POLITICAL PROGRESS
In the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to review--very imperfectly,
I am afraid--all those important events in the political history of
Canada from 1847 to 1854, which have had the most potent influence on
its material, social, and political development. Any one who carefully
studies the conditions of the country during that critical period of
Canadian affairs cannot fail to come to the conclusion that the
gradual elevation of Canada from the depression which was so prevalent
for years in political as well as commercial matters, to a position of
political strength and industrial prosperity, was largely owing to the
success of the principles of self-government which Lord Elgin
initiated and carried out while at the head of the Canadian executive.
These principles have been clearly set forth in his speeches and in
his despatches to the secretary of state for the colonies as well as
in instructive volumes on the colonial policy of Lord John Russell's
administration by Lord Grey, the imperial minister who so wisely
recommended Lord Elgin's appointment as governor-general Briefly
stated these principles are as follows:--
That it is neither desirable nor possible to carry on the
government of a province in opposition to the opinion of its
people.
That a governor-general can have no ministers who do not
enjoy the full confidence of the popular House, or, in the
last resort, of the people.
That the governor-general should not refuse his consent to
any measure proposed by the ministry unless it is clear that
it is of such an extreme party character that the assembly
or people could not approve of it.
That the governor-general should not identify himself with
any party but make himself "a mediator and moderator between
all parties."
That colonial communities should be encouraged to cultivate "a
national and manly tone of political morals," and should look to their
own parliaments for the solution of all problems of provincial
government instead of making constant appeals to the colonial office
or to opinion in the mother country, "always ill-informed, and
therefore credulous, in matters of colonial politics."
That the governor-general should endeavour to impart to these rising
communities the full advantages of British laws, British institutions,
and British freedom, and maintain in this way the connection between
them and the parent state.
We have seen in previous chapters how industriously, patiently, and
discreetly Lord Elgin laboured to carry out these principles in the
administration of his government. In 1849 he risked his own life that
he might give full scope to the principles of responsible government
with respect to the adjustment of a question which should be settled
by the Canadian people themselves without the interference of the
parent state, and on the same ground he impressed on the imperial
government the necessity of giving to the Canadian legislature full
control of the settlement of the clergy reserves. He had no patience
with those who believed that, in allowing the colonists to exercise
their right to self-government in matters exclusively affecting
themselves, there was any risk whatever so far as imperial interests
were concerned. One of his ablest letters was that which he wrote to
Earl Grey as an answer to the unwise utterances of the prime minister,
Lord John Russell, in the course of a speech on the colonies in which,
"amid the plaudits of a full senate, he declared that he looked
forward to the day when the ties which he was endeavouring to render
so easy and mutually advantageous would be severed." Lord Elgin held
it to be "a perfectly unsound and most dangerous theory, that British
colonies could not attain maturity without separation," and in this
connection he quoted the language of Mr. Baldwin to whom he had read
that part of Lord John Russell's speech to which he took such strong
exception. "For myself," said the eminent Canadian, "if the
anticipations therein expressed prove to be well founded, my interest
in public affairs is gone forever. But is it not hard upon us while we
are labouring, through good and evil report, to thwart the designs of
those who would dismember the empire, that our adversaries should be
informed that the difference between them and the prime minister of
England is only one of time? If the British government has really come
to the conclusion that we are a burden to be cast off, whenever a
favourable opportunity offers, surely we ought to be warned." In Lord
Elgin's opinion, based on a thorough study of colonial conditions, if
the Canadian or any other system of government was to be successful,
British statesmen must "renounce the habit of telling the colonies
that the colonial is a provisional existence." They should be taught
to believe that "without severing the bonds which unite them to
England, they may attain the degree of perfection, and of social and
political development to which organized communities of free men have
a right to aspire." The true policy in his judgment was "to throw the
whole weight of responsibility on those who exercise the real power,
for after all, the sense of responsibility is the best security
against the abuse of power; and as respects the connection, to act and
speak on this hypothesis--that there is nothing in it to check the
development of healthy national life in these young communities." He
was "possessed," he used the word advisedly, "with the idea that it
was possible to maintain on the soil of North America, and in the face
of Republican America, British connection and British institutions, if
you give the latter freely and trustingly." The history of Canada from
the day those words were penned down to the beginning of the twentieth
century proves their political wisdom. Under the inspiring influence
of responsible government Canada has developed in 1902, not into an
independent nation, as predicted by Lord John Russell and other
British statesmen after him, but into a confederation of five millions
and a half of people, in which a French Canadian prime minister gives
expression to the dominant idea not only of his own race but of all
nationalities within the Dominion, that the true interest lies not in
the severance but in the continuance of the ties that have so long
bound them to the imperial state.
Lord Elgin in his valuable letters to the imperial authorities, always
impressed on them the fact that the office of a Canadian
governor-general has not by any means been lowered to that of a mere
subscriber of orders-in-council--of a mere official automaton,
speaking and acting by the orders of the prime minister and the
cabinet. On the contrary, he gave it as his experience that in
Jamaica, where there was no responsible government, he had "not half
the power" he had in Canada "with a constitutional and changing
cabinet." With respect to the maintenance of the position and due
influence of the governor, he used language which gives a true
solution of the problem involved in the adaptation of parliamentary
government to the colonial system. "As the imperial government and
parliament gradually withdraw from legislative interference, and from
the exercise of patronage in colonial affairs, the office of governor
tends to become, in the most emphatic sense of the term, the link
which connects the mother country and the colony, and his influence
the means by which harmony of action between the local and imperial
authorities is to be preserved. It is not, however, in my humble
judgment, by evincing an anxious desire to stretch to the utmost
constitutional principles in his favour, but, on the contrary, by the
frank acceptance of the conditions of the parliamentary system, that
this influence can be most surely extended and confirmed. Placed by
his position above the strife of parties--holding office by a tenure
less precarious than the ministers who surround him--having no
political interests to serve but those of the community whose affairs
he is appointed to administer--his opinion cannot fail, when all cause
for suspicion and jealousy is removed, to have great weight in
colonial councils, while he is set at liberty to constitute himself in
an especial manner the patron of those larger and higher
interests--such interests, for example, as those of education, and of
moral and material progress in all its branches--which, unlike the
contests of party, unite instead of dividing the members of the body
politic."
As we study the political history of Canada for the fifty years which
have elapsed since Lord Elgin enunciated in his admirable letters to
the imperial government the principles which guided him in his
Canadian administration, we cannot fail to see clearly that
responsible government has brought about the following results, which
are at once a guarantee of efficient home government and of a
harmonious cooperation between the dependency and the central
authority of the empire.
The misunderstandings that so constantly occurred between the
legislative bodies and the imperial authorities, on account of the
latter failing so often to appreciate fully the nature of the
political grievances that agitated the public mind, and on account of
their constant interference in matters which should have been left
exclusively to the control of the people directly interested, have
been entirely removed in conformity with the wise policy of making
Canada a self-governing country in the full sense of the phrase. These
provinces are as a consequence no longer a source of irritation and
danger to the parent state, but, possessing full independence in all
matters of local concern, are now among the chief sources of England's
pride and greatness.
The governor-general instead of being constantly brought into conflict
with the political parties of the country, and made immediately
responsible for the continuance of public grievances, has gained in
dignity and influence since he has been removed from the arena of
public controversy. He now occupies a position in harmony with the
principles that have given additional strength and prestige to the
throne itself. As the legally accredited representative of the
sovereign, as the recognized head of society, he represents what
Bagehot has aptly styled "the dignified part of our constitution,"
which has much value in a country like ours where we fortunately
retain the permanent form of monarchy in harmony with the democratic
machinery of our government. If the governor-general is a man of
parliamentary experience and constitutional knowledge, possessing tact
and judgment, and imbued with the true spirit of his high
vocation--and these high functionaries have been notably so since the
commencement of confederation--he can sensibly influence, in the way
Lord Elgin points out, the course of administration and benefit the
country at critical periods of its history. Standing above all party,
having the unity of the empire at heart, a governor-general can at
times soothe the public mind, and give additional confidence to the
country, when it is threatened with some national calamity, or there
is distrust abroad as to the future. As an imperial officer he has
large responsibilities of which the general public has naturally no
very clear idea, and if it were possible to obtain access to the
confidential and secret despatches which seldom see the light in the
colonial office--certainly not in the lifetime of the men who wrote
them--it would be found how much, for a quarter of a century past, the
colonial department has gained by having had in the Dominion, men, no
longer acting under the influence of personal feeling through being
made personally responsible for the conduct of public affairs, but
actuated simply by a desire to benefit the country over which they
preside, and to bring Canadian interests into union with those of the
empire itself.
The effects on the character of public men and on the body politic
have been for the public advantage. It has brought out the best
qualities of colonial statesmanship, lessened the influence of mere
agitators and demagogues, and taught our public men to rely on
themselves in all crises affecting the welfare and integrity of the
country. Responsible government means self-reliance, the capacity to
govern ourselves, the ability to build up a great nation.
When we review the trials and struggles of the past that we may gain
from them lessons of confidence for the future, let us not forget to
pay a tribute to the men who have laid the foundations of these
communities, still on the threshold of their development, and on whom
the great burden fell; to the French Canadians who, despite the
neglect and indifference of their kings, amid toil and privation, amid
war and famine, built up a province which they have made their own by
their patience and industry, and who should, differ as we may from
them, evoke our respect for their fidelity to the institutions of
their origin, for their appreciation of the advantages of English
self-government, and for their cooperation in all great measures
essential to the unity of the federation; to the Loyalists of last
century who left their homes for the sake of "king and country," and
laid the foundations of prosperous and loyal English communities by
the sea and by the great lakes, and whose descendants have ever stood
true to the principles of the institutions which have made Britain free
and great; to the unknown body of pioneers some of whose names perhaps
still linger on a headland or river or on a neglected gravestone, who
let in the sunlight year by year to the dense forests of these
countries, and built up by their industry the large and thriving
provinces of this Dominion; above all, to the statesmen--Elgin,
Baldwin, LaFontaine, Morin, Howe, and many others--who laid deep and
firm, beneath the political structure of this confederation, those
principles of self-government which give harmony to our constitutional
system and bring out the best qualities of an intelligent people. In
the early times in which they struggled they had to bear much obloquy,
and their errors of judgment have been often severely arraigned at the
bar of public opinion; many of them lived long enough to see how soon
men may pass into oblivion; but we who enjoy the benefit of their
earnest endeavours, now that the voice of the party passion of their
times is hushed, should never forget that, though they are not here to
reap the fruit of their labours, their work survives in the energetic
and hopeful communities which stretch from Cape Breton to Victoria.