CANADA.
THE 'CLERGY RESERVES'--HISTORY OF THE QUESTION--MIXED MOTIVES OF THE
MOVEMENT--FEELING IN THE PROVINCE--IN UPPER CANADA--IN LOWER CANADA--AMONG
ROMAN CATHOLICS--IN THE CHURCH--SECULARIZATION--QUESTIONS OF EMIGRATION,
LABOUR, LAND-TENURE, EDUCATION, NATIVE TRIBES--RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED
STATES--MUTUAL COURTESIES--FAREWELL TO CANADA--AT HOME.
[Sidenote: The 'Clergy Reserves']
We have had frequent occasion to observe that the guiding principle of Lord
Elgin's policy was to let the Colony have its own way in everything which
was not contrary either to public morality or to some Imperial interest. It
was in this spirit that he passed the Rebellion Losses Act; and in this
spirit he watched the contest which raged for many years on the memorable
question of the 'Clergy Reserves.'
[Sidenote: History of the question.]
By the Canada Act of 1791 one-seventh of the lands then ungranted had been
set apart for the support of a 'Protestant Clergy.' At first these reserves
were regarded as the exclusive property of the Church of England; but in
1820 an opinion was obtained from the Law Officers of the Crown in England,
that the clergy of the Church of Scotland had a right to a share in them,
but not Dissenting Ministers. In 1840 an Act was passed in which the claims
of other denominations also were distinctly recognised. By it the Governor
was empowered to sell the reserves; a part of the proceeds was to be
applied in payment of the salaries of the existing clergy, to whom the
faith of the Crown had been pledged; one-half of the remainder was to go to
the Churches of England and Scotland, in proportion to their respective
numbers, and the other half was to be at the disposal of the Governor-
General for the benefit of the clergy of any Protestant denomination
willing to receive public aid.
But the old inveterate jealousy of Anglican ascendency, aggravated, it is
said, by the political conduct of Bishop Strachan, who had identified his
Church with the obnoxious rule of the Family Compact, was not content with
these concessions. Allying itself with the voluntary spirit, caught from
the Scottish Free Church movement in 1843, it took the shape of a fanatical
opposition to everything in the nature of a public provision for the
support of religion; and the cry was raised for the 'Secularisation of the
Clergy Reserves.' Eagerly taken up, as was natural, by the Ultra-radicals,
or 'Clear-grits,' the cry was echoed by a considerable section of the old
Tory party, from motives which it is less easy to analyse; and so violent
was the feeling that it threatened to sweep away at one stroke all the
endowments in question, without regard to vested interests, and without
even waiting for the repeal of the Imperial Act by which these endowments
were guaranteed. More loyal and moderate counsels however prevailed, owing
chiefly to the support which they received from the Roman Catholics of
Lower Canada, at one time so violently disaffected. In 1850 the Assembly
voted an Address to the Queen, praying that the Act referred to might be
repealed, and that the Local Legislature might be empowered to dispose of
the reserved lands, subject to the condition of securing to the existing
holders for their lives the stipends to which they were then entitled. To
this Address a favourable answer was returned by Lord Grey; who, while
avowing the preference of Her Majesty's Government for the existing
arrangement, by which a certain portion of the public lands of Canada were
applied to religious uses, admitted at the same time that the question of
maintaining it was one so exclusively affecting the people of Canada, that
its decision ought not to be withdrawn from the Provincial Legislature.
A Bill for granting to the Colony the desired powers was intended to be
introduced into Parliament during the session of 1851, but owing to the
pressure of other business it was deferred to the next year. It was to have
been brought forward in a few days, when the break-up of Lord John
Russell's Ministry caused it to be again postponed; and it was not till May
9, 1853, that the long looked-for Act received the Queen's assent.
No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for
that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next
year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of
Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation. Finally, on October
17, 1854, a Bill for the 'Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves' was
introduced into the Assembly. The more moderate and thoughtful men of every
party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible
for them to stand against the current of popular feeling. The Bill speedily
became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various municipal
corporations for secular uses; and though by this means 'a noble provision
made for the sustentation of religion was frittered away so as to produce
but few beneficial results,'[1] a question which had long been the
occasion of much heart-burning was at least settled, and settled for ever.
A slender provision for the future was saved out of the wreck by the
commutation of the reserved life-interests of incumbents, which laid the
foundation of a small permanent endowment; but, with this exception, the
equality of destitution among all Protestant communities was complete.[2]
The various stages through which this question passed may be traced in the
following letters, of which the first was written to Lord Grey on July 5,
1850:
Two addresses to the Queen were voted by the Assembly a few days ago
and brought up by the House to me for transmission. The one is an
address, very loyal in its tone, deprecating all revolutionary
changes.
[Sidenote: Address to the Queen.]
The other address is not so satisfactory. It prays Her Majesty to
obtain the repeal of the Imperial Act on the Clergy Reserves passed in
1840, and to hand them over to the Canadian Parliament to deal with
them as it may see fit--guaranteeing, however, the life interests of
incumbents. The resolutions on which this address was founded were
introduced by a member of the Government, which has treated the
question as an _open_ one.
You are sufficiently acquainted with Canadian history to be aware of
the fact, that these unfortunate Clergy Reserves have been a bone of
contention ever since they were set apart. I know how very
inconvenient it is to repeal the Imperial Act which was intended to be
a final settlement of the question; but I must candidly say I very
much doubt whether you will be able to preserve the Colony if you
retain it on the Statute Book. Even Lafontaine and others who
recognise certain vested rights of the Protestant churches under the
Constitutional Act, advocate the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840:
partly because Lower Canada was not consulted at all when it was
passed; and, secondly, because the distribution made under that Act is
an unfair one, and inconsistent with the views of the Upper Canadian
Legislature, as expressed at the time but set aside in deference, as
it is alleged, to the remonstrances of the English bishops. Some among
the Anglo-Saxon Liberals, and some of the Orange Tories, I suspect,
share these views.
A considerable section is for appropriating the proceeds of the
reserves at once, and applying them to education, without any regard
to the rights either of individuals or of churches. These persons are
furious with the supporters of the address for proposing to preserve
the life interests of incumbents. The sentiments of the remainder are
pretty accurately conveyed by the terms of the address.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, July 19, 1850.
[Sidenote: Reasons for agreeing.]
The 'Clear Grit' organs, which have absorbed a large portion of the
'Annexationists,' talk very big about what they will do if England
steps in to preserve the 'Clergy Reserves.' That party would be only
too glad to get up a quarrel with England on such a point. It is, of
course, impossible for you to do anything with the Imperial Act till
next session. A little delay may perhaps enable us to see our way more
clearly with respect to this most perplexing subject.
Lord Sydenham's despatch of January 22,1840, is a curious and
instructive one. It accompanies the Act on the 'Clergy Reserve'
question, which he induced the Parliament of Upper Canada to pass, but
which was not adopted at home; for the House of Lords concocted one
more favourable to the Established Churches. He clearly admits that
the Act is against the sense of the country, and that nothing but his
own great personal influence got it through, and yet he looks upon it
as a settlement of the question. I confess I see few of the conditions
of finality in measures which are passed under such circumstances.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, March 18,1851.
I am far from thinking that the 'Clergy Reserves' will necessarily be
diverted from religious purposes if the Local Parliament has the
disposal of them. I should feel very confident that this would not be
the case, were it not that the tone adopted by the Church of England
here has almost always the effect of driving from her even those who
would be most disposed to cooperate with her if she would allow them.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, June 14,1851.
On the whole the best chance for the Church interest as regards the
question, in my judgment, is that you should carry your empowering
bill through the Imperial Parliament this session, and that we should
get through our session and the general election, which is about to
follow, with as little excitement as possible. The province is
prosperous and the people contented; and at such a time, if no
disturbing cause arise, moderate and reasonable men are likely to be
returned. At the same time the 'Clergy Reserve' question is
sufficiently before the public to insure our getting from the returns
to Parliament a pretty fair indication of what are the real sentiments
of the people upon it. I need not say that there can be no security
for the permanence of any arrangement which is not in tolerable
conformity with those sentiments.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
July 12,1851.
[Sidenote: Movement not prompted by Roman Catholics.]
As to the insinuation that the movement against the endowments of the
Church of England is prompted by the Romans, events will give the lie
to it ere long. The following facts, however, seem to be wholly
irreconcilable with this hypothesis. Before the Union of the Provinces
there were very few, if any, Roman Catholic members in the Upper
Canada Parliament; they were all-powerful in the Lower. Now it is
recorded in history, that the Upper Canadian Legislative Assembly kept
up year after year a series of assaults on the 'Clergy Reserves;' in
proof of which read the narrative part of the Address to Her Majesty
on the 'Clergy Reserves' from the Legislative Assembly last year. And
it is equally a fact that the Lower Canadian Legislative Assembly
never meddled with them, except I think once, when they were invited
to do so by the Government.
Some months later, in the beginning of 1852, Lord John Russell's
Administration was broken up, and Lord Grey handed over the seals of the
Colonial Office to Sir John Pakington. One of the first subjects on which
the new Secretary asked to be furnished with confidential information was
as to the state of public feeling in Canada upon the question of the future
disposal of the 'Clergy Reserves.' Lord Elgin replied as follows:
[Sidenote: Feeling in the Province;]
You require, if I rightly understand your letter, that I should state,
in the first place, whether I believe that the sentiments of the
community in reference to the subject-matter of this Address are
faithfully represented in the votes of the Assembly. I cannot answer
this question otherwise than affirmatively. Not that I am by any means
disposed to under-rate the importance of the petitions which may have
been sent home by opponents of the measure. The clergy of the Church
of England and of that portion of the Presbyterian Church which
preserves its connection with the Established Church of Scotland, are
generally unwilling that the question of the reserves should be left
to the decision of the Local Legislature. They are, to a considerable
extent, supported by their flocks when they approach the throne as
petitioners against the prayer of the Assembly's Address, although it
is no doubt an error to suppose that the lay members of these
communions are unanimous, or all alike zealous in the espousal of
these views. From this quarter the petitions which appear to have
reached Lord Grey and yourself have, I apprehend, almost exclusively
proceeded. Other bodies, even of those which participate in the
produce of the reserves, as for example the Wesleyans and the Roman
Catholics of Upper Canada, have not, that I am aware of, moved in the
matter, unless it be in an opposite direction.
[Sidenote: in Upper Canada;]
[Sidenote: in Lower Canada;]
Can it then be inferred from such indications that public opinion in
the province does not support the cause taken by the Assembly in
reference to the 'Clergy Reserves'? or, what is perhaps more to the
purpose, that a provincial administration, formed on the principle of
desisting from all attempts to induce the Imperial Government to
repeal the Imperial statute on this subject, would be sustained? I am
unable, I confess, to bring myself to entertain any such expectation.
It is my opinion, that if the Liberals were to rally out of office on
the cry that they were asserting the right of the Provincial
Government to deal with the question of the 'Clergy Reserves' against
a Government willing, at the bidding of the Imperial authorities, to
abandon this claim, they would triumph in Upper Canada more decisively
than they did at the late general election. I need hardly add, that
if, after a resistance followed by such a triumph, the Imperial
Government were to give way, it would be more than ever difficult to
obtain from the victorious party a reasonable consideration for Church
interests. These remarks apply to Upper Canada. It is not so easy to
foresee what is likely to be the course of events in Lower Canada. The
party which looks to M. Papineou as its leader adopts on all points
the most ultra-democratic creed. It professes no very warm attachment
to the endowments of the Roman Catholic Church, and is, of course, not
likely to prove itself more tender with respect to property set apart
by royal authority for the support of Protestantism. The French-
Canadian Representatives who do not belong to this party are, I
believe, generally disinclined to secularisation, and would be brought
to consent to any such proposition, if at all, only by the pressure of
some supposed political necessity. They are however, almost without
exception, committed to the principle that the 'Clergy Reserves' ought
to be subject to the control of the Local Legislature. While the
battle is waged on this ground, therefore, they will probably continue
to side with the Upper Canada Liberals, unless the latter contrive to
alienate them by some act of extravagance....
I am aware that there lie, beyond the subjects of which I have
treated, larger considerations of public policy affecting this
question, on which I have not ventured to touch. On the one hand there
are persons who contend that, as the 'Clergy Reserves' were set apart
by a British Sovereign for religious uses, it is the bounden duty of
the Imperial authorities to maintain at all hazards the disposition
thus made of them. This view is hardly, I think, reconcilable with the
provisions of the statute of 1791; but, if it be correct, it renders
all discussion of subordinate topics and points of mere expediency,
superfluous.
[Sidenote: In the Church;]
On the other hand even among the most attached friends of the Church,
some are to be found who doubt whether on the whole the Church has
gained from the Reserves as much as she has lost by them--whether the
ill-will which they have engendered, and the bar which they have
proved to private munificence and voluntary exertion, have not more
than counter-balanced the benefits which they may have conferred; and
who look to secularisation as the only settlement that will be final
and put an end to strife.
Up to this time Lord Elgin appears to have entertained at least a hope,
that, if the Colony were left to itself, it would settle the matter by
distributing the reserved funds according to some equitable proportion
among the clergy of all denominations. But as time went on, this hope
became fainter and fainter. In his next letter he recounts a conversation
with a person (not named) 'of much intelligence, and well acquainted with
Upper Canada,' not a member of the Church of England, but favourable to the
maintenance of an endowment for religious purposes, who, after remarking on
the infatuation shown by the friends of the Church in 1840, expressed a
decided opinion that the vantage ground then so heedlessly sacrificed was
lost for ever, so far as colonial sentiment was concerned; and that
'neither the present nor any future Canadian Parliament would be induced to
enact a law for perpetuating the endowment in any shape.' The increasing
likelihood, however, of a result which he regarded as in itself undesirable
could not abate his desire to see the matter finally settled, or shake his
conviction that the Provincial Parliament was the proper power to settle
it. With his correspondent it was not so; nor can it be wondered at that
the organ of a Tory Government should have declined to accede to the prayer
of an Address, which could hardly have any other issue than secularisation.
But the decision was not destined to be left in the hands of the Tories.
Before the end of 1852 Lord Derby was replaced by Lord Aberdeen, and Sir J.
Pakington by Lord Elgin's old friend the Duke of Newcastle, who saw at once
the necessity of conceding to the Canadian Parliament the power of settling
the question after its own fashion. Accordingly on May 21, 1853, Lord Elgin
was able to write to him as follows:
[Sidenote: Empowering Bill passed.]
I was certainly not a little surprised by the success with which you
carried the Clergy Reserves Bill through the House of Lords. I am assured
that this result was mainly due to your own personal exertions. I am quite
confident that both in what you have done, and in the way you have done it,
you have best consulted the interests of the Province, the Church, and the
Empire. I trust that what has happened will have here the favourable moral
effect which you anticipate. It cannot fail to have this tendency.
As respects the measures which will be ultimately adopted on this vexed
subject, I do not yet venture to write with confidence. If the
representation of the Bishop of Toronto, as to the feelings which exist
among the great Protestant denominations on the question, were correct,
there could be no doubt whatsoever in regard to the issue. For you may
depend upon it the Roman Catholics have no wish to touch the Protestant
endowment; although, when they are forced into the controversy, they will
contend that it does not rest on the same basis as their own. But I confess
that I place no reliance whatsoever on these calculations and
representations. Almost the greatest evil which results from the delegation
to the Imperial Parliament of the duty of legislating on Colonial questions
of this class, is the scope which the system affords to exaggeration and
mystification. Parties do not meet in fair conflict on their own ground,
where they can soon gain a knowledge of their relative strength, and learn
to respect each other accordingly; they shroud themselves in mystery, and
rely for victory on their success in outdoing each other in hard swearing.
Many men, partly from good nature and partly from political motives, will
sign a petition spiced and peppered to tickle the palate of the House of
Lords, who will not move a yard, or sacrifice a shilling, on behalf of the
object petitioned for. I much fear that it will be found that there is much
division of opinion even among members of the laity of the Church, with
respect to the propriety of maintaining the 'Clergy Reserves;' and that,
even as regards a certain section of the clergy, owing to dissatisfaction
with the distribution of the fund and with the condition of dependence in
which the missionaries are kept, there is greater lukewarmness on the
subject than the fervent representations you have received would lead you
to imagine.
Meanwhile there is a very good feeling in the Province--a great absence of
party violence. Your course has tended to confirm these favourable
symptoms. We must prevent anything being done during this session of the
Provincial Parliament to commit parties with respect to the 'Clergy
Reserves,' and as respects the future we must hope for the best.
[Sidenote: The Reserves secularised.]
The result has been already stated. The 'Clergy Reserves' were secularised,
contrary, no doubt, to the individual wishes of Lord Elgin; but the general
principle of Colonial self-government had signally triumphed, and its
victory more than outweighed to him the loss of any particular cause.
One other measure remains to be noticed, on which Lord Elgin had the
satisfaction of inducing the Home Government to yield to the wishes of the
Colony, viz. the Reform of the Provincial Parliament.
[Sidenote: Reform of the Provincial Parliament.]
By the Constitution of 1840 the legislative power was divided between two
chambers: a council, consisting of twenty persons, who were nominated by
the Governor, and held their seats for life; and a House of Assembly, whose
eighty-four members were elected in equal proportions from the two sections
of the province. As the population of the Colony grew--and between 1840 and
1853 it nearly doubled itself--it was natural that the number of
legislators should be increased; and there were other reasons which made an
increase desirable.
[Sidenote: Increase of representation.]
The Legislative Assembly (wrote Lord Elgin early in 1853) is now
engaged on a measure introduced by the Government for increasing the
representation of the province. I consider the object of the measure a
very important one; for, with so small a body as eighty members, when
parties are nearly balanced, individual votes become too precious,
which leads to mischief. I have not experienced this evil to any great
extent since I have had a liberal administration, which has always
been strong in the Assembly; but, with my first administration, I felt
it severely.
To this change no serious opposition was offered, either in the Colony or
in the Imperial Parliament; and the members of the two Houses were raised
to one hundred and thirty, and seventy-two, respectively. It was otherwise,
however, with the proposal to make the Upper House elective; a measure
certainly alien to English ideas, but one which Lord Elgin appears to have
thought necessary for the healthy working of the constitution under the
circumstances then existing in the province. As early as March, 1850, he
wrote to Lord Grey:--
[Sidenote: Proposal to make the Upper House elective.]
[Sidenote: Reasons in favour.]
A great deal is said here at present about rendering our second branch
of the Legislature elective. As the advocates of the plan, however,
comprise two classes of persons, with views not only distinct but
contradictory, it is difficult to foresee how they are to agree on
details, when it assumes a practical shape. The one class desire to
construct a more efficient Conservative body than the present Council,
the other seek an instrument to aid them in their schemes of
subversion and pillage. For my own part, I believe that a second
legislative body, returned by the same constituency as the House of
Assembly, under some differences with respect to time and mode of
election, would be a greater check on ill-considered legislation than
the Council as it is now constituted. Baldwin is very unwilling to
move in this matter. Having got what he imagines to be the likest
thing to the British constitution he can obtain, he is satisfied, and
averse to further change. In this instance I cannot but think that he
mistakes the shadow for the substance. I admire, however, the
perseverance with which he proclaims, '_Il faut jeter l'ancre de la
constitution_,' in reply to proposals of organic change; though I
fully expect that, like those who raised this cry in 1791, he will
yet, if he lives, find himself and his state-ship floundering among
rocks and shoals, towards which he never expected to steer.
Three years later he held the same language to the Duke of Newcastle.
Writing on March 26, 1853, to inform him that the Bill for increasing the
representation had been carried in the Assembly by a large majority, he
adds:--
The Lords must be attended to in the next place. The position of the
second chamber in our body politic is at present wholly
unsatisfactory. The principle of election must be introduced in order
to give to it the influence which it ought to possess; and that
principle must be so applied as to admit of the working of
Parliamentary Government (which I for one am certainly not prepared to
abandon for the American system) with two elective chambers. I have
made some suggestions with this view, which I hope to be able to
induce the Legislature to adopt.
When our two legislative bodies shall have been placed on this
improved footing, a greater stability will have been imparted to our
constitution, and a greater strength, I believe, if England act
wisely, to the connection.
[Sidenote: The Act passed.]
The question did not come before the British Parliament till the summer of
1854, after Lord Elgin's visit to England, during which he had an
opportunity of stating his views personally to the Government. At his
instance they brought in a Bill to enable the Colonial Legislature to deal
with the subject; and the measure was carried, with few dissentients,
although vehemently denounced by Lord Derby in the House of Lords. The
principles of colonial policy which Lord Durham had expressed so powerfully
in 1888, and on which Lord Grey and Lord Elgin had been acting so
consistently for many years, had at last prevailed; and many of those who
most deprecated the proposed reform as a downward step towards pure
democracy, yet acknowledged that, as it had been determined upon by the
deliberate choice of the Colony, it ought not to be thwarted by the
interference of the mother-country.
[Sidenote: Speech of Lord Derby.]
In the course of the speech above referred to, Lord Derby made use of the
following eloquent words:--
I have dreamed--perhaps it was only a dream--that the time would come
when, exercising a perfect control over their own internal affairs,
Parliament abandoning its right to interfere in their legislation,
these great and important colonies, combined together, should form a
monarchical government, presided over either by a permanent viceroy,
or, as an independent sovereign, by one nearly and closely allied to
the present royal family of this country.
I have believed that, in such a manner, it would be possible to uphold
the monarchical principle; to establish upon that great continent a
monarchy free as that of this country, even freer still with regard to
the popular influence exercised, but yet a monarchy worthy of the
name, and not a mere empty shadow. I can hardly believe that, under
such a system, the friendly connection and close intimacy between the
colonies and the mother-country would in any way be affected; but, on
the contrary, I feel convinced that the change to which I have
referred would be productive of nothing, for years and years to come,
but mutual harmony and friendship, increased and cemented as that
friendship would be by mutual appreciation of the great and
substantial benefits conferred by a free and regulated monarchy.
But pass this Bill, and that dream is gone for ever. Nothing like a
free and regulated monarchy could exist for a single moment under such
a constitution as that which is now proposed for Canada.
From the moment that you pass this constitution, the progress must be
rapidly towards republicanism, if anything could be more really
republican than this Bill.
The dream has been realised, at least in one of its most important
features; the gloomy forebodings have hitherto happily proved groundless.
But the speaker of these words, and the author of the measure to which they
refer, would probably have been alike surprised at the course which events
have taken respecting the particular point then in question. For once the
stream that sets towards democracy has been seen to take a backward
direction; and the constitution of the Dominion of Canada has returned, as
regards the Legislative Council, to the Conservative principle of
nomination by the Crown.
* * * * *
It does not fall within the scope of this memoir to give an account of the
numerous administrative measures which made the period of Lord Elgin's
Government so marked an epoch in the history of Canadian prosperity. It may
be well, however, to notice a few points to which he himself thought it
worth while to advert in official despatches, written towards the close of
his sojourn in the country, and containing a statistical review of the
marvellously rapid progress which the Colony had made in all branches of
productive industry.
The first extracts bear upon questions which have lost none of their
interest or importance--the kindred questions of emigration, of the demand
for labour, and of the acquisition and tenure of land.
[Sidenote: Emigration.]
The sufferings of the Irish during that calamitous period [1847]
induced philanthropic persons to put forward schemes of systematic
colonisation, based in some instances on the assumption that it was
for the interest of the emigrants that they should be as much as
possible concentrated in particular portions of the territories to
which they might proceed, so as to form communities complete in
themselves, and to remain subject to the influences, religious and
social, under which they had lived previously to emigration. It was
proposed, if I rightly remember, according to one of those schemes,
that large numbers of Irish with their priests and home associations
should be established by Government in some unoccupied part of Canada.
I believe that such schemes, however benevolent their design, rest on
a complete misconception of what is for the interest both of the
Colony and of the emigrants. It is almost invariably found that
emigrants who thus isolate themselves, whatever their origin or
antecedents, lag behind their neighbours; and I am inclined to think
that, as a general rule, in the case of communities whose social and
political organisation is as far advanced as that of the North
American Colonies, it is for the interest of all parties that new
comers, instead of dwelling apart and bound together by the affinities
whether of sect or party, which united them in the country which they
have left, should be dispersed as widely as possible among the
population already established in that to which they transfer
themselves.
It may not be altogether irrelevant to mention, as bearing on this
subject, that the painful circumstances which attended the emigration
of 1847 created for a time in this Province a certain prejudice
against emigration generally. The poll tax on emigrants was increased,
and the opinion widely disseminated that, however desirable the
introduction of capitalists might be, an emigration of persons of the
poorer classes was likely to prove a burden rather than a benefit.
Commercial depression, and apprehensions as to the probable effect of
the Free-trade policy of Great Britain on the prosperity of the
Colonies, had an influence in the same direction. To counteract these
tendencies which were calculated, as I thought, to be injurious in the
long run both to the Mother-country and the Province, public attention
was especially directed, in the Speech delivered from the Throne in
1849, to emigration by way of the St. Lawrence, as a branch of trade
which it was most desirable to cultivate (irrespective altogether of
its bearing on the settlement of the country) in consequence of the
great excess of exports over imports by that route, and the consequent
enhancement of freights outwards. These views obtained very general
assent, and the measures which have been adopted since that period to
render this route attractive to emigrants destined for the West (the
effect of which is beginning now to be visible in the yearly
increasing amount of emigration by way of Quebec from the continent of
Europe), are calculated not only to promote the trade of the Province,
but also to make settlers of a superior class acquainted with its
advantages.[3]
[Sidenote: Ottawa Valley.]
This important region (the valley of the Ottawa) takes the name by
which it is designated in popular parlance from the mighty stream
which flows through it, and which, though it be but a tributary of the
St. Lawrence, is one of the largest of the rivers that run
uninterruptedly from the source to the discharge within the dominions
of the Queen. It drains an area of about 80,000 square miles, and
receives at various points in its course the waters of streams, some
of which equal in magnitude the chief rivers of Great Britain. These
streams open up to the enterprise of the lumberman the almost
inexhaustible pine forests with which this region is clothed, and
afford the means of transporting their produce to market. In improving
these natural advantages considerable sums are expended by private
individuals. £50,000 currency was voted by Parliament last session for
the purpose of removing certain obstacles to the navigation of the
Upper Ottawa, by the construction of a canal at a point which is now
obstructed by rapids.
[Sidenote: Demand for labour.]
From the nature of the business, the lumbering trade falls necessarily
in a great measure into the hands of persons of capital, who employ
large bodies of men at points far removed from markets, and who are
therefore called upon to make considerable advances in providing food
and necessaries for their labourers, as well as in building slides and
otherwise facilitating the passage of timber along the streams and
rivers. Many thousands of men are employed during the winter in these
remote forests, preparing the timber which is transported during the
summer in rafts, or, if sawn, in boats, to Quebec when destined for
England, and up the Richelieu River when intended for the United
States. It is a most interesting fact, both in a moral and hygienic
view, that for some years past intoxicating liquors have been
rigorously excluded from almost all the chantiers, as the dwellings of
the lumbermen in these distant regions are styled; and that,
notwithstanding the exposure of the men to cold during the winter and
wet in the spring, the result of the experiment has been entirely
satisfactory.
The bearing of the lumbering business on the settlement of the country
is a point well worthy of notice. The farmer who undertakes to
cultivate unreclaimed land in new countries, generally finds that not
only does every step of advance which he makes in the wilderness, by
removing him from the centres of trade and civilisation, enhance the
cost of all he has to purchase, but that, moreover, it diminishes the
value of what he has to sell. It is not so, however, with the farmer
who follows in the wake of the lumbermen. He finds, on the contrary,
in the wants of the latter, a ready demand for all that he produces,
at a price not only equal to that procurable in the ordinary marts,
but increased by the cost of transport from them to the scene of the
lumbering operations. This circumstance, no doubt, powerfully
contributes to promote the settlement of those districts, and attracts
population to sections of the country which, in the absence of any
such inducement, would probably remain for long periods
uninhabited.[4]
[Sidenote: Wild land.]
The large amount of wild land held by individuals and corporations,
renders the disposal of the public domain a question of less urgency
in this than in some other colonies. Opinion in the Province runs
strongly in favour of facilitating its acquisition in small lots by
actual settlers, and of putting all possible obstacles in the way of
its falling into the hands of speculators. This opinion is founded no
doubt in part on a jealousy of great landholders; but it is mainly, I
apprehend, attributable to a sense of the inconvenience and damage
which are experienced in young countries, when considerable tracts of
land are kept out of the market in the midst of districts that are in
course of settlement. To this feeling much of the hostility to the
'Clergy Reserves' was originally due. The upset price of Government
wild land in Canada varies from 7_s_. 6_d_. currency to
1_s_. currency an acre, according to quality, and by the rules of
the Crown Land Department now in force, it is conceded at these rates,
except in special cases, in lots of not more than 200 acres, on
condition of actual settlement, of erecting a dwelling-house, and
clearing one-fourth of the lot before the patent can be obtained. The
price is payable in some parts of the country in ten yearly
instalments; in others in five; with interest in both cases from the
date of sale.
I have little faith in the efficacy of such devices to compel actual
settlement. They hinder the free circulation of capital, are easily
evaded, and seem to be especially out of place where wild lands are
subject to taxation for municipal purposes, as is the case in Upper
Canada.[5]
[Sidenote: Seigniorial tenure.]
A good deal of land in Lower Canada is held in seigniory, under a
species of feudal tenure, with respect to the conditions of which a
controversy has arisen which threatens, unless some equitable mode of
adjusting it be speedily devised, to be productive of very serious
consequences. A certain class of jurists contend, that by the custom
of the country, established before its conquest by Great Britain, the
seigniors were bound to concede their lands in lots of about 100 acres
to the first applicant, in consideration of the payment of certain
dues, and of a rent which, never, as they allege, exceeded one penny
an acre; and they quote edicts of the French monarchs to show that the
governor and intendant, when the seignior was contumacious, could
seize the land, and make the concession in spite of him, taking the
rent for the Crown. The seigniors, on the other hand, plead the
decisions of the courts since the conquest in vindication of their
claim to receive such rents as they can bargain for. Independently of
this controversy, the incidents of the tenure are in other respects
calculated to exercise an unfavourable influence on the progress of
the Province; and its abolition, if it could be effected without
injustice, would, no doubt, be a highly beneficial measure.[6]
Still more important and interesting at this time is the following sketch
of the Educational System of Upper Canada; the 'Common Schools' and 'Public
School Libraries,' which have attracted so much the attention of our own
educationists. Nor is it uninstructive to note the contrast between what
had been achieved in the colony nearly twenty years ago, and the still
unsettled condition of similar questions in the mother-country: a contrast
which may perhaps call to mind the remarks of Lord Elgin already quoted, as
to the rapid growth which ensues when the seeds that fall from ancient
experience are dropped into a virgin soil.[7]
[Sidenote: Education.]
In 1847 the Normal School, which may be considered the foundation of
the system, was instituted, and at the close of 1853, the first volume
issued from the Educational Department to the Public School Libraries,
which are its crown and completion.... The term school libraries does
not imply that the libraries in question are specially designed for
the benefit of common school pupils. They are, in point of fact,
public libraries intended for the use of the general population; and
they are entitled school libraries because their establishment has
been provided for in the School Acts, and their management confided to
the school authorities.
[Sidenote: Public School Libraries.]
Public School Libraries then, similar to those which are now being
introduced into Canada, have been in operation for several years in
some states of the neighbouring Union, and many of the most valuable
features of the Canadian system have been borrowed from them. In most
of the States, however, which have appropriated funds for library
purposes, the selection of the books has been left to the trustees
appointed by the different districts, many of whom are ill-qualified
for the task; and the consequence has been, that the travelling
pedlars, who offer the most showy books at the lowest prices, have had
the principal share in furnishing the libraries. In introducing the
system into Canada, precautions have been taken which will, I trust,
have the effect of obviating this great evil.
In the School Act of 1850, which first set apart a sum of money for
the establishment and support of school libraries, it is declared to
be the duty of the chief superintendent of education to apportion the
sum granted for this purpose by the legislature under the following
condition: 'That no aid should be given towards the establishment and
support of any school library unless an equal amount be contributed or
expended from local sources for the same;' and the Council of
Instruction is required to examine, and at its discretion recommend or
disapprove of text books for the use of schools, or books for school
libraries; 'provided that no portion of the legislative school grant
shall be applied in aid of any school in which any book is used that
has been disapproved of by the Council, and public notice given of
such disapproval.'
[Sidenote: Common schools.]
The system of public instruction in Upper Canada is engrafted upon the
municipal institutions of the Province, to which an organisation very
complete in its details, and admirably adapted to develop the
resources, confirm the credit, and promote the moral and social
interests of a young country, was imparted by an Act passed in 1849.
The law by which the common schools are regulated was enacted in 1850,
and it embraces all the modifications and improvements suggested by
experience in the provisions of the several school Acts passed
subsequently to 1841, when the important principle of granting money
to each county on condition that an equal amount were raised within it
by local assessment, was first introduced into the statute-book.
[Sidenote: Local superintendence.]
The development of individual self-reliance and local exertion, under
the superintendence of a central authority exercising an influence
almost exclusively moral, is the ruling principle of the system.
Accordingly, it rests with the freeholders and householders of each
school section to decide whether they will support their school by
voluntary subscription, by rate bill for each pupil attending the
school (which must not, however, exceed 1_s_. per month), or by
rates on property. The trustees elected by the same freeholders and
householders are required to determine the amount to be raised within
their respective school sections for all school purposes whatsoever,
to hire teachers from among persons holding legal certificates of
qualification, and to agree with them as to salary. On the local
superintendents appointed by the county councils is devolved the duty
of apportioning the legislative grant among the school sections within
the county, of inspecting the schools, and reporting upon them to the
chief superintendent. The county boards of public instruction,
composed of the local superintendent or superintendents, and the
trustees of the county grammar school, examine candidates for the
office of teacher, and give certificates of qualification which are
valid for the county; the chief superintendent giving certificates to
normal school pupils which are valid for the Province; while the chief
superintendent, who holds his appointment from the Crown, aided in
specified cases by the Council of Public Instruction, has under his
especial charge the normal and model schools, besides exercising a
general control over the whole system..
The question of religious instruction as connected with the common
school system, presented even more than ordinary difficulty in a
community where there is so much diversity of opinion on religious
subjects, and where all denominations are in the eye of the law on a
footing of entire equality. It is laid down as a fundamental
principle, that as the common schools are not boarding but day
schools, and as the pupils are under the care of their parents or
guardians during the Sunday, and a considerable portion of each week
day, it is not intended that the functions of the common school
teacher should supersede those of the parent and pastor of the child.
Accordingly, the law contents itself with providing on this head,
'that in any model or common school established under this act, no
child shall be required to read or study in or from any religious
book, or to join in any exercise of devotion or religion, which shall
be objected to by his or her parents or guardians; provided always,
that within this limitation pupils shall be allowed to receive such
religious instruction as their parents or guardians shall desire,
according to the general regulations which shall be provided according
to law.' And it authorises under certain regulations the establishment
of a separate school for Protestants or Roman Catholics, as the case
may be, when the teacher of the common school is of the opposite
persuasion.
Clergymen recognised by law, of whatever denomination, are made _ex
officio_ visitors of the schools in townships, cities, towns, or
villages where they reside, or have pastoral charge. The chief
superintendent. Dr. Ryerson, remarks on this head:
[Sidenote: The clergy.]
'The clergy of the county have access to each of its schools; and we
know of no instance in which the school has been made the place of
religious discord, but many instances, especially on occasions of
quarterly public examinations, in which the school has witnessed the
assemblage and friendly intercourse of clergy of various religious
persuasions, and thus become the radiating centre of a spirit of
Christian charity and potent cooperation in the primary work of a
people's civilisation and happiness.'
He adds with reference to the subject generally, 'The more carefully
the question of religion in connection with a system of common schools
is examined, the more clearly, I think, it will appear, that it has
been left where it properly belongs--with the local school
municipalities, parents, and managers of schools; the Government
protecting the right of each parent and child, but beyond this, and
beyond the principles and duties of morality common to all classes,
neither compelling nor prohibiting; recognising the duties of pastors
and parents as well as of school trustees and teachers, and
considering the united labours of all as constituting the system of
education for the youth of the country.'
Lord Elgin himself had always shown a profound sense of the importance of
thus making religion the groundwork of education. Speaking on occasion of
the opening of a normal school, after noticing the zealous and wisely-
directed exertions which had 'enabled Upper Canada to place itself in the
van among the nations, in the great and important work of providing an
efficient system of general education for the whole community' he
proceeded:--
[Sidenote: What is education?]
And now let me ask this intelligent audience, who have so kindly
listened to me up to this moment--let me ask them to consider, in all
seriousness and earnestness, what that great work really is. I do not
think that I shall be chargeable with exaggeration when I affirm, that
it is _the_ work of our day and generation; that it is _the_
problem in our modern society which is most difficult of solution;
that it is the ground upon which earnest and zealous men unhappily too
often, and in too many countries meet, not to co-operate but to
wrangle; while the poor and the ignorant multitudes around them are
starving and perishing for lack of knowledge. Well, then, how has
Upper Canada addressed herself to the execution of this great work?
How has she sought to solve this problem--to overcome this difficulty?
Sir, I understand from your statements--and I come to the same
conclusion from my own investigation and observation--that it is the
principle of our common school educational system, that its foundation
is laid deep in the firm rock of our common Christianity. I
understand, sir, that while the varying views and opinions of a mixed
religious society are scrupulously respected, while every semblance of
dictation is carefully avoided, it is desired, it is earnestly
recommended, it is confidently expected and hoped, that every child
who attends our common schools shall learn there that he is a being
who has an interest in eternity as well as in time; that he has a
Father, towards whom he stands in a closer and more affecting, and
more endearing relationship than to any earthly father, and that
Father is in heaven; that he has a hope, far transcending every
earthly hope--a hope full of immortality--the hope, namely, that that
Father's kingdom may come; that he has a duty which, like the sun in
our celestial system, stands in the centre of his moral obligations,
shedding upon them a hallowing light, which they in their turn reflect
and absorb--the duty of striving to prove by his life and conversation
the sincerity of his prayer, that that Father's will may be done upon
earth as it is done in heaven. I understand, sir, that upon the broad
and solid platform which is raised upon that good foundation, we
invite the ministers of religion, of all denominations--the _de
facto_ spiritual guides of the people of the country--to take their
stand along with us; that, so far from hampering or impeding them in
the exercise of their sacred functions, we ask and we beg them to take
the children--the lambs of the flock which are committed to their
care--aside, and to lead them to those pastures and streams where they
will find, as they believe, the food of life and the waters of
consolation.
One more extract must be given from the despatch already quoted, because it
illustrates a feature in his character, to which the subsequent course of
his life gave such marked prominence--his generous and tender feeling of
what was due to subject or inferior races; a sad feeling in this case, and
but faintly supported by any hope of being able to do anything for their
benefit.
[Sidenote: Aboriginal tribes.]
It is painful to turn from reviewing the progress of the European
population and their descendants established in this portion of
America, to contemplate the condition and prospects of the aboriginal
tribes. It cannot, I fear, be affirmed with truth, that the difficult
problem of reconciling the interests of an inferior and native race
with those of an intrusive and superior one, has as yet been
satisfactorily solved on this continent. In the United States, the
course of proceeding generally followed in this matter has been that
of compelling the Red man, through the influence of persuasion or
force, to make way for the White, by retreating farther and farther
into the wilderness; a mode of dealing with the case which necessarily
entails the occasional adoption of harsh measures, and which ceases to
be practicable when civilisation approaches the limits of the
territory to be occupied. In Canada, the tribes have been permitted to
dwell among the scenes of their early associations and traditions, on
lands reserved from the advancing tide of White settlement, and set
apart for their use. But this system, though more lenient in its
operation than the other, is not unattended with difficulties of its
own. The laws enacted for their protection, and in the absence of
which they fall an easy prey to the more unscrupulous among their
energetic neighbours, tend to keep them in a condition of perpetual
pupillage, and the relation subsisting between them and the
Government, which treats them, partly as independent peoples, and
partly as infants under its guardianship, involves many anomalies and
contradictions. Unless there be some reasonable ground for the hope
that they will be eventually absorbed in the general population of the
country, the Canadian system is probably destined in the long run to
prove as disastrous to them as that of the United States. In 1846 and
1847 the attempt was first made to establish among them industrial
boarding schools, in part supported by contributions from their own
funds. If schools of this description be properly conducted, it may, I
think, be expected that, among the youth trained at them, a certain
proportion at least will be so far civilised, as to be capable of
making their way in life without exceptional privileges or restraints.
It would be, I am inclined to believe, expedient that any Indian,
showing this capacity, should be permitted, after sufficient trial, to
receive from the common property of the tribe of which he was a member
(on the understanding of course that neither he nor his descendants
had thenceforward any claim upon it), a sum equivalent to his interest
in it, as a means to enable him to start in independent life. The
process of transition from their present semi-barbarous condition
could hardly fail to be promoted by a scheme of this description if it
were judiciously carried out.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Relations with the United States.]
No sketch of a Governor's life in Canada would be complete which did not
contain some account of his relations with the great neighbouring republic.
We have seen that, at the beginning of his government, Lord Elgin's cares
were increased by threats, and more than threats, of interference on the
part of 'sympathisers' from some of the American States; and that he looked
upon the likelihood of lawless inroad, not to speak of the possibility of
lawful war, as affording solid reason for England's maintaining a body of
troops in the Colony. But it must not be supposed that his attitude towards
the Government or people of the States was one of jealousy or hostility.
The loyal friendliness of the Government in repressing the intemperate
sympathies of certain of its citizens, he cordially acknowledged; and with
the people he did his utmost to encourage the freest and friendliest
intercourse, social and commercial, not only in order that the inhabitants
of the two countries might provoke one another to increased activity in the
good work of civilisation, but also that they might know and understand one
another; and that he might have in the public opinion of the United States
that intelligent support which he despaired of finding in England, owing to
the strange ignorance and indifference which so unfortunately prevails
there on all colonial subjects.
The following letters refer to some of the occasion on which mutual
civilities were interchanged:
_To Mr. Crampton, British Minister at Washington._
Montreal, May 21, 1849.
[Sidenote: their loyal conduct in 1849.]
I am much indebted to you for your letter of the 10th, conveying an
intimation of the intentions of the American Government with reference
to improper interference on the part of American citizens in Canadian
affairs, which is so honourable to General Taylor and his cabinet. If
I should receive any information leading me to believe that any such
interference is contemplated, I shall not fail to communicate with you
at once on the subject. My impression is, that there is not at present
much to be apprehended on that score; for although there is unhappily
considerable excitement and irritation in Canada, the subject in
dispute[8] is not one which is likely to conciliate much sympathy
among our neighbours. I do not, however, less highly appreciate the
good feeling and cordiality evinced by the Executive Government of the
United States.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey_
Toronto, June 14,1850.
[Sidenote: Mutual Courtesies.]
Our expedition to the Welland Canal went off admirably, the only
drawback being that we attempted too much. Mr. Merritt, who planned
the affair, gave it out that we were to pass through the canal, and to
touch at Buffalo on our way from Lake Erie to the Falls of Niagara, in
one day. On this hint the Buffalonians made preparations for our
reception on the most magnificent scale.... As might have been
expected, however, what with addresses, speeches, and mishaps of
various kinds, such as are to be looked for in canal travelling on a
large scale (for our party consisted of some three hundred), night
overtook us before we reached Lake Erie, and Buffalo had to be given
up. I very much regret this, as I fear the citizens were disappointed.
Some of our party went there the next day, and were most hospitably
received.
* * * * *
_To the Earl Grey._
Toronto, August 16, 1850.
Our Session has closed with great _éclat_. On Thursday week our
Buffalo friends, with other persons of distinction from different
parts of the Union, arrived here, to the number of about two hundred.
They were entertained that evening at a ball in the City Hall, which
did great credit to the good taste and hospitality of the hosts. Next
day there was a review in the forenoon and a fête at my house, which
lasted from half-past four to twelve. I succeeded in enabling a party
of five hundred to sit down together to dinner; and, what with a few
speeches, fireworks, and dances, I believe I may say the citizens went
away thoroughly pleased.[9] On Saturday, at noon, many of the party
assisted at the prorogation.
These matters may seem trivial to you among the graver concerns of
state; nevertheless, I am sanguine enough to hope that the courtesies
which have passed this year between the Buffalonians and us will not
be without their fruit. The bulk of those who came here from Buffalo,
including the Mayor--a very able man and powerful speaker--are of the
democratic party, and held some years ago very different views from
those which they expressed on this visit. They found here the warmest
and most cordial welcome from all, Her Majesty's representative not
excepted. But they saw, I venture to say almost with certainty,
nothing to lead them to suppose that the Canadians desire to change
their political condition; on the contrary, the mention of Her
Majesty's name evoked on all occasions the most unbounded enthusiasm;
and there was every appearance of a kindly feeling towards the
Governor General, which the Americans seemed not disinclined
themselves to share.
'To render annexation by violence impossible, and by any other means
as improbable as may be,' is, as I have often ventured to repeat, the
polar star of my policy. In these matters, small as they may appear, I
believe we have been steering by its light. Again, as respects
ourselves. I trust that the effects of this Buffalonian visit will be
very beneficial. I took occasion in my speeches, in a joking way which
provoked nothing but laughter and good humour, to hint at some of the
unreasonable traits in the conduct of my Canadian friends. I am sure
that the Americans go home with very correct views as touching our
politics, and with the best sentiments towards myself. It is of very
great importance to me to have the aid of a sound public opinion from
without, to help me through my difficulties here; and, as I utterly
despair of receiving any such assistance from England (I allude not to
the Government but to the public, which never looks at us except when
roused by fear ignorantly to condemn), it is of incalculable
importance that I should obtain this support from America.
[Sidenote: Boston Jubilee.]
In the autumn of 1851, the inhabitants of Boston held a Three Days'
Jubilee, to celebrate the completion of various lines of communication, by
railroad and steamship, destined to draw closer the bonds of union between
Canada and the United States; and Lord Elgin gladly accepted an invitation
to be present. Writing on September 26, 1851, he mentions having 'met there
all the United States, President included;' and describes a 'dinner on the
Boston Common for 3,500 persons, at which many good speeches were made,
Everett's especially so.' He adds:--
Nothing certainly could be more cordial than the conduct of the
Bostonians throughout; and there was a scrupulous avoidance of every
topic that could wound British or Canadian susceptibilities.
To the general harmony and good feeling no one contributed more than Lord
Elgin himself, by his general courtesy and affability, and especially by
his speeches, full of the happiest mixture of playfulness and earnestness,
of eloquence and sound sense, of ardent patriotism with broad international
sympathies. 'It was worth something,' he wrote afterwards, 'to get the
Queen of England as much cheered and lauded in New England as in any part
of Old England;' and the reflection faithfully represents the spirit of
expansive loyalty which characterised all his dealings with his neighbours
of the States.
These qualities, added to the reputation of a wise and liberal Governor,
won for him an unusual amount of regard from the American people. At a
dinner given to him in London, during his short visit to England in the
spring of 1854--a dinner at which the Colonial Secretaries of five
different Governments, Lord Monteagle, Lord John Russell, Lord Grey, Sir J.
Pakington, and the Duke of Newcastle met to do him honour--no one spoke
more warmly or more discriminatingly in his praise than the American
Minister, Mr. Buchanan.
[Sidenote: Speech of Mr. Buchanan.]
'Lord Elgin,' he said, 'has solved one of the most difficult problems
of statesmanship. He has been able, successfully and satisfactorily,
to administer, amidst many difficulties, a colonial government over a
free people. This is an easy task where the commands of a despot are
law to his obedient subjects; but not so in a colony where the people
feel that they possess the rights and privileges of native-born
Britons. Under his enlightened government Her Majesty's North American
provinces have realised the blessings of a wise, prudent, and
prosperous administration; and we of the neighbouring nation, though
jealous of our rights, have reason to be abundantly satisfied with his
just and friendly conduct towards ourselves. He has known how to
reconcile his devotion to Her Majesty's service with a proper regard
to the rights and interests of the kindred and neighbouring people.
Would to Heaven we had such governors-general in all the European
colonies in the vicinity of the United States!'
[Sidenote: Reciprocity Treaty.]
A signal proof of his popularity and influence in America was given a few
months later, on the occasion already referred to, when he visited
Washington for the purpose of negotiating the Reciprocity Treaty; and,
chiefly by the effect of his personal presence, carried through, in a few
weeks, a measure which had been in suspense for years.
In returning from this visit he was received with special honours at
Portland, the terminus of the international railway which he had exerted
himself so much to promote; and he used the opportunity not only to please
and conciliate his entertainers, but also to impress them with the respect
due to the Canadians, as a flourishing and progressive, above all as a
loyal, people. Speaking of the alienation which had existed, a few years
earlier, between the Provinces and the States, he said:[10]
[Sidenote: Speech at Portland.]
When I look back to the past, I find what tended in some degree to
create this misunderstanding. In the first place, as I believe, the
government of these provinces was conducted on erroneous principles,
the rights of the people were somewhat restrained, and large numbers
were prevented from exercising those privileges which belong to a free
people. From this arose, very naturally, a discontent on the part of
the people of the Provinces, with which the people of the States
sympathised. Though this sympathy and this discontent was not always
wise, it is not wonderful that it existed.
What have we now done to put an end to this? We have cut off the
source of all this misunderstanding by granting to the people what
they desired--the great principle of self-government. The inhabitants
of Canada at this moment exercise an influence over their own
destinies and government as complete as do the people of this country.
This is the only cause of misunderstanding that ever existed; and this
cannot arise when the circumstances which made them at variance have
ceased to exist.
The good feeling which has been so fully established between the
States and the Provinces has already justified itself by its works. In
the British Provinces we have already had many evidences to prove your
kindness towards us; and within the last seven years, more than in any
previous seven years since the settlement of the two countries.
Let me ask you, who is the worse off for this display of good feeling
and fraternal intercourse? Is it the Canadas? sir, as the
representative of Her Majesty, permit me to say that the Canadians
were never more loyal than at this moment. Standing here, on United
States ground, beneath that flag under which we are proud to live, I
repeat that no people was ever more loyal than are the Canadas to
their Queen; and it is the purpose of the present Ministers of Her
Majesty's Government to make the people of Canada so prosperous and
happy, that other nations shall envy them their good fortune.
This was the last occasion of his addressing American citizens on their own
soil; nor did the course of his after-life bring him often in contact with
them. But the personal regard which he had won from them descended, some
years later, as a valuable heritage to his brother, Sir Frederick, when
appointed to the difficult post of Minister at Washington after the close
of the American Civil War.[11]
[Sidenote: Parting from Canada.]
The parting of Lord Elgin from Canada was spread, so to speak, over several
years; for though he did not finally quit its shores till the end of 1854,
from 1851 onwards he was continually in expectation of being recalled; and,
towards the end of 1853, he came to England, as we have already seen, on
leave of absence. The numerous speeches made, and letters written on the
occasion of these different leave-takings, contain ample proof how cordial
was the feeling which had grown up between the Colony and its Governor. It
may be enough to give here two specimens. The first is an extract from a
farewell speech at Montreal, listened to with tears by a crowded audience
in the very place where, a few years before, he had been so scandalously
outraged and insulted.[12]
[Sidenote: Farewell to Montreal.]
For nearly eight years, at the command of our beloved Queen, I have
filled this position among you, discharging its duties, often
imperfectly, never carelessly, or with indifference. We are all of us
aware that the period is rapidly approaching when I may expect to be
required by the same gracious authority to resign into other, and I
trust worthier, hands, the office of Governor-General, with the heavy
burden of responsibility and care which attaches to it. It is fitting,
therefore, that we should now speak to each other frankly and without
reserve. Let me assure you, then, that the severance of the formal tie
which binds us together will not cause my earnest desire for your
welfare and advancement to abate. The extinction of an official
relationship cannot quench the conviction that I have so long
cherished, and by which I have been supported through many trials,
that a brilliant future is in store for British North America; or
diminish the interest with which I shall watch every event which tends
to the fulfilment of this expectation. And again permit me to assure
you, that when I leave you, be it sooner or later, I shall carry away
no recollections of my sojourn among you except such as are of a
pleasing character. I shall remember--and remember with gratitude--the
cordial reception I met with at Montreal when I came a stranger among
you, bearing with me for my sole recommendation the commission of our
Sovereign. I shall remember those early months of my residence here,
when I learnt in this beautiful neighbourhood to appreciate the charms
of a bright Canadian winter day, and to take delight in the cheerful
music of your sleigh bells. I shall remember one glorious afternoon--
an afternoon in April--when, looking down from the hill at Monklands,
on my return from transacting business in your city, I beheld that the
vast plain stretching out before me, which I had always seen clothed
in the white garb of winter, had assumed, on a sudden, and, as if by
enchantment, the livery of spring; while your noble St. Lawrence,
bursting through his icy fetters, had begun to sparkle in the
sunshine, and to murmur his vernal hymn of thanksgiving to the
bounteous Giver of light and heat. I shall remember my visits to your
Mechanics' Institutes and Mercantile Library Associations, and the
kind attention with which the advice which I tendered to your young
men and citizens was received by them. I shall remember the undaunted
courage with which the merchants of this city, while suffering under
the pressure of a commercial crisis of almost unparalleled severity,
urged forward that great work which was the first step towards placing
Canada in her proper position in this age of railway progress. I shall
remember the energy and patriotism which gathered together in this
city specimens of Canadian industry, from all parts of the province,
for the World's Fair, and which has been the means of rendering this
magnificent conception of the illustrious Consort of our beloved Queen
more serviceable to Canada than it has, perhaps, proved to any other
of the countless communities which have been represented there. And I
shall forget--but no--what I might have had to forget is forgotten
already; and therefore I cannot tell you what I shall forget.
The remaining extract is from parting words, spoken after a ball which he
gave at Quebec on the eve of his final departure in December, 1854.
[Sidenote: Farewell to Quebec.]
I wish I could address you in such strains as I have sometimes
employed on similar occasions, strains suited to a festive meeting;
but I confess I have a weight on my heart, and that it is not in me to
be merry. For the last time I stand before you in the official
character which I have borne for nearly eight years. For the last time
I am surrounded by a circle of friends with whom I have spent some of
the most pleasant days of my life. For the last time I welcome you as
my guests to this charming residence which I have been in the habit of
calling my home.[13] I did not, I will frankly confess it, know what
it would cost me to break this habit, until the period of my departure
approached; and I began to feel that the great interests which have so
long engrossed my attention and thoughts, were passing out of my
hands. I had a hint of what my feelings really were upon this point--a
pretty broad hint too--one lovely morning in June last, when I
returned to Quebec after my temporary absence in England, and landed
in the Coves below Spencerwood (because it was Sunday, and I did not
want to make a disturbance in the town), and when with the greetings
of the old people in the Coves who put their heads out of the windows
as I passed along, and cried 'Welcome home again,' still ringing in my
ears, I mounted the hill and drove through the avenue to the house
door. I saw the dropping trees on the lawn, with every one of which I
was so familiar, clothed in the tenderest green of spring, and the
river beyond, calm and transparent as a mirror, and the ships fixed
and motionless as statues on its surface, and the whole landscape
bathed in a flood of that bright Canadian sun which so seldom pierces
our murky atmosphere on the other side of the Atlantic. I began to
think that persons were to be envied who were not forced by the
necessities of their position to quit these engrossing interests and
lovely scenes, for the purpose of proceeding to distant lands, but who
are able to remain among them until they pass to that quiet corner of
the Garden of Mount Hermon, which juts into the river and commands a
view of the city, the shipping, Point Levi, the Island of Orleans, and
the range of Lawrentine; so that through the dim watches of that
tranquil night, which precedes the dawning of the eternal day, the
majestic citadel of Quebec, with its noble train of satellite hills,
may seem to rest for ever on the sight, and the low murmur of the
waters of St. Lawrence, with the hum of busy life on their surface, to
fall ceaselessly on the ear. I cannot bring myself to believe that the
future has in store for me any interests which will fill the place of
those I am now abandoning. But although I must henceforward be to you
as a stranger, although my official connection with you and your
interests will have become in a few days matter of history, yet I
trust that through some one channel or another, the tidings of your
prosperity and progress may occasionally reach me; that I may hear
from time to time of the steady growth and development of those
principles of liberty and order, of manly independence in combination
with respect for authority and law, of national life in harmony with
British connection, which it has been my earnest endeavour, to the
extent of my humble means of influence, to implant and to establish. I
trust, too, that I shall hear that this house continues to be what I
have ever sought to render it, a neutral territory, on which persons
of opposite opinions, political and religious, may meet together in
harmony and forget their differences for a season. And I have good
hope that this will be the case for several reasons, and, among
others, for one which I can barely allude to, for it might be an
impertinence in me to dwell upon it. But I think that without any
breach of delicacy or decorum I may venture to say that many years
ago, when I was much younger than I am now, and when we stood towards
each other in a relation somewhat different from that which has
recently subsisted between us, I learned to look up to Sir Edmund Head
with respect, as a gentleman of the highest character, the greatest
ability, and the most varied accomplishments and attainments.[14] And
now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have only to add the sad word Farewell. I
drink this bumper to the health of you all, collectively and
individually. I trust that I may hope to leave behind me some who will
look back with feelings of kindly recollection to the period of our
intercourse; some with whom I have been on terms of immediate official
connection, whose worth and talents I have had the best means of
appreciating, and who could bear witness, at least, if they please to
do so, to the spirit, intentions, and motives with which I have
administered your affairs; some with whom I have been bound by the
ties of personal regard. And if reciprocity be essential to enmity,
then most assuredly I can leave behind me no enemies. I am aware that
there must be persons in so large a society as this, who think that
they have grievances to complain of, that due consideration has not in
all cases been shown to them. Let them believe me, and they ought to
believe me, for the testimony of a dying man is evidence, even in a
court of justice, let them believe me, then, even I assure them, in
this the last hour of my agony, that no such errors of omission or
commission have been intentional on my part. Farewell, and God bless
you.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: At home.]
The two years which followed Lord Elgin's return from Canada were a time of
complete rest from official labour. For though, on the breaking up of Lord
Aberdeen's Ministry in the spring of 1855, he was offered by Lord
Palmerston the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the
Cabinet, he declined the offer, not on any ground of difference from the
new Ministry, which he intended to support; but because, having only
recently taken his seat in the House of Lords, after a long term of foreign
service, during which he had necessarily held aloof from home politics, he
thought it advisable, for the present at least, to remain independent. He
found, however, ample and congenial occupation for his time in the peaceful
but industrious discharge of home duties at Broomhall. Still his thoughts
were constantly with the distant Provinces in which he had laboured so
long.
Whenever he appeared in public, whether at a dinner given in his honour at
Dunfermline, or on occasion of receiving the freedom of the city of
Glasgow, or in delivering a lecture at the annual opening of the Edinburgh
Philosophical Institute--it was with the same desire of turning to account
the knowledge gained abroad, for the advantage of the Colonies, or of the
mother-country, or for the mutual benefit of both; with the same hope of
drawing closer the bonds of union between them, and dispelling something of
that cloud of ignorance and indifference which has often made the public
opinion of Great Britain a hindrance rather than a support to the best
interests of her dependencies.
[Sidenote: In the House of Lords.]
It was only very rarely that he took any part in the business of
legislation; and of the two occasions on which he was induced to break
silence, one was when the interests of Canada appeared to him to be
imperilled by the rumoured intention of Government to send thither large
bodies of troops that had just returned from the Crimea. He thought it his
duty to protest earnestly against any such proceeding, as likely, in the
first place, to complicate the relations of Canada with the United States,
and, in the second place, to arrest her progress in self-dependence.
[Sidenote: Crimean War.]
The other occasion of his speaking was in May 1855, when Lord Ellenborough
had moved an Address to the Crown, condemnatory of the manner in which the
Crimean War had been and was being conducted. Having been out of England
when hostilities were begun, he had not to consider the question whether it
was a glorious, or even a necessary, war in which we were engaged; and his
one feeling on the subject was that which he had previously expressed to
the citizens of Glasgow.
My opinion (he then said) [on the question of the war] I can easily
state, and I have no hesitation in avowing it. I say that now we are
in the war, we must fight it out like men. I don't say, throw away the
scabbard; in the first place, because I dislike all violent metaphors;
and, in the second place, because the scabbard is a very useful
instrument, and the sooner we can use it the better. But I do say,
having drawn the sword, don't sheathe it until the purpose for which
it was drawn is accomplished.
In the same spirit he now defended the Ministry against Lord Ellenborough's
attack; not on party grounds, which he took pains to repudiate, but on what
he conceived to be the true patriotic principle--viz. to strengthen, at
such a time, the hands of the existing Government, unless there be a
distinct prospect of replacing it by a stronger.
After mentioning that he had not long before informed Lord Palmerston, that
'while he was resolved to maintain an independent position in Parliament,
it was nevertheless his desire and intention, subject to that qualification
and reserve, to support the Government,' he proceeded:
I formed this resolution not only because I had reason to believe that
on questions of public policy my sentiments would generally be found
to be in accordance with those of the present Government, nor yet only
because I felt I owed to the noble Viscount himself, and many at least
of his colleagues, a debt of obligation for the generous support they
uniformly gave me at critical periods in the course of my foreign
career; but also, and principally, because in the critical position in
which this country was placed--at a time when we had only recently
presented to the astonished eye of Europe the discreditable spectacle
of a great country left for weeks without a Government, and a popular
and estimable Monarch left without councillors, during a period of
great national anxiety and peril; when there was hardly a household in
England where the voice of wailing was not to be heard, or an eye
which was not heavy with a tear--it appeared to me, I say, under such
circumstances, to be the bounden duty of every patriotic man, who had
not some very valid and substantial reason to assign for adopting a
contrary course, to tender a frank and generous support to the
Government of the Queen.
Having come to that determination, he had now to ask himself whether
circumstances were so altered as to make it his duty to revoke the pledge
spontaneously given? To this conclusion he could not bring himself.
It seems to me (he said) these Resolutions divide themselves naturally
into two parts. The first part has reference to what I may call the
general policy of the Government with respect to the war; and that
portion of them is conceived in strains of eulogy and commendation--I
may almost say in strains of exultation. The Resolutions speak of firm
alliances, of brotherhood in arms, of a sympathetic and enthusiastic
people; but not a word of regret for national friendships of old
standing broken--desolation carried into thousands of happy
homes--Europe in arms--Asia agitated and febrile--America sullenly
expectant.
This exuberance of exultation, he said, was amply met by the exuberance of
denunciation which characterises the latter part of the Address; but it was
to his mind even less just than the former.
But even (he continued) if I could bring myself to believe, which I
have failed in doing, that censure might be passed in the terms of
these Resolutions upon Her Majesty's present Government without
injustice, I should still be unwilling to concur in them, unless I
could find some better security than either the Resolutions themselves
afford, or, as I regret to be obliged to add, the antecedents and
recorded sentiments of Noble Lords opposite afford, that by bringing
about the change of administration which these Resolutions are
intended to promote, I should be doing a benefit to the public
service. My Lords, I cannot but think that at a time when it is most
important that the Government of this country should have weight and
influence abroad, frequent changes of administration are _primâ
facie_ most objectionable. I happened to be upon the Continent when
the last change of Government in this country took place; and I must
say it appeared to me, that a most painful impression was created in
foreign states with respect to the instability of the administrative
system of this country by these frequent changes of administration. I
do think, indeed, that not the least of the many calamities which this
war has brought upon us is the fact, that it has had a tendency in
many quarters to throw discredit on that constitutional system of
Government of which this country has hitherto been the type and the
bright example among the nations.
After all, what is chiefly valuable to nations as well as to
individuals, and the loss of which alone is irreparable, is character;
and it appears to me that, viewed in this light, many of the other
calamities which we have had to deplore during the course of this war
have been already accompanied by a very large and ample measure of
compensation. To take, for instance, the military departments:
notwithstanding the complaints we have heard of deficiencies in our
military organisation, I believe we can with confidence affirm, that
the character of the British soldier, both for moral qualities and for
powers of physical endurance, has been raised by the instrumentality
of this war to an elevation which it had never before attained. In
spite of the somewhat unfavourable tone which, I regret to say, has
been adopted of late by a portion of the press of America, I have
myself seen in influential journals in that country commentaries upon
the conduct of our soldiers at Alma, at Balaklava, and at Inkerman,
which no true-hearted Englishman could read without emotion: and I
have heard a tribute not less generous and not less unqualified borne
to the qualities of our troops by eminent persons belonging to that
great military nation with which we are now so happily allied. To look
to another quarter--to contemplate another class of virtues not less
essential than those to which I have referred to the happiness and
glory of nations--I have heard from enthusiastic, even bigoted,
votaries of that branch of the Christian Church which sometimes prides
itself as having alone retained in its system room for the exercise of
the heroic virtues of Christianity,--I say I have frequently heard
from them the frank admission, that the hospitals of Scutari have
proved that the fairest and choicest flowers of Christian charity and
devotion may come to perfection even in what they are pleased to call
the arid soil of Protestantism. But, my Lords, can we flatter
ourselves with the belief that the character of our statesmen, of our
public men, and of our Parliamentary institutions has risen in a like
proportion? Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that doubts have
been created in quarters where such doubts never existed before as to
the practical efficiency of our much-vaunted constitution, as to its
fitness to carry us unscathed through periods of great difficulty and
danger? I believe, my Lords, that there is one process only, but that
a sure and certain process, by which these doubts may be removed. It
is only necessary that public men, whether connected with the
Government or with the Opposition, whether tied in the bonds of party
or holding independent positions in Parliament, should evince the same
indifference to small and personal motives, the same generous
patriotism, the same disinterested devotion to duty, which have
characterised the services of our soldiers in the field, and of the
women of England at the sick-bed. And, my Lords, I cannot help asking
in conclusion, if--which God forbid--it should unhappily be proved
that, in those whom fortune, or birth, or royal or popular favour has
placed in the van, these qualities are wanting, who shall dare to
blame the press and the people of England, if they seek for them
elsewhere?
From the tone of this speech it will be seen that Lord Elgin had not at
this time joined either of the two parties in the State. He was, in truth,
still feeling his way through the mazes of home politics to which he had
been so long a stranger, and from which, as he himself somewhat regretfully
observed, those ancient landmarks of party had been removed, 'which, if not
a wholly sufficient guide, are yet some sort of direction to wanderers in
the political wilderness.' While he was still thus engaged, events were
happening at the other ends of the earth which were destined to divert into
quite another channel the current of his life.
[1] Mac Mullen's _History of Canada, p. 527._
[2] It Is a singular fact, as illustrating the tenacity and coherence of
the Church of Rome, that while all Protestant endowments were thus
indiscriminately swept away, no voice was raised against the
retention, by the Roman Catholic clergy, of the vast possessions left
to them by the old French capitulation.--_Mac Mullen, p. 528._
[3] Despatch of December 18, 1854.
[4] Despatch of August 16,1853
[5] Despatch of December 18, 1854.
[6] Despatch of December 18,1854. The abolition was shortly afterwards,
satisfactorily effected.
[7] Vide _supra_, p. 48.
[8] The Rebellion Losses Bill.
[9] Some years afterwards, when speaking of these festivities, the Mayor of
Buffalo said: 'Never shall I forget the admiration elicited by Lord
Elgin's beautiful speech on that occasion. Upon the American visitors
(who, it must be confessed, do not look for the highest order of
intellect in the appointees of the Crown) the effect was amusing. A
sterling Yankee friend, while the Governor was speaking, sat by my
side, who occasionally gave vent to his feelings as the speech
progressed, each sentence increasing in beauty and eloquence, by such
approving exclamations as "He's a glorious fellow! He ought to be on
our side of the line! We would make him mayor of our city!" As some
new burst of eloquence breaks from the speaker's lips, my worthy
friend exclaims, "How magnificently he talks! Yes, by George, we'd
make him governor--governor of the state!" As the noble Earl, by some
brilliant hit, carries the assemblage with a full round of applause,
"Ah!" cries my Yankee friend, with a hearty slap on my shoulder, "by
Heaven, if he were on our side, we'd make him President--nothing less
than President!"'
[10] The report of his words is obviously imperfect, but their substance is
probably given with sufficient accuracy.
[11] The great abilities of Sir F. Bruce, and the nobility of his
character, fitted him in a singular manner for this post. He died
suddenly at Boston, on September 19, 1867, too early for extended
fame, but not unrecognised as a public servant of rare value. The
_Times_, which announced his death, after commenting on the
calamitous fate by which, 'within a period of four years, the nation
had lost the services of three members of one family, each endowed
with eminent qualifications for the important work to which they
severally devoted their lives,' proceeded thus with regard to the
youngest of the three brothers. 'The country would have had much.
reason to deplore the death of Sir Frederick Bruce whenever it had
happened; but his loss is an especial misfortune at a time when,
negotiations of the utmost intricacy and delicacy are pending with a
Government which is not always disposed to approach Great Britain in a
spirit of generosity and forbearance. Seldom has a citizen of another
country visited the United States who possessed so keen an insight
into the political working of the Great Republic, and at the same time
ingratiated himself so thoroughly with every American who approached
Him.... Although naturally somewhat impulsive in temperament, he
invariable exhibited entire calmness and self-command when the
circumstances of his position led him into trial.... This
imperturbable temperament in all his official relations served him
well on many occasions, from the day when he succeeded to the
laborious duties relinquished by Lord Lyons; but never was it of
greater advantage than in the protracted and difficult controversy
concerning the Alabama claims. This discussion it fell to the lot of
Sir F. Bruce to conduct on the part of Her Majesty; and we divulge no
secret when we state that it was in accordance with the late
Minister's repeated advice and exhortations that a wise overture
towards a settlement was made by the present Government. He had
succeeded in establishing for himself relations of cordial friendship
with Mr. Seward and the President, and probably there are few outside
the circle of his own family who will be more shocked at the tidings
of his death than the astute and keen-eyed old man with whom he had
sustained incessant diplomatic fence.'
[12] It certainly was not without truth, that one of the local papers most
opposed to him remarked that 'Lord Elgin had, beyond all doubt, a
remarkable faculty of turning enemies into friends.'
[13] Spencerwood, the Governor's private residence.
[14] Sir Edmund Head, who succeeded Lord Elgin as Governor-General of
Canada in 1854, had examined him for a Merton Fellowship in 1833.
Those who knew him will recognise how singularly appropriate, in their
full force, are the terms in which he is here spoken of.