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THE "CRISE" METCALFE
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At operate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi. — ViRG.
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PRINTED BY W. COWAN & SON.
Fiotz,
TO THE
"FREE AND INDEPENDENT" MEMBERS
OF THE
OSS) fig-fo
GENTLEMEN,
There never was a period in the history of Canada
when the Representatives of the people were more
imperatively called upon to make a stand for their rights,
in a spirit of honest independence and loyalty to the
Sovereign, than the approaching Session, in which
you are to enter upon the fulfilment of the solemn task
which jou have undertaken at the hands of your country.
I trust that the honorable though hacknied title, by
which I have presumed to address you, embraces within
its exalted category, every man who, under an oath to
his Queen and his country, will pass the threshold of the
Legislative Hall.
777
You assemble now under an aspect of affairs differing
essentially from the usual condition of things at the perio-
dical sittings of the Legislature, when public men resort
to Parliament impressed perhaps with the importance
of a variety of state measures, which may happen to be
under contemplation, but without, nevertheless, concen-
trating their forces or their energies on any one point,
and possibly, without directing their attentions to any one
subject in particular. You have been selected to fill
your present posts, not in virtue of a common and ordinary
election, had upon the expiration of a quartennial Par-
liament, but in consequence of a premature dissolution
of the Parliament of your predecessors, and upon a
solemn appeal to your constituents, by the Head of the
Executive, to determine the merits and demerits of a
quarrel between him and his constitutional advisers.
You resemble in some measure the Grand Criminal
Inquest of the Country, summoned to investigate certain
charges preferred against your fellow beings and fellow
subjects. You stand in the light of a special jury em-
pannelled to try an important state prosecution, and
to find a verdict either for the accuser, — a high dignatory
and the Representative of Royalty, or for the accused —
the humble functionaries of the people. You are about to
perform the important functions of a tribunal in the last
resort, and to stand in judgment upon the appeal to you
by the contending parties, from the sentence pronounced
by your predecessors, in the cause of the fautors of
irresponsible executive power on the one hand, arrayed
against the people's mandatories, — the advocates of the
British Constitution, and British Constitutional freedom,
on the other.
The great question of the day is the propriety of the
resignation of the late ministry, or in other words, their
dismissal from office in the month of November last, and
the course to be adopted by you, the new Legislative
Assembly, specially summoned to decide this political
controversy.
In order to reach a sound conclusion in the
matter, a variety of subordinate points, involved in its
issue, must be duly considered and determined in con-
nexion with the main subject.
First: — Whetherthe system of Resposible Government
established in this Province, is, in so far as relates to its
local affairs, identical with the practical working of the
British Constitution in the Mother Country, and the
responsibility of Ministers to the majority of the House
of Commons.
Secondly: — What was the real cause of the quarrel
between His Excellency Sir Charles Metcalfe and the
Ex-Ministers ; and whether, divested of all subtilties,
and paltry quibblings as to form, it was not as to the right
to be consulted on all appointments to office, claimed by
the ministry, and denied by the Governor General.
Thirdly : — Whether the ministry were constitutionally
justified in setting up this right, and the Governor Ge-
neral wrong in resisting it, — or vice versa.
Fourthly : — Whether the mere assertion of the right
to be consulted, set up — rightly or wrongly— by the late-
ministry, implied a design on their part to subvert the
authority of the British Crown in the Province ; and
whether the manner of asserting it, or their conduct —
or that of their adherents, since the resignation, was
indicative of any treasonable purpose, or of any other
object or design whatever, than the mere enunciation cf
a constitutional right, which they conscientiously believed
themselves to possess ; and whether the course pursued
by them in this matter, was not perfectly compatible
with the most profound loyalty to their Soverign ; — and
whether the Governor General was justified in char-
ging them publicly and repeatedly with disaffection,
disloyalty, and a desire to overthrow the authority of
Great Britain in Canada.
Fifthly and lastly : — Whether, — the ministers being
justified in resigning their offices, — ought now to be sus-
sustained in their position, and the confidence of the
Representatives of the people withheld from any other
public men accepting office in their stead, of whatever
party or politics.
The third and fifth are obviously the great points to
be determined ; and they must be decided with reference
strictly to the state of parties at the time of the split in
November last, without regard to the subsequent con-
duct of either party. Hut the fourth proposition which
has arisen out of trie conduct of the Governor General
and his partizans since the resignation, as it assails the
characters, as well of the late ministers, as ol a large
majority of the last Legislative Assembly, and of the
people of Canada, is essentially connected with the
merits of the quarrel, as it now presents itsell before your
House, and is entitled to your most solemn deliberation
and decision.
The concession to Canada, by Great Britain, of a
representative form of Government, modelled upon the
established constitution of that country, necessarily
implied that the administration of its local affairs should
be controlled by the people through their representa-
tives ; and all the evils which have befallen this unhappy
land may be ascribed to the hitherto almost univer-
sal error, that this system, in practice, was incompatible
with the subordinate relation ol the Colonies to the
Parent State. This fallacy has been exploded, and is
now never heard, save in the mouths of a remnant of
that class termed " official," who cling to it for the sake
the em luments which its corrupt practice alone could
procure for them ; or of such as are grossly ignorant
of the true principles of th*t great model of popular in-
stitutions which it is our pride and our ambition to imitate;
or of some who, if they happen to understand it, have no
feeling in common with the permanent inhabitants of
Canada, whom they deem unworthy of the rights and pri-
vileges 01 British subjects
After an attempt — of fifty years duration !— to carry
out a representative form of government, regardless of
the declared wishes of the people, which alone could
give it vitality, and in diametrical and contemptuous op-
position to the daily illustrations of a different practice
in the very country whence the system has been derived,
the principle of responsibility to the majority of the
popular Branch is at last formally and solemnly reco-
gn.zed and established in practice, as well by Her
Majesty's Instructions conveyed in the despatches of the
Colonial Minister, her constitutional organ, as by the
resolutions of the Legislative Assembly of the 3rd Sep-
tember 1841, sanctioned by the Home Government, and
ratified by their public approval of the administration of
Sir Charles Bagot, under whom it obtained its due cons-
titutional sway.
It is certainly matter of pardonable surprise, that at
this day such an unqualified recognition of a constitution-
la responsibility in the Colonial Ministry to the popular
Branch, in relation to mere local affairs, should be con-
troverted in any quarter, and least of ail by Her Majesty's
present I epresentative, whose advent to this country was
heralded by an enumeration of the many laurels acquir-
ed by him in the advocacy of popular rights, against the
encroachments of unconstitutional power; — more espe-
cially when it is considered that his novel pretensions on
this head were daily obnoxious to rebuke from the fresh
recollection of the opposite and beneficent policy pur-
sued by his predecessor.
In whatever shape the difficulties which have super-
vened in this Province since the month of November
last, — in whatever guise they may be presented to pu-
blip notice,— be the contending parties who they may,
it is but the continuation of the struggle for constitutional
Government — that responsibility of the Executive coun-
cil to the Representatives of the people, contended lor
during half a century, and now happily consumated in
the country. The opposition to it is but the last effort,
the expiring howl of that mercenary class, who, by ser-
vility, venality and corruption, have marred the prospe-
rity of the Colony, and whom, to our disgrace be it said,
that portion of the population self-styled British, have
improperly, though perhaps unwittingly supported, by
countenancing a schism among the inhabitants of Canada
possessing no character of distinction, save the odious
one of natural origin, which rendered it the more per-
manent by reason of its being lounded on prejudices
and the absence of all principle.
That system in the administration of Colonial affairs
termed Responsible Government has now, however,
been fully conceded, in m much as it is admitted on all
sides, — as well by the late Ministers, as by the Governor
General, and by Viger, Ryerson, Moffatt, &,c; and what
every body says must be true. But we differ, and have
been quarrelling since the month of November last, about
its interpretation, caused probably by the want of an ac-
curate and settled definition of the principle, it being ex-
ceedingly difficult to interpret that which we cannot de-
fine. It is somewhat remarkable that a great many poli-
tical writers, and newspaper editors, strenuously support
the system as undurstood by His Excellency Sir Charles
Metcalfe in the month of November last, and as strenu-
ously characterise the pretensions of the Ex-ministers on
this head, as extravagant, untenable, and even republi-
can, and nevertheless wind up their logical pates by
terming it " undefinable"! It is always definable, — when
viewed through the medium of a Governor General's
understanding ; it is ever *' undefinable", when it obvi-
ously and palpably harmonises with the views of the Ex-
ministers.
The term " Responsible Government" is, and cer-
tainly ought to be of simple solution. If means, and
can mean nothing else, than the application of the work-
ing of the British Constitution, to the administration of the
local affairs ot every Colony possessing a representative
from of Government modelled on that constitution,
precisely in the same manner, and subject to the same
Jiabilites and changes as in the Metropolitan Govern-
ment, without in the least degree trenching on any ques-
tion of an imperial nature, or affecting the general po-
licy of the Empire, or the dependency of the Colony
upon the Parent state. In carrying out this system the
Governor General cannot, or at least ought not, without
previously consulting his Executive Council,-Ministry,-
Responsible advisers, or by whatever name they may be
designated, introduce any measure of a local nature
into either Branch of the Legislature, veto any measure
matured by them, appoint to any office in the Province,
nor do any other act whatever, in the local adminstration
of the Government, without observing this constitutional
formality. He is not nevertheless bound to follow the
advice ; and where, on any given occasion, he either
abstains from consulting them, or, having done so, acts
contrary to their advice, as in the absolute and in-
dependent exercise of the Prerogative he most as-
surdly may do, the Ministry, if they deem the act
of such a character as to compromise those political
principles, by force of which they have been raised to
office, or that they otherwise do not choose to assume
the responsibility of it, may resign their offices. It is
manifest that in this particular the independent exercise,
by the Governor General, of the Royal Prerogative, is
as necessary for the healthy working of the principle on
behalf of the people, as on the part of the Crown ; this
species of antagonism being the only expedient to which
the Governor General can resort in order to rid himself
of advisers, whose political influence may be on the
wane, and for appointing others more congenial to what
he may conceive to be the wishes of the majority of the
people. It is of course superfluous to add that the term
of office of every ministry must ever and invariably be
determined by the majority of the Assembly, and by
them alone, it being always left to the prudence, discre-
tion, skill, and tact of the reigning ministry, and to the
admonishing signs of the times, to determine, whether
a mere numercial majority can justify their further reten-
tion of office.
Such is a plain exposition of Responsible Government
as adapted to colonial administrations, and which is per-
fectly compatible with the subordinate relation of the
Colonies to the Parent State, and the general responsi-
bility of the Representative of the Sovereign to the
Home Gevemment ; for when he follows the advice of
his Colonial Cabinet, which will in general be almost
thrust upon him under thr working of the new system
recognized in the Colony by his Superiors, it is absurd
to suppose that he is not relieved, pro tanto, from all
further responsibly in regard to acts of a purely local
character, — notwithstanding the idle vapourings about
imperium in i/npma-colonial dependency ,-responsibility
of the Governor to the authorities of Downing Street,
&c. &c.
For the information of that class who knit their brows
at the mere mention of the term " Responsible" in any
shape, 1 shall make a small extract from a work alrea-
dy more than once alluded to, from the pen of the late
lamented Andrew Stuart, Esquire, an eminent mem-
ber of the Lower Canada bar, and for many years a
member of the Provincial Parliament, a man distinguish-
ed by his unceasing advocacy of a liberal and enlight-
ened policy, highly esteemed by all parties in the Pro-
vince and who, as a statesman or a jurist, has not left
his equal behind him.
(" Review of the Proceedings of the Legislature of
Lower Canada in the session ol 1831. p. 136")
w " By the Colonial Constitution, as it stands upon paper,
" the Executive Council is not only a council of advice,
M but a council of controul. The Governor cannot grant
<s one acre of ground without their consent. In all matters
" of public policy within the colony, it is his bounden duly
«' to take their advice ; he is not, it is true, absolutely
*' bound to follow it when given-but when he does so, he
u is relieved from all responsibility ; and, on the other
" hand, when he acts wi'hout or against their advice, he
" acts suo periculo : — Besides the Governor, who is a
" moveable officer, there are several fixed officers of the
*' colonial government — by whose means, in conjunction
*' with the Executive Council, it seems to hav^ been
" expected, that that steadiness and uniformity of action,
u without which no government can lrng stand, would be
" obtained. These are — The Lieutenant Governor of the
u Province, who is understood at the same time to be
" chairman of the Executive Council; the Chief Justice
" of the Province, performing functions somewhat analo-
11 gous, if I may be allowed to compare small things to
" great, with the duties and functions of the Lord Cfcan,-
*' cellor of England. There is, further — the Secretary of
M the Province, who was destined to occupy a position
" in the colonial government, somewhat analogous to that
4C of the Secretary of State in England. To these are to
" be added — the Law Officers of the Crown, by whose
" advice, in all law matters, the Governor is absolutely
" bound ; the Surveyor General, a highly important
" officer ; the judiciary, and its officers. All these are
" permanent powers residing within the Colony, and
" which, the framers of the general instructions thought,
" would be abundantly sufficient to prevent the Executive
" Government from degenerating into a government of
" will, or a pure autocracy, which it now is. It will not
" be uninteresting to look into the causes which have led
" to this event. All the offices under the Government being
" during pleasure, and the British Government, naturally
«
10
looking to their Governors here, for the selection of fit
persons to fill the Councils, they very naturally chose,
that the officers o{ Government who environed them,
and of whose flexibility of will and purpose they were
duly sensible, should compose them. The Executive
Council has accordingly been progressively falling into
public discredit. For a long time the Governors con-
" suited them as they were bound to do, but of iate years
" this decent ceremony is often omitted ; thus, for instance,
" there is reason to believe that, from the time of the Earl
" of Dalhousie, the Governors have not condescended to
" submit to the Council any of their speeches at the open-
" ing or the close of the Sessions of the Provincial Par-
" liament, nor are they consulted upon the general course
" of public policy within the Colony.
" The Council cannot afford to resent this neglect,
*• because they are all of them placemen, and the Gover-
" nor is taught to consider himself as the sole spring of
M all executive power within the Colony. Another cir-
" cumstance also, which prevents a proper control of the
" Governor in other public matters, is his sole and exclu-
" sive patronage of all offices of honour and emolument.
" Many of the high public functionaries must and do have
" families and others dependent upon them. The love of
" office is one of the maladies of this continent, and the
" men in office are naturally desirous of getting as many
" o( their own family into office as they can. In this posi-
" tion of things, to expect that each public functionary
" should discharge his duty without an eye to the pleasure
" or the displeasure of the Governor, for the time being,
" is to expect more public virtue than we have yet been
" able to find in these hyperborean regions. Again, the
" Lieutenant Governor in point of practice, has always
" been a cypher, whether he opposed the Governor in
" Chief as General Hope did Lord Dorchester, or did
" nothing at all, as all General Hope's successors in office
* have done. The Lieutenant Governor thus withdrawn,
u
his place in the Executive Council came to be occupied
by the Chief Justice for the time being. I need not say,
that by these means, this last mentioned public officer,
came to be too intimately mixed up with the local poli-
tics of the Province, and there then came into his hands,
a concentration of power not merely adverse to, but sub-
versive of all public freedom.
The manner jn which the patronage of the Governor
has been exercised has been highly injurious to the gov-
ernment. The power of the Governor ought to be con-
troled in some shape or other in the exercise of this
patronage. It is not here as it is in England, where a
ministry comes in and goes out ; and the mischiefs of
this colonial abuse are, therefore, perpetuated from
governor to governor. The new governor is obliged to
use the instruments which his predecessor has left him,
and these, sometimes bad enough, selected perhaps by
a governor, who with the best intentions in the world,
has converted his patronage into an eleemosynary fund
for decayed widows, and for men whose only claim to
be provided for, is, that they cannot provide for them-
selves.
Such is a picture of the discordant elements of colo-
nial Government - which have at last subsided into a
system admitted on all sides to be feasible.
It is then unclisputable that the system of responsibi-
lity of certain public officers in the Colonial Administra-
tion, now introduced into this Provicce by the Resolu-
tions of 1841 is, in so iar as relates to its local affairs,
perfectly identical with the practical working of the Bri-
tish Constitution in the Mother Country, and the res-
ponsibility of the British Cabinet to the majority of the
House of Commons, — thus establishing the first point
involved in the ministerial quarrel.
The next point is to ascertain the real cause of that
qvarrel.
12
The following is the case announced to the public by
the respec'.ive pretensions of the parties, reduced to
writing and recorded in the Journals of the House,
Mr. Lafontaine's Note to Sir Charles Met-
calfe, Relative to the Resignation of the
late Cabinet.
" Mr. Lafontaine, in compliance with the request of the
" Governor General, and in behalf of himself and his late
" colleagues, who have felt it to be their duty to lender
their resignation of office, states, for His Excellency's
information, the substance of the information which they
propose to offer in their places in Parliament.
" I hey have avowedly taken office upon the principle of
responsibility to the representatives of the people in part;
" and with a full recognition on their parts of the following
" resolutions introduced into the Legislative Assembly,
" with the knowledge and sanction of Her Majesty's repre-
" sentative in the Province, on the 3d September, 1^41.
a That the head ot the Executive Government of the
" Province, being within the limits of his Government, the
" representative of the Sovereign, is responsible to the
u Imperial authority alone, but that nevertheless the ma-
" nagement of our local affairs can only be conducted by
•' him, by and with the assistance, counsel, and informa-
" tion of subordinate officers in the Province, and that in
" order to preserve between the different tranches of the
u Provincial Parliament that harmony which is essential to
u the peace, welfare, and good government of the Pro-
" vince, the chief advisers of the representative of the
" Sovereign, constituting a Provincial .Administration un-
u der him, ought to be men possessed oi' the coi fid* rce
u of the representative* ol ihe people; thus affording a
u guarantee that the well un tiers cod wisnes and interests
" of the people, which our gracious Sovereign has declar-
* c ed shall be the rule of the Provincial Government will
IS
* on all occasions be faithfully represented and advo-
" cated."
" They hare lately underMood that His Excellency
(i took a widely different view of th«- position, duties ariu
* ; i\ •sponsibihties of ihe fcxecutive Council from that under
" which they accepted "Mice, ai.d duougti which they have
\ been enabled to conduct the Parliamentary business of
" the (Government, * ustained by a large majority of the
" popular branch cf the Legislature.
" Had thi difference of opinion between His Kxcel-
" le )cy and themselves, and as they have reason to be-
u lieve, between His Excellency and :he Parliament and
" people of Canada geneiallv, i een merely theoretical,
" the members of the late Executive Council might and
" could have le- It it to be their duty to avoid every possi-
" bility of collision which might I. ave a tendency to dis-
*' turb the tranquil and amicable relations which apparcn-
" tly subsisted between the Ixeiutive Government and
" the Provin ial Parliament. But that difference of: pinion
" has led not merely to appointments tooilice against their
**■ advice but to appointments and proposals to make np-
" pointments, of which they were net informed in any
" manner until all opportunity of offering ahite respr -ct-
" ing them had passed by and to a deteimination on the
" part of His Excellency to reserve foi the expression of
" Her M.-.je^ty's pleasure thereon, a Bill introduced into
" the Provincial Parliament, with His Excellency's know-
" ledge and consent as a Government n easure, without
" an cpponuniiy being given to the members of the Ex-
" ecutive Council, to state the probability of such a re-
" servation. They, therefore, felt themselves in the ano-
" famous position of being, aucording to their own avowals
" and solemn public pledges, responsible for all the acts
<: ef the Executive Government to Paliament, and at the
" same time not only without the opportunity of offering
u advice respecting these acts but without the knowledge
" of their existence until informed of them from private
u and unofficial sources.
14
" When the members of the late Executive Council
offered their humble remonstrance to His Excellency
on this condition of public affairs, His Excellency not
only frankly explained the difference of opinion existing
between him and the Council, but stated, that from the
time of his arrival in the country he had observed an
antagonism between him and them on the subject, and
notwithstanding that the members of the Council re-
peatedly and distinctly explained to His Excellency that
they considered him free to act contrary to their ad-
viee, and only claimed an oppotnnity of giving such
advice and of knowing before others His Excellency in-
tentions; His Excellency, did not in any manner remove
the impression left upon their minds by his avowal that
there was an antagonism between hLn and them, and a
want of that cordiality and confidence which would en-
able them in their respective stations to carry on public
business to the satisfaction of His Excellency or of the
country. The want of this cordiality and confidence had
already become a matter of public rumour and public
opinion, not only extended it to acts upon which there
were apparent grounds for difference of opinion, but to
all measures of Government involving political prin-
ciples. His Excellency, on the one hand, was supposed
to be coerced by his Council into a course of policy
which he did not approve of, and the Council were made
liable to the accusation of assuming the tone and posi-
tion of responsible advisers of the Government, without,
in fact, asserting the right of being consulted thereupon.
While His Excellency disclaimed any intention of al-
tering the course of administration of public affairs
which he found on his arrival in Canada, he did not
disguise his opinion, that those affairs would be more
satisfactorily managed by and through the Governor
himself without any necessity of concord amongst the
members of the Executi/e Council, or obligation on
their part to defend or support in Parliament the acts of
15
the Government, To this opinion of His Excellency as
one of theory, the members of the Executive Council
might not have objected, but when on Saturday last
they discovered that it was the real ground of all their
difference with His Excellency, and of the want of con-
fidence and cordiality between His Excellency and the
Council since his arrival ; they felt it impossible to con-
tinue to serve Her Majesty as Executive Councillors,
for the affairs of this Province, consistently with their
duty to Her Majesty, or to His Excellency, or with their
public and oft repeated pledges in the Provincial Par-
liament, if His Excellency should see fit to act upon
his opinion of their functions and responsibilities.
Daly's Hotel, Nov. 27, 1843.
His Excellency's Reply to the Above.
" The Governor observes with regret, in the explana-
tion which the gentlemen who have resigned their seats
in the Executive Council propose to offer in their places
in Parliament, a total omission of the circumstances
which he regards as forming the real grounds of their
resignation : and as this omission may have proceeded
from their not considering themselves at liberty to dis-
close those circumstances, it becomes necessary that he
should state them.
" On Friday, Mr. Lafontaine and Mr. Baldwin came to
the Government House, and, after some other matters
of business and some preliminary remarks as to the
cause of their proceeding, demanded of the Governor
General that he should agree to make no appointment,
and no offer of an appointment, without previously tak-
ing the advice of the Council : that the lists of candi-
dates should in every instance be laid before the Coun-
cil : that they should recommend any others at discre-
tion, and that the Governor General in deciding after
taking their advice, should not make any appointment
prejudicial to their influence. In other words, that the
patronage of the Crown should be surrendered to the
u
Ye
Council for the purchase of Parliamentary support : for*
if the demand did not mean :hat, it meant nothing, as it
cannot be imagined, that the mere form of taking advice
" without regarding it, w<is the process contemplated.
The Governor General replied that he would not
" make any such stipulation, and could not degrade the
" character of his office nor violate his duty by such a
" surrender of the prerogative of the Crown.
He appealed to the number of appointments made
" by him on the recommendation of the Council, or to
" the members of it in their departmental capacity, and
" to instances in which he had abstained from conferring
" appointments on their opponents, as furnishing proofs
" of the great consideration which he had evinced towards
" the Council in the distribution of the patronage of the
" Crown.
" He at the same time objected, as he always had done,
" to the exclusive distribution of patronage with party
" views, ^and maintained the principle that office ought,
" in every instance, to be given to the man best qualified
" to render efficient service to the state, and where there
" was no such pre-eminence he asserted his right to exercise
" his discretion.
« He understood from Messrs Lafontaine and Baldwin
« that their continuance in office depended on his final
« decision with regard to their demand : and it was agreed
« that at the Council to be assembled the next day the
« subject should be fully discussed.
« He assordingly met the Council on Saturday, convin-
« ced that they would resign, as he could not recede from
« the resolution which he had formed, and the same subject
« became the principal topic of discussion.
(t Three or more distinct propositions were made to him
u over and over again, sometimes in different terms, but
« aiming at the same purpose, which in his opinion if
« accomplished would have been a virtual surrender in to
« hands of the Council of the prerogative of the Crown,
a and on his uniformly replying to their propositions in
17
w the negative. His refusal was each time followed by
" " then we must resign," or words to that purport, from
" one or more of the Council.
(t After the discussion of this questonat so much length,
" being, as he has hitherto conceived, the one upon which
" the resignation of the Council rested, he is astonished
" at finding that it is now ascribed to an alleged diffe-
" rence of opinion in the theory of Responsible Government.
" In the course of the conversations which both on Friday
" and Suturday followed the explicit demands made by
" the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that
" demand being based on the construction put by some
« of the gentlemen on the meaning of Responsible Govern-
« ment, different opinions were elicited on the abstract
« theory of that still undefined question as applicable to
« a Colony, a subject on which considerable difference
« of opinion is known every where to prevail. But
« the Governor General during these conversations pro-
« tested against its being supposed that he is practically
« adverse to the working of the system of Responsible
« Government which he has hitherto pursued, without
« deviation, and to which it is fully his intention to adhere.*
a The Governor General subscribes entirely to the
« Resolutions of the Legislative Assembly, of the 3d Sep-
« tembre , 1841, and considers any other system of Go-
« vernmentthan that which recognises responsibility to
cc the people and to the representative Assembrv as im-
(( praticablein this Province.
tc No man is more satisfied that all government exists
( c solely for the benefit of the people, and he appeals
(( confidently to his uniform conduct here and elsewhere
« in support of this assertion.
u If indeed, by Responsible Government the gentlemen
„ of the late Council mean that the Council is to be su-
c< preme, and the authority of the Governor a nullity, then
<c he cannot agree with them and must declare his dissent
<( from the perversion of the acknowledged principle.
18
" But if they mean that Responsible Government, as es-
" tablished in this colony is to be worked out with an ear-
" nest desire }o ensure success, he must then express his
" surprise at their ^arriving at conclusions which he does
" not consider to be justified by any part of his conduct,
a and which he conceives his repeated declarations ought
" to have prevented. Allusion is made in the other propos-
" ed explanation of the gentlemen of the late Council, to the
*f Governor General having determined to reserve for the
" consideration of Her Majesty's Government one of the
" Bills passed by the two Legislative Houses — that is the
" Secret Societies' Bill. If there is any part of the functions
« of the Governor in which he is more than in any bound to
« exercise an independent judgment it must be in giving
« the Royal assent to acts of Parliament. With regard to this
« duty he has special instructions from HerMajesty'sSecre-
« tary to reserve every act of an unusual or extraordinary
« character. Undoubtedly the Secret Societies' Bill answers
« that description, being unexampled in British Legislation.
« The gentlemen of the late Council had his sentiments on
« it. He told them that it was an arbitrary and unwise mea-
« sure, and not even calculated to effeot the object it had
a in view.
c< He had given his consent io its being introduced into
« Parliament, because he haol promised soon after his as-
t( sumption of the Government that he would sanction le-
« gislation on the subject as a substitute for Executive
« measures which he refused to adopt on account of their
« proscriptive character, although he deprecates the exis-
< ( tence of societies which tend to foment religious and ci-
« vil discord. The gentlemen of the late Council, cannot
« fail to remember with what pertinacity those measures
« were pressed on hirn, and can hardly but be aware of
« what would have followed at that time if in addition to
(( rejecting the proscriptive measures urged, he had refused
« to permit any Legislation on the subject. Permission to
« introduce a Bill cannot be properly assumed as fettering
19
" the judgment of the Government with regard to the Royal
" assent, for much may happen during the passage of the Bill
" through the Legislature to influence his decision. In
u this case the Bill was strongly opposed and reprobated
" in the Assembly, but when it went to the Legislative
" Council, many of the members had seceded, and it did
'• not come up from that House with the advantage of hav-
" ing passed in a full meeting. Taking these circumstan-
" ces into consideration, together with the precise instruc-
sC tions of Her Majesty and the uncertainty of Her Majes-
« ty's allowing such a Bill to go into operation, the Gover-
" nor General considered it to be his duty to reserve it for
" Her Majesty's consideration, as it was much better that
i( it should not go into operation until confirmed by Her
" Majesty's Government, than that it should be disconti-
« nued after its operation had commenced.
« In conclusion^ the Governor General protests against
« the explanation which those gentlemen propose to offer
« to Parliament, as omitting entirely the actual and promi-
«< nent circumstances which led to their resignation; and
« as conveying to Parliament a misapprehension of his
« sentiments and intention which has no foundation in any
<« part of his conduct, unless his refusal to make a virtual sur-
« render of the prerogative of the Crown to the Council for
« party purposes, and his anxiety to do justice to those who
« were injured by the arrangements attending the Union,
« can be regarded as warranting a representation which is
« calculated to injure him without just cause in the opinion
tc of the Parliament and the people, on whose confidence
« he places his sole reliance for the successful administra-
«. tion of the Government.
<c Government House,
« November 28th 1843.
Making allowance for the usual quantum of misun-
derstandings and discrepancies to be found in state-
ments of a controversial character, the foregoing suffi-
ciently discloses that the unfortunate schism between
20
His Excellency Sir Charles Metcalfe and his ministers
in November last, had its origin, substantially, in the right
claimed by the latter, to be consulted by the former, up-
on all appointments to office, and that this right was
then strenuously and pertinaciously denied by the Gover-
nor General, as witness his emphatic language, — " it
" cannot be imagined, that the mere form of taking ad-
" vice, without regarding it, was the process contempla-
" ted."
The controversy, as disclosed by their respective
statements, is marked with a positive assertion of a fact
on the one side, and its equally positive denial on the
other ; and there was therefore no expedient left to re-
lieve the Governor General, and his partisans, from their
dilemma, than to fall back upon shadowy points of form;
and this, strange to say, after a full exposition of the
pretensions of each on the real merits of the dispute.
It is argued by the Governor General and his party, that
it was attempted, on the part of the ministry, to extort
from him a formal and irrevocable declaration, or stipu-
lation, as it has been called, that he would not for the
future name to office without their consent ; — and that he
should divest himself of the exercise of the Prerogative
of the Crown in favor of his councillors. This is deni-
ed on the other side, and the public, who have no other-
evidence to refer to, can only determine the truth of ei-
ther assertion, by weighing the probability of the affirma-
tive statement, and its necessary consequences, if true.
It is at the least improbable, that men, who certainly pos-
sessed some constitutional knowledge, and had among
their body lawyers of eminence, should require the
Governor General to surrender into their hands, that
which they must have known he had no power to grant.
The folly and absurdity of such a demand afford the best
refutation of the assertion that it was ever made, and
in truth stamp it as incredible.
The system of responsibility had been recently intro-
21
duced into this Proviuce. Both the Governor and his
Council professed to act upon it in practice ; while the
former committed frequent violations of it, as understood
by the latter. Important appointments were made by
His Excellency, without the knowledge of his Council ;
and under such circumstances, it is matter of no great
surprise that an interview (as is said,) should take place
between the Governor and some of his Councillors, in
order to ascertain what really were the views of the for-
mer in regard to Responsible Government. Such a
course cannot perhaps be defended as constitutional, for
the reason already given, — that the prerogative may pos-
sibly be thus exercised, adversely to the views of the
Council, for the express purpose of producing a dismis-
sal. But under a new system, to which both parties de-
clare their adhesion, there was nothing extraordinary nor
unreasonable in endeavouring to obtain some eclaircisse-
ment as to the views of each, while there was apparent
good faith on both sides. But such a species of pour-
parler, if it did occur at all, cannot assuredly bear out
the assertion, (though possibly couched in figurative
language,) — that the Governor General was called upon
to enter into a formal agreement, and to put his hand
and seal to an instrument, surrendering the prerogative of
the Crown into the hands of his Provincial Cabinet.
The conclusion, then, is irresistibly forced upon us, that
there is, in this statement, an uncertain and unmea-
surable portion of exaggeration.
Another count of the plea of exception as to form is
predicated upon the assumed fact, that the ministry did
not make a stand on any one given objectionable ap-
pointment, according to the admitted usage in such
matters, but that they justified their secession from the
Council Board, upon the acts of the Governor General
in relation to several appointments. Drowning men
catch at straws. This objection as to form possesses
this remarkable feature, that the reason upon which it is
22
based, has nothing of form in its character ; but that it is,
on the contrary, pregnant with substance, and virtually
enhances the propriety of the conduct of the ministers,
by an allusion to facts shewing an aggravation of the
unconstitutional conduct of the Governor General, and
an unexampled degree of moderation in men, whom their
enemies were pleased to charge with arrogance and
dogmatism.
But it is idle and stupid, and an insult to our unders-
tandings, to discuss questions of form, after such objec-
tions have been entirely superseded by a full disclosure
of facts, and a definite issue upon the abstract merits of
the subject matter of the dispute. The patronage of
office, practically speaking, was indisputably the real
bone of contention, in whatever shape brought out.
The retention of the fat offices at the disposal of the
Crown, by the Governor General, and the insignificant
clique within his own little curtilage, apart from, and
independently of, the responsible madatories of the
people, was, in the opinion of every man of candour or
sense, the game played by the Governor General and
his party. This cloven foot stands out in bold relief in
Mr. Higginson's conversation with Mr. Lafontaine.
The pretension of His Excellency, and his European
satellites, is based upon the arrogant assumption, by the
minions of Downing Street, of an innate metropolitan
superiority over the inhabitants of the Colonies ; — a pre-
tension utterly unfounded, and not to be brooked by any
right minded colonist. It is one which inspired the late
revolted Colonies, (now the United States of America,)
with an unnatural and implacable hatred to their brethren
of the British Isles. That emulation of every thing
noble and virtuous, which animates the inhabitants of
Great Britain and Ireland, is a distinguishing and laudable
trait in the national character, and one which has contri-
buted largely to the present exalted rank of that country
among the nations of the earth ; but it is a mistake to
IB
suppose that every empty — headed pate which crosses
the Atlantic, possesses this degree of excellence embo-
died in his own person. It is a matter of daily occur-
rence to hear these notions of superiority put forth bj
adventurers, in various stations and professions, intf
Canada, from the other side of the water, but who, whe
pitchforked into office through some sinister influenc,
betray such a degree of incapacity as to disqualify then
from carrying grub to a bear.
The attempts to retain the Patronage of office so%
and absolutely in the Head of the Executive, in define
of ihe principle of Colonial Responsible Governrent,
was the last plank of the wreck of official dominate in
Canada. That the public men enjoying the confience
of the people, and possessing, each in his own ?ction,
a knowledge of our local affairs, must be the besfjudges
of the fitness, or unfitness, of all applicants for ffice, is
a proposition too self-evident to be called in ^uestion.
Tha) they could carry on the Government, witout this
powerful auxiliary, or with its influence exer-d against
them, is an opinion which can only be entrained by
men absolutely opaque as to the working of the British
Constitution, or by such as make their poitical princi-
ples subserve their own private interests. But that the
Public Functionaries should be responsible to the Le-
gislative Assembly for acts of the Government, made
without their participation or knowledge, and the first
intimation of which they had the humilation to receive
from news-mongers in the streets, — is t doctrine adapted
only to the judgment ofbabes,or the pericrania of madmen.
It has thus been incontrovertibly brought home to the
judgment of every just and candid ttiind, and in truth
no one now ventures to deny, that the antagonist notions
of His Excellency and his ministers, upon the exercise
of the Prerogative in regard to the patronage of office,
were the real cause of the quarrel. And further that the
views entertained by the Ex-ministers on this head were
24
strictly conformable to the practice obtained in England,
and that they were justified in setting up the right
which they claimed, and the Governor General wrong
in resisting it. The stand, therefore, made by theLafon-
taine — Baldwin Cabinet was perfectly constitutional and
praiseworthy, — thus establishing the second and third
oints involved in the quarrel.
Thus far the reasons and arguments advanced have
ten restricted to the merits of the quarrel at the time of
it occurrence. There is one more argument, however,
wich has an important bearing upon the subject at the
prtent time, and which, in justice to the Ex-ministers,
nrnt not be overlooked, although it may be deemed ob-
jectinable by reason of the proof required to strip it of
its ciiracter of extreme improbability in point of fact,
and bcause it detracts materially from the proverbial
candor and manliness of an Englishman, and the di-
gnity 6 an English Statesman. The misunderstanding,
as it as been shown, arose out of the right
to be exulted claimed by the ministry. The Go-
vernor Gneral, not acquiescing in such a pretension,
accepted tei r resignations in November last. The coun-
ty has since been agitated by himself and his partizans,
in order to c^ate a majority adverse to the Ex-ministers,
and the ProvLcial Parliament has been dissolved in order
to a final appeal to the whole constituency of Canada
upon this head. Will it be believed, that notwithstanding
this hot and viohnt agitation, prejudicia/ to the peace of
the Country, anc damaging to its best interests, one of
the parties, and tht aggressor in the quarrel, has long since
succumbed on its nain and sole. cause, and has publicly
and solemnly announced, u that he would never dream of
" carrying on the Government of the Province without
" consulting his constitutional advisers ; — thus sanctioning
the principle contended for by the Ex-ministers ; and —
that notwithstanding such an unqualified recantation, he
persists in refusing justice to the Ex-ministers, and in
25
ruling the country by a batch of incapables, notoriously
without any political influence, instead of replacing mat-
ters in statu quo ante helium, and thereby exhibiting a
moral courage, and a sense of justice, becoming his exalt-
ed station.
You have next to consider that important feature in
the present controversy which is predicated upon the quo
animo of the ministerial opposition, and imputes to them,
and the majority of the late House, and their adherents,
motives dishonorable to them as men, and subversive of
the supremacy of the Mother Country*
In bold and disreputable contrast to the course which
ought to have been followed, the victims of defeat sought
a refuge amid the seeds of discord, and the Province of
Canada, during the nine months which followed the un-
fortunate schism, has exhibited a spectacle to the world
unexampled in constitutional countries. The Represen-
tative of the British Sovereign, and as such — the repre-
sentative of the Fountain of justice, of order, decorum,
moderation, impartiality, and of every virtue and quality
which indicates a dignified seclusion from party strife
and politics, — the chief magistrate of Canada, and the
Governor General of British North America, — has been
agitating ! — incessantly agitating ! ! — emitting volumes of
calumnious and inflammatory " Answers to Addresses"
charging the Ex-Ministers, and their adherents, with a
design factiously to agitate the country in opposition to
him, — (the very offence, like the Wolf in the fable, of
which he himself was guilty,) and imputing to them a de-
sire to subvert the authority of the mother country in Ca-
nada; while the whole Province, and Lower Canada in
an eminent degree, was in profound peace, not exhibit-
ing the slightest indication of discontent, disaffection or
disloyalty, — and while the agitation — if it deserve the
name, — in Upper Canada, was confined to the discussion,
peaceably and constitutionally, of an abstract principle in
the practical operation of the British Constitution, — a
26
right indisputably inherent in the humblest subject of the
Crown, and perfectly compatible with the most devoted
loyalty to the Queen, who is the living and honored em-
blem of the Constitution whence these inestimable rights
flow.
Your views, and those of all the constituencies of Ca-
nada, have been attempted to be diverted from the real
merits of the contest, by representing it as one in which
the loyal portion of the inhabitants were arrayed against
the disaffected and the rebellious, and which involved
in its issue the further connexion of this Colony, and of
all the British North American Possessions, with Great
Britain. The object of this ruse was to intimidate a cer-
tain class of the inhabitants, by an allusion which recalls
the late wicked and disastrous struggle to extort from
the mother country certain concessions, which, justly or
unjustly, she had expressed her determination not to
yield, and thereby to characterise the present peaceful
contest, as one of a similar sinful stamp, and calculated
to produce a similar baneful effect. Of all the weak
inventions of a weak enemy, this is the weakest and the
basest. It is worthy of a hireling press, the toady eulo-
gists of the Rump ministry of the day, whose clamo-
rous zeal is ever in the inverse ratio of the sanity of its
pretensions. This villanous game, worthy of a villanous
cause, has been practised to a large extent in Upper
Canada, and the honest loyal yeomanry of that country
have been duped into the belief, that the late ministers,
and their adherents, are a faction banded together to
dissolve our connexion with Great Britain ; — and dis-
affection — disloyalty — treason — rebellion, have been in-
cessantly dinned into their ears, until it has resulted, in
two monster lies, namely : — That the advocates of Res-
ponsible Government, according to the principles of the
British Constitution, are a " Revolutionary party !" and
the followers of Sir Charles Metcalfe, to wit, — the Tory
Compact of Upper Canada, and the servile official fac-
27
tion of Lower Canada — the " Constitutional party !" — by
whose chivalrous, — disinterested devotion to Great Bri-
tain, that connexion is to be maintained.
These madmen have been permitted, nay incited to play
off their demon antics in the broad face of day, &, to impair
the character of the inhabitants of Canada for peace and
loyalty, as well in the eyes of Great Britain, as in those of
the whole world, and this at a time when the quiet of the
church yard reigned throughout the land, and while every
man in the frenzied ranks of their calumniators, from the
•highest to the lowest, knew, felt and believed in his
craven heart, that the country never was more peacable,
more loyal, nor less disposed to throw off the powerful
and protecting arm of Great Britain, and to transfer its
allegiance to another Power, — the necessary and inevi-
table consequence of such a step. We have every
thing to gain by remaining united to the freest and the
most enlightened nation of the globe, — every thing to
lose by fleeing her banner. Under the shield of British
power, law and order are supreme throughout her widely
extended dominions. Impartial justice is meted out to the
lowest criminal, and the condemned felon yet feels the'
rights of a British subject in being protected from the
bloody hands of the mob. There no "equal" son of Adam
treads the ground, the pinioned — degraded slave of his
fellow man, and no ruffian hand dares apply the torch
to the peaceful sanctuary of female piety, nor the fiend
of intolerance disturb the worship of the Creator, under
whatever creed, or by whatever form, conscience may
direct its exercise. Such are the inestimable blessings
which we enjoy as a dependency of that mighty empire,
and we do not the less appreciate them, nor are we less
worthy of them, by demanding our full rights as British
subjects. The charge of disloyalty, then, we indig-
nantly repel as being false, and utterly unfounded, and to
him who may still persist in the calumny, we answer, in
brief english, — " He lies in his throat." The loyalty of
28
all those who advocate the doctrine of Responsible Go-
vernment, and maintain the party of the Ex-ministers,
stands unimpeached ; and their regard for their Sover-
eign and the British Constitution, is immeasurably su-
perior to the cant of that pharisaieal tribe, who, utterly
reckless as to the fate of their country, or the honor of
their Sovereigu, have loyalty for ever in their months,
as the ever ready incense which they offer up to every
successive Governor, whatever his party or his politics,
and which would be obsequiously lavished on a Baboon,
were he decked in the official uniform of Downing streef.
In addressing the Legislative Assembly of Canada, I
of course must submit my reasons and arguments to the
judgment of an Assembly, composed, like every other
political body, of heterogeneous materials. I assume
that to whatever parties in politics you may be subdivid-
ed, — whether reformers on the ex-ministerial side, or on
that of Sir Charles Metcalfe ; — whether Tories of the
Upper Canada family compact, or of the Lower
Canada official class ; — whether uncompromising
supporters of the Responsible Government question, or
moderates, — disposed to steer your course accord-
ing to the tide of affairs, or to whatever other shade
or hue in politics you may belong ; — I assume, and
believe, that you are all imbued with a spirit
of profound loyalty to the Sovereign of that country,
which has ever been the foremost in the cause of ra-
tional freedom, and from whence you derive that bright
inheritance which enables you now to battle,freely and in-
dependently, for the supremacy of those principles which
you conscientiously believe to be most conducive to the
permanent peace and welfare of your conntry. Many of
you have given substantial proofs of your devotion on
this head, and there are others among you whose loyalty
no one would dare to impugn, for you have loudly pro-
claimed it to all the winds of heaven, and, in the ardour
of your professions, have charged with disloyalty all those
whose powers of vociferation have been unequal to
2&
yours. And as to that numerous, influential, and en-
lightened portion among you, who, amidst a host
of calumnies continually reiterated against you, have
contended patiently, peaceably and constitutionally,
for the development of the genuine principles of the
British Constitution, evincing at the same time the most
profound respect for the majesty of the law, and the
paramount authority of the empire, — he who impugns
your allegiance, however high his rank, and to whatever
class, creed or country, he may belong, is but a coward
or a knave, unworthy the name of a British freeman,
and whose loyalty is but a filthy garment, the fashion
and colour whereof are ever changed to suit the caprices,
and the alternate and adverse politics of a Durham,
a Sydenham, a Bagot, or a Metcalfe.
Such of you who may conscientiously believe, that the
great question upon which the Provincial Parliament has
been dissolved, is in the slightest degree tinged with re-
volution, are bound in duty fairly and honestly }o enquire
into this accusation, as a preliminary point, ere you en-
ter upon the one absorbing topic of the day. If upon a
cool and impartial retrospect of the conduct, and avow-
ed principles, of the Ex-ministers, and their supports,
you come to, a decided conclusion, that Sir Charles
Metcalfe was justifiable in denouncing them, to the
people of the Province, and to the world at large,
as traitors to Her Majesty's government ; — if you are sa-
tisfied that the hue and cry of "Connexion or no connex-
ion," " Revolutionary party," &,c, raised against them
among the fanatics of Upper Canada, was well founded,
and that in truth the advocacy by them of Responsible
Government was bnt a cloak, a stalking horse — under the
mask of which they were bent upon producing a renew-
al of the disastrous scenes which lately afflicted this coun-
try, — then it becomes your duty, one and all, to express
your abhorrence of such designs, and your unqualified ap-
probation of the stand made against them by the Gover-
nor General, with a view to crush such a wicked pur-
30
pose in its inception ; and this you are bound to do,
without regard to the correctness or incorrectness, in the
abstract, of the principles upon which he took his
ground ; — for better by far the domination of a Special
Council, if backed by the protective arm of British
power, even though administered under the galling sway
of rapacious officials, than the horrors of civil discord,
and the transfer of our allegiance to a Power, under
which anarchy and mob caprice, with the violation of
«very civil contract, hold perpetual sway under the
-colour of constitutional government.
But I put it home to the conscience of every one of
you, as men of honor, sitting in judgment upon the deeds
of your fellow men, bound to find a verdict, under your
oaths to your country and your God, conformably to the
dictates of truth and justice, unbiassed by the smiles
of greatness, and undeterred by the threats of its impo-
tent displeasure ; — if, after a calm and dispassionate in-
vestigation of the conduct of the ministers, you find these
calumnious charges, so publicly and so unscrupulously
levelled against them by Sir Charles Metcalfe, to be
unsupported by any proof, or any presumption of guilt ;
and that in the act of resignation there was a total
absence of any nefarious design ; — that while the Go-
vernor General was fulminating libel upon libel against
them, he could not lay his hand upon a single act, word
or deed of theirs, to shadow the vile detraction ; — that
in stead of factiously and seditiously agitating the country
in opposition to Her Majesty's Government, he — the Re-
presentative of Her Majesty, constituting in his own per-
son, a co-ordinate branch of the Provincial Legislature,
was descending to the pernicious game of sounding, false-
ly, the tocsin ofdissaffection and rebellion, and impugning
the motives, as well of his late advisers, as of an over-
whelming majority of your predecessors, — another
co-ordinate branch of the same Legislature, entitled to
respect at his hands,— and that he was appealing to
SJ
odious prejudices, and stirring up the worst elements of
our nature, to further his own tortuous policy ; — if such
should be the result of your deliberations upon this pre-
liminary question of the loyalty or disloyalty of the Ex-
ministerial party, — then, and in that case, are you bound,
in honor and in justice, to find upon the fourth head of
enquiry, that " the mere assertion of the right to be con-
" suited, set up — whether rightly or wrongly, — by the
" late ministry, implied no design on their part to sub-
" vert the authority of the British Crown in this Pro-
" vince, and that neither their manner of asserting it,
" nor their conduct, or that of their adherents, since the
" resignation, was indicative of any treasonable purpose,
" or of any other object or design whatever, than the
" mere enunciation of a constitutional right which they
" conscientiously believed themselves to possess ; and
" that the course pursued by them, in this matter, was
" perfectly compatible with the most profound loyalty
" to their sovereign, — and, as a necessary consequence,
" that the Governor General was not justified, but on
" the contrary, highly reprehensible, in charging them,
" publicly and repeatedly, with disaffection, disloyalty,
" and a desire to overthrow the authority of Great Bri-
" tain in Canada."
Having reached this sound conclusion, it is super-
fluous to say that you must discard from your minds
any prejudicial impression which may have been made
upon you, and that you must approach the main question
of the day, your judgment freed from the poisonous
colouring which these accusations may have imparted to
it ; and that although returned by constituencies suspi-
cious of the views of the late ministry, you must do,
precisely what they, in the honesty of their hearts, would
do themselves, if disabused of the vile imposition prac-
tised upon them, — you must) like true Britons, give the
Ex-ministers a fair and impartial British trial, upon the
abstract merits of the question of their resignation,
32
according to the sound principles of the British cons
titution.
Having thus disposed of the four first points involved
in the quarrel of His Excellency and his late ministers,
it becomes necessary now to enter upon the considera-
tion of the fifth and most important point for your deli-
berations upon the commencement of the present Session
of Parliament, namely — Whether, — the ministers being
justified in resigning their offices,— ought now to be sus-
tained in their position, and the confidence of the Repre-
sentatives of the people withheld from any other public men,
accepting office in their stead, of whatever party in
politics.
It is possible that there may be among your body a
certain number disposed to admit the fairness of the con-
duct pursued by the late Ministry, and the soundness of
the principles, contended for by them, who— yet — are
indisposed, or do not see the necessity, to force mat-
ters to such a pass, as would ensure a triumph to one
party, or a marked defeat to the other* This class does
not deem it necessary to disturb the present order of
things, provided the Head of the Executive consent to
administer the Government according to the interpreta-
tion of the system of Responsibility advocated by the
Ex-Ministers, and are of opinion that it is immaterial for
the interests of the country, by what set of men the reins
may be held. This is a fatal error. As the controversy
now stands between the Governor and his discarded mi-
nisters, a principle is involved in the very persons of the
latter, that being the sole remaining point which the pu-
blic declarations of the former still leave unsettled.
If the Governor be sustained by you in his present po-
sition, a precedent will be established which will give
him a veto as to the appointment of men/ in whom the
country may have expressed its confidence, and thus the
33
entire phalanx of the popular branch may be annihilated,
and the responsible system itself virtually neutralised in
practice. In every instance of a disruption of the Pro-
vincial Cabinet, the appeal must be to the country, both
parties being amenable to public opinion, as expressed
through the representatives of the people in Parliament.
If upon the reasons assigned, the Governor General be
supported in his views, the ministry are forthwith to be
shelved. If, on the other hand, their course be approved,
it would be blind policy and rank cowardice to abandon
them. This is the great principle involved in the last,
and all important head of enquiry.
This notion of indifference as to the particular per-
sons to whom the reins of government are to be confided,
is a point which will be pressed upon you in order to
sustain the present Ministry. It is a ruse of the enemy
which must be defeated, for although a shallow one, it
is nevertheless fraught with more danger to the perma-
nent establishment of true Responsible Government in
the colonies, than any other.
You will be told, with an air of great earnestness?
that there is in reality no difference between His Excel-
lency and the late Ministers, about the practical opera-
tion of the system, and that he has always professed him-
self favorable to the most liberal interpretation of it. In
short you may be prepared to hear, that when he decla-
red, in his written answer to the explanation of the Ex-
Ministers laid before Parliament, that, — " it could not he
imagined that the mere form of taking advice, without re-
garding it, was . the process contemplated" — he meant,
what he afterwards publicly announced, — " that he would
never dream of carrying on the governmeut of the Pro-
vince without consulting his Council." It will possibly
require all the ingenuity, and all the eloquence, of all
the eminent men of his present Council, to persuade
you, that there is not in these two declarations, an irre-
concilable repugnancy, and that however conscientiously
D
34
he may have at one time upheld the doctrine contained
in the first declaration, — the promulgation of the second
one contains irrefragable proof of his abandonment of
the first, and that he has virtually capitulated upon the
main cause of the quarrel, and that his pertinacious and
continued hostility to the cause of the Ex-Ministers pre-
cludes any charitable supposition, that his first position,
though erroneous, was maintained in good faith, or sans
connaissance de cause.
It will be attempted, as one of the wiles of the enemy,
under the tuition of Lord Stanley, whose object is to
burke the invaluable boon conceded to this country un-
der the auspices of the Earl of Durham, and reduced to
practice under the administration of Sir Charles Bagot,
(whose memories you will allow to be unstained with a
single act or thought inimical to British supremacy in the
colonies ;) — every art will be put in requisition to im-
press upon you, that the Responsible Government con-
tended for by the Lafontaine — Baldwin administration is
inconsistent with the subordinate relation of the Province
to the Parent state ; — that it is an imperium in imperio ; —
that it is absolute and unqualified independence, and
that from the moment of its full and final concession, as
now insisted upon, the colonies are gone for ever. —
Fudge ! — Believe it not. Draw a clear and distinct line
of demarcation between questions of an Imperial, and
those of a local nature, and the problem is at once sol-
ved. In regard to the management of the latter., we are
entitled to have a ministry — a state Cabinet — holding
office as long as its members command the confidence
of the Legislative Assembly, and working the machine
of local administration, precisely in the same manner as
in the metropolitan Cabinet. I could not more strongly
fortify this view of the subject,than by invoking the publicly
pronounced opinion of a distinguished member of the late
Legislative Assembly, well known to you all, and to the
whole Province, as an eminent Constitutional lawyer, and
35
one whose loyalty and attachment, as well to his So-
verign, as to this the land of his birth, are undoubted, and
with respect to the honesty and independence of whose
opinions there is not an individual in either section of
the Province, of whatever origin or party, who enter-
tains the shadow of a suspicion. Upon a requisition
being addressed to him to come forward as a Candidate
at the late Election, based upon his already declared
views on the general principle of Responsibility, and
his refusal to take office under the Viger — Draper
Cabinet, in the following terms : —
" The undersigned, Electors of the City of Quebec,
" assuming, as well from your approval, in the late Le-
'• gislative Assembly, of the right insisted upon by the
" late Ministry, of being consulted by the Head of the
" Executive upon all matters touching the administration
" of the local affairs of the Country, as from your refu-
" sal to take office under the present Administration*
" that you are disposed to carry out the system of
" Responsible Government recognised in this Province*,
" and to advocate its practical application to the local
" affairs of the Province upon the same principles upon
" which it is adhered to in the Metropolitan Cabinet,
* coupled with a due regard to the dependency of the
" Colonies towards the Parent State, and reposing the
" highest confidence in your integrity and abilities, and
" in your regard for the inalienable rights of the People,
c * and the just Prerogatives of the Crown, hereby res-
" pectfully request you to come forward as a Candidate,
" at this important political conjuncture, to represent
" them in the Provincial Parliament, in conjunction with
" Jean Chabot, Esquire, Advocate."
That Gentleman replied : —
" The opinions I am known to entertain in relation to
" a constitutional responsibility of the advisers, ministers
" and officers of the Sovereign within the Colony, are
tf such as must,. I think, be generally recognized as in-
" volving the only principles upon which the Colonial
36
" administration can be conducted. I cherish the confi-
" dent hope that they will prevail and ultimately secure the
" peace and prosperity of all the British North American
" possessions. Firmly convinced of the indispensable
" supremacy of the Parent State, and of the importance
" of drawing closer the bonds of our union with that
" great Empire, I feel persuaded that nothing can con-
" tribute more to this important end than assimilating the
" administration as nearly as possible to the practice
" and spirit of the wise and enlightened government
" which it enjoys."
The votary of Responsible Government, who could
pronounce such an answer to such a requisition, as not
sufficently embodying all that we are now contending
for, is an exalte whose theoretic ardour surpasses his
discretion ; and the orthodox supporters of British con-
nexion, the consistent legitimists of St. Peter street, who
could approve Sir Charles Metcalfe's Responsible Go-
nernment code, and yet take umbrage at this answer, is a
Tory of the most odious stamp, wanting the usual recti-
tude of that class of politicians, and ever ready to adopt
any system, — even a democratic one, did it proceed from
the mouth of a despot. To such a subservient class, the
mere discussion of political rights is offensive, and the
most arbitrary Special Council would be distasteful, be-
cause of its semblance to a deliberative body.
There is another point which though not connected
with the question of the day, may yet not be unworthy
of notice. If credit is to be given to rumours which are
afloat, without being traceable to any distinct paternity, it
would appear that persons belonging to the reform
cause have it in contemplation to moot the repeal of the
Union of the Provinces. There is no one subject which
could be broached in the House at the present juncture,
calculated to exert a more baneful effect upon the main
question of the day, and the general course of events,
than the re-opening of such a vexations point. It is to be
37
hoped that no individual member will introduce any mea-
sure or subject, having a tendency to embarass the great
question of the day, or the general policy of the reform
party. Let it be remembered that it is now the law
of the land, and that the late confidential Ministers of the
people, whose cause we all support, have solemnly
ratified the Act of Union, by the permanent establishment
of the Seat of Government in the City wherein you now
hold your deliberations, and that any attempt to disturb it
now, would have the twofold effect of weakening that
cause, and of giving a color to the slanderous imputa-
tion which the enemy of that cause has never ceased to
promulgate against the Ex-ministers and every man
who dares to defend them. It would afford him and his
supporters a handle, the preponderating and damaging
effect of which would be irretrievable. Besides let it be
borne in mind that the Union, (without giving any opi-
nion as to the policy of that measure before its enact-
ment,) has brought in its train at least two precious
gifts, — the concession ot a free constitutional system
of government, and a coalition between the inhabitants
of the two countries holding the same political principles,
under the benign sway of which the stupid — hateful
— damnable destinctions of national origin are fast fading
away; and that when the stringent enactments of the Union
Act respecting the apportionment of the representation,
and the provisions of the Civil List, shall have been
modified or expunged, its future working may conduce
more to the peace of the country, and to the cause of
civil liberty, than many of us may have reason at pre-
sent to anticipate.
To return : His Excellency Sir Charles Metcalfe has
placed himself in that awkward dilemma that his policy
must be subjected to your stern review, with reference
to two separate and distinct branches of it ; — the one
involving the propriety of his treatment of the Ex-
ministers, and the other the constitutionality of the
38
course pursued by him since the month of December
last. Should the result ot your deliberations exonerate
the late ministers from all blame, then your endeavours
must be directed to reinstate the bark of the constitution
in that healthy course which she was pursuing, when the
blasting winds of official interference paralyzed her
energies, in order at once to establish on a permanent
basis, those principles of colonial responsible government,
which have been imprudently invaded by the Governor
General, and to prevent the country being again con-
vulsed for the purpose of upholding, in an unjust perso-
nal quarrel, one of the contending parties, long after he
himself has cried peccavi.
Should the majority of you, however, find negatively
upon the various points now brought under your consi-
deration, and throw its weight into the scale in favour of
the inculpation, by Sir Charles Metcalfe, of the members
of his late cabinet, no doubt can possibly remain that
after having come to such a sane conclusion, that
majority will tender its ready approbation of the policy
of the Governor General since the resignation, and of his
present advisers, as well as of any others whom it may
please him to honor with his confidence.
The present enquiry is directed chiefly to the cause
of the Ex-ministers, as it stood in JXovember last,
because in that cause a great principle is at stake, and
subsequent events are only entitled to consideration in
so far as they extenuate or aggravate the conduct of the
belligerents, and thereby reveal the quo animo of either,
at the time of the split. The wisdom displayed by His
Excellency in the choice of his present counsellors, and
the policy which they have followed, come not within the
immediate scope of the present enquiry. They have
both received a sufficient quietus in the fact of their
unqualified condemnation by all parties in the Province,
of whatever sect or party.
The resignation of the late ministry is an act which
■39
redounds to their infinite honour. It triumphantly refutes
the bugbear of the worshippers of Special Councils and
arbitrary Government, — that we have no materiel in this
Province for a Responsible Government, and a Colonial
Cabinet removeable at the will of the Assembly. The
first ministry under the new system have furnished a
brilliant example of public men, who prefer public virtue
and principle, to office or emolument, notwithstanding
the ravings and the calumnies of a hireling press, who
ascribe their conduct to mercenary views. To impute
sordid motives, and a love of office, to men as a reason
for resigning lucrative offices, is a contradiction in terms,
and so palpably absurd that the judgment of the accuser
must be irrecoverably warped by the dishonesty of his
own purpose. Such a charge deserves to be placed
in juxta position with that one which characterises
Responsible Government, i. e. — the free working of the
British Constituiion as practised in England ! — to be but
another name for an " Elective Council, 5 ' — i. e. — an or-
ganic change in the constitution destructive of its system
of checks and balances, and savouring strongly of repu-
blicanism, and the insane demand for which, by the late
Lower Canada Assembly, led to revolt and all its
concomitant miseries. It is deplorable that men of
standing in the community should be rendered so rabid
by opposition and defeat, as not to know that sound
moralists have long since discarded the flimsy dis-
tinction between private and political integrity, and
private and political turpitude. To charge a large
majority of the people of Canada with treasonable
designs* without offering one substantial ground for the
accusation, is a flagitious act which ought to be held up
to public reprobation, and must be taken as evidence of
no earthly object, save a desire to produce the very mis-
chief which the chief accuser, and his lackey press,
affect to deprecate. "It is hardly fair,*' wisely observed
the " Nestor of Canadian politics," " to ascribe to the
40
" Executive Councillors, who resigned, other motives than
" those which they avow" ! ! — as witness his own hand,
in his Gazette of the 22nd December, 1843.
In vain will be your acquiescence in all the points pre-
viously submitted to your consideration, if they fail to
produce that determination upou the fifth head of discus-
sion which would seem to be the inevitable consequence
of the others. To be of opinion that the Responsible
Government of Canada, in the management of its local
affairs, is the counterpart of the practical machinery of
the British Constitution in the Cabinet of Downing
Street : — and that the late ministers surrendered the
reius of Government, and their lucrative appendages, un-
der a high and imperative sense of duty, confirmed by
the approval of the country and the confessions of their
adversaries : — and that their conduct and their mo-
tives have emerged scatheless and unsullied fromjthe ini-
quitous crusade, and the war of detraction, which they
have endured at the hands of an unscrupulous enemy : —
to coincide in these riews, and at the same time to
withhold, from the Ex-Ministers, that sentence of appro-
val, which the injured ever command at the hands of the
just, and from their opponents,that rebuke, which is the
reward of the aggressor and the slanderer, — is to hold
an opinion which is utterly valueless ; it is to deny the
sanction which is due to right, and to offer a premium
to the wrong-door ; — to refuse justice to the " good and
faithful servant" and to applaud the oppressor; it is
telling the sinner that he may sin with impunity, and
repent without restitution : — it is exhibiting to the world
the spectacle of a public Body, presumed to be the con-
centrated wisdom and patriotism of the land, conscious
of the rectitude of their accredited public servants, and of
the jnstice of the sentence pronounced upon them by
their former masters ; — yet lacking the moral ■ courage
to act upon that opinion, and preferring the unenviable
course of sacrificing the honor and independence of pu-
41
blic men, and stultifying the acts of their predecessors,
to a high-minded and impartial discharge of their duty,
irrespective of every influence and consideration, save
the dictates of justice and the honor of their country.
Remember the golden rule ! The non-observance of
it now will entail endless difficulties upon the country
and its well wishers. Should your decision be adverse
to right, the lesson will be recorded in indelible charac-
ters in the history of your proceedings. In the face of
such an example, and after such a disastrous issue to a
meritorious struggle for the maintenance of your rights,
what man among you, or in all the Province beside,
will have the hardihood to take the helm of affairs ! The
destinies of your country may be hereafter assailed, in
perilous times, by political adventurers clothed with im-
perial authority, and the utmost fortitude of which hu-
man nature is capable, may be put. to the test to enable
public men to stand in the breach, in order to frustrate
the designs of tyranny. — Let the page of history which
recites the deeds of the Legislative Assembly of Ca-
nada, for the present eventful session, furnish an example
that the public men who did not swerve from their duty
to the country, were not forgotten nor contemned iu the
hour of trial, and that the eternal dictates of right and
justice were not permitted to succumb to selfish consi-
derations of human expediency, or the pressure of poli-
tical intrigue.
It is impossible now to foresee at what period of the
session, or in what shape you will be called upon to in-
3cr$$ that vote upon the Journals of the House which
will record your finding upon the points now submitted
to you. But come it must, — and your judgment must
inevitably be that the late Ministers, — havtng been jus-
tified in your eyes, must be upheld in their constitutional
stand, and your confidence withheld from tho*e who have
accepted office in their stead, of whatever party in
politics ; and every man among you must then be prepared
i 42
to submit the reasons of his judgment to the tribunal of
puhlic opinion, which, sooner or later, will reach with
its avenging hand, every culprit who deserts his country
in the hour of trial.
To that enlightened and independent portion among you
whom no earthly consideration can deter from the perfor-
mance of the high duty which now devolves upon you,the
present address is a work of supererogation. In wnatever
shape &, whatever time the first decisive demonstration of
friendship or hostility to the late ministry is made, you
will be found at your posts, and your judgment will be
such as to ensure you, to your latest hour, the approval
of your consciences, and the applause of your country.
To such of you as may have taken your stand among
the hostile ranks, under a conscientious belief of the
correctness of your course, and whose motives and cha-
racters are above suspicion, (for many such there are,)
an earnest and solemn appeal is made, and the only
one which propriety, and a due regard for your integrity
and independence will permit, namely, that you will
makeup your minds after a fair and impartial considera-
tion of the case, stripped of every foreign and sinister
influence, and render that judgment which you yourselves
would expect at the hands of others, were you placed
in similar circumstances.
But to those among you who are ever found marshalled
on the side of authority, by whatever hand the sceptre
may be wielded. — whose loyalty and whose patriotism
take their tone from your official Master, whose life is
but a tablet stereotyped in acts of servility to the
'• powers that be,"— and whose souls are impervious to
the anathemas of public opinion, (for some such
there are,) — to you i say, hold on inflexibly your
undeviating course of tergiversation upon every
measure and principle, save your single — eyed alle-
giance to the automaton of the hour, Beware that you
do not betray the cause of the " Compact," and of your
43
patrons — the tories, officials and fanatics of both sec-
tions of the Province, by a deviation into the paths of
truth and independence, but prove ye yourselves ever
worthy of your hire. Above all pollute not the cause
of freedom, nor transform an honorable defeat into an
ignominious victory, by a union with her ranks ; for
better by far to her cause the most humiliating failure,
than a triumph obtained by such a damaging coalition.
To one and all: — Remember that the eyes of the
whole Province, — of all the North American Provinces,
are fixed upon you. Should you, under the influence of
motives of false delicacy, permit the liberal policy which
has recently been adopted towards Canada, to be super-
seded by the caprice, or the stolidity of the nominees of
Downing street, and the intrigues of chronic provincial
place-hunters, you will mar the prosperity of that
country, of which the guardianship, in an evil hour,
will have been confided to your hands, and you will re-
commit its destinies, irretrievably, into the hands of the
underlings of the Colonial office. Whereas by a firm and
independent stand for your political rights, you will'
establish permanently in Canada, a Colonial cons-
titution, possessing, like its revered prototype, all the es-
sence,without the vices or the impurities of a democracy,
giving the Colonies their legitimate preponderating voice
in the management of their affairs, and under the anti septic
influence of which, the Colonial Body- Politic will ac-
quire health and stability ; and you will thus effectually
consign the whole calumnious rebel tribe of Tories,officials
and Compact men, to the Tombs of all the Capulets, there
to expiate their sins of treason to their country, commit-
ted under the mask of loyalty to their Sovereign. You will
mature that spirit of constitutional freedom, intermixed
with sentiments of loyalty to the Queen, and of gra-
titude to the British people, — the fruit of their enlight-
ened policy, — which has just begun to dawn upon the
British Colonies, prophetic of their future prosperity, and
44
their permanent and happy connexion with the parent
state. You will re-establish the credit of the Province
of Canada, on that high footing which every man
of probity within its limits is conscious that it merits, and
you will rescue its peaceful moral inhabitants from the
character for turbulence which their enemies have re -
cently, and most foully, been labouring to affix upon them
in the eyes of the whole world. All this you will assuredly
accomplish by an upright, straightforward line of con-
duct, consonant alike to the dictates of sound loyalty and
genuine patriotism, and inflexibly pursued, without fear
of censure or hope of reward. And may the eternal
principles of truth, honor and justice overrule your
deliberations*
ZENO.
Quebec, 28th Nov. 1844.