Canada, Sir John George Bourinot [best time to read books .TXT] 📗

/> XXV.

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT AND ITS RESULTS--FEDERAL UNION--RELATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES.

(1839-1867.)


The passage of the Union Act of 1840 was the commencement of a new era in the constitutional history of Canada as well as of the other provinces. The most valuable result was the admission of the all-important principle that the ministry advising the governor should possess the confidence of the representatives of the people assembled in parliament. Lord Durham, in his report, had pointed out most forcibly the injurious consequences of the very opposite system which had so long prevailed in the provinces. His views had such influence on the minds of the statesmen then at the head of imperial affairs, that Mr. Poulett Thomson, when appointed governor-general, received her Majesty's commands to administer the government of the united provinces "in accordance with the well-understood wishes and interests of the people," and to employ in the {362} public service only "those persons who, by their position and character, have obtained the general confidence and esteem of the inhabitants of the province." During the first session of the Canadian legislature the assembly passed certain resolutions which authoritatively expressed the views of the supporters of responsible government.

Nevertheless, during the six years that elapsed after the passage of this formal expression of the views of the large majority of the legislature, "Responsible Government" did not always obtain in the fullest sense of the phrase, and not a few misunderstandings arose between the governors and the supporters of the principle as to the manner in which it should be worked out. In Canada Lord Metcalfe, who succeeded Baron Sydenham--the title of Mr. Poulett Thomson--on his sudden death at Kingston in 1841, brought about a political crisis in consequence of his contention for the privilege--utterly inconsistent with the principles of responsible government--of making appointments to office without the advice of his council. In Nova Scotia Sir Colin Campbell, who was more suited to the military camp than to the political arena, endeavoured to throw obstacles in the way of the new system, but he was soon recalled. His successor, Lord Falkland, a vain nobleman, was an unhappy choice of the colonial office. He became the mere creature of the Tory party, led by James W. Johnston, a very able lawyer and eloquent speaker, and the open enemy of the liberals led by Joseph Howe, William Young, James Boyle Uniacke, and Herbert {363} Huntington. The imperial government recognised their mistake, and replaced Lord Falkland by Sir John Harvey, the hero of Stoney Creek in 1813, who had done much to establish parliamentary government in New Brunswick. In 1847 Lord Elgin--the son-in-law of Lord Durham--was appointed governor-general, and received positive instructions "to act generally upon the advice of {364} his executive council, and to receive as members of that body those persons who might be pointed out to him as entitled to do so by their possessing the confidence of the assembly." No act of parliament was necessary to effect this important change; the insertion and alteration of a few paragraphs in the Governor's instructions were sufficient. By 1848 the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and by 1851 Prince Edward Island, were in the full enjoyment of a system of self-government, which had been so long advocated by their ablest public men; and the results have proved, on the whole, despite the excesses and mistakes of party, eminently favourable to political as well as material development.

In the historic annals of the great contest that was fought for responsible government, some names stand out most prominently. Foremost is that of Joseph Howe, the eminent Liberal, whose eloquence charmed the people of Nova Scotia for many years. In his early life he was a printer and an editor, but he became a leader of his party soon after he entered the legislature, and died a lieutenant-governor of his native province. In New Brunswick, Lemuel A. Wilmot, afterwards a judge and lieutenant-governor, was a man of much energy, persuasive eloquence, and varied learning. Robert Baldwin, of Upper Canada, was a statesman of great discretion, who showed the people how their liberties could be best promoted by wise and constitutional agitation. Louis Hyppolite Lafontaine was one of the most distinguished and capable men that French Canada has {365} ever given to the legislature and the bench. By his political alliance with Mr. Baldwin, the principles of responsible government were placed on a durable basis. In the parent state the names of Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone, and Earl Grey--colonial secretaries from 1839 to 1852--are especially associated with the concession of those great principles which have enlarged the sphere of self-government in the colonies of the English Crown.

During the quarter of a century that elapsed from 1842 to 1867--the crucial period of national development--an industrious population flowed steadily into the country, the original population became more self-reliant and pursued their vocations with renewed energy, and confidence increased on all sides in the ability of the provinces to hold their own against the competition of a wonderfully enterprising neighbour. Cities, towns, and villages were built up with a rapidity not exceeded even on the other side of the border. In those days Ontario became the noble province that she now is by virtue of the capacity of her people for self-government, the energy of her industrial classes, the fertility of her soil, and the superiority of her climate. The maritime industry of the lower provinces was developed most encouragingly, and Nova Scotia built up a commercial marine not equalled by that of any New England State. The total population of the provinces of British North America, now comprised within the confederation of 1867, had increased from a million and a half in 1840 to three millions and a quarter in 1861--the ratio of increase in those years having been greater than at any previous or later period of Canadian history. It was during this period that the Grand Trunk Railway, which has done so much to assist the material progress of the old province of Canada, was constructed. In 1850 there were only fifty miles of railway in operation throughout Canada, but by 1867 there were nearly three thousand miles, and that magnificent example of engineering skill, the Victoria Bridge, carried passengers across {367} the St. Lawrence at Montreal, and connected Canada with the great railway system of the United States. With railway development must always be associated the name of Sir Francis Hincks, an able statesman of the Liberal party, who recognised the necessities of a new country.

So far from the act of 1840, which united the Canadas, acting unfavourably to the French Canadian people it gave them eventually a predominance in the councils of the country. French soon again became the official language by an amendment to the union act, and the claims providing for equality of representation proved a security when the upper province increased more largely in population than the French Canadian section. The particular measure which the French Canadians had pressed for so many years on the British Government, an elective legislative council, was conceded. When a few years had passed the Canadian legislature was given full control of taxation, supply, and expenditure, in accordance with English constitutional principles. The clergy reserves difficulty was settled and the land sold for public or municipal purposes, the interest of existing rectors and incumbents being guarded. The great land question of Canada, the seigniorial tenure of Lower Canada, was disposed of by buying off the claims of the seigniors, and the people of Lower Canada were freed from exactions which had become not so much onerous as vexatious. Municipal institutions of a liberal nature were established, and the people of the two Canadian provinces exercised that control of their local affairs in the {368} counties, townships, cities, and parishes which is necessary to carry out public works indispensable to the comfort, health, and convenience of the community, and to supplement the efforts made by the legislature, from time to time, to provide for the general education of the country. With the magnificent system of public schools now possessed by Ontario must always be associated the name of Dr. Egerton Ryerson, a famous Methodist, the opponent of Mackenzie's seditious action, and for many years the superintendent of education. In Nova Scotia it was chiefly through the foresight of Sir Charles Tupper, when premier, that the foundations were laid of the present admirable system. During the same period the schools of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were also placed on an excellent basis. In the maritime provinces no express legal provision was made for separate or denominational schools, as in Upper and Lower Canada--schools now protected by the terms of the federal union of 1867. The civil service, which necessarily plays so important a part in the administration of government, was placed on a permanent basis.

The anxiety of the British Government to bury in oblivion the unfortunate events of 1837-38 was proved by an amnesty that was granted soon after the union of 1841, to the banished offenders against the public peace and the Crown. William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis Joseph Papineau, and Wolfred Nelson came back and were elected to Parliament, though the two first never exercised any influence in the future.

Then occurred an event which had its origin in the rebellion, and in the racial antagonism which was still slumbering in the bosom of the State. In the first session of the Union Parliament, compensation was granted to those loyalists of Upper Canada, whose property had been unnecessarily or wantonly {370} destroyed during the outbreak. The claim was then raised on behalf of persons similarly situated in Lower Canada. The Conservative Draper government of 1845 agreed to pay a small amount of rebellion losses as a sequence of a report made by commissioners appointed to inquire into the subject. At a later time, when Lord Elgin was governor-general, the Baldwin-Lafontaine ministry brought down a measure to indemnify all those persons who had not taken part in the rebellion, but were justly entitled to compensation for actual losses. The Tory opposition raised the cry, "No pay to rebels," and some of them in their anger even issued a manifesto in favour of annexation. The parliament house at Montreal was burned down, a great number of books and records destroyed, and Lord Elgin grossly insulted for having assented to the bill. This very discreditable episode in the political history of Canada proved the extremes to which even men, professing extreme loyalty, can be carried at times of political passion and racial difficulty.

The union of 1841 did its work, and the political conditions of Canada again demanded another radical change commensurate with the material and political development of the country, and capable of removing the difficulties that had arisen in the operation of the act of 1840. The claims of Upper Canada to larger representation, equal to its increased population since 1840, owing to the great immigration which had naturally sought a rich and fertile province, were steadily resisted by the French Canadians as an unwarrantable interference with the {371} security guaranteed to them under the act. This resistance gave rise to great irritation in Upper Canada, where a powerful party made representation by population their platform, and government at last became practically impossible on account of the {372} close political divisions for years in the assembly. At the head of the party demanding increased representation was Mr. George Brown, an able man of Scotch birth, who became the conductor of a most influential organ of public opinion, _The Toronto Globe_, and