ruling 
 spirit of the Executive Council, was a high-minded as well 
 as very able man, though it is impossible to disconnect his 
 name from a system of administrative jobbery, or from some 
 acts of partisan injustice. At his side was Dr. Strachan, 
 Archdeacon and afterwards Bishop of Toronto, a clerical 
 ^ Lord Durham's Report, p. 66. - Ibid., p. 74.
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 111 
 
 aspirant who had passed from Presbyterianism to Angli- 
 canism, as was generally believed, with a view to the 
 advancement of his fortunes — a man of remarkable force of 
 character, able and shrewd, though not wise, the type of a 
 clerical politician, and, like all clerical politicians, even more 
 mischievous to the Church for whose interests he fought than 
 to the State. Beside the Family Compact there was gradu- 
 ally formed a Conservative party, in which the Compact 
 ultimately merged, of men who had no desire to abet the 
 oligarchy in its abuses, but recoiled from revolution. The 
 Keform party was in like manner divided into an extreme 
 and a moderate wing. Of the moderate and constitutional 
 wing the chief was Robert Baldwin, a man whose renown 
 for integrity and wisdom is such as to make him a sort of 
 Canadian Lord Somers. Of the extreme and covertly repub- 
 lican wing the chief man at the time was William Lyon 
 Mackenzie, a wiry and peppery little Scotchman, hearty 
 in his love of public right, still more in his hatred of public 
 wrongdoers, clever, brave, and energetic, but, as tribunes of 
 the people are apt to be, far from cool-headed, sure-footed in 
 his conduct, temperate in his language, or steadfast in his 
 personal connections. AVith Mackenzie were Dr. Eolph, a 
 man of more solid ability, of deeper character and designs, 
 whom his admirers call sagacious, his critics sly ; and 
 Bidwell, the son of a refugee from American justice, but 
 himself apparently a man of viitue as well as sense. "War 
 was declared on a number of issues — the constitution of the 
 Legislative Council, whicli the patriots wanted to make 
 elective and to purge of placemen ; the administration of the 
 Crown lands ; tlie independence of the judges, which was 
 compromised both l)y their lialjility to removal at pleiusure 
 and by their holding seats in Parliament; the control of the
 
 112 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 revenue and the eivil list, besides a number of personal 
 questions, such as always present themselves in the heat 
 of party war. Among all the special subjects of controversy 
 most stir was made by the Clergy Keserves. Pitt, as 
 we have seen, had set apart an eighth, or, according to the 
 clerical interpretation, a seventh of every land grant " for the 
 support of a Protestant clergy." This, by tying up blocks of 
 land all over the country and standing in the way of close 
 settlement, created an economical grievance, besides the 
 jealousy excited by the favour shown to a particular Church, 
 and a Church which, looking down upon all her sisters, treated 
 their members as dissenters. To complicate the question, the 
 term " Protestant clergy " was ambiguous. The Presbyterians, 
 then equal in number to the Anglicans, claimed a share on 
 the ground that their Church in Scotland was recognised by 
 tlie State ; the other Churches not Roman Catholic claimed 
 a share on the ground that they also were Protestant, while 
 thorough -going Reformers and Roman Catholics united in 
 demanding complete secularisation. But all the special 
 ffrievances and demands of the Reformers were summed 
 up and merged in their demand for " Responsible Govern- 
 ment." By Responsible Government they meant that the 
 crovernment should be carried on, not by an Executive 
 nominated by the Governor and independent of the vote of 
 Parliament, but, as in England, by a Cabinet dependent for its 
 tenure of office on the vote of the Commons. They meant, in 
 short, that supreme power should be transferred from the 
 Crown to the representatives of the people. It was nothing 
 less than a revolution for which they called under a mild 
 and constitutional name. Mackenzie, who had for some 
 time been spitting fire through his journal, having been 
 borne into the Assembly on the shoulders of the people, the
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 118 
 
 battle began in earnest, and with all the bitterness which his 
 tongue could lend to it. The oligarchy from the outset 
 defended itself furiously with every weapon at its command. 
 It had before harried Gourlay — a benevolent and inquiring 
 Scotchman who came among its lieges taking notes and 
 printing them — out of his mind. It had persecuted the elder 
 Bidwell under an Alien Act. It shut up Collins, another 
 patriot, in gaol on a charge of libel. It now, having a 
 majority in the Assembly, five times lawlessly expelled 
 ^lackenzie and still more lawlessly voted him incapable of 
 re-election. The hot-blooded youths of the oligarchy were 
 hurried into actual outrage : they wrecked Mackenzie's 
 printing press, and the party paid the fine by subscription. 
 The Governors during this period were two soldiers. Sir 
 Peregrine Maitland and Sir John Colborne, neither of whom 
 understood politics. Sir Peregrine was weakly subservient 
 to the oligarchy, and he got himself into a scrape by using 
 military force in a civil case. Sir John Colborne was a strong 
 and upright man as well as a good soldier, and was by no 
 means inclined to wink at abuses; but he had a military 
 leaning to prerogative, deemed it his duty to hold the fortress 
 for the Crown, and was eminently devoid of popular arts. 
 His gracious reply to an Address was, " I receive your 
 Address witli much satisfaction aud thank you for your 
 congratulations." His less gracious and more succinct form 
 was, " Gentlemen, I have received the petition of tlic iuliabit- 
 ants." He welcomed a patriotic deputation witli artillcrviuen 
 standing to tlieir guns and troops served witli a duul)le allow- 
 ance of ball-cartridge. Mackenzie went to England, showing 
 thereby, as in fact did tlie Reformers generally, tliat they 
 did not regard the Home Government as wilfully ()])pri'ssive, 
 but the reverse, though it might be sadly misinformed. In 
 
 I
 
 114 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 England itself a revolution had by this time taken place. 
 Since the close of the war with Napoleon, the current of 
 political life, long frozen, had begun to flow. The winter of 
 Liberalism had ended ; its sun rose high again, and Parlia- 
 mentary reform had come. The change extended to the 
 Colonial Office, though there Liberalism was still limited 
 by lingering tradition. Even from the Canningite Lord 
 Goderich the agitator received a degree of attention which 
 scandalised the Tories of the Canadian Assembly. Among 
 other things Lord Goderich laid it down in his despatch that 
 ecclesiastics, if they were to keep their seats in the Council, 
 ought to abstain from interfering with secular affairs ; in- 
 timating his opinion at the same time " that by resigning 
 their seats they would best consult their own personal 
 comfort and the success of their designs for the spiritual 
 good of the people." The Legislative Council treated the 
 despatch with open contempt. By the Liberal Lord Glenelg 
 a catalogue of grievances drawn up by the Eefomiers 
 with Mackenzie at their head was respectfully considered, 
 and a reply was written promising important reforms 
 and concessions, though not the one great concession, Ee- 
 sponsible Government. The law officers of the Compact, 
 Boulton and Hagerman, were also dismissed for rebellion 
 against the liberal policy of the Crown, whereupon the 
 loyalty of the Tories gave way and they began to throw out 
 hints of " alienation " from " the glorious Empire of their 
 sires," and of "casting about for a new state of political 
 existence." On a liberal policy congenial to that which 
 prevailed in England the Home Government was now bent. 
 But to carry it out through a warrior like Colborne was 
 impossible, and he was recalled, though only to command 
 against the rebels in the French Province. Before leaving,
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 115 
 
 however, he set the house ou tire by authorising the creatiou 
 of fifty-seven Rectories out of the disputed Clergy Reserves 
 Fund. Though the number actually carved out was only forty- 
 four, it gave to the Church a substantial slice of the endow- 
 ment which she claimed. This measure produced intense 
 exasperation. 
 
 The choice of a man to take Colborne's place, and give 
 effect to the new policy, which the Colonial Office made was so 
 strange that to account for it recourse has seriously been had 
 to the hypothesis of mistaken identity.^ Sir Francis Bond 
 Head, a half-pay major, an assistant Poor-Law commissioner, 
 the hero of a famous ride over the Pampas, and the writer of 
 light books of travel, was awakened in tlie dead of night at 
 his lodging in Kent by a King's messenger, who brought him 
 the appointment of the Lieutenant- Governorship of Upper 
 Canada, with a summons to wait on the Colonial minister 
 next morning. In justice to him be it remembered that he 
 declined, and accepted only when pressed in a manner 
 which made acceptance a duty. He was recommended no 
 doubt by the manner in which he had done his work as Poor- 
 Law commissioner, by his genial temper, his knowledge of the 
 world, and the plucky and adventurous character shown in 
 his ride, which was likely to make him a favourite with 
 people whom the Colonial Secretary miglit tliink more Ijack- 
 woodsmen in cliaracter tiian they really were. Nor was he 
 
 ' The story told by Mr. Roebuck and others to Sir Francis Ilincks that .Sir 
 Francis Bond Head was mistaken for Sir Ednmnd Walker licail, afterwards 
 Governor-General, is still current, but cannot be Wdrthy of credence. Sir 
 E<lniund Head, liavinj; been l)orn in 1805, was at tliis time only u little over 
 thirty, and tliouf^li known to liis friends as a jtolitical student, he had made 
 no mark as yet in public life. It was not till nix years afterwards tliat he 
 was appointed to the Poor- Law commissionersliip, when lie came forward as a 
 public man. If such a Idunder was possilile on the part of Lord (llnicli;, it 
 was not possible on tlie ]iart of the permanent Under Secretary, who was then 
 •Sir Jamca Stephen.
 
 116 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 wanting in discernment or in force ; lie did a great service by 
 forbidding the Canadian Banks to snspend specie payment 
 in a commercial crisis, and indncing them to ride out, at a 
 sound anchorage, the financial storm which was sweeping 
 over the United States. But he was very impulsive, very 
 vain, and under the influence of success became light-headed. 
 Joseph Hume and other Liberals commended him to their 
 brethren in Canada, perhaps taking on trust the nominee of 
 a Liberal government. He brought with him as the chart for 
 his course Mackenzie's catalogue of grievances, with Lord 
 Glenelg's commentary promising, as has already been said, 
 practical reforms and an administration in accordance with 
 the reasonable wishes of the people, but not promising 
 Responsible Government, that is, the surrender of the power 
 of the Crown to the representatives of the people. If the 
 Colonial Office itself was still undecided on the vital point, it 
 could not find fault with a Governor for taking what to him 
 was the natural line. If it was itself still with hesitating 
 hand fingering the keys of the fortress, it could hardly expect 
 its delegate, — such a delegate, above all, as the horseman of 
 the Pampas, — to perform for it the act of capitulation. Sir 
 Francis was appointed in 1836. In March 1837 Lord John 
 Russell, speaking in the House of Commons, pronounced 
 Cabinet Government in the colonies incompatible with the 
 relations which ought to exist between the mother country 
 and the colony. " Those relations," he said, " required that 
 His Majesty should be represented in the colony not by 
 ministers, but by a Governor sent out by the King, and 
 responsible to the Parliament of Great Britain. Otherwise," 
 he said, " Great Britain would have in the Canadas all the 
 inconveniences of colonies without any of their advantages." 
 This seems enough to justify the resistance of Sir Francis
 
 VI HISTORY OF UPPER CANADA 117 
 
 Bond Head to Responsible Government. Glenelg himself 
 was verbose and ambiguous, but the upshot of his mandate 
 was that " in the administration of Canadian affairs a sufficient 
 practical responsibility already existed without the introduc- 
 tion of any hazardous schemes," and that the last resort of 
 the Canadians, if they were discontented, was to carry their 
 complaints to the foot of the throne, whose occupant (then 
 King William IV) "felt the most lively interest in the 
 welfare of his Canadian subjects, and was ever ready to devote 
 a patient and laborious attention to any representations." 
 Such was the atmosphere of constitutional fiction in which 
 these statesmen lived I 
 
 Sir Francis laughed when, on entering Toronto, he found 
 himself placarded as " the tried Eeformer," he who had never 
 given a thought to politics, who had scarcely ever voted at 
 an election. By the Eeformers he was received with glad 
 expectation, by the Conservatives with sullen misgiving ; but 
 both parties soon found themselves mistaken. He showed 
 his M'eak side at once by a theatrical announcement of his 
 mission, and by indiscreetly communicating to the Assembly 
 the whole of Lord Glenelg's letter of instructions. Presently 
 he had interviews with the leading Reformers, Mackenzie 
 and Bid well. In them he thought he detected designs 
 reaching beyond the redress of the particular grievances 
 which they had laid before the Colonial Office — Republican 
 designs in short, such as he deemed it his special vocation to 
 combat. Xor was he far wrong, for their aim, once more be 
 it noted, was nothing less than to take away the (}t)vernment 
 from the Crown and hand it over to the representatives of 
 the people. It cannot be doubted that the example of the 
 neighbouring Kepuldic was in their minds. ]iy Lyon Mac- 
 kenzie the baronet and man of society was jjcrsonally repelled.
 
 118 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. 
 
 " The tiny creature," he says, " sat during the interview with 
 liis feet not touchiug the ground, and his face turned away 
 from nie at an angle of 70 degrees." That Mackenzie had 
 been a "pedlar lad" and an "errand-boy" was all against happy 
 relations with the Lieutenant-Governor. Head soon found 
 liimself in the arms of the Compact, and fighting against 
 Responsible Government as democratic, American, and sub- 
 versive of British institutions. This he now deemed his 
 grand mission. Hard hitting ensued between him and the 
 Reformers both in the Assembly and out of it. He even 
 forgot his social tact and cut Toronto to the heart by telling 
 her deputies that he would talk down to the level of their 
 understandings. The Opposition played into his hands by 
 identifying itseK with Papineau and the agitators in the 
 Lower Province, whose object clearly was revolution, and by 
 giving publicity to an indiscreet letter of Joseph Hume 
 talking of " independence and freedom from the baneful 
 domination of the mother country." These mistakes threw 
 the force of the Conservative party decisively into the scale of 
 the Government. Loyal addresses came in. The Lieutenant- 
 Governor seized the advantage and went to the country crying 
 Treason. The cry prevailed, with tlie help of Government 
 influence unsparingly used, corruption, mob violence, and the 
 inequalities of the representation. A large majority in favour 
 of the Government was returned. Head was beside himself 
 with exultation, and fancied that his spirited policy had put 
 all his enemies under his feet and made him perfectly master 
 of the situation. " In a moral contest," he wrote to the 
 Colonial Office, " it never enters into my head to count the 
 number of my enemies." " The more I am trusted," he said, 
 " tte more cautious I shall be ; the heavier I am laden, the 
 steadier I shall sail." The Colonial Office had begun to
 
 VI HISTOPV OF UPPER CANADA 119 
 
 suspect what sort of an instrument it had in the man who 
 wrote to it in this style, and told it that he was aware his 
 gasconading answer to an address " might be cavilled at in 
 Downing Street, as he knew it was not exactly according to 
 Hoyle, but it must be remembered that revolutions could not 
 be made with rose-water." Still it could not be denied that 
 he had succeeded. The Colonial Office waited with mingled 
 curiosity and anxiety for the result. 
 
 The result was that the Eeformers were driven to despair, 
 and the more violent of them to rebellion. Under the leader- 
 ship of Mackenzie, the malcontents armed and drilled. Con- 
 fident in the power of his moral thunderbolts, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor scoffed at danger, sent all the regular troops to the 
 Lower Province, neglected to call out the militia, or even to 
 put his capital in a state of defence, and turned a deaf ear to 
 every warning. Toronto all but fell into the hands of the 
 rebels. Mackenzie, who showed no lack either of courage or 
 of capacity as a leader, brought before it a force sufficient 
 for its capture, aided as he would have been by his partisans 
 in the city itself, and he was foiled only by a series of acci- 
 dents, and by the rejection of his bold counsels at the last. 
 Just in time however help arrived, the rebellion collapsed, 
 and its leaders fled. A filibustering war was for some time 
 kept up by the American " sympathisers " along the border, 
 and the burning of the Caroline, a piratical steamer which the 
 Canadians sent flaming over Niagara, gave rise to diplomatic 
 complications. The American authorities were slow in 
 acting ; but they acted at last, and there is no reason to 
 believe that the American people in general strongly sym- 
 pathised with the rebellion in Briti.sh Canada, much less with 
 that in the French Province. After all, these raids, repre- 
 hensible as they are, may be regarded, like the troubli> given
 
 120 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. vi 
 
 to diplomacy about the Fisheries and Behring's Sea, as so 
 many blind efforts of the New World to shake off European 
 interference. 
 
 On the other hand, when it is said that the Canadian 
 rebellion was put down by British bayonets, let it be borne 
 in mind that in Upper Canada there was not a single British 
 bayonet when the rebellion was put down. In both Canadas 
 it was, in fact, not a rebellion against the British Government, 
 but a petty civil war, in Upper Canada between parties, in 
 Lower Canada between races, though in Lower Canada the 
 British race had the forces of the Home Government on its 
 side. "We rebelled neither against Her Majesty's person 
 nor her Government, but against Colonial misgovernment," 
 were the words of one of the rebel leaders in Lower Canada. 
 The two movements were perfectly distinct in their origin 
 and in their course, though there was a sympathy between 
 them, and botli were stimulated by the general ascendency of 
 Liberal opinions since 1830 in France, in England, and in 
 the world at large. 
 
 The rebellion was the end of Sir Francis Bond Head. 
 Now came Lord Durham, the son-in-law of Grey, and an 
 Avatar, as it were, of the Whig Vishnu, to inquire into the 
 sources of the disturbance, pronounce judgment, and restore 
 order to the twofold chaos.
 
 CHAPTEE VII 
 
 THE UNITED PROVINCES ^ 
 
 Lord DuRHAii was a splendid specimen of the aristocratic 
 man of the people, such as perhaps only the Wliig houses, 
 after being out of office for half a century, could have pro- 
 duced. From the hotel where His Excellency put up all 
 other guests were cleared out, and not even the mails were 
 allowed to be taken on board the steamer which bore his 
 person. Invested with large powers, he exceeded them in 
 playing the despot. He issued an ordinance banishing some 
 of the rebels to Bermuda, under penalty of death if they 
 should return. This delivered him into the hands of 
 Brougham, who bore him a grudge, and at once set upon him 
 in the House of Lords, pointing out that His Excellency's 
 ordinance could not be carried into effect without committing 
 murder. The Prime Minister was compelled to disallow the 
 ordinance. Durham after thundering very irregularly against 
 the ungrateful Government which had thrown him overboard, 
 Hung up his commission, folded his tragic robe round him, 
 and went home. He had time, however, to produce, with the 
 
 ' The principal sources of this sketch, besides a number of ])ainphlot.s and 
 State i)ai»crs, are MacMulIcn's History of Canada, Scroj)e'8 Liff of Lord Sijden- 
 ham, Walrond's IjcUrrs and Journals of Lord Kl<jin, Dent's IaisI Forty Years, 
 Collins's Life of Sir J. A. Macdonald, and Gray's ('nnfrderatiim of Canada.
 
 122 CANADA AXD TIIK CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 help of Charles Buller, who was his secretary, a very able and 
 memorable Eeport (1839). 
 
 His diagnosis was to the effect that the disease in Lower 
 Canada arose from a conflict of races, while in Upper 
 Canada it was political. The remedy proposed was to unite 
 the Provinces and give them both Eesponsible Government. 
 In Lower Canada the two races, Durham held, would never 
 get on harmoniously by themselves. Tlie causes of estrange- 
 ment w^re too deep and the antipathy was too strong. The 
 British minority would never bear to be ruled by a French 
 majority. Rather than this they would join the United 
 States, and " that they might remain English, cease to be 
 British." Of fusion, according to Lord Durham, there was 
 no hope. Opposed to each other in religion, in language, in 
 character, in ideas, in national sentiment, hardly ever inter- 
 marrying, their children never taking part in the same sports, 
 meeting in the jury-box only to obstruct justice, the two 
 races were " two nations warring in the bosom of a single 
 State." The rebellion had divided them sharply into two 
 camps. "No portion of the English population had been 
 backward in taking arms in defence of the government ; with 
 a single exception no portion of the Canadian population was 
 allowed to do so, even where it was asserted by some that 
 their loyalty induced them thereto." There was nothing for 
 it but a union of the Provinces, in which a British majority 
 should permanently predominate, and w^hich should place 
 the British minority of the Lower Province under the broad 
 aegis of British ascendency. Durham flattered himself that 
 by the same measure French nationality with all the 
 political difficulties, and all the obstacles to economical 
 improvement which it carried with it, would be gradually 
 suppressed. " A plan," he said, " by which it is proposed to
 
 vn THE UNITED PROVINCES 123 
 
 ensure the tranquil government of Lower Canada must 
 include in itself the means of putting an end to the agitation 
 of national disputes in the legislature by settling at once and 
 for ever the national character of the Province. I entertain 
 no doubt as to the national character which must be given 
 to Lower Canada ; it must be that of the British Empire, 
 that of the majority of the population of British America, 
 that of the great race which must in no long period of time 
 be predominant over the whole North American Continent. 
 Without effecting the change so rapidly or so rouglily as to 
 shock the feelings and trample on the welfare of the existing 
 generation, it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose 
 of the British Government to establish an English population 
 with English laws and language in this Province, and to trust 
 its government to none but a decidedly English legislature." 
 Steady purpose of the British Government ! Steady purpose 
 of a Government which itself was chanjred on an average 
 about once in every five years, and which neither had nor 
 could have any purpose in reference to its far-distant and 
 little-known dependency but to get along from day to day 
 with as little trouble and danger as it could ! Did not 
 Durham himself say, that in the case of Lower Canada the 
 Imperial Government, " far removed from opportunities of 
 personal observation, had shaped its policy so as to aggravate 
 the disorder;" that it had sometimes conceded mischievous 
 pretensions of nationality to evade popular claims, and 
 sometimes pursued the opposite course ; and that " a policy 
 founded upon imperfect information and conducted by con- 
 tinually changing hands had exliibited to the colony a 
 system of varillatiou wliicli was in I'act no system at all?" 
 Durhuin took it for granted that tlui IWitisli majority would 
 act patriotically togt'tlier against the French. Strange tluit he,
 
 124 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 fresh from the field of a furious faction fight, should have been 
 so forgetful of the ways of faction ! Sir Francis Bond Head 
 saw in this case what Lord Durham and Charles Buller did 
 not see. " So long," he said, " as Upper Canada remains by 
 itself I feel confident that by mere moderate government her 
 ' majority men ' would find that prudence and principle 
 unite to keep them on the same side ; but if once we were 
 to amalgamate this province with Lower Canada, we should 
 instantly infuse into the House of General Assembly a 
 powerful French party, whose implacable opposition would 
 be a dead, or rather a living weight, always seeking to attach 
 itself to any question whatsoever that would attract and 
 decoy the ' majority men,' and I feel quite confident . . . 
 that sooner or later the supporters of British institutions 
 would find themselves overpowered, not by the good sense 
 and wealtli of the country (for they would, I believe, always 
 be staunch to our flag), but by the votes of designing indi- 
 viduals, misrepresenting a well-meaning inoffensive people." 
 Apart from the writer's Toryism, this passage was prophetic. 
 The British were sure to be split into factions, and their 
 factions were sure to deliver them into the hands of the 
 French. The only way of operating with success on two 
 discordant races is to set an impartial power above them 
 both, as Pitt meant to do when by his Act of Union he 
 brought Ireland under the Imperial Parliament, though he 
 could not help impairing the integrity of the Imperial Par- 
 liament itself by introducing the Irish Catholic vote. 
 Head's own proposal to annex Montreal to British Canada 
 was more sensible than the plan of union, though it would 
 have left the British of Quebec city and the Eastern Town- 
 ships out in the cold. 
 
 The reunion of the two Provinces had been projected before:
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 125 
 
 it was greatly desired by the British of the Lower Province ; 
 and in 1822 a bill for the purpose had actually been brought 
 into the Imperial Parliament, but the French being bitterly 
 opposed to it, the Bill had been dropped. The French were 
 as much opposed to reunion as ever, clearly seeing, what the 
 author of the policy had avowed, that the measure was directed 
 against their nationality. But since the rebellion they were 
 prostrate. Their Constitution had been superseded by a 
 Provisional Council sitting under the protection of Imperial 
 bayonets, and this Council consented to the union. The two 
 Provinces were now placed under a Governor-General with a 
 single legislature, consisting like the legislatures of the tM'o 
 Provinces before, of an Upper House nominated by the Crown 
 and a Lower House elected by the people. Each Province 
 was to have the same number of representatives, although the 
 population of the French Province was at that time much 
 larger than that of the British Province. The French language 
 was proscribed in official proceedings. French nationality 
 was thus sent, constitutionally, under the yoke. But to leave 
 it its votes, necessary and right as that might be, was to leave 
 it the only weapon which puts the weak on a level with the 
 strong, and even gives them the advantage, since the weak 
 are the most likely to hold together and to submit to the 
 discipline of organised party. 
 
 On the subject of Responsible Government the decisive 
 words of the Durham Peport are these : " We are not now to 
 consider the policy of establishing representative government 
 in the North American colonies. Tliat has been irrevocably 
 done, and the experiment of depriving tlie people of their 
 present constitutional power is not to be thouglit of. To 
 conduct the government liarmoniously in accordance with its 
 established principles is now the business of its rulers ; and I
 
 126 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai'. 
 
 know not how it is possible to secure that harmony in any 
 other way than by administerint,' tlie government on those 
 principk's which have been found perfectly efficacious in 
 Great Britain. 1 would not impair a single prerogative of the 
 Crown ; on the contrary, I believe that the interests of the 
 people of these colonies require the protection of prerogatives 
 which have not hitherto been exercised. But the Crown 
 must on the other hand submit to the necessary consequence 
 of representative institutions ; and if it has to carry on the 
 government in unison with a representative body it must 
 consent to carry it on by means of those in whom that 
 representative body has confidence." In plain words, the 
 Crown must let the House of Commons choose the ministers, 
 and through them determine the policy. What was to be left 
 to the Crown ? " Its prerogatives." What were they when 
 it had surrendered supreme power ? Canada would have 
 seen perhaps if the imperious author of the Keport had stayed 
 to make the experiment of Eesponsible Government in his own 
 person ; and it is not unlikely that instead of the anticipated 
 harmony, discord and perhaps collision would have ensued. 
 Perfectly efficacious, Durham said, the system had been in 
 Great Britain. But he forgot that it had not been really 
 tried before the Heform Bill ; that the Reform Bill had been 
 only just passed; and that even in Great Britain the answer 
 still remained to be given to the Duke of Wellington's question, 
 how the Queen's Government was to be carried on. 
 
 In place of Durham, the experiment was made (1839-41) 
 by Boulett Thomson, afterwards Lord Sydenham, a steady 
 man of business and a prodigious worker, imperious only in 
 liis demands on official industry. He performed the function 
 of capitulation on the part of the Crown with a good grace, 
 and fairly smoothed the transition, though he did not escape
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 127 
 
 abuse. His first ministry was formed of the men whom he 
 found in office on his arrival, and who were Conservatives. 
 But these men could not accommodate themselves to the new 
 system. They fenced with the question of Responsible Govern- 
 ment, and when they faintly affirmed the doctrine with their 
 lips their hearts were evidently far from it. Nor could they 
 fully take in the idea of a Cabinet, or understand the mutual 
 responsibility of its members, the necessity for their agree- 
 ment, and the duty incumbent on them of resigning when 
 they differed vitally from their colleagues, or of going out of 
 office with the rest. Mr. Dominic Daly, for instance, acted 
 as if he deemed himself a fixture in office, whatever might be 
 the fleeting policy of the hour. Mr. Draper, the Ajax of the 
 Conservatives, being pressed on the vital point, enveloped 
 himself in a cloud of words, and said " that he looked upon 
 the Governor as having a mixed character ; firstly, as being 
 the representative of Royalty ; and secondly, as being one of 
 the Ministers of Her Majesty's Government and responsible 
 to the mother country for the faithful discharge of the duties 
 of his station, a responsibility which he cannot avoid by 
 saying that he took the advice of this man or of that man." 
 The Assembly, however, was not to be hoodwinked, nor was 
 it to be appalled by the assertion, however unquestionably 
 true, that by the acceptance of the new jniuciple " the 
 Governor would be reduced to a cipher, and that such a 
 system would make the colony an independent state." It 
 passed resolutions (1841) which affirmed i)lainly, though in 
 lihickstonian plirase, tliat in all colonial affairs the CJovernor 
 must be ruled by liis advisers, that his advisers nmst be 
 assigned him by the Assembly, and that the policy nnist be 
 that of the majority. The men of the old dispensation had 
 presently to retire and to make way for a ministry which had
 
 128 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 for its head Eoboit Jjaldwiii the Reformer with whom 
 was afterwards joined Lafontaine, a Frenchman who had 
 been the political associate of Papineaii though he himself 
 just stopped short of rebellion. Even Dr. Ifolph, the Upper 
 Canadian rebel and exile, ultimately found a place in a 
 Eeform Government. 
 
 All however was not yet over. The advent of Peel to 
 power in 1841 had placed the Colonial Office once more in 
 Conservative hands. Sir Charles Bagot, the first Governor 
 appointed by the Conservatives, was a life-long Tory, but a 
 well-bred and placid gentleman, who accepted with grace his 
 constitutional position of figurehead, dispensed hospitality 
 to politicians of all parties, and turned his energies to the 
 encouragement of practical improvements, such as making 
 roads, and to the laying of first stones, now one of the chief 
 functions of British Eoyalty. But his conduct did not give 
 satisfaction to Tories either in the colony or at home. Lord 
 Stanley, the Colonial Secretary in Peel's second Ministry, by 
 no means acquiesced in the view that his representative 
 should be a cipher and the colony an independent State. 
 Stanley's appointment was Lord Metcalfe (1843-5), a man of 
 the highest eminence in the East Indian service, who in 
 Hindostan, and afterwards in Jamaica, had governed on the 
 most liberal principles, but had governed. In Canada also 
 he meant to govern on liberal principles, but in Canada also 
 he meant to govern. The East Indian official, accustomed to 
 administer in his own person, was shocked to find that he 
 was " required to give himself up entirely to the council," "to 
 submit absolutely to their dictation," " to have no judgment 
 of his own," " to be a tool in the hands of his advisers," and 
 " to tear up Her Majesty's Commission by puljlicly declaring 
 his adhesion to conditions including the complete nullification
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 129 
 
 of Her Majesty's Governmeut." Accustomed iii the Indian 
 Civil Service, the purest in the world, to appoint his subordi- 
 nates by merit, he was shocked at being told that he must 
 allow the patronage of the Government to be used for the 
 purposes of the party in power and must proscribe all its 
 opponents. He tried to make his own appointments, and 
 brought on a storm. The Assembly carried a resolution 
 affirming in effect that the prerogative of appointment, with 
 all the rest, had passed entirely from the Crown to the 
 Parliamentary Ministers, and the Ministry resigned. 
 
 The Governor, the Colonial Secretary approving his course, 
 formed a makeshift ^linistry of the men of the old school, 
 and appealed from the majority to the country. The distin- 
 guished and high-minded civil servant now found himself, to 
 his intense disgust, immersed in all the roguery, corruption, 
 and ruffianism of a fiercely-contested election, forced to use 
 government patronage as a bribery fund, and to pay for 
 " Leonidas Letters " with appointments to public trusts. He 
 and his Mini.stry came out of the fray with a small majority. 
 His death cut the inextricable knot. With him expired 
 Monarchical Government in Canada. Nothing but its ghost 
 remained. Sir Edmund Head is said to have afterwards 
 lingered wistfully in the Council Chamber and to have been 
 shown the door by a Conservative minister. 
 
 Metcalfe was succeeded by Lord Cathcart, a soldier, st'iit 
 out probably on account of the threatening aspect of the 
 boundary dispute with tiio United States. Then canu; Lord 
 Elgin (1849-o4j, in whom again we see the public servant of 
 the Empire whose only rule has been administrative duty 
 in contra.st with the party hiader and llui demagogue. Elgim 
 w;us a Conservative, and was sent out by a Conser\ ative Govern- 
 ment, but he was calm and wise. He accepleil ifesponsiblci 
 
 K
 
 130 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Government, and even flattered himself thiit under that system 
 he exercised a moral influence such as would make up to the 
 Crown for the loss of its patronage. This, with his personal 
 gifts and graces, and while the system was still in the green 
 wood, he may possibly have done. It is more certain that he 
 gave an impulse to material improvements in the way of 
 railways, canals, and steamboats, as well as to the advance- 
 ment of education. In one case he accepted liespousible 
 Government with a vengeance, for he gave his assent to the 
 Rebellion Losses Bill. The bill was denounced by the Tories 
 both in Canada and in the British House of Commons as a 
 bill for rewarding rebels ; a bill for indemnifying rebels it 
 undeniably was. The Tories in Canada rose, pelted the 
 Governor-General at Montreal with stones and rotten eggs, 
 put his life in some danger, and raised a mob by which 
 the Parliament House was burned down. Their opponents 
 did not fail to taunt them with their failing loyalty ; but it 
 must be owned that they were sorely tried, and that tlie 
 Eebellion Losses Bill was a humiliation. Such humihations 
 are the lot of an Imperial country retaining its nominal 
 supremacy and its responsibility in a hemisphere where it 
 has resigned or lost all power. The Ashburton Treaty, made 
 some years before, cutting Maine out of Canada's side, seemed 
 to Canadians an instance of similar weakness on the part of 
 the Home Government. They made too little allowance for 
 the distracting liabilities of an Empire exposed to peril in 
 every quarter of the globe. 
 
 There was still, however, a field for which Elgin was well 
 suited, and in which he could act without the danger of 
 " falling," to use his own words, " on the one side into the 
 Tieant of mock majesty, or on the other, into the dirt and con- 
 fusion of local factions." By the adoption of Free Trade in
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 131 
 
 1846 England had cut the commercial tie between herself 
 and her colony, and deprived the colony of its advantage in 
 the British market. Conmiercial depression in Canada 
 ensued. Property in the towns fell fifty per cent in value. 
 Three-fourths of the commercial men were bankrupt. The 
 State was reduced to the necessity of paying all the officers, 
 from the Governor-General downwards, in debentures which 
 were not exchangeable at par. A feeling in favour of annexa- 
 tion to the United States spread widely among the commer- 
 cial classes, and a manifesto in favour of it was signed not 
 only by many leading merchants, but by magistrates. Queen's 
 counsel, militia officers, and others holding commissions under 
 the Crown. Elgin himself was astonished that the discontent 
 did not produce an outbreak. There was, as he saw, but one 
 way jf restoring contentment and averting disturbance. This 
 was " to put the colonists in as good a position commercially 
 as the citizens of the United States, in order to which free 
 navigation and reciprocal trade witli the States were indis- 
 pensable." To this view he gave effect by going to Washing- 
 ton and there displaying his diplomatic skill in negotiating 
 the lieciprocity Treaty, wliich opened up for Canada a gainful 
 trade, especially in lier farm products, witli the United States, 
 and was to her, during the twelve years of its continuance, 
 the source of a prosperity to which she still looks back with 
 wistful eyes. Tlie rusli of prosperity at the time turned 
 the liead of the community, and caused over-speculation, 
 which led to a crisis in 1857. 
 
 The grand revolution having lieen accom])lished, the minor 
 changes which were its corolIariL's fuUowed in its train. 
 After hesitation on tlic jiart of n-ligious IJctoiiiifrs like 
 I^fontaine, who clierished the idea of a provision for religitjii, 
 tlic Clergy Iiest-rves were Keculariscd. The same stroke
 
 182 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 knocked off the fetters of the Church of Eughind, <,'a\^e her the 
 election of her own officers, and set lier free to win back tlie 
 hearts which, as a domineering favourite of the State, she liud 
 estranged. Tithe in Lower Canada ought to have been 
 abolished at the same time ; but it was guaranteed, or was 
 held to be guaranteed, by the Treaty of Cession, made with a 
 most Christian dynasty which had ceased to reign and wliicli 
 has since been replaced by an Anti-Cliristian Ivepublic. 
 University tests were repealed, and the University of Toronto 
 was thrown open : whereupon. Bishop Strachan gave way to 
 his resentment, and instead of sticking to the ship in whicli 
 he had still the advantage of possession and of social 
 primacy, went off in a cockboat and founded a new Anglican 
 University. Other sectarian universities had been founded 
 wliile that of Toronto was confined to Anglicanism, and the 
 net result has been six or seven degree-giving bodies in a 
 Province the resources of which were not more than equal to 
 the support of one university worthy of the name. At length, 
 happily for the advancement of high education, learning, and 
 science in Ontario, university consolidation has begun. 
 
 The Upper House of the Legislature was made elective, 
 with the same suffrage as that of the Lower House, but witli 
 larger constituencies, and a term of eight years. Municipal 
 institutions on the elective principle were given to Upper 
 Canada. In Lower Canada the seigniories, with all their 
 vexatious incidents, were swept away, not however witliout 
 compensation to the seigniors, theories of agrarian confisca- 
 tion not having then come into vogue. 
 
 The French speedily verified the prediction of Sir Francis 
 Bond Head, and belied the expectation of Durliam and Buller. 
 " They had the wisdom," as their manual of history before 
 cited complacently observes, "to remain united among them-
 
 VII THE UNITED rROVI^XES 133 
 
 selves, and by that union were able to exercise a happy 
 influence on the Legislature and the Government." Instead 
 of being politically suppressed, they soon, thanks to tlieir 
 compactness as an interest and their docile obedience to 
 their leaders, became politically dominant. The Britislj 
 factions at once began to bid against each other for their sup- 
 port, and were presently at their feet. Nothing could show 
 tliis more clearly than the Eebellion Losses Bill. The statute 
 proscribing the use of the French language in official pro- 
 ceedings was repealed, and tlie Canadian Legislature was 
 made bilingual. The Premiership was divided between the 
 English and the French leader, and the Ministries were 
 designated by the double name — " the Lafoutaine-Baldwin," 
 or " the ^lacdonald-Tache." The French got their full share 
 of seats in the Cabinet and of patronage ; of public funds 
 they got more than their full share, especially as being small 
 consumers of imported goods they contributed far less than 
 their quota to the public revenue. By their aid the Roman 
 Catliolics of the Upper Province obtained the privilege of 
 Separate Schools in contravention of the principle of reli- 
 gious equality and severance of the Church from the State. 
 In time it was recognised as a rule that a Ministry to retain 
 power must have a majority from each section of the Pro- 
 vince. This practically almost reduced the Union to a 
 federation, under which French nationality was more securely 
 entrenched tlian ever. Gradually the French and their 
 clergy became, as they have ever since been, the basis (if 
 what styles itself a Conservative party, playing for French 
 supiHjrt Vjy defending clerical privilege, by ]»rotecting French 
 nationality, ami, not least, Ijy allowing the I-'niich I'ntvinco 
 to dip her hand dee]) in the common treasury. On tlu; other 
 hand, a secession of thorough-going Jieformers from the
 
 134 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 Moderates who j^loried in the name of J'>;d(hvin, i;ave birth 
 to the party of the "Clear Grits," the leader uf whieh was 
 Mr, George Brown, a Scotch Presbyterian, and which having 
 first insisted on the secularisation of the Clergy IJeserves, 
 became, when that question was out of the way, a party of 
 general opposition to French and Eoman Catholic influence. 
 The population of Upper Canada having now outgrown that 
 of Lower Canada, the Clear Grits demanded that the repre- 
 sentation should be rectified in accordance with numbers. 
 The French contended with truth that the apportionment 
 had been irrespective of numbers, and that Upper Canada, 
 while her population was the smaller, had reaped the ad- 
 vantage of that arrangement. Mortal issue was joined, and 
 " Eep. by Pop." (Eepresentation by Population) became the 
 Keform cry. The war was waged with the utmost vehemence 
 by Mr. Brown and his organ, the Glohe, which became a power, 
 and ultimately a tyrannical power, in Canadian politics. But 
 the French, with the P)riti.sh faction which courted their vote, 
 were too strong. A change had thus come over the character 
 and relations of parties. French Canada, so lately the seat 
 of disaffection, became the basis of the Conservative party. 
 British Canada became the stronghold of the Liberals. But 
 the old Tories of British Canada, true at least to their anti- 
 pathies, combined with the French against the Liberals in the 
 amalgam styled Conservative. 
 
 Irish influence, almost as sectional as the French, was now 
 beginning to grow powerful. The famine of 184G had thrown 
 upon the shores of Canada thousands of miserable exiles, 
 stricken with pestilence as well as with famine. At the 
 moment when Canada lost her commercial privileges as a 
 colony, she was called upon to perform the most onerous of 
 colonial duties to the mother country, and the duty was
 
 Til THE UNITED PROVINCES 13& 
 
 nobly performed, the medical profession taking the lead in 
 heroic philanthropy. Abortive insurrections in Ireland 
 added some political exiles. Among the number was D'Arcy 
 M'Gee, a Fenian leader who, in a happier political climate, 
 doffed his Fenianism while he retained his enthusiasm and 
 his eloquence, and for doffing his Fenianism was murdered 
 by his quondam fellow-conspirators. There was now an Irish 
 as well as a French vote to be played for. Had not the 
 difference of race generally prevailed, as we have said, over 
 the identity of religion, there might have been a coalition of 
 the two Roman Catholic races, which would almost have 
 reduced the other races to political servitude. 
 
 A struggle of principle is sure to leave some men of 
 principle as well as mark upon the scene. Such were Robert 
 Baldwin on one side, and Draper on the other. But when 
 these have passed away faction, intrigue, cabal, and selfish 
 ambition have their turn. What else can be expected with 
 party government when the great issues are out of the way 
 and notliing but the prizes of office remains ? Already, in 
 Lord Elgin's time, politics had entered on a phase of party 
 without principle. He had pensively remarked that in a 
 community " where there was little if anytliing of public 
 principle to divide men, political parties would shape them- 
 selves under the intiuence of circumstances, and of a great 
 variety of affections or antipathies — national, sectarian, and 
 personal." "You will observe," he .says, " wlien a Ministry 
 is trying to recruit itself by coalition, that no ([uestion of 
 principle or of public policy has been mooted by either 
 party during the negotiation. The whole discussion lias 
 turned upon iiersonal considerations. This is, I fancy, a 
 pretty fair sample of Canadian ])olitics. It is not even ])rc- 
 tended that the divisions of party represent corresponding
 
 136 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ( hap. 
 
 divisions of sentiiiu'iit on subjects wliicli occupy the }iul)lic 
 iiiiiid." He coiniilaiiis that his Ministers insist on appealing 
 to low personal motives, as if they did not believe in the 
 existence of anything higher, that unprincipled factiousness 
 is taken for granted as the rule of conduct on all hands, 
 and that he is himself in danger of being besmirched by its 
 mire. A period of tricky combinations, perfidious alliances, 
 and selfish intrigues now commenced, and a series of weak 
 and ephemeral governments was its fruit. The Hincks- 
 Morin, the MacNab-Morin, the Tach(5-Macdonald, the Brown- 
 Dorion, the Cartier-Macdonald, the Sandfield Macdonald- 
 Sicotte, the Sandfield Macdonald-Dorion,the Tach(^-Macdonald 
 (second) administrations followed each other like the shifting 
 scenes of a farce, their double headships indicating the 
 necessity of compounding with the French, whose vote was 
 the great card in the game. Unfortunately they left their 
 traces. " A political warfare," said Senator Terrier (a 
 Montreal merchant) afterwards in the debate on Cohfedera- 
 tion, " has been waged in Canada for many years of a nature 
 calculated to destroy all moral and political principle, both 
 in the Legislature and out of it." In such a competition, 
 unscrupulous craft, with a thorough knowledge of the baser 
 side of human nature, is sure to prevail, and to mount to the 
 highest place. It did prevail ; it did mount to the highest 
 place, and became the ideal of statesmanship to Canadian 
 politicians. 
 
 It was in the course of this unimpressive history that the 
 one remaining prerogative of the Crown was exercised by 
 the Governor- General for the last time.^ In 1858, Mr. 
 George Brown, the leader of the " Clear Grits " put the 
 
 ^ It has been since exercised on one occasion by a Liouteuant-Governor of 
 a Province.
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 137 
 
 Conservative Ministry in a minority on the question of the 
 choice of a site for the Capital, the Queen having given her 
 decision in favour of Ottawa. Though the combination 
 against the Government was fortuitous, and the question 
 not one of principle, the Ministry resigned ; it was surmised 
 because they thought it politic to appear as martyrs to their 
 loyal respect for the Sovereign's judgment. The Governor, 
 Sir Edmund Head, sent for ^Ir. Brown but refused him a 
 dissolution, on the ground that the Parliament was newly 
 elected, that there was no reason for supposing that public 
 opinion liad changed, and therefore that there was no 
 justification for throwing the country again into the turmoil 
 of an election. Mr. Brown's fortuitous majority deserting 
 him, his Ministry at once fell. The Governor was of course 
 fiercely denounced by the Grits for partisanship ; but 
 supposing he still held the prerogative of dissolution, it 
 would seem that he did right ; he certainly did what was 
 best for the country. A farcical sequel to this episode was 
 the " Double Shuffle," a name applied to a piece of legerde- 
 main by which the old Ministers, on resuming their places, 
 contrived to bilk the constitutional rule which required 
 them to go to their constituencies for re-election. Public 
 morality was outraged. The courts of law, by an extremely 
 technical construction, sustained the trick. But notliing 
 smarter was ever done by any Yankee jjoliticiaii. 
 
 At last tliere came a Ministry witli u majurity <>f two, 
 wliich afterwards dwindled to one, so that the fate of the 
 administration might liang upon the success of a page in 
 hunting up a member before a division, and the dangerous 
 opportunity was alforded to ciich in(li\i(lu:d ])olitician of 
 saving the country by liis single vote. Disscjlutions oidy 
 made faction mort! factious. Finallv there was a deadlock.
 
 138 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 The wheels of the political machine ceased to turn, and the 
 most necessary legislation was at a stand. As a door of 
 escape from the predicament into whicli their factiousness 
 and selfishness had brought the country, tlie politicians 
 bethought them of a confederation, including all the North 
 American Colonies of Great Britain. In this the antagonism 
 between British and French Canada, which was the im- 
 mediate source of the dilemma, would be merged, and 
 altogether there would be a fresh deal. The idea of such a 
 confederation was not new. Lord Durham had recommended 
 it in his Report : even before his day, Judge Haliburton 
 had ventilated the idea in Sam Slick; while Mr. George 
 Brown, finding that he could not carry his project of 
 Representation by Population, had been proposing that the 
 Union between Upper and Lower Canada should be recon- 
 stituted on a federal footing, so that they might be made 
 independent of each other in their local affairs. The three 
 Maritime Provinces — Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 
 Prince Edward Island — had, as has been already said, 
 meditated a Legislative Union among themselves ; and, 
 though a difficulty about the choice of a capital had come in 
 the way, it is likely that in time they would have carried 
 the project into effect. 
 
 Another inducement to confederation at this juncture 
 was the belief that it would bring to all the Provinces an 
 increase of military strength and of security against invasion. 
 On this head there was at the time some ground for alarm 
 on account of the critical position into which Canada as a 
 dependency of Great Britain had been drawn in relation to 
 the United States. Before the American Civil War Canada 
 had been, like the mother country, an enemy of the Slave 
 Power ; one of the first acts of her yeoman legislators in the
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 139 
 
 Upper Province had been tlie abolition of slavery ; and she 
 had prided herself on being the refuge of the slave. At the 
 opening of the conflict between Slavery and Freedom her 
 lieart had been where it was natural that it should be. 
 But after the Trent affair she had been drawn, together with 
 the aristocratic party in England, into an attitude of hostility 
 to the North. Her citizens had taken to drilling, and she 
 had sounded the trumpet of defiance. Her Government had 
 strictly discharged their international obligations, but the 
 Confederates had violated the neutrality of her territory in 
 the case of the St. Alban's raid, and some of her own citizens 
 wlio were hot sympathisers with the Slave Power had hardly 
 kept their sentiment within the bounds of the Queen's 
 proclamation. The Union was now triumphant and liad a 
 large and victorious army at its command. There was 
 reason to fear that its ire, kindled by the conduct of Great 
 Britain in the matter of the Alabama, and by the stinging 
 lantjuage of the British Press, miglit find vent in an attack 
 on the dependency. There had in fact been a Fenian raid 
 encouraged by the laxity of the American Government, if 
 not by its connivance, and somebody having blundered, a 
 number of Canadians had in tlie disastrous affair of Kidgeway 
 fallen in defence of the frontier. The second Fenian raid in 
 1870 was a mere imposture got up to make the money How 
 again from the pockets of Irish servant girls ; but the first 
 wiis rendered f(jrnii(lali](j Ity the ])resence among thi; raiders 
 of Irishmen who had fought in the American Civil War. 
 It was a natural impression, though some saw through the 
 fallacy at the time, that the ])olitical union of the Provinces 
 Would greatly add to their force in war. 'I'lie Hoino 
 AuLJiorities also applauded tlie project, in the hope that the 
 colonies would become better able to (Iffciid themselves,
 
 HO CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 lean thenceforth less heavily for protection on the arm of the 
 overburdened mother country, and be less of an addition to 
 her many perils. Some years before, Lord Beaconsfield, then 
 Mr. Disraeli, Imperialist as he was, had written in con- 
 fidence to the Minister for Foreign Affairs urging him to 
 push the Fisheries question to a settlement while the 
 influences at AVashington were favourable, and remarking 
 that " these wretched colonies will all be independent too 
 in a few years and are a millstone round our necks." ^ 
 What Mr. Disraeli said in the ear was said on the housetop 
 by the Hditiburgh Rcvieiv, which after averring that it would 
 puzzle the wisest to put his finger on any advantage 
 resulting to Great Britain from her dominions in North 
 America, and glancing at the " special difficulties which beset 
 her in that portion of her vast field of empire," pronounced 
 it not surprising that "any project which may offer a 
 prospect of escape from a political situation so undignified 
 and unsatisfactory should be hailed with a cordial welcome 
 by all parties concerned." If the same thing was not said 
 by other statesmen it was present in a less distinct form to 
 the minds of some of them : at least they were very anxious 
 that the millstone should be a millstone no more, but be 
 able to provide for its own defence at need and perhaps to 
 help the mother country. Colonial Reformers like the 
 Duke of Newcastle, Mr. Adderley, and Mr. Godley who 
 clung to the political connection, were just as desirous of 
 relieving the mother country of the military burden and of 
 training the colonies to self-reliance and virtual in- 
 dependence as were the men of the so-called Manchester 
 School, who advocated complete independence. Cobden and 
 Bright, it may be remarked by the way, though their 
 ^ See Lord Malmesbury, Memoirs of an Ex-Ministcr, vol. ii, p. 344.
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 141 
 
 opinion was avowed, never took a very active part in the 
 discussion. 
 
 A third motive was the hope of calling into existence an 
 intercolonial trade to make up for partial exclusion from that 
 American market which Canada had been enjoying to her 
 great advantage during the last twelve years. To the anger 
 wliich the behaviour of a party in England had excited in 
 America, Canada owes the loss of the Eeciprocity Treaty, and 
 the bitter proof which she has since had of Lord Elgin's say- 
 ing that free navigation and reciprocal trade with the States 
 are indispensable to put her people in as good a position as 
 their neighbours. If Great Britain can with justice say that 
 she has paid heavily for the defence of Canada, Canada 
 can witli equal justice reply that she has paid heavily, in 
 the way of commercial sacrifice, for the policy of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Under the pressure of necessity the faction-fight was 
 suspended, and a coalition government, after some haggling, 
 was formed (1864) with Confederation as its object, the Grit 
 leader, Mr. George Brown, and two of his friends entering it, 
 with Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative colleagues, 
 under the figure-headship first of Sir Etienne Tache and, on 
 his death, of Sir Narcisse Belleau. The spectacle was seen, 
 as a speaker at the time remarked, of men who for the last 
 twelve years had been accusing each other of public robberies 
 and of every sort of crime seated on llu; ^liiiisti-rial benches 
 side by side. Delegates, comprising the leading men of botli 
 parties, were appointed by the Governors of Canada, Nova 
 Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, at the 
 instance of the several legislatures. They met and drew uj) 
 a scheme which, having been submitted to the legislatures, 
 was afterwards carried to LnndiMi, thne (iiiallv settled with
 
 142 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 the Colonial Office, ami fiiibodiecl liy the Imperial rarliaineiit 
 ill the Ih-itish Xoith America Act, which forms the instru- 
 ment of Confederation. The consent of the Canadian Legis- 
 lature was freely and fairly given by a large majority. That 
 of the Legislature of New Brunswick was only obtained by 
 heavy pressure, the Colonial Office assisting, and after 
 strong resistance, an election having taken place at which 
 every one of the delegates had been rejected by the people. 
 That of the Legislature of Nova Scotia was drawn from it, in 
 defiance of the declared wishes of the people and in breach 
 of recent pledges, by vigorous use of personal influence 
 with the members. Mr. Howe, the patriot leader of tlie 
 Province, still held out and went to England threatening 
 recourse to violence if his people were not set free from the 
 bondage into which, by the perfidy of their representatives, 
 they had been betrayed. But he was gained over by the 
 promise of office, and those who in England had listened to 
 his patriot thunders and had moved in response to his appeal, 
 heard with surprise that the orator had taken his seat in a 
 Federationist administration. I'rince Edward Island bolted 
 outright, though high terms were offered her by the delegates,^ 
 and at the time could not be brought back, though she came 
 in some years afterwards, mollified by the boon of a local 
 railway for the construction of which the Dominion paid. In 
 effect, Confederation was carried by the Canadian Parliament, 
 led by the politicians of British and French Canada, whose 
 first object was escape from their deadlock, with the help 
 
 ^ In the autumn of 1866, Mr. J. C. Pope (Premier of Prince Edward 
 Island) went to England "and an informal offer was made through him by 
 the delegates of the other provinces, then in London, settling the terms of 
 Confederation, to grant the Island ?S00,000 as indemnity for the loss of 
 territorial revenue and for the purchase of the proprietors' estates, on condi- 
 tion of the Island entering the Confederation." — History of Prince Edward 
 Island, by Duncan Campbell, p. 180.
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 14g 
 
 of the Home Government and of the Colonial Governors 
 acting under its directions. 
 
 The debate in the Canadian Parliament fills a volume of 
 one thousand and thirty-two pages. A good deal of it is mere 
 assertion and counter-assertion as to the probable effects of 
 the measure, political, military, and commercial. One speaker 
 gives a long essay on the history of federations, but without 
 much historical discrimination. Almost the only speecli which 
 lias interest for a student of political science is that of ]\Ir. 
 Dunkin, who, while he is an extreme and one-sided opponent 
 of the measure, tries at all events to forecast the working of 
 the projected constitution, and thus takes us to the heart of 
 the question, whether his forecast be right or wrong. Those 
 who will be at the trouble of toiling through the volume, 
 however, will, it is believed, see plainly enough tliat whoever 
 may lay claim to the parentage of Confederation — and upon 
 this momentous question there has been much controversy 
 — its real parent was Deadlock. 
 
 Legally, of course, Confederation was the act of the 
 Imperial Parliament, wliich had full power to legislate for 
 dependencies. But there was nothing morally to prevent the 
 submission of the plan to the people any more than there was 
 to prevent a vote of the Colonial Legislatures on the project. 
 The framers can hardly have failed to see how much tlie 
 Constitution would gain in sacredness by being the act of 
 the whole community. They must have known what was 
 the source of the veneration with wliich the American 
 Constitution is regarded by the people f)f the United States. 
 The natural inference is that the politicians were not sure 
 that they had the people with them. They were sure that 
 in some of the provinces they had it not. The <lesire of 
 escaping from the political dileininii, Intwever kitenly felt by
 
 in CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 the leaders, would not be so keenly felt by the masses, and 
 the dread of American invasion would scarcely be felt by 
 them at all. There was no such pressure of danger from 
 without as that which enforced union on the members of the 
 Achaian League, on the Swiss Cantons, on the States of the 
 Netherlands, on the American Colonies ; while the British 
 Colonies in North America were already for military purposes 
 as well as for those of internal peace united under the 
 Imperial Government, so that the main purpose of a federal 
 union was already fulfilled. Without worship of universal 
 suffrage or of the people, it may be said .that the broader 
 and deeper the foundation of institutions is laid the better, 
 and that the sanctity once imparted by the fiat of a king 
 can now be imparted only by the fiat of the whole 
 nation. A compact invalid in its origin may, no doubt, be 
 made valid by acquiescence ; but the Constitution of the 
 Canadian Confederation is valid by acquiescence alone. It is 
 said that at general elections which followed, federation w^as 
 practically ratified by the constituencies : but at a general 
 election different issues are mixed together ; various questions, 
 local and personal as well as general, operate on the voter's 
 mind ; the legislative questions are confused with the 
 question to whom shall belong the prizes of office ; party 
 feeling is aroused ; a clear decision cannot be obtained. The 
 only way of obtaining from the people a clear decision on a 
 legislative question is the plebiscite. Unless the single issue 
 is submitted a fair verdict will never be returned. If some day 
 Canadians are called upon to make a great sacrifice of wealth 
 and security in order that they may keep their own institu- 
 tions, the reply perhaps will be that the institutions are not 
 their own but were imposed upon them by a group of 
 politicians struggling to escape from the desperate predica-
 
 VII THE UNITED PROVINCES 145 
 
 ment into which their factiousness had drawn tliem, employ- 
 ing in some cases very questionable means to arrive at 
 their end, and bringing to bear upon Canada the power of a 
 distant government and Parliament, which, worthy as they 
 miglit be of reverence, were those of the British, not those of 
 the Canadian people. 
 
 So far as political affinity was concerned the Maritime 
 Provinces were ready for Confederation. To each of them had 
 been given the same Constitution as to the two Canadas. 
 Each of them had a Governor, an E.xecutive Council, an 
 Upper House of Parliament nominated by the Crown, and a 
 Lower House elected by the people. The political history of 
 each of them had followed the same course. In each of 
 them an official oligarchy had entrenched itself in the 
 E.xecutive Council and the Upper House. In each of them 
 its entrenchments had been attacked and at last stormed by 
 the popular party which predominated in the p]lective House. 
 In Prince Edward Island with the struggle for responsible 
 government had been combined a war with an absentee pro- 
 prietary of original grantees, which was at last settled 
 under an Act of the Imperial Parliament, such as was in 
 those times deemed a startling infringement of proprie- 
 tary rights, though it was mild indeed compared with the 
 Irish land legislation of the present day. Patriots in tlif 
 Maritime Provinces had in fact acted in sympathy with 
 patriots in Canada, and the leaders of either party in e;i(h 
 battlefield had kept their eyes fixed upon the other. Sir 
 Francis Head, for instance, watched anxiously the progress of 
 the struggle in New Brunswick, and in the surrender of the 
 Colonial Office and its representative; thm' n ad the general 
 doom. Everywhere the war had been waged on nearly the 
 same issues, the chief jjeing the control of the civil list, and 
 
 L
 
 146 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap, vii 
 
 everywhere its result had been the same. Eesponsible 
 government had prevailed, and the Crown, under a thin veil of 
 constitutional language, had given up its power to the people. 
 About the time when in Canada Sir Charles Metcalfe was 
 striving to recover powder for the Crown a desperate attempt 
 of the same kind had been made by Lord Falkland in Nova 
 Scotia. But Lord Falkland, like Sir Charles IMetcalfe, 
 succumbed to destiny, whose Minister in his case was the 
 great orator and patriot, Joseph Howe.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 In dutiful imitation of that glorious Constitution of the mother 
 country, with its division of power among kings, lords, and 
 commons which, though it really died with William III, still 
 exists in devout imaginations, the Constitution of the Canadian 
 Dominion has a false front of monarchy. The king who reigns 
 and does not govern is represented by a Governor-General who 
 does the same, and the Governor-General solemnly delegates 
 his impotence to a puppet Lieutenant-Governor in each pro- 
 vince. Everything is done in the names of these images of 
 Eoyalty, as everything was done in the names of the Venetian 
 Doge and the ^lerovingian kings ; but if they dared to do 
 anything themselves, or to refuse to do anything that they 
 were told to do, they would be instantly deposed. Iieligious 
 Canada prays each Sunday that tliey may govern well, on 
 the understanding that heaven will never lie so unconstitu- 
 tional as to grant her jnayer. Like their I'.ritish ]irototype, 
 
 ' The Canadian Constitution is to be studied in tlie Hritislj North Anu-riiu 
 Act of 1867, on wliich abundant commentaries have appeared by Mensrs. 
 To<ld, Itourinot, O'Sullivan, Watson, and Doutre. To tlie works of these 
 learned and eminent writers tlie reader is rcferrcil for such details ns do not 
 come within the scope of this very fjencral sketili. The debate on Confedera- 
 tion in the Canadian Parliament (Quebe<-, I8(i.'i) may be consulted by the 
 diligent readier. Extracts from the principal siteakers are given in Colonel 
 i'lTny'n work on Confederation.
 
 148 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 they deliver from their tlirones speeches which have been 
 made for them by their Prime Ministers, to wliom tliey serve 
 as a ventriloquial apparatus. Each of tliem, to keep up tlie 
 constitutional illusion, is surrounded by a certain amount of 
 state and etiquette, the Governor-General, of course, having 
 more of it than his delegates. At the opening of the Dominion 
 Parliament by the Governor-General there is a paiade of his 
 bodyguard, cannon are fired, everybody puts on all the finery 
 to which he is entitled, the knights don their insignia, the 
 Privy Councillors their Windsor uniform, and the ladies 
 appear in low dresses. At the opening of a Provincial Parlia- 
 ment the ceremony is less impressive, and in some cases is 
 reduced to a series of explosions mimicking cannon. 
 
 The last prerogative which remained to the Governor- 
 General was that of Dissolution. We have seen that Sir 
 Edmund Head exercised his own judgment in declining to 
 dissolve Parliament at the bidding of Mr. George Brown. 
 But this power of control seems since to have been abandoned 
 like the rest. The Governor-General now appears to feel 
 himself bound to dissolve Parliament at the bidding of his 
 Minister, without any constitutional crisis requiring an appeal 
 to the country, or cause of any kind except the convenience 
 of a Minister who may think the moment good for snapping 
 a verdict. We here see that a political cipher is not always 
 a nullity, but may sometimes be mischievous. That the ex- 
 istence of a Parliament should be made dependent upon the 
 will and pleasure of a party leader, and should be cut short 
 as often as it suits his party purposes, is obviously subversive 
 of the independence of the legislature. Such an arrangement 
 would never be tolerated if it were openly proposed. But it 
 is tolerated, and with perfect supineness, when, instead of the 
 name of the Prime Minister, that of the Governor- General is
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 149 
 
 used. The robe of the Queen's represeutative in this and 
 other cases forms the decorous cover for the practices of the 
 colonial politician. In the case before us the arbitrary power 
 grasped by the party leader under constitutional forms in the 
 Colony seems even to have exceeded that grasped by the 
 party leader in the mother country. In the mother country 
 some good authorities at least still maintain that the Crown 
 has not entirely resigned the prerogative, and that the 
 Sovereign may refuse a dissolution, except in case of a Parlia- 
 mentary crisis, such as renders necessary an appeal to the 
 people, or when the House of Commons has been deprived of 
 authority by the close approach of its legal end. At all events, 
 in England tradition has not Avliolly lost the restraining power 
 which it had when government was in the hands of a class 
 pervaded by a sense of corporate responsibility and careful 
 not to impair its own heritage. An American or Canadian 
 politician in playing his game uses without scruple every 
 card in his liand ; traditions or unwritten rules are nothing to 
 him ; the only safeguard against his excesses is written law. 
 The Americans are surprisingly tolerant of what an English- 
 man would think the inordinate use of power by the holders 
 of office ; but then they know that there is a line drawn by 
 the law beyond which tlie man cannot go, and that with the 
 year his authority must end. Tlie politician in Canada, not 
 less than in tlie United States, requires the restraint of written 
 law. 
 
 A Governor-General has been made to read a speech from 
 the Throne commending to the nation a commercial jjolicy 
 which was not only opposed to his own opinions as a free 
 trader, but laid protective duties on Britisli goods. Nor is it 
 possible to doubt that in app<jintiiients his pcirsonal conscience 
 and lioufMir are treated as (.'utirely (Jiit of tli(! question. A
 
 150 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Governor-General, about whose own keen sense of right there 
 could be no question, has thus been made to place upon the 
 Bench of Justice, manifestly for a party purpose, a man u])on 
 whose appointment the whole profession, without distinction 
 of party, cried shame. To the appointment of his own repre- 
 sentatives, the Lieutenant-Governors or to those of Senators, 
 the Governor-General, it is generally believed, has not a word 
 to say. 
 
 We had a decisive proof of the G o vernor-General's impotence 
 in the case of Mr. Letellier de St. Just, who was deposed from 
 the Lieutenant-Governorship of Quebec. ]\Ir. Letellier had 
 been appointed by a Liberal Government. He quarrelled with 
 a Provincial Ministry of the opposite party for breach of rules, 
 turned it out, and called in other advisers, who, upon an 
 appeal to the Province, were sustained, though by a bare 
 majority. The Quebec Conservatives were infuriated at the 
 loss of the Provincial patronage. In the Dominion Senate, 
 where their party had a majority, they at once got a vote of 
 censure passed on the Lieutenant-Governor. They had not 
 at that time a majority in the House of Commons, but a 
 general election having soon after given tliem a majority, 
 they passed a vote of censure in the Lower House also. The 
 party leader thereupon, as Prime IMinister, " advised " tlie 
 Governor-General to dismiss Mr. Letellier. It was simply 
 an act of party vengeance, Mr. Letellier having done nothing 
 which was not strictly within the letter of the Constitution, 
 and having been sustained by the people of his province. 
 The Act of Confederation required that for the dismissal of a 
 Lieutenant-Governor a cause should be assigned. The only 
 cause assigned was, that after the adverse vote of the Dominion 
 Parliament " his usefulness had ceased." Evidently this was 
 no cause at all, but a mere mockery. What the law required
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 151 
 
 was the assignment of a specific breach of duty, of which it 
 could not be pretended that the Lieutenant-Governor had 
 been guilty. The votes of the Senate and the House of 
 Commons were nothing but manifestations of party resent- 
 ment. Their character was marked by the manner in whicli 
 they had been passed ; not in the same session, so as to re- 
 present the judgment of Parliament, but in different sessions, 
 the vote of the House of Commons being delayed till the 
 result of the election had given the party power in that 
 House. It was evident that the conscience of the Governor- 
 General recoiled from this treatment of his own representative, 
 whose rights and character he was specially bound in honour 
 to guard. He referred to the Colonial Office, but the Colonial 
 Office bade him obey his constitutional advisers. He might 
 have done the Colony a great service, though at some risk to 
 himself, had he told the Minister that on questions of policy 
 he was ready to be guided by others, but that on questions of 
 justice, especially in a case where his own deputy was 
 concerned, he had a conscience of his own, and that he would 
 do wliat honour bade him or go home. The Minister would 
 probably have given way, and at all events a most wholesome 
 lesson would have been read. But grandees do not run risks. 
 Noblesse oblige is the reverse of the truth. The nobleman is 
 rather apt to feel that even if he does wliat would compromise 
 another, liis rank will carry him througli. 
 
 The Governor-Generalship, it is said, saves Canaihi from 
 presidential elections. Presidential elections are an evil, and 
 Its at present conducted by popular vote tliey are a morbid 
 excrescence on the American Constitution, since the framers 
 intended the electoral college really to clfit. tlKtugh it is 
 strange that they should not have foreseen tiiat election by 
 a colleiie chosen f(jr the nonce would result in a inundate.
 
 152 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION i iiAr. 
 
 But the Govenior-Generalslii]) is not the I'residency of 
 Canada : the Prime Ministership is tlie Presidency, and the 
 general election in which the Prime Ministership and Cabinet 
 offices are the prize is little less of an evil than the 
 presidential election. The same answer meets the allegation 
 tliat the Governor -Generalship or the monarchical element 
 wliich it represents is a pledge of political stability. The 
 Government of Canada has of late years presented an appear- 
 ance of stability, the account of which will be given hereafter. 
 But in Australia ministers, notwithstanding the presence of a 
 governor, are as fleeting as shadows chasing each other over 
 a field, and the same was the case in Canada before Con- 
 federation. The real government is liable to constant change, 
 which is no more tempered or countervailed by the per- 
 manency of the Governor than by the permanency of the 
 Sergeant-at-Arms. An American government is comparatively 
 stable, having a fixed tenure for four years. 
 
 The constitutional hierophants of Ottawa, such as Mr. 
 Alpheus Todd, assure the uninitiated in solemn tones that in 
 spite of appearances which may be deceptive to the vulgar, 
 the Governor-Generalship is an institution of great practical 
 value, as well as of most awful dignity. Highly deceptive to 
 the vulgar, it must be owned, the appearances are. 
 
 If it is said that the service is not political but social, and 
 that the little Court of Ottawa is needed to refine colonial 
 manners, the answer is first, that the benefit must be limited 
 to the Court circle ; and secondly, that colonial manners do 
 not stand in need of imported refinement. Nobody who lives 
 long on the American Continent can fail to be struck with 
 the fact that vulgarity is but the shadow of caste. The man- 
 ners of men who have raised themselves from the ranks of 
 industry are in all essential respects perfectly good, so long
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 163 
 
 as the men are allowed to remain in their native element of 
 equality and not infected with aristocratic notions or set 
 strivincT to imitate an alien model. If there is anything in 
 Canadian manners which is traceable to the Court at Ottawa, 
 it is not that which is best in them. Indeed, if the stories 
 which sometimes get abroad of Ottawa balls and suppers are 
 true, Ottawa refinement itself occasionally stands in need of 
 refining. 
 
 The example of an expensive household or of profuse 
 entertainments is of questionable value. One Governor- 
 General was specially noted for the profusion of the entertain- 
 ments by which he courted popularity, as well as by the 
 increase which he made in the cost of his office to the 
 country ; and it is said tliat officials with small salaries at 
 Ottawa rue his fancy balls to this hour. 
 
 The same Governor- General also courted popularity by 
 oratorical tours, or, to use the common phrase, by going on the 
 stump. The orations necessarily consist largely of flattery, 
 and the effect of flattery on a young nation is pretty much 
 the same as on a young man. 
 
 When Royalty became a denizen of Government House 
 an attempt was made by some zealous officials to intro- 
 duce monarchical etiquette. An enthusiastic professor of 
 deportment went over privately to consult the Lord Cham- 
 berlain, and published a manual for tlie instruction of 
 ignorant Canadians. The keynote is struck by the exordium, 
 " What on this earthly sphere is more encliantingly exclusive 
 than Her Majesty's Court" — a doubtful assertion, perhaps, 
 since the powers of wealth have triumphantly forced their 
 way into those precincts. " The impression," proceeds the 
 I'rofijssor, "made l»y the debutante is a lasting one in 
 England, consequently art is brought to bear, and the
 
 164 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 curtseys, the walk, the exteiuling the ana for the train, and 
 each physical movement are practised repeatedly before some 
 competent teacher of deportment, who charges well for the 
 lessons." Imagine the ladies of a commercial colony fired 
 with this ambition ! The genius of the Continent rejected 
 etiquette as it liad rejected Pitt's prolfered boon of a 
 hereditary peerage. When an edict went forth that at Court 
 balls ladies should appear in low dresses, unless tliey could 
 obtain from their physicians a dispensation on the ground of 
 health, a comic journal had a print of a bare-footed servant 
 girl asking the master of the ceremonies whether nakedness 
 at that extremity of the person would not do as well. 
 
 As an object of social worship the representative of 
 Eoyalty keeps his place. Like Eoyalty itself, he is taken 
 about to open institutions or exhibitions ; words of approbation 
 which he may be pleased to utter are recorded as oracles, and 
 sacrificial banquets are offered to him. What is the social 
 value of such a worship every one must determine ibr himself. 
 In England it seems that the worship goes on while the 
 smallest and most necessary payment for the support of the 
 idol raises a storm of popular anger. 
 
 The practical aim of a Governor- General is social popu- 
 larity combined with political peace. So long as he simply 
 gives way in everything to the politicians, he will have a 
 quiet course, and at the end of it he will go away amidst 
 general plaudits with the reputation of having " governed " 
 Canada well. Discerning eulogists will even point out to 
 you the particular gifts of mind and temper which have 
 enabled him to administer his province with so much success. 
 He is then qualified in the eyes of the Home Government for 
 a higher post, and India will be fortunate if she does not some 
 day get from this manufactory of spurious reputations a less
 
 via THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 155 
 
 competent Viceroy than Lord Lansdowne. Connection and 
 responsibility end together with the parting salute. 
 
 As an authoritative informant of the Home Government 
 about Canadian atlairs and sentiment the Governor- General, 
 besides being a newcomer to the country, lies under the 
 twofold disadvantage of being a personage to whom it is 
 difficult to speak the truth, and of being always in an official 
 capital where, on certain subjects, not much truth is 
 spoken. If, like Haroun Alraschid, he could go about in 
 disguise conversing with his lieges, he might learn and impart 
 to the Colonial Office what would be worth knowing. As it 
 is, when we read the disquisitions of an ex-Governor-General 
 on the country which was the scene of his administration, we 
 at once become sensible of the happy environment in which 
 during his tenure of office he has lived. 
 
 There are those who think that figments, though worse 
 than useless in any other department, are useful in politics, and 
 that there is an occult virtue in the practice of fetichism and 
 hypocrisy. Only let those theorists remember that the rever- 
 ence which is bestowed on the false is withdrawn from the 
 real ruler, and that servile worship of a fetich and manly 
 respect for lawful authority are not always found dwelling in 
 the same breast. Democracy has its perils, Heaven knows. 
 Let us look them in the face and deal with them as best we 
 may. To hide them from us by throwing over them the veil 
 of a mock monarchy is not to help us in our endeavour. 
 
 The same people will also believe in the usefulness of 
 baronetcies and knighthoods, whicii have suivived the 
 catastrophe of the abortive Canadian peerage, and of which 
 the Governor-General is the supposed conduit, though it is 
 surmised that of late the party leader has virtually got this 
 prerogative also into his hands, and added it to his general
 
 156 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN (.lUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 fund ui' iutlueuce. Let us have titles of honour by all means, 
 so long as they denote a public trust. Let the Councillor of 
 State or the Judge be styled Honourable, and the Mayor 
 His Worship. Let scientific and military eminence he 
 marked by their appropriate decorations. There is no reason 
 why Democracy should deny herself such emblems of civil 
 dignity and incentives of generous ambition any more than 
 there is a reason why she should deny herself rational and 
 symbolic state. She too must have her resthetics. But titles 
 of chivalry do not denote a public trust. In the age of 
 chivalry they had a meaning ; now they are merely personal 
 decorations, and if they serve any public object it is that of 
 introducing into the Colonies, in the supposed interest of 
 British aristocracy, sentiments at variance with those on 
 which, in such communities, public effort and public virtue 
 must be based. They can feed, to put it plainly, nothing but 
 liunkeyism. Some of the worthiest men in Canada have 
 refused them. They are given sometimes with little discern- 
 ment ; they have even served to gild dishonour. Baronetcies, 
 the fashion of creating which has of late been revived, are 
 open to the further objection which was urged with decisive 
 force against the creation of an hereditary peerage in a 
 country where there are no entailed estates. We may some 
 day have a baronet blacking shoes. To make a Canadian 
 politician a baronet is to tempt and almost to constrain him 
 to use his political opportunities for the purpose of accu- 
 mulating a fortune to bequeath to his son. This is no 
 imaginary danger. Nor when honour has been forfeited can 
 the title and its influence be annulled. 
 
 Aristocracy had its uses in its time. That it served as 
 an orsanisinff force in a barbarous age, no one versed in 
 history will deny. The feudal lord was not a sybarite with a
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 167 
 
 title ; sheathed iu iron, he lived, as a leader, a magistrate, and 
 a rural law-giver, laborious days. Possibly the services of the 
 institution may not yet be exhausted in the lands to which it 
 is native : there it may at all events be destined to smooth 
 a transition. But it has no business in the New World, and 
 the attempt to import it never has done and never can do 
 anything but mischief. To make a colony an outpost of 
 aristocracy for the purpose of maintaining that institution 
 at home is to sacrifice the political character of an American 
 community to the interest of a European caste. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governorships are bestowed by the party 
 leader invariably on his partisans and usually on worn-out 
 politicians. That they form a decent retirement for those who 
 have spent their energies in public life but on whom the com- 
 munity would not consent to bestow pensions, forms the best 
 defence for their existence. Political value they have none. 
 The theory is that Government House in each proyince forms 
 a centre of society : but the men after their stormy lives are 
 generally too weary for social effort and the salary is not 
 sufficient for hospitality on a large scale. Men of wealth and 
 high social position, who might fulfil the social ideal, are not 
 likely to take the appointments. As one of them said 
 bluntly, they do not want to keep a hotel for five years. 
 
 Passing through the false front into the real edifice we 
 find tliat it is a federal republic after the American model, 
 thougli with certain modifications derived partly from the 
 Priti.sii source. The Dominion Legislature answers to Con- 
 gress, the Provincial Legislature answers to the State J^'gis- 
 lature, tlie Dominion Prime Minister and ("ahiiiet answer to 
 the I'resident and his Cabinet, tlic rroviii<ial I'linii- Ministers 
 an<l their Cabinets to the Governor mid ( )Hiccrs of States. 
 The relations of the Province and the l)ominioii t(j i-aeh other
 
 168 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chav. 
 
 are in the iimiu the same as those of the State and the 
 Federation. Were a Canadian Province to be turned at once 
 into a State of the Union the change would be felt by the 
 people only in a certain increase of self-government. The 
 ])olitical machinery would act as it does now. 
 
 The deviations in tlie Canadian copy from the American 
 original are chiefly in the direction of an increase of the 
 Federal power. The framers of the Canadian Constitution 
 fancied that American secession was an awful warning 
 against leaving the Federal Government too weak. In this 
 they were mistaken, for slavery and slavery alone was the 
 cause of secession, and had the Federal Government pos- 
 sessed authority to deal with the Southern institution and pro- 
 ceeded to exert it, that would only have precipitated the 
 catastrophe. Perhaps, however, the Canadian legislators were 
 also -swayed by the centralising tendency and sentiment of the 
 monarchy vith which tliey were connected. Their bias at all 
 events was in favour of central power. Some of them would 
 have preferred a legislative union had they been able to over- 
 come the centrifugal nationalism of Quebec. To the Federal 
 Government and Legislature in Canada belong criminal law 
 and procedure. To the Federal Government belongs the 
 appointment of all the judges. To the Federal Legislature 
 belong the regulation of trade and the law of marriage. The 
 Federal Government has the direct command of the Militia, 
 whereas in the United States the President can only call upon 
 the State Government for military aid. It has by the Con- 
 stitution a political veto on all State legislation, whereas in 
 the American Picpublic State legislation can be cancelled only 
 on legal grounds by the Supreme Court. And whereas by 
 the American Constitution all powers not given to the Federa- 
 tion are left in the States, by the Canadian Constitution all
 
 VIII THE FEDEIL\L CONSTITUTION 159 
 
 powers not given to tlie provinces are left in the Federation, 
 TWs last distinction is important. The origin of it was, that 
 the sovereign power which gave birth to the Confederation 
 had its seat not, as in the case of the Americans, in the 
 several federating communities, but in the Crown and Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain. 
 
 About the nature and importance of the national veto on 
 provincial legislation doubts have recently been raised from 
 a motive which will presently be explained, but there were 
 no doubts at the time. Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Eose said 
 in the debate : " The other point which commends itself so 
 strongly to my mind is this, that there is a veto power on 
 the part of the General Government over all the legislation 
 of the Local Parliaments. ... I believe this power of 
 negative, this power of veto, this controlling power on the 
 part of the Central Government, is the best protection and 
 safeguard of the system ; and if it had not been provided 1 
 would have felt it very difficult to reconcile it to my sense of 
 duty to vote for the resolutions. Pkit this power having 
 been given to the Central Government it is to my mind, in 
 conjunction with the power of naming the local governors, 
 the appointment and payment of tlie judiciary, one of tlie 
 best features of the scheme, without which it would certainly, 
 in my opinion, have been open to very serious objection." 
 This plainly refers to a power of political control to be exer- 
 cised in the interest of the nation, not to a men; power of 
 restraining illegal stretches of jurisdictiun, a functiun which 
 belongs not to a government but to a court of law. Again, 
 Mr. Mackenzie, afterwards Premier, said : " The veto power is 
 necessary in order that the General Government may have a 
 control over the proceedings of the I>ocal Ij-gislature to a 
 certain extent. The want of this jiowcr was the great source
 
 160 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 of weakness in tlic United States, and it is a want that will 
 be remedied by an aniendnient in their Constitution very 
 soon." This could not refer to a mere power of restraining 
 excesses of jurisdiction on the part of State Legislatures, 
 since such a power is already possessed and constantly 
 exercised by the Supreme Court. In like manner Mr. 
 Dorion, Mr. Joly, and other opponents of the scheme assume 
 that the veto is general, and regard it accordingly with 
 suspicion. The point of these remarks will hereafter appear. 
 
 Thus, constitutionally, the Canadian Dominion is less 
 federal and more national than the American Eepublic. 
 Practically the reverse is the fact, because in the case of the 
 American Eepublic the unifying forces, economical and 
 general, of which the power increases with the advance of 
 commerce and civilisation, have free action, the barrier of 
 slavery being now removed ; whereas in the case of Canada 
 their action is paralysed by geographical dispersion, com- 
 mercial isolation, and the separatist nationality of French 
 Quebec. 
 
 The American President is elected by the people at fixed 
 periods, and for a term certain. Ho and his Cabinet have no 
 seats in Congress, nor has he any part in legislation except 
 his veto and such influence as his position in the party may 
 enable him to exercise behind the scenes. The framers of 
 the American Constitution were full of Montesquieu's false 
 notion about the necessity of entirely separating the executive 
 from the legislative, and probably also of that supersensitive 
 dread of the presence of placemen in the popular assembly 
 which in England gave birth to the Place Bills. The 
 Canadian Premier, like the British Premier, is elected by the 
 people at periods rendered uncertain by the power of dissolu- 
 tion, and for so long only as he can keep his majority in the
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 161 
 
 House of Commons. On the other liand, he and his Cabinet 
 have seats in Parliament, where, with their majority at their 
 back, they initiate the most important part of legisLation and 
 control the whole of it. Assuming that government is to be 
 by party, the Canadian and British system has clearly the 
 advantage in respect to the conduct of legislation. The 
 American House of Representatives is apt for want of leader- 
 ship to become a legislative chaos. Order and the progress 
 of business are secured only by allowing the speaker, who 
 ought as chairman to be neutral, to act as the party leader of 
 the majority, and control legislation by a partisan nomination 
 of the committees. A speaker having thought it right to con- 
 tine himself to his proper duties, anarchy prevailed and legis- 
 lation was at a standstill till a masterful and unscrupulous 
 partisan got into the chair, when legislation and expenditure 
 marched with a vengeance. Tiie advantage, we say, depends 
 on the existence of government by party ; for, were party 
 out of the way, there seems to be no reason why a legislative 
 assembly with a competent chairman should not get on with 
 its business as well as an assembly of any other kind. 
 Another plea which may be "made for the Canadian system 
 is tliat by a sure and constitutional process it brings the 
 executive into agreement with the legislature and with the 
 people by whom the legislature is elected, whereas wlien 
 President Andrew Johnson entered upon a course of policy 
 directly at variance with the policy of Congress no renietly 
 could be found except the very rougli remedy of impeach- 
 ment. It is on this account that some Canailians boast 
 that tlieir .system is more democratic than that of tlie 
 Americans, and taunt the American llejtublic with being 
 monarcliical and even autocratic. 
 
 (h\ the other hand, the American system gives the country 
 
 .M
 
 162 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION cnAi'. 
 
 a stable executive independent of the il actuating majorities 
 of the legishitive chamber and of those shifting combinations, 
 jealousies, and cabals which in France, and not in France 
 alone, have been making it almost impossible to find a firm 
 foundation for a government. The American Executive for 
 the four years of the Presidential term is independent; it 
 would be so at least were it not for the baleful influence of 
 the power of re-election. As it is, the veto is sometimes 
 exercised most uprightly and with the best effect, while the 
 Presidential Government, raised in some measure above the 
 party strife, enjoys a dignity and a measure of national respect 
 which to the party Premiership are denied. A Canadian 
 Premier always engaged in party fighting and manoeuvring, 
 perpetually on the stump, stoops to acts which, if done by an 
 American President, would cause great scandal. The American 
 system moreover has the advantage of sometimes admitting 
 to the Cabinet and to the highest service of the State men of 
 high administrative ability who are not party managers and 
 rhetoricians. Such selections indeed have been not un- 
 frequently made. Turgot would probably have been a bad 
 Parliamentary leader and a failure on the stump : he could 
 hardly have made his M^ay into a Parliamentary Cabinet ; but 
 in an American Cabinet, supposing his name had become 
 known as an administrator and a master of political science, 
 lie might have found a place. Of the Presidents themselves, 
 several have been men who, thougli attached to the party by 
 which they were nominated, had not spent their lives in the 
 party war, and their patriotism and breadth of view have been 
 greater on that account. 
 
 \Vlien we come to compare the Canadian Senate with its 
 American counterpart, though the form and the nominal 
 power are the same, the actual difference is great indeed.
 
 vui THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX 163 
 
 The American Senate, elected by the State Legislatures, is in 
 the full sense of the term a co-ordinate branch of the Federal 
 Congress with the House of Eepresentatives, rejects the Bills 
 passed by the House with perfect freedom, and with equal 
 freedom initiates legislation on all subjects except finance. 
 It has a veto on appointments, and can in this way put 
 strong though irregular pressure on the Executive. It has a 
 veto on all treaties, as Foreign Governments which have the 
 misfortune to negotiate with that of the United States know 
 to their cost. Of late, under a violent stress of party exigency, 
 it has been bringing a stain upon its record. It has been 
 consenting to a Tariff Bill, the folly of which no man of sense 
 can fail to see, and doing in regard to the admission of new 
 States and the decision of Senatorial elections what no party 
 exigency can excuse. Faction corrupts all that it touches. 
 There is also a growing belief that wealth exerts an undue 
 intiuence both directly and indirectly in Senatorial elec- 
 tions. Still the power of the Senate remains tlie same ; its 
 authority is generally regarded by Americans as the sheet- 
 anchor of the State, and a seat in it is, after the Presidency, 
 the highest prize of American ambition. The Canadian 
 Senate nominated by the Crown is, on the contraiy, as nearly 
 a cipher as it is possible f(jr an assembly legally invested with 
 large powers to be. The question as to the constitution of 
 the Upper House when it came before the framors of the 
 Dominion Constitution was not mooted in Canada for the first 
 time. Under the old Constitution, first of the separate tlien of 
 the United Provinces, the Ix^gislative Council, as tlir Upper 
 House was tlien called, liad been nominated by the Crown. 
 This system had been pronounced a failure ami a < liaiigc to 
 the elective system was one of the reforms which follo\v«'d the 
 tninsfer fjf .siijtrciiK! j»o\\it from the Ciouii to the people.
 
 164 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION eiiAP. 
 
 Lord Kh^iii was in favour of the change, though he saw as he 
 thought that among its advocates, with some whose aim was 
 Conservative, there were others whose aims were "subversion 
 and pilhige." He expressed his belief " that a second legis- 
 Lative body returned by tlie same constituency as the House 
 of Assembly under some differences with respect to time and 
 mode of election would be a greater clieck on ill-considered 
 legislation than the Council as it was then constituted ; " and 
 he predicted that Eobert Baldwin, who opposed this with 
 other organic changes, and having got what he imagined to 
 be the nearest thing to the British Constitution wished to cast 
 anchor, would, if he lived, find his ship of State among 
 unexpected rocks and shoals. His own ideas, perhaps,were not 
 very clear. He wished to introduce the elective principle, 
 yet in such a way as not to exchange " Parliamentary Govern- 
 ment," which was his idol, for " the American system," which 
 he abjured ; but in what essential respect a system with two 
 elective Chambers and with supreme power vested in the 
 representatives of the people would differ from the American 
 system he might have found it difficult to explain. In 1856, 
 however, as has been already said, the change was made and 
 the system adopted was that of election by popular vote, the 
 suffrage being the same as that for elections to the House of 
 Commons, but the electoral divisions much larger, and the 
 term eight years instead of four. The alternative of election 
 by Provincial legislatures of course could not present itself 
 under the legislative union. The experiment of an Upper 
 Chamber elected by the people appears not to have been 
 successful, tlie labour of canvassing the extended electoral 
 divisions being found so oppressive by candidates that the 
 best men declined to come forward. It is curious that the 
 Fathers of Confederation when they came to debate the con-
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 165 
 
 stitution of their Upper House seemed to thiuk that their 
 only choice was between the retention of election by popular 
 suffrage and a return to the system of nomination by the 
 Crown. It did not occur to them apparently that as they 
 were about to erect Provincial legislatures corresponding to 
 the State legislatures of the Americans they might vest in 
 these the election of the Senate. Their chief reason for 
 rejecting the elective principle and going back to nomination 
 appears to have been that if the Senate felt the sap of popular 
 election in its veins, its spirit would become too high, it would 
 claim equality as a legislative power with the House of 
 Commons, perhaps even in regard to money bills, and collision 
 between the Houses would ensue. But these are perils in- 
 separable from the system of two Chambers. Wherever tlie 
 power is divided between two assemblies, collision may at any 
 time arise, and if the collision is prolonged deadlock may 
 ensue. There has been legislative deadlock or something 
 very like it at Washington when one of the political parties 
 has had a majority in the House of Representatives and the 
 other in the Senate. You cannot have tlie advantages of 
 union and division of power at tlie same time. To construct 
 a body which, witliout claiming co-ordinate authority, shall 
 act as a Court of legislative revision, and as the sober second- 
 thought of the community, is practically beyond the power of 
 the political architect. He must try to ensure sobriety where 
 he places power. To suppose that power will allow itself on 
 important matters to be controlled by impotence is vain. 
 Evidently the image of tlie House of Lords hovered before 
 the minds of the builders of the Canadian Constitution, liut 
 tlie House of Ixjrds lias never acted as a court of h-gislative 
 revision or as an organ of the nation's .sober second-thought. 
 It has acted as the House of a jirivileged order, resi.sting all
 
 166 CANADA AND TIIK CANADIAN QUESTION chai". 
 
 change in the interest of privilege. It resisted r;ulianientary 
 reform till it was overborne by the threat of a swamping 
 creation of peers. All the power which it retains is the power 
 of hereditary rank and wealth. Nothing analogous to it exists 
 or can exist in Canada, and in framing Canadian institutions 
 it ought to have been put out of sight. 
 
 Nomination having been chosen it followed that the ap- 
 pointments should be for life : nothing else could give the 
 nominees of the Crown even a semblance of independence. 
 r>ut the result is a nullity, or rather an addition to the number 
 of vicious illusions, since the sense of responsibility in the 
 Lower House may be somewhat weakened by the impression, 
 however false, that its acts are subject to revision. The 
 Senate is treated with ironical respect as the Upper House 
 and surrounded with derisive state. The decorations of its 
 Chamber surpass those of the Commons' Chamber as the 
 decorations of the Lords' Chamber surpass those of the 
 Commons' Chamber at Westminster. The members sit in 
 gilded chairs, are styled Honourable, and on all ceremonial 
 occasions take precedence of the holders of real power. But 
 these, like the observance paid to the Governor-General and 
 his Vicegerents, are merely the trappings of impotence. The 
 Senate neither initiates nor controls important legislation. 
 After meeting for the Session it adjourns to wait for the 
 arrival of Bills from the Commons. About once in a Session 
 it is allowed to reject or amend some measure of secondary 
 importance by way of showing that it lives. It is supposed 
 to be sometimes used by the j\Iinister who controls it for the 
 purpose of quashing a job to which he has been obliged to 
 assent in the Lower House. Measures of importance may 
 sometimes be brought in first in the Upper House, for the 
 sake of saving time, but they never originate with it. At
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 167 
 
 the end of the Session the measures passed in the Lower 
 House are hurried througli the Upper House with hardly time 
 enough for deliberation to save the semblance of respect 
 for its authority. Its debates are rarely reported unless 
 piquancy happens to be lent to them by personal altercation. 
 Nobody dreams of looking to it for the second-thought of the 
 nation, or imagines that in any political emergency it could 
 serve as the sheet-anchor of the State. Men of a certain 
 class may seek seats in it for the sake of the title, the 
 trappings, and whatever of social grade may be attached to 
 membership. To some possibly the annual payment of a 
 thousand dollars and mileage may be an attraction. But 
 Senatorships are not sought from the promptings of a generous 
 ambition or a desire to render active service to tlie country. 
 Almost the only serious business of the Senate is sitting in 
 judgment, as tlie House of Lords used to do, on divorce cases, 
 an incongruous function, exercised because the French 
 Catholics will not allow the Dominion to have a regular 
 Divorce Court.^ The experience which led under the Union 
 to the reform of the old nominee Legislative Council and 
 the judgment of Lord Elgin on that subject are confirmed ; 
 and it is proved that under the elective system nothing 
 which is not based on election can have power. 
 
 It is true that the work of those who instituted the 
 nominee Senate has hardly had a ftur chance. They may 
 have reckoned on a Ijroad, tolerably iinjiaitial, and patriotic 
 exercise of the power of appointment. They may have had 
 before their minds an assembly comprehending representatives 
 of national eminence in all lines, not the agricultural und 
 mercantile only, but tin- professional, tlu' scientilic, thf ('dui-a- 
 
 ' Thanks to tilt; fxcrtioiis of .Scniitor (Jnwiiii, hoimtliiii;,' iiinri' of tlio 
 character of a n-f^iilar I)ivoric (Jimrt 1ms nccnlly Ih-cii j^'ivcii to tin- Sciiiitr.
 
 168 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN CjUESTION cuav. 
 
 tionul, and opi'iiing its doors to men capable of doing good 
 service in special departments of legislation, as well as of 
 lending by their character and attainments dignity to the 
 Legislatnre, but without inclination or aptitude for the party 
 ])latform or tlie turmoil of popular elections. Even the Bona- 
 partes tried to make their Senate respectable by giving it a 
 character of this kind. But of the seventy-six Senators of 
 Canada, all but nine^ have now been nominated by a single 
 party leader, who has excercised his power for a party 
 
 purpose, if for no narrower object. "My dear P , 
 
 I want you before we take any steps about T. Y 's 
 
 appointment to see about the selection of our candidate for 
 
 "West Montreal. From all I can learn W. W will run 
 
 the best. He will very likely object ; but if he is the best 
 man you can easily hint to him that if he runs for West 
 Montreal and carries it, we will consider that he has a claim 
 to an early seat in the Senate. This is the great object of his 
 ambition." This letter, from a Prime Minister to a local 
 party manager, illustrates at once the sort of work which a 
 Canadian Prime Minister does and the principle upon which 
 he uses his power of appointment to the Senate. Money 
 spent for the party in election contests and faithful adherence 
 to the person of its chief, especially when he most needs 
 support against the moral sentiment of the public, are 
 believed to be the surest titles to a seat in the Canadian 
 House of Lords, If there is ever a show of an impartial 
 appointment it is illusory. When the expenditure of money 
 is a leading qualification, commerce is pretty sure to be well 
 represented. But no one will pretend that the general 
 eminence of Canada is represented by its Senate. No intel- 
 
 ' This includes some members of the old Legislative Council, in the selection 
 of wliom the Act enjoined that consideration should be shown to both political 
 parties.
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 169 
 
 lectual or scientific distinction finds a place, while illiteracy 
 scarcely excludes those who have served a party leader well. 
 The age of the members as a body would in itself preclude 
 active work. It will be seen from the letter just quoted that 
 the Prime Minister treats the Governor-General as a perfect 
 cipher in regard to these appointments, and looks upon the 
 patronage as entirely his own. Propose that a party leader 
 shall in his own name nominate one branch of the Legislature 
 and you will be met with a shout of indignation ; but under 
 the name of the Crown a Prime Minister is allowed to 
 nominate a branch of the Legislature without protest of any 
 kind. Such is the use of fictions ! 
 
 A life tenure, though it makes a nominee more independ- 
 ent than a tenure for a term of years, does not make him 
 entirely independent of the power wliich created him, though 
 it does make him entirely independent of the people and of 
 public opinion. He is still eligible for political office as well 
 as for a baronetcy or a knighthood. He has sons and 
 nephews. The other day a controversy having arisen about 
 the quality of cloth furnished to the Militia for uniforms, it 
 transpired that the contractor was a member of the Senate. 
 In the case of the British House of Lords general independ- 
 ence is secured, apart from any mode of political appoint- 
 ment, by hereditary rank and wealth, and tliere is usually 
 nothing to be feared but the bias of the privileged order. 
 
 That of seventy-six members all but nine wouUl ever be 
 the nominees of a single party leader the framcu's of the 
 Constitution can liardly have anticipated. Hut they did 
 anticipate a preponderance of dilfcrent parties in tin; two 
 Houses which might Ijring on a c(;llisioii hikI a di-aillock. 
 Against this they tried to ])rovid(; by an cxiicdicnt Ixinowcd 
 from tlie Hrilish method of constitutionally coercing
 
 170 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 the House of Lunls. To swaiiij) an adverse majuiity in tlie 
 Senate a Minister is allowed to create three or six extra 
 Senators. The device is both clumsy and invidious, besides 
 being open to exception as a recognition of the party prin- 
 ciple. But weiglited down as the scale now is wiLli the 
 following of a single politician, an additional creation of six 
 would have no perceptible effect u])on tlie balance. If the 
 other party should come into office, and the Senate under 
 the iniluence of tiie Outs should be inclined to give trouble 
 to the Ins, there is no way of bringing it to its senses short of 
 a revolution. Instead of being a mere cipher, it may possibly 
 become an active source of evil if it ever allows itself to be 
 used as an engine by the man to whom the majority of its 
 members owe their nominations, for the purpose of embarrass- 
 ing the Government when he is out of power. 
 
 In imitation of the Constitution of the United States, 
 which recognises the federal principle by giving two Senators 
 to each State witliout regard to population, the Canadian Act 
 of Federation assigned an equal number of senators (24) 
 to each of the great divisions of the Dominion, Ontario, 
 Quebec, and the ^Maritime Provinces. Provision was made for 
 the extension of tlie principle to provinces thereafter to l)e 
 admitted. 
 
 As the Senate was to be distinctively federal, re- 
 presenting the provinces, the House of Commons was to be 
 national, representing the people of tlie whole Dominion. In 
 the House of Commons and the Ministers whose tenure of 
 office depends upon its vote supreme power centres. In this 
 the Canadian Constitution is a faithful copy of that of Great 
 Britain. But copying the Constitution of Great Britain not 
 for Canada only, but for all communities like Canada, is 
 perilous work unless they understand their model more
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 171 
 
 distinctly than it is understood at home. The House of 
 Commons was not originally intended to be the Government 
 or even the Legislature. The Government resided in the 
 Crown, and the House of Commons was merely the repre- 
 sentation of the people summoned by the Crown to grant it 
 money, and at the same time to inform it about the state and 
 wants of the country. Through its hold over the purse it 
 gradually drew to it supreme power and in effect became the 
 State. But it at the sam; time ceased to be in reality a 
 popular assembly, and became, though in irregular and 
 illegitimate ways, a representation of the wealth and high 
 political intelligence of the nation. In this phase of its 
 existence it was oligarchical, no doubt, and legishited in the 
 interest of a class, but it was a powerful and dignified 
 assembly capable of governing the country. It was enabled 
 to be what it was because England had a large leisure class 
 at liberty to devote itself to public life and to serve the 
 country without wages. It is now as a consequence of demo- 
 cratic change rapidly losing this character, and it is at the 
 same time becoming an anarcliy and a bear-garden incapable 
 either of legislation or of government, incapable even of 
 putting down the feeblest rebellion or preserving the integrity 
 of the nation. A commercial colony has no such class as 
 that which supplied the members of the House of Commons 
 in the palmy days of that body. It lias very few men of 
 wealth and leisure, still fewer of those who, having iidierihHl 
 wealth, are at liberty from their youth, if they jjossess the 
 sense of duty or the ambition, to devote themselves to politics. 
 The chiefs of commerce, the leading maiuifaeturers and the 
 
 bankers, the lawyers and physicians who an- in ^ 1 practice, 
 
 the mo.st substantial and tlie wealthiest membei-s of the 
 community generally, cannot alVord to leave their business
 
 172 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 and spt'iul four luontlis of every year in ratlier petty politics 
 at Ottawa, to say notliing of tlie drafts made upon their time 
 by canvassing, correspondence with constituents, and the fell 
 demands of the stump. It is necessary therefore to have 
 recourse for politicians to an inferior class of men, and too 
 often to those who have failed in other industries or prefer 
 living on the public to living by the sweat of their brows. 
 Go to one of these assemblies, look behind the thin line of 
 ability or of political experience presented by the front 
 bench, and you will see the connection of effect with cause. 
 Business interests and the necessity of looking after legisla- 
 tion which affects their trades will draw to Parliament a 
 certain number of commercial men, and these probably will be 
 about the best material that you will get, though they are 
 not likely to be statesmen, while they are likely to have 
 interests of their own. This is not a criticism upon the work 
 of the framers of the Canadian Constitution alone ; it applies 
 to the whole system of governing through supposed imitations 
 of the British House of Commons. 
 
 "When you have in making up your legislature to call in 
 the country lawyer, the country doctor, the storekeeper, the 
 farmer, the payment of members plainly becomes a necessity. 
 The salary of a thousand dollars and mileage is small, but it 
 is enough to tempt a man hanging rather loose upon industry, 
 or a country practitioner with little practice. Advocates of 
 the system assume the case to Ije, that the electors having 
 chosen a poor man for his worth it is requisite in order to 
 secure to them his services to give him a salary, whereas the 
 fact may be, that the salary induces the poor man to compass 
 heaven and earth in order to press himself on the electors. 
 To French members, whose habits are very frugal, the 
 indemnity is said to be sometimes a livelihood, and there is
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 173 
 
 reason to believe that their umvillingness to risk the loss of 
 it forms something of a practical check upon the Minister's 
 use of the power of dissolution. Public men of the higher 
 stamp have been heard to condemn the system as apt to 
 call into activity local intriguers who devote themselves to 
 capturing beforehand the favour of the constituency, and close 
 the avenue against worthier candidates whom the election 
 day might otherwise bring forward. The revolutionary party 
 in England appears to have taken up payment of members 
 as a democratic measure. It is democratic with a vengeance, 
 and is a pretty sure way of turning the highest of callings 
 into a trade not so high. Still where there is no leisure 
 class, or where the leisure class is excluded from public life, 
 as a needy man cannot live on his sense of duty, you have to 
 choose between paying him regularly and letting him pay 
 himself in irregular ways. Of the two evils the first is 
 clearly the less. 
 
 Among the American errors, of which even Liberals who 
 took part in founding the Canadian Confederation promised 
 themselves to steer clear, was universal suffrage. Canadian 
 suffrage in those days was comparatively conservative, the 
 qualification being practically ownership of a freehold, 
 which was not beyond the reach of any industrious and 
 frugal man. But the inevitable Dutch auction has been 
 going on, alike in Dominion and in Provincial politics, and it 
 is evident that to universal suffrage — to manhood suffrage at 
 least — Dominion and Provinces will soon come. Already 
 they have come to its very verge. Thus power will be 
 transferred from the freehold fiirmers to people far less con- 
 servative, and at the same time fnjni the country to th<^ city. 
 It has already becm mentioniul that the; public school system 
 does its work but imperfectly in educating the dangerous
 
 174 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN gUESTION ciiai>. 
 
 class. As ill Cireat Britain so in Canada, the politicians who 
 style tlieniselves Conservatives vie in the competition with 
 tliose who call themselves Liberals, and like their com])c'ers 
 at Westminster "dish the Whigs." It was a Conservative 
 Minister that extended the franchise to Indians, who, it was 
 anticipated, would have patriotism and intelligence enough, 
 if proper inducements were lield out to tliem, to vote for the 
 Government candidate. The same Minister attempted, prob- 
 ably with the same strategical motive, to give the franchise 
 to women, but tlie conservatism of his French supporters, in 
 regard to the relations of the sexes, forced him to withdraw 
 his proposal. 
 
 Canadian politics are also exemplifying a weakness of 
 democracy wliich though little noticed by political writers is 
 very serious — its tendency to narrow localism in elections. 
 In the United States tlie localism is complete, and the ablest 
 and most popular of public men, if lie happens to live in a 
 district where tlie other party has the majority, is excluded 
 from public life. In England, before the recent democratic 
 changes, places were found on the list of candidates for all 
 the men of mark, wherever they might happen to live, and a 
 good many non-residents are still elected, though localism 
 has evidently been gaining ground. In Canada there is a 
 chance still for a non-resident if he holds the public purse, 
 perhaps if he holds a very well-filled purse of his own, but 
 as a rule localism prevails. Even the Prime Minister of 
 Ontario, after wielding power and dispensing patronage for 
 eighteen years, encounters grumbling in his constituency 
 because he is a non-resident. A resident in one electoral 
 division of Toronto Avould be rather at a disadvantage as a 
 candidate in another division, though the unity of the city, 
 commercial and social, is complete. The mass of the people
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 175 
 
 into whose hands power has now passed naturally think 
 much less of great questions, political or economical, than of 
 their own local and personal interests ; of these they deem a 
 local man the best champion, and they feel that they can 
 correspond more freely about them with him than with a 
 stranger. Besides they like to keep the prize among them- 
 selves. Such, in the exercise of supreme power, are the real 
 tendencies of those whom collectively we worship as the 
 people. That the calibre of the representation must be 
 lowered by localism is evident ; it will be more lowered than 
 ever when the rush of population, especially of the wealthy 
 part of it, to the cities shall have concentrated intelligence 
 there and denuded of it the rural districts. The Hare plan, 
 of a national instead of a district ticket, would immensely 
 raise the character of the representation if it could be 
 worked ; but it assumes a level of intelligence in the mass 
 of the people far above what is likely for many a generation 
 to be attained. In the meantime as, on the one hand, the 
 local man represents the choice of nobody outside his own 
 district, and on the other hand men are excluded by localism 
 whom the nation at large would elect, the net outcome can 
 hardly be with truth described as an assembly representing 
 the nation. 
 
 liut the most important point of all in tiie case of 
 Canada, as in that of every other Parliamentary country, is 
 one to which scarcely an allusion was nia<l(! in ihi- debate on 
 Confederation, and of which tlie only formal recognition i.s 
 the division of the seats in the Halls of Parliament. Pegu- 
 late the details of your Constitution as you will, the real 
 governniLMit now is Party; jtolitics are a coiitimial struggle 
 between tlie parties for power; no measure of importance 
 can be carried except through a jiarty ; the i)ul)lic issues of
 
 176 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 the (lay are those wliich the party nianagers for the purposes 
 of the party war make u\) ; no one \vho does not profess 
 allegiance to a party has any chance of admission to public 
 life. Let a candidate come forward with the highest reputa- 
 tion for ability and worth, but avowing himself independent 
 of party and determined to vote only at the bidding of his 
 reason and conscience for the good of the whole people, he 
 would run but a poor race in any Canadian constituency. 
 If independence ever presumes to show its face in the 
 political iield the managers and organisers of both parties 
 take their hands for a moment from each other's throats and 
 combine to crush the intruder, as two gamblers might spring 
 up from the table and draw their revolvers on any one who 
 theatened to touch the stakes. They do this usually by 
 tacit consent, but they have been known to do it by actual 
 agreement. What then is Party ? We all know Burke's 
 definition, though it should be remembered that Burke on 
 this, as on other occasions not a few, fits his philosophy to 
 the circumstances, which were those of a member of a 
 political connection struggling for power against a set of 
 men who called themselves the King's friends and wished to 
 put all connections under the feet of the King. But Burke's 
 definition implies the existence of some organic question or 
 question of principle, with regard to which the members of 
 the party agree among themselves and differ from their 
 opponents. Such agreement and difference alone can recon- 
 cile party allegiance with patriotism, or sul)mission to party 
 discipline with loyalty to reason and conscience. Organic 
 questions or questions of principle are not of everyday 
 occurrence. When they are exhausted, as in a country with 
 a written constitution they are likely soon to be, what bond is 
 there, of a moral and rational kind, to hold a party together
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 177 
 
 and save it from becoming a mere faction ? The theory that 
 every community is divided by nature, or as the language of 
 some would almost seem to imply, by divine ordinance, into 
 two parties, and that every man belongs from his birth to 
 one party or the other, if it were not a ludicrously patent 
 example of philosophy manufactured for the occasion, would 
 be belied by the history of Canadian parties with their 
 kaleidoscopic shiftings and of Canadian politicians who have 
 been found by turns in every camp. Lord Elgin, coming to 
 the governorship when the struggle for responsible govern- 
 ment was over, and a lull in organic controversy had ensued, 
 found, as his biographer tells us, that parties formed them- 
 selves not on broad issues of principle, but with reference to 
 petty local and personal interests. On what could they form 
 themselves if there was no broad issue before the country ? 
 Elgin himself complained, as we have seen, that his ministers 
 were impressed with the belief that the object of the Opposi- 
 tion was to defeat their measures, right or wrong, that the 
 malcontents of their own side would combine against them, 
 and that they must appeal to personal and sordid motives if 
 they wished to hold their own. That is the game which is 
 played in Canada, as it is in the United States, as it is in 
 every country under party government, by the two organised 
 factions — machines, as they are aptly called ; the ])rize being 
 the Government with its patronage, and the motive powers 
 being those common mnie or less to all factions — per-sonal 
 ambition, bribery of various kinds, open or disguised, and iis 
 regards the mass of the people, a pugnacious and sporting 
 spirit, like that which animated the lilues and (Irecns of tlie 
 Byzantine Circus. This last inlluence is not by any means 
 the least powerful. It is astonishing with what tenacity a 
 Canadian farmer adheres to his party Sliiblidletli when to him,
 
 178 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 as well as to the community at large, it is a Shibboleth and 
 nothing more. Questions of principle, about which public 
 feeling has been greatly excited, questions even of interest 
 which appeal most directly to the pocket, pass out of sight 
 when once the word to start is given, and the race between 
 Blue and Green begins. Questions as to the character of 
 candidates are unhappily also set aside. It is commonly 
 said that Canada produces more politics to the acre than any 
 other country. The more of politics there is the less 
 unfortunately there is of genuine public spirit and manly 
 readiness to stand up for public right, the more men fear to 
 be in a minority, even in what they know to be a good cause. 
 People flock to any standard w^iich they believe is attracting 
 votes ; if they find that it is not, they are scattered like 
 sheep. Political aspirants learn from their youth the arts 
 of the vote-hunter; they learn to treat all questions as 
 political capital, and to play false with their own understand- 
 ing and conscience at the bidding of the wirepullers of their 
 party. The entrance to public life is not through the gate of 
 truth or honour. These are not peculiarities of Canada ; 
 they are things common to all countries where the party 
 system prevails, and peculiar only in their intensity to those 
 countries in which party is inordinately strong. 
 
 It is a necessity of the party system that the Cabinet is 
 made up not of eminent administrators, but of men who are 
 masters of votes or skilful in collecting them. One minister 
 represents the French vote, another the Irish Catholic vote, 
 a third the Orange vote, a fourth the Temperance vote. The 
 Ministry of Finance in a commercial country is consigned to 
 a star of the philanthropic platform. Next to gathering 
 votes by management the chief attribute of statesmanship is 
 effectiveness on the stump. Hardly a public man in Canada
 
 viii THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 179 
 
 has a high reputation as an administrator. The Prime 
 Minister notoriously pays little attention to his department. 
 He speaks on great public questions, such as the fiscal 
 system, only to show that he has not much given liis mind 
 to them. His title to his place is that of unique experience 
 and unrivalled dexterity in the collection and combination of 
 votes. In all this Canada only resembles otlier Parliamentary 
 countries, but in analysing a particular set of institutions it 
 is necessary to recall the general facts. 
 
 The absence in the debate on Confederation of any 
 attempt to forecast the composition and action of Federal 
 parties fatally detracts from the value of the discussion. If 
 Australia or any other group of Colonies thinks of following 
 the example of Canada, a forecast, as definite as the nature of 
 the case will permit, of Federal parties will be at least as 
 essential to the formation of a right judgment as the know- 
 ledge of anything relating to the machinery of the Con- 
 stitution. 
 
 Party government necessarily brings with it a ])arty 
 Press, with its well-known characteristics, in which the party 
 Press of Canada has certainly not been behind its compeers. 
 Of late an independent journalism has been struggling into 
 existence and giving some expression to opinions unsanctioned 
 by the party machines. Questions, such as that of tlio 
 Jesuits' Estates Act, on which the politicians were tongue- 
 tied, have in this way been freely treated, and men who 
 would never receive a party nomination have l)een enabled 
 on such questions to take a share of jmltlic life 
 
 The best apology for Party is one wliich at the same time, 
 in the case of Canada as in every other case, discloses an 
 almost fatal weakness in the wljole elective system of govern- 
 ment. The system theoretically a.ssunies th;it tlie electors
 
 180 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 will lay tlieir heads together to choose the best men. rractic- 
 ally, it is impossible for the electors to do anything of the 
 kind. They are a multitude of people unknown for the most 
 part to each other, without anything to bring them together, 
 and without any power of setting a candidature on foot. Tlie 
 best qualified are not likely, perhaps they are of all the 
 least likely, to come forward of themselves. An organisation 
 of some sort there must be to bring a candidate forward and 
 collect votes for him, and it is difficult to devise any otlier 
 sort of organisation than Party. The inevitable results of 
 this, however, are the domination of faction, with all its 
 malignity, its violence, its corruption, its calumny, its reck- 
 lessness of the common weal ; the ascendency of the Caucus 
 and of Mr. Schnadhorst ; government of the people by the 
 people, and for the people, in name, government of the Boss, 
 by the Boss, and for the Boss, in reality. The consequence 
 in England is nearly half the House of Commons trooping out 
 behind a party leader, and under the lash of the party whip, 
 to vote against their recorded convictions for the dismember- 
 ment of their country. The fruits of the system in Canada, 
 and everywhere else, are of the same kind. In Canada, as 
 elsewhere, though there are honourable men in public life, the 
 standard of morality which ought to be the highest in politics 
 is in politics the lowest. The community is saved by its 
 general character, by its schools, its churches, its judiciary ; 
 by the authority which chiefs, generally worthy, and always 
 more or less able, exercise over industrial and commercial 
 life. By its elective polity it would scarcely be saved. 
 
 The partition of power giving the civil law to the Pro- 
 vinces and the criminal law to the Dominion, whereas by 
 the American Constitution both are given to the States, does 
 not seem very reasonable in itself. The same legislative
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 181 
 
 intellect is required in both cases, nor is the boundary 
 between the two lines clearly defined. But this was a 
 necessary concession to Quebec, who clings to lier French law 
 as a pledge of her national existence. It has been already 
 mentioned that the absence of divorce courts is a concession 
 to the same influence. 
 
 Tlie structure of the provincial governments and legisla- 
 tures generally, with their constitutional Lieutenant-Governors, 
 their Parliamentary Premiers and Cabinet, is the same as that 
 of the Dominion government and legislature, though on a 
 small scale. Like the Governor-General, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor is a figurehead, and constitutional writers who say 
 that he has the assistance of an Executive Council to aid and 
 advise him in administering public affairs, might say the 
 same tiling with equal truth of his flagstalf. Identical also 
 is the procedure, and so is the ceremony, so far as any 
 ceremony is retained. But Ontario, Manitoba, and British 
 Columbia — democracy apparently becoming more intense as 
 it goes west — have done away with the Upper House. In 
 other provinces, as in Xova Scotia, efforts have been made to 
 abolish the Upper House, as a waste of public money, 
 but the House clings to its existence. Members nominated 
 on the special condition that they shall vote for altolition, 
 when tliey liave taken their seats, find reasons for endless 
 delay. No proprietor of a rotten borough ever clung to liis 
 political property witli more tenacity than a •Imiocrat clings 
 to any anomaly in whicli he has an interest. The change 
 to a single house, if not material in itself, brings 
 clearly to view the fact that a liuavy responsibility is 
 cast on these bodies of municipal legislators, whicli by a single 
 vote can in one night enact the most momentous change in 
 anything connected with civil right or pr()]K'rty, t<»tully
 
 182 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 alter the law uf wills, or profoundly modify the relations 
 between the sexes by the introduction of female suffrage. 
 The Legislature of Ontario once broke a will at the solicitation 
 of parties interested, though the Courts of Law found a reason 
 for treating the Act as void. The Governor of a State in the 
 American Union has a real veto, which he exercises freely. 
 A governor put his veto not long ago on a Bill passed in a 
 moment of heedlessness, which would have subverted the 
 civil status of marriage. IMoreover no amendment can be 
 made in the Constitution of an American State, no extension 
 of the State franchise can take place, without submission to 
 the people. This is a great safeguard. The general disposi- 
 tion of the people is against change. In other respects the 
 experience of Switzerland in regard to the Eeferendum is 
 confirmed by that of the United States. At all events the 
 people are not accessible to personal influence or cajolery as 
 individual legislators are, while the issue being submitted to 
 them separately, and not mixed up with other issues, as is 
 the case at general elections, can be better grasped by their 
 intelligence. Xominally the Lieutenant - Governor of a 
 province has a veto, really he has none ; and once more we 
 see the pernicious effect of constitutional figments in veiling 
 real necessities. Political architects in the United States, 
 looking democracy in the face, attempted at all events to 
 provide the necessary safeguards. At first, under the Canadian 
 Constitution, the same man could sit both in the Dominion and 
 the Provincial Legislatures. Provincial Legislatiires were led 
 by men who sat in that of the Dominion. But, by a self- 
 denying ordinance (1872), the wisdom of which was perhaps 
 as questionable as that of self-denying ordinances in general, 
 it is now forbidden to any man to sit in more Legislatures 
 than one. This change increases the demand on the not very
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 183 
 
 abundant stock of legislative capacity in the country, lowers 
 the quality of the Provincial Legislatures, and enhances the 
 peril of committing vital questions to their hands, Tlie 
 farmer, the country practitioner, or the village lawyer, are 
 good representatives, we are told, of the average mind ; they 
 may be, but to solve aright problems at once the most 
 difficult and the most momentous something more than the 
 average mind is required. Perhaps the advocate of the 
 party system may find a specious argument in the subordina- 
 tion which it entails of the rank and file of a legislative 
 assembly on each side to the party leader, who is likely to be 
 a man of superior intellect and knowledge. The leaders are 
 usually lawyers, and acquainted with the British statute 
 book, which forms a lamp to guide their feet in the legislative 
 path. Yet lawyers complain of the Ontario statute book, 
 and the need of a government draftsman seems to be felt. 
 
 The function of interpreting the Constitution in the last 
 resort, and keeping each of the Powers within its proper 
 bounds, discharged in the United States by that august 
 tribunal the Supreme Court, is discharged in the case of 
 Canada, as of the other colonies, by that still more august 
 tribunal, the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council, 
 with its romantic range of jurisdiction, now deciding wlio 
 shall take a Hindoo inheritance and oil"er the iamily sacrifice 
 to a Hindoo deity, now pronouncing on tlie vaUdity of an 
 excommunication laid on by the Koman Catholic Church of 
 Quebec. In the integrity and ablHty of the Judicial Com- 
 mittee absolute confidence is felt; but a (hjubt is sometimes 
 raised whether judges ignorant of Canada can place tlicni- 
 selves exactly at the right jiuint of view, and comj)lainls are 
 heard of the distance and the expense. To spare suitors in 
 these resj)ects was partly the object in giving Canada a
 
 184 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Supreme Court, which intercepts not a little of the litigation ; 
 and which, if the Canadian Confederation ever becomes inde- 
 pendent, will be to it what the Supreme Court is to the 
 United States. The Judicial Conmiittee, though a legal, not 
 a political tribunal, perhaps does not leave considerations of 
 statesmanship entirely out of sight. In deciding questions 
 between the Dominion and the Provinces it seems to have 
 leant to the side of Provincial autonomy, as most conducive 
 to the peace of the Confederation, much as in ecclesiastical 
 cases it leans to comprehension in the interest of the stability 
 of the Church. 
 
 The American Constitution is subject to amendment, as 
 we know, though by a very guarded process. So much of the 
 Canadian Constitution as is composed in the Act of Confedera- 
 tion can be amended only by the same authority by which 
 the Act was passed, that of the Imperial Parliament. This 
 amounts almost to practical immutability, for the Imperial 
 Parliament, sinking beneath the burden of its own business, 
 has no time or thought to bestow on the improvement of 
 colonial institutions. That power of Constitutional amend- 
 ment, without which there cannot be full liberty of self- 
 development, Canada can hardly hope to acquire without the 
 severance of the political connection. 
 
 More than one good thing in her polity Canada has 
 derived from her specially English traditions. She has in the 
 first place a permanent Civil Service which saves her from 
 the Spoils System introduced in the United States by 
 that incarnation of faction and mob-rule. General Jackson, 
 whose victory at New Orleans, as it made him President and 
 filled American politics with his spirit, though he lost not a 
 score of men in the action, is the most dearly bought victory 
 in history. Party in Canada does not, as in England, quite
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 185 
 
 keep its hands off the Civil Service. It practically takes the 
 appointments, for though there is an examination system, this 
 is so managed as to be like the sugav-tongs which the French- 
 man held, in compliment to the habit of his English hosts, 
 while he slipped his fingers between them to take up the 
 sugar. Vacancies are also made for partisans by superannua- 
 tions, and a Collectorship of Customs has just been kept open 
 for two years to suit the political convenience of the Govern- 
 ment. Still Canada, compared with the United States, is free 
 from the Spoils System. To the heads of her permanent Civil 
 Service she owes it that while government, in the persons of 
 the Parliamentary heads of departments, is on the stump, or 
 dickering for votes, she enjoys the general benefits of a regular 
 and intelligent administration. In the second place, election 
 petitions are tried as in England by the judges, and with the 
 same good results, while in the American House of Repre- 
 sentatives contested elections are decided as they were in 
 England in the days before the Grenville Act, by a party vote. 
 In the third place, the judges themselves are appointed by the 
 Executive for life, instead of being, as they are in most American 
 States, though not in all or in the case of the Supreme Court, 
 elected by the people for a term of years ; a system of which 
 the Americans themselves feel tlie evils, and which they are 
 disposed to modify by lengthening the judge's term. In 
 England Party has now resigned to professional merit most 
 of the appointments to tlie judiciiuy. Tliis is not the case 
 in Canada, though a few impartial aitpdiiitmcnts have 
 been made. 
 
 The Americans, when their Confederation was framed, 
 wisely closed all pecuniary accounts between tlie Federal 
 Governnient and the States, and al)Solutely sci)arated the 
 Federal Treasury from those of the States. The Canadians
 
 186 CANADA AND THK CANADIAN gUESTION chap. 
 
 not SO wisely left the account open and permitted subventions 
 to be granted by the Central Government to the Provinces. 
 The consequences are, as mitj;ht have been expected, continual 
 demands for increased subventions, under the too-familiar 
 name of " Better Terms," the opening of a sluice of Federal 
 corruption, and the weakening of Provincial independence. 
 Each Province, especially Quebec and the poorer Provinces, 
 instead of practising economy and helping itself, is always 
 looking for Government doles. Mr. George Brown, one of the 
 chief framers, foresaw this, and was for defraying the whole 
 of the local expenditures of the local governments by means 
 of direct taxation, but the Sons of Zeruiah were too strong for 
 him. " Whether the constitution of the Provincial Executive 
 savours at all of Responsible Government or not," said Mr. 
 Dunkin in the Debates on Confederation, " be sure it will not 
 be anxious to bring itself more under the control of the Legis- 
 lature, 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 Provincial Legislature 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 consti- 
 tuents with an easy conscience, telling them, ' True, we had 
 not much to do in the Provincial Legislature, and you need 
 not ask us very closely what 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 — S500 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.' 1 
 am afraid the provincial constituencies, legislatures, and
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 187 
 
 executives, will all show a most calf-like appetite for the 
 milking of this one magnificent government cow." Practically 
 the cow has been Ontario, the wealthiest by far as well as the 
 most populous of all the Provinces, but politically weaker, 
 because more divided by faction, than Quebec. 
 
 The Imperial Government retains a veto on all Dominion 
 legislation, though not on the legislation of the Provinces, 
 which is liable to disallowance by the Dominion Government 
 alone. But so far as the internal legislation of Canada is 
 concerned, the Imperial veto is like that veto of the British 
 Sovereign on British legislation, which since the time of 
 William III has slept the sleep that knows no waking. 
 Competent judges seem to think that, let Canada do what she 
 will within herself, even if she chose to indulge in a civil 
 war, the Colonial Office will interpose no more. She has 
 legalised marriage witli a dead wife's sister, while in the 
 United Kingdom such marriages remain illegal. She has 
 adopted a tariff adverse to the mother country. It is only 
 when Canadian legislation comes into direct collision with 
 British rights, as in the case of copyright, that restraint is 
 attempted, and even in the case of copyright it is not patiently 
 borne. 
 
 Foreign relations, of course, with the power of peace and 
 war, remain in the hands of the Imperial Government. VaxI 
 Canada has gone a long way towards the attainment of 
 diplomatic independence in regard to commercial policy. She 
 is allowed to negotiate commercial treaties for herself under 
 the auspices of the Jiritish Foreign OMiee, an<l subject to 
 Imperial treaty obligations. In thr everlasting imlim^lio 
 about the fisheries her (Government has a voice wliich, it 
 naturally uses in the way dictated by its own interests, 
 jjolitical as well us commercial. A motion was niudc two
 
 188 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 sessions ago for the appointnieiit of a ivi)reseutative of Canada, 
 who wouUl practically have been an ambassador, at Washing- 
 ton, but was di'feated by the Government majority. 
 
 England sends out a general to command the militia, but 
 the last two generals have had troubled lives, and nativism is 
 claiming the appointment as its own. The disposal of the 
 forces belongs to the Canadian Government. 
 
 It seems almost incredible that eitlier tlie relation of a 
 Canadian province to the Dominion, or that of the Dominion 
 to the Imperial country, should have been seriously cited as 
 a precedent for the relation which ]\Ir. Gladstone's Bill would 
 have established between the Sovereign Parliament of Great 
 Britain and his vassal Parliament of Ireland. Break the 
 whole of the United Kingdom to pieces, give each piece the 
 rights of a Canadian Province, put a federal government like 
 that of the Dominion over them all, and you will have a 
 counterpart of the Canadian polity. No Canadian Province 
 would rest content with such a position as that of a vassal 
 community paying tribute, but with only a local assembly and 
 no share in the councils of the nation, although the Canadian 
 Provinces were drawn together by a common desire for closer 
 union, at least on the part of their political leaders, whereas 
 Ireland Avould set out with revolt burning in her veins. The 
 only analogy capable of being cited on the Irish question 
 which Canada presents is the relation between the Eoman 
 Catholic majority and the Protestant minority in Quebec, and 
 this is not in favour of leaving the Protestant minority in 
 Ireland to the tender mercies of a Iloman Catholic Parliament 
 there. 
 
 In passing it may be remarked that before analogies are 
 drawn for the guidance of statesmen in dealing with such 
 problems as that of Ireland, either from Canadian or American
 
 VIII THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 189 
 
 institutions, and before it is assumed that federation is the 
 universal cure, it would be well to consider how far such a 
 thing as a genuine federation now exists. The Achrean League 
 was a federation, inasmuch as it was a combination for mutual 
 defence, the States still remaining separate ; so originally was 
 the Swiss Bund. But the Swiss Bund now is a nation with 
 a federal structure. So is the American Republic. Eailways, 
 telegraphs, commerce between States, the action of federal 
 parties, and other unifying influences, whatever the Constitu- 
 tion may say, have made the Americans a nation. There 
 will presently be a national marriage law, and it will very 
 likely be followed by a uniform commercial code, the want oi 
 which is greatly felt by commercial men or companies doing 
 business over the whole Union or in several States. Against 
 the course of nature the Jeffersonian Democrat protests in 
 vain. Mr. Parnell has announced that his aim is to put 
 Ireland on the footing of a State in the American Union. 
 Let him first ascertain what practically as well as constitu- 
 tionally that footing is. The Central Government of Canada, 
 as we have seen, has national powers, such as that of criminal 
 legislation, and by the Constitution it has a national veto. 
 Germany is a nation in process of construction. Austria and 
 Scandinavia are uneasy wedlocks without union. 
 
 The Canadian Constitution belongs mainly, not wholly, to 
 the written class. Its franiers declared that the Government 
 under it was " to be administered according to tiie well- 
 understood principles of the British Constitution," thereby 
 recognising " understandings " as a virtual part of it. The 
 most important understanding, of course, was that the 
 Sovereign, in whom the Government was solemnly i)roclaimed 
 to be vested, should not govern at all. We have had occasion 
 in reference to the (jxercisc of tin- prerogative of dis.soluti<)n
 
 190 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 to notice how precarious is an uuderstauding in a land where 
 tradition has no force and every one goes to the full length of 
 his tether. A written Constitution strictly limiting every- 
 one's powers a}ipears to be an exigency of democracy with 
 which the British democracy itself will have some day to 
 comply. 
 
 Ottawa, whicli was chosen as the capital of the United 
 Canadas, and retained as that of the Confederation, is an 
 otticial city, and can never be anything else. Its only com- 
 merce is lumber, which, as the forests are cut down, is a 
 receding trade, and there is nothing to draw general residence 
 to it. Its climate combines the extremes of heat and cold. 
 When selected it was simply the nearest lumber village to 
 the Pole. The motives for the selection appear to have been 
 three — fear of the rivalry among the great cities, Quebec, 
 Montreal, and Toronto, fear of mobs such as that which had 
 burned the Parliament House at Montreal, and fear of 
 American invasion if the capital were too near the frontier. 
 For the fear of mobs there was little groimd, and against 
 American invasion the distance of a few days' march would 
 scarcely be a sufficient barrier. The best reason was the 
 beauty of the site, on a bluff over the Ottawa river, of which 
 the buildings are not unworthy. Washington, till lately, was 
 in like manner a merely official city without conmierce or 
 society; but it is now becoming the social centre of the 
 continent, while the haggard ugliness of thirty years ago is 
 being changed into remarkable beauty. Politics and poli- 
 ticians, especially politicians of the rural class, need the 
 tempering criticism and the refining influence of general 
 society, while the combination of interests and ideas — political, 
 commercial, literary, professional, and social — in London or 
 Paris, is a school of public character and thought. The
 
 viii THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION 191 
 
 Supreme Court which sits at Ottawa is said to suffer by the 
 absence of a resident Bar. A mistake was made in not follow- 
 ing the American example and federalising the district in 
 whicli the capital stands. It is an anomaly that the federal 
 capital should be in provincial jurisdiction, and that the 
 Legislature should be dependent on provincial authorities for 
 the maintenance of order at its doors. It is from Ottawa 
 evidently that the journals and reviews in England mainly 
 receive their accounts of men, affairs, and sentiment in 
 Canada. "With all respect for " our own correspondent " we 
 may be permitted to observe that the official world of 
 Ottawa is naturally loyal to itself, and that not all Canada 
 is official. 
 
 I f the North-West prospers and is peopled, the centre of 
 political power will shift to the centre of the continent, and 
 Ottawa as a capital will then be misplaced. But before this 
 can happen other changes will most likely come.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 
 
 Among the ostensible objects of Confederation the most 
 immediate perhaps were military strength and security 
 against American nggression. Sceptics, among whom were two 
 British officers,- pointed out at the time that if the number 
 of the militia would be increased by Confederation, the length 
 of frontier to be defended would be much more increased, 
 and that though a bundle of sticks might, as Federationists 
 said, become stronger by union, the saying might not hold 
 good with regard to a number of fishing-rods tied together by 
 the ends. The Dominion since its extension to the Pacific 
 has a frontier, for the most part perfectly open, of something 
 like 4000 miles, while the garrison is broken into four 
 sections, far beyond supporting distance of each other. The 
 frontier of Manitoba and the North-West Territories, which 
 for 800 miles is a political line, has to defend it the militia 
 which can be furnished by a population of 150,000. In tlie 
 
 ' Books consulted : Collins's "Life and Times of Sir J. A. Macdonald," 
 Stewart's "Canada under the Administration of Earl Dufferin," Collins's 
 "Canada under the Administration of Lord Lome," The Statistical Year 
 Books of Canada, Jlorgan's " Dominion Annual Registers," and Mr. A. Blue's 
 valuable issues of the Ontario Bureau of Industries and Statistics. 
 
 ^ "Confederation of British North America," by E. C. Bolton and H. H. 
 W^ebber, Royal Artillery. London, 1866.
 
 CHAP. IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 193 
 
 days of her glorious defence against American invasion, 
 Canada was comparatively compact. Moreover, she was a 
 fastness of forest ; she had no great cities on her frontier at 
 the mercy of the invader; nor had the invader railroads to 
 enable him to bring his superior forces to bear, though as we 
 have seen they began to tell as the war went on. Neither 
 was there then a great mass of French Canadians on the 
 south side of the line in close connection, local and social, 
 with their brethren on the north. The Canadians of that 
 day as backwoodsmen were rough soldiers ready-made. They 
 were less democratic than they are now, and followed more 
 willingly perhaps than their descendants would the royal 
 ofl&cers who were set over them, or their own gentry. 
 They had in this respect the same sort of advantage over the 
 Eepublicans at the beginning of the war as the Cavaliers had 
 over the Eoundheads and tlie Southerners over the North, 
 till the Eoundheads and the North learned the necessity of 
 discipline. The regular force of the Dominion consists of 
 schools of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, limited by law 
 in the whole to a thousand men. The embodied Militia 
 are in number 38,000, partly French. Half of this body 
 is each year called out for a fortnight. City regiments 
 voluntarily drill once a week during half the year. The 
 enrolled ]\Iilitia, comprising all men of military age, exists 
 only on paper, though by Canadian polilicians, speaking to 
 the British public and anxious to ijU-usc tlieir hearers, it has 
 been represented as an organised force ready at any moment 
 to spring to arms. In the North-West there are a tliousand 
 Mounted Police, who, liowever, arc confined by law to tlie 
 Territories. There is a Military C(jllege at Kingston of liigli 
 repute ; but there is no army stalf, commissariat, or provision 
 for Held hospitals. The men may b(! the worthy descendants
 
 194 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 of those who fought at Queenston Heights or Chateauguay, 
 but supposing each of them to be a rahidin it must be left 
 to soldiers to judge what force Canada would be able to put 
 into the field within the time allowed by the swift march of 
 modern war. The Duke of Wellington said that to defend her- 
 self successfully, Canada must command the Lakes,' and in the 
 War of 1812 loss of the command of the Lakes, after strenuous 
 efforts to keep it, was at once followed by disaster. But 
 Canada has no vessels of war on the Lakes ; thanks to lier 
 commercial isolation, she has very little lake or river shipping 
 of any kind. At sea she would have to trust entirely to the 
 British fleet. It is true the American army is also very small, 
 while the American militia is probably not better drilled 
 than that of Canada. But it has been seen that money will 
 buy men. The Americans have among them a good many 
 immigrants trained under the military system of Europe, and 
 they showed in their Civil War that they could quickly turn 
 wealth into military power. In vain does Imperial eloquence 
 appeal to an industrial community on this Continent to keep 
 up a regular army. It is not solely or principally the dislike 
 of expenditure that stands in tlie way ; it is the wliole 
 character of the people ; it is their character, political and 
 social, as well as commercial ; for they would fear that the 
 army would become their master and that they would have 
 an aristocracy of scarlet over their heads. That their fears 
 would not be idle even the present bearing of some wearers 
 of uniform shows. And who is the enemy ? A community 
 allied to the Canadians by blood, in which half of them have 
 relatives, with wdiich in all things saving government and 
 the customs line they are one. Imperialist writers, while in 
 trumpet tones they call Canada to arms, admit that the 
 American Eepublic will in the natural course of events
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 195 
 
 one day acquire the Protectorate of her Continent. Is the 
 difference between tutelage and union so momentous that a 
 people, who are or are destined to be under tutelage, can 
 be expected to live armed to the teeth against their own sons, 
 brothers, and cousins for the purpose of averting union ? 
 Might it not even occur to them when they were told to beat 
 their ploughshares into swords that union was tlie higher 
 condition of the two ? " Only one absurdity can be greater — 
 pardon me for saying so — than the absurdity of supposing 
 that the British Parliament will pay £200,000 for Canadian 
 fortifications ; it is the absurdity of supposing that Canadians 
 will pay it themselves. Two hundred thousand pounds for 
 defences ! and against whom ? against the Americans ? And 
 who are the Americans ? Your own kindred, a flourishinfi 
 people, who are ready to make room for you at tlieir own 
 table, to give you a share of all they possess, of all their 
 prosperity, and to guarantee you in all time to come against 
 the risk of invasion or the need of defences if you will but 
 speak the word." So, writing to the Colonial Secretary, said 
 Lord Elgin, Governor- General of Canada, and an ardent 
 upholder , if ever there was one, of British connection. 
 
 Unity of command the Provinces had before as British 
 dependencies under the general whom the Home Government 
 might send out. Perhaps they were more sure of liaving it 
 in their former state than they are in a state in which 
 jealousies and rivalries among themselves might possibly in- 
 terfere with devotion to the common cause. 
 
 After Confederation tlie Britisli troops were with(h'a\vu. 
 Tlie flag of conquering England still flouts over the citadel nf 
 Quebec, but it seems to wave a farewell to the scenes of its 
 glory, the historic rock, the famous battlefield, the majestic 
 river which bore the fleet of Kii^land tf) victoiy, the niumi-
 
 196 CANADA AND THK CANADIAN (QUESTION cn.vi'. 
 
 meiit uu Mliich the chivalry of tho victor lias inscribed 
 together the names of Wolfe and Montcalm, For no British 
 redcoats muster round it now. The only British redcoats left 
 on the Continent arc the reduced garrison of Halifax. The 
 beat of England's morning drum will soon go round the 
 world with the sun no more. But as its last throb dies away 
 will be heard the voice of law, literature, and civilisation still 
 speaking in the English tongue. The noblest of England's 
 conquests is that which will last for ever. 
 
 Those who crow over what they imagine to be the collapse 
 of the movement in favour of Colonial Emancipation and 
 against Imperial aggrandisement which prevailed thirty years 
 ago forget how much that movement effected. They forget 
 that it brought about not only the cession of the Ionian 
 Islands, which was its immediate fruit, but the withdrawal of 
 the troops from the Colonies, the proclamation of the principle 
 of Colonial self-defence, and a largely increased measure of 
 self-government. 
 
 The framers of Confederation, however, promised them- 
 selves not only increase of military strength but a North- 
 American empire to be formed by incorporating the North- 
 West, British Columbia, and Newfoundland, so that their 
 realm should stretch from sea to sea and over the great 
 adjacent island on the east. As regards the North- West and 
 British Columbia their hope was fulfilled. The Hudson's 
 Bay Company found itself constrained by Imperial pressure 
 and the precarious character of its chartered rights to sell in 
 1869 its almost measureless domain, much of which, how- 
 ever, is as hopelessly sterile as Sahara, for £300,000 
 and some reservations of good land. Possession was not 
 taken without resistance. In the North- West was a 
 population of French half-breeds belonging to the Catholic
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 197 
 
 Church in whom their kinsmen and fellow-Catholics fondly 
 saw the germ of a French and Catholic nation which should 
 in time occupy that vast region to the exclusion of British 
 and Protestant colonisation. Moreover the Half-breeds felt 
 that their hunting and trapping-grounds would be threatened 
 and their very primitive industries supplanted by the advance 
 of the agricultural settler. Their leader, Louis Kiel, upon the 
 approach of the first Canadian governor of the territory called 
 his people to arms, set up a provisional government, and put 
 to death, with circumstances of great atrocity, Scott, a British 
 Protestant and an Orangeman who resisted his assumption of 
 power. At the approach of Sir Garnet Wolseley, Eiel 
 collapsed and presently fled, aided, as was afterwards dis- 
 covered, with money for his flight by the Canadian Govern- 
 ment, which, placed between the devil of Orange wratli and 
 the deep sea of French sympathy with the leader of French 
 race and religion, had no desire in deciding on the fate of the 
 rebel chief to choose between two modes of destruction for 
 itself. The struggle was renewed in 1885, when the Half- 
 breeds, having been exasperated by the disregard of their 
 prayers respecting some land claims, to which the Ottawa 
 Government, absorbed in the party struggle, found no time to 
 attend, and being also probably alarmed by the advance of an 
 alien civilisation, welcomed back Eiel as their cliief and once 
 more rose in arms. That he had been amnestied in the mean- 
 while did not prevent Kiel from playing the same game over 
 again. The rising of the Half-breeds was quelled, and 
 Batoche, their liamlet-capital, was taken by a Canadian force 
 under General Middleton, after a resistance whicli the candour 
 of liistory must allow to have done credit t(j the vahtiir (if 
 those poor people, considering that they could ])ut into the 
 field only a few huiidre(l uwai of all ages, a man of ninety and
 
 198 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION < ii.\r. 
 
 a boy of sixteen being found among the slain, that only a part 
 of them were armed Milli rifles, and tliat even these were 
 short of anmiunition. Iliel suffered deatli and deserved little 
 sympathy, since he had not only broken his amnesty but been 
 willinir to sell himself and his cause to the Government. 
 Quebec, however, boiled over with sympathy for him, which 
 would perhaps have proved more formidable had not he by 
 playing the prophet given offence to the priesthood. The 
 Liberal Opposition in the Dominion Parliament, misled by 
 the temporary ferment, and thinking to gain the French vote, 
 took up Riel's cause and pleaded for his exemption from 
 punishment on the two grounds, not very consistent with each 
 other, that he was insane and that his offence was political. 
 That a man who had conducted with no small address an 
 arduous enterprise and retained complete control over his 
 followers was insane in such a sense as to make him irrespon- 
 sible for his actions could be believed by no human being, 
 even if there was a streak of madness in Eiel's general 
 character ; while it was evident that if every offence which 
 could be styled political was to go unpunished, society would 
 be at the mercy of any brigand who chose to say that his 
 object in filling it with blood and havoc was not booty but 
 anarchy or usurpation. Some of the best men in the 
 Opposition refused to vote with their leader, and the Govern- 
 ment, standing to its guns, gained a well-merited victory. 
 Among the troops sent to the North- West were two regiments 
 of French militia. But these were not sent to the front. Of 
 the two Colonels, one left the army in the field and went 
 home, while the other telegraphed to the Minister of Militia 
 his advice that the troops should be employed in guarding the 
 forts and provisions, and that men fighting in the same way 
 as the rebels should be sent to make the war. It is but fair
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 199 
 
 to suppose that what these gallant officers wished to shun was 
 not powder but political ruin. The suppression of this petty 
 insurrection cost the Dominion SS, 000,000, besides the 
 loss of life, a fine paid for the supineness or the political 
 distractions of the Government, which when the Eebellion 
 had broken out issued a Commission to inquire into the 
 Half-breed claims. 
 
 The French yet cling to the hope of making the North- 
 West their own. Their Archbishop still reigns, not without 
 opulence and state, in St. Boniface, the transriverine suburb 
 of Winnipeg, and they have an immigration agency managed 
 by priestly hands. But the balance of destiny has clearly 
 turned against them ; as pioneers they are no match for their 
 rivals. The Legislature of INIanitoba has passed an Act 
 abolishing the official use of the French language and the 
 Separate Schools for Catholics. The Half-breeds are not a 
 strong race, nor is immigration doing much to recruit their 
 numbers. The next generation will probably see their few 
 thousands merged in a great inflow of English-speaking 
 settlers. 
 
 When the North- West is peopled, and filled perhaps with 
 a population partly drawn from the United States and other 
 quarters not Canadian, it being locally far removed and 
 commercially disunited from the eastern parts of tlie 
 Dominion, what will be the effect on the cohesion and 
 stability of Confederation ? That is a question whicli the 
 politicians of to-day have probably put off to the morrow. 
 
 Newfoundland, tlie oldest of ]>ritish Colonies, has hitherto 
 refused, in spite of all overtures, to come into Confederation, 
 and her decision seems now to be final. The owners of her 
 boats, who are the owners of her fishermen, probably think 
 that their interest is better served by remaining ii\nui ;
 
 200 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chav. 
 
 perhaps she also looks witli alarm on the growth of Confedera- 
 tion debt. The Confederation, on the other hand, by taking her 
 in would annex a very bitter local feud between Orangemen and 
 Catholics, commit itself to the naval defence of an island, add 
 to the Fisheries question with the United States a similar 
 but more dangerous question with France, in which she would 
 have her own French against her, and open a new field 
 of political corruption. 
 
 To link together the widely -severed members of the 
 Confederation two political and military railways were to be 
 constructed by united effort as Federal works. The first was 
 the Intercolonial, spanning the vast and irreclaimable wil- 
 derness which separates Halifax from Quebec. This has 
 been constructed at a cost of $40,000,000, and is now 
 being worked by the Go^'ernment at an annual loss, the 
 amount of which it is difficult to ascertain, but which is 
 reckoned by an independent authority at $500,000. The 
 Canadian Pacific has also been constructed at a cost to 
 the Dominion in money, land grants, guarantees, com- 
 pleted works and surveys of something like $100,000,000, 
 though it was promised by the original project that 
 there should be no addition to taxation. Of the military 
 value of these lines, and of their availalulity as a route 
 for the transmission of troops from England to India, it 
 is for military men to judge. At the time when the Inter- 
 colonial was projected, the two British officers of artillery, 
 whose pamphlet has been already cited, pointed out that the 
 line would be fatally liable to snow -blocks. It would be 
 awkward if, at a crisis like that of the Great Mutiny or that 
 of a Russian invasion in India, the reinforcements were 
 blockaded by snow in the wilderness between Halifax and 
 Quebec. We need hardly take into account such a chance as
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 201 
 
 that of the closing of Halifax harbour by ice, which happens 
 not more than once in tliirteen or fourteen years. It is a 
 more serious consideration that the line where it approaclies 
 the northern frontier of Maine runs, if the enemies are the 
 Americans, within easy reach of a raid. Still more exposed 
 to hostile attack is the Canadian Pacific, which runs along 
 the northern shore of Lake Superior, the southern shore 
 of which is in the hands of the Americans, and for 800 
 miles across the prairie country where the frontier is perfectly 
 open. In the mountain region there are points at which, if 
 an enemy could get at it with dynamite, it might, as the 
 writer has been assured on competent authority, be blocked for 
 months. Against snow-blocks and against avalanches, which 
 are frequent, careful provision on a large scale is being made ; 
 but landslides also are frequent in that region, where it has 
 been jocosely said " the work of creation is not quite finished." 
 One of them blocked the course of the great Thompson Eiver 
 for forty-eight hours. But the fact is constantly overlooked 
 in vaunting the importance of this line to the Empire that its 
 eastern section passes through the State of Maine, and would, 
 of course, be closed to troops in case of war witli any power 
 at peace with the United States.^ In sending troops to 
 India there would be two transliipments, a consideration 
 the importance of which again it is for tlie War Office to 
 determine. 
 
 ' "Yh^ Quarterly lievleu; for example, .spokeof the Canadian I'acific Railway 
 as running fronr "start to finish " over British ground, tlioiigh the line wa.s 
 at that very moment apjdying for bonding jirivilegrs to the (Joverninent of 
 the United States. I take the ojjportunity of repeating tliat the statement of 
 the Quarterly, that I had been going about the United States trying in vain 
 to jwrsuaile the Americans to annex Canaila, is liaseless. The only occasion 
 on which I spoke jmldicly of the political relations of Canada with the United 
 States was at a debating society in New York, where I had been invited to 
 take jiart in the discussion ; and what I .said on that occasion was, in olfect, 
 that political union was a (pieHtion for the future, while the improvomout of
 
 202 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 As a commercial road the Intercolonial is a failure, for 
 the simple reason that there is not, nor is there likely 
 to be, any trade of the slightest importance between 
 Canada and the Maritime Provinces of tlie Dominion. 
 Small must be its receipts for local tratiic between 
 <^)uebec and Halifax or St. John. Its commercial usefulness 
 will be reduced, if possible, still lower if not altogether 
 destroyed, now that the Canadian Pacific, its reputed consort 
 in tlie great Imperial scheme, cuts it out by taking the route, 
 200 miles shorter, througli the State of Maine ; nor can 
 the condition to which it will probably be reduced by 
 commercial depression fail to tell upon its efficiency even as 
 a military road. What are the success and prospects of the 
 Canadian Pacific as a commercial road we shall be better able 
 to say when the earnings of the original and national line 
 between Ottawa and the Pacific coast are distinguished from 
 those of the Eastern and American extensions, which are no 
 part of the original and national enterprise. So far as the 
 profits of the Canadian Pacific Piailway are made at the expense 
 of the Grand Trunk they are made at the expense of a road 
 which has done a great deal more for Canada than the Canadian 
 Pacific llailway itself, and in which £12,000,000 sterling 
 of British capital are invested. As a colonisation road its 
 achievements are very doubtful. It has strung out the 
 settlers along a line of 800 miles, carrying them far 
 away from their markets and their centres of distribution, 
 raising their freights, and, what is worst of all, depriving 
 
 commercial relations was the question of the present. The story published in 
 the Qiuirterhj about a rebuke administered to me for my Annexationist 
 sentiments by General Sherman, at the banquet of the Chamber of Commerce 
 of New York, is also a pure fiction. The General spoke before me, he spoke 
 to his own toast, and my speech on that occasion was confined to the 
 commercial question, the political question being mentioned only to exclude 
 it.— G. S.
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 203 
 
 them of the advantages of close settlement which in a wintry 
 climate are particularly great. Many emigrants it carries all 
 down the line to British Columbia, whence, there being hardly 
 any land for them to take up, they pass into the Pacific 
 States of the Union. In one of the emigrant trains there 
 were found ten persons bound for British Columbia and fifty- 
 eight bound for places in the United States. Besides this, 
 the monopoly granted to the Company in consideration of the 
 sacrifice of commercial to military and political objects in the 
 laying out of the line long weighed like lead upon the rising 
 community. To this, in conjunction with the tariff and with 
 some unfortunate land regulations made both by the Company 
 and the Government, it is due that whereas Dakota and 
 Manitoba started eighteen years ago on nearly equal terms, 
 Dakotahas a populationof over500,000,whiletliat of Manitoba 
 is about 150,000. At one time Manitoba was brought to the 
 verge of despair : men who had been members of a Conserva- 
 tive Government were leaving her for the United States. Yet 
 the Ottawa Government, in pursuance of its political aims 
 obstinately maintained the monopoly by the exercise of its 
 veto, and was supported in so doing by its compliant majority 
 in the Dominion Parliament. Suddenly, on a transpar- 
 ently hollow pretext, it changed its course. Tlie province 
 petitioned the Crown for a hearing before the Privy Council, 
 and it is commonly believed that the British Government then 
 sent the Ottawa Government a liint, to which tlie Ottawa 
 Government gave ear. Manitoba wouhl otherwise liave 
 escaped ruin only by secession, and a Canadian Government 
 which boasts that by its statesmansliip the Confederation is 
 held together, and excuses the most equivocal practices by 
 that plea, would itself have been the; immediate autlior of 
 dis.solution.
 
 204 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Tliere is one point of view in which tlic history of tlie 
 Canadian Pacific J Jail way is most instructive. It was 
 originally proclaimed as a purely national and imperial 
 enterprise which was to assure the perpetual separation of 
 Canada from the United States, frustrating for ever the 
 designs of American ambition, and in which no Yankee was 
 in any way whatever to take part. So everybody said and 
 Sir George Cartier swore. An American firm was in the 
 syndicate ; an American, now Vice-President of the United 
 States, was the first Vice-President of the Company ; a genuine 
 American was the first manager and is now President. The 
 line runs through the State of Maine ; it connects the 
 Canadian with the American railway system not there only 
 but at the Sault Ste. Marie and at its Pacific terminus. It is 
 an applicant for bonding privileges at Washington, and in 
 danger of being brought under the Inter- State Commerce 
 Act. It is in fact, or soon will be, as much an American as a 
 Canadian line. Tlie C. P. E. even discriminates in its freights, 
 involuntarily no doubt, against Canadians and in favour of 
 Americans.-^ Such is the outcome of designs for the suj)- 
 pression of geography and nature. 
 
 In opening a trade among the Provinces, a natural trade 
 at least, these inter-provincial railroads have failed, for the 
 
 ' ^ The following is from an official source : " 1st. The rate on wheat from 
 Winnipeg to St. John, N.B., is 50 cents, and to Halifax, 63i cents per 100 
 )>ounds. These are rates for traffic when carried by the C. P. R. alone. 2d. 
 The rates on wheat from Minneapolis to Portland, Me., is 42^ cents, Bo.ston, 
 42| cents, and New York, 37^ cents per hundred pounds. These rates ajjjjly 
 where traffic takes the route from Minneapolis via the " Soo Line" and 
 C. P. R., and were made effective Jan. 1st inst. Prior to that date each of 
 the above rates was 5 cents less per 100 pounds. 3d. The first-class rate on 
 general merchandise from St. John, N.B., to Winnipeg is §2.64 per 100 
 pounds, and from Montreal §2.08 per 100 pounds. These rates apjily via 
 the C. P. R. 4th. The rates on first-class general merchandise from Portland and 
 Boston to Minneapolis is §1.05 per 100 pounds, via C. P. R. and "Soo Line."
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATIOX 205 
 
 simple reason that the Provinces have hardly any products 
 to exchange with each other, and that means of conveyance 
 are futile when there is nothing to be conveyed. " I take," 
 says Mr. Lougley, the Attorney-General of Nova Scotia, " the 
 solid ground that naturally there is no trade between Ontario 
 and the Maritime Provinces whatsoever. Without the aid or 
 compulsion of tariffs scarcely a single article produced in Ontario 
 would ever seek or find a market in Nova Scotia or the other 
 Maritime Provinces. In like manner, unless under similar 
 compulsion, not a product of the Maritime Provinces would 
 ever go to Ontario. Twenty years of political union and 
 nine years of an inexorable Protectionist policy designed to 
 compel inter-provincial trade have been powerless to create 
 any large trade between these two sections, and what it has 
 created has been unnatural, imhealthy, and consequently 
 profitless." As illustrations, Mr. Longley points out that 
 Ontario sent to the United States S7,000,000 worth of 
 barley, timber to the same value, and §4,000,000 wortli of 
 animals and their produce, but to the Maritime Provinces 
 none ; while, on the otlier hand. Nova Scotia sent to the 
 United States also in spite of heavy duties 82,000,000 
 worth of fish, S600,000 worth of minerals, and 8500,000 
 worth of farm products ; sending none to Ontario. " Of the 
 geniune natural products," continues Mr. Longley, " Nova 
 Scotia sends practically nothing to Ontario. If the exports 
 of Nova Scotia to Ontario are carefully studied, it will be 
 found that they consist chiefly of refined sugar and manu- 
 factured cotton, the product of two mushroom industries called 
 into existence by the Protective system, and which do not 
 affect one way or another tlie interests of 500 individuals 
 in the entire province of Nova Scotia." To aiiy one who 
 may ask why this state of things exists, "God and nature,"
 
 206 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 he says, " never designed a trade between Ontario and tlie 
 Maritime Provinces. If I have a barrel or ton of any com- 
 modity produced in Nova Scotia, and I desired to send it to 
 Toronto or Hamilton, tlic cost of sending it thither, unless it 
 were gold, would probably be more than the value of the 
 commodity. But I can at any moment put it on board of 
 one of the numerous vessels or steamers which are daily 
 leaving every port in Nova Scotia for Boston and send it to 
 that city for twenty or thirty cents. If I desired to go to 
 Toronto and Hamilton to sell it I should have to mortgage 
 my farm to pay the cost of the trip, whereas I can go to 
 Boston and back for a few dollars." ]\Iuch more would he 
 have to mortgage his farm if lie carried liis bales to Calgary 
 or Vancouver. The moral drawn by Mr. Longley is, " that 
 the Maritime Provinces have no natural or healthy trade with 
 the Upper Provinces, but with the New England States ; that 
 the Upper Provinces have no natural trade with the Maritime 
 Provinces, but with the Central and Western States adjoining 
 them ; that Manitoba has no natural trade with the larger 
 provinces of Canada, but with the Western States to the 
 south of her ; that British Columbia has no trade with any 
 part of Canada, but with California and the Pacific States. 
 In other words, that inter -provincial trade is unnatural, 
 forced, and profitless, while there is a natural and profitable 
 trade at our very doors open and available to us." The 
 harvests of the North-West, as they cannot be moved south, 
 go along the Canadian Pacific Railway to the sea. If an 
 Asiatic trade comes to Vancouver the tea will be carried 
 across the Continent. But this is not inter-provincial trade, 
 nor, being merely of a transitory kind, can it add much, 
 beyond the railway freight, to the wealth of the Dominion. 
 The French province, the people of which live on the
 
 IX FRUITS OF COXFEDERATION 207 
 
 produce of their own farms and clothe themselves with the 
 produce of their own spinning, is uncommercial, and lies 
 a non-conductor between the more commercial members of 
 the Confederation. 
 
 To force trade into activity between the Provinces and 
 turn it away from the United States, giving the Canadian 
 farmer a home market, and consolidating Canadian nationality 
 at the same time, were the ostensible objects of the adoption 
 in 1879 of a Protective tariff. The real object perhaps was 
 at least as much to capture the manufacturer's vote and his 
 contributions to the election fund of the party in power. 
 Protectionists boast and enlightened men speak sadly of the 
 course which opinion has been taking on this subject. It is 
 true that through the extension of the suffrage the world has 
 passed from the hands of Turgot, Pitt, Peel, and Cavour into 
 those of a multitude ignorant of economical questions, swayed 
 by blind cupidity, the easy dupe of protectionist sophistry ; 
 and that fallacies which it was hoped liad been for ever 
 banished have thus regained their power. But in the United 
 States and Canada it is less mistaken opinion tliat has been 
 at work than the influence of sinister interest. The Canadian 
 politicians who framed the Protective tariff were not and had 
 never professed to be believers in Protection. If tliey had 
 been identified with any fiscal policy it was that of Free 
 Trade, at least between Canada and her own Continent, Tlieir 
 watchword liad been reciprocity of trade or reciprocity of 
 tariffs, in other words, the enforcement of Free Trade by 
 Ketaliation, which, though the purists of Free Trade may 
 condemn it, is not protectionism Ijut the reverse. If they 
 had formed their design, lh(!y niaskt'd it till the election 
 wa.s over and declared that what they meant was not pro- 
 tection but readjustment, fV)r wliich and f<jr an increase of
 
 208 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 taxation to till a deficit there were good grounds. They so 
 far paid homage to their ohl principles as to keep in their 
 Tariir Act a standing ofler to the United States of reciprocity 
 in natural products, though, as the Americans could not in 
 common justice to their own interests allow their manu- 
 factures to be excluded, this was little better than a mockery. 
 But even this they afterwards threw overboard, and one 
 of them declared broadly that free trade even in farm 
 products is an evil, so that Kent had better keep her hops 
 and Worcestershire her apples all to herself ; for this wouhl 
 not be more absurd than the refusal of Manitoba to sell hard 
 wheat, or of Ontario to sell her superior barley across the 
 Line, and take American products or manufactures in pay- 
 ment. The upshot is that on the neck of the Canadian as of 
 the American Commonwealth now rides an association of 
 protected manufacturers making the community and all tlie 
 great interests of the country tributary to their gains. Before 
 a general election the Prime Minister calls these men to- 
 gether in the parlour of a Toronto hotel, receives their 
 contributions to his election fund, and pledges the com- 
 mercial policy of the country. Then British journals in 
 their simplicity advise Canada to meet the M'Kinley Act 
 by a declaration of Free Trade. 
 
 It "would be waste of words to argue over again to any 
 intelligent reader the questions whether Canada, or any other 
 country, can be enriched by taxation, and whether natural or 
 forced industries are the best. That to which attention 
 should be called is the difference between the case of Canada 
 and that of the United States, the example of which Canada 
 follows. The United States are a continent extending from 
 regions almost arctic to regions almost tropical, embracing 
 an immense variety of production, producing nearly every-
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 209 
 
 thing in short, except tea and spices, with a market of 
 63,000,000, The largest measure of Free Trade ever passed 
 was the American Constitution, which forbade a customs hne 
 to be erected between States. This it is — not the protective 
 tariff on the seaboard — that has been the source of American 
 prosperity. In like manner it was not Napoleon's continental 
 system that gave his Empire such a measure of prosperity as 
 it enjoyed, but the large area which it included, and over 
 which there was Free Trade. The Canadian Dominion lies 
 all in a high latitude, and its range of production is limited. 
 The market, instead of being 63,000,000, is under 
 5,000,000, and these 5,000,000 are divided into four or five 
 markets widely distant from each other, and most of them 
 sparse in themselves. The effect might have been easily fore- 
 told. A number of factories have been forced into existence, 
 and have prospered as forced industries prosper. Of the cotton 
 mills only one or two, it is believed, have paid dividends, 
 several are in liquidation, and the owners of otliers have 
 been trying to find English purchasers at a discount of 50 
 per cent. The loyal attempt to foster the iron and steel 
 industry of Canada, by a duty excluding British manfactures, 
 for which a Canadian Finance Minister was rewarded with a 
 baronetcy, has totally failed. Of course there is continual 
 running to Ottawa for larger draughts of the fatal stimulant, 
 when the first draught has failed. "The imposts," says an 
 ex-President of the Toronto Board of Trade, "are a n)ass (tf 
 incongruous absurdities ; the duties on raw materials are 
 now as high in some cases as those on the manufacturi'il 
 articles. In attempting to extend to all industries the 
 benefits of jtrotection, the lioight of tlie ridicidous was 
 reached when tlie duty was laigcly iiicrcasiHl ui)()n umbrcUas 
 and jtarasols for tin; special behoof of one small concern 
 
 I'
 
 210 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiap. 
 
 which failed within the year." A patiiot writes to the 
 Minister of Finance to say that he proposes to foster home 
 industries and consolidate the nation by starting a canned- 
 soup factory, but he must have a duty of 20 per cent on 
 canned-soup, and a protective duty on tomatoes. About the 
 stomachs of the consumers nothing is said. Combines are 
 now being formed to keep up prices. A spasmodic demand for 
 labour and an artificial rise in wages have been followed by 
 short time. In the first days of the system the Minister of 
 Finance made a triumphal progress through the factories to 
 witness and glorify the work of his own hands ; he has not 
 repeated his tour. What are the fruits of the policy to the 
 public need hardly be told. A great wholesale dealer in 
 woollens and cottons, in a debate at the Toronto Board of 
 Trade, deprecating free trade with the United States, said 
 that if American goods were admitted free, the capital 
 invested in Canadian manufactories under the protective 
 tariff would not be worth more than a third of its face value ; 
 the inference from which was that the interest on the other 
 two-thirds, if paid at all, must be paid by the community. 
 This, however, applies only to the forced industries. Those 
 of the Canadian manufacturers who feel that their industries 
 have a natural and sound basis disclaim the desire of protec- 
 tion, and ask only a fair field. In no trade probably would 
 American competition be keener than in the manufacture of 
 agricultural implements. Yet the other day a firm of large 
 manufacturers in that line declared for free trade with the 
 United States. The agricultural implement business, they 
 said, had been overdone, they wanted more people to whom 
 to sell, and they would not be afraid of American competition. 
 Another large manufacturer in the same line, spoke to the 
 same effect, pointing out, by the way, that the immense
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 211 
 
 territory which in Canada had to be covered in order to 
 embrace a sufficient mai-ket, was a heavy addition to the 
 manufacturer's expense. These are not by any means the 
 only firms which take that view. It is the hothouse plants 
 that shrink from tlie open air ; and while all possible con- 
 sideration is due to those who have been induced by Parlia- 
 ment to invest, it is hard that the community should be 
 required for ever to expiate the mistake. 
 
 The isolation of the different Canadian markets from each 
 other, and the incompatibility of their interests, add in their 
 case to the evils and absurdities of the protective system. 
 What is meat to one Province is, even on the protectionist 
 hypothesis, poison to another. Ontario was to be forced to 
 manufacture ; she has no coal ; yet to reconcile Nova Scotia 
 to the tariff a coal duty was imposed ; in vain, for Ontario 
 after all continued to import her coal from Pennsylvania. 
 Manitoba and the North-West produce no fruit ; yet they 
 were compelled to pay a duty in order to protect the 
 fruit-grower of Ontario 1500 miles away. Hardest of all 
 was the lot of the North -West farmer. His natural 
 market, wherein to buy farm implements, was in the neigh- 
 bouring cities of the United States, where, moreover, 
 implements were made most suitable to the prairie. But 
 to force him to buy in Eastern Canada 25 per cent was 
 laid on farm implements. As he still bought in the 
 States, the 25 per cent was made 35 per cent. Handi- 
 capped with 35 per cent on his implements, and at the 
 same time with railway monopoly, as well as with the 
 general imposts of the tariff, he has to compete with the 
 farmer of Minnesota or Dakota, buying in a free market, and 
 enjoying freedom of railway accommcjdation. An attempt 
 was made to show that manufactories had been called into
 
 212 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiav. 
 
 existence in Manitoba, and that she was exporting their 
 products ; hut tlie list was Ibund lo embrace the work of 
 lime kilns, blacksmiths' forges, photography, and re-shipments 
 of old railway engines. 
 
 The British reader will not be surprised to hear that the 
 arguments used by the defenders of the system are only such 
 as have been a hundred times confuted. In the case 
 of Canada, as in other cases, the protectionist makes no 
 attempt to lay down his principle by defining native in- 
 dustries, or to say what is the proper area for its application ; 
 why Ontario should not benefit by protection against New 
 Brunswick, as well as against New York, or New York 
 benefit by protection against her sister States. The state- 
 ment that England nursed her manufactures by protection 
 is still repeated, and so is the plea for infant industries, 
 babes who, when they come to manhood, instead of giving up 
 their pap and swaddling-clothes, take you by the throat and 
 demand more. The protectionists loudly profess loyalty, 
 which with them means high duties on American goods. 
 Their organs labour to keep up hatred of the people of the 
 United States, just as the organs of protectionism in the 
 United States labour to keep up hatred of England. But 
 the main strength of protectionism in Canada, as in the 
 United States, lies in its Lobby and in the money which it 
 subscribes for elections. International hatred, directed in 
 Canada against her American neighbours, and political 
 corruption, are two inseparable companions of the system. 
 A third is smuggling, which is rife all along the Canadian 
 border, to the detriment of lawful trade, and with the usual 
 effect on the morality of the people. 
 
 For the fusion of population between the Provinces 
 Confederation seems to have done as little as for the creation
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 213 
 
 of inter-Provincial trade. Reciprocal trade indeed is almost 
 necessary to fusion. In the census return for 1881, which 
 is the last, it appeal's that in that year there were of natives 
 in Ontario, 105 settled in Prince Edward Island, 310 in 
 Xew Brunswick, and 333 in Xova Scotia ; in all, 748 natives 
 of Ontario settled in the INIaritime Provinces. ^luch the 
 same state of things is found in Quebec, with the exception 
 of two counties which border on a district of New Brunswick, 
 with an identical population. On the same day there were 
 of persons of United States birth, 609 in Prince Edward 
 Island, 5108 in New Brunswick, 3004 in Nova Scotia; or, 
 roughly speaking, thirteen times as many natives of the 
 United States in the Maritime Provinces as there were natives 
 of Ontario. It is found, moreover, that in 1861, before 
 Confederation, and when there was no Intercolonial railway, 
 there were 6700 natives of the Maritime Provinces in 
 Ontario ; twenty years afterwards there were only 7200. 
 In Quebec, among the people of eight or ten populous 
 counties, not a man from the ^Maritime Provinces was to be 
 found, immigration had actually declined in spite of the 
 official connection. Meantime it appears that there are 
 1,000,000 immigrants from Canada in the United States. 
 
 "Without commercial intercourse or fusion of i)0})ulation, 
 tlie unity produced by a mere political arrangement can 
 hardly be strong or deep. It will, for the most i)art, be con- 
 fined to the politicians, or to those directly interested in the 
 work of Dominion parties. No inhabitant of Nova Scotia or 
 Xew Brunswick calls himself a Canadian. The people of 
 iiritish Columbia, priding themselves on their English 
 character, almost disdain the name. Manitoba and the 
 North-West have been largely coloni.seil from (»iilari<>, yut 
 Manitobans tell you that thongli (heir jHrsonal and raniily
 
 214 CANADA AND TIIK CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 connections are cherished, us a community they are sev'cred 
 from Eastern Canada. All the Provinces are under the 
 British flag. All are united by the sentiments common 
 to British Colonies and by historical associations. This 
 they were before Confederation. That Confederation has 
 as yet increased the community of feeling or strengthened 
 the moral bond there is nothing in the attitude of the 
 Provinces towards each other, political or general, to prove. 
 
 So much as to the British I'rovinces. Of Quebec some- 
 thing has been already said. If there is a word hateful to 
 French ears it is amalgamation. Not only has New France 
 shown no increase of tendency to merge her nationality in 
 that of the Dominion ; her tendency has been directly the 
 other way. She has recently, as we have seen, unfurled her 
 national flag, and at the same time placed herself as the 
 French Canadian nation, under the special protection of the 
 Pope, who accepts the position of her ecclesiastical lord. At 
 her head, and to all appearances firmly seated in power, is the 
 chief of the Nationalist and Papal party, who bids Blue and 
 Eed blend themselves in the tricolor and restores to the 
 Jesuits their estates. The old Bleu or Conservative party, 
 associated with the clergy of the Gallican school, which by 
 its union with tlie Tories in the British Provinces linked 
 Quebec politically to the Dominion, has fallen, as it seems, to 
 rise no more. What life is left in it is sustained largely by 
 Dominion subsidies of which the Ottawa Government makes 
 it the accredited channel. " The complete autonomy of the 
 French Canadian nationality and the foundation of a French 
 Canadian and Catholic state, having for its mission to 
 continue in America the glorious work of our ancestors," are 
 the avowed aims of the Nationalist and Ultramontane press. 
 Greybeards of the old Conservative school protest that all
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 215 
 
 this meaus nothing, that no design of autonomy has been 
 formed, and that it is unjust to speak of French nationality 
 and theocracy as dangers to Confederation. Whether the 
 design has been distinctly formed or not matters little if the 
 tendency is manifestly there and is gaining strength every 
 day. Let those who prophesy to us smooth things take stock 
 of the facts. When one community differs from another in 
 race, language, religion, character, spirit, social structure, 
 aspirations, occupying also a territory apart, it is a separate 
 nation, and is morally certain to pursue a different course, 
 let it designate itself as it can. French Canada may be 
 ultimately absorbed in the English-speaking population of 
 a vast Continent ; amalgamate with British Canada so as to 
 form a united nation it apparently never can. In the Swiss 
 Confederation there are diversities of race, language, and 
 religion, but the union is immemorial ; it was formed and is 
 held together by the most cogent pressure from without; its 
 territory is compact and surrounded by a mountain wall ; 
 the races and religions are interlocked, not confronted like two 
 cliffs, and the division into small cantons tends to avert a 
 broad antagonism of forces. After all, Switzerland has had its 
 Sonderbund, and the Jesuit, whose intrigues gave birth to the 
 Sonderbund, is now dominant in Quebec. Quebec sends her 
 representatives to the Federal Tarliament. But their mission 
 is not to take counsel witli the other representatives of the 
 nation so much as to look to tlie separate interest of Quebec, 
 and above all to draw from the treasury of the Dominion all 
 that can be drawn in aid of her em])ty chest. Thoy let pass 
 no opportunity of doing thf.'ir duty to her in tliat line. On 
 one occasion th(iy stayed out of tlie Jlmise haggling with Iht; 
 Government till the bell had rung Un- a division, when the 
 Government gave way, (Quebec, a.s revelations going on at
 
 216 CANADA AXIJ THE CAXADIAN QUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 this moment show, is politically corrupt, and by her 
 corruption she may be held in the Union, but of what benefit 
 the Union will be to her partners, or how they will be indem- 
 nified for the expense, it is not easy to see. Her people, 
 savinjT the Protestant traders of Montreal and the remnant of 
 British commerce at Quebec, being very poor, their contribu- 
 tion to the common revenues is small. The creative genius 
 of Lord Lome, besides a lloyal Society and a Eoyal 
 Academy, bestowed on Canada a National hymn. Tiie 
 hymn should have been written in alternate stanzas of 
 French and English. 
 
 The beauty of the French language, the brilliancy of 
 French literature, the graces of French character, the value of 
 the contributions made by France to the common treasure of 
 civilisation, on which Governors-General preaching harmony 
 dilate, are by nobody denied. But supposing Quebec to be 
 the depositary of all French gifts, mere vicinity to them is 
 little worth when the separation in all other respects is as 
 complete as if seas rolled or Alps rose between. France may 
 enrich the store of humanity, but the store of the Dominion, 
 material or moral, is not enriched by simple want of homo- 
 geneity and harmony among its members. 
 
 The last deliverance on this subject from the French side 
 is La Question du Jour, by M. Faucher de Saint- Maurice. 
 The author puts tlie question, " Shall we remain French ? " 
 and answers it with a thundering "Yes," hurling his 
 anathemas at all wliom he suspects of a desire to bring about 
 denationalisation. A curious and instructive part of the 
 pamphlet is that which, in portraying the emotions of Quebec 
 on the occasion of the Franco - German war, displays the 
 passionate attachment of New France to her own mother 
 country. " At the thought of the struggle in which the land
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 217 
 
 of our fathers is engaged tlie French blood stirred in our 
 veins, as though it had never been chilled, and we shouted 
 for the flag of our mother country as if it had never ceased to 
 wave over our heads." " We admire the United States, whose 
 prosperity dazzles us, but France alone is the object of our 
 passionate love." " Our thoughts and our hearts belong to 
 our mother country." We have seen that Sir George Cartier, 
 of all Frenchmen the most British, spoke in a similar 
 strain. In the event of a war between Great Britain 
 and her most probable enemy, on which side are we to 
 suppose that the hearts of the French Canadians would be ? 
 After reckoning up all the elements of French population and 
 strength, including 108,605 " Acadians " in the Maritime 
 Provinces, M. Faucher de Saint-lMaurice concludes by saying, 
 " With courage, with perseverance, with union, with effort, and 
 above all with a constant devotion to our religion and our 
 language, the future must be ours. Sooner or later, marching 
 on together, we shall arrive at the position of a great nation. 
 The logical conclusion of my work can only be this — One 
 day we shall be Catholic France in America." This wi-itcr, 
 at all events, has formed his design. 
 
 The coping-stone and the symbol of nationality in the Con- 
 stitution, it has been already said, was the national veto on 
 Provincial legislation, that vast power, as Sir Alexander Galt,^ 
 one of the Fatliers of Confederation, called it, and that palla- 
 dium, as he deemed it, oi Protestant and civil rights in 
 Quebec, which might otherwise be exposed without defence to 
 Ultramontane aggression. Yet this coping-stone of nation- 
 ality, this palladium of civil right, both the i)arties have 
 abandoned or reduced to nullity uiidn' tlu! jircssuri- of the 
 French-Catholic vote. In tlif transfer of Quebec fmin France 
 
 ' Churr/i and SOi/r, l.y Sir Altxaii-I.i T. Call, K.C.M.C, Munti.al, 187(3.
 
 218 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chat. 
 
 to Britain the revenues of the parish clergy were secured 
 with the religion of the people, but the estates of the religious 
 orders were left to the pleasure of tlie Crown, and the 
 Solicitor-General Wedderl)urn advised that wliile the other 
 religious orders might be allowed to exist, tliat of the Jesuits, 
 on account of its anti-national character, could not. Tlie 
 Crown, as a matter of humanity, allowed tlie remaining 
 Jesuits subsistence on the estates for their lives. In 1773 
 the Order was suppressed by the Pope. The estates then, at 
 all events, fell to the Crown, which held them for the purposes 
 of education, and ultimately transmitted them to the Province 
 impressed with that trust. But the restored Order laid claim 
 to the estates. The claim would have been met by any 
 Government in Europe with derision. But Quebec had 
 fallen under Jesuit influence. An Act was passed (1888) by 
 the Provincial Legislature in whicli Protestantism has a 
 merely nominal representation, assigning to the Jesuits the 
 sum of $400,000 by way of compensation for the estates. To 
 give colour to the transaction the sum of $60,000 was 
 assigned to Protestant education. The Pope's name was 
 introduced in tlie Act as arbiter of the arrangement. 
 Apologists in Parliament pretended that this was a mere 
 expedient of conveyancing ; but if it had been nothing else it 
 would most certainly have been avoided. There could be no 
 doubt about the spirit and intention of the Act ; had there 
 been any it would have been set at rest when Mr. Mercier, 
 as we have already said, before an assembly of Eoman Catholic 
 Bishops and Clergy, boasted that he had emulated the 
 glorious deeds of the American Eevolutionists by undoing 
 the wrong done by George III. The Act was a rampant 
 assertion of Eoman Catholic ascendancy by the endowment 
 out of a public fund of an Order formed specially for the
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 219 
 
 subversion of Protestantism, and at the same time a recogni- 
 tion of the Pope as the ecclesiastical sovereign of Quebec. 
 Morally, if not legally, it was an excess of jurisdiction, since 
 religion is not in the list of subjects with which the Provincial 
 Legislatures are authorised by the Constitution to deal, while 
 the endowment out of the public treasury of a professedly 
 propagandist Order was certainly a religious measure and one 
 of an extreme kind, as we should soon have been made to 
 understand had the Legislature of Ontario endowed a 
 Protestant mission for the subversion of the Poman Catholic 
 Church. Yet such is the power of the French vote that both 
 parties fell on their faces before it. The position of tlie 
 Government was the worst, since the hollowness of its affected 
 respect for Provincial self-government was betrayed by its 
 own recent conduct in vetoing a Pailway Act of the ^lanitoba 
 Legislature, the legality of which could not be questioned, in 
 the interest of its auxiliary, the Canadian Pacific Railway. 
 But a Liberal party, voting for the public endowment of 
 Jesuitism, also cut a strange figure. Only thirteen 
 members out of a total of 215 in the Dominion House, 
 however, dared to uphold the national character of Confedera- 
 tion, British ascendancy, the rights of the Civil Power, and 
 the separation of the Church from the State. After the 
 division, the members who had voted for the endown)ent of 
 Jesuitism lulled their consciences, as they sometimes do, by 
 singing " God save the Queen." Indignation, liowever, was 
 aroused, great meetings were held at Toronto and elsewhere 
 in Ontario to protest against tlie Act, and the most powerful 
 movement that has yet been witnessed outside the party 
 machines was organised under the name of Kqual Kight, and 
 is still on foot. It aims at the repression of priestly influence 
 in politics, and (»f French encroachment at the same time;
 
 220 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 and its first fruits have been the abolition of Separate Schools 
 and the discontiniiance of French as an official language in 
 Manitoba. It is not religious or directed in any way against 
 the faith or worship of the Roman Catholics, but political and 
 purely defensive. It is religious at least only in so far as 
 the Church, not less than the State, has an interest in tluit 
 entire freedom of each from the interference of the other 
 which is a great organic principle of society in the New 
 World. 
 
 The Maritime Provinces and those of the West have been 
 imperfectly incorporated, if they can be said to have been 
 incorporated at all, into the old political parties which have 
 their basis in the two Canadas, and were formed before Con- 
 federation upon questions and in interests with which the 
 other Provinces had no concern ; the Conservative party 
 being a combination of the reactionary clericism of Quebec 
 with the Toryism and Orangeism of Ontario, the Liberal 
 party being a counter-combination of the Liberals of Ontario 
 with the misnamed Parti Rouge of Quebec. It can hardly 
 be said that in the remoter Provinces a Dominion party, 
 otherwise than as a combination for securing local advantages 
 through the Dominion Government, exists. When the writer 
 asked a denizen of the Pacific Coast what were the politics of 
 his Province, the answer was. Government appropriations. 
 Once more let Australians who propose to follow the example 
 of the British North - American Provinces by forming an 
 Australian federation remark that this, under our present 
 system, means the creation of Federal parties, and that unless 
 a basis of principle for Federal parties can be assigned, 
 Government appropriations will be the basis. " There is a 
 perfect scramble among the whole body to get as much as 
 possible of this fund for their respective constituents ; cabals
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 221 
 
 are formed by which the ditlereut members mutually play 
 into each other's hands ; general politics are made to bear on 
 private business, and private business on general politics; 
 and at the close of the Parliament the member who has 
 succeeded in securing the largest portion of the prize for his 
 constituents renders an easy account of his stewardship, with 
 confident assurance of re - election." This picture, though 
 drawn by Lord Durham of the legislature of a single colony, 
 would be found to be heightened in its colours as well as 
 extended in its scale when the constituencies were Provinces, 
 and the members were the representatives of Provincial 
 interests. It would be so at least unless such momentous 
 issues and such a pervading spirit of Federal patriotism were 
 awakened as have not yet been witnessed in the Canadian 
 Confederation. 
 
 In the want of a real bond among the members of Con- 
 federation, the anti-national attitude of Quebec, the absence 
 of real Dominion parties, and the consequent difficulty of 
 holding the Dominion together and finding a basis for the 
 administration must be found the excuse, if any excuse can be 
 found, for the system of political corruption which during the 
 last twenty years has prevailed. "Better Terms," that is, 
 increased subsidies to Provinces from the Dominion treasury. 
 Dominion grants for local railways and other local works 
 and concessions to contractors, together with the patronage, 
 including, as we have seen, appointments to the Senate, 
 have been familiar engines of gcn-ernnient. It was a Con- 
 servative member of the Senate who the other day, wlicn tlie 
 usual batch of railway grants was ])ushed througli at the 
 end of the Session, could not refrain from protesting against 
 a vast system of briljory. Post offices and local works of all 
 kinds are held out by (iovernnient candidates as bribes to
 
 222 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 constituencies with an openness mIucIi would almost have 
 scandalised a French constituency under the Second P^mpire, 
 and it is painful to see how paltry an inducement of this 
 
 kind will prevail. " The people of County want railways 
 
 and other public works, and they all know that the policy of 
 the Government regarding railways is liberal. If a Govern- 
 ment supporter is elected, any reasonable request will be 
 granted. It rests entirely with the Government candidate 
 what will be done." Such is the language held. The result 
 of an election won by the Protectionist Government the 
 other day in Victoria County, was reported to the English 
 Press as highly significant, and as showing that the people 
 were against Reciprocity ; but the fact was apparent from 
 the returns that the Government had gained its majority of 
 133 by two subsidies to local railways.^ Nova Scotia and New 
 
 ^ Here are two specimens, which will probably be enough. The first is 
 an extract from a circular letter of a Roman Catholic bishop to the electors 
 of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, in favour of Sir John Thompson, Minister of 
 Justice, and a member of the Bishop's communion. The second is the 
 address (in French) of a Quebec member of the Dominion Parliament to his 
 constituents. 
 
 "Seventeen months ago you needed postal communication and facilities 
 in various localities, and already you have no fewer than five new post-offices 
 opened. You needed improvement in our railway tariff. Through Mr. 
 Thompson's strenuous efforts you have obtained these. If you needed money 
 to repair most useful public works or to complete others and to originate 
 more, already no less than §34,346 has been placed at your disposal for that 
 purpose, yet this magnificent sum is doubtless but an instalment of the 
 amount which we may expect under the auspices of this most efficient bene- 
 factor, to be expended for our advantage. Lastly, he has been mainly instru- 
 mental in persuading the Cabinet to undertake and build a railway through 
 Cape Breton as a Government measure. He has thus conferred an inestim- 
 able boon to Eastern Nova Scotia, as well as on that fine island in whose 
 prosperity we all feel the liveliest interest. In view of the foregoing undeni- 
 able facts, I ask you, gentlemen, have you not every reason to be proud of 
 your admirable representative and deeply grateful for what he has already 
 achieved in your behalf, and confident tliat your public works, whether begun 
 or only in contemplation, will be satisfactorily completed by him more likely 
 than by men who now ask you to oust him. Indeed it is simply incredible
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 223 
 
 Bnmswick, as they suffer particularly from the commercial 
 atrophy produced by severance from their natural markets, are 
 specially opeu to the influence of the Treasury, and before an 
 election a Nova Scotian, who is master of such arts, is actually 
 
 that Hon. A. McGillivray is now under tlie impression that he can without 
 office and in the cold shades of opjiosition serve you better than he can, an 
 incomparably abler man, in the commanding position of Minister of Justice. 
 It is plainly therefore your duty as patriotic citizens to resist such conduct 
 and to vote one and all for the Minister of Justice, who so eminently deserves 
 your confidence and esteem, and not to give him his discharge. In the exist- 
 ing circumstances it would be an act of senseless ingratitude, a public 
 calamity, and a lasting disgrace, for which I trust you will never be guilty of 
 making yourselves answerable. In a word, to do yourselves full credit you 
 ought not only to return Mr. Thompson, but to return him by an over- 
 whelming majority. Gentlemen, I confidently leave the issue in your hands, 
 and remain your devoted well-wisher and servant in Christ." 
 
 "Les deux grandes questions politiques qui interessent le comte sont la 
 construction de nos chemins de fer et les travaux publics. Au sujet du 
 chemin de fer, j'ai fait un travail plus qu'ordinaire afin d'obtenir les subsides 
 necessaires h, sa construction. J'ai envoye vingt-deux requetes k tous les 
 honorables cures du comte afin de les faire signer, lesquels requetes demand- 
 aient un subside de §100,000. Vingt requetes m'ont ete retournees couverte 
 de dix-huit cents signatures ; deux ne m'ont pas ete renvoyees, je ne sais 
 pourquoi. II est vrai que la demande de §100,000 n'etait pas suffisante selon 
 ce que j'ai appris plus tard, et j'ai modifie ma demande en la portant h 
 §239,000. 
 
 " Tous les deputes Canadiens m'ont donne leur appui, et dix-huit Sena- 
 tears ont signe ma demande que j'ai adressec au Conseil Prive. Jusqu'au 
 dernier moment Ton m'a fait les plus grandes promesses. Sir Hector me 
 disait toujours : ' Mon cher Couture, ne crains rien ; les subsides ne sont pas 
 encore votes, mais nous n'oublierons pas ton comte.' Jusqu'au dernier mom- 
 ent j'ai supporte le Gouvernement, nieme j'ai vote contre mes convictions, 
 confiant dans les jiromesses (pii m'etaient faites. 
 
 "Quand aux travaux publics, j'ai demande tellementque mes confreres me 
 rejirocliaient de vouloir enlever les deux tiers des subsides du Dominion. 
 J'ai demande §40,000 pour le comte, et j'avais encore les inenies jtromesses des 
 Ministres. A la fin voyant (jue rien ne vcnait j'ai commence h m'ai)ercevoir 
 que Ton voulait me jouer, et j'ai cm me rendre aux vu-ux du comte en refus- 
 ant fl'aiiprouver une conduite anssi deloyaie, et j'ai vote contre Ic (louverne- 
 ment. Je savais que le comte me reprocherait j'as d'avoir vote contre un 
 gouvernement (pii ne voulait rien ni'accorder. C'est hut la (jucHtion dcM quin/o 
 inillionM au ra<ifi<|ue <jue je me huIs Ht'pare du gouvernement. Je croyain <juo 
 ceH genH en avaient eu tumv/.; il est vrai (ju'ils donnaitiit ile8 ganintieH en 
 tcrrc au gouvernement, main jc itavuis (jue hi cn'nio dc ce* tcrn-h ttait vendue."
 
 224 CANADA AXD THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 brought over from England, and put for the time into the 
 Ministry, that he may secure to the Government tlie votes of 
 his Province. This he does by promises the fulfihnent of 
 which, it was reckoned at the time, would cost several 
 millions. If you express surprise at the result of an election 
 in one of the Maritime Provinces, the explanation which you 
 get is four Government grants or promises of grants for 
 piers, wharves, or local works of some kind. The Govern- 
 ment, which, it is justly said, ought in the matter of public 
 works to act as trustee for the whole people, in effect 
 proclaims that public works will be regulated by the interest 
 of constituencies whose support it receives. That " the whole 
 North -West of Canada has been used as one vast bribery 
 fund" is a statement just made by a leading member of the 
 Opposition, who can point to at least one recent and most 
 flagrant instance in proof of his sweeping accusation. But 
 what corruption can be more pestilential or more dangerous 
 to the commonwealth than the surrender of the commercial 
 policy of the country to private interests, in return for their 
 votes and the support of their money in elections ? No 
 president of the United States, being a candidate for election, 
 could without total wreck of his character and prospects, 
 assemble the protected manufacturers in a room at an hotel 
 and receive their contributions to his election fund. 
 
 In Quebec it is an eminent Conservative journalist and 
 politician of that Province who says that the electors are 
 wholly demoralised ; that if all the constituencies are not 
 equally rotten, the symptoms of the evil are everywhere to 
 be seen ; that the electors, those who are well off not less 
 than the poor, compel the candidates to bribe them ; that the 
 franchise is a merchantable commodity ; that many will not 
 go to the polls without a bribe. The clergy denounce the
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 225 
 
 practice from tlie altar, but in vain. In truth the priests, 
 M'ho, instead of leaving the voter free, and bidding him make 
 an independent use of his vote, coerce him in their own 
 interest, are not in the best position for reading him 
 homilies on electoral duty. The truth is, that under a 
 theocracy the people are not citizens : they do not understand 
 the political franchise or value it ; and when you preach to 
 them about its responsibilities, you preach in vain. They 
 not unnaturally regard it as a thing to be used in their own 
 interest, and if they like, to be sold. The Conservative 
 politician just cited is now producing in a series of papers 
 startling proofs in support of his allegation. 
 
 Once the character of the means by which Government is 
 maintained appeared too plainly, with a result fatal i'or a 
 time to the IMinistry by which the system was being carried 
 on. This was in the case of the Pacific IJailway Scandal, 
 the echoes of which reached as far as England. The Prime 
 Minister and two of his colleagues were convicted ol' having 
 received from the grantee of a railway charter, whose position 
 was virtually that of a contractor, a large sum of money 
 to be used in elections. It was pretended by the Ministers 
 that the money was a jjolitical subscription to tlie Party 
 fund ; but it was well known that the commercial gentleman 
 from whom it was received took no interest in politics, and 
 could have had only his connnercial ol)ject in view. It was 
 also pleaded that thi^-re was nothing wrong in the charter 
 granted him, and this was true ; but it was eviiU-nt that the 
 Government, when it liad taken his money, woidd be in his 
 hands. Public indignation was strongly aroused, and for the 
 moment overcame ])arty feeling; the Govi'rnnicnt, df.stiU'd 
 by its majority, fell ; and the country, on an ajipcal being 
 made to it, emphatically ratified the v<'i<Ii<i nf th.- ITcju.su of 
 
 Q
 
 226 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN yUESTION ciiai'. 
 
 Commons. The conduct of the Governor-General was, in his 
 own opinion at least, and in tliat of tlic courtly pundits of 
 Ottawa, constitutional in the higliest degree. He continued 
 to treat the accused Ministers as his constitutional advisers. 
 At their instance, when Parliament had become completely 
 seized of the (piestion, lie prorogued it on what were tliought 
 at the time i'actitious grounds, and relegated the inquiry to a 
 Commission named by the Ministers tliemselves. He allowed 
 letters written by himself to the Colonial Secretary, when the 
 case was incomplete, to be laid before the House, for the purpose 
 of influencing its judgment. It did not occur to him, nor 
 does it occur to the constitutional writers wlio applaud him 
 for continuing to give his confidence to his ^Ministers, that 
 this was not a case of confidence in Ministers, nor a political 
 question at all, but a State trial, with which he had no more 
 business to interfere than he had to interfere witli the course 
 of justice in a court of law. It is true the tribunal in this 
 case was equivocal and unsatisfactory, the question as to the 
 retention of office by the Ministers being mixed up with the 
 criminal indictment. There ought to be, though there is not 
 at present, a regular process of impeachment, with a regular 
 tribunal, and political corruption, whether in a Minister or any 
 one else, ought to be made a distinct offence ; it would seem 
 to be as capable of definition as other breaches of trust, 
 and it certainly is not less heinous. One of the convicted 
 Ministers was afterwards made a knight. Xobody, it is right 
 to say, suspected the Prime Minister on this or any other 
 occasion of taking anything for himself In that sense he 
 certainly spoke the truth when, at the beginning of the 
 affair, he declared to the Governor-General upon his honour as 
 a Privy Councillor that he was innocent of the charge. The 
 case of the Onderdonk contract, on the western portion of the
 
 IX FKUITS OF CONFEDERATION 227 
 
 same line, which was afterwards brought forward in Tailia- 
 ment, wore a very sinister aspect. But the Government had 
 an overwliehning majority at its command.^ 
 
 Strong evidences have unhappily been produced to show 
 that by Government advertising and printing contracts, the 
 system of corruption has been extended to the Press. "What 
 influences are behind the Press has become for all common- 
 wealths alike one of the most serious questions of the day. 
 
 It is a comfort in speaking of tliese unsavoury matters t(.» 
 be able to reflect once more that Canadian society in general 
 is sound, and that power in regard to the ordinary concerns of 
 life is in the hands not of politicians but of the chiefs of 
 commerce and industry, of judges and lawyers, of the clergy, 
 and of the leaders of public opinion. Yet the cliaracter of 
 the people cannot fail to be aff'ected by familiarity with 
 political corruption. Their political cliaracter, at all events, 
 cannot escape the taint. A member of a local legislature is 
 convicted, after investigation by a committee, of having on 
 more than one occasion taken money corruptly. He never- 
 theless retains the support of his constituents. lie is elected 
 to the Dominion Parliament. The Prime ^linister, whose 
 henchman he is, makes liim Chairman of the Finance Com- 
 mittee, and is prevented from making liim Deputy Speaker 
 only by the threat of an appeal to the record. The man is 
 on the point, as is generally believed, of being made a Senator 
 when another transaction comes to light, .so foul in itself and 
 in all its circumstances, that the Government is oldiged with 
 apparent nductance to abandon its supporter to justice, and 
 
 ' An account of the case will lie found in Mr. Colliiis's Cuiuula iimhr l/tf 
 Admiiiislrulion of Lord Luriu, j). 207 cl saj. The Ncction having Iji-imi takt'n 
 over by the C.I'.R., tliat Coinjiany in now Hiiing tin- Dominion for ?t3,000,000 
 on account of alli-^cd defccUi or nliortconiingH in eonNtruction.
 
 228 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN tjUESTION ciiAi-. 
 
 consent to tlie verdict of a committee pronouncing his conduct 
 "discreditable, corrui)! , and scandalous." Thereupon he resigns 
 his seat, appeals to his constituents, pleading that he is no worse 
 than the rest, and is re-elected. It lias been asserted, on 
 tlie strength it would seem of some highly official information, 
 that in Canada scandals of corruption are almost unknown. 
 If by this it is meant that few Canadian politicians take 
 money for themselves, and that wealth amassed by corruption 
 is rare among them, the statement is perfectly true, and it is 
 equally true Of the politicians in the United States, about whose 
 illicit gains very exaggerated notions prevail. As a rule, 
 politicians in both countries live and die poor ; and, consider- 
 ing what they have to go through, it is wonderful that the 
 attraction of politics should be so strong But otherwise it 
 is from the scandal, not from the corruption, that we are free. 
 The pity is the greater because if ever a community was by 
 its national character qualified for elective institutions it was 
 that of tlie farmers of Canada. Political morality, and to 
 some extent general morality with it, have been sacrificed to 
 the exigencies of an artificial combination of provinces, and 
 of an isolation of those provinces from their continent, which 
 is equally artificial. 
 
 Nor are the sectional interests of Quebec and the other 
 Provinces the only sectional interests, or the only interests 
 of an anti-national character, with which the head of a 
 Canadian Government has had to deal. He has had to 
 propitiate with seats in the Cabinet and doles of patronage 
 churches — above all the Pioman Catholic Church — political 
 combinations, such as Orangeism, and even a philanthropic 
 combination like Prohibitionism, which at present has a seat 
 in the Cabinet. The Roman Catholic vote is so well in hand 
 that it is cast almost solid for one party in the Provincial
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 229 
 
 elections of Outario and at once transferred to the other in 
 the Dominion elections, good consideration being received 
 from both sides. The Premier of Ontario, tliough a zealous 
 Presbyterian, finds himself compelled by the influence of the 
 hierarchy not only to uphold the system of Separate Schools 
 for Eoman Catholics in the face of his own recorded protest 
 against it, but to deny Eoman Catholics the ballot in tlie 
 election of Scliool Trustees, whicli the more liberal of them 
 demand, but to whicli the hierarchy object, because their 
 control over the elections would thereby be impaired. The 
 Irish vote is of course to a gi-eat extent identical with the 
 Itoman Catholic vote, yet as a political force it is distinct, 
 and its power is inordinate. The lower are the political 
 (qualities of any body of men, and the less fit it is to guide 
 the State, the more sure are its members politically to hold 
 together, and the greater its influence will be. This is one of 
 the banes of all elective government, and how it is we are to 
 get rid of it or prevent it from growing, it is not easy to see. 
 The abasement of American politicians and the American 
 Press before the Irish vote is one of the most ignominious 
 and disheartening passages in the history of free institutions. 
 It reached its extreme point when, in miserable fear of the 
 Irish groggeries of New York, the Senate of the P'nitrd States 
 refused to do honour to the memory of the great Englishman 
 whose voice of power, in the darkest day of their fortunes, 
 had triumphantly pleaded their cause before his country 
 and the world. The motive for the resolutions passed by 
 American Legislatures of sympathy with dis\ini(>nisni in 
 Freland, as well as the breach of intcrnatiitnal piuprii-ty 
 wliich they involve, is freely admitted by American politicians. 
 Similar resolutions from the same motive were ])assed by 
 Can.'ulian I/'gi.glatures, both Federal and Provincial, tlje Con-
 
 230 CANADA AND TllK CAXAIUAX <>rKsri()N ciiAi-. 
 
 servativc I'leinier of the Doininioii, willi the Grand Cross of 
 the Bath ui>()ii his breast, heading the way. Let Englishmen, 
 before they welcome as the sincere expression of Canadian 
 opinion, snch manifestoes as the Loyalty Resolution passed 
 by the Dominion Parliament of last session on the motion of 
 Mr. ]\[ulock, call to mind the fact tliat the same Assembly 
 had before passed what was virtually a resolution in favour 
 of the dismemberment of the United Kingdom. When Mr. 
 William O'Brien came over to Canada with the avowed pur- 
 pose of insulting, and if possible expelling from the country, 
 Her Majesty's representative, those who, like the present 
 writer, took an active part in opposing his irruption had the 
 opportunity of seeing what the real influence of loyalty was 
 among Canadian politicians compared with that of tlie Irish 
 vote. That colonies would allow themselves to be used by 
 Irish disaffection as levers for the disruption of the mother 
 country was hardly foreseen as an incident of the system of 
 dependence either by the opponents of the system or by its 
 defenders. Unhappily, England herself is in no position to 
 cast a stone either at Canada or at the United States, for 
 subserviency to the Irish, nor has there been anything in the 
 conduct of the lowest of Canadian or American vote-hunters 
 to match with the conduct of British statesmen who have 
 leagued with the foreign enemies of their country and accepted 
 aid from theClan-na-Gael for the subversion of the Union. That 
 the Irish should thus have been able by acting on the balance 
 of parties to put the heads of the Anglo-Saxon common- 
 wealths under their feet is surely a tremendous comment on 
 the system of universal suffrage with government by faction. 
 What has been said will serve to explain two things 
 apparently enigmatic. One of these is the stability of the 
 Canadian government, which, saving one interruption, has
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 231 
 
 reinaiued unchanged for more than twenty years, while in 
 Australia the changes of government have been prodigiously 
 rapid. There having been really no Dominion parties, none, 
 at least, united by any great principle or important issue, the 
 Opposition has hitherto had no ground of attack or battle- 
 cry, wliile the Government, resting on its patronage and its 
 bribery -fund has been always becoming more strongly en- 
 trenched, and has been able to carry the elections, at which 
 no great question was presented, by dangling before the eyes 
 of constituencies the Federal purse. Its election fund has also 
 been much 1 tetter supplied than that of the Opposition, which 
 has had no corps of protected manufacturers to which to 
 appeal, and no senatorships to hold out as prizes to the aspir- 
 ing millionaire. The adverse influences which now threaten 
 it, Nationalism in Quebec, by which its chief pillar is shaken, 
 and the movement in favour of a reform in the tariff, which 
 is evidently gaining strength, are of recent growth, and have 
 never before had a chance of showing their force in a general 
 election. The other phenomenon to be explained is the sin- 
 gular division of the power, the Dominion government being 
 in the hands of the Conservative party, while the govern- 
 ments of the Provinces, saving the two least important of them, 
 are in the hands of the Liberals. This has been supposed to 
 prove that the people of the Dominion, whatever may be 
 tht.'ir local leanings, are all united in favour of the fiscal 
 system or " National policy," as it is called, of Sir John 
 Macdonald. What it really jn-oves is that tlie Dominion 
 bribery-fund is used in Dominion, not in Trovincial, t'h'ctions, 
 and used with tin; more effect because a grcit many of the 
 people, especially in tlie newly annexed I'rovinces, are com- 
 jjaratively apathetic about the affairs of the Dominion, while 
 they feel a lively interest in their own. The truth of this
 
 232 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN (,)UESTION cua)-. 
 
 solution is clearly shown in the case of Manitoba. To that 
 Province, which has no manufactures, the tarilf is an unmixecl 
 evil ; it is an evil of the most oppressive kind, and, could it 
 be submitted to the votes of the people, there would be an 
 overwhelming majority in favour of its repeal. Yet Manitoba, 
 while in her local legislature out of tliirty-oiglit mendxa-s four 
 only are Conservatives, sends to Ottawa a ( onservative dele- 
 gation which supports the tariff, and not only the tariff but 
 railway monopoly, against which the Province is a unit. 
 When the election comes round, the government secures the 
 seats by petty bribes and by promises. This, new settlements 
 being for the most part needy, it is too easy to do, the more 
 so as the principal settlers, who would be likely to be inde- 
 pendent and patriotic, are too mucli occupied with their own 
 affairs to go to Ottawa, wliile for a government to find 
 " heelers " is never difficult. 
 
 "We cannot help once more warning the Australians that 
 Federation under tlie elective system involves not merely the 
 union of the several States under a central government with 
 powers superior to them all ; but the creation of Federal 
 parties with all the faction, demagogism, and corruption which 
 party contests involve over a new field and on a vastly ex- 
 tended scale. It is surprising how little this obvious and 
 momentous consideration appears to be present to the minds 
 of statesmen when the (piestion of Federation is discussed. 
 
 It is a strong comment on the Protection system that 
 since its inauguration there has not only been no abatement, 
 but apparently an increase of the exodus from Canada to the 
 United States. It is reckoned that there are now on the 
 south of tlie Line a million of emigrants from Canada and half 
 a million of their children. A local journal finds that it 
 has 300 subscribers in the United States, and believes
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 233 
 
 that iu fifteen years it must liave lost a tlionsaiul in that way; 
 and from another journal, issued in one of the choicest dis- 
 tricts of Ontario, we learn that the population there has been 
 almost at a standstill. In one week 300 persons went 
 from St. John and 400 frum Montreal. The Americans may 
 say with truth that if they do not annex Canada, they are 
 annexing the Canadians. They are annexing the very flower 
 of the Canadian population, and in the way most costly to 
 the country from which it is drawn, since the men whom that 
 country has been at the expense of breeding leave it just as 
 they arrive at manhood and begin to produce. The Aalue of 
 farm property has declined in Ontario, according to the 
 current estimate, 30 per cent, and good authorities hold 
 that this estimate is within the mark. It would be 
 wrong to ascribe either the exodus or the decline in the 
 value of land directly and wholly to the fiscal system. There 
 is a natural flow of population to the great centres of employ- 
 ment in the United States, and there is no real barrier of a 
 national or sentimental kind to check tlie current, the two 
 communities being, in all save political arrangements, one. 
 The depression of agriculture and tlie fall in the value of 
 farms are common in a measure to the whole continent, and 
 are consequent on the depreciation of farm produce, perhaps 
 also, so far as the United States are concerned, on a change 
 in ilie once frugal hal)its of the farnu-r. But if ('aiiada h;ul 
 fiiir play, if she were within the commercial pali' of thi- 
 Continent, by admission to a free market, combinetl with 
 freedom of importing machinery, her minerals and other 
 resources could be tunicil to thi; best account, slic would \ui\r 
 mon,' centres of employment in herself, and lier farmers would 
 have more mouths to feed. There is a shifting of the agri- 
 cultunil i)opulation in the United States im well as in Canada,
 
 234 CANADA AND TIIH CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 and many lariiis have been deserted in Massachusetts and 
 Vermont. lUit these people are not lost to their country : 
 those who emigrate from Canada to the States are. The 
 promise of the Protectionist legislator to the farmer that he 
 would give him a ricli home market has at all events been 
 signally belied. Xor is the wisdom of the policy demonstrated 
 by a great decline in the value of that kind of property for 
 which a special benefit was designed and the produce of 
 which is the staple of the community. If the IM'Kinley Act 
 remains iii force, the consequence will probably be an increase 
 of the exodus. Especially, there is likely to be a largely 
 increased exodus from Quebec, the agricultural products of 
 which are not of a kind suitable for exportation to a distant 
 market, so that, the near market being closed, the people will 
 have to suffer or to depart. 
 
 Strange to say, the exodus has told in favour of the 
 stability of government ; not only because it forms a vent but 
 because the emigrants, as a rule, are the most active-minded, 
 and there are probably among them at least two Liberals for 
 one Conservative. 
 
 Government by subsidies and grants cannot be economic- 
 ally carried on. Nor is the Canadian form of government in 
 itself simple or inexpensive. Eight Constitutional Monarchies 
 with as many Parliaments, four of the Parliaments having 
 two Chambers, and the members of all being paid, are a con- 
 siderable burden for a population under five millions and by 
 no means wealthy. It is commonly said in Canada that we 
 are " too much governed." Political architects in framing 
 their Constitutions should have some regard for the cost of 
 working among people whose wealth is not boundless. The 
 work done by the eight Parliaments in the way of real legis- 
 lation, apart from mere faction-fighting, would, if summed up,
 
 IX FRUITS OF CONFEDERATION 235 
 
 cut a poor tigure iu comparison with the expense. The eight 
 Constitutional Monarchies have cost fully four millions of 
 dollars since Confederation without doing any work at all. 
 Hence, while the American debt, to whicli everybody pointed 
 as a bugbear at the time of Confederation, has, notwith- 
 standing the enormous squandering of public money by the 
 tariff men, been rapidly decreasing, the Canadian debt has 
 been almost as rapidly increasing, and now amounts to two 
 hundred and forty nullions net, or S50 per head of the whole 
 population. The gross debt is two hundred and eighty 
 millions, while of the securities some are very doubtful. If 
 the demand for subsidies continues, the Canadian question 
 may be settled by finance. 
 
 The Dominion has been immensely extended in territory 
 since Confederation by the accession of the North-West and 
 British Columbia. This extension has necessarily brought 
 with it an addition of population and wealth, irrespectively of 
 any stimulus given by institutions or political relations, though 
 as we have seen, the growth of population in Manitoba and 
 the rest of that region has been slow compared with its 
 growth in the new States of the Union. But iu Old Canada 
 the growth of population and wealth is far from having kept 
 pace with their growth within the commercial pale of the 
 continent, in the six years, 1S8U-8G, the natural growth of 
 population in Ontario would have been 250,000, the actual 
 growth was only 128,000. There is no estimate of tlie 
 aggregate wealth, nor any means of distinguishing the savings 
 of the people from the large auKnint of capital borrowed from 
 England; but the visitfjr who crosses from the Americaii to 
 the Canadian side of the Line and compares the cities and 
 towns on one side with tho.se on tlie other can feel no doul^t 
 a.s to the effect of exclusion from the commercial pale.
 
 236 CANADA AND Till': CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. ix 
 
 The Canadian people are industrious, energetic, and tln-ifty ; 
 their country is ricli in resources. The political institutions 
 or relations must be bad indeed whicli could altogether arrest 
 their progress. But this does not prove that an ill-cemented 
 Confederation is or can be well cemented, that figureheads are 
 useful, that a Senate which does nothing is worth the expense, 
 that a fiscal policy of the Dark Ages promotes industry and 
 commerce, or that it is a good thing to be governed by 
 corruption. 
 
 Nor is there any pessimism in saying that the qualities 
 and energies which in spite of an evil policy have done what 
 we see, would under improved conditions do more. When 
 Jingoism conspires with the party of commercial monopoly 
 in the United States to bring on a tariff war, Canada is 
 exhorted to show her fortitude, and told that if she does she 
 will survive. No doubt she will survive ; but like her neigh- 
 bour across the Line and England herself she wants not 
 only to live but to live woM.
 
 CHArTEE X 
 
 THE CANADIAN QUESTION 
 
 Section I. — Dependence 
 
 Xo one can now take up a Canadian newspaper or listen to a 
 group of Canadians talking about politics without being made 
 aware that Canada has the problem of her future before her. 
 It is idle to suppose that Canadians will be prevented from 
 discussing that problem or from conferring freely with their 
 neighbours across the Line on a subject of the highest practical 
 interest to both communities. If it is lawful for an ex- 
 Governor- General of Canada to write on the Canadian 
 question in an American magazine, suicly it is lawful for 
 Canadians and Americans to interchange their thoughts in 
 the way they find convenient. Kor will free discussion do 
 any harm. Not a plough will be stopped on the farm, not a 
 spindle will cease to turn in the factory, not a politician will 
 pau.se in his hunt for a vote because this debate is going on. 
 Statesman.ship is not niatle more practiciil oi- in any way 
 improved by blindness to the future. The fruits of Canadian 
 industry are being lavi.shed by scores of millions on ])olitical 
 railways and other works, the object of which is to kee)) 
 Canada for ever separate from her neii^diboui-. 11 pei-])etual 
 separation is impossible, justice to tlu; jicople ni|uirf.s that 
 this waste of their f*arnin"s shall cease.
 
 288 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION en ai-. 
 
 To answer at (uice the cries of treason Avhicli, as soon as 
 tlu' main (pu'stion is approached, are raised by the oflicial 
 world and by the Protected Manufacturers, let us say that no 
 Canadian, and so far as we are aware no American, has ever 
 proposed tliat Canada should change her political relations to 
 the mother country without the mother country's assent. If 
 the Crown and Tarliament of Great Britain sanction a change, 
 the treason thenceforth will be in resistance. There must 
 have been talk of the union between England and Scotland 
 before it took place, and there has been talk of a union of 
 Portugal with Spain ; but so long as all was open and with- 
 out prejudice to national duty on either side there could be 
 no treason. 
 
 Let him who deals with tlie Canadian question first of 
 all clear his mind of the confusion between a colony and a 
 dependency. The proposal to put the coping-stone on colonial 
 independence is branded as anti-colonial, Carthage was a 
 colony but not a dependency of Tyre. The communities of 
 Greater Greece were colonies, not dependencies of tlie Greece 
 which sent them forth. The States of America are colonies 
 of England, though they are dependencies no longer, and had 
 they been let go in peace they would still be bound to the 
 mother country by the filial tie. None are greater advocates 
 of colonisation or cherish the link between the mother country 
 and the colony more than those who are most opposed to the 
 protraction of dependence. " Mother of free nations " is by 
 all deemed the proudest title that England can bear, and a 
 dependency is not a nation. The notion, peculiar to the 
 moderns, that a colony ought to remain a dependency has its 
 root not in any ground of reason or policy, but in the feudal 
 doctrine of personal allegiance as an indefeasible bond 
 between the liegeman and the lord. The founders of Xew
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 239 
 
 England believed themselves, as their manifesto shows, to be 
 indefeasibly liegemen of King James. But this fallacy has 
 long been dead, and by the recent naturalisation treaties it has 
 been buried. That the colonies in the early stage of their 
 existence needed the protection of the mother country against 
 the rival powers of Europe was a more substantial but still 
 only a temporary reason for the connection. A better way 
 was at one time opened. It was agreed by the Treaty of 
 Neutrality between Louis XIV and James II (1G86) that the 
 colonies of England and France in America should remain at 
 peace when the nations were at war. The Treaty came to 
 nothing, but it pointed true. 
 
 Another fallacy to be shunned, especially when the horo- 
 scope of Canada is being cast, is that of treating " the Empire " 
 in the lump, assuming a vital connection between all its parts 
 and taking it for granted that the destiny of all of them is 
 the same. Mr. Freeman may be rather rigorous on the sub- 
 ject of political nomenclature, but he has done a service by 
 showing that the term Empire has been greatly misapplied and 
 that its misapplication leads to practical delusion. It applies 
 only to India, the Crown Colonies, and the military stations, 
 which alone are held by a tenure really imperial and governed 
 with imperial sway. An Asiatic dominion extending over 
 two hundred and fifty millions of Hindoos, a group of West 
 Indian islands full of emancipated negro slaves, a Dutch 
 settlement at the southern point of Africa, occupied to secure 
 the old passage to India, a conquered colony of France in the 
 Indian Ocean, a factory like Hong Kong, military or coaling 
 stations like Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden — what have these 
 in coniuiou, or why aic tlicy likely to b(! for all time bound 
 up with groups of self-governing Ihitish colonics in North 
 America or Australia? Why again should Canada and
 
 •210 CANADA AND 'lllK CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Australia be treated as it' their cases were identical, so that 
 what is done with one must be done with the other, when 
 Canada lies along the edge of a vast confederacy of kindred 
 states with which are all her natural relations, di})loniatic 
 and commercial, while Australia lies in an ocean by herself, 
 and such external relations as she has are with China ? The 
 real tie among the members of the motley group is England's 
 command of the sea, which in successive wars has enabled 
 her to pick off' the transmarine possessions of her enemies, 
 lint the loud cries of high Imperialists I'or an increase of 
 naval defences show that superior as Great Britain may still 
 be in naval force to her rivals no single power any longer 
 commands the seas. On the other hand, to fancy that because 
 one possession or dependency is resigned all must go is surely 
 a mere illusion, produced by the vague use of a common name 
 for things which have nothing in connnon. Is England to 
 be bound for ever, without any regard to change of circum- 
 stances, on penalty of the loss of her greatness and at the risk 
 of all her general interests, to hold every sugar island taken 
 in the days of slave -grown sugar, every coign of vantage 
 occupied in the struggle against the continental system of 
 Napoleon ? When the cession of the Ionian Islands to Greece 
 was proposed, the cry was raised that this would be the signal 
 for general dissolution. Yet no dissolution ensued, nor was 
 there any sign among the nations of diminished respect for 
 Great Britain. She found herself all the stronger for being 
 rid of a possession which in case of war must either have 
 been garrisoned at a ruinous sacrifice or abandoned with 
 disgrace, and the shrieks of dissolution were suspended, not 
 to be raised again till the announcement of the cession of 
 Heligoland. Let the Canadian question then be considered 
 by itself and with reference to the circumstances of Canada,
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 241 
 
 not to those of Jamaica, Malta, South Africa, or Hon"- 
 Kong. 
 
 What is gained by the present system of dependence or 
 semi-dependence as applied to Canada ^ Wlut ^yould be lost 
 if it were exchanged for the filial tie ? That is a question 
 which, as even Imperial Federationists proclaim, the course 
 of events has practically raised. That the connection lays 
 on Great Britain heavy responsibilities, both military and 
 diplomatic, that it adds not a little to the burdens and perils 
 of empire, is plain. Were England to withdraw politically 
 from the American continent she would be quit not only of 
 the diplomatic entanglements and disputes with the United 
 States about boundaries and fisheries, but of the ill-feelinf^ 
 which her presence on the continent enables her enemies in 
 the United States to keep up against her, and which is adding 
 seriously to her embarrassments in dealing witli the Irish 
 question. Hardly could any fisher of Irish votes succeed in 
 inflaming the American people against a nation in another 
 hemisphere with which they would no longer be brought into 
 contact. Wliat are the compensating advantages? The ex- 
 clusive command of colonial markets which formed at least a 
 substantial ground for the old colonial system, England has 
 no more. No longer can she in the interest of her manu- 
 factures forbid a colony to make a horseshoe or a nail. 
 Instead of that the Dominion of Canada lays ])rotective iluties 
 on her goods. The chief of that which calls itself the loyal 
 party in Canada has asserted Canada'.s right to do this, 
 whether Englishman, Scotchman, or Irishman likes it or not, 
 in ringing and almost defiant tones. It is still held that the 
 colony cannot in Ik.t tarill' discriminate against the niotlirr 
 country'.s goods; this little nion; than sentimental privilege 
 is all in the way of commercial advantage that Kngluml has 
 
 ic
 
 242 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai>. 
 
 now. It is said lliat trade follows the flag. It follows the 
 flag at first to a new colony which has no manufactures of 
 its own. lint apart from this and from national tariffs com- 
 merce is no discerner of nationalities. If the trade of Canada 
 with Great Britain has hitherto exceeded (though it no longer 
 exceeds) her trade with the United States, it is not because 
 the British market is maternal, but because it is free. Find 
 the merchant who in making a purchase, even of the bunting 
 for the flag itself, has asked on patriotic grounds where the 
 goods were made, and you will have some ground for saying 
 that trade follows the flag. Did not the trade of England 
 with her American Colonies, instead of diminishing, increase 
 from the time when the Union Jack was exchanged for the 
 Stars and Stripes, evil as the day of separation had been? 
 To take the book trade as an example. At the very time 
 when, in consequence of the Trent affair, Canadian feeling 
 was excited against the Americans, the vast bulk of that 
 trade — prices then ruling low and copyrights of great popular 
 works not having expired — was going to the United States. 
 Patriotic or philanthropic movements in favour of particular 
 markets have beenoftenset on foot,and to what have they come? 
 As to Emigration, there w(;nt in the year 1888 of British 
 emigrants to Canada 49,168, to the United States 293,099 ; 
 while of those who went to Canada half at least passed on to 
 the United States. What the emigrant wants is bread. That 
 an Englishman in quest of employment will meet with a 
 warmer welcome in Canada than in the United States is, as 
 has already been said, a natural impression, but not the fact. 
 There is nothing to make an emigrant prefer the British 
 dependency to the Anglo-Saxon Colonies as his new home 
 except the anti-British tone of American politics and of the 
 American press ; and on this probably few intending emi-
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 243 
 
 grants bestow a thought. It suffices them to know that they 
 are going where their friends have gone before them, and 
 where they will be better off than they are at home. Besides, 
 as we have seen, the emigration question has now entered on 
 a new phase, and the people of whom the mother country 
 wishes to be rid the colony is no longer inclined, or not so 
 well inclined as it used to be, to receive. It looks as though 
 England might have for the future to close her own ports 
 against the influx of Polish Jews or foreigners of any race, 
 and in this or other ways to set bounds to the growth of her own 
 population and find means of feeding her offspring at home. 
 
 Of dominion over the Colony barely a rag remains to the 
 mother country, and even that remnant is grudged, and is 
 being constantly nibbled away. The appellate jurisdiction 
 of the Privy Council has been narrowed by the interposition 
 of the Canadian Supreme Court ; there is a smouldering 
 agitation for the transfer of the military command from a 
 British to a Canadian officer, and with regard to commercial 
 matters there is a gradual assertion of diplomatic independ- 
 ence. This we have seen. The appointment of a Governor- 
 General is about all that remains ; and it perhaps may not 
 be long before the Colonies generally improve upon the ex- 
 ample of Queensland, which asserted a veto, and, under some 
 constitutional form of recommending a name to Her Majesty, 
 take the appointment to themselves. 
 
 That England can derive no military strength from a 
 dependency 3000 miles away, without any army or navy 
 of its own, and with an open frontier of 4000 miles, 
 will surely be admitted by all, and is in effect ])roclaimed 
 by Imperialists when they strive to goad Canadians into 
 setting up a standing army. She cannot even derive that false 
 sliow of strength solemnly styh-d "prestige": the weakness
 
 244 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 is too patent and too confessed to deceive even an opponent 
 capable of taking pasteboard for a stone wall. Enlist soldiers 
 in Canada England may, if she chooses to pay much higher 
 wages than she pays her soldiers now, and perhaps bounties 
 into the bargain ; so, as the enlistments during the Civil War 
 showed, can the American Government. The soldiers would 
 no doubt be good, though British ofhcers might have some 
 trouble with democratic recruits not brought up like the 
 British peasant to obey a gentleman. But Canada will never 
 contribute to Imperial armaments at her own expense. Even 
 Australia, which is more British than Canada, and has no New 
 France in the heart of it, seems not likely to send another 
 regiment at her own expense to an Imperial war; and when 
 it was faintly proposed in Canada to emulate Australia in 
 devotion there was a chorus of dissent. Conservative organs 
 showing special anxiety to relieve their Government of the 
 suspicion. The Conservative leader in Canada has intimated 
 that the Colony will help the mother country only in case 
 of defensive war ; and he evidently did not regard as defensive 
 the war in Afghanistan or that in Egypt. The mercantile 
 marine of Canada claims the fourth place among those of the 
 world. It is often spoken of as a nursery for the British 
 navy. The mercantile marine of Great Britain can of course 
 draw from it freely in case of need, as does the mercantile 
 marine of the United States — for of those American fishermen 
 about whose rights diplomatists contend the majority are 
 said to be Canadians. But the new warships require seamen 
 specially trained for the service. Besides, while people are 
 dilating upon the military and naval resources of Canada as 
 aids in time of need to the mother country, French Canada is 
 left out of sight. Let the War Office ask the Canadian High 
 Commissioner whether he thinks that Quebec would, under
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 245 
 
 any conceivable circumstance, send contingents or subsidies 
 to British armaments, or allow the Dominion, which is con- 
 trolled by the French vote, to send them. Tlie most likely 
 antagonist of England is France, and in a war between France 
 and England the hearts of the French Canadians, if not their 
 arms, would be on the wrong side. There was no difficulty 
 in raising Papal Zouaves. 
 
 "There are," says Sir George Cornewall Lewis,^ "supposed 
 advantages flowing from the possession of dependencies which 
 are expressed in terms so general and vague that they cannot 
 be refen-ed to any determinate head. Such, for example, is 
 the glory which a country is supposed to derive from an 
 extensive Colonial Empire. We will merely remark upon 
 this imagined advantage that a nation derives no true glory 
 from any possession which produces no assignable advantage 
 to itself or to other communities. If a country possesses a 
 dependency from which it derives no public revenue, no mili- 
 tary or naval strength, and no commercial advantages or facili- 
 ties for emigration which it would not equally enjoy though 
 the dependency were independent . . . such a possession 
 cannot justly be called glorious." These are the words of a 
 ^linister of the Crown and a colleague of Lord Palmerston. 
 
 Great Britain may need a coaling station on the Atlantic 
 Coast of North America, not for the purposes of bluckade, 
 which could no longer have place when all danger of war was 
 at an end, but for the general defence of her trade. Safe 
 coaling stations and harbours of refuge, rather than territorial 
 dependencies, are aijjmrenlly wliat the great exporting country 
 and the mistress of tin; carrying trade now want.s. New- 
 fijundland would be a safe and uninvidious possession, and it 
 lias coal, though bituminous and not yet worked. The Ameri- 
 
 ' Kuay on the GuVfrnmrnl of JJej>fiulenciea, \>. 'S6\>.
 
 246 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. 
 
 cans do not covet islands, for the defence of which they would 
 have to keep up a navy. The island itself would be the 
 gainer ; there would be some chance of the development of 
 its resources ; with nothing but the fishery the condition of 
 its people seems to be poor. Let England then keep New- 
 foundland. Cape Breton is rather too close to the coast, 
 otherwise it has coal in itself, and Louisbourg might be restored. 
 The strength of England is and always has been in 
 herself, not in her dependencies. Alone she fought and van- 
 quished Louis XIV and Napoleon, as well as Philip IL 
 Some sepoys sent to Egypt in the war with France, some 
 sepoys brought to the Mediterranean fourteen years ago as a 
 demonstration against Russia, the regiment raised by Australia 
 for the campaign in the Soudan — these are about the total 
 amount of military contribution ever drawn by the Imperial 
 country from what is called the Empire. Black regiments were 
 raised in the West Indies, and the 100th Regiment was 
 originally raised in Canada, but at Imperial expense. On the 
 other hand, one dependency at least has drawn heavily on 
 Imperial resources in an hour of extreme peril. "When 
 Wellington faced Napoleon at Waterloo he must, as he looked 
 on the raw^ levies or foreign auxiliaries around him, have 
 thought with bitterness of his victorious veterans who were 
 on the wrong side of the Atlantic, engaged in what, as the 
 conquest of Canada was the American aim, was really a 
 Colonial war. Had Canada then been in the American 
 Union her friendly vote might have turned the scale of its 
 councils generally in favour of England. The British in 
 the United States have hitherto to a great extent declined 
 naturalisation, repelled perhaps by the political feeling against 
 their native country. But they have now been persuaded to 
 take the wiser course, and are being naturalised in great
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 247 
 
 numbers. As soou as their vote makes itself felt, tlie intluence 
 of the Irish vote and of the enemies of England on politics 
 will decrease. The Nova-Scotian vote is said to have told 
 the other day in Massachusetts. No other kind of aid will 
 it be in Canada's power to lend. If this assertion is ques- 
 tioned, let the Canadian Government be called upon, while 
 yet it is time, to say plainly what assistance, military or naval, 
 it is able to afford, and in what contingency the assistance 
 will be afforded. 
 
 Sir Henry Taylor cannot be said to have forfeited his 
 character as a patriotic Englishman when he wrote, as Under- 
 Secretary for the Colonies, to Lord Grey : " I cannot but 
 regard the North-American Provinces as a most dangerous 
 possession for this country, whether as likely to breed a war 
 with the United States or to make a war otherwise generated 
 more grievous and disastrous. I do not suppose the Provinces 
 to be useless to us at present, but I regard any present uses 
 not obtainable from them as independent nations as no more 
 than the dust in the balance compared with the evil con- 
 tingencies." It may be said that this was written in 1852, 
 and that since that time we have had new lights. Some 
 persons may have had new lights ; but those who have not are 
 no more unpatriotic in saying that the possession and that its 
 uses are as dust in the balance compared with its evil contin- 
 gencies than was Sir Henry Taylor. 
 
 Now on the side of the Colony. The disadvantages of 
 dependence stare us in the face. If to be a nation is strength, 
 energy, and grandeur, to be less than a nation is to have less 
 than a full measure of all these. Nor can any «»ne who has 
 lived in a dependency fail to see that the high spirit of inde- 
 pendence is not there. Its absence is marked by restle.ss and 
 uneasy .self-assertion, by a misgiving which sometimes lurk.s
 
 248 CANADA AND TlIK CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 uiidcr iiu outward boastfulness, by a constant craving for the 
 notice of the Imperial country, coupled with a jealousy of lier 
 superiority and of the supposed pretensions of those who 
 belong to her. To live not to yourself but to another man, 
 said the philosopher of old, is moral slavery, and a dependency 
 lives to the Imperial country, not to herself. The full pride 
 of country cannot have place, nor can the full attachment to 
 country. The social centre of the rich and eminent is in the 
 Imperial capital, and in their social centre are their aspira- 
 tions and their hearts. There is not found in Canada the 
 same public munificence which there is in the United States ; 
 nor are there found, as in the United States, great citizens 
 who, without going into public life, without coveting its 
 prizes, recoiling perhaps from it altogether, as it is under the 
 party system — still take an active interest in all questions 
 which deeply concern the welfare of the comnmnity, head 
 movements of reform, political as well as social, throw them- 
 selves even into the political conflict when the salvation of 
 the State hangs in the balance, and in a measure neutralise 
 the evil influence of faction and its retainers. The depend- 
 ency shares, it may be replied, the greatness of the Imperial 
 nation. It does ; but only as a dependent ; it bears the 
 train, not wears the royal robe. 
 
 Military and naval j)rotection Canada may be said to 
 receive ; but it is protection of a very precarious kind. It is 
 not pretended that the arm of England would save Canada 
 from invasion : the most that is alleged is, that when Canada 
 had suffered all the evils of invasion she would be redeemed 
 by the pressure which the English navy would put upon the 
 seaboard cities of the enemy. What amount of naval force 
 Great Britain would be able to spare for the defence of 
 colonial trade in case of a war between her and any other
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 249 
 
 maritime power is a question which must be answered by the 
 Admiralty, whose utterances on the subject hitherto have not 
 been comforting. But it could hardly be such as to prevent 
 a rise in the rate of insurance such as, the market of the 
 United States being half closed by the tariff, would ruinously 
 reduce Canadian trade. The saving to Canada of military and 
 naval expense is one of the great inducements always held 
 out to her for adhering to the connection. The ohter is the 
 saving of diplomatic expense, which, however, will not be com- 
 plete if the proposal to have residents at seats of commerce, 
 in addition to the High Commissioner at London, is carried 
 out. Diplomatic expense is not found intolerable by Switzer- 
 land, Denmark, Belgium, or Sweden, although they are mixed 
 up with European diplomacy, of which Canada would be clear. 
 
 In the balance against this claim to protection and this 
 saving of expense must be laid the heavy weight of a constant 
 liability to entanglements in the quarrels of England all over 
 the world, with which Canada has nothing to do, and about 
 wliich nothing is known by her people. Her commerce may 
 any day be cut up, and want brought into her homes by a 
 war about the frontier of Afghanistan, about the treatment of 
 Armenia or Crete by the Turks, about the relations of the 
 ])anubian principalities to Russia, or about the l)alance of 
 jjower in Europe. No one in Canada who forms liis estimate 
 of public sentiment through his senses and not through his 
 fancy can doubt what the result would be. 
 
 That in all diplomatic questions with the United States 
 tlie interest of Canada has been .sacrificed to the Imperial 
 exigency of keeping the peace with the Auiericans is the 
 const^mt theme of Canadian conii)hiint. " I dt) not tliink " — 
 these are the words of a Canadian knight — "that we arc 
 under any deep debt of gratilmle to Kni^lish statesmen, that
 
 250 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 we owe them much, unless, percliance, it may be the duty as 
 Christian men to forgive them for the atrocious blunders 
 which have marked every treaty, transaction, or negotiation 
 which they have ever had with the United States where the 
 interests of Canada were concerned, from the days of 
 Benjamin Franklin to this hour, not excepting their first or 
 second treaty of Washington." By the Treaty of 1783, 
 confirming the independence of the United States, England 
 not only resigned the territory claimed by each State of the 
 Union severally, but abandoned to the general government 
 immense territories "unsettled, unexplored, and unknown." 
 That this was done partly through ignorance appears from 
 the fact that in the Treaty the north-western angle of 
 demarcation was fixed at tlie north-west corner of the Lake 
 of the Woods, from which point of departure it was to run 
 due west to the sources of the Mississippi ; whereas the 
 sources of the Mississippi were afterwards found many 
 hundred miles to the south, so that the line prescribed was 
 impracticable.^ This is the beginning of a long and uniform 
 story, in the course of which not only great tracts of territory 
 but geographical unity has been lost. To understand how 
 deeply this iron has entered into the Canadian soul tlie 
 Englishman must turn to his map and mark how much of 
 geographical compactness, of military security, and of com- 
 mercial convenience was lost when Great Britain gave up 
 Maine. The British statesman would with truth reply that 
 he had done all that diplomacy could do, that he had gone to 
 the very verge of war with the United States, and that with a 
 world-wide empire and world-wide enmities on his hands he 
 could not afford to go beyond. The Canadian, if he were 
 
 ^ See article "How Treaty- makinf^ unmade Canada," by the late Lieut.- 
 Colouel Coffin, Ottawa, in the Canadian Afonthly, May, 1876.
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 251 
 
 reasonable, would acquiesce, but he would feel that the 
 sincerest wish to protect without the power was not protec- 
 tion. A large portion of Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, and 
 "Washington, Canada also thinks she has wrongfully lost. 
 These are causes of discontent ; discontent may one day 
 breed disaffection ; disaffection may lead to another calamit- 
 ous rupture ; and instead of going forth into the world when 
 the hour of maturity has arrived witli the parent's blessing, 
 the child may turn in anger from the paternal door. 
 
 About the advantages of political tutelage hardly a word 
 need be said. Practically the idea has been abandoned. 
 How could a democracy in Europe regulate, to any good 
 purpose, the progress of a democracy in America about the 
 concerns of which it knows almost nothing, and which is 
 superior to itself in average education and intelligence ? 
 British democracy has enough to do in regulating itself In 
 former days, when the British Government consisted of the 
 chief men of the nation exercising real power the illusion of 
 tutelage was possible ; but who can believe that a colony is 
 the better for being guided by the delegates of an English 
 caucus? Even the best informed in England are still too 
 uninstructed about Canada to interfere usefully in her affairs? 
 If the days are gone by when the Admiralty could send out 
 sentry-boxes for the troops, water- casks for a llotilla on 
 Canadian lakes, and spars for the use of vessels in a land of 
 pine, the writer has seen posted in England a jtroclamation 
 of the Privy Council in whicli Ontario was culled " that 
 town," and he has heard a well-educated Englishman con- 
 gratulate a Canadian on the removal by the settlement of the 
 Alabama question of all causes of enmity between Canada 
 and Great Britain. The House of Connnons notoriously 
 cannot be got to attend to colonial (questions, in the debate
 
 252 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 Oil the Quebec Act it was near being counted out, and in the 
 division which was to decide the constitution and laws of the 
 dependency only seventy -two members took part. An Act 
 relating to the South- African Confederation was passed in an 
 all-night sitting held to beat obstruction. Nobody blames 
 people for knowing or caring little about matters with which 
 they have nothing to do. Canadians care and know little 
 about Australia or the Cape of Good Hope. But to talk of 
 tutelage is absurd. If Ikitish monarchists have continued to 
 cherish the hope of establishing through the agency of 
 Canada hereditary monarchy and aristocracy on this Con- 
 tinent, and thus wresting from democracy a part of its 
 ilominion, let that hope be for ever laid aside. The structure 
 and spirit of Canadian as well as American society, it must 
 be repeated, are thoroughly democratic. The homage paid to 
 titled visitors from the old country and the social worship of 
 the Governor-General are indications merely of personal habit, 
 not of any political return to the past. Americans and 
 Canadians are in this respect the same. In the hereditary 
 principle there is not on the American Continent a spark of 
 life. The abdication of the Brazilian dynasty was the knell. 
 That democracy on the American continent and elsewhere 
 may some day pass through faction into anarchy, and that out 
 of the anarchy a strong government may arise, is among those 
 possibilities in the womb of the future which no external 
 power can help to the birtli ; but on the soil of the New World 
 hereditary monarchy and aristocracy can never grow. 
 
 Canada has received, it is true, large advances of British 
 capital. Her debt to England has been reckoned at 
 §650,000,000, though of the portion invested in the construc- 
 tion of Canadian railways most may be practically written off. 
 How far facility of borrowing is really a blessing to any
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 253 
 
 country is a question which need not be discussed. English 
 capital is now pouring into the United States ; it has 
 poured into the Argentine Eepublic, Spain, Eussia, Egypt, 
 Turkey, Mexico, and every country in wliich it appeared that 
 profitable investments could be found. Investment is as 
 cosmopolitan as trade. Let Canada keep up her credit and 
 the British investor will not curiously inquire whether the 
 Governor-General is sent out from England or elected by the 
 Canadians themselves. 
 
 Sentiment then, apparently, is the sole life of the present 
 connection. Of sentiment no one wishes to speak irreverently. 
 But to be sound, it must after all have its root in some kind 
 of utility, and when the root is dead the days of the flower 
 are numbered. Besides it is but the exchange of one senti- 
 ment for another which is more certain to endure. Why is 
 the filial sentiment of less valuo than the sentiment of de- 
 pendence ? It is surely ratlier the nobler of the two. The 
 Greek colony which kept the fire taken from the mother 
 country's altar always burning on its sacred hearth and 
 assigned to the representatives of the mother country places 
 of honour, effectively preserved, in its classic fashion, tlie 
 bond of the heart ; and why should not the same thing be 
 done in forms suited to our time by a Colony at the present 
 day? Protracted dependence may imperil the filial tie if 
 resentment is caused on either side by the failure to render 
 services which can no longer be rendered, and perform duties 
 which can no longer be performed. 
 
 Section 1 1. — Indepkndknck 
 
 (Junfederation was folhjwed by a niovenuMit in tin- direction 
 of Independence, chiefiy among the young men of Ontario,
 
 254 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 which was called " Canada First." The name was the title 
 of a pamphlet written in 1871 by ]\Ir. W. A. Foster, a barrister 
 of Toronto, which fired a number of young hearts. To in- 
 dependence the movement manifestly tended, if this was not 
 its avowed or definite aim. The authors of Confederation, to 
 induce the people to accept their policy, had set before them 
 glowing pictures of the resources of the country, and made 
 strong appeals to patriotic pride, hope, and self-reliance. 
 These produced their natural effect on ardent and sanguine 
 souls. It happened that just at the same time the gener- 
 ation of immigrants from England which had occupied 
 many of the leading places in the professions and commerce 
 was passing off the scene and leaving the field clear for native 
 ambition, while the withdrawal of the troops also brought 
 socially to the front the young natives who had before been 
 somewhat eclipsed in the eyes of ladies by the scarlet. 
 " Canada First" was rather a circle than a party : it eschewed 
 the name of party, and the Country above Party was its cry. 
 Some of the group were merely nativists who desired that all 
 power and all places should be filled by born Canadians, 
 that the policy of Canada should be shaped by her own 
 interest, and that she should be first in all Canadian hearts. 
 With some a " national policy " for the protection of Canadian 
 manufactures was probably a principal object. But that to 
 which the leading spirits more or less consciously, more or 
 less avowedly, looked forward was Independence. That they 
 aimed at raising Canada above the condition of a mere 
 dependency and investing her with the dignity of a nation 
 they loudly proclaimed, and they would have found that this 
 could not be done without putting off dependence. " Canada 
 First " was violently denounced and assailed by the politicians 
 of the two old parties, who betrayed in their treatment of the
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 255 
 
 generous aspirations to which they had themselves appealed 
 the real source of their policy and the spirit in which they 
 had acted as the authors of Confederation. The Court of 
 Ottawa also exerted its influence, including its influence 
 over the masters of the Press, in the same direction. The 
 movement found a leader, or thought that it had found a 
 leader, in a native Canadian politician, who was the child of 
 promise and the morning star at that time. But at the 
 decisive moment party ties prevailed, the leader was lost, and 
 the movement collapsed, not however without leaving strong 
 traces of its existence, wliich are beginning to show themselves 
 among the younger men at the present day. 
 
 In one respect, at all events, the men of " Canada First " 
 were right. They saw or at least felt — even the least bold 
 and the least clear-sighted of them fell: — that a community 
 in the New World must live its own life, face its own 
 responsibilities, grow and mould itself iu its own way ; that 
 Anglo-Saxon nations in North America could no more be tied 
 for ever to the apron-strings of the mother country than 
 England could have been tied for ever to the apron-strings of 
 Friesland, or France to those of the mother country of the 
 Franks. 
 
 There was nothing on the face of it impracticable in tlie 
 aim of " Canada First." There is nothing in nature or in 
 political circumstances to forbid the existence on tliis 
 Continent of a nation independent of the United States. 
 American aggression need not be feared. The violence and 
 unscrupulousness bred of slavery having jtassed away, the 
 Americans are a moral people. It would not be j)ossible for 
 Clay or any other demagogue now to excite them to an un- 
 provoked attack upon another free nation or even to a nianifu.st 
 encroachment on its rights. If tlieyhad lieen lilibusters they
 
 256 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 would have shown it when they had an immense army on 
 foot, with a powerful navy, and when they w-ere flushed with 
 victory. The New England States, and the non-shivery 
 element of the nation generally, were opposed to the War of 
 1812. An independent Canada, however inferior to tlieni in 
 force, might rest in perfect safety by their side. But when 
 " Canada First " was born the North- West had only just been 
 acquired. British Columbia was as yet hardly incorporated, 
 and the absolute want of geographical compactness or even 
 continuity was not so apparent as it is now. Enthusiasm 
 was blind to the difficulty presented to the devotees of 
 Canadian nationality by the separate nationality of Quebec, 
 or if it was not blind, succeeded in cajoling itself by poetic 
 talk about the value of French gifts and graces as ingredients 
 for combination, without asking whether fusion was not 
 the thing wliich the French most abhorred. There is no 
 reason why Ontario should not be a nation if she were 
 minded to be one. Her territory is compact. Ilcr population 
 is already as large as that of Denmark, and likely to be a 
 good deal larger, probably as large as that of Switzerland ; 
 and it is sufficiently homogeneous if she can only repress 
 French encroachment on her eastern border. She would have 
 no access to the sea : no more has Switzerland, Hungary, or 
 Servia. Already a great part of her trade goes through the 
 United States in bond. 
 
 The same thing might have been said with regard to the 
 Maritime Provinces — supposing them to have formed a 
 legislative union — Quebec, British Columbia, or the North- 
 West. In the North- West, rating its cultivable area at the 
 lowest, there would be room for no mean nation. But the 
 thread of each Province's destiny has now become so inter- 
 twined with the rest that the skein can hardly be disentangled.
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 257 
 
 That the North-West, if it is not released irom the stranjiliiig 
 tariff, may take a course of its own is not unlikely ; but it is 
 unlikely that the course will be Independence. 
 
 Section III. — Imperial Federation 
 
 It was probably the sight of the tie visibly weakening 
 and of the approach of Colonial independence that gave 
 birth, by a recoil, to Imperial Federation. But the move- 
 ment has been strangely reinforced from another source. 
 Home rulers, who, under that specious name would surrender 
 Ireland to Mr. Parnell, think to salve their own patriotism 
 and reconcile the nation to their policy by saying that in 
 breaking up the United Kingdom they are only providing 
 raw materials for a far ampler and grander union. In the 
 case of the late Mr. Forster, the only statesman who has 
 seriously embraced the project, something might be due to 
 the Nemesis of imagination in the breast of a Quaker. 
 
 The Imperial Federationists refuse to tell us their plan. 
 They bid our bosoms dilate with trustful enthusiasm for 
 arrangements which are yet to be revealed. They say it is 
 not yet time for the disclosure. Nor yet time when the last 
 strand of political connection is worn almost to tlie la.st 
 thread, and when every day the sentiment opposed to 
 centralisation is implanting itself more deei)ly in Colonial 
 hearts! While we are bidden to wait patiently Ibr the 
 tide, the tide is running .strongly the other way. Now New- 
 foundland claims the right of making her own commercial 
 agreements with the United States independently of other 
 Colonies. Disintegration, surely, i.s on the jioiiit of being 
 complete. 
 
 At lea.st we may be told of whom the Confederation is 
 
 8
 
 258 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 to consist. Are the negroes of the West Indies to be 
 included? Is Quashee to vote on Imperial policy? But 
 above all, what is to be done witli India? Is it, as 
 a Canadian Federationist of thorough - going democratic 
 tendencies demanded the other day, to be taken into 
 Federation and enfranchised ? If it is, the Hindoo will 
 outvote us by five to one, and what he will do with us only 
 those who have fathomed the Oriental mystery can pretend 
 to say. Is it to remain a dependency ? Then to whom is it 
 to belong ? To a Federation of democratic communities 
 scattered over the globe, some of which, like Canada, have 
 no interest in it whatever? Its fate as an Empire would 
 then be sealed, if it is not sealed already by the progress of 
 democracy in Great Britain, Or is it to belong to England 
 alone ? In that case one member of the Confederacy will have 
 an Empire apart five times as large as the rest of the Confeder- 
 ation, requiring separate armaments and a diplomacy of its 
 own. How would the American Confederation work if one 
 State held South America as an Empire ? Some have suggested 
 that Hindostan should be represented by the British residents 
 in India alone. If it were, woe to the Hindoos. 
 
 Again, the object of the Association must surely be known. 
 Every Association of a practical kind must have a definite 
 object to hold it together. The objects which naturally 
 suerjiest themselves are common armaments and a common 
 tariff. But Canada, as we have seen, refuses to contribute to 
 common armaments, and Australia, though she sent a regiment 
 to the Soudan, now apparently repents of having done it. 
 Great Britain is a -svar power ; the Colonists, like the 
 Americans, are essentially unmilitary, and here would be the 
 beginninjj of troubles. As to the tariff, the Canadian 
 Protectionists, who make use of Imperial Federation as a
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 259 
 
 stalking-horse in their struggle against free trade with the 
 United States, are always careful to say that they do not 
 mean to resign their right of laying protective duties on 
 British goods. Victoria also seems wedded to her Protective 
 system. What remains but improvement of postal com- 
 mvmication and a Colonial Exhibition, neither of wliich 
 surely calls for a political combination unprecedented in 
 history. 
 
 Unprecedented in history the combination would be. 
 The Koman Empire, the thought of which, and of its Civis 
 Romanus sum, is always hovering before our minds, was vast, 
 but it was all in a ring-fence. Moreover, it had its world to 
 itself, no rival powers being interposed between Eome and 
 her Provinces. It was an Empire in the proper sense of 
 the term. Its members were all alike in strict subordination 
 to its head. The head determined the policy without ques- 
 tion, and danger to unity from divided counsels there was 
 none. We confuse our minds, as was said before, by an 
 improper use of the term Empire. The name applies to 
 India, but to nothing else connected with Great Britain 
 unless it be the fortresses and Crown Colonies. Our self- 
 governed Colonies are not members of an Empire, but free 
 communities virtually independent of the mother country, 
 which for the purpose of Confederation would be called upon 
 to resign a portion of their independence. Of the Spanish 
 Empire it is needless to speak. Its name is an omen of 
 disaster and a warning against the blind ambition which 
 mistakes combination for union and colossal weakness for 
 power. After all, the Roman Emj)ire itself fell, and ])artly 
 because the life was drawn from the members to the head. 
 
 The Acluean Lfjague, the Swiss P>und, the Union of the 
 Netherlands, the American Union, all were perfectly natural
 
 260 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 combinations, not only snggested but commanded by a 
 common peril. In three out of the four cases the communities 
 which entered into the compact were kindred in all respects ; 
 in the case of the Swiss Bund they were equal. In the case 
 of the Confederation now proposed, they M'ould be neither 
 kindred nor equal ; and fasten the people of the British Islands, 
 those of the self-governed Colonies, the Hindoo, the African, 
 and the KafiBr together with what legislative clamps you 
 will, you cannot produce the unity of political character and 
 sentiment which is essential to community of councils, much 
 more to national union. 
 
 Steam and telegraph, we are told, have annihilated 
 distance. They have not annihilated the parish steeple. 
 They have not carried the thoughts of the ordinary citizen 
 beyond the circle of his own life and work. They have not 
 qualified a common farmer, tradesman, ploughman, or artisan 
 to direct the politics of a world-wide State. How much does 
 an ordinary Canadian know or care about Australia, an 
 ordinary Australian about Canada, or an ordinary Englishman, 
 Scotchman, or Irishman about either ? The feeling of all 
 the Colonists towards the mother country, when you appeal 
 to it, is thoroughly kind, as is that of the mother country 
 towards the Colonies. But Canadian notions of British 
 politics are hazy, and still more hazy are British notions of 
 the politics of Canada. When John Sandfield Macdonald, 
 the Prime Minister of Ontario, died, his death was chronicled 
 by British journals as that of Sir John A. Macdonald, the 
 Prime Minister of the Dominion. 
 
 About India Englishmen know more, because their 
 interest in it is so great ; but Canadians know nothing. The 
 framers of these vast political schemes, having their own 
 eyes fixed on the political firmament, forget that the eyes of
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 261 
 
 men iu general are fixed on the path they tread. The suffrage 
 of the Federation ought to be limited to far-reaching and 
 imaginative minds. 
 
 A grand idea may be at the same time practical. The 
 idea of a United Continent of North America, securing free 
 trade and intercourse over a vast area, with external safety 
 and internal peace, is no less practical than it is grand. The 
 benefits of such a union would be always present to the mind 
 of the least instructed citizen. The sentiment connected with 
 it would be a foundation on which the political architect 
 could build. Imperial Federation, to the mass of the people 
 comprised in it, would be a mere name conveying with it no 
 definite sense of benefit, on which anything could be built. 
 
 To press this receding vision a little closer, what would 
 be the relation of the Federal Government to the British 
 monarchy? "Would the same Queen be sovereign of 
 both ? Would she have two sets of advisers ? Suppose 
 they should advise her different ways! Would she appoint, 
 as she does now, the heads of all the other members of the 
 Federation? It would hardly do to let the President of the 
 United States appoint all the State (Governors. How would 
 the Supreme Court be constituted ? Such an authority 
 would certainly be needed to interpret the Constitution, and 
 the Briti.sh monarchy would have to be a suitor before it. 
 How would the decrees of the Federationists be enforced, 
 say, in case of refusal to send the war cuntiugeiil '. How, 
 again, would the representation in the Federal rarliument be 
 apportioned ? If by population, the representation of the 
 Briti.sh Islands would S(j outnumber the rest that the rest 
 would deem their repre.sentation practically a nullity, and 
 jealousy and cabals would at once arise. The very number, 
 too, would be a diflicultv. If Clroat I'ritaiu had member-; in
 
 262 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 l)roportioii to .St. Helena aiul iwji, the I'arliament would have 
 to meet on Salisbury Plain. These are not questions of 
 detail, nor do they attach only to a particular scheme : they 
 are fundamental, and attach to every scheme that can be 
 conceived. 
 
 The Parliament of Great Britain must cease to be a Sove- 
 reign Power. The Imperial Congress itself would not be a 
 Sovereign Power. Like the Congress of the United States, it 
 would be subject to the Federal Constitution, and would have 
 so much authority only as that Constitution assigned it. 
 The Sovereign Power would be in the people of the Empire 
 at large, and a curious Sovereign they would be. 
 
 The same person could not be the head at once of a 
 Federation and of one of the communities included in it any 
 more than the same person could be President of the United 
 States and Governor of the State of New York. Her Majesty 
 would have to choose between the British and the Pan- 
 Britannic Crown. 
 
 Canada is a Confederation in herself. Movements are on 
 foot for a Confederation of the Australian Colonies and of those 
 of South Africa. A Confederation of the "West India Islands 
 has also been proposed. We should thus have a striking 
 novelty in political architecture in the shape of a Confedera- 
 tion of Confederations. But it seems certain that New Zea- 
 land would not, and that some isolated Colonies could not, 
 join any Federation, in which case the members of the Central 
 Parliament would represent partly Federations, partly single 
 communities. Strange apparently would be the complication 
 of fealties, obligations, and sentiments which would hence 
 arise. 
 
 This Union, so complex in its machinery, with its members 
 scattered over the world, and distracted by interests as wide
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 263 
 
 apart as the shores of its members, Home liulers think they 
 could maintain, while they bid us despair of maintaining the 
 Parliamentary Union of Irehmd with Great Britain. 
 
 Even to assemble the Centralised Convention woukl be 
 no easy task. The governments, British and Colonial, are 
 all party governments and all liable to constant change. The 
 delegate trusted by one party would not have the confidence 
 of the other, and before the Convention would proceed to 
 business somebody's credentials would be withdrawn. We 
 have seen in the case of Canadian Confederation how Nova 
 Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island flew off 
 I'rom the agreement at which their delegates had arrived. In 
 truth there would probably be a general falling away as soon 
 as payment for Imperial armaments came into view. 
 
 The Federation would be nothing if not diplomatic. 
 But whose diplomacy is to prevail? That of Great 
 Britain, an European Power and at the same time 
 Mistress of India? That of Australia, witli her Eastern 
 relations and her Chinese question ? Or that of Canada, 
 bound up with the American Continent, indifferent to every- 
 thing in I^urope or Asia, and concerned only with her relation 
 to the United States ? If wu may believe Sir Charles Dilke, 
 Australia avows her intention of breaking away from England 
 should British policy ever take a line adverse to her special 
 interests in the East. 
 
 Achaia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States, 
 all federated under the pressure of necessity, which, stern and 
 manifest as it was, liad yet scarcely the power to overcome 
 the centralised forces. To do the work of that necessity 
 there ought at least to Ix' an ((luiiUy strong desire. Bui 
 what proof liave we of the existence (jf such u desiri; ? 
 Australia, far from being eager, seems to be adverse ; in some
 
 264 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION ciiai-. 
 
 of her cities the missionary of Imperial Federation can scarcely 
 find an audience. From Soutli Africa comes no audible 
 response. In British Canada the movement has no apparent 
 strength except what it derives from an alliance with 
 Protectionism, which, as has already been said, repudiates a 
 commercial union of the Empire and insists on maintaining 
 its separate tariff. To the French nationalists of Quebec any- 
 thing that would bind their country closer to Great Britain is 
 odious, and they were disposed to receive the present 
 Governor-General coldly because they suspected him of 
 favouring such a policy. In Great Britain itself the move- 
 ment shows no sign of strength. For several years, under 
 Lord Beaconsfield, Imperialism had everything its own way, 
 yet not a step was taken towards Federation. That was the 
 grand opportunity ; but Federationists failed to grasp it by the 
 forelock. Xot a step has been taken to this hour beyond 
 holding a meeting of Colonists, absolutely without authority, 
 which dined, wined, and talked about postal communications, 
 all power of dealing with the great question having been 
 expressly withheld. Lord Beaconsfield's successor in the 
 Tory leadership has plainly declined to commit himself to the 
 project. We seem to be a long way from a spontaneous and 
 overwhelming vote, nothing short of which would suffice. 
 The approach to centralisation at once sets all the centrifugal 
 forces in action ; it did this even in the case of American 
 federation, so that the project narrowly escaped wreck ; and 
 miscarriage would beget, instead of closer union, discord, 
 estrangement, and perhaps rupture. Let us bear the warning 
 example of the rupture with the American Colonies in 
 mind. 
 
 What is the real motive for encountering all the difficulties 
 and perils of this more than gigantic undertaking, for running
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 265 
 
 laboriously counter to the recent course of Colonial history, as 
 well as to the natural tendencies of our race, and for taking 
 the political heart and brain, as it were, out of each of those 
 free communities and transferring them to London ? We are 
 told that the Federal Empire would impose peace upon the 
 world. This assumes that dispersion is strength, and that 
 Great Britain would be made more formidable in war by 
 being bound up with unmilitary communities. But suppose it 
 true, surely the appearance of a world-wide power, grasjiing 
 all the waterways and all the points of maritime vantage, 
 instead of propagating peace, would, like an alarm gun, call 
 the nations to battle ! The way to make peace on earth is to 
 promote the coming not of an exclusive military league but 
 of the Parliament of Man, the moral Parliament of ^lan at 
 least, by enlarging the action of international law and 
 repressing the ambitious passions to which, however pliilan- 
 thropic may be our professions. Imperialism really appeals. 
 If no distinct object can be assigned, if no definite plan can 
 be produced, if the projectors are conscious that there is no 
 practical step on which they can venture, surely the project 
 ought to be frankly laid aside and no longer allowed to 
 darken counsel, hide from us the real facts of the situation, 
 and prevent the Colonies from advancing on the true 
 path. 
 
 There is a Federation which is feasible, and, to those wlu» 
 do not measure grandeur by physical force or extension, at 
 lea.st as grand as that of which the Imperialist dreams. It is 
 the moral federation of the wh(d(; English -speaking race 
 throughout the world, including all those millions of men 
 .speaking the English language in the IJnitcil States, and 
 jtarted from the rest only a century ago by a wretched 
 quarrel, whom Imjxirial iMjdcration wouM leave out of its
 
 266 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN gUKSTIOX chap. 
 
 pale. Nothing is needed to bring this about but tlie vuhin- 
 tary retirement of England as a political power from a 
 shadowy dominion in a sphere which is not hers. There is 
 no apparent reason why, among all the states of our race, 
 there should not be community of citizenship, so that a 
 citizen of any one of tlic nations might take np the rights of 
 a citizen in any one of the others at once upon his change of 
 domicile, and without the process of naturalisation. This 
 would be political unity of no inconsiderable kind without 
 diplomatic liabilities, or the strain, which surely no one can 
 think free from peril, of political centralisation. 
 
 Unless all present appearances on the political horizon 
 are delusive, the time is at hand when the upheaval of the 
 labour world, and the social problems which are coming into 
 view, will give the politicians more serious and substantial 
 matter for thought than the airy fabric of Imperial 
 Federation. 
 
 The old project of giving the Colonies representation in 
 the Imperial Parliament appears to have been laid aside. 
 The objections urged against it by Burke on the ground of 
 distance have been to a great extent removed by steam, 
 though it miojht even now be difficult to call together a 
 world-wide Parliament in time of maritime war. But the 
 objection still decisive is that the Colonies would not put 
 their affairs into the hands of an Assembly in which their 
 representation would be overwhelmingly outnumbered. Nor 
 could they trust representatives domiciled in London who, 
 under the influence of London society, would be apt to be- 
 come more British than the British themselves. These new 
 countries, which have such difficulty in finding suitable men 
 for their own legislatures, would have difficulty in finding 
 men to represent them at "Westminster at all. They might
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 267 
 
 have to fall back on expatriated millionaires, in whom not the 
 slightest confidence as representatives of Colonial sentiment 
 conld be placed. Supposing that the members for the 
 Colonies remained colonial, and tried to make up for their 
 lack of numbers at Westminster by combining among them- 
 selves and log-rolling, they might become a serious addition 
 to the distractions of the British Parliament, which assuredly 
 need no increase. 
 
 Let it be taken as certain and irreversible that thi' 
 Colonies will not part with any portion of their self-govern- 
 ment. If a scheme can be devised by which they can be 
 governed by an Assembly at "Westminster without any loss to 
 them of self-government it may, supposing it to be presented 
 to them in an intelligible and practicable form, stand a chance 
 of consideration at their hands. 
 
 Section IV. — Political Union 
 
 Annexation is an ugly word ; it seems to convey the 
 idea of force or pressure applied to the smaller State, not of 
 free, equal, and honourable union, like that between England 
 and Scotland. Yet there is no reason wliy the union of the 
 two sections of the English-speaking people on this Continent 
 should not be as free, as equal, and as honourable as the 
 union of England and Scotland. We should ratlier say their 
 reunion than tlieir union, for Itefore their unhappy schism 
 they were one people. Nothing but the historical accident 
 of a civil war ending in secession, instead of amnesty, ha.s 
 made them two. When the Anglo-Saxons of England and 
 those ot Scotland were reunited they had bfcn many ccnturie.s 
 apart ; those of tlie United States and Canada liave been 
 separated for one century only. The Anglo-Saxons of Eng-
 
 268 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 land and Scotland liad the memory of many wars to estrange 
 them : the Anglo-Saxons of Canada and the United States 
 liave the memory, since their sejiaration, only of one war. 
 
 That a union of Canada with the American Common- 
 wealth, like that into which Scotland entered with England, 
 would in itself be attended with great advantages cannot be 
 questioned, whatever may be the considerations on the other 
 .side or the reasons for delay. It would give to the inhabit- 
 ants of the whole Continent as complete a security for peace 
 and immunity from war taxation as is likely to be attained 
 by any community or group of communities on this side of 
 the Millenium. Canadians almost with one voice say that 
 it would greatly raise the value of property in Canada ; in 
 other words, that it would bring with it a great increase 
 of prosperity. The writer has seldom heard this seriously 
 disputed, while he has heard it admitted in the plainest 
 terms by men who were strongly opposed to Union on poli- 
 tical or sentimental grounds, and who had spent tlieir lives in 
 the service of Separation. The case is the same as that of 
 Scotland or Wales in relation to the rest of the island of 
 which they are parts, and upon their union with which their 
 commercial prosperity depends. The Americans, on the 
 other hand, would gain in full proportion as England gains 
 by her commercial union with Wales and Scotland, These 
 inducements are always present to the minds of the Canadian 
 people, and they are specially present when the trade of 
 Canada, with the rest of her Continent, is barred by such 
 legislation as the M'Kinley Act, when her security is threat- 
 ened by the imminence of war in Europe, or when from 
 internal causes she happens to be acutely feeling the com- 
 mercial atrophy to which her isolation condemns her. 
 Canadians who live on the border, and who from the shape
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 269 
 
 of the country form a large proportion of the population, 
 have always before their eyes the fields and cities of a 
 kindred people, whose immense prosperity they are pre- 
 vented from sharing only by a political line, while socially, 
 and in every other respect, the identity and even the fusion 
 is complete. 
 
 On the other hand, there is the aflection of the Colonists 
 for the mother country, which has always been kind to them 
 in intention, even if she has not had the power to defend 
 their rights and her interference has ceased to be useful. 
 This might prevail if imion with the rest of the race on this 
 Continent, under the sanction of tlie mother country, would 
 really be a breach of affection for her. ]?ut it woulil be 
 none. It would be no more a breach of aflection than the 
 naturalisation, now fully recognised by British law, of multi- 
 tudes both of Englishmen and of Canadians in the United 
 States. Let us suppose that the calamitous rupture of the 
 last century had never taken place, that the wliole race on 
 this Continent had remained united, and had parted, when 
 the time came, from the mother counliy in peace ; where 
 would the outrage on love or loyalty have been ? Admitted 
 into the councils of their own Continent, and exercising their 
 fair share of influence there, Canadians would render the 
 mother country the best of all services, and tlie only service 
 in their i)Ower, by neutralising the votes of her em-niies. 
 Unprovoked liostility on the jiart of the American Republic 
 to Great I'ritain would then become impossible. It i.s now 
 unlikely, but not impossible, since there is no wicketlness 
 which may not possibly be conunitted by di'nmgogi.sm pander- 
 ing to Irish Ijatred. 
 
 Nor need Canada give up any of tlie distinctive; character 
 or liistorical associations which she lias preserved through
 
 270 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 the contiiiuaucc of lier connection with the mother country. 
 Scotland is still .Scotcli, and her idol Sir Walter Scott was 
 tlie type at once of patriotic Ikitons and of Scotchmen. 
 The Federal system admits wide local diversities, and if 
 Ontario or Nova Scotia clings to the British statute-book, to 
 the British statute-book it may cling. There is no reason 
 even why Canadians, who like to show their s])irit by military 
 celebrations, should not celebrate Canadian victories as the 
 Scotch celebrate Bannockburn. Americans would smile. 
 Of the antipathy to Americans sedulously kept up witliin 
 select circles and in certain interests, there is absolutely none 
 among the Canadian people at large. It would be strange 
 if there were any, considering that half of them have brothers, 
 sons, or cousins on the American side of the Line. " Bom- 
 bard New York ! " said a Canadian to the writer when some- 
 body was declaiming in that vein ; " why, my four sons live 
 there ! " On the Pacific Coast of the United States a British 
 shell could scarcely burst without striking a Canadian homo. 
 The masses do not read much history or cherish antiquarian 
 feuds. If the President of the United States were to visit 
 Canada, he would be received as cordially as he is in any 
 part of his own llepublic ; more cordially, perhaps, since 
 in Canada the people of both parties would unite in the 
 ovation. 
 
 If the language held by Canadian Jingoes or "Paper 
 Tif^ers," as they are called, about American character were 
 the truth or anything like the truth, union with such people 
 ought indeed to be declined at any sacrifice of military 
 security or commercial profit. But even those who hold it 
 hardly believe it. An Imperialist journal in London the 
 other day ended an article on the influence of Americans in 
 England by saying that they are too like the English in all
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 271 
 
 essential respects to produce any possible change in English 
 character. That, as regards the normal American, is tlie fact. 
 The present writer has known the Americans not, like most 
 of their critics, only in the cities, but in the country and the 
 country town. As a lecturer and resident in an American 
 University he has been brouglit into contact with American 
 youth ; he has friends among Americans of all vocations and 
 professions ; he has seen the people under the ordeal of civil 
 war, seen their conduct in the field, tlieir care of the 
 wounded, and their treatment of their captured enemii'S ; 
 and to him the idea that Canadians would undergo moral 
 disparagement by the Union seems of all reveries the most 
 absurd. Sheer snobbishness, to tell the truth, lias not a 
 little to do with the affectation of contempt for Yankees. 
 This is one of the ways in which vulgarity tries to make 
 itself genteel The good feeling of Canadians towards their 
 mother country is strong, genuine, disinterested, and cannot 
 be too highly prized. But there is a blatant loyalty which 
 it is very easy to prize too highly. If a man makes a viuhnt 
 and offensive demonstration of it against those whom he 
 accuses of American sympathies, you are apt presently to 
 find him in the employment of some American company, 
 peddling for an American house, or accepting a call to the 
 other side of the Line. We have already, in our his- 
 torical retrospect, had occasion to observe that Avhen by 
 untoward circumstances interest is divorced from .senti- 
 ment, the loyalisni which Ijefore had been the most liury 
 in its manifestations can suddenly grow cold. If Kngland 
 ever has occasion to call on her children in (.';inail:i for 
 a real .sacrifice, she nuiy chance to repeat the cxpcritiice 
 of King Ix'ar. 
 
 There are varieties too little noticed by critics of American
 
 272 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 character in ditTeroiit parts of the Union. These are black 
 spots. In certain districts lawlessness and want of respect 
 for human life remain as the traces of slavery, whose cause 
 Canadian Jingoism ardently espoused. New York has its 
 shoddy wealth which the better Americans despise, and 
 which British aristocracy, though scornful of American de- 
 mocracy, sometimes takes to its arms. Rapid commercial 
 development has bred gambling speculation, and with it 
 unscrupulousness, of which Canada also has her proportionate 
 share, though in both cases the amount of knavery is small 
 compared with that of sound and honest trade. Party 
 politics are the same on both sides of the Line, and on neither 
 side, happily, are they the whole of life. The Canadian 
 politician exactly resembles the American, and none the less 
 when he has been knighted. Both countries would be in a 
 bad way if the demagogue ruled society and trade. Political 
 corruption is on a far larger scale in the wealthier country, 
 but it is more shameless in the poorer country. About the 
 American Press there is a good deal to be said, but not more 
 than there is about the successive personal organs of a Prime 
 Minister of Canada. Canada has the advantage of not having 
 broken with her history or bearing on her political character, 
 like the American, the trace of a revolution ; but America is 
 gradually renewing her historical associations, and since she 
 has had herself to contend with rebellion and been threatened 
 within by the Anarchists, the revolutionary sentiment has 
 been losing force. In the wealthier country and that which 
 had the start in civilisation is found a higher standard of 
 livinfj, with more of science and culture : in the other, more 
 frugality and simplicity of life. Both communities are 
 threatened by the same social dangers and disturbances, nor is 
 there any conservative force in one which there is not in the
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 273 
 
 other, the phantom of monarchy in Canada being, as has been 
 shown, no conservative force at all, hut rather serving to 
 disguise the action of forces the reverse of conservative. 
 There is continual harping on the laxity of the American 
 divorce law, and Canada was told that if she traded more with 
 the Americans Canadian wedlock would be in danger of the 
 contagion. Illinois and Indiana, where the laxity prevails, 
 are not the United States. However, scarcely had the warning 
 been penned, when we had proof that, even as it is, no 
 impassable gulf of sentiment divides us from Indiana and 
 Illinois. 
 
 The fear that with the addition of Canada the Union 
 would be too large and that its cohesion might give way, 
 which is felt both by Canadians and Americans, though 
 natural, seems not to be well-founded. Slavery being ex- 
 tinct there is no longer any visible line of cleavage. So 
 long as the freedom of the system is preserved, there seems 
 to be no limit to its possible extension, provided the territory, 
 though vast, is within a ring fence. Nobody is likely to rebel 
 asainst an arrangement which, without fettering local self- 
 development, gives safety against attack from without, peace 
 and freedom of intercourse within. People must be revolu- 
 tionary indeed if they can take arms against mere immunity 
 from evils. The tariff question does not form a line ui' 
 cleavage, and is in a fair way to be settled by the ballot. 
 If 300,000,000 Cliinese can get on well together under 
 a centralised Government, surely 100,000,000 of the 
 higher race can get on together under a government much 
 more elastic. The proljlem of races at the Soutli no doubt is 
 still serious, but there is no tendency to a rcm-wal of seces- 
 sion, and the South is becoming daily sujallcr and less im- 
 portant in proportion to the Union. The growtli there of 
 
 T
 
 •271 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 mumifacturing industries Avill botli modify political character 
 ;uul bind tlie States to their Northern market. Socialistic 
 revolution, such as would take a State out of tlie Uepublic, 
 and the occupation of the Pacific Coast by the Chinese, are 
 contin<fencies which might threaten the Union, but at present 
 they are very remote, while to Chinese irruption Canada on 
 the Pacific is more open than the United States. 
 
 Again, Canadians who heartily accept democracy wish 
 that there should be two experiments in it on this Continent 
 rather than one, and the wish is shared by thoughtful Ameri- 
 cans not a few. But we have seen that in reality the two 
 experiments are not being made. Universal suffrage and 
 party government are the same, and their effects are the same 
 in both Republics. Differences there are, such as that 
 between the Presidential and the Cabinet system, of a sub- 
 ordinate kind, yet not unimportant, and such as might make 
 it worth while to forego for a time at least the advantages of 
 union, supposing that the dangers and economical evils of 
 separation were not too great, and if the territorial division 
 were not extravagantly at variance with the fiat of Xature. 
 The experiments of political science must be tried with some 
 reference to terrestrial convenience. Besides, those who 
 scan the future without prejudice must see that the political 
 fortunes of the Continent are embarked in the great liepublic, 
 and that Canada w^ill best promote her own ultimate interests 
 by contributing without unnecessary delay all that she has 
 in the way of political character and force towards the saving 
 of the main chance and the fulfilment of the common hope. 
 The native American element in which the tradition of self- 
 government resides is hard pressed by the foreign element 
 untrained to self-government, and stands in need of the 
 reinforcement which the entrance of Canada into the Union
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 275 
 
 would brinor it. Canadians feel all this witliout bein" dis- 
 distinctly conscious of it : they are taking less interest in 
 British and more in American politics : in British politics 
 they would take but little interest if their attention were not 
 turned that way by the efforts of the Irish to drag every- 
 body into their clan feud. A Presidential election now 
 makes almost as much stir in Canada as it does in the United 
 States. There is something to be said in favour of recognis- 
 ing destiny without delay. The reasoning of Lord Durliam 
 with regard to French Canada holds good in some measure 
 with regard to Canada altogether in its relation to the Anglo- 
 Saxon Continent. He thought it best to make tlie country 
 at once that which after the lapse of no long time it must be. 
 And this reminds us of another reason for not putting off the 
 unification of the English-speaking race, since it is perfectly 
 clear that the forces of Canada alone are not sufficient to 
 assimilate tlie French element or even to prevent tlie indelinite 
 consolidation and growth of a French nation. Either the 
 conquest of Quebec was utterly fatuous or it is to be desired 
 that the American Continent should belong to the I'nglish 
 tongue and to Anglo-Saxon civilisation. 
 
 The Americans in general are not insensible, perhaps they 
 are more sensible than they sometimes affect to be, of tlie 
 advantages and the accession of greatness which would accrue 
 to the Kepuljlic by the entrance of Canada into the Unii)n. 
 They expect that some day she will come to then), and 
 are ready to welcome her when she does. But few of them 
 much desire to liasten the event, and hardly any of them 
 think of hastening it by co(!rci(jn. The M'Kinlcy Act was 
 not intended to coerce Canada intcj the Unidu. Its objects 
 were to rivet Protection and catch the farnicT's vote, though it 
 was wclcometl by the Tory I'ririic! Minister of (':in;ida and his
 
 276 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 following as a plausible ground fur insulting demonstrations 
 against the Americans, and this at the moment when Great 
 Britain was carrying on difficult negotiations at Washington 
 on Canada's behalf. Of conquest there is absolutely no 
 thought. The Southern violence and the Western lawlessness 
 which forced the Union into the War of 1812 are things of 
 the past. The American people could not now be brought to 
 invade the homes of an unoftending neighbour. They have 
 no craving for more territory. They know that while a 
 despot who annexes may govern through a viceroy with the 
 strong hand, a republic which annexes must incoi-porate, and 
 would only weaken itself by incorporating disaffection. The 
 special reason for wishing to bring Canada at once into the 
 Union, that she might help to counterbalance the Slave 
 Power, has with the Slave Power departed. So far as the 
 Americans are concerned, Canada is absolute mistress of 
 her own destiny, while she is welcome to cast in her lot 
 with the Eepublic. Such is the impression made upon the 
 writer by his intercourse with Americans of all classes during 
 twenty years. 
 
 Of Canadian opinion the one thing that can be said with 
 certainty is that the great mass of the people, and especially 
 those who dwell along the border of Ontario, in the Maritime 
 Provinces, in Manitoba or other districts of the Xorth-West, 
 and those who are engaged or wish to be engaged in the 
 mining, lumbering, or shipping trade, strongly desire freedom 
 of commercial intercourse with their own Continent. Such 
 appears to be the wish of the people and of the politicians in 
 Quebec also, as well indeed it may be, since the American 
 market is the only market which Quebec has. The tendency 
 of the priesthood is isolation, as the safeguard of their 
 dominion and of their tithe ; but their position is in all
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 277 
 
 respects somewhat altered by the exodus, and it is doubtful 
 whether they would dare to oppose themselves directly to the 
 material welfare of the masses. Xothing apparently can save 
 the restrictive policy of the present Government and its 
 confederate, the protected manufacturer, except the use of 
 the same engines which have so long sustained a similar 
 policy in the United States. On the question of political 
 union apart from commercial union there are no means of 
 gauging popular sentiment, the question never having been 
 brought definitely before the people and expression not being 
 free. But the English inquirer had better be cautious in 
 receiving the confident reports of official persons, or listening 
 to public professions of any kind. The very anxiety.sliown 
 to gag opinion by incessant cries of disloyalty and treason 
 shows that there is an opinion which needs to be gagged. 
 People were taken by surprise when in 18-19, under the 
 pressure of commercial distress, a manifesto in favour of 
 annexation appeared with the signatures of a number of the 
 leading men of the country. In these democracies, where 
 everybody from his cradle is thinking of votes, and to be in a 
 minority is perdition, political courage, whether in action or 
 speech, is not a common virtue. Politicians especially 
 tremble at the very thought of a premature declaration of any 
 kind. But the notion that a man who at a meeting of 
 ordinary Canadians should avow his belief in an ultimate 
 reunion of the two sections of his race would be " stoned " or 
 even hissed, may be proved from experience to be a mistake. 
 A bold man had avowed annexationist o])inions in uHicial 
 company at Ottawa. One of the company, liorrified at lii.s 
 jtrofanities, toM hiui th;iL hi; .slnmhl feel it his (hily to de- 
 nounce them if he were not restrained by .social ecdilidence. 
 "Come down," was the reply, " into tlie street, colleet the
 
 278 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 biggest crowd, you can, and I will soon relievo you of the 
 restraint of social confidence." The other day an ex-( Jovernor- 
 General undertook to assure the world that the slightest 
 suspicion of annoxationisni would be absolutely fatal to a 
 candidate in an election. Almost on the very day on which 
 his ex-Excellency's paper reached Canada an avowed annexa- 
 tionist was elected by a large majority for a county in 
 Ontario. Annexation is not the platform of either party, and 
 as a rule, nobody can get himself elected without a party 
 nomination. But supposing a candidate had the party 
 nomination and w^ere locally strong the suspicion of annexa- 
 tionism would do him very little harm. Of this, indeed, we 
 have already had practical proofs, besides the example just 
 cited. Since the passing of the Jesuits' Estates Act and the 
 revelation in connection with it of priestly influence and 
 designs, the saying of Lord Durham's Eeport that the day 
 mi^ht come when Entrlish Canadians to remain Enj^lish would 
 have to cease to be British, or something like it, has been 
 heard on many sides. 
 
 There is a conflict of forces, and we must judge each for 
 himself which are the primary forces and likely to prevail. 
 Prevail the primary forces will in the end, however long their 
 action may be suspended by a number of secondary forces 
 arrayed against them. In the case of German and in that of 
 Italian unity the number and strength of the secondary forces 
 arrayed against the event were such, and the action of the 
 great forces was so long suspended by them, that it seemed 
 even to sagacious observers as if the event would never come. 
 It came, irresistible and irreversible, and we see now that 
 Bismarck and Cavour were the ministers of destiny. 
 
 In the present case there are, on one side, geography, 
 commerce, identity of race, language, and institutions, which
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 279 
 
 with the mingliug of populatiou and constant intercourse of 
 every kind, acting in ever-increasing intensity, have brought 
 about a general fusion, leaving no barriers standing but the 
 political and fiscal lines. On the other side, there is British 
 and Imperial sentiment, which, however, is confined to the 
 British, excluding the French and Irish and other nationalities, 
 and even among the British is livelier as a rule among the 
 cultivated and those whose minds are steeped in history 
 than among those who are working for their bread ; while 
 to set against it there is the idea, which can hardly fail 
 to make way, of a great continent with an almost unlimited 
 range of production forming the home of a united people, 
 shutting out war and presenting the field as it would seem 
 for a new and happier development of liunianity. Again, 
 there are bodies of men, official, political, and commercial, 
 whose interests are bound up with the present state of things, 
 whose feelings naturally go with those interests, who in many 
 cases suffer little from the economical consequences of isola- 
 tion, and who, gathered in the capital or in the great cities, 
 exercise an influence out of proportion to their numbers on 
 public opinion and its organs. Great public undertakings 
 involving a large expenditure, produce fortunes to which 
 titles are sometimes added, and which form strong supports of 
 the existing system, though they are no indications of general 
 prosperity, and the interests of their possessors is as far as 
 possible from being identical with that of the farmer, wlm 
 meantime is paying ruinous duties on his farm iuiplements 
 and on some of the necessaries of life. Repulsion is also 
 created by the scandals of American politics, by the corrui)- 
 tion which has reigned of late, by the turmoil of Presidcnliiil 
 elections, and by such enormities as the Pension List, while 
 political scandals and evils at home, Ix'ing familiar, arc less
 
 2S0 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 noted. ]\Ieii of British blood, moreover, even when they are 
 friendly to closer relations with the United States, are dis- 
 gusted by the anti-British language of the American Press 
 and of some of the American politicians. Above all tliere is 
 the difficulty of getting any community, but especially a 
 democracy in which there is no strong initiative, to quit the 
 groove in which it has long been running. On the American 
 side there is, to countervail the promptings of high policy and 
 natural ambition, the partisan's fear of disturbing the adjust- 
 ment of parties. There is the comparative indifference of the 
 Southern States of the Union to an acquisition in the North. 
 There is, moreover, a want of diplomatic power to negotiate a 
 Union. The southern politicians were statesmen after their 
 kind, secure in their seats and devoted to public life. They 
 governed the country as a nation, though with ends of their 
 own. Their successors, besides being by no means safe in 
 their seats, are to a great extent delegates of local interests, 
 each of which, like the members of a Polish diet, has and 
 exercises a veto in the councils of the nation. Upon successive 
 attempts to pursue a definite policy towards Canada the veto 
 has been put by one local interest or another. If negotiations 
 for a Union were set on foot, the party out of power would 
 of course do its best to make them miscarry, and a patriotic 
 Press would not fail to lend its aid. Every sort of suscepti- 
 bility and jealousy on such occasions is wide awake. The 
 great English statesmen, trained in the highest school of 
 diplomacy, who negotiated the Union with Scotland found 
 their task hard though they operated under far easier condi- 
 tions. However, if the primary forces are working towards 
 an event, sooner or later the crisis arrives ; the man appears, 
 and the bidding of Destiny is done.
 
 THE CANADIAN QUESTION 281 
 
 Section V. — Coi^imercial Union ^ 
 
 " I am confident," said Mr. Bayard, the American Secretary 
 of State, to Sir Cliarles Tupper, " that we both seek to attain 
 a just and permanent settlement — and there is but one way 
 to procure it, and that is by a straightforward treatment on 
 a liberal and statesman-like plan of the entire commercial 
 relations of the two countries. I say commercial, because I 
 do not propose to include, however indirectly or by any 
 intendment, however partial and oblique, the political relations 
 of Canada and the United States, nor to affect the legislative 
 independence of either country." The object of the move- 
 ment now on foot under the name of " Commercial Union " is 
 to bring Canada within the commercial pale of her own 
 continent, and thereby put an end to the commercial atrophy 
 which her isolation entails. A reciprocal benefit would of 
 course be afforded to the United States in an increase of com- 
 mercial area and opportunities of opening up new sources of 
 wealth. The name Commercial Union, which has been 
 challenged as suggestive of political union, was adopted in 
 contradistinction to it, and in exact accordance with the 
 intention of Mr. Bayard. The measure would be necessarily 
 accompanied by an assimilation of the excise and of the 
 seaboard tariff, without which there would be smuggling of 
 liquors across the line, and of goods through the ports of one 
 country into the other. AVliether there should be a pooling 
 
 ' For all tliat relates to the ijiicstion of Commercial Uiiiini, ami tlic whole 
 Hubjeot of Canadian commerce and industry in connection with tliat move- 
 ment, seethe ^' JIandbook of Cmnmcrcial Uniun : a collection of jiapers read 
 before the Commercial Union Cluh, Toronto, with 8|)eeclie8, lettt-rw, and other 
 drjcumenUi in favour of Unrestricted ltecii>rocity with the United States." 
 Toronto: Hunter, IIobc k Co. [liSM jiji. Crown 8vo, 25 ccnts = lK. Htg.] 
 1888.
 
 282 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 of the seaboard duties is a separate ([uestioii. (Jonimunity of 
 Fisheries, the Coasting Trade, and Water-ways is included in 
 Commercial Union. 
 
 The movement in Canada originatetl with a l''armers' 
 Convention in Toronto, and was taken up by the Farmers' 
 Institutes of the Province. On the farmer's mind had 
 dawned the fact that he was the sheep, and tlie protected 
 manufacturer was the shearer. The special organ of the 
 movement lias been the Commercial Union Club, an association 
 independent of political party. The policy of Eeciprocity, 
 however, has been embraced by the Liberal Party now in 
 Opposition : it forms the main plank in the platform of that 
 party ; and will, in all probability, be the issue at the coming 
 elections. On the American side a resolution in Congress 
 authorising the President to treat for Commercial Union with 
 the Canadian Government has been bronght forward by 
 Mr. Hitt, of Illinois, and has been passed unanimously by 
 the House of Eepresentatives, while in the Senate it has 
 failed of unanimous consent only by one vote. Another 
 resolution pointing the same way was brought forward by 
 Mr. Butterworth, the member for Cincinnati, one of the fore- 
 most men in the Eepublican party, and like Mr. Hitt 
 thoroughly friendly both to Canada and to Great Britain. 
 Life has been given to the movement by the public spirit and 
 energy of Mr. Erastus Wiman, a Canadian who has won his 
 way to a high, place in American commerce without ceasing 
 to be a Canadian, and has done more than any other man to 
 keep up attachment both to Canada and England and to 
 sustain the honour of the British flag at New York, so that 
 he is well placed for dealing with any question in the interest 
 of all three countries. A word of justice is due to him, since 
 he has not been fairly treated by certain journals in England
 
 X THP: CANADIAN QUESTION 283 
 
 whose confidence is abused by their correspondents in Canada 
 on this and on other Canadian questions. 
 
 That the market of her own continent is the natural 
 market of Canada, both as a seller and a buyer, even so strong 
 an Imperialist as Sir Charles Dilke admits, and no one but a 
 protected manufacturer or a fanatical Tory would attempt to 
 deny. The Conservative leader, Sir John Macdonald, has 
 always professed to be doing his utmost to bring about 
 reciprocity. His motto has been Eeciprocity of Trade or 
 Eeciprocity of Tariffs, meaning that if he had recourse to 
 reciprocity of tariffs it was only because he could not get 
 reciprocity of trade, and in order to enforce it. His Pro- 
 tectionist Tariff Act contained a standing offer of reciprocity 
 in natural products. This, as has been said before, was 
 illusory, inasmuch as the Americans evidently could not, in 
 common justice to their own interests, allow their manufactures 
 to be excluded while they admitted the natural products of 
 Canada ; but it was at all events the homage paid by political 
 strategy to commercial wisdom. If the offer has now been 
 cancelled, this, it may safely be said, is not because conviction 
 has changed on the commercial question, but because tlie 
 irritation bred by the M'Kinley Act presents an opportunity 
 f(jr an appeal to that feeling against American connection 
 which is the life of the existing system. M. ( 'hapleau, one 
 of Sir John Macdonald's French colleagues, still declares for 
 Reciprocity in the teetli of tlie declaration of Mr. Colby, 
 another member of tlie Governnicut, against it, as well as of 
 the general action of the Administration, showing thereby 
 apparently his sense of the fact that Keciprocity is a jirime 
 necessity in the French Province. Let any one scan the 
 economical map of the Noith American continent with its 
 adjacent wat^'is, mark its noithcru zone abounding in niinj'niLs,
 
 284 CANADA AND TlIK CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 in bituminous coal, in luinbei', in lish, as well as in special 
 larm products, brought in the north to hardier perfection, all 
 of which the southern people have need : then let him look to 
 its southern regions, the natural products of which as well 
 as the manufactures produced in its wealthy centres of 
 industry are needed by the people of the northern zone : he 
 will see that the continent is an economic whole, and that 
 to run a Customs line athwart it and try to sever its members 
 from each other is to wage a desperate war against nature. 
 Each several Proviuce of the Dominion is by nature wedded 
 to a connnercial partner on the south, though a perverse 
 policy struggles to divorce them. The Maritime I'rovinces 
 want to send their lumber, their bituminous coal, and their 
 fish to the markets of New England ; Ontario and Quebec 
 want to send their barley, eggs, and other farm products, their 
 horses, their cattle and their lumber to New York and other 
 neighbouring States ; Manitoba and the North-West want to 
 send their superior wheat, their barley, their wool, and the 
 fish of their great lakes to St. Paul and Minneapolis ; British 
 Columbia wants to send her bituminous coal, her salmon, and 
 the timber of which she is the mighty mother, to California 
 and Oregon. All of them want to get American manufactures 
 as well as the products of a more southern climate in return. 
 It must be long before Canada can produce a first-rate 
 printing press. Even when an article is made in the 
 Dominion, the freight from one of the scattered Provinces to 
 another may be ruinous. British Columbia was paying for nails 
 a price for transit exceeding their first cost at Montreal.^ 
 Canada is not one market but four, widely separated from 
 each other, and each of them sparse in itself. 
 
 It is in regard to minerals, perhaps, that the case of Canada 
 
 ' See Handbook of Commercial Unimi, p. 56.
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 285 
 
 is the hardest. She has all the economic minerals except 
 tin. She has vast stores of magnetic and hematatic iron, such 
 as would make the best of iron and steel. In some districts 
 she is rich in copper and nickel. She has valuable veins of 
 silver and gold-bearing quartz, the former in the Lake 
 Superior district, the latter in Xova Scotia and British 
 Columbia. She has abundance of coal, both in British 
 Columbia and in Nova Scotia. Chemical minerals she has 
 also in abundance, and stores of mineral manure. Yet the 
 total value of her mineral exports for 1888, was under 
 85,000,000, of which nearly a half was for bituminous coal, 
 while she imported hard coal to nearly the same value. 
 What she wants is a free market, free inflow of American 
 capital, free purchase of mining machinery,^ On the American 
 shore of Lake Superior mining is rife, and its yield is immense ; 
 on the Canadian shore, which is not less rich in minerals, it 
 sleeps. Continual appeals are made to the Government by 
 Protectionist patriotism to " open up " the mines, as though 
 a Government could open up production of any kind otherwise 
 than by giving it fair play. With free trade Port Arthur, in 
 the centre of an immensely rich mining district, instead of 
 being, as it now is, a mere village, might be a mining city. 
 Let the mines be opened and there would be a mining 
 population such as would give the Canadian farmer a home 
 market for which he would not have to pay. For the home 
 market which Protectionism gives him he pays botli in the 
 yjrice and quality of the goods. An interest or a country 
 trying to make itself prosperous by such means is, as has 
 been truly said, like a man trying to lift himself up by his 
 boot-straps. 
 
 ' S<?c Handbook of Commercial Union, \>\>. 73 el seq. Sue olso Mr. Lc-djard's 
 iiicinorandiini in the Apitcndix to thin volume.
 
 286 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai-. 
 
 The sliipping interest of Canada again pines for the free- 
 dom of the coasting trade. Canadian vessels are not allowed 
 to trade between American ports, and have often to return 
 without a cargo. The consequence is that the Canadian 
 marine is fast disappearing from the Lakes. Of the vast 
 trade in ore and grain on tlie Upper Lakes less than 10 per 
 cent is now carried in Canadian l)ottonis. The Canadian 
 tonnage passing through the Sault Ste. Marie Canal has fallen 
 to 4 per cent, the rest being American. The new Canadian- 
 built tonnage in the past five years is not over 5 per cent of 
 that launched from Lake shipyards. There is little use in 
 constructing at immense expense a special lock for Canada 
 alongside of the American lock at the " Soo," while Canadian 
 shipping is being made the victim of a policy of extermina- 
 tion. The Dominion Statistical Abstract, for 1889, admits a 
 decrease of the amount even of the seagoing trade of the 
 country carried in Canadian bottoms compared with that 
 carried in foreign bottoms. There has also, according to the 
 same authority, been a steady decline in the inimber and 
 tonnage of the vessels built in the Dominion during the last 
 ten or twelve years, that is since the inauguration of the 
 Protectionist policy of Sir John Macdonald. Protectionists 
 wlio profess that it is an object of their system by multiply- 
 ing industries to diversify national character, should consider 
 whether a variety of it will not perish with the mariner. 
 
 The Americans, on their side, want to buy things which 
 Canada has to sell ; they want an extended market for 
 the products of a more southern climate, such as fruits; 
 they want an extended market for their manufactures. They 
 can manufacture as a rule better and more cheaply, because 
 they do it on a larger scale and can specialise ; whereas the 
 manufacturer with a small market is obliged to produce
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 287 
 
 several kinds of goods to keep his hands employed. All 
 this is most strongly felt at Detroit, Buffalo, and other com- 
 mercial cities along the frontier which find themselves cribbed 
 and confined by the Customs line. It has been objected by 
 some American Protectionists that America would be fjivinii 
 a market of 65,000,000 in exchange for one of 5,000,000, 
 as though markets when thrown together were exchanged 
 and not enjoyed in common. According to this reasoning 
 the 60,000,000 of Americans outside the State of New York 
 would be better off without the 6,000,000 of that State. 
 But American capital also wants free access to the natural 
 resources of Canada, her mineral resources especially, which 
 await only the touch of capital, together with the opening of 
 the market, in order to turn them into wealth for the benefit 
 of all the people of the continent. Mr. Blaine, the political 
 leader of the Trotectionist party in the United States, has 
 shown himself alive to the need of new markets by declar- 
 ing in favour of Keciprocity, and he will not be long in 
 tindiug that the only American community reciprocal trade 
 with which would be of much value is the Dominion of 
 Canada. The half-civilised masses of South America want 
 little except gaudy cottons, with which they are supplied to 
 their satisfaction by England. 
 
 It Ls alleged by Protectionists that there cannot be a pro- 
 fitable trade between Canada and the United States, because 
 the products of the two countries are the same. The ]>ro- 
 ducts of the two countries, even their natural ]»roducts, 
 leaving out of sight special manufactures, are not the same. 
 In the United States are included regions and productions 
 almost tropical. Canada, on tin; other hand, has liituniinous 
 coal, for which there are markets in tlie I'nitcd Stiitcs, and 
 plenty of nickfl, of wliich the United States have but little.
 
 288 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN gUE.STIOX chap. 
 
 Canada has lumber to export, and tlie United States want all 
 they can get. Both countries produce barley, but the Canadian 
 barley is the best for making beer, and its exclusion by the 
 M'Kinley Act brought out a heavy vote at Buffalo against the 
 party of Mr. M'Kinley. This is the first answer. The second 
 and the most decisive is that, in spite of the tariff, Canada 
 has actually been trading with the United States more than 
 with England or any other country in the world, and nearly 
 as much as with all the other countries in the world put 
 together. In 1889 her exports to Great Britain were 
 $38,105,126 ; her imports from Great Britain were 
 S42,249,555. Her exports to the United States were 
 848,522,404 ; her imports from the United States were 
 856,368,990. Of the total trade of Canada, in the same 
 year, 41"35 per cent was with Great Britain ; 49"65 was with 
 the United States; while only 9 per cent was with the 
 rest of the world. To take even the case of farm products, 
 of 18,799 horses which Canada sold in one year, the United 
 States bought 18,225. Of 443,000 sheep, they bought 
 363,000. Of 116,000 head of cattle, they bought 45,000. 
 Of 8107,000 worth of poultry, they bought 899,000 worth. 
 Of $1,825,000 worth of eggs, they bought all. Of $593,000 
 worth of hides, they bought 8413,000 worth. Of 1,416,000 
 pounds of wool, they bought 1,300,000 pounds. Of 89,456,000 
 worth barley, they bought all. Of 8743,000 worth of hay, 
 they bought $670,000 worth. Of $439,000 worth of potatoes, 
 they bought $338,000 worth. Of 883,000 worth of vegetables, 
 they bought $75,000 worth. Of $254,000 worth of miscel- 
 laneous agricultural products, they bought $249,000 worth. 
 Manitoba and the North- West believe that, were the tariff 
 wall out of the way, the United States would be their best 
 customer for a cjreat deal of high-class wheat. In spite of the
 
 y 
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 289 
 
 fisheries disputes and taxes, out of $7,000,000 worth of fish, 
 the United States take annually about $3,000,000 worth.^ 
 
 The case is specially strong with regard to some of the 
 smaller Provinces. Prince Edward Island exported in 1889 
 only $800 worth of agricultural products to Great Britain, 
 while she exported to the United States $466,000 worth. 
 The total export of her own produce to all countries in that 
 year amounted to $974,000, of wliich $686,000 worth went 
 to the United States. The exports of liritish Columbia for 
 1889 amounted to $4,284,000, of which $2,782,000 in value 
 went to the United States, and only $870,000 went to Great 
 Britain. To these Provinces the tariff war is ruinous, and 
 they have some reason for demanding compensation in sub- 
 sidies from the Dominion. 
 
 High as the tariff wall between Canada and the United 
 States is, trade, we see, has climbed over it. Wherever an 
 opening is made in the wall, trade at once rushes through. 
 Before the removal of the duty on eggs, the trade in them 
 was nominal : it rose, when the duty was removed, to over 
 $2,000,000 in 1889. The ^PKinley tariff sends it down 
 again. 
 
 Smuggling, as might be expected, is rife along the whole 
 Line, with the usual consequences to popular morality and 
 honest trade. When a border township in which the potato 
 crop is short cannot go to the adjoining townshij) tor potatoes, 
 a severe appeal is made to the hamlet's respect for law. 
 
 To Manitoba and the North-West, which neithiT havi' 
 manufactnrcs, nor, as farm ]»roducts are their staple, are 
 likely to hav(! them, the taritf is a curse, without even a 
 shadow of ccjinpensation. It is ditlicult to believe that in 
 
 * See 8|>oL-<'li in tin- Doiiiinioii JIoiisu of Coiiiiiioiih uf Kir Kicliuril Cart- 
 wright, ex-.Miiii«»ler of Fjnaiicf, .March 14, 1888. 
 
 U
 
 NV 
 
 290 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 that region it will be possible for ever to maintain the 
 Custom line, the frontier being merely an imaginary boundary 
 drawn across the prairie for 800 miles, with identically the 
 same population on each side of it, so that a village, even a 
 house, may be placed astride the line, and the housewife with 
 a new kettle may be liable to duty in passing from one room 
 to the other ; while the Ottawa Government, for the benefit 
 of which the duties are imposed, is remote and, with too 
 good reason, unbeloved. But the case of Manitoba is hardly 
 worse than that of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which 
 get absolutely nothing to make up for their exclusion from their 
 natural market in New England, the attempt to force Ontario, 
 by violent legislative pressure, to buy her coal of Nova Scotia 
 instead of buying it of Pennsylvania having utterly failed. 
 
 The assertion that the British market is better for Canada 
 than the American market has already been met by the 
 figures. If for a time the English market was better than 
 the American the reason was that the British market was 
 open, whereas the American market was half closed by the 
 tariff. Eemove the Customs line between Canada and the 
 United States and there can be no doubt about the value of 
 the American compared with that of the British market. 
 No people are individually so rich as the Americans, or so 
 ready to pay freely for everything tliey want or fancy. The 
 American market is always increasing with the rapid growth 
 of population. It is also secure, whereas that of England, 
 or any transmarine country, would become very insecure if 
 England were at war with a maritime power. Canada would 
 then be without any free market at all. But it is needless to 
 discuss this question, because when the American market was 
 opened to Canada that of England would not be closed. 
 Canada would enjoy tliem both.
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 291 
 
 The near market must as a rule be the best, not only on 
 account of the difterence in freights, but in many cases on 
 account of the perishableness of goods. It must be best for 
 fruits, fish, vegetables, and even for poultry and eggs. It is 
 the best for horses, the breeding of ■which is a great Canadian 
 industry, and might be a greater. The American comes to 
 Canada and buys tlie horses on the spot, whereas if the 
 horses are sent to England, unless they at once take the fancy 
 of the market, they may eat up a great part of their value 
 before they are sold. Xot till the American market is 
 opened can its full value be understood. Commercial Union 
 between Scotland and England gave a value to black cattle 
 and kelp which could hardly have been foreseen. Produc- 
 tion would adapt itself to the new demands, and new 
 roads to wealth would be found. Besides, Canada wants to 
 buy as well as to sell, and the near market, even irrespect- 
 ively of freights, is preferable as the most convenient and 
 the most likely to produce exactly the kind of goods required. 
 This will be acknowledged by the buyers of farm machines 
 and implements in the North- West. 
 
 It has been proposed that rather than succumb to the 
 force of nature, and allow Canada to secure her destined 
 measure of prosperity by trading with her own continent, 
 England should put back the shadow on the dial of econo- 
 mical history, institute an Imperial Zollverein, and restore 
 to tlie Colonies their former protection against the foreigner 
 in her market. It is hardly necessary to discuss a policy in 
 which Great Britain would have to take tlie initiative, and 
 which no Britisli statesman has shown the slightest disposi- 
 tion to embrace;. Th<; trade, both of inijHirls and exports, of 
 England wJLli the Colonii-s was, in IHS'.t, £187,000,000 ; lirr 
 total trade in the sunn: year with fDrci'n countries was
 
 292 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUKSTION chap. 
 
 £554,000,000. Is it likely that she will sacrifice a trade of 
 £554,000,000 sterling to a trade of £187,000,000 sterling? 
 The framers of an Imperial Zollverein, moreover, would 
 have some lively work in reconciling the tendencies of strong 
 Protectionist Colonies, such as Victoria and Canada, with the 
 free trade tendencies of Great Britain and New South Wales. 
 The Conservative Prime Minister of England, if he has been 
 correctly reported, holds that the adoption of Protection, on 
 which the Imperialists of Canada insist as a condition of any 
 arrangement, would in England kindle a civil war. 
 
 The Canadian Government shows its sense of the situa- 
 tion and of the real effect of its policy by trying to open up 
 new markets in distant countries, in the West Indies, in 
 Brazil, in the Argentine Bepublic, in France, in Spain, 
 in Australia — in the Moon. It thus hopes to stay the craving 
 of Canadian commerce and industry for their natural market. 
 It has been compared to the father who told his boy that he 
 could not be taken to the circus, but that if he was good he 
 should be taken to see his grandmother's tomb. If the 
 Canadian manufacturer, as the Protectionists aver, is unable 
 to compete in his own market with the American, how can he 
 compete with him in the markets of other countries ? 
 
 It may safely be said that all the natural interests in 
 Canada, the farming interest — which is much the greatest of 
 all — the lumber interest, the mining interest, and the shipping 
 interest, would vote for a measure which would admit them 
 freely to the American market. On the other side are only 
 the protected manufacturers. But the protected manu- 
 facturers are strongly organised, whereas the other interests, 
 notably the farmers', are comparatively unorganised ; so that, 
 as was often said in the case of the United States, the fight 
 between Protection and Free Trade is a fight between an
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 293 
 
 army and a mob. The Protectionists have a tirm liohl upon 
 the present Government, the existence of which is completely 
 bound up with their system, and which looks to them largely 
 for its election fund. It has, however, been already said that 
 they are tlie hot-house industries which are alarmed. Of the 
 Canadian manufacturers who feel that their business is 
 natural and has a sound basis not a few avow themselves 
 ready for an open market. They would have in some cases 
 to put their production on a new footing, making fewer articles 
 and on a larger scale, but, this being done, they do not fear the 
 competition. They would still have the advantage of some- 
 what cheaper labour. Sir George Stephen, than whom there 
 can be no higher authority, in a circular addressed in 1875 to 
 the heads of the woollen trade, with which he was then con- 
 nected, said that if Canada could have free interchange with 
 the United States of all products, whether natural or manu- 
 factured, she " would become the Lancashire of the continent 
 and increase in wealth and population to a degree that could 
 liardly be imagined." That some of the weaker houses might 
 suffer is acknowledged, and is to be lamented. All possible 
 consideration is due to those wliom Parliament has encouraged 
 to invest. But the whole community cannot be allowed to 
 suffer, nor can commerce and industry be kept for ever on an 
 unsound basis, for the sake of a few. Besides, it will be mercy 
 to shut the door of unsound investment. Put this is tlu- banc 
 of the Protectionist policy : when its unwisd(jm appears, you 
 can hardly draw Ijack from it without doing injury to 
 artificial industries which it has created, and tho.se engaged in 
 tliem. Not that the artisans will sull'i-r.' I-'nr tht-ni tlic 
 expansion oi" natural industries would furnish IVcsh em- 
 ployment, if not in Canada in tlie United States, to which 
 ' Soc Ilaiidbook of Commercial Union, pp. 122 ct seq. Mr. Jury.
 
 294 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 they puss wiLli little liesitiitiou when the labour market 
 invites. 
 
 Canadians are told, to scare them from Commercial Union, 
 that if the tariff wall were out of the way they would become 
 " hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Yankees." 
 Hewers of wood for the Yankees they are already to their 
 own great profit. It is not obvious why the producer of raw 
 materials should be deemed so much beneath the factory 
 hand ; perhaps looking to the effect of manufactures on 
 national character in England we might think that a nation 
 would be wise in contenting itself with so much of factory 
 life as nature had allotted it. Whatever yields most wealth 
 will raise highest the condition of the people, their standard 
 of living, and their general civilisation. Another bugbear is 
 the fear that Canadian cities will be swallowed up by Kew 
 York, though the cities of the State of New York itself, 
 liuffalo, Eochester, Syracuse, Oswego, and even Albany, whicli 
 is within four hours' run of New York, are growing all the 
 time.^ These vague alarms remind us of those raised on com- 
 mercial grounds by the opponents of the union between 
 England and Scotland. The English were told that their wealth 
 would be devoured by the hungry Scots, the Scotch were told 
 that they would become commercial slaves to the wealthy 
 English, and " •with, their grain spoiling on their hands, stand 
 cursing the day of their birth, dreading the expense of their 
 burial." The able and eloquent Lord Belhaven formally 
 paused in the middle of his speech that he might shed a tear 
 over the approaching ruin of his country which he foresaw 
 in a vision of woe. Lord Marchmont in reply said that he 
 thought a short answer would suffice. " Behold, he dreamed ; 
 but, lo, when he awoke, behold, it was a dream." The reality 
 
 ^ See Handbook of Commercial Union, pp. 86 d seq. Mr. Janes.
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 295 
 
 was what the Duke of Argyll in his work on Scotland calls 
 " The Burst of Industry." It was the works and warehouses 
 of Glasgow, the shipbuilding yards of the Clyde, and the 
 farms of the Lothians. 
 
 To make up for the dearth of economical arguments 
 against Reciprocity its opponents appeal to Loyalty and the 
 Old Flag. " Discriminate against the Mother Country ! 
 Xever ! " So with uplifted hands and eyes cry Trotectiouists 
 who are running to Ottawa to get higher duties laid on British 
 goods, and would not be sorry to shut the gate, if they could, 
 against British importation altogether. Canada does already 
 discriminate against Great Britain, if not on any specific 
 article, on the aggegate trade. It has been shown that she 
 collects about four per cent, more in the aggregate on British 
 than on American goods, and admits more American than British 
 products free.^ When the privileges enjoyed by the Colonies 
 in the British market were withdrawn and the commercial 
 unity of the Empire was broken up, notice was in effect 
 given to each member of the Empire to do the best that it 
 could for itself under its own circumstances. The circum- 
 stances of Canada are those of a country commercially bound 
 up with another country much larger than itself and with u 
 high tariff. It is surely too much to expect that all Canada 
 shall remain in a state of commercial atrophy for the sake of 
 a few exporting houses in Great Britain. The liritish people 
 themselves would never be brought to make such a sacrifice. 
 The discrimination would not, like the duties imposed by 
 Canadian I'rotectionisls on liritish goods, be directed ngain.st 
 Briti.sh commerce ; it would 1m; niLMcly, like tlu' ecpmlisation 
 of exci.se, a necessity incidental to an arrangcnuMit for tlu^ 
 ]u;nefit of Canada witli the United States; so that no breach 
 
 ' Hoe J/niiilhfMik of f'(/mr}ifrc{(tl Unttm, pj). 17 [> ft lu-q, .Mr. Dryden.
 
 '296 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chai'. 
 
 of good feeling would be involved. Not a penny would be 
 taken from the British Crown. Nor would England be 
 really a loser ; she would gain by the enhanced value of her 
 Canadian investments more than she would lose by the 
 reduction of her exports. 
 
 It is further alleged that Commercial Union would be 
 Annexation in disguise. When railways were introduced it 
 was thought that u gauge uniform with the American would 
 1k' annexation in disguise and a difference of gauge was 
 insisted on accordingly. Is there a natural tendency on the 
 part of Canada to political union ? If there is, increased 
 intercourse of any kind, whether locomotive or commercial, 
 will no doubt help it ; but nothing can help it more than the 
 fusion of population by the exodus which the separatist 
 policy keeps up. The enemies of Ileciprocity forget that they 
 are themselves the most active of annexationists, if not in 
 regard to the Canadian territory, in regard to the Canadian 
 people. Canada would be as much as ever mistress 
 of her own political destinies, nor could any step towards 
 political union be taken without the free vote of her citizens. 
 If her nationality is sound what does she require more? 
 That would be a weak nationality indeed which should 
 depend on a Customs line. The German Zollverein, which is 
 pointed out as a warning example, would never have unified 
 Germany or tended much to her unification had not she 
 already been a nation, though in a state of political disruption. 
 Zollvereins are now, it seems, being proposed between other 
 communities of Central Europe without any idea of altering 
 political relations. If the reciprocity in natural products 
 enjoyed under the Elgin treaty did not impair Canada's 
 independence, why should reciprocity in manufactures destroy 
 it ? Not only did the Elgin treaty not impair independence
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 297 
 
 but it put an end to the movenieut in favour of annexa- 
 tion, which commercial distress had generated, and wliich had 
 led to the Annexationist manifesto of 1849. In entering into 
 any contract, the parties, wliether nations or men, must give 
 up their independence to the extent for wliich they covenant : 
 in no other sense would a commercial treaty, however 
 extensive, if freely made on both sides, be on either side a 
 surrender of independence. Dependent on the Americans 
 fur her winter ports Canada already is, and large branches 
 of her railway system are on their soil and in their power. 
 Americans who desire immediate Annexation are always 
 against Commercial Union. 
 
 Commercial Union would include mutual participation 
 in the fisheries, in tlie coasting trade, and in the use of 
 tlie canals and water-ways. In this it is distinguished from 
 Unrestricted Keciprocity, wliich would equally involve the 
 complete removal of the Customs line. In reganl to the 
 fisheries it would give effect to the policy of British states- 
 men who desired, as Shelburne and Pitt seem to have 
 desired, that England and her American colonies should not 
 become foreign nations to each other, but divide amicably 
 between them the family heritage. In no otlier way is the 
 dispute about the fisheries likely to be ended. Even su])- 
 po.sing a treaty satisfactory to diplomacy to be made, fislier- 
 men are not diplomatists ; they are naturally tenacious of the 
 trade by which they live ; they will always be prone to deny 
 their rivals the facilities and hospitalities incident to treaty 
 1 i;,'lits, and thus (quarrels will be apt to arise. 
 
 Tht; main objection to Commercial Union is the dilficulty 
 of franiing, in concert with the Americans, a uniform sea- 
 board tariff. Tliis difnculty, however, as matters stood before 
 the passing of tlie M'Kinley Act, was by no ineuns insuper-
 
 208 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION chap. 
 
 ul)li', llic principle n[' ilic Aiiiciicau iuid Caiiiuliiiu turil'I's 
 being tlie same, and the dillereiice of rates not very great. 
 The smaller interest in case of disagreement might, as in 
 ordinary bargains, without loss of honour, yield a point. An 
 arrangement would probably have been brought about easily 
 enough by a conference of commercial men, free from the 
 malign influences of party, and unaffected by the appeals to 
 national pride and jealousy which, if the negotiation were 
 in tlu; hands of a party government, the opposite party, 
 in its anxiety to discredit its rivals would be sure to 
 make. Nor need there be any fears of subsequent disturb- 
 ance of the agreement, from any source, at least, but a quarrel 
 between Great Britain and the United States, such as that 
 by which the Reciprocity Treaty was overturned. Com- 
 merce after a little experience would be too sensible of the 
 benefit to renounce it or allow the politicians, wliom, by a 
 resolute effort, she can even in the United States control, tu 
 wrest it from her. The line of Custom houses built across a 
 continent which nature has forbidden to be divided, once 
 pulled down, will never be built up again. Fresh obstacles 
 and of a serious kind might have been created by the 
 M'Kinley Act. Commercial Unionists did not feel them- 
 selves called upon to raise the general questions between 
 Protection and Free Trade, so far as the seaboard tariff was 
 concerned. They confined their aim to the removal of the 
 Customs line across their own continent, which on any 
 rational hypothesis is an evil, unless it would be a good 
 thing to have a Customs line between Pennsylvania and 
 New York, or between York and Lancashire. But there 
 must be limits to the compromise of principle, even for the 
 sake of an immediate advantage so great as Commercial 
 Union will brinjj. Canada cannot commit treason aiiainst
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 299 
 
 civilisation. However, the manifest faults of the measure, com- 
 bined with the enormous waste of public money incurred in 
 baling out surplus revenue to avert a reform of tlie tariff, 
 have proved too much for the superstition or the sufferance 
 of the American people. Symptoms of a cliange of opinion 
 had even before appeared. At the last Presidential election, 
 Mr. Cleveland was defeated more by party than by protec- 
 tion, and more by the manufacturers' money than either, and 
 there was a marked increase of the. mechanics' vote in favour 
 of a reduction of the tariff, showing that the fallacious belief 
 in protection as a mode of raising wages was losing its hold. 
 Moreover, protection was being nullified by the extension of 
 its own area, which exposed the protectionist to increased 
 competition, national it might be, but not more welcome to 
 him, in spite of his patriotic professions, than that of the 
 foreigner. Xew England is now praying for free admission 
 of raw materials. The Eepublican party in the United States 
 is the war party kept on foot for the sake of maintaining 
 the war tariff in the interest of the protected manufacturers. 
 It has made a desperate effort to retain power and to rivet 
 its policy on the nation by means which have estranged 
 from it the best of its supporters ; but in the late elections 
 it has received a signal, and probably decisive, overthrow. 
 What all the preachings of economic science were powerless 
 to effect has been brought about at last by the reduction of 
 the public del^t and (jf the necessity for duties as revenue. 
 A new commercial era has ajjparcntly dawned for the United 
 States, and the lead of the United Slates will be followed in 
 time by the rest of the world. 
 
 liy the abandonment of the Customs duties on American 
 goods, the Canadian government would lose n^venue perhuiis 
 to the amount (jf .^7,000,000. This loss might be made up
 
 300 CANADA AND THE CANADIAN QUESTION gii.m'. 
 
 partly by new taxes of such a character as not to press on 
 industry or shackle trade — to bcLjin with, an increase of 
 the excise — partly by economy in subsidies to Provinces, 
 public works undertaken for political purposes, and needless 
 expenditure on legislation and government. To say that 
 such economy is impracticable, would be to admit that a 
 confederation, united by no natural bond of geography, race, 
 language, or commercial interest, can be held together only 
 by corruption. 
 
 Wile these pages are going through the press, Canada is 
 the scene of a general election. Seeing that the tide in favour 
 of free trade with the continent was rising, and, before the 
 constitutional time for the next election came round, might 
 rise to an overwhelming height, the Protectionist Government 
 of Sir John Macdonald lias sprung a dissolution on tlie 
 country, the Governor-General passively lending the pre- 
 rogative for that purpose. There is not a shadow of constitu- 
 tional ground for the step, and the reason alleged — that the 
 Government contemplates making overtures on the trade 
 question to the Americans, and cannot do this without a 
 fresh Parliament at its back — was evidently hollow. The 
 Government at first sought to head off the current of opinion 
 and dish the Opposition by declaring for Eestricted against 
 Unrestricted Reciprocity. But this strategy has failed of effect, 
 and the appeal on the part of the Government is now to 
 " The Old Flag," with which are coupled " The Old Leader," 
 and "The Old Policy," against American connection. On 
 the issue thus raised the deliverance of the country will be 
 made. The verdict will be greatly confused, not only by 
 local questions, such as that of a Submarine Tunnel for Prince 
 Edward Island, which seems uppermost in the Islander's
 
 X THE CANADIAN QUESTION 301 
 
 miiKl, but by the Equal Kight movement against Jesuit and 
 priestly aggression, -vvliirli is still strong, and cuts across the 
 lines of political and commercial party. The Protected 
 Manufacturers will do their best, and the Government will ply 
 all the engines which it has long had at its command. To 
 ply those engines in Xova Scotia the Canadian High Com- 
 missioner has been brought over from England. Nor have 
 party names and shibboleths lost their extraordinary power. 
 Tories, though in favour of Reciprocity, will still vote Tory. 
 To stimulate the enthusiasm of loyalty " Annexation plots " 
 are being discovered, and the discoveries are paraded with all 
 the resources of emotional eloquence and sensation type. 
 What will come out of this chaos is, at the time of our 
 writing, uncertain. lUit already tidings reach us from the 
 rural districts which seem to show that the farmer, however 
 much he may care for the Old Elag, cares also for his bread. 
 Should the Government be beaten or even hard pressed in 
 a pitched battle of its own seeking on the question of relation 
 with the United States, the result will be full of meaning.
 
 APPENDIX A 
 
 CANADIAN BANKS AND BANKING 
 
 By Mr. Henry W. Darling, Ex-Presideiit of the Toronto 
 Board of Trade. 
 
 The Canadian Banks hold their franchises hy virtue of an Act of 
 tlie Dominion Parliament, which expires periodically and has just been 
 renewed, extending the Bank Charters for ten years from July 1891. 
 
 The Bank of British North America, and the Bank of British 
 Columbia are incorporated by Royal Charters, but are subject to the 
 provisions of the Canadian Act in all respects, except as to the double 
 liability of their Shareholders. The system of Bankinj,' modelled 
 upon the plan of the Scotch Bunks with Branches, hixs proved 
 admirably suited to the wants of a new country, and although the 
 management generally has not been conspicuous for ability trans- 
 cending that of all the other commercial enti'ri)rises of the country, 
 the failures and consequent losses to the public liave been neitlier 
 numerous nor large. The tendency of the mau;igement is towards a 
 legitimate banking business conducted upon well-established principles. 
 
 The provisions governing the creation of new Banks are not too 
 onerous to prevent their increase as the needs of the country may 
 require. Under the new Act the safeguards and restrictions ai-e 
 increased, and they are now severe enough to discourage speculative 
 ecliemes, a substantial ])aid-up capital, and a contribution to tlie fund 
 in tiie hands of the Government f;naranteeing tiie circulation, l)eing 
 requisite before power to issue notes is granted. 
 
 The list of Shareholders ]>ublislied annually iw a Government 
 return, and jiresented to jiarliament, sliows that tlie ShareholderH are 
 chiefly residentB in Canada, with a few in Britain and the I'nited 
 Suites. The liability of the Sliarehdhiers in awe of lailuru in 
 a further amount equal Ut the anmunt of the nhares hold in 
 no doubt a deterrent to foreign invcNton*. The IJanks are permitted 
 to isHue th<-ir own notes in denominations of $.*> and upwards in 
 multiplcM of •S.'j li» the extent (»f their lnma fuU unimjiaircd
 
 304 APPENDIX A 
 
 paid - iq) capitiil. L'ihUt tlic new Act, which comes into force 
 iu July 1891, they (.U'jiosit with the Goveinment a sum equal to 
 5 per cent upon the average circulation of the Bank during the 
 previous year ; and this fund is held as a guarantee against loss to the 
 public from the circulation of their notes. Any impairment is to be 
 made up by ])roportionate contribution fronx each Bank, in payments 
 not exceeding in any one year 1 per cent of the average amount ot its 
 notes in circulaticm. Experience has shown that the risk of ultimate 
 loss on the circulation through the failure of a Bank is infinitesimal, 
 and in order to prevent temporary depreciation to holders of bank 
 notes on the suspension of a Bank, it is provided that they shall 
 bear interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum until the process 
 of redemption is resumed, either by the Bank or by the Liquidator. 
 It is also incumbent upon the Banks to make provision for the 
 redemption of their notes at a central point in each Province, which 
 ensures their passing at par from end to end of the Dominion. The 
 circulation constitutes a first lien upon all the assets of the Bank, 
 including the reserved liability of the Shareholders. It may therefore 
 be affirmed that there is a circulating medium in Canada ade([uate to 
 all the requirements of the business in it, which cannot be forced 
 upon the community in excess of the daily need, because it is under- 
 going redem])tion daily at three central points, and possessing the 
 essential element of elasticity. From the monthly return made to the 
 Government by the Banks, it is shown that the maximum of Bank 
 circulation for the past year (1889) was .$33,577,700, and the entire 
 assets, including the Shareholders' Capital and Reserve Fund and 
 double liability of Shareholders standing between the public and hiss 
 upon it, was $397,300,000 — ample security in the aggregate. The 
 guarantee fund in the hands of the Government, amounting to about 
 $1,700,000, w'ith the obligation to contribute to any impairment of 
 it to the extent of 5 per cent upon the average annual circulation 
 of each Bank, is regarded as sufficient to meet loss in any case of 
 failure. The system, however, has its chief recommendation in the 
 element of elasticity, enabling the Banks to meet any extra pressure 
 for money, in moving the crops for instance, by an increase in their 
 circulation without causing a stringency, raising rates of interest, or 
 reducing loans to their regular customers. In this respect it is 
 regarded as superior to the system in the United States, where the 
 circulation of each Bank is secured by Government Bonds deposited 
 with the Government against the notes issued. Here the element of 
 elasticity is entirely wanting, and the market value of the bonds 
 makes it unprofitable for the Banks to hold them, and a stringency 
 ensues upon any abnormal demand for money. 
 
 In addition to the notes of the Chartered Banks, the Dominion 
 Government issues legal tender in $1, $2, $4 bills, and those of larger
 
 BANKS AND BANKING 305 
 
 denominations, and this is authorised by Act of Parliament to the 
 extent of §20,000,000, but limited at present by order in Council to 
 819,000,000. The average circulation of those notes for the past 
 year has been about 816,000,000 ; and, althou<:h the Chartered liuiks 
 are not compelled to keep any fixed amount of cash in their Trejisuries 
 as Reserves proportioned either to their Capital or Liabilities, not 
 less than 40 per cent of their Cash Reserves must be in these 
 Dominion notes. By this means a certain volume of circulation is 
 secured. A forced loan is thus obtained by the Government from the 
 Banks without interest. 
 
 The Reserves held by the Minister of Finance are regarded by 
 competent authorities as wholly inadequate, viz. 15 per cent in 
 gold : 10 per cent in Canadian Government securities guaranteed by 
 the British Grovernment ; and the remaining 75 per cent in 
 Dominion debentures. To prevent the defection of its Gold Reserves 
 by a demand for export to New York when it would be i)iofitable to 
 send gold there British sovereigns are i)aid out, and Ameriain gold, 
 which could be negotiated without discount or depreciation, refused. 
 The Government circulation is further stimulated by making certain 
 proportions of it redeemable only at certain cities. It is of course 
 a legal tender in every part of Canada. 
 
 The system of Banks with large capiUil, having their head oflBces 
 in the commercial centres and extending their operations by means of 
 branch offices at various points, is admirably suited to a new country, 
 and in this respect is also regarded as superior to the National Bank 
 system of the United States, wliere branches are forliidden and the 
 operations of each Bank are restricted jiractically to the locality in 
 which it is established. In Canada the savings of the people are 
 gathered up at points where they can be attracted in amount.s 
 sufficient to warrant the opening of a Branch Bank, and if the loail 
 loaning business offered is small or undesirable, the funds are 
 employed in commercial and industrial centres, and the value of 
 money is thus equalised, or nearly so, all over the Dominion. It is 
 assumed tliat in the hands of a Bank with large cajtital and a libenil 
 reserve fund deposits are safer than when entrusted to a .«maller insti- 
 tution whose oj)iK)rtunitieH of doing a wife, legitimate, and profitublu 
 business are restricted to the discounts offered in a single locjility. 
 
 Four of the largest Banks in Canada have offices in New York, one 
 hiis an office in Cliiuigo, and on<' in San Francisco, where they do a 
 large busine-Hs in Foreign Exchange, and employ tlu-ir Reserves on call 
 and Bh(jrt-<late loans, so that llu-y may bf iiiiimnliatfly availalde in 
 caseii of emergency. Further than tliis, and with tlie exception of tlie 
 ordinary items wnt from and to eitln-r siile f<ir collection, the li^iiikH 
 in Cana<li'i and tin; Unil<*d States have no relations with om- anoilu-r. 
 
 The Govcnuiicnt of Caniula has btcn an active com ]K:titor with liie 
 
 X
 
 306 APPENDIX A 
 
 i'liarterod Banks for the siivin;,'s of tlie people, llirougli the agency of 
 the Post Otlice and Savings Banks. Of the former tliere are 463, 
 with a l)ahince at the credit of depositors of .$23,000,000, and in 
 .Savings Banks $20,000,000. Tlie.se sums have been obtained by a 
 rate of interest being paid at a higher rate than the largest Chartered 
 Banks found it necessary to pay. 
 
 The Building Societies and Loan Companies which have the 
 power to take deposits have also been active competitors with the 
 Banks in this department, and, since 1867, the deposits in 
 these institutions have increased from $577,299 to $17,757,376 in 
 1889. The managers of such companies are beginning to realise 
 that there is danger in borrowing on call and loaning on land 
 security without adeqiuite reserves immediately available being re- 
 tained. A run upon one company in troublous times would jirobably 
 precipitate disaster, and efforts are being made to convert call deposits 
 into true debentures when opportunity offers. 
 
 The Chartered Banks are not allowed to loan money on the 
 security of their own stock or on real estate. Tlie monthly return of 
 their assets and liabilitie.?, made to the Finance Minister, is ela])orate, 
 but serves a useful purpose, and as published is carefully studied and 
 commented upon in the financial papers. 
 
 The rate currently paid by the Banks for deposits is from 3 per 
 cent to 5 per cent. A rate of interest so high has attracted large 
 deposits: in 1867 the total amount at the credit of depositors was 
 $30,652,193 ; in 1889 it was $126,243,755. The rate on loans and 
 discounts varies from 6 per cent to 8 per cent, according to the 
 character of the business ; and dividends are paid from 6 per cent to 
 12 per cent, according to tlie running capacity of the Bank, and the 
 skill with which it is managed. The Dominion Bank, whose head- 
 ([uarters are in Toronto (Capital $1,500,000 and Rest .$1,300,000), 
 pays dividends of 10 per cent per annum, and their shares of $100 
 are sold for $230. The Bank of Toronto (Capital $2,000,000, and Rest 
 $1,400,000), also pays dividends of 10 per cent per annum, and their 
 shares are quoted at 224 per $100. The Bank of Montreal (Capital 
 $1 2,000,000, and Rest of $6,000,000), pays 10 per cent, and the market 
 value of their shares is 229 per $100. Most of the other Banks in 
 the Province pay a yearly dividend ranging from 6 to 8 per cent, after 
 airrying, in many instances, a substantial amount to the Rest Account 
 and providing for contingencies. The more substantial Loan Companies 
 pay an annual dividend of 10 per cent, and frequently with a bonus 
 to their stockholders. The Uominion " Statistical Abstract " gives the 
 total amount of money on deposit in 1889, in the Chartered Banks, 
 Post Office, and Government Savings Bank, and in the hands of Loan 
 Companie-s, as upwards of $207,000,000, equal to the sum of $40 
 per head of the population.
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 
 
 By Thomas Shaw, Professor of Agriculture and Arboriculture, Ontari 
 Agricultural College, Guelph, Ontario. 
 
 The climate of Ontario admits of the growing of as great a variety of 
 produce as that of England, the natural capabilities of her soils are 
 probably greater, and she is ahead of Great Britain in the introduction 
 and use of agricultural im2)lemeuts of the most approved kindn. 
 
 The Province produces finer sjimples of various kinds of grain, a 
 greater variety of the pure breeds of live stock, and a better quality 
 of several of the most useful kinds of fruit, than any other province or 
 state on the North American Continent. It is not, we fear, generally 
 knowni that the jjeople of this Province ship annually to Great 
 Britain from one-third to one-fourth as many finished bullocks as the 
 whole of the United States, and that we export annually to tlie latter 
 country, in the face of a high tarilf to the extent of many millions of 
 dollars, the same kinds of agricultural products that are grown in that 
 great Rejiublic. In the hope of disj)elling in some degree niiscon- 
 cei)tions and of disseminating the truth, tlie writer has consented to 
 prepare this brief ess;iy. 
 
 We do not claim for the Province the first place in the world for 
 agricultural resources and development, but we do claim for it a 
 foremost place. If the reader will but bear in mind that one hundred 
 years ago nearly the whole of Ontario was primeval forest, and 
 that seventy years ago the very Bjxjt on which these college wjills now 
 stand was the home of the wild bcist, he will concur in the conclusion 
 that the development of the agricultural resources of this country hiis 
 Wen simply wonderful. 
 
 Thk Soil, Climate, and Prodlcts of O.ntaiiio 
 
 The climat« of Ontario is very invigorating. In the Hinnmer it in 
 rather wann, but the amount of briglit Hunshini*, cHpecially in the
 
 308 APPENDIX B 
 
 harvest months, is very favounihle to the <|uick coiulucting of the 
 operations of the husbandman. Some seasons there are not half a 
 dozen showers through the whole of the harvest time. During other 
 seasons it is different, but grain or fodder is seldom spoiled from over- 
 much moisture. The winters of Ontiirio are not so favourable to the 
 operations of the husbandman ; as he cannot usually conduct field 
 operations after the end of November nor before the middle of April. 
 His stock also requires to be housed during that season, which 
 necessitates a large output of food and labour. The season of growth 
 is very rapid. Barley sown during the closing days of April is olten 
 housed before the end of July. Field operations must therefore of 
 necessity be done in a somewhat hurried manner. The climate seems 
 to suit stock-growing admirably, as the diseases which so often hamper 
 and thwart the efforts of the stockman in Europe are unknown here. 
 We have no pleuro-pneumonia, nor foot-and-mouth disease amongst our 
 cattle. The swine plague is unknown. There is no active disease at 
 work amongst our flocks of sheep, and the same may be truthfully 
 said of our horses. This happy immunity from disease is a great boon 
 to the grower of live stock. 
 
 The soil of Ontario is varied in an unusual degree. The Province 
 embraces all shades of soil, from a light sand to a heavy clay ; its 
 prevailing character is that of a clay loam. Relatively it is rich and 
 productive, more so perhaps than any similar area in the North 
 American Continent. Considerable portions of it do not recpiire 
 under-draining owing to the porous nature of the subsoil, and yet it 
 cannot be said of any large area of it that it is leachy, although 
 much of it is not yet under -drained. This work is now being 
 carried on with a great deal of vigour in several sections. It is owing 
 to the varied nature of the soil of Ontario that so large a variety of 
 crops may be grown. In this respect the Province is singularly 
 favoured. In the western half of it fall wheat can be grown of the 
 first quality. The Ontario six rowed barley is not equalled perhaps 
 by anj' in the world for brightness of colour, and for its suitability to 
 make beer such as the Americans desire. Heavy crops of rye, spring 
 wheat, oats, and peas can be grown in almost any part of the Province. 
 Indian corn or maize flourishes in the Lake Erie counties, where it 
 can be grown to great perfection, and it will grow admirably 
 throughout the whole Province for ensilage or fodder purposes. 
 It is now being grown very extensively for these uses, and the 
 average quantity of green corn that can be grown on an acre in one 
 season is probably not less than 15 to 18 tons. Buckwheat, though 
 not much grown, does very well in all parts exce2>t in the most 
 northerly counties. 
 
 The Province is not only admirably adapted to the growth and 
 proper curing of hay, composed of a variety of grasses and clovers, but
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 309 
 
 it w-ill grow field roots, such as turnips, mangels, and carrots in line 
 form in nearly all the counties. Sug-ar beets may also be readily 
 grow-n, yielding by analysis fully as high a percentage as can be 
 obtained in Germany or France, but as yet we have no sugar lieet 
 factories esti\blished. 
 
 Rape may also bq grown in gieat perfection, and the fattening of 
 lambs on this for the United States market by jjasturing is becoming 
 an important trade. The southerly sections of Ontario are admirably 
 adapted to the growing of many kinds of fruits. The climate in these 
 is tempered by j^roximity to the waters of the Great Lakes. Small 
 fruitii, such as strawberries, i-a.spberries, currant*, and gooseberries, will 
 grow well in almost any section of the country. All tlie Lake counties, 
 and indeed all the counties of the West, grow ai)ples, excellent in 
 quality and in great alnindance in favourable years. Pears, plums, and 
 cherries produce well in the siime sections. Peaches flourish in certain 
 sections of Lakes Erie and Ontario, though the crop is somewhat pre- 
 carious. In the same localities enormous quantities of the finest gmpes 
 are now being grown. Garden vegetables of many kinds, including 
 squash, celery, tomatoes, melons, etc., are grown in finest form. In 
 1888, 180,557 acres were devoted to orchard and garden purposes. The 
 immense original fore.sts of Ontario are largely a thing of the past. 
 Generally speaking, the farmers have sufficient timber for fuel, but 
 many of them have not a sufficient sujiply for building purposes. 
 Almost the only timber now used for fencing purjtoses is cedar, utilised 
 in the form of posts on which wires are stretched, either with or with- 
 out barbs. Re-foresting is only in its infancy, but trees ])lanted for 
 purposes of protection in winter are now becoming cjuite common. In 
 1888 the returns of the assessors gave the amount of farm lands in 
 the Province a.s 22,058,279 acres — 
 
 Cleared .... 11,31 1,72.*) acres 
 
 Woodland .... 8,512,710 ,, 
 
 Swamji, iiiarsli, or wastf . 2,230,811 ,, 
 
 The amount returned as wo(xlland docs not by any means n-prcseut 
 unbroken forest, but lands as yet uncultivated, and from a large portion 
 of which the forest has ])een largely removed. 
 
 In the same year the sta]>le fielil crops occupied 7,G 10,350 acres, 
 and the pa-sture grouu'ls 2,535,G04 acres. There has been u marked 
 decrca«e in the number of ium-s devoted to jtasture during n-wnt yeai-s, 
 owing Vi the great increase in the growth of suiling and cnHilagi- crupK. 
 
 Although at the time of writing tlie re])ort fur IHHi> of tin* Hun-au 
 of Indu^trie-H iH not yet publi.-ihefl, through the kindncMH of it« wttvtnry, 
 Mr. A lilue, we are enabli*<l t/» give in julviin<e tlie following ^tali»ticJ^ 
 relating U> the agriculture of Ontario in 1889 : —
 
 810 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 Acreage, Yield, and Value of Field Cuors 
 
 
 
 
 Bush. 
 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Buslicls. 
 
 per 
 
 Value. 
 
 
 
 13,001,865 
 
 Acre. 
 15-8 
 
 $11,493,618 
 
 Fall Wheat 
 
 822,115 
 
 Spring "Wheat . 
 
 398,610 
 
 5,697,707 
 
 14-3 
 
 5,019,680 
 
 Bailey .... 
 
 875,286 
 
 23,386,-388 
 
 26-7 
 
 10,290,011 
 
 Oats 
 
 1,923,444 
 
 64,346,301 
 
 33-5 
 
 19,625,622 
 
 Rye 
 
 90,106 
 
 1,431,679 
 
 15-9 
 
 728,725 
 
 Pease .... 
 
 708,068 
 
 13,509,237 
 
 19-1 
 
 7,524,645 
 
 Corn (in ear) 
 
 187,116 
 
 9,248,199 
 
 49-4 
 
 2,395,283 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 56,398 
 
 1,272,578 
 
 22-6 
 
 502,668 
 
 Beans .... 
 
 21,380 
 
 371,893 
 
 17-0 
 
 471,188 
 
 Hay and Clover (tons) 
 
 2,386,223 
 
 3,728,313 
 
 1-56 
 
 37,208,564 
 
 Potatoes .... 
 
 145,812 
 
 14,355,529 
 
 98-5 
 
 6,531,766 
 
 Mangel-wurzels . 
 
 21,218 
 
 7,223,478 
 
 341 
 
 No estimate 
 
 Carrots .... 
 
 11,261 
 
 3,431,959 
 
 305 
 
 936,925 
 
 Turnips .... 
 
 111,103 
 
 37,021,260 
 
 333 
 
 8,440,847 
 
 Value of all Field Crops 
 
 . 
 
 
 $111,169,572 
 
 The aggregate returns given in tlie above Tal:)le and tlie average 
 yield per acre compare as follows, with the same during the seven 
 preceding years : 
 
 
 Average yield 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 
 per acre. 
 
 
 Fall Wheat 
 
 19-8 bush. 
 
 18,778,659 
 
 Spring Wheat 
 
 
 
 
 
 15-9 
 
 9,248,119 
 
 Barley . 
 
 
 
 
 
 26-1 
 
 19,766,436 
 
 Oats 
 
 
 
 
 
 35'7 ,, 
 
 5.0,997,425 
 
 Rye 
 
 
 
 
 
 16-4 
 
 1,814,636 
 
 Pease 
 
 
 
 
 
 20-7 
 
 13,123,509 
 
 Corn (in ear) . 
 
 
 
 
 
 67-5 
 
 12,290,797 
 
 Buckwheat 
 
 
 
 
 
 22 "2 
 
 1,367,427 
 
 Beans 
 
 
 
 
 
 20-9 
 
 465,182 
 
 Hav and Clover 
 
 
 
 
 
 1-.33 tons 
 
 2,942,900 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 
 
 
 
 121-5 „ 
 
 18,919,185 
 
 JIangel-wurzels 
 
 
 
 
 
 437-1 
 
 7,826,216 
 
 Carrots . 
 
 
 
 
 
 353-4 
 
 3,590,993 
 
 Turnips . 
 
 
 
 
 
 394-9 „ 
 
 39,556,790 
 
 From these figures it is apparent that the fine natural capabilities 
 of the soil of Ontario have not as yet been brought out in best form. 
 But while this is true it should be remembered that Ontario leads the 
 North American continent in the yield obtained per acre from the 
 principal cereal crops. During the seven years ending with 1888 the 
 average yield of fall wheat from Ontario exceeded that of any State in 
 the Union 4-1 bushels per acre, barley 3 bushels per acre, and oats 1.5
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 311 
 
 bushels per acre. The State giving the largest return of fall wheat ihu- 
 ing this term was Michigan ; spring wheat, Dakota ; l>arlev, Wisconsin ; 
 and oats, Illinois. 
 
 The average prices obtained in the leading citit-s of Ontario for the 
 various crops grown during the preceding seven years ending 1888 
 are given in the following table : — 
 
 Fall Wheat, per bushel . . . .88.8 cents 
 
 Spring Wheat ,, • . . • .89 
 
 Barley „ ■ ■ ■ ■ .57.4 
 
 Oats ,, • • • .36.1 
 
 Rye ,,..... 60.8 
 
 Pease ,,..... 62.3 
 
 Corn (in ear) ,, • ■ . . .28.5 
 
 Buckwheat ,, • • • . .40.9 
 
 Beans ,,..... 93.8 
 
 Potatoes ...... 42.3 
 
 Hay, per ton . . . . . . $11.50 
 
 Live Stock Statistics for 1889 
 
 Number of Live Stock — 
 
 Horses . . 618,795 
 
 Cattle . . 1,891,899 (779,171 being milch cows) 
 
 Sheep . . 1,344,180 
 
 Swine . . 835,469 
 
 Poultry . . 6,304,298 
 
 J'olueo/Farm Livestock, $105,731,288. 
 
 The principal breeds of horses bred pure are the Clydesdale, the 
 Shire, and Percheron of the heavy breed.s, and of the light ones the 
 Standard bred trotting horse, and the Cleveland Bay. The Clydes 
 are by far the nio.st numerous. The chief of the breeds of cattlt- )>red 
 pure are the Sliorthorn, the Herefoid, the Abenleen Angus I'oll, the 
 Galloway, the West Highland, tlie Devon, the Ayrshire, the Jersey, tlie 
 Guernsey, and the Holstein. Of these, Shorthurns are by far the most 
 numerous. The leading i)ure breeds of sheej) ini:liide the Leicester, the 
 Lincoln, the Cotswold, the O.xfonl Down, the Shrojishire Down, the 
 Hampshire Down, the Southdown, the Horned Dorset, ami the .Merino. 
 Of these tlie Leicester is the longest estublished in the eoimtry. 
 
 The chief of the pure breeds of swine are the HerkHhire, the York- 
 sliire, the Essex, the Sulfolk, the Poland China, the Chesti-r Wliite, and 
 the Tamworth. Of thew; the Berkshire is the best esLablishe*!. No 
 one Stiite or Province of the continent can couiimre with Onlnrio in 
 the number of the pure bred animals prinluced, taken as a wliole, in 
 tlie variety of tlie breeds, or in the in«liviilual excellenre of the animalrt 
 comiKJsing tlicni. Because of this Ontario h;i« become in a Benw a
 
 312 APPENDIX B 
 
 breeding fjrouml of ]nire stock of ;i liigh older for almost every State in 
 the American I'ninn. 
 
 Cheese Statistics for 1889 
 
 NiuiiIht of Factories .... 784 
 
 ,, Patrons ..... 43,215 
 
 Average number of cows .... 273,231 
 
 Milk used, lbs. ..... 760,146,327 
 
 Cheese made, lbs. ..... 72,592,847 
 
 Value of Cheese, S ..... 6,787,619 
 
 Value per lb., cents ..... 9"35 
 
 Milk to make lib. of cheese, lbs. . . . 10'47 
 
 Creameries Statistics for 1889 
 
 In operation ...... 33 
 
 liutter made, lbs. ..... 876,003 
 
 Value, $ , . . . . . 184,067 
 
 Cheese made at Creameries, lbs. . . . 219,808 
 
 Value of Cheese, $ . . . . . 14,406 
 
 Total value of Produce, $ .... 198,473 
 
 Nearly all tlie butter as yet in'oduced in Ontario is made in jirivate 
 dairies. 
 
 No better idea can be obtained of the great agricnltural capabilities 
 of this Province intrinsically and relatively than by glancing over a 
 summary of the exports. Owing to the method adopted in making 
 up the official trade and navigation returns for the Dominion of Canada 
 and its respective Provinces, it has been found impossible to 
 ascertain exactly the relative proportion of the agi-icultural i)roducts 
 exported from Ontaiio to Great Britiiin and tlie United States respect- 
 ively. Ontario has no shipping port, and those engaged in making up 
 the trade returns place the products exported to the credit of the country 
 from which they liave been finally shi]>ped. Thus it is that Quebec 
 Province, with Montreal as the leading shipping port for Ontario, is 
 credited with the production of a large proportion of the shipments 
 from Ontario. For instance, in the official returns which end 30th 
 June 1889, Ontario is represented as having shipped to Great Britain 
 during the preceding twelve months, of animals and their produce to 
 the value of $2,139,450 ; and Quebec as having exported of the same, 
 to the value of 813,477,182. The true facts of the case are that nearly 
 tlie whole of this produce came from Ontario, as it consisted almost 
 wholly of fat and store cattle, sheep, and cheese, of which Quebec 
 Province produces very little for export. If the e.\ports from the two 
 Provinces be added together, and say five-sixths of the whole, or a still 
 larger proportion, credited to Ontario, we will then get an approximate 
 idea of the extent of the Ontario exports.
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 313 
 
 The following summary is taken from the official returns for the 
 fiscal year ending 30th June 1889. It relates to the exports of agri- 
 cultural products from Ontario and Quebec togetlier as compared with 
 those of the whole Dominion : — 
 
 From Ontario From the 
 
 and Quebec. Dominion. 
 
 Auinials and their produce .... §21,788,799 $23,89-1,707 
 Agricultural products $12,272,760 $13,414,111 
 
 This implies that probably more than three-fourths of the agricul- 
 tural products of the whole Dominion are produced by Ontario. 
 
 Ontario produces and exports the greater portion of the cattle and 
 sheep that are sent out of the Dominioni. Of tlie former about 60,000 
 head have been sent annually to Great BriUiin, and 40,000 head to 
 the United States during recent years. The same may be said of 
 sheep, of which about 30,000 head are sent annually to Great Britain, 
 and 300,000 head to the United States. The same is al.-^o true of 
 horses, of which about 16,000 head are sent annually to the United 
 States. The cheese export from Ontario and Quebec, for the year 
 ending 30th June 1890, was 88,041,857 pounds, and was valued at 
 89,465,936. Tlie value put upon the cheese at the port of shipment is 
 higlier than the estimate put upon it in tlie factory return.s. The 
 same year Ontorio exported eggs to the United States to the value of 
 §1,544,974, apples to Great Britain to the value of 81,013,909, and 
 to the Unit*;d States to the value of 8179,247. Ontario is the principal 
 jiroducer in the Dominion of all the aforementioned articles; .ind also 
 exports wool, flax, and beans in consideralile (piantities. Her export 
 of barley for the year referred to above was 9,716,993 bushels, valued 
 at 86,329,502. 
 
 The exports of all other kinds of grain have dwindled to almost 
 nothing, and are sure to decrea.se still further, as witliout a doubt 
 Ontario is destined to grow great through the production of live stock 
 and live stock products. 
 
 The METHOD.S Usually Adopted by the Canadi.\n Fahmkr 
 
 Altliough the methods practised by the Ont;irio farmer are defect- 
 ive in many respects relatively, liis practice is advanced when com- 
 pared with tliat of the other Provinces and Stales of North Anu-ricju 
 No other pro<jf of this is required than the success wliich has atti-mlt-d 
 his efforts in caj)turing foreign markets in comi)etitiou witli tlu- 
 j)eople of all nations. Fat bulhjcks sent from Ontario command 
 liigh prices in the market^! of LiverjJiK)!, hU>tv steers are eageily 
 bought up by Scotti>*h farmers in Gl/isg(jw, AlK-nleen, and Dundee. 
 Ontario cheese commamls tlie higliest jirice in the markets «)f lymdon, 
 and Ontario upph-s can at any lime tind pun lla^e^H on British diK-k-* 
 more rca/Jily than tlioHe from the United SlaUs. Ontario barh-y
 
 814 APPENDIX B 
 
 flowetl into the New Engluinl States in a stream so constant tliat it 
 has been thouj,'ht necessary by tlie United States Government to bar 
 its entrance by a duty of 30 cents per bushel. Our horses liave been 
 sou<,'lit for to tlie extent of about !?:2, 1)00,001) annually by the jieople 
 of that country, and these, along with lar^'e numbers of our store 
 cattle, have climbed over a tariff wall in the face of a 20 i)er cent 
 duty ; and now our lambs are entering their markets in thousands and 
 tens of thousands, although a duty of 75 cents has to be paid on 
 every lamb going into that country. 
 
 A very large portion of the pure-bred live stock imported into this 
 country from Britain finds its way over our Western border into the 
 United States ; and our best market for the pure bred horses, cattle, 
 sheep, and swine that we raise is found in that market. Methods 
 which give snch results as these cannot be behind the age when 
 viewed as a whole. In Ontario we have some specialists in various 
 lines, biit the system generally adopted is more commonly known by 
 the name of " mixed " farming. Those who practise mixed farming 
 rear a sufficient number of horses to till their lands, and occasicmally 
 one or two for sale. The sale of butter from their cows and of 
 poultry and eggs keeps the family in groceries ; generally more or loss 
 beef, mutton, and pork are sold in addition to what is used in the 
 family. Nearly all the grain and fodder required, if not the whole 
 of these, is grown upon the farm, and sometimes a considerable portion 
 is also sold in the local markets. 
 
 A very large proportion of the work done upon the farm is now 
 done by machinery. Much of the ploughing is done by the use of the 
 sulky plough, and much of the harrowing by the use of the sulky 
 harrow. Machines are also being introduced which will enable culti- 
 vating to be done in the same way. The sowing is almost entirely 
 done by the use of the seed-drill. The mowing and reaping are done 
 by the use of machines. A large proportion of the pea crop is cut by 
 the pea harvester. The sulky horse-rake does all the raking. Hay 
 loaders load much of the hay, and horse forks deposit much of it in 
 the mow. In some instances sack-lifters elevate the loads bodily to a 
 high position in the bams, and in others the load is carried into the 
 mow from off the waggon by means of .slings. Threshing machines 
 are of the first order, and they are run by steam-engines which 
 have been so perfected in their appendages that they may be set 300 
 yards away from the barn. The steam-engine is often used in prepar- 
 ing food for the stock, and windmills are frequently employed in pump- 
 ing water for their use. The extent to which the aid of machinery 
 is called in enables the farmer to get over his work witii much expedi- 
 tion, and with a much reduced expenditure of bodily strength. 
 
 The live stock is all housed in winter, sometimes in sheds, but 
 more frequently in what are termed basement stables, that is, stables
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 815 
 
 the walls of which are of stone, brick, or wood lined with tar-paper, 
 and these support a wooden buildinj^, usually termed a barn, in which 
 are stored the food supplies. The live stock being in the lower ai>art- 
 nient, the food and litter kept overhead are thus very easily fed to 
 them. In many of the buildings the ciittle drink without leaving 
 the stalls, and other facilities for doing the work are equally perfect. 
 
 The Impoverishmext of the Soil 
 
 The system of farming practised by the first settlers may justly be 
 termed a land-robbing one. In clearing the land they cut down the 
 heavy growth of timber which covered the soil, applied to it the torch, 
 and reduced the whole to ashes. There was thus added to the stores 
 of fertility, that had been accumulating for ages preceding, an immense 
 quantity of potash. Thus it was that the farmer could go on and 
 grow wheat year after year with an ample return at first, but which 
 after a time gradually became less, until the crop proved unremunera- 
 tive. Thus it was also that slovenly methods of farming came to 
 prevail which even now in many sections are sapping the prosperity of 
 Canadian farming. 
 
 In this respect, however, the dawn of a brighter day has arrived. 
 Ontario has almost entirely ceased to be an ex])orting country of grain, 
 or indeed of food of any kind that may be fed to stock ; such food is 
 almost entirely fed upon the farm, which of course tends to the reten- 
 tion of its fertility. Were it not for the duty of 7i cents per bushel on 
 Indian corn or maize brought from the United States, large (juantities of 
 this would be imported and used by our farmers in fattening their stock. 
 
 Artificial fertilisers are also beginning to be used, but their use 
 has not as yet become general. As the Dominion is rich in phosphates 
 and other forms of artificial fertilisers, we may confidently hope that 
 the farmer, who is fast awakening to a sense of the value of such 
 manures, will use them as reguhirly as he now docs those which are 
 made in the barnyard. 
 
 We may confidently hope then that the peri(xl of soil exhaustion 
 is rapidly drawing to a close, and that it will be followed by one of 
 soil enrichment. Ontario is already importing food for live stock 
 from Manitoba and the North-West, and these importJitions will un- 
 doubtedly increa.se from year to year, all of which will be favourable 
 to the retention of the fertility of our soils if not to it.s iKj.silivo incituHe. 
 
 The Social Condition of the Farmer 
 Tlie condition of the farmer socially is not all tliat c(.iild bo 
 desire<l. Tlie farmer in Ontario does not occupy the sjiin«' position 
 in s'jciety relatively with the farmer of (Jreal Britain. The WK-ial 
 rli.~tiiictions an; largely ol»Iit<-rated between hini and the lalMiurer 
 which he employe. Nor in the ronimunity genei-illy doex he occupy 
 that high jKJwition «oci;illy to which the dignity of hin culling hhould
 
 316 APPENDIX 15 
 
 entitle liiiu. Tlie first lias arisen IVinn influences inseparably associated 
 Avitli the early settlement of the country. Nearly all the early settlers 
 in Canada were iniini^raiits from liritjiin, who came from the labour- 
 ing classes. Each family did its own work at first, both within the 
 log aibin and without. After a time other help had to be cjilled in, 
 and from the nature of things the lal)0urer of necessity had to lodge 
 with his emjdoyer. The employer then usually made a bargain with 
 the emjdoyed to the effect that he would jiay the former a certain sum 
 for a given time and fui-nish board, lodging, and washing. Thus it 
 was that a system originated which tends to obliterate all social dis- 
 tinctions between the farmer and those whom he employs. This 
 state of matters is, however, gradually changing. It is slowly giving 
 way to that system which furnishes cottages for the labourer and his 
 family. In many instances one of the cottagers provides board and 
 lodging for the other portion of the hired help of the farm, and before 
 very long it is not at all improbable that the necessary accommoda- 
 tion for the assistants of the farm will be furnished in this way. In 
 this tendency to obliterate social distinctions between the farmer 
 and his hired helj) there was i-eiilly no hardshi]) imposed upon the 
 former, where he did not desire to have it otherwise, but when he 
 wished to carry on the work of the farm and at the same time main- 
 tain sacred the privacy of his home, he was not always able to do so 
 because of the scarcity of labour. Tlie labourer from the vantage 
 ground which was thus given him became dictatorial in his attitude, 
 and oftentimes compelled the farmer to come to terms. But with 
 the increase of population and the inti'oduction of improved machinery 
 all this is rapidly changing, insomuch that it is jirobable that ere long 
 the help employed upon the farm will not 1)e lodged and fed in the 
 house of the farmer. 
 
 The Diet of the Ontario F.\rmer 
 
 The diet of the Ontario farmer is not what it should be, or what 
 it might be. No class of people in the world are better situated in 
 regard to opportunity for providing a suitable diet The country 
 provides in abundance a wonderful variety of wholesome products. 
 Ontario produces wheat, oats, and buckwheat in fine form. No 
 country can better furnish beef, pork, mutton, and fowl of a high 
 order. Any farm in Ontario will produce a wide variety of vegetables 
 in abundance, and also small fruits ; and large sections, as has already 
 been shown, will grow as fine apples, peaches, pears, and plums as can 
 be found in the Avorld. All of these products in many sections can be 
 groA\ni upon one and the same farm. Notwithstanding, the farmers 
 generally live upon a diet that is more or less unwholesome. This 
 has arisen in part from the vicious system of selling everything off the 
 farm of first quality that would bring in money, and in part from
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 317 
 
 unwholesome and defective methods of preparation. Tlie Ontario 
 farmer lives far too muuh on salt pork and }>astry preparations. Were 
 it not for this he would nndonbtedly taki- a foremost place for robust 
 physical development amongst the rural population of any land. The 
 corrective influences of tliis abnormal stiite of things are already at 
 work, and will, it is lioped, soon bring about a radical reform in the 
 dietary practices of the farmer. 
 
 The Agricultural Associations of Ontario 
 
 The agriculture of this Province has been greatly assisted by the 
 various Agricultural Associations operating within it The oldest 
 association within the Province is the Council of the Agricultural and 
 Arts Association, which for more than forty years held an agricultural 
 and arts exhibition every year. This feature of the work of the 
 Council has been brought to a close for the present. Joint-stock 
 associations hold exhibitions annually in some important centres. 
 The Government has made provision for liolding exhibitions annually 
 in every township of the Province where this may be desired liy the 
 people, and these are usually held. 
 
 We have an association of the breeders representing the Clydesdale 
 and Shire horses, the Shorthorn, Ayrshire, and Holstein breeds 
 of cattle, and the sheep, swine, and poultry industries. The chet-se 
 industry is represented by two associations, east and west, and the 
 butter industry by one. 
 
 The Bee Keepers' Association of Ontario is leading the world at 
 the present time in the method it has adopted for the eradication of 
 foul brood, and the Ontario Fruit Growers' Association has accom- 
 pli.shed a work second only in importance to that achieved by the 
 Cheese Dairy A.?sociations previously referreil to. A sy.steiii of Farmers' 
 Institutes has been estab*lished by the Government, whereby the 
 farmers may meet in any electoral district in the Province for the 
 puqjose of discussing (juestions relating to agriculture, and tluse an- 
 addressed periodically by the profe.'-sors of the Ontario Agricultural 
 College at Guelph. This college has a farm of 550 acres attached to 
 it, a large jwrtion of which is devoted to experimental j>urj>oses. The 
 sons of farmers who are willing to labour diligently at this college 
 may ]iarticipate in the benefits wliiih it offers at a very trilling 
 cost, though the expense to young men from other countriea is 
 greatiif. 
 
 Ontario ah a Fiki.d F(jr lMMi(;itATioN 
 
 The agriculture of Ontario invites tw(j classeH of jmmigrant.H at the 
 pre.Hcnt time. The fir«t «jf these hIiouIiI posM-Ks Kullicient capital to 
 purchawe an Ontariii farm of from one to two liundred acr<"<, and the 
 xecond the ability to labour well with their liandH in the t'a]>ai-ity of 
 farm nervanL-.
 
 318 APPENDIX B 
 
 It would not be priuk'nt, liowever, for the British capitalist to engage 
 in Ontiirio farming who was not possessed of a fair share of knowledge 
 ret^'urding agriculture as practised in Great Britain. Lacking this he 
 would not lie likely to succeed. The tenant farmer of Britain ])ossessed 
 of sufficient capital to enable him to purchase and stuck a farm here 
 would very probably succeed in Ontario farming. But he would not 
 succeed without having due regard to the nujdifications of method 
 rendered necessary by the differences of climate, and the changed 
 relations as regards labour. The season of growth in Ontario is 
 rel.atively short as compared with the corresponding period of growth 
 in Britain. Labour has to be performed therefore with much energy, 
 and the aid of the most perfected labour-saving machines must needs 
 be ciilled in. The class of tenant farmers from Great Britain who will 
 succeed best as farmers in this country are those whose predilections 
 lead them into stock-keeping, for we have already shown that the 
 agriculture of Ontario in the future will consist very largely of the 
 production of live stock and the products of the same. The amount of 
 capital required to purchase a farm of the dimensions indiaited would 
 be from $10,000 to §15,000, and to stock the farm and equip it 
 with implements of tillage would take about $2000 or $3000. 
 
 The system of renting or leasing farms in Ontario has never 
 become popular, and is not practised to a very great extent. This is 
 owing to the fact that usually the farmer is the proprietor. Leasing is, 
 however, becoming more frequent during recent years, so that w-here 
 a tenant has proved his efficiency he has little difficulty in obtaining 
 a farm to lease. 
 
 The rental paid is from $3.00 to $4.00 per acre per year, much 
 depending upon soil and locality. Long leases are seldom given in this 
 country, and the tenant is not usually hampered to any great extent 
 bv the terms of the lease. In instances not a few, persons who began 
 by leasing farms have ended by becoming the proprietors. 
 
 The efficient farm labourer can always find employment in Ontario 
 when once he has proved his efficiency, so that the capable farm hand 
 coming from Britain, indeed from any other country, need have no 
 misgivings in regard to getting regular work when once he has proved 
 his ability. The difficulty encountered at the first may be overcome 
 by working cheajdy for a time. The average wages paid to a farm 
 hand per annum from 1882 to 1888, without board, was $254, and 
 with board $163. The demand for efficient farm labourers in Ontario 
 is always in excess of the supjjly. Those most in demand from foreign 
 countries are such as are competent to feed and care for live stock. 
 
 The demand for domestic servants on the farm has never yet been 
 met. The hours of labour for this class are no doubt long, but the 
 domestic enjoys many of the privileges of the household oftentimes not 
 accorded to such in other homes. The average wages paid per month,
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF ONTARIO 819 
 
 with Ijoard, was $6.28 during the year 1888. Immigrants of this class, 
 liiinished with credentials as to character, am at all times find ready 
 employment in farndiouses. 
 
 The Tk.\de Relations of Ontauio 
 
 The trade relations of Ontario are not satisfactory to a majority of 
 the farmei-s. A large number of them desire to have closer trade 
 relations with the people of the United States. They look upon that 
 country as the natural market for a large prt)purtion of their products. 
 That this view is the correct one is clearly apparent from the extensive 
 trade which they have carried on with the United States during recent 
 years in the face of a high tarilf. 
 
 The agricultural exports to the United Stiites and Great Britain 
 respectively from the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec combined, for 
 the fiscal year ending 30th June 1890, are given in the ntlicial returns 
 as follows : — 
 
 To G. Britain To the U. S. 
 
 Animals and their produce . . §15,616,632 §3, 938, 827 
 
 Agricultural products . . . 3,319,398 8.654,824 
 
 §18,936,030 Sl4ir.^93,651 
 
 As the greater portion of the above jiroduce went from Ontario, 
 we thus see that, in the face of a duty averaging over 20 jjcr cent, the 
 Province of Ontario has sent at least three-fourths a.s much agricultural 
 produce to the United States as to Great Britain during the year 
 referred to. This trade has been carried on in products all of which 
 are grown in the United States, and in most of which that country is a 
 very great exporter. 
 
 These facts and figures demonstrate very forcibly, first, the high 
 character relatively of Ontivrio farming, and secondly, the overwhelm- 
 ing advantages of contiguity in trade. There is no saying what this 
 trade in agricultural prorlucts between Ontario and the United States 
 might not have been had there been no tarilf restrictions to meet. 
 We are furnished an excellent example of this in the development of 
 the egg trade. On 1st January 1 87 1 the duty of 1 per ceut on eggs going 
 into the United Sbites wiw removed. During the half-year preceding 
 this period the value oi the eggs impnrted into the United Slates fr«>ni 
 all countries was not more than $5,403. In 18H3 the import (<f eggs 
 by that country from Canada (and most of lijem came from Ontjirio) 
 amounted to 14,683,001 dozens, and the juice j>aid for tliem to 
 §2,584,279. A large majority of the farmei*H therefore are impatient 
 of the liarriers in the way of their Imde witli their southern neigliltourn, 
 and miiny of them are clamouring to the (Jovernment for their 
 removal. What the ultimate elffcts of failure to attain thin end may 
 )Hi it is difficult to forecast. That it will btrengthcu I lie de«ire for
 
 320 * APPENDIX 11 
 
 political uiiidii witli that ])eoj)K' is iiion- than a iJossiKility. In the 
 iiR'autime the I'tlVcts of tht'se restrictions upon our agriculture are 
 depressing, and this (lej)ression has shown itself in various ways ; but 
 in none so strikingly as in its effects upon emigration from Canada to 
 the United States. By the United States census returns we learn that 
 in 1860 the number i)f Canadians in that country was 249,970. In 
 1880 the number was 717,157; and although we ciinnot give tlie 
 numbers from the census returns for 1890, it cannot be less than 
 1,000,000 at the present time. Add to this the natural increase of 
 our people there, and we would prol)ably find not less than two 
 millions of the people of that country emigrants from this Dominion, 
 or their descendants. A large majority of these went from Ontario. 
 
 To say that the restrictions on trade were the sole cause of this 
 exodus would not be correct, but they are no doubt a prime cause, and 
 the constant di-ain upon the enterprising class of our young men from 
 the source indicated furnishes cause for great regret, 
 
 OsTAUio Agricultural College, 
 21d October 1890.
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 MINERAL RESOURCES OF CANADA 
 
 By T. D. Ledyard, Toronto 
 
 The continent of North America is abundantly sujjplied with economic 
 minerals wliicli are distributedalike througli the Dominion of Canada and 
 the United States, and are confined l)y no international boundary. The 
 British Provinces are as rich in mineral wealth as the neighbouring 
 Republic, with a striking diH'erence, however, in favour of the latter in 
 the matter of development. The industrial situation of the world is 
 changing ; the sui>remacy in iron and steel manufactures hitherto held 
 by Greiit Britain is about to be transferred to the continent of Americii. 
 Reports of the late census .show that the manufacture of ]>ig-iron in the 
 United States during the la-st ten years has been extraordinary, and at 
 the i)resent rate of increase that country is destined to become the 
 leading producer of jiig-iron in the world, possibly reaching this 
 distinction very .soon. 
 
 The quantity of pig-iron produced in the United States during the 
 census year 1890 was 250,000 tons in excess of the production of 
 Great Britain during the calendar year 1889, being 9,^ million tons a.s 
 compared with li'^ millions in 1880 and 2 millions in 1870. 
 
 Wherea.s England 8ui)i»lied in 1878 as much as 45 jicr cent of the 
 world's production of pig-iron, as agiiinst IG ]»er cent sujiplied by the 
 United States ; in 1889 England only supplied 33 per rent, while the 
 jjnnluction of the United States had increased to over 30 j>L'r cent, and 
 is rapiflly growing. 
 
 While the jiroduction of in»n ore in tin- Like Superior districtft 
 was 5,000,000 tons in 1888 it grew to 7,l»OU,0(>0 in 18H9, an<l in 
 1890 will e,xceed 8,000,000 tons. 
 
 Tlie Unite«l States contuin a population of about (I5,()0(i,000 and 
 Canada is KUpiKwtd to contain 0,000,000, so that to be even in the 
 race the Dominion sliould hIiow one tenth as muclj as the prtMluction 
 
 Y
 
 322 APPENDIX C 
 
 of lier givat iieij,'hbour, and in tins the greatest of all industries should 
 produce annually nearly a million tons of i)ig-iron. 
 
 According to the Government returns, liowever, Canada produced 
 less than 60,000 tons last year, or not quite one fifteenth of what she 
 should jiroihice to be on a ]«r with the United States in propoition to 
 jiopulation. 
 
 This disproportion is nut the fault of our ores, for Canada possesses 
 a great abundance and variety of iron ores. Sir "William Logan, our 
 great geologist, i)redicted that Canada would become eventually one of 
 the greatest iron producing countries of the world, but for want of a 
 market our iron manufactures have as yet made little 2>rogress. 
 
 In Nova Scotia near the Atlantic coast are found numerous dejjosits 
 of iron ore in close proximity to coking coal ; these are as well 
 situated as any ores on the continent, and possess all the requirements 
 for cheap manufacture, antl being so near navigation, have great 
 facilities for transport. 
 
 The manufacturers of Massachusetts and the Eastern States are 
 earnestly urging their Government to admit coal and iron ores free, so as 
 to enable them to compete with Pennsylvania, and represent that free 
 trade in these articles is highly essential to their welftire. 
 
 The United States last year used upwards of 15,000,000 tons 
 of iron ore, and Canada should in like projiortion use 1,500,000 ; but 
 the production of Canada in the same time was less than 90,000 tons. 
 The Canadian production of coal is only about one-iifth of wliat it 
 should be to make it jjroportionately equal to that of the States. 
 
 Some excellent hematites showing 65 per cent metallic iron, 
 and almost free from impurities, suitable for steel, are found in Nova 
 Scotia, while in other sections are found magnetites and limonites of 
 good quality. 
 
 Manganese occurs in nuniei-ous places both in Nova Scotia and 
 New Brunswick, some rich enough to be used in glass-making, and a 
 good deal rich enoiigh for spiegel-eisen and steel manufacture. 
 
 Although there is no coal in Ontario or Quebec, there are iron ores, 
 both magnetic and hematite, of the finest quality. These ores are 
 generally found in well-wooded districts where hard wood suited to 
 make charcoal aljounds, and there are just as great facilities to make 
 cheap charcoal iron as anywhere in America. Estimates show that in 
 well-situated parts charcoal iron might be manufactured for §10 per ton, 
 which would allow a large margin for profit ; yet there is not a single 
 blast furnace in operation in Ontario, while the charcoal furnaces in 
 Michigan produced last year about 200,000 tons of jDig-iron worth 
 nearly $4,000,000. 
 
 Within about 100 miles east of Toronto an iron mine is being 
 developed containing ore giving 68 to 70 per cent metallic iron with 
 practically no phosphorus or sulphur, and suitable to make the finest
 
 MINERAL RESOURCES OF CANADA 323 
 
 steel. There i^ a large Wd of tlii;* ore wliicli, it" it wen- in the States, 
 would doubtless be employing 400 or 500 men and producing several 
 hundred tons per day. This ore is about oue-liall' tlie distance from 
 Pennsylvania furnaces that the furnaces are from Lake Superior mines ; 
 and if such ore as this had free access to the States it would greatly 
 cheapen tlieir steel manufacture, but the duty of 75 cents per ton is a 
 heavy imjjost. 
 
 A Iciiding English iron trade journal lately stated that the princij^al 
 reason the United States could not make steel as cheaply iis England 
 was tliat their Bessemer ores cost too mucli, the cost being quoted at $7 
 per ton in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 
 
 But this Ontario ore c;in be delivered in Pittsburgh foi- §4 per 
 ton (if thei-e is no duty), which is about as low as the best Bessemer 
 ores cost at English furnaces. If there were no trade restrictions, 
 Toronto, the aipital city of Ontario, should be an excellent jtoint for 
 the manufactui-e of injn and steel. It possesses fully as great facilities 
 for such manufactui-es as Chicago had thirty years ago, before that city 
 commenced to make iron. 
 
 Ores could be laid down in Toronto for !?2.50 to .^3.50 jier ton, 
 whicli cost $5 to §6 in Cliicago ; and coke c«tuld be obtained from 
 Connellsville, Pennsylvania, as cheaply as in Chicago. But the 
 po])ulation of Canada alone is too small and too scattered to support 
 iron and steel manufactures, except at one or two points, of a size sutli- 
 cient to make them i>rofitable, for experience teaches that small works 
 cannot manufacture nearly so ]»rotitiil>ly as large ones. 
 
 West of Port Arthur on the Canadian side of Lake Superior are 
 founil extensive deposits of magnetic iron ore, very rich and suitable 
 for steel iiuiking, which are not worked as yet, although from the 
 adjoining districts of Minnesota about one million tons annually are 
 being mined. On an island in Lake Winnipeg is a large deposit of 
 hematite. In British Columbia are numerous deposits of good iron 
 (*res, witligrwxt facilities for smelting, as coal aliouiulsin tliat Province. 
 In British Columbia, as in Nova Scotia, coal is found close to tlie sea 
 shore ; the best market for both is in the neighl>ouriiig States where a , 
 large population ii-fjuires cheap fuel, ami free trade in fuel would be 
 of immens«; benefit to both countries. 
 
 The nickel ores recently disco vereil in the SuiHairy ilistrict, on the 
 line of the Canadian Pacific Railway about 300 miles north-west of 
 Toronto, are extremely valuable, nn<l imtmise to Wome of gi-eat 
 ini|K)rtance. The nickd occurs in magnetic iron j»yriteH yielding from 
 I to 3 i»er cent nickel, and in some cases as high as 4 l<t r> jkt 
 cent, the ore also <ifU*n containing a ])aying prop<»rtion of i-opiwr. By 
 nuiMting with charcoal moHt of the Hulphur ciin l»e exjH-lle*!, and it in 
 then smelUid with coke, and r«'du<e<l at the iiiinex to a matte contiiinin^ 
 about 1& JM-T cent nickel and 20 per cent co|i|(er. 
 
 y2
 
 324 APPENDIX C 
 
 A small jiroiiortiiiii of iiieki-l is found greatly to improve the 
 (luality of sti-el, n'mli-ring it touj^her and stronger. There is no doubt 
 steamships will heri-after be made of nickel steel ; and if there were no 
 artificial hindrances to trade nmch of the manufacture should be 
 carried on in Canada. 
 
 Estimates based up(m the past increase of pi'oducticm, and taking 
 into consideration the increasing popiUation of the States, show thai 
 the probable consumption of pig-iron in tin- United Suites will be 
 20,000,000 tons by the end of the century. The consumption of 
 iron and steel is the index of the industrial prosperity of a nation. Is 
 Canada to share in the wonderful prosperity which will ensue from 
 such an immense consumption of iron on the American continent, or 
 are we to be sliut out by trade restrictions ? 
 
 The discovery of platinum in the Sudbury district also jtromises to 
 be of some importance, and is opportune in view of the increased 
 demand for that mineral. The production of asbestos in the ])rovince 
 of Quebec is rapidly increasing, 4400 tons having been mined in 1888 
 and upwards of 6000 in 1889, with considerably more in 1890, the 
 value being from $30 to $150 per ton. New uses are constantly l)eing 
 found for this interesting mineral. The demand at present exceeds 
 the supply, and asbestos mining will no doubt be a source of much 
 profit in the future. 
 
 The production of phospate of lime (apatite) is also increasing, 
 30,000 tons having been mined last year against 22,000 the year 
 before. Canadian apatite is a fertiliser of high grade, some of the ore 
 containing 80 to 87 per cent pure phosphate of lime. Phosphate anil 
 asbestos are allowed to enter the United States free of duty, and although 
 that country is not by any means the only market for them, the rapid 
 increase in their production shows the benefit a free maiket gives. 
 
 In contrast to this take the item of grindstones, upon which there 
 has been a duty of $1.75 per ton. In 1888 were produced in Canada 
 5764 tons, which fell to 3404 tons in 1889. Excellent grindstones 
 are found on several parts of the Nova Scotia coast, whence they could be 
 shipped to Atlantic ports in the United States much cheaper than the 
 present cost, but here again the tariff obstructs trade to the detriment 
 of both countries. 
 
 Tliere are many copper ores in Canada. Nova Scotia has rich 
 copper glance, and there is cupreous pyrites in New Brunswick and 
 the eastern townships of Quebec, while British Columliia contains some 
 copper ores which often carry gold or silver. There is a great field 
 for industry in the development of our copper ores. 
 
 Lead production in Canada suffers severely from tariff restriction. 
 Galena is found in several parts of Canada and baryta often accompanies 
 it, but owing to the small demand in Canada and proliibitory duties in 
 the States, the market is verv limited, only 337 tons of lead being
 
 MINERAL RESOURCES OF CANADA 825 
 
 produced in a year against 180,000 tons during the sjinie tinu- in 
 the States. 
 
 British Columbia has many mining districts which produce lead 
 ores rich in silver, now only beginning to be developed. 
 
 Already large veins of galena are known which carry 40 to 50 ounces 
 of silver to the ton, and some as high as 200 or 300 ounces. A great 
 future is, no doubt, in store for this industry, and there can be as little 
 doubt that the Pacific Province will prove one of the richest parts of 
 the continent. Bismutli has been found in British (_'olund)ia, and, if 
 proved to be in quantity, will be of great value, as it has not hitherto 
 been found in commercial quantities in America. In Ontario and 
 Quebec there are many veins of fine white feldspar suitable to make 
 porcelain. The best Muscovite mica occurs in many places, but is 
 shut out by a tariff of 35 per cent. There is plenty of graphite in 
 Canada, but very little demand for it 
 
 There are many varieties of marble and serpentine ; some beauti- 
 ful white marble suitable fur statuary, which is little developed owing 
 to the small Canadian demand and tlie higli American duties. 
 
 The same may be s;iid of mineral paints, quantities of which are 
 found, l)Ut put to little use. Canada i)osses.ses great stores of petroleum. 
 In addition to tliose in Western Ontario, which are extensively worked, 
 there are krge districts in our Nurtli-West Territories containing ine.\- 
 liaustible supplies of mineral oil. 
 
 The western part of Ontario lias numerous sjilt wells frctm whicli a 
 much larger supply could be proiluced, and from which many people 
 in the United States could obtain cheaper siilt, one of the nece.>*.siries 
 of life, if it were not for the dutie.-*. In many parts are good qualities? 
 of .s<japstone, and in Quebec excellent roofing slates, the production of 
 wliich could be greatly increii.'sed if that commodity were allowed to 
 find its natural market. 
 
 Canada has her share of the precious metals. Nova Scotia is 
 annually increjising its gold production ; the district west of Port 
 Arthur in Ontario is l)ecoming an important silvei' producer ; and both 
 silver and gold are found in many parts of British Columbia. 
 
 From what has been sjiid it will be ajijiareiit that although Nature 
 has lieen bountiful to Canada in the distrilnitioM of mineral wealth, 
 yet her gifts are deprived of much of their benefit by artificial kuriiTH 
 to traih-, which it is to be hoped the good sense of both countries will 
 shortly remove. 
 
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