THE PRINCIPLE ESTABLISHED
The storm raised by the Rebellion Losses Bill did not soon sink to a
calm. It did not end with rabbling the viceroy, burning the House of
Parliament, homicide, and mob rule in the streets of Montreal. In the
British House of Commons the whole matter was thoroughly discussed.
Young Mr Disraeli, the dandified Jewish novelist, held that there were
no rebels in Upper Canada, while young Mr Gladstone, 'the rising hope
of those stern and unbending Tories,' proved that there were virtual
rebels who would be rewarded for their treason under the Canadian
statute. In a letter to _The Times_ Hincks showed, in rebuttal, that
rebels in Upper Canada had already received compensation by the Act of
a Tory government. Who says A must also say B. Between the arguments
of Gladstone and Hincks it is perfectly clear that the Rebellion Losses
Bill was anything but a perfect measure. Its passage had one {133}
more important reaction, the Annexation movement of 1849.
This episode in Canadian history is usually slurred over by our
writers. It is considered to be a national disgrace, a shameful
confession of cowardice, like an attempt at suicide in a man. It did
undoubtedly show want of faith in the future. Those who organized the
movement did 'despair of the republic.' But it is possible to blame
them too much. Annexation to the United States was in the air. Lord
Elgin writes that it was considered to be the remedy for every kind of
Canadian discontent. He was haunted by the fear of it all through his
tenure of office. Annexation had been preached by the Radical journals
for years in Canada; and it was confidently expected by politicians in
the United States. As late as 1866 a bill providing for the admission
of the states of Upper Canada, Nova Scotia, etc., to the Union passed
two readings in the House of Representatives. The Dominion elections
of a quarter of a century later (1891) gave the death-blow to the
notion that Annexation was Canada's manifest destiny; but the idea died
hard.
Action and reaction are equal and opposite. {134} Embittered by
defeat, the very party that had stood like a rock for British
connection now moved definitely for separation. The circular issued by
the Annexation Association of Montreal is a document too seldom
studied, but it repays study. In tone it is the reverse of
inflammatory; it is markedly temperate and reasonable. After a
dispassionate review of the present situation, it considers the
possibilities that lie before the colony--federal union, independence,
or reciprocity with the United States. All that Goldwin Smith was to
say about Canada's manifest destiny is said here. His ideas and
arguments are perfectly familiar to the Annexationists of '49. The
appeal at the close contains this sentence:
Fellow-Colonists, We have thus laid before you our views and
convictions on a momentous question--involving a change which, though
contemplated by many of us with varied feelings and emotions, we all
believe to be inevitable;--one which it is our duty to provide for, and
lawfully to promote.
There were those who protested against Annexation; but they were
denounced as {135} 'known monopolists and protectionists.' One speaker
said: 'Were it necessary I might multiply citation on citation to prove
that England considers, and has for years considered, our present
relations to her both burdensome and unprofitable.' Another said: 'It
is admitted, I may almost say, on all hands, that Canada must
eventually form a portion of the Great American Republic--that it is a
mere question of time.' There follows a list of some nine hundred
names, beginning with John Torrance and ending with Andrew Stevenson.
There are French names as well as English. Some bearers of those names
to-day are not proud of the fact that they are to be found in that
list. One Tory refused to sign the manifesto: his monument bears the
inscription, 'A British subject I was born, a British subject I will
die.'
The manifesto was supported by various pamphleteers and journalists.
Elgin records his fear of the 'cry for Annexation spreading like
wildfire through the province.' But it did not spread 'like wildfire.'
The original impulse, which may have been partly 'petulance,' seemed to
spend itself. Not all English opinion was in favour of 'cutting the
painter'; and one of the most determined {136} opponents of Annexation
was that very alert politician, the young Queen. Equally determined
was the governor-general of Canada. 'To render Annexation by violence
impossible, and by any other means, as improbable as may be, is,' he
wrote, 'the polar star of my policy.' When he could, he showed clearly
enough what his policy was. The manifesto of the Annexationists
contained not a few names of men holding office under the government,
magistrates, queen's counsel, militia officers, and others. Elgin had
a circular letter sent to these eminently respectable persons holding
commissions at the pleasure of the Crown, asking pertinently if they
had really signed the document in question. Some affirmed, and some
denied; others, again, questioned the governor's right to make the
inquiry. He then removed from office all who did not disavow their
signatures as well as those who admitted them. His action had an
excellent effect and showed that he was no weakling. He was warmly
supported by the colonial secretary, Earl Grey. Hitherto he had been
only a peer of Scotland, but now, in token of the government's
approval, was made a peer of the United Kingdom. Soon the commercial
conditions, {137} which had no small part in the political discontent,
began to mend.
[Illustration: The Earl of Elgin. From a daguerreotype]
The services of Hincks to his adopted country at this time were of the
greatest value. A financier as well as a journalist, he was able to
secure the capital needed for the great public works, and to set the
resources of Canada before the British investor in a most convincing
way. The Welland Canal was completed; the era of railway development
began. Immigration increased and business began to lift its head. In
1849 the last of the old Navigation Laws, which forbade foreign ships
to trade with Canada, were repealed. They were an inheritance from the
imperialism of Cromwell, but were now outworn. Although the Maritime
Provinces did not benefit, the port of Montreal began to come to its
own, as the head of navigation. In 1850 nearly a hundred foreign
vessels sought its wharves.
The next session of parliament was held in Toronto, according to the
odd agreement by which that city was to alternate with Quebec as the
seat of government. Every four years the government with all its
impedimenta was to migrate from the one to the other. The Liberal
party was soon to find that a crushing {138} victory at the polls and a
puny opposition in the House were not unmixed blessings. It began to
fall apart by its own sheer weight. A Radical wing, both English and
French, soon developed. The 'Clear Grit' party in Upper Canada was
moving straight towards republicanism, and so was Papineau's _Parti
Rouge_, with its organ _L'Avenir_ openly preaching Annexation.
Canadian eyes were still dazzled by the marvellously rapid growth of
the United States. American democracy was manifestly triumphant, and
Canada's shortest road to equal prosperity lay through direct
imitation. Salvation was to be found in the universal application of
the elective principle, from policeman to governor. This was before
the unforeseen tendencies of democracy had startled Americans out of
their attitude of self-complacent belief in it, and converted them
first into thoroughgoing critics, and then into determined reformers of
the system that they once thought flawless. The legislation of the
session of 1849-50 has still measures of value. Canada for the first
time assumed full control of her own postal system. The principle of
separate schools for Roman Catholics was confirmed, a measure which
reveals Canada in sharp contrast to the {139} United States, where
sectarian teaching is excluded from a state-aided school system. Not a
single bill was 'reserved,' which the Globe called a fact
'unprecedented in Canadian history.' The colony was now entirely free
to manage its own affairs, well or ill, to misgovern itself if it chose
to do so. Lord Elgin had almost laid down his life for this idea;
henceforth it was never to be called in question.
Two outstanding grievances were finally removed by the Great
Administration during this session. They were both land questions; one
afflicted the English, and the other the French, half of the province.
For a whole decade the grievance of the Clergy Reserves had slumbered;
now it came up for settlement. The Clergy Reserves were finally
secularized. Hincks, the astute parliamentary hand, led the House in
requesting the British parliament to repeal the Act of 1840. This was
the first step, preliminary to devoting the unappropriated land to the
maintenance of the school system. In voting on this measure LaFontaine
opposed, while Baldwin supported it. The divergence of opinion marked
the weakening of the ministry.
The other question, which affected French {140} Canada, was the
seigneurial tenure of the land. The system was an inheritance from the
time of Richelieu. Unlike the English, who allowed their colonies to
grow up haphazard, the French, from the first, organized and regulated
theirs according to a definite scheme. Upon the banks of the St
Lawrence they established the feudal system of holding land, the only
system they knew. There were the seigneurs, or landlords, with their
permanent tenants, or _censitaires_. There were the ancient
usages--_cens et rentes, lods et ventes, droit de banalite_.[1] the
seigneurs' court, and so on. Seigneuries were also established in
Acadia; but they were bought out by the Crown about 1730, after the
cession of that province to Great Britain. In the opinion of such
authorities as Sulte and Munro the seigneurial system answered its
purpose very well. At first the French would not have it touched. In
the troubles of '37 the simple habitants thought they were fighting for
the abolition of the seigneurs' dues. By the middle of the nineteenth
century it had become almost as complete an anomaly as trial by combat.
But the question of reform bristled with difficulties. {141} Which
were the rightful owners of the eight million arpents of land--the
seigneurs, or the _censitaires_? To whom should all this land be
given? Was there a third method, adjustment of rights with adequate
compensation? The Reformers were not agreed among themselves. Some
were for abolition of the seigneurs' rights: some were for voluntary
arrangement with the aid of law. LaFontaine was averse from change,
and Papineau, who was himself a seigneur, held by the ancient usages.
The whole question was referred to a committee, but all attempts to
deal with it during the sessions of 1850 and 1851 came to nothing. Not
until 1854 was definite action taken. All feudal rights and duties,
whether bearing on _censitaire_ or seigneur, were abolished by law, and
a double court was appointed to inquire into the claims of all parties
and to secure compensation in equity for the loss of the seigneurs'
vested interests. It took five years of patient investigation, and
over ten million dollars, to get rid of this anomaly, but at last it
was accomplished to the benefit of the country. Says Bourinot, 'The
money was well spent in bringing about so thorough a revolution in so
peaceable and conclusive a manner.'
{142}
Both these questions gave rise to differences of opinion in the
Cabinet. The Clear Grits, or Radical wing, were in constant
opposition, simply because the progress of Reform was not rapid enough.
William Lyon Mackenzie, once more in parliament, rendered them
effective aid. In June 1851 he brought in a motion to abolish the
Court of Chancery, which had been reorganized by Baldwin only two years
before and seemed to be working fairly well. Although the motion was
defeated Baldwin realized that the leadership of the party was passing
from him and his friends, and he resigned from office at the end of the
month. One of the pleasing episodes in the history of Canadian
parliaments was Sir Allan MacNab's sincere expression of regret on the
retirement of his political opponent. There are few enough of such
amenities. In October of the same year LaFontaine also resigned,
sickened of political life. A letter of his to Baldwin, as early as
1845, lifts the veil. 'I sincerely hope,' he says, 'I will never be
placed in a situation to be obliged to take office again. The more I
see the more I feel disgusted. It seems as if duplicity, deceit, want
of sincerity, selfishness were virtues. It gives me a poor idea of
{143} human nature.' This is not the utterance of a cynic, but of an
honest man smarting from disillusion. His exit from public life was
final. He was made chief justice for Lower Canada and presided with
distinction over the sessions of the Seigneurial Court. His political
career thus closed while he was yet a young man with years of valuable
service before him. Baldwin attempted to re-enter political life. The
resignation of the two leaders involved a new election, and Baldwin was
defeated in his own 'pocket borough' by Hartman, a Clear Grit. That
was the end. He retired to his estate 'Spadina,' his health shattered
by his close attention to the service of the state. He was an entirely
honest politician, deservedly remembered for the integrity of his life
and his share in upbuilding Canada. So the Great Administration
reached its period.
It was succeeded by a ministry in which Hincks and Morin were the
leaders. The new parliament included a new force in politics, George
Brown, creator of the _Globe_ newspaper. A Scot by birth, a Radical in
politics, hard-headed, bitter of speech, a foe to compromise, with
Caledonian fire and fondness for facts, he soon commanded a large {144}
following in the country and became a dreaded critic in the House. He
had disapproved of the late ministry for its failure to carry out the
programme approved by the _Globe_, especially the secularization of the
Clergy Reserves. He became the Protestant champion, the denouncer of
such acts as that of the Pope in dividing England into Roman Catholic
sees and naming Cardinal Wiseman Archbishop of Westminster, and the
pugnacious foe of 'French domination.' His activities did not tend to
draw French and English closer together. He lacked the gift of his
successful rival, John A. Macdonald, for making friends and inspiring
personal loyalty.
The Hincks-Morin government was a business man's administration. It is
noteworthy for its successful promotion of various railway, maritime,
and commercial enterprises. It aided in the establishment of a line of
steamers to Britain by offering a substantial subsidy for the carriage
of mails, a policy which has continued, with the approval of the
nation, to the present time. It was this ministry also which pushed
the building of the Grand Trunk, and ultimately succeeded in creating a
national highway from Riviere du Loup to {145} Sarnia and Windsor.
This was the era of reckless railway speculation. Municipalities were
empowered to borrow money on debentures for railway building guaranteed
by the provincial government. Unfortunately they borrowed extravagant
sums and ran into debt, from which, at last, the province had to rescue
them. But, unlike what happened in the case of some of the American
states, there was no repudiation of debts by Canadian municipalities.
The year 1851 is likewise famous for the Great Exhibition. Britain had
adopted free trade, to her great advantage. All the nations of the
world were expected to follow her example and remove the barriers to
commerce to the benefit of all. The freedom of intercourse between
nation and nation was to slay the jealousy and suspicion which lead to
war. To inaugurate the new era of peace and unfettered trade the
Crystal Palace was reared in Hyde Park--'the palace made of windies,'
as Thackeray calls it--and filled with the products of the world. The
idea originated with the Prince Consort, and it was worthy of him. For
the first time the various nations could compare their resources and
manufactures with one another. Canada {146} had her share in it. As a
demonstration of general British superiority in manufactures the Great
Exhibition was a great success; but as heralding an era of universal
peace it was a mournful failure. Three years later England, France,
and Sardinia were fighting Russia to prop the rotten empire of the
Turk. Then came the Great Mutiny; then the four years of fratricidal
strife between the Northern and Southern States; then the war of
Prussia and Austria; then the overthrow of France by Germany. All
these events had their influence on Canada. The 100th Regiment was
raised in Canada for the Crimea. Joseph Howe went to New York on a
desperate recruiting mission. Nova Scotia ordained a public fast on
the news of the massacre of white women and children by the Sepoys.
Thousands of Canadians enlisted in the Northern armies. The Papal
Zouaves went from Quebec to the aid of the Pope against Garibaldi. All
these were symptoms that Canadians were beginning to outgrow their
narrow provincialism and to perceive their relations to the outer
world, and especially towards Britain. The country was reaching out
towards the role which in our own day she has played in the Great War.
{147}
Meanwhile Lord Elgin was playing his part as constitutional governor,
standing by his principle of accepting democracy even when democracy
went wrong. Though inconspicuous, he was always planning for the
benefit of the country he had in charge. He had visions of an Imperial
_zollverein_, but he perceived clearly the immense and immediate
advantages of freer trade relations between the British American
colonies and the United States. Those once attained, he thought the
danger of Annexation past. His activities in his last year of office
prove that a man of ability may be a strictly constitutional governor
and yet preserve a power of initiative, of almost inestimable value.
In 1853 Lord Elgin paid a visit to England, and while there obtained
full powers to negotiate with the United States. For several years
Hincks had been doing his best to induce the American government to
consider the question of reciprocity in natural products with Canada,
but without avail. Bills to this effect had even been introduced into
Congress; but they never got beyond the preliminary stages. New
England was inclined to favour the proposal, for agriculture was
declining there before the growth of {148} manufactures. The South
favoured reciprocity rather than Annexation, for the 'irrepressible
conflict' between the slave states and the free states was every day
coming closer to observant eyes, and including Canada in the Union
meant a great accession of strength to the already populous North.
Opposition came from the farmers of the Northern states, who feared the
competition of a country, as yet, almost entirely devoted to
agriculture. General indifference, the opposition of a section,
combined with the feeling that Canada had nothing adequate to offer in
return for access to the huge American market, removed reciprocity from
the domain of practical politics. The scale was turned by the codfish
question.
Ever since the success of the Revolution the fishermen of New England
had a grievance against the British government and against the colonies
which did not revolt. They thought it most unjust that, as successful
rebels, they could not enjoy the fishing privileges of the North
Atlantic which they had enjoyed as loyal subjects. They wanted to eat
their cake and have their penny too. Of course no power on earth could
exclude them from the Banks, the great shoals in the {149} open sea,
where fish feed by millions; but territorial waters were another
matter. By the law of nations the power of a country extends over the
waters which bound it for three miles, the range of a cannon shot, as
the old phrase runs. Now it is precisely in the territorial waters of
the British American provinces that the vast schools of mackerel and
herring strike. To these waters American fishermen had not a shadow of
a right; but Yankee ingenuity was equal to the difficulty and proposed
the question, Where does the three-mile limit extend? The American
jurists and diplomats insisted that it followed all the sinuosities of
the shore. If admitted, this claim would give American fishermen the
right of entrance to huge British bights and bays full of valuable
fish. The Canadian contention was that the three-mile limit ran from
headland to headland, thus excluding the Americans from fishing within
the deeper indentations of the coast-line. By the treaty of 1818 the
Americans were definitely excluded from the territorial waters, but
still they poached on Canada's preserves. It was maddening to Nova
Scotians to see aliens insolently hauling their nets within sight of
shore and taking the bread from their mouths. {150} The Americans
applied the headland to headland rule to their own territorial waters;
no 'Bluenose' fisherman could venture into the Chesapeake; but for the
'Britishers' to insist on the same rule was another matter. In 1852
the constant clash of interests almost led to war; for Britain backed
up the just complaints of her colonies by detaching a force of six
cruisers to protect our fisheries and stop the poachers, and the
American government also sent ships to protect their fishermen. There
was no further action, beyond a recommendation in the President's
message to Congress that the whole matter should be settled by treaty.
Such was the situation when Lord Elgin arrived at Washington in May
1854. His suite included Hincks and Laurence Oliphant, the writer,
whose humorous and satiric account of what he saw during the
negotiations makes most amusing reading. The diplomats reached the
American capital at one of the most dramatic moments of American
history. On the very day of their arrival the Kansas-Nebraska Bill
passed Congress. It meant the momentary triumph of the South and the
extension of slavery into the great _hinterland_ beyond the
Mississippi. {151} The passage of the bill was celebrated by the
salute of a hundred guns; and, fearing trouble, legislators sat in the
House armed to the teeth.
Lord Elgin at once began operations which can hardly be distinguished
from an ordinary lobby. From Marcy, the secretary of state, he
ascertained that the kernel of opposition to reciprocity was the
Democratic majority in the Senate, and he set about cultivating the
Democratic senators. There was a round of pleasant dinners and other
entertainments, at which Lord Elgin shone. A British peer is always an
object of interest in a democracy. This one possessed most agreeable
manners, a charm to which Southerners are peculiarly susceptible, and
also an unusual gift of oratory which won him favour with a public
accustomed to the eloquence of Daniel Webster and Wendell Phillips.
These things told with the Democratic majority. That the treaty 'was
floated through on champagne' is an exaggeration; but there was
undoubtedly much hospitality shown on both sides and much good
fellowship. Ten days after his arrival at Washington Lord Elgin was
able to tell Mr Marcy that the Democrats would not oppose the treaty,
and on the fifth of {152} June it was actually signed. Oliphant
furnishes most amusing details of the actual ceremony of appending the
signatures. It went into force only after it had been formally
ratified by the legislatures of Great Britain and the United States.
The most important provisions were as follows.
Natural products were to be admitted free of duty to both countries,
the principal being grain, flour, lumber, bread-stuffs, animals, fresh,
smoked and salted meats, lumber of all kinds, poultry, cotton, wool,
hides, metallic ores, pitch, tar, ashes, flax, hemp, rice, and
unmanufactured tobacco. In return the American fishermen obtained the
coveted privilege of fishing within the territorial waters of the
Maritime Provinces, without any restriction as to distance or
headlands. Canadians were accorded the right to fish in the depleted
American grounds, north of the 36th parallel N. latitude. Nova
Scotians were not pleased at these concessions, especially as they were
not allowed to share in the American coasting trade; but as trade grew
up and prices rose, their discontent naturally vanished.
The benefits accruing to Canada from the treaty were immediate and
plain to every {153} eye. In the first year of its operation the value
of commodities interchanged between the two countries rose from an
annual average of fourteen million dollars to thirty-three millions, an
increase of more than one hundred per cent. The volume of trade rose
steadily at the rate of eight or nine millions per annum. When the war
broke out between the North and the South, prices jumped, and, during
the four years of the struggle, Canada had a greedy market for
everything she could produce. The benefit to both countries was
obvious. For the first time since the Revolution the currents of North
American trade flowed unchecked in their natural channels. Canada had
never known such a period of prosperity, and was never to know such
another, until the great West was opened up by the railways and until
immigrants began to flock in by hundreds of thousands, to draw from the
rich loam of the prairies the bountiful harvests of man-sustaining
wheat. Lord Elgin's pact held good for twelve years. In the last year
the volume of trade was more than eighty-four millions. The agreement
ended from a variety of causes, economic and political. Canada had
raised the tariff on American manufactures in order to meet {154} her
increasing expenditure; and she tried to divert American commerce from
its regular routes to a profitable transit through Canadian territory.
But the chief cause was the bitterness of the United States at the
attitude of Britain during the Civil War. The _Trent_ affair, the
ravages of the _Alabama_ and other commerce destroyers, the open and
avowed sympathy with the South expressed in British journals and
elsewhere, convinced the American people that Britain would be glad to
see the Republic broken up. That, with such provocation, the Americans
should deprive a British colony of a commercial advantage was not
unnatural. One statesman even proposed that the whole of Canada should
be handed over to the United States in compensation for the _Alabama_
claims. That the treaty was negotiated at all, and that the experiment
in trade was so beneficial to both countries, has certain important
lessons. The episode proves that a colonial governor, while governing
in strict accordance with the constitution, can do for his government
what no one else can do. Lord Elgin's success has never been repeated.
Delegation after delegation of Canada's ablest politicians have
pilgrimed from Ottawa to Washington, seeking {155} better trade
relations, with no result. The second lesson is the tendency of trade
to mock at political boundaries and to wed geography. Even now, with
high tariffs on both sides of the line, Canada spends fifty-one dollars
in the United States for every thirty-three she spends in England.
From his triumph at Washington the governor-general returned to Canada
to undergo another experience of democratic manners. The Hincks-Morin
government was nearing its end. Parliament had no sooner assembled in
the ancient capital, Quebec, than it was dissolved. In the political
tug-of-war known as the debate on the Address the government was
defeated. Instead of resigning, the leaders recommended the
governor-general to dissolve the House, so that there might be a new
election, and that the mind of the people might be ascertained on the
two great issues, the Clergy Reserves and Seigneurial Tenure. The
opposition contended that the ministry should either resign, or else
bring in some piece of legislation as a trial of strength. Lord
Elgin's position was precisely the same as in the time of the Rebellion
Losses Bill. He acted on the advice of his ministers. {156} When he
came in state to prorogue the House, a most extraordinary scene
occurred. He was kept waiting for an hour while the parties wrangled,
and when Her Majesty's faithful Commons did present themselves, the
Speaker, John Sandfield Macdonald, read, first in English and then in
French, a reply to the Address which was a calculated insult to Her
Majesty's representative. The point of the reply was that, as no
legislation had been passed, there had been no session; and that this
failure to follow custom was 'owing to the command which your
Excellency has laid upon us to meet you this day for the purpose of
prorogation.' Sandfield Macdonald was an ambitious and vindictive man.
He was wrong, too, in his interpretation of the constitution. Hincks
had denied him a cabinet position which he coveted, and this was his
mode of retaliating upon him. None the less, the House was prorogued,
and the elections were held.
According to the old, bad custom, they were spread over several weeks,
instead of being held on a single day. The result was unfavourable to
the government. Representation had been increased, and out of the
total number of members returned the {157} ministry had only thirty at
its back. The Conservatives numbered twenty-two, the Clear Grits
seven, Independents six, and Rouges nineteen. Papineau was defeated
and retired to his seigneury. Hincks was returned for two
constituencies. In the election of the Speaker he very adroitly
thwarted the ambition of Sandfield Macdonald to fill that post; but,
soon afterwards, the ministry was defeated on a trifling question and
resigned. Hincks was afterwards knighted and made governor of Barbados
and Guiana. He returned to Canada in 1869 to be a member of Sir John
Macdonald's Cabinet. He made a fortune for himself and he had no small
part in making Canada. He died of smallpox in Montreal in 1885. His
_Reminiscences_ is an authority of prime importance for the history of
his times.
That consistent, life-long Tory, Sir Allan MacNab, became the head of
the new ministry. The attorney-general for Upper Canada was John A.
Macdonald. Six members of the old Reform Cabinet sat in the new
ministry side by side with four Conservatives. This signified the
formation of a new party in Canada, the Liberal-Conservative, an
exactly {158} descriptive name, because it composed the best elements
of both parties. Under the leadership of John A. Macdonald it held
power for practically thirty years. That able politician, formed by
education in this country, not outside, perceived instinctively the
essential moderation of the Canadian temperament, and how alien to it
was the extravagance of _Rouge_ and Clear Grit. The national
temperament is cautious and bent to 'shun the falsehood of extremes.'
Under the dominance of the new-formed party the jarring scattered
provinces became one and grew to the stature of a nation.
Lord Elgin's reign was over. In the autumn of 1854 he made a tour of
the province and was everywhere received with unmistakable tokens of
appreciation and goodwill. He was right in thinking 'I have a strong
hold on the people of this country.' His administration represented
the triumph of a statesman's principle over every consideration of
convenience, popularity, and even safety. Thanks to his firmness and
his chivalrous conception of his office, government by the popular will
became established beyond shadow of change. To estimate the value of
his services to the commonwealth, {159} one has only to imagine a Sir
Francis Bond Head in his place during the crisis of the Rebellion
Losses Bill. A weaker man would have plunged the country into anarchy,
or have paltered and postponed indefinitely the true solution of a
vital constitutional problem.
No governor of Canada was ever worse treated by the Canadian people;
and yet no proconsul is entitled to more grateful remembrance in
Canada. In spite of that ill-treatment he grew to like the country.
His eloquent farewell speech at Quebec evinces genuine affection for
the land and genuine regret at having to leave it for ever. Like every
traveller who has known both countries, he was struck by the contrast
between 'the whole landscape bathed in a flood of that bright Canadian
sun' and 'our murky atmosphere on the other side of the Atlantic.' The
majestic beauty of the St Lawrence and citadel-crowned Quebec had won
his heart. Like a wise man and a Christian, he looked forward to the
end; and he imagined that the memory of the sights and sounds he had
grown to love would soothe his dying moments. He left Canada for
service in India, like Dufferin and Lansdowne, and never returned. His
grave is at Dhurmsala {160} under the shadow of the Himalayas. It is
marked by an elaborate monument surmounted by the universal symbol of
the Christian faith; but a nobler and more lasting memorial is the
stable government he gave to 'that true North.'
[1] See _The Seigneurs of Old Canada_, chap. iv.
{161}
EPILOGUE
The twelve years that followed Elgin's regime saw the flood-tide of
Canada's prosperity. Apart altogether from the advantage of the
Reciprocity Treaty, the country flourished. The extension of railways,
the influx of population, developed rapidly the immense natural
resources of the country. Politically, however, things did not move so
well. The old difficulties had disappeared, but new difficulties took
their place. There was no longer any question of the constitution, or
the relation of the governor to it, or of orderly procedure in the
mechanics of administration; but there was violent strife between
parties too evenly balanced. The remedy lay in the formation of a
larger unity, and, in 1867, the four provinces effected a
confederation, which was soon to embrace half the continent from ocean
to ocean. Dominion Day 1867 was the birthday of a new nation, and a
true poet has precised {162} Canada's relation to Britain and the world
in a single stanza.
A Nation spoke to a Nation,
A Throne sent word to a Throne:
'Daughter am I in my mother's house,
But mistress in my own!
The doors are mine to open,
As the doors are mine to close,
And I abide by my mother's house,'
Said our Lady of the Snows.
_Quis separabit_? The confident prophecies of 'cutting the painter'
have all come to naught. In the supreme test of the Great War, Canada
never for a moment faltered. She gave her blood and treasure freely in
support of the Empire and the Right. No severer trial of those bonds
that knit British peoples together can be imagined. To look back upon
the time when British soldiers had to be sent to suppress a Canadian
insurrection from a time when French Canadians and English Canadians
are fighting side by side three thousand miles from their homes for the
maintenance of the Empire is to envisage the most startling of
historical paradoxes. That old, bad time seems as unsubstantial as a
dream; this seems the only reality; and yet the two periods are
separated only by the span of a not very long human life. {163} The
truth is that in those days there were no Canadians. There were French
on the banks of the St Lawrence, but their political horizon was
bounded by the parish limits. Their most renowned leader had no vision
but of an independent French republic, or of one more state in the
Union. The people of the western province consisted of diverse
elements. The solid kernel was of United Empire Loyalist stock, which
gave the province its distinctive character. The Scottish, Irish,
English immigration could not be reckoned among the genuine sons of the
soil. They built their log-huts in the wildwood clearings, but their
hearts were in the sheiling, the cabin, the cottage they had left
beyond the sea. Their allegiance was divided, a fact of which the
perpetuation of the various national societies is indubitable evidence.
They were the pioneers; they made the wilderness a garden; and their
children entered into a large inheritance. More inharmonious still was
the immigration from south of the border, of persons brought up on the
Declaration of Independence and Fourth of July oratory. Colonel
Cruikshanks's researches have proved how numerous they were and how
disaffected. Mrs Moodie found {164} them and the Americanized natives
just as disagreeable in Ontario as Mrs Trollope did in Cincinnati, and
for the same reasons. Except the Loyalists, all these elements were
divided in their political affections and ideals. Their leaders saw
only two possibilities. British connection was the sheet-anchor of the
old colonial Tories; but their vision of the country's future was an
aristocracy, a landed gentry, a decorous union of church and state--in
short, a colonial replica of old Tory England. On the other hand, the
Radical leaders, French and English alike, saw before them only an
independent republic, or fusion with the United States. How limited
was the vision of both time has made blindingly clear. The instinct of
the nascent nation decided for the golden mean, and chose the middle
path. Canada has stood firm by the Empire--how firm let the
blood-soaked trenches of Flanders attest--and yet she had stood just as
firmly by the creed of democracy and her determination to control her
own affairs.
One son of the soil had a vision wider than that of his contemporaries.
Years before the rebellion the editor of a Halifax newspaper saw the
scattered, jarring British colonies {165} united under the old flag,
and bound together by fellowship within the Empire. He saw iron roads
spanning the continent and the white sails of Canadian commerce dotting
the Pacific. Canadians of this day see what Howe foresaw--the eye
among the blind. Let it be repeated. In those old days there were no
Canadians of Canada. Confederation had to be achieved, a new
generation had to be born and grow to manhood, before a national
sentiment was possible. These new Canadians saw little or nothing of
provinces with outworn feuds and divisions. They saw only the Dominion
of Canada. Their imagination was stirred by the ideal of half a
continent staked out for a second great experiment in democracy, of a
vast domain to be filled and subdued and raised to power by a new
nation. In spite of many faults and failures and disappointments,
Canadians have been true to that ideal. The Canada of to-day is
something far grander than the Mackenzies and Papineaus ever dreamed
of; she has disappointed the fears and exceeded the hopes of the
Durhams and the Elgins; and she stands on the threshold, as Canadians
firmly trust, of a more illustrious future.
{166}
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The following are a few of the works which should be consulted:
Lord Durham, _Report on the Affairs of British North America_ (1839).
Sir Francis Hincks, _Reminiscences_ (1884).
Dent, _The Last Forty Years_ (1881).
Reid, _Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham_ (1906).
Shortt, _Lord Sydenham_ (1908).
Wrong, _The Earl of Elgin_ (1906).
Bourinot, _Lord Elgin_ (1905).
Walrond, _Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin_ (1872).
Leacock, _Baldwin, LaFontaine, Hincks_ (1907).
Pope, _Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald_ (1894).
_Canada and its Provinces_, vol. v (1913), the chapters by W. L. Grant,
J. L. Morison, Edward Kylie, Duncan M'Arthur, and Adam Shortt.
Consult also, for individual biographies of the various persons
mentioned in the narrative, Taylor, _Portraits of British Americans_
(1865); Dent, _The Canadian Portrait Gallery_ (1880); and _The
Dictionary of National Biography_ (1903).
{167}
INDEX
Annexation movement of 1849, the, 133-6.
Arthur, Sir George, his severity, 30.
Assembly: the first election after Union, 57-8; composition of parties,
58; the Baldwin incident, 59-61; measures passed, 61, 63-4; majority
rule principle, 62-3; the Draper government defeated, 76, 115-17; --
LaFontaine-Baldwin (Reform) Administration, 76-7, 79-80, 84, 85-7;
placemen removed from Assembly, 87; the Common Schools Act, 88;
University of Toronto, 89-90, 106-7; the Metcalfe Crisis, 90-3; --
Draper (Tory) Administration, 93-4, 101; -- LaFontaine-Baldwin (the
Great) Administration, 101-3, 106, 109-12; 142-3; Municipal
Corporations Act, 107-9; Rebellion Losses Bill, 117-18, 119-27; a
breeze in the House, 119-120; Clergy Reserves, 139; Seigneurial Tenure,
141; -- Hincks-Morin Administration, 143; a business man's government,
144-5, 155-6; -- MacNab (Liberal-Conservative) Administration, 157.
Bagot, Sir Charles, governor-general, 74-5, 79; forms a coalition
government, 75-6; his death a reproach to Canada, 80-1.
Baldwin, Robert, 68-9; a Moderate Reformer, 40, 69-70, 71-2; his cool
proposal to Sydenham, 60-1; his association with LaFontaine, 66, 74,
77-8, 101-2, 118; his first administration, 77-8, 85, 80-90; the
Metcalfe peerage, 95; the Great Administration, 101-2, 106-8, 118, 120,
139; resigns the leadership, 142; retires from public life, 143.
Baldwin, W. W., 68-9; president of Constitutional Reform Society, 71.
Blake, W. H., causes an uproar in the House, 119-20; burned in effigy,
120.
Bouchette, Robert, 15.
Brougham, Lord, his malign attacks on Durham, 8, 16-17, 20; burned in
effigy in Quebec, 18.
Brown, George, the Protestant champion, 143-4.
Brown, Thomas Storrow, 4.
Bruce, Colonel, wounded in the attack on Lord Elgin, 129.
Buller, Charles, 8; with Durham in Canada, 19.
Canada, political development in, 3; strained relations with United
States, 11-13, 25-8; Lord Durham's Report, 21-4; the 'Hunters' Lodges,'
25-8; political and financial situation in 1839, 30-1; the capital
city, 56-7, 86, 137, 130; the Irish famine of 1846-47, 101; Municipal
Corporations Act, 107-9; trade relations dislocated by Britain's
adoption of free trade, 109; the disturbances in connection with the
Rebellion Losses Bill, 112-31; the Annexation movement of 1849, 133-6;
boom periods, 137, 153, 161; assumes control of the postal system, 138;
separate schools, 138-9; attains full self-government, 139; her
interest in world affairs, 146; the Reciprocity Treaty, 147-8, 150-5,
110-11; the fishery question, 148-50, 152; Confederation, 161-2; and
the Empire, 162, 164. See Assembly and Responsible Government.
Cartwright, Richard, and Hincks, 76.
Cathcart, Lord, governor-general, 97-8.
Church of England, and the Clergy Reserves, 43-4, 46, 47.
Church of Scotland, and the Clergy Reserves, 44, 46, 47.
'Clear Grit' party, the, 138, 142.
Clergy Reserves question, the, 39, 42-6; Colborne's forty-four
parishes, 46, 71; Sydenham's solution, 47-8, 64; secularized, 139, 155.
Colborne, Sir John, lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, 46; quells the
Rebellion and acts as administrator in Lower Canada, 4, 8, 9, 16, 25,
38, 113; raised to the peerage, 33.
Constitutional Reform Society, the, 71.
Disraeli, Benjamin, and Canada, 132.
District Council Bill, the, 64.
Draper, W. H., his administrations, 76, 93-4.
Durham, Lord, his early career, 5-7; invested with extraordinary powers
in the governance of Canada, 4-5, 7-8; firmness with conciliation his
policy, 9; the composition of his councils, 9-10; takes prompt action
in connection with the border troubles, 11-13; proclaims a general
amnesty to the rebels, 14-15; the disallowance of his ordinance
banishing the ringleaders, 15-19; his resignation and departure, 17-18,
25, 29; posterity's judgment, 18-19; his dying words, 20; his
personality and family ties, 7, 8-9, 99; his enemy Lord Brougham, 8,
16-17, 20; his Report, 10-11, 19-24, 32, 35, 46, 68.
Elgin, Earl of, 98-9; a constitutional governor-general, 99-100, 101,
118, 123, 131, 147, 155; initiates the custom of reading the Speech in
both French and English, 103; the Rebellion Losses Bill, 121-3;
attacked by the mob on the occasions of giving his assent and on
receiving an Address, 124-5, 127-9; the Hermit of Monklands, 129,
130-1; on Annexation sentiment in Canada, 133, 135-6; negotiates the
Reciprocity Treaty with United States, 147, 150-152, 110; insulted in
the House, 155-6; his administrative triumph, 158-60; his gift of
oratory, 98, 151; his connection with Durham, 99.
Ermatinger, Colonel, and the Montreal riots, 129.
Fishery question, the, 148-50, 152.
Fleming, Sandford, his act of gallantry, 127.
Girouard, a rebel, 79.
Gladstone, W. E., and Canada, 132.
Glenelg, Lord, his incompetency, 32.
Gosford, Lord, 72.
Gourlay, Robert, and the Clergy Reserves, 45.
Great Britain, and the 1837 rebellions, 4, 33; the Clergy Reserves, 48;
parliamentary procedure, 62; her free trade policy, 109; the Rebellion
Losses Bill, 132; Navigation Laws repealed, 137; her colonial policy,
140; the Great Exhibition, 145-6; the fishery question, 148-50, 152;
her sympathies with the South in the American Civil War, 154.
Grey, Earl, and Durham, 6.
Grey, Earl (son of above), and Elgin, 99, 136.
Grey, Colonel, his mission of remonstrance, 13.
Harrison, S. B., leader of Sydenham's government, 62.
Hincks, Francis, 70; a Reform leader, 40, 61; his many interests, 70-1;
his talent for affairs, 71-2, 74; minister of Finance, 76, 77, 132,
137, 157; his policy of protection, 87-8, 124; his railway policy,
111-112; precipitates a crisis, 124-5; the Clergy Reserves, 139; his
administration, 143, 156, 157; the Reciprocity Treaty, 147, 150, 110;
his valuable services, 137; governor of Barbados, 157.
Howe, Joseph, and responsible government, 51; and railways, 111; his
recruiting mission, 146; his vision of Canada's future, 164-5.
'Hunters' Lodges,' the, 13, 25-8.
Kingston, as the capital, 56-7, 58, 86, 94; Sydenham's tomb, 65.
LaFontaine, L. H., his early career and appearance, 72-4; his
association with Baldwin, 66, 74, 77-8, 101-2, 118; his first ministry,
77-8, 85, 87, 93; the Great Administration, 101-2, 117-18, 127, 129,
139, 141; his crushing reply to Papineau's onslaught, 103-5; resigns,
142; chief justice for Lower Canada, 143.
Liberal party, a split in the ranks, 137-8. See Reform.
Liberal-Conservative party, the, 157-8.
Lount, Samuel, his execution, 30.
Lower Canada, racial feeling in, 22; the Rebellion, 3, 4, 25, 28-30;
Durham's amnesty and ordinance, 14-19; Durham's Report, 21-3; political
state before Union, 50; the Registry Act, 56; the opposition to Union,
57, 62, 68, 93; amnesty to all political offenders, 103; the Rebellion
Losses Bill, 112-14, 116-17; Seigneurial Tenure, 140-1. See Quebec and
Special Council.
Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 20, 79, 83, 96.
Macdonald, John A., his entry into politics, 93, 101; 'a British
subject I will die,' 135; attorney-general, 157; his
Liberal-Conservative administration, 158, 144.
Macdonald, J. S., his studied insult, 156, 157.
Mackenzie, W. L., incites anti-British feeling in the States, 12, 26;
granted amnesty and returns to Canada, 118-19, 120, 142.
MacNab, Sir Allan, leader of the Conservative Opposition, 86, 101;
Speaker, 94; gives 'the lie with circumstance,' 119-20, 125; his
tribute to Baldwin, 142; prime minister, 157.
Marcy, W. L., and reciprocity with Canada, 151.
Melbourne, Lord, and Durham, 17.
Metcalfe, Sir Charles, his early career, 82-3; his arrival at Kingston,
81; upholds the prerogative of the Crown, 84-6, 87; refuses to
surrender right of appointment, 90-1; triumphs over the Reformers,
92-4; his peerage and death, 95-6.
Montreal, 124, 137; as the capital, 86, 94; the riots in connection
with the passing of the Indemnity Bill, 120-1; the burning of the
Parliament Buildings, 124-7, 1; the attacks on Lord Elgin, 124-5,
128-9; the capital no more, 130; the Annexation Association, 134-5.
Morin, A. N., Speaker of the Assembly, 102; his administration, 143.
Municipal system of Canada, the, 55-6, 64; the Municipal Corporations
Act, 107-9; municipalities and railways, 145.
Murdoch, T. W. C., secretary to Sydenham, 37.
Neilson, John, his policy of obstruction, 62, 68.
Nelson, Robert, proclaims a Canadian republic, 29.
Nelson, Wolfred, a Rebellion leader, 15, 93; his claim for indemnity,
119.
New Brunswick, Sydenham's visit to, 52.
Nova Scotia, the struggle for responsible government in, 51; the rise
of the colleges, 88-9; the fishery question, 149-50, 152.
O'Callaghan, E. B., a rebel leader, 104.
Oliphant, Laurence, and the Reciprocity negotiations, 150, 152.
Ontario, Sydenham's tour in, 53-4; its municipal system, 55, 64. See
Upper Canada.
Orange Society, the, 87.
Ottawa, the capital city, 130.
Papineau, D. B., 93.
Papineau, L. J., takes refuge in France after Rebellion, 103-4; returns
to the House, claiming and receiving arrearage of salary as Speaker,
104; his uncompromising attitude towards the Union, 104-6, 118, 138,
141, 157; his retiral, 157, 106.
Paquin, Father, petitions for indemnity, 112-13.
Politics, the game of, 1-2, 67, 76, 77; an old-time election, 77-8.
Quebec, its municipal system, 55, 64; the seat of government, 137, 155.
See Lower Canada.
Railway building in Canada, 111-12, 144-5.
Rebellion Losses Bill, the, 112-118, 132; the violent scenes in
connection with, 119-31.
Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the, 110-11, 147-55.
Reform party, the, supports Sydenham, 38, 40, 60-1; the Clergy
Reserves, 47; opposes Bagot's coalition, 76; the struggle with
Metcalfe, 86, 90-3, 95; the Great Administration, 101; Liberals and
'Clear Grits,' 137-8; Liberal-Conservatives, 157-8.
Registry Act, the, 56.
Reid, Stuart J., on the authorship of Durham's Report, 20.
Responsible Government: Durham's remedy, 24; Sydenham's campaign of
education, 41, 58-9, 67; Howe's achievement, 51; majority rule, 62-3,
79; the Executive beg-in to presume, 84; the difficulty of reconciling
with the colonial status, 84-5; placemen removed from Assembly, 87;
education of the democracy, 88; right of appointment, 90-91; the
difficulty of government with a small majority, 100; from colony to
free equal state, 161-2.
Rouge party, the, 138.
Russell, Lord John, colonial secretary, 32, 55.
Seigneurial tenure, 140-1, 155; abolished, 141.
Sherwood, Henry, solicitor-general, 76.
Special Council of Quebec, and Sydenham, 38, 49-50, 55, 56, 114-15.
Strachan, Bishop, 69; and the Clergy Reserves, 46, 47; his crusade
against Baldwin's 'godless institution,' 90.
Stuart, James, chief justice of Lower Canada, 37, 50.
Sullivan, R. B., a Reform leader, 70, 77.
Sydenham, Lord, 68. See Thomson.
Thomson, Charles Poulett, his early career and personality, 33-8; his
mission of Union of the Canadas, 38-40, 68; his responsible government
campaign of education, 41-2; the Clergy Reserves, 42, 47-8; on
political and financial conditions in Canada, 48-50, 32; his triumphal
progress, 50-4; his vision of Ontario, 54; Baron Sydenham, 54-5;
initiates Canada's municipal system, 55-6; the first Union Assembly,
58-9, 61, 63-4; the Baldwin incident, 60-1; majority rule, 62-3; his
five great works, 63-4; G.C.B., 59; his tragic and heroic end, 64-5.
Toronto, 1; the founding of the University, 89-90, 106-7; scenes in
connection with the Indemnity Bill, 120-1; the seat of government, 137.
Turton, Thomas, with Durham in Canada, 8.
Union Act of 1840, the, 54-5.
United Empire Loyalists, the, 163.
United States: American detestation of the British, 11-13; 'Hunters'
Lodges,' 25-28; her mistaken views regarding Canada, 121, 133-6; her
elective system of government, 138; her educational system, 139; the
Reciprocity Treaty with Canada, 147-8, 150-5, 110-11; the fishery
question, 148-50, 152; the Civil War, 148, 153, 154.
University of Toronto, the founding of, 89-90, 106-7.
Upper Canada: its political and financial state prior to Union, 23,
31-2, 38-9, 48-9, 114, 115; the execution of the Rebellion leaders, 30;
Opposition to Union, 33, 57; the terms of Union, 40; Clergy Reserves,
45; Sydenham's tour, 53-4; the rise of the colleges, 88-90; the
Metcalfe Crisis, 93.
Van Buren, President, and Durham, 13.
Victoria, Queen, 75, 136.
Viger, 'Beau,' 93.
Von Shoultz, his chivalrous sacrifice, 27-8.
Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, with Durham, 8.
Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press