SELF-GOVERNMENT
The political faculty in Newfoundland was so rudimentary at this
period that from 1841 to 1843 it became necessary to suspend the
Constitution. In the autumn of 1840 an election riot at Carbonear
occurred, which was of such a serious character that the sympathies of
the British ministry with Newfoundland affairs were alienated, and the
Governor was ordered to dissolve the Legislature. He did this on April
26th, 1841, and in his speech pointed out the reason for such drastic
action: "As a Committee of the House of Commons has been appointed to
enquire into the state of Newfoundland, before which Committee I shall
have to appear, I will on the present occasion confine myself to the
expression of my regret that such a proceeding should have become
indispensably necessary to the tranquillity and welfare of the
colony." Until 1849 the government was carried on by a General
Assembly--a makeshift Assembly--in which members of the House of
Assembly sat side by side with members of the Council, the latter
losing their distinctive functions.
Under Governor Prescott (1834) and Governor Harvey (1841) began
organized attempts to foster the agricultural interest. Liberal grants
of land were made to poor settlers, and considerable sums voted for
the construction of roads. This was indeed a period of healthy
activity, for the development of the seal fishery added in a variety
of ways to the prosperity of the island, and the invention of steam,
together with the establishment of a regular mail service, brought
Newfoundland very much nearer to the home country.
On June 9th, 1846, came the last great fire but one which has ravaged
the colony. By great misfortune it broke out when a high wind was
blowing, and spread with fatal rapidity all over the town. Buildings,
public and private, wooden and stone, were involved in a common
destruction, and the last touch of horror came when the large oil vats
fringing the harbour caught fire. The Custom House, the Church of St.
John's, the Courts and Gaol, the Theatre, the Bank of British North
America, the Colonial Treasurer's Office, and the Savings Bank, were
all destroyed. It was estimated that the aggregate amount of damage
done was £1,000,000, and that upwards of 12,000 persons lost their
homes. In this crushing affliction the spirit shown by all classes,
from Governor Harvey downwards, was admirable. At a representative
meeting of the citizens convened by the Governor it was resolved:
"That this meeting is aware that the well-established credit and
stability of the trade of St. John's, coupled with the natural and
inexhaustible resources of its fisheries, will speedily enable it to
recover its usual current, but that in the meantime it is necessary
that publicity should be given to the demand for provisions and
building materials which at present exists in this market."
Help from Canada was quickly forthcoming and a grant of £30,000 from
the home country combined with private efforts to meet the most
pressing needs of the moment. The building of wider streets, the
proscription of wooden houses, and the provision of an ampler water
supply, showed that the lessons of the past had not been thrown away.
That year, 1846, was to be an _annus mirabilis_, for a storm, fiercer
than the wildest within living memory, wrought havoc among the
shipping in St. John's Harbour, and overwhelmed many substantial
buildings inland. It seemed as if the malice of destiny had sent the
gale to destroy the little that had escaped the fire; for Natives'
Hall, which was being used to shelter the houseless, was blown to the
ground.
About this time--thanks to the currents of excitement spread
everywhere by the European revolutionary movements of 1848--began a
fresh agitation for responsible government, which had already been
granted to the other North American colonies, and which involved a
larger measure of self-government than had been conceded in the
constitution of 1832. The inhabitants became more and more anxious
that appointments within the colony should depend upon popular
approval--or, rather, on the choice of the party commanding a majority
in the Legislature--and not upon the Crown's nomination. The official
view at home on this demand was stated both by the Whig, Earl Grey,
and the Conservative, Sir John Pakington. The former wrote:
"Until the wealth and population of the colony shall have increased
considerably beyond their present amount, the introduction of what is
called responsible government will by no means prove to its
advantage.... The institutions of Newfoundland have been of late in
various ways modified and altered, and some time must unavoidably
elapse before they can acquire that amount of fixity and adaptation to
the colonial wants of society which seems an indispensable preliminary
to the future extension of popular government."
Similarly, Sir John Pakington, in a despatch of April 3rd, 1852,
observed:
"Her Majesty's Government see no reason for differing from the
conclusions at which their predecessors had arrived in the question of
the establishment of responsible government, and which were conveyed
to you by Lord Grey in the despatch already mentioned. I consider, on
the contrary, that the wisdom and justice of these conclusions are
confirmed by the accounts since received from Newfoundland."
The change came in 1855, a year after the Secretary of State for the
Colonies had informed the Governor that "Her Majesty's Government has
come to the conclusion that they ought not to withhold from
Newfoundland those institutions and that civil administration which,
under the popular name of responsible government, have been adopted in
all Her Majesty's neighbouring possessions in North America, and they
are prepared to concede the immediate application of the system as
soon as certain preliminary conditions have been acceded to on the
part of the Legislature." At the same time the numbers of members in
the Representative Assembly was, at the instance of the Imperial
Government, increased to thirty.
It was not long before the Empire had an instructive lesson in the
influence with which responsible government arms a colony. A natural
_rapprochement_ between France and England followed the Crimean War,
and a Convention was drafted dealing with the Newfoundland fisheries.
Against the proposed adjustment, involving a surrender by Great
Britain of Newfoundland fishing rights, local feeling was strong and
unanimous. Petition followed petition, and delegation delegation. "The
excitement in the colony over the Convention of 1857 was most intense
and widespread; the British flag was hoisted half-mast; other excited
citizens flew American flags; everywhere there was burning indignation
over this proposal to sell our birthright for a mess of pottage.[40]
The resolute attitude of those interested elicited from Mr H.
Labouchere, then Colonial Secretary, the welcome expression of a great
constitutional principle:
"The proposals contained in the Convention having been now
unequivocally refused by the colony, they will of course fall to the
ground; and you are authorized to give such assurance as you may think
proper, that the consent of the community of Newfoundland is regarded
by Her Majesty's Government as the essential preliminary to any
modification of their territorial or maritime rights."
So vital is the appreciation of this principle to an Empire
constituted like our own, that it is worth while to set out the
resolution of the Newfoundland Legislature which killed the
Convention:
"We deem it our duty most respectfully to protest in the most solemn
way against any attempt to alienate any portion of our fisheries or
our soil to any foreign power without the consent of the local
Legislature. As our fishery and territorial rights constitute the
basis of our commerce and of our social and political existence, as
they are our birthright and the legal inheritance of our children, we
cannot under any circumstances assent to the terms of the Convention;
we therefore earnestly entreat that the Imperial Government will take
no steps to bring this treaty into operation, but will permit the
trifling privileges that remain to us to continue unimpaired."
In 1858 took place a real advance in the relations between different
parts of the Empire, for in that year the east coast of Newfoundland
(Trinity Bay) was connected with Ireland by a submarine cable. The
messages then exchanged through Newfoundland between the Queen and the
President of the United States mark the most decisive point in what
has been called the shrinkage of the world. Eight years later a second
Atlantic cable was successfully landed at Heart's Content.
A constitutional crisis arose in 1860, which was followed by serious
political disturbances. The Government, in which Mr Kent was Premier,
introduced a measure to determine the colonial equivalent of imperial
sterling in the payment of officials. The judges forwarded to the
Governor, Sir Alexander Bannerman, a representation against the
proposal; Mr Kent thereupon in the Assembly accused the Governor of
having entered into a conspiracy with the judges and the minority in
the House against the executive. The Governor demanded an explanation
which Mr Kent declined to give, adding that in his judgment he was
not called upon to explain his utterances as a member of the
Legislature to the Governor. Sir Alexander Bannerman immediately
dismissed the Ministry, and invited the Opposition leader, Mr Hoyles,
to form an Administration. The election took place in April, 1861.
Political passions ran high, and the old feud between Romanists and
Protestants was most unhappily revived. At the Protestant Harbour
Grace the election could not be held at all, while at the Catholic
Harbour Main a riot took place in which life was lost.
The new Assembly was opened in May 1861, and showed a majority in
favour of Mr Hoyles. It soon became clear that the passions of the mob
in St. John's were dangerously excited; Sir Alexander was hooted and
stoned on his return from the Assembly, and a little later an
organized series of attacks was commenced upon the dwellings of
well-known Roman Catholics. The magistrates thereupon called on the
military, under the command of Colonel Grant. The soldiers marched
out, eighty strong, and confronted the mob, which then numbered many
thousands. Encouraged by their commander, the troops submitted with
patient gallantry to insults and even to volleys of stones. Finally,
it is alleged, a pistol was fired at them from the crowd. Then at last
the order was given to fire; several persons were killed and twenty
wounded. Among the latter, by great misfortune, was the Rev. Jeremiah
O'Donnell, who had bravely and patiently tried to calm the mob.
The whole incident was unfortunate, but it is impossible to accept the
contention that Sir Alexander Bannerman was guilty of an
unconstitutional exercise of the prerogative in dissolving the
Assembly. It will not seriously be maintained that the representative
of the Queen could have maintained relations with a Minister who
publicly insulted him in his public capacity, and then curtly declined
to explain or withdraw his charges. As to the sequel, it is sufficient
to say that the civil authorities would have been grossly wanting in
their duty if they had failed to call out the soldiers, and that the
mob were not fired upon until the extreme limits of endurance had been
reached. That innocent persons should have been involved in the
consequences is matter of great regret; but association with a lawless
mob, even when the motive is as admirable as that of Father O'Donnell,
necessarily admits this risk.
It cannot be doubted that deep-lying economic causes had much to do
with political discontent. From the first the financial position of
the colony had been unsound. The short prosperity of the winter months
had produced a vicious and widely-spread system of credit. Soon a
majority of the fishermen lived during the winter upon the prospective
earnings of the coming season, and then when it came addressed
themselves without zest to an occupation the fruits of which were
already condemned. In this way a single bad season pauperized hundreds
of hard-working men. Governor Waldegrave in 1797 had been struck by
the failure of the law to provide for the poor, and owing to his
exertions a voluntary system of poor relief was set on foot. By the
time of Governor Gambier, in 1800, these measures had been
discontinued and, indeed, permanence was not to be looked for in a
system which depended upon voluntary support. The difficulty was that
the Crown officers advised Governor Gambier "that the provision of the
Poor Laws cannot be enforced in Newfoundland; and that the Governor
has no authority to raise a sum of money by a rate upon the
inhabitants."
The evil grew worse rather than better, and by the time of the great
Governor Cochrane, in 1825, it had assumed the form of an inveterate
social disease. Many able-bodied applicants for relief were provided
with work in public employments, and the wholesome warning was added
that those who refused such work would under no circumstances be
entitled to relief. Governor Cochrane did not shrink from indicating
the real cause of the distress. "Those who are upon wages," he wrote,
"receive a sum during the summer months, which, if properly husbanded,
would, together with the produce of their own exertion after the
fishery has ceased, be fully adequate to the support of themselves
and families for the following winter. Yet I am led to believe that a
large portion of this is dissipated before many weeks or days have
elasped after the fishing season has terminated, and in consequence of
such profusion many families are left to want and misery."
The generality of the system destroyed in time that healthy dread of
pauperism which, as an economic factor, is of the highest national
importance. The receipt of poor relief lost the stigma assigned to it
with rough justice by Anglo-Saxon independence, and in 1863, out of a
total public expenditure of £90,000, the astounding proportion of
£30,000 was expended upon the necessities of the poor.
Far-seeing observers had long before pointed out that the remedy for
these disorders must be a radical one. Improvidence among the poorer
classes is familiar to economists in more experienced societies than
that of Newfoundland, and may be accepted as a permanent element in
the difficulty. The real hope lay in opening up, on remunerative
lines, industries which would occupy the poor in the lean months. Nor
was Newfoundland without such resources, if the capital necessary for
their development could have been found. A penetrating railway system,
by its indirect effects upon the mining and agricultural interests,
would have done much to solve the problem of the unemployed. The
difficulty was that the state of the public finances was in no
condition to undertake costly schemes of betterment. In a later
chapter we shall see the Government, after exhausting the resources of
loans, looking to a desperate remedy to conquer its powerlessness for
enterprise.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Prowse, p. 473.