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THE MAKERS OF CANADA
EDITED BY
DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT, F.R.S.C.,
PELHAM EDGAR, PH.D., AND,
WILLIAM DAWSON LE SUEUR, B.A., LL.D., F.R.S.C.
WILMOT AND TILLEY
[Illustration: L. A. Wilmot]
_THE MAKERS OF CANADA_
WILMOT AND TILLEY
BY
JAMES HANNAY
_EDITION DE LUXE_
TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1907
_Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada in the year 1907
by Morang & Co., Limited, in the Department of Agriculture_
Transcriber's Notes:
Unique page headings have been retained, placed within {braces} and
positioned before the relevant paragraphs. Minor typographical
errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings have been
retained. Inconsistent hyphenation has been standardised. The oe
ligature is represented by [oe].
CONTENTS
LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT
_CHAPTER I_ Page
ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE 1
_CHAPTER II_
EARLY EFFORTS FOR REFORM 13
_CHAPTER III_
WILMOT IN THE LEGISLATURE 31
_CHAPTER IV_
WILMOT AS A DELEGATE TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE 41
_CHAPTER V_
LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON TENURE OF OFFICE 57
_CHAPTER VI_
THE READE APPOINTMENT 67
_CHAPTER VII_
WILMOT'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION 83
_CHAPTER VIII_
THE DEMAND FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT 99
_CHAPTER IX_
THE VICTORY IS WON 113
_CHAPTER X_
JUDGE AND GOVERNOR 131
SIR LEONARD TILLEY
_CHAPTER I_
EARLY LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER 143
_CHAPTER II_
ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE 159
_CHAPTER III_
THE PROHIBITORY LIQUOR LAW 171
_CHAPTER IV_
REFORM AND PROGRESS 183
_CHAPTER V_
THE INTERCOLONIAL RAILWAY 195
_CHAPTER VI_
THE MOVEMENT FOR MARITIME UNION 201
_CHAPTER VII_
THE QUEBEC CONFERENCE 215
_CHAPTER VIII_
DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATION 231
_CHAPTER IX_
TILLEY AGAIN IN POWER 239
_CHAPTER X_
THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICA ACT 253
_CHAPTER XI_
THE FIRST PARLIAMENT OF CANADA 269
_CHAPTER XII_
FINANCE MINISTER AND GOVERNOR 277
INDEX 293
LEMUEL ALLAN WILMOT
CHAPTER I
ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE
The contest for responsible government which was carried on in all the
provinces of British North America for so many years resembled in some
of its features a modern battle, where the field of operations is so
wide that it is impossible for a general to cover it with his eye or to
keep control of all the movements of his subordinates. In such a case,
everything depends on the ability of the generals who command the
different army corps, who, operating in remote parts of the field, must
take the responsibility of success or failure. The two Canadas were so
far removed from New Brunswick, and the means of communication were so
poor, that there was but little help, even in the way of suggestion, to
be expected from them, while the contest for responsible government was
being carried on. Even the efforts in the same direction which were
being made in the province of Nova Scotia had but little influence on
the course of events in New Brunswick, for each province had its own
particular grievances and its own separate interests. Thus it happened
that the battle for responsible government in New Brunswick was fought,
to a large extent, without reference to what was being done in the
other provinces which now form the Dominion of Canada, and the leaders
of the movement had to be guided by the peculiar local circumstances of
the situation. Still, there is no doubt that the efforts of all the
provinces, directed to the same ends, were mutually helpful and made the
victory more easily won.
Among the men who took a part in the contest for responsible government
in New Brunswick, Lemuel Allan Wilmot undoubtedly held the foremost
place, not only by reason of the ability with which he advocated the
cause, but from the trust which the people had in him, which made him a
natural leader and the proper exponent of their views. There were,
indeed, men working in the same field before his time, but it was his
happy fortune to witness the fruit of his labours to give the province a
better form of government, and to bring its constitution into line with
the system which prevailed in the mother country. He not only viewed the
land of promise from afar, but he entered into it, and he became the
first native lieutenant-governor of the province,--a result which even
he, sanguine as he was, could hardly have contemplated when he began his
career as a public man.
{THE WILMOT FAMILY}
Lemuel Allan Wilmot was born in the county of Sunbury, on the banks of
the St. John River, on January 31st, 1809. He was the son of William
Wilmot, a respectable merchant and lumberman, who was in partnership
with William Peters, grandfather of Sir Leonard Tilley. William Wilmot
was the son of Lemuel Wilmot, a Loyalist, who was a resident of
Poughkeepsie, New York, at the beginning of the Revolution. He (Lemuel)
raised a company of soldiers for the service of the king, and became a
captain in the Loyal American Regiment which was commanded by Beverley
Robinson, serving in that corps during the war. At the peace, he came to
New Brunswick and settled in Sunbury County on the river St. John. The
Wilmots were a respectable English family, and the first of the name in
America was Benjamin Wilmot, who was born in England in 1589 and came to
America with his wife Ann, probably prior to 1640. He was one of the
early settlers of New Haven, Connecticut, and the records of that colony
show that he took the oaths of fidelity at a court held on May 2d, 1648.
He died in 1669. His son William, who was born in 1632, was probably
also a native of England. He married Sarah Thomas in 1658, and died in
1689.
Thomas Wilmot, his son, was born in 1679. He married Mary Lines, and
their son Ezekiel was born in 1708. Ezekiel Wilmot and his wife Beulah
were the parents of Lemuel, who was born in 1743. Lemuel Wilmot married
Elizabeth Street, and William, the father of the subject of this
biography, was their son. William Wilmot married Hannah Bliss, a
daughter of the Hon. Daniel Bliss, a Massachusetts Loyalist, who became
a member of the council of New Brunswick and was the father of John
Murray Bliss, one of the judges of the supreme court of that province.
His grandfather was Colonel John Murray, a Massachusetts Loyalist, who
was for many years a member of the general court of that colony and who
became a mandamus councillor. It will thus be seen that Lemuel Wilmot
came from the best New England stock, and that his connections were
highly respectable and even distinguished. He was proud of his New
England descent, and claimed the usual ancestor from among the
passengers of the _Mayflower_ who landed at Plymouth in 1620. If this
claim is correct, his descent from the Pilgrim Fathers must have been
through the female line, and no record of it has been preserved. The
matter is not of much consequence at the present day, for the Wilmots
have made a record in their province far more distinguished than that
which they won in New England, for they have given to New Brunswick five
members of the legislature, a senator and member of the House of Commons
of Canada, two members of the executive of New Brunswick, and one of the
privy council of Canada, an attorney-general and a provincial secretary
of New Brunswick and two lieutenant-governors.
{LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR CARLETON}
The system of government which existed in all the British North American
colonies at the time when L. A. Wilmot was born was practically the
same. New Brunswick had been separated from Nova Scotia in 1784, and, in
the autumn of that year, its first governor was sent out in the person
of Thomas Carleton, a brother of Sir Guy Carleton. Thomas Carleton had
been an officer in one of the regiments which fought during the War of
the Revolution, but he was in no way distinguished, and had no special
qualifications for the position he was called upon to fill. That fact,
however, did not concern the persons in England who appointed him. In
those days, fitness or ability had very little to do with colonial
appointments. Carleton continued to fill the office of governor and
lieutenant-governor until his death in 1817; but for the last fourteen
years of his term he resided in England, and the duties of his office
were performed by a succession of administrators under the name of
presidents. To assist him in his deliberations, Carleton had a council
of twelve members, who were appointed by the Crown and were therefore
wholly under the influence of the governor and the authorities in
England. In 1809, its number had been reduced to ten, and it was
composed of the four judges of the supreme court, the provincial
secretary and the surveyor-general, who held their offices for life, and
four other persons. This council, in addition to its executive
functions, also sat as the upper branch of the legislature, and, besides
being wholly irresponsible except to the governor, it sat with closed
doors, so that the public had no opportunity of knowing what was being
done. It was not until the year 1833 that any portion of the journals of
the legislative council was published.
The House of Assembly consisted of members chosen by the freeholders of
the several counties and the freeholders and freemen of the city of St.
John. This House was able to exert but a limited influence on the
government of the country, for all authority was vested in the
lieutenant-governor and he was able to act in a manner quite independent
of the legislature. All the appointments to office were in his hands,
and they were made in many cases even without the knowledge of his
council. In England, even under the most despotic kings, parliament was
always able to curb the power of the Crown by refusing to grant
supplies; but this check did not exist in New Brunswick, or in the other
colonies of British North America at that time, because the governor had
sources of revenue quite independent of the legislature. The British
government maintained a customs establishment in the colonies, which
levied duties on all merchandise imported, and over which the
legislature had no control. The British government also retained the
revenues arising from the Crown lands of the province, and these
revenues the governor expended as he pleased. The House of Assembly,
therefore, might refuse to vote supplies; but the governor could go on
without them, and the only effect of such a procedure was to injure its
own officials, and to deprive the people of the money which was expended
on roads and bridges.
{THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND}
Another feature of the system of government in New Brunswick was the
predominant influence it gave to the members of the Church of England.
Every member of the council of the province belonged to that
denomination, and it was not until the year 1817 that any person who was
not an adherent of the Church of England was appointed to the council.
This exception was William Pagan, a member of the Church of Scotland,
and his was a solitary instance because up to the year 1833, when the
old council was abolished, all its other members were adherents of the
Church of England. The same rule prevailed with respect to all the great
offices in the gift of the Crown. All the judges of the supreme court
for the first sixty-seven years of the existence of the province were
members of the Church of England. L. A. Wilmot, who became
attorney-general in 1848, was the first person not a member of the
Church of England who filled that office, and he was the first judge not
a member of that Church who sat on the bench of New Brunswick.
For some time after the foundation of the province, the salaries of the
Church of England clergymen were paid by the British government, and
large grants of land were made for the purpose of supporting the
churches. In addition to this, financial assistance was given to them
in erecting their places of worship. No dissenting minister was allowed
to perform the marriage ceremony, that privilege being confined to
clergymen of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Quakers
and the Church of Rome. This was felt to be a very serious grievance,
and, needless to say, produced a great deal of inconvenience.
Another grievance was the fact that the great offices were held by
members of certain favoured families. These families, from their social
position and in some cases from their wealth, had the ear of the
governor, or of the authorities in England, and were able to obtain and
hold all the valuable places. The two Odells, father and son, held the
office of provincial secretary for sixty years. The Chipmans were
another favoured family, both the father and son being successively
judges of the supreme court, and the former receiving large sums from
the British government as one of the commissioners who settled the
boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. One of the greatest offices in
the province--that of the surveyor-general--was held by one person for
thirty-three years, and this individual was in no sense responsible to
any authority in New Brunswick except the governor. Those in power at
that day were very fond of expatiating on the glories of the British
constitution and the privileges the people enjoyed under it. But nothing
less like the British constitution can be imagined than the system
which then prevailed in the British North American colonies.
{THE OFFICIAL CLASSES}
One feature which is not to be lost sight of in considering the
political condition of the province at that time is the social element.
The distinctions between the upper classes and others was then far more
marked than it is at present. The officials and the professional men
formed a class by themselves, and looked with contempt upon those who
were engaged in business. The salaries of the government officials were
then three or four times as large as they are at present, and they kept
up a corresponding degree of state which others were not in a position
to imitate. This assumption of superiority was carried out in all the
relations of life, and the sons of those who occupied an inferior
station were made to feel their position keenly. This was the case with
Lemuel Allan Wilmot, for, although his family was as good as any in the
provinces, he was the son of a man who was engaged in business and who
was not only a Dissenter but was actually a preacher in the denomination
to which he belonged. No doubt the insults which the son received from
those who claimed to occupy a higher station had a good deal to do with
his zeal for the cause of Reform, and influenced his future career to a
considerable extent.
William Wilmot, although he afterwards failed in business, was in
prosperous circumstances when his son Lemuel was born. He was a Baptist
and was one of the original members of the Baptist Church at Canning,
in Queens County, which was founded in 1800. On Christmas Day, 1813,
William Wilmot and nine others received their dismissal from the Canning
Church for the purpose of founding a Baptist Church in Fredericton.
Wilmot was a local preacher and used his gift of eloquence in that way.
He also aspired to legislative distinction, and was elected a member of
the House of Assembly for the county of Sunbury in 1816. He was an
unsuccessful candidate for the same seat in 1819, and again in 1820. At
the general election of 1827 he ran for the county of York, to which he
had removed several years before, but was again defeated. This was his
last attempt to become a member of the House of Assembly. His loss of
three elections out of four had certainly been discouraging, and was in
singular contrast to the fortune of his distinguished son, who never
experienced a defeat.
{AS A LAW STUDENT}
Lemuel Wilmot's mother died when he was only eighteen months old, so
that he never knew a mother's love or a mother's care. But his father
early recognized his youthful promise, and gave him all the educational
advantages then available. He became a pupil at the College of New
Brunswick, which was situated in Fredericton, of which the Rev. Dr.
Somerville was the president and sole professor. This college was in
fact merely a grammar school, but Wilmot acquired there some knowledge
of the classics. However, his scholastic career was not prolonged, for
in June, 1825, he entered as a student-at-law with Charles S. Putnam, a
leading barrister of Fredericton. He was admitted an attorney of the
supreme court in July, 1830, and a barrister two years later. He was
then twenty-three years of age.
The men who were contemporaries of Mr. Wilmot as a youth are all dead,
and not many anecdotes of his career as a student have been handed down
to us. Being of an ardent and ambitious disposition, he took a keen
interest in the stirring events that were being enacted around him; for
it was a time of great political excitement, and the business troubles
of the province increased the difficulties of its inhabitants. In 1825,
all the lumbermen in the province were ruined, and the bad management of
the Crown lands office which had added to the business difficulties
became more than a political question, for by cramping its leading
industry it affected the prosperity of every man in New Brunswick. It
was then that young Wilmot resolved to enter upon a political career and
to do what he could to redress the wrongs from which the people were
suffering. Strange to say, at this time he, who afterwards became most
eloquent, had an impediment in his speech, which it took much labour to
overcome. To improve his knowledge of French, he spent some months with
a French family in Madawaska, among the descendants of the ancient
Acadians. In this way he acquired a colloquial knowledge of that
language.
Wilmot's ambition was to become a public man and to assist in the
reformation of the constitution of his native province. He enjoyed many
advantages for the role he had undertaken. He was tall, his height being
upwards of six feet, well proportioned, handsome and striking in his
features, and he possessed a voice of great strength and sweetness. He
was proficient in all athletic exercises, and took an interest in all
those movements which commend themselves to young men of enterprise and
force of character. He was a lieutenant in the first battalion of the
York County Militia when he was only eighteen years of age, and his
devotion to the militia force continued until the end of his life.
Possessed as he was of all the elements which make men popular and
prominent, he was early marked for advancement in the field that he had
chosen for the exercise of his talents.
CHAPTER II
EARLY EFFORTS FOR REFORM
The agitation for an improvement in the constitution of New Brunswick
began long before L. A. Wilmot was born. The first man who took a
prominent stand for reform in the legislature was Mr. James Glenie, a
member for the county of Sunbury from 1792 to 1809. Mr. Glenie, who was
a Scotchman and a man of much ability, had been an officer in the Royal
Engineers during the Revolutionary War. His efforts to obtain reforms
were met by the friends of the governor, Mr. Carleton, with the most
violent opposition. He was denounced as an incendiary, and indeed there
was hardly a limit to the fierceness with which he was attacked for
attempting to bring about an improvement in the system of government.
The old Family Compact and their friends were ever ready to tell the
public how loyal they were, and to denounce as a traitor any person who
presumed to object to the existing state of things. Mr. Glenie was not
able to effect anything substantial for the improvement of the
constitution, because the time was not ripe for the changes he proposed.
England itself was suffering at that time from a relapse from true
constitutional methods, so it was not to be expected that much
attention would be paid to complaints which came from a remote province
of North America.
The cause of Reform would not have been nearly so well supported as it
was, had it not been for the fact that the abuses which existed touched
the self-interest of many persons who were by no means Reformers at
heart, and who in fact cared nothing about responsible government. The
first successful attack which was made on the existing order of things
was with regard to the fees charged on land grants. These fees went to
the various officials, including the governor, and it was shown that on
a lot of land not exceeding three hundred acres, the enormous sum of
forty-seven dollars was charged as fees, while on a lot of one thousand
acres to ten grantees, the fees amounted to about two hundred dollars.
The reader will be able to understand from these figures how it was that
the officials of the government were able to live in such princely
style. This evil was remedied by permission being obtained from the
colonial secretary to include a large number of grantees in one grant.
{THE MARRIAGE QUESTION}
Another grievance which was attacked long before Mr. Wilmot entered
public life was the law which related to the performance of the marriage
ceremony. At that time the only clerical persons authorized to solemnize
marriages were the clergymen of the Church of England, ministers of the
Kirk of Scotland, Quakers, and priests of the Roman Catholic Church.
This was felt to be an intolerable grievance, because it prevented
Methodists, Baptists and all Presbyterians except those connected with
the Church of Scotland from being married by their own ministers. In
1821 a bill was passed in the House of Assembly authorizing all
ministers of the Gospel to solemnize marriages. This was rejected by the
council, a fate which befell many subsequent bills of the same kind. For
several years the House of Assembly continued to pass the Dissenters'
Marriage Bill, and the council as steadily rejected it. Finally, in
1831, the House of Assembly concluded that nothing would serve to bring
about the reform asked for but a petition to the king, and accordingly a
petition was prepared in which the facts were set forth and His Majesty
was asked to give instructions to the administrator of the government to
recommend the legislature to pass a bill extending the privilege of
solemnizing marriages to all regularly ordained clergymen of dissenting
congregations in New Brunswick. In 1832, a bill was passed by both
Houses carrying out these views. It contained a suspending clause,
however, which prevented it from going into operation until approved by
His Majesty. It was thought that this would settle the question, but in
1834 a despatch was received from His Majesty's secretary of state for
the colonies in which it was announced that the royal assent had been
withheld on the ground that the Act was confined in its operation to
four denominations of Christians,--the Wesleyan Methodists, the
Baptists, the Presbyterian seceders from the Church of Scotland, and the
Independents. It appeared, therefore, that the Act had been disallowed
because it was not liberal enough, but this defect was speedily remedied
by the passage of another bill during the session of 1834 in the terms
suggested by the colonial secretary, and the Dissenters' Marriage
Question was thus settled.
{IMPERIAL CUSTOM DUTIES}
It has already been stated that the British government continued to
maintain a custom-house establishment in New Brunswick, and to impose
duties on goods imported into the province. These duties, which were
levied for the regulation of trade, were disposed of by the British
government and by the lieutenant-governor of the province with little
reference to the wishes of the legislature. The old restrictive system
which placed shackles on trade was modified by two Acts passed by the
imperial parliament in 1822, under which the importation of provisions,
lumber, cattle, tobacco and other articles from any foreign country in
North and South America and the West Indies, into ports of British North
America and the British West Indies, was allowed under a fixed scale of
duty, and a free export was allowed to goods going from all our ports to
these countries. The importation of the productions of foreign countries
in Europe into the ports of British North America was also permitted,
and a schedule of duties annexed. Under these Acts it was provided that
the duties on both imports and exports were to be collected by the
imperial officers of customs, and the net revenue thus obtained was to
be placed at the disposal of the colonial treasuries. This arrangement
was a decided gain to New Brunswick, because, for the first time, it
placed nearly all the revenue collected by the imperial officers under
the control of the legislature.
The Acts of the imperial parliament, 6th George IV, Chapters 73 and 114,
went still farther in the way of removing restrictions from colonial
trade. These Acts provided that the duties imposed under them should be
paid by the collector of customs into the hands of the treasurer or
receiver-general of the colony, to be applied to such uses as were
directed by the local legislature of such colony, exception being made
in regard to the produce of duties payable to His Majesty, under any Act
passed prior to the eighteenth year of his late Majesty, George III.
This exception is important for the purpose of illustrating the
pernicious system under which duties had been collected. Even so late as
the year 1833, Messrs. Simonds and Chandler, the New Brunswick delegates
to the imperial government, were complaining that duties were collected
at the several custom-houses in New Brunswick upon wine, molasses,
coffee and pimento under the provisions of the Acts of parliament, 6th
George II, Chapter 13; 4th George III, Chapter 15, and 6th George III,
Chapter 52, amounting to upwards of one thousand pounds sterling
annually, which duties were not accounted for to the legislature, and
that it was not known to the House of Assembly by whom and to what
purpose these duties were applied. The reply to this on the part of the
imperial government was, that in pursuance of the directions contained
in the statutes themselves, the duties levied under them were remitted
to the exchequer in England in aid of the expenses incurred for the
defence of the British colonies in North America. Thus ten years after
the British government had undertaken to remit the duties collected in
the colonies to the exchequers of the colonies in which the money was
collected, there still remained a considerable revenue, obtained under
old and obscure Acts of parliament, which was held back, and the
destination of which was not known, until disclosed to the delegates
sent to England to obtain the redress of New Brunswick's grievances.
But the grievance which caused the greatest amount of dissatisfaction in
New Brunswick was that which arose from the management of the Crown
lands. It was bad enough that the revenues arising from the public
domain should be disposed of without the consent of the legislature; but
it was still worse when such regulations were made by the
surveyor-general as hindered the settlement of the country and
interfered with one of its leading industries. One great abuse was that
large areas of the best land in the province were locked up as reserves
for the production of masts for His Majesty's navy. Another grievance
was the imposition of a duty of a shilling a ton on all pine timber cut
in the province. This was done by the authority of the surveyor-general,
and its effect was seriously to injure many of those who were engaged in
lumbering. This tax was remitted for a time after the panic of the year
1825, but it was revived when that crisis in the commercial life of the
province had passed. The management of the Crown lands office had been
the subject of criticism at almost every session of the legislature for
twelve or fifteen years before Lemuel Wilmot entered public life, and
every year the complaints grew louder.
{AN ADDRESS TO THE KING}
At the session of 1831, an address was presented to the president, the
Hon. William Black, asking him to lay before the House a detailed
account showing the amount of the casual and territorial revenue from
the beginning of 1824 to the end of 1830, and the expenditures from that
fund for the same period. This was refused on the ground that it was
inconsistent with his instructions. The House then resolved to bring the
matter to the notice of the king in an address, the spirit of which may
be gathered from the following paragraphs:--
"By the operation of the system practised in this office, very large
sums are taken from the people of this province for licenses to cut
timber on Crown land, and, although the assembly do not question the
right Your Majesty undoubtedly has to the lands in question, they think
the tremendous powers with which the commissioner is vested, with regard
to impositions of tonnage money and the enormous exactions for fees, to
be incompatible with a free government, and to require redress.
"It is generally understood, as well as universally believed, that the
commissioner in question is under no control in this province, and to
this may be ascribed the mode in which licenses to cut timber are issued
in very many cases, in quantities less than one hundred tons, subject to
a duty of one shilling, three pence per ton, and the excessive fee on
each of forty-five shillings. By this mode, a large part of the receipts
is paid in the shape of fees, at once injuring the subject without
benefiting the revenue; and the assembly feel convinced, if the office
were under colonial management, that while the oppressions would be
removed, the revenue would be more productive; and besides, the assembly
cannot but view with just alarm that the day may possibly come when, by
a single mandate from the office, exactions of such magnitude may be
made as literally to stop the export trade of the country, a power which
no person should have even the shadow of authority to exercise.
"The assembly at an early day in the present session, by an address to
the administrator of the government, sought for documents regarding
this office, to enable them officially to bring the subject more in
detail under the consideration of Your Majesty, but this information, so
highly desirable and necessary, has been withheld from them; and the
assembly, therefore, with great submission, lay before Your Majesty
herewith, a copy of the said address, with the reply thereto, for Your
Majesty's gracious consideration.
"It will by that be seen that the objects contemplated by the assembly
are no less than relieving Your Majesty's government permanently from
the burthen of the whole civil list of the province, a subject which the
assembly humbly conceive to be of great advantage to the parent state,
and only requiring that the revenues, from whatever source or sources
derived in or collected within the province, should be placed under the
control of its legislature."
{THE CIVIL LIST}
A portion of the Crown-land revenue went to pay what was termed the
civil list, which included the salaries of the lieutenant-governor, the
judges, the attorney-general, solicitor-general, private secretary,
provincial secretary, auditor, receiver-general and commissioner of
Crown lands. The latter official received seventeen hundred and fifty
pounds sterling per annum besides enormous fees, so that his income was
greater than that of the lieutenant-governor. Thomas Baillie, an
Irishman, who had been a subaltern in a marching regiment, had filled
that office since the year 1824, and continued to hold it until 1851,
twenty-seven years in all, when he retired with a pension twice as large
as the salary of the present surveyor-general of New Brunswick.
What the Reformers in the legislature of New Brunswick sought to obtain
was the control of the public lands, and the disposal of the revenues
derived from them. To accomplish this they were willing to undertake to
pay the salaries embraced in the civil list, although these salaries
were looked upon by the people of the province generally as altogether
too large. Yet there were great difficulties in the way of this
necessary reform, for King William IV was known to be violently opposed
to it. At a later period, 1835, in the course of a conversation with the
Earl of Gosford, who had been appointed governor of Lower Canada, "I
will never consent," he said with an oath, "to alienate the Crown lands,
nor to make the council elective. Mind me, my Lord, the cabinet is not
my cabinet. They had better take care, or by ---- I will have them
impeached."
Such was the language which this king used in regard to his
constitutional advisers. It was fortunate for New Brunswick and the
other colonies of British North America that at that time he had done
his utmost to get rid of his ministers and had been defeated and
humiliated, so that they could set him at defiance. But in 1832 they
were more disposed to defer to his wishes, and in May of that year we
find Lord Goderich, the colonial secretary, writing to Sir Archibald
Campbell, the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, in the following
strain:--
"The preservation to the Crown of the territorial revenue is an object
of the first importance, and it would only be resigned on its being
clearly proved that the right of the Crown could not be maintained
without producing still greater inconvenience. You cannot, therefore,
more usefully exert your influence than in endeavouring to prevent the
assembly from urging the surrender of this revenue."
{CONTROL OF THE REVENUE}
The question of the control of the Crown-land or casual and territorial
revenues was made the subject of an address to the king by the House of
Assembly in 1832. In this it was stated that the expense of collecting
these revenues was far greater than it would be under proper management,
and it was proposed that they be placed under the control of the
legislature, which would undertake the payment of all the necessary
expenses of the civil government of the province by making such
permanent and other grants as might be necessary for this purpose. The
reply to this proposition was received during the legislative session of
1833. In it Lord Goderich, with some appearance of sarcasm, observed
that "His Majesty did not consider it necessary at present to call upon
the House for a grant of the nature proposed, as he did not anticipate
such a falling off in the revenue at his disposal as the House appeared
to have apprehended." This reply can hardly be regarded otherwise than
as an insult to the House of Assembly, for the meaning of their address
to the king was deliberately misrepresented. They were contending for a
principle, that the revenue derived from the public domain should be
under the control of the legislature, and the amount of the revenue did
not enter into the question.
In 1833 the House of Assembly appointed a committee on grievances for
the purpose of taking into consideration and investigating all matters
in connection with the Crown lands, which were the subject of complaint.
After this committee had reported to the House, it was resolved to send
a deputation to England to endeavour to make some arrangement with the
colonial secretary in reference to the Crown lands.
{MR. STANLEY'S DESPATCH}
The deputies appointed to proceed to England and lay the grievances of
the province at the foot of the throne were Charles Simonds and Edward
B. Chandler, both men of wealth, influence and position, and well
qualified for the performance of the work with which they were
entrusted. Messrs. Chandler and Simonds arrived in England in June,
1833, and immediately placed themselves in communication with the Right
Honourable E. G. Stanley, who was then colonial secretary. Their report
was laid before the legislature in February, 1834, and the result was
highly satisfactory to the House of Assembly. A few days later a
despatch from Mr. Stanley to Sir Archibald Campbell was laid before the
House, in which he stated the terms on which he should feel that His
Majesty might properly be advised to place the proceeds of the casual
and territorial revenue under the control of the assembly of New
Brunswick. He would, he said, be prepared to advise His Majesty to
accept a permanent appropriation by the legislature, duly secured to the
amount of fourteen thousand pounds per annum, and that the Crown should
undertake to charge on any such permanent grant the salaries of the
lieutenant-governor, his private secretary, the commissioner of Crown
lands, provincial secretary, chief-justice, three puisne judges, the
attorney-general, auditor, receiver-general, the expenses of the indoor
establishment of the Crown lands department, and a grant of one thousand
pounds to the college. It would be necessary, Mr. Stanley stated, that
any bill passed in consequence of the proposal contained in this
despatch should contain a suspending clause in order that it might be
submitted to His Majesty before it was finally assented to. It was also
stated, in order to prevent misunderstanding or delay, that the House
should be apprised, that, unless some other fully equivalent and
sufficient security could be devised, it would be expected that the Act
should provide that the stipulated annual commutation should be payable
out of the first receipts in each year, and that in case of any default
in such payment the whole of the revenue surrendered should revert to
the Crown. A committee was appointed to prepare the bill on the subject
of the surrender by His Majesty of the casual and territorial revenues
of the province. The House of Assembly had previously passed a
resolution that the sum of fourteen thousand pounds required by His
Majesty's government as a permanent grant for the surrender of the
casual and territorial revenues of the province was greater than the
charges contemplated to be thereon required, yet that the great desire
of the House of Assembly to have this important subject finally settled
should induce them to accept the proposal contained in Mr. Stanley's
despatch. On the day after this resolution was passed, the
lieutenant-governor communicated to the House of Assembly an extract
from a despatch received the previous day by him from the Right
Honourable Mr. Stanley, dated January 4th, 1834. This extract was as
follows:--
"In your message communicating to the assembly the proposal contained in
my despatch of the 30th September, you will take care distinctly to
explain that the payments expected from the New Brunswick Land Company
are not included in the revenue which is offered to the acceptance of
the assembly." It is with great regret that an historian of this period
must record the receipt of such a despatch from an imperial head of
department to a colonial governor, for the spirit displayed in the
message was not that of an enlightened statesman, but such as might have
been expected from one who was endeavouring to drive the hardest
possible bargain with the province of New Brunswick, in order that a
number of officials, swollen with pride and enjoying enormous salaries,
might not suffer.
{NEGOTIATIONS FAIL}
A few days after the receipt of this despatch, a resolution was passed
by the House in committee, regretting that the additional condition
contained in Mr. Stanley's last despatch would prevent the committee
recommending to the House further action in the matter of preparing a
civil list bill. Thus ended the attempt to settle this vexed question in
the year 1834. The House of Assembly, however, still continued to
agitate the matter, and to make Sir Archibald Campbell's life a burden
to him. On March 7th, they addressed him, asking for accounts in detail
of the casual and territorial revenues, and calling for a number of
statements which they had not received except in such a shape that they
could not be properly understood. They also addressed His Excellency,
requesting him to lay before them copies of all official despatches
transmitted to him by the secretary of state for the colonies, since he
assumed the administration of the government, relating to the subject of
the casual and territorial revenues. The reply of His Excellency to the
request for more detailed accounts was a courteous one; but while he
consented to furnish the accounts requested in detail, it was with the
understanding that his compliance was not to be considered as a
precedent. He declined, however, to give the names of the parties who
had their timber seized or forfeited, or the names of the petitioners
for Crown land. He also refused to furnish the accounts of the
receiver-general and commissioner of Crown lands, on the ground that
they were accounts exclusively between these officers and the Crown.
With regard to the request for his correspondence with the colonial
secretary, Sir Archibald Campbell in another message gave a tart
refusal, stating that such a request was subversive of the principles
and spirit of the British constitution, and that he would ill deserve
the confidence put in him by His Majesty were he to hesitate in meeting
so dangerous an encroachment, not only on the independence of the
executive, but the prerogatives of the British Crown, with a most
decided and unqualified refusal. This military officer considered
himself a proper exponent of the principles and spirit of the British
constitution. He failed to understand that the British constitution
rests upon the support of the people, while his system of government was
intended to ignore the people altogether.
{QUARREL WITH THE GOVERNOR}
A few days after the receipt of this message, a resolution was passed
by the House of Assembly declaring that the language used by the
lieutenant-governor, in his reply to the address of the House, was at
variance with all parliamentary precedent and usage, and such as was not
called for by the address. Some of the governor's friends attempted to
weaken the force of this resolution by an amendment of a milder nature,
but their amendment was defeated, and the resolution carried by a vote
of fifteen to eight. Another address on the subject of the casual and
territorial revenues and civil list was prepared and passed by the
assembly for the purpose of being forwarded to His Majesty. It recited
the proceedings, in regard to the matter, which had taken place already,
and the desire of the House of Assembly to accept the proposition
contained in Mr. Stanley's despatch, and expressed the regret of the
House at the new condition imposed with regard to the New Brunswick Land
Company, which made it impossible to accept the settlement as amended.
The House concluded by expressing the hope that the terms proposed in
the original despatch might yet be considered definitive, and that the
proviso with regard to the New Brunswick Land Company might be
withdrawn. This was transmitted to England; but, before the year ended,
Sir Archibald Campbell concluded to rid himself of the House of
Assembly, which had given him so much annoyance, and accordingly it was
dissolved early in November; so that when the legislature met again in
January, 1835, the House was a new one, although largely composed of the
old members.
CHAPTER III
WILMOT IN THE LEGISLATURE
Wilmot acquired a good legal practice soon after his admission to the
bar, and was recognized as a highly successful advocate in cases before
a jury. In the opinion of the legal profession he never was a deeply
read lawyer, either as a barrister or as a judge, but in the conduct of
a case at _nisi prius_ he could hardly have been surpassed. He had the
gift which has been possessed by all great advocates, of seizing on the
leading feature of a case, and, regardless of all minor issues, pressing
it home on the minds of the jury. His eloquent and impressive speeches
on behalf of his clients soon began to attract general attention, and
the court-house was thronged when it was known that he was about to
address a jury. He was speedily marked as the proper person to represent
the views of the people in the House of Assembly, and, on a vacancy
occurring in the representation of the county of York in consequence of
the death of one of the members in the summer of 1834, Wilmot was
elected without opposition, none of the government party having the
courage to oppose him. Before the time came round for the meeting of the
legislature, the House was dissolved by Sir Archibald Campbell, in the
hope that he might be able to get an assembly more amenable to his
wishes, and, at the general election which followed, Wilmot was again
elected, at the head of the poll. At that time he had barely completed
his twenty-fifth year. It was a great triumph for Wilmot and the friends
of Reform, for all the influence of the friends of the governor and the
Family Compact was arrayed against him.
{ENTERS THE LEGISLATURE}
Mr. Wilmot took his seat as a member of the House of Assembly on January
25th, 1835. Young as he was, he had already made a great reputation as a
public speaker, and there was no man in the legislature or in the
province who could stand any comparison with him in point of eloquence.
Indeed, it is doubtful whether the British North American provinces have
ever produced a man who was Wilmot's superior in that style of oratory
which is so telling on the hustings or where great masses of men are to
be moved. The evidence of this fact does not rest on the testimony of
his countrymen alone, for he acquired a wider fame for eloquence than
they could give him. At the Portland Railway Convention of 1850, where
the ablest men of the Northern States were gathered, he easily eclipsed
them all by his brilliant and powerful oratory. The reporters are said
to have thrown down their pencils in despair, being unable to keep pace
with him as he aroused the enthusiasm of all who heard him by his
burning words. Unfortunately, there is no form of ability which is so
transient in its effects as this perfervid style of oratory. So much of
its potency depends on the action of the speaker, on the glance of his
eye and the modulation of his voice, that no report could do justice to
it, even if there had been reporters at that time capable of putting
down every word he uttered. The speeches of even Gladstone, when
reported word for word, read but indifferently when seen in cold type,
and no speech of Wilmot's was ever properly reported. He was incapable
of writing out a speech after he had delivered it, so that we must take
the united testimony of his contemporaries, whether friends or enemies,
that he was, upon his own ground, an unequalled speaker.
The House in which he now found himself was not one that was remarkable
for its eloquence. Unlike most of the legislatures of the present day,
the proportion of lawyers was very small, there being only five in a
House of thirty members, and of these five the only one who was an
orator was Wilmot. The other twenty-five members were mostly business
men and farmers, some of whom could express their views on public
questions clearly enough, but had no pretensions to eloquence. Yet it
was a good House, and one of its best features was that its members were
able to appreciate the worth of the new representative from the county
of York.
The aim of Wilmot, when he entered the legislature, was to bring the
province into line with the principles of responsible government as
understood in the mother country. Yet, looking at the state of New
Brunswick then, it is easy to see that the task he had undertaken was
one of enormous difficulty. Most of the evils of which the people had
been complaining still existed. The casual and territorial revenue was
still under the control of the home authorities, the custom-house
establishment still remained unreformed, the Family Compact still
controlled all the great public offices, and none but members of the
Church of England were thought worthy to serve their country in a public
capacity.
Two years earlier the executive and legislative councils had been
separated; but the change had made little or no improvement in the
system of government. The executive council consisted of five members,
all of whom held public offices from which they could not be removed by
any act of the legislature. The first on the list was Baillie, the
surveyor-general, whose record has already been referred to; next came
F. P. Robinson, the auditor of the king's casual revenue; another was
William F. Odell, whose father had been provincial secretary for
twenty-eight years, and who himself filled the same office for
thirty-two years. George F. Street, the solicitor-general, was another
member of the executive, and the last on the list was John Simcoe
Saunders, who was advocate-general and held three or four
commissionerships besides. All these men were so solidly entrenched in
their positions that it seemed impossible they should ever be disturbed.
They formed a solid phalanx opposed to all reform, and they were
supported by the governor, Sir Archibald Campbell, most of whose life
had been spent in India and who, however well fitted to govern Hindoos,
was hardly the man to give laws to white men who claimed to be free.
{BECOMES A LEADER}
As soon as Wilmot entered the House of Assembly, he began to take a
leading part in its debates. The very day he took his seat he was
appointed on the committee to prepare an address in reply to the speech
from the throne. On the following day he gave notice of a resolution
with regard to the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, a subject
that was then coming to the front. A day or two later he brought in a
bill to continue the Act to provide for the expenses of judges on
circuits. Indeed, no man was more active during that first session than
the new member for the county of York.
There were two questions that came up for discussion in which, as a
Reformer, he was specially interested,--the salaries of the customs
establishment, and the casual and territorial revenue. With regard to
the latter, when the House had been sitting about a month, the reply of
the colonial secretary to the address of the previous session was laid
before it. That address, it will be remembered, related to the offer
which had been made to the British government to take over the Crown
lands and provide for a civil list of fourteen thousand pounds sterling,
the payments expected from the New Brunswick Land Company to be included
in this arrangement. The reply of the colonial secretary was as
follows:--
"From various parts of the address I infer that the proposal conveyed to
the assembly, through my predecessors, must have been misapprehended in
more than one important particular; and I have especially remarked the
erroneous assumption that, in offering to surrender the proceeds of the
Crown lands, it was intended also to give up their management, and to
place them under the control of the legislature.
"From the course of their proceedings, as well as the tenor of the
present expression of their sentiments, the assembly must be understood
to consider it an indispensable condition that the payments of the Land
Company should be comprised among the objects to be surrendered to them.
This is a condition to which His Majesty's government cannot agree. His
Majesty's government would also be unable to recognize the
interpretation which was placed on their former offer, so far as regards
the control over the lands belonging to the Crown in New Brunswick.
Under these circumstances, I can only desire you to convey to the
assembly His Majesty's regrets that the objects of their address cannot
be complied with, and, adverting to the wide difference between the
views entertained by the government and those manifested by the assembly
on this subject, it seems to me that no advantage could be anticipated
from making any further proposals at present respecting the cession of
the territorial revenue."
{RENEWED AGITATION}
This despatch, which brought a sudden close to the negotiations with
regard to the casual and territorial revenues of the province, did not
emanate from the government with which the House of Assembly had been
previously negotiating, but from a new administration which had just
been formed under the premiership of Sir Robert Peel, and which lasted
just one hundred and forty-five days. The creation of this
administration was due to the action of King William IV, in dismissing
his advisers on the death of Earl Spencer, which removed Lord Althorp
from the House of Commons. The king had grown to detest his cabinet for
their reforming spirit, but his designs were thwarted by the failure of
Sir Robert Peel to form an administration capable of facing the House of
Commons. As a consequence, Viscount Melbourne again became premier, and
a renewal of the negotiations with the government in regard to the
casual and territorial revenues was rendered possible.
The House of Assembly was still determined to keep the question of the
casual and territorial revenue to the front, and at a later period in
the session another address on this subject was prepared by the House of
Assembly, to be laid before His Majesty. In this address the grievances
with regard to the management of the Crown lands of New Brunswick were
recited, and the willingness of the legislature to provide for the civil
establishment of the province was stated. The address urged the benefits
that would result to the people of New Brunswick from placing the net
proceeds of the Crown-land revenues under the control of the
legislature. Attached to this address was a schedule of salaries
proposed to be paid out of the casual and territorial revenues,
amounting in all to L10,500 currency. The address was transmitted to the
governor to be forwarded to His Majesty. No specific answer was ever
made to this proposal, a fact which was probably due to the confusion,
incident to the change of government, which took place about the time
the address reached Downing Street.
{CUSTOM-HOUSE SALARIES}
Another matter which engaged the attention of the House during this
session, and in which Wilmot took an active interest, was the settlement
of the salaries of the custom-house officials. Although the surplus
revenue from this source went into the provincial treasury, the amount
thus received was much less than it ought to have been, in consequence
of the large salaries which were paid to the officials. In the year 1830
the amount of custom-house duties collected in the province was L16,616
18s. 11d. sterling, from which was deducted for salaries L7,073 6s., or
nearly one-half of the whole amount. The House of Assembly objected to
the payment of such large salaries, and in 1831 proposed to the British
government to make a permanent annual grant of L4,250 sterling for the
payment of customs officials in New Brunswick. This proposal was
accepted, and in the following year a bill was passed in accordance with
this arrangement. But it was protested against by the customs
authorities in England and disallowed because the salaries of the
officers of customs were not made the first charge on the revenue.
During the session of 1835, an amended bill embracing this provision was
passed, and the question was settled for the time. Mr. Wilmot was not
satisfied with this arrangement, because it was a violation of the
principle that the House of Assembly should have control of the
provincial revenue, and he therefore voted against it. Nevertheless, the
measure apart from this violation of a fundamental principle, was a gain
to the province, as it placed a considerable sum additional in the
public treasury.
CHAPTER IV
WILMOT AS A DELEGATE TO THE COLONIAL OFFICE
Mr. Wilmot took a very active part in the proceedings of the legislature
during the session of 1836, and was the moving spirit in the committee
of the whole to inquire into the state of the province during that
session. The result was the passing by large majorities of a series of
twenty-six resolutions condemning the management of the Crown lands
office, the composition of the executive council and also of the
legislative council, and declaring that the control of the casual and
territorial revenues should be placed in the hands of the legislature.
These resolutions were made the basis of an address to His Majesty,
which was to be carried to England by a deputation of two members of the
House of Assembly. This address relates at length the principal facts of
the management of the Crown lands and the reasons of the House of
Assembly for dissatisfaction therewith. Mr. Wilmot, in recognition of
the active part he had taken in this business, was appointed a member of
the delegation, the other member being William Crane of Westmorland, a
gentleman of experience, wealth and standing in the province. This
appointment was the highest compliment that could possibly have been
paid to Wilmot's capacity, for the negotiation then to be conducted with
the colonial office was of the most important and delicate character,
and one which vitally affected the interests of the province.
The colonial secretary at that time was Lord Glenelg, a statesman whose
character has been drawn by Sir Henry Taylor, who was then a clerk in
the colonial office. "Amiable and excellent as he was," says Taylor, "a
more incompetent man could not have been found to fill an office
requiring activity and ready judgment. A dart flung at him by Lord
Brougham in 1838 points to his notorious defect as a minister called
upon to deal with a crisis. The then crisis was that of the Canadian
Rebellion." "It is indeed," said Lord Brougham, "a most alarming and
frightful state of things, and I am sure must have given my noble friend
many a sleepless day." It was probably because of Lord Glenelg's habit
of procrastination that the delegates had to remain in London for four
months before they were able to bring their business to a conclusion.
They arrived there about the middle of June, and it was well on in
October before they were able to leave. The result of their work was
that an arrangement was made satisfactory both to the British government
and to the delegates representing the House of Assembly, by which the
casual and territorial revenues were to be transferred to the province,
in consideration of the legislature undertaking to provide for a civil
list of L14,500 currency annually, for the payment of certain salaries
chargeable to that fund. A draft of a Civil List Bill was prepared and
agreed to by the lords of the treasury, and the understanding was that
this bill should be passed by the legislature, and receive the assent of
the lieutenant-governor, when it would immediately become operative.
{CIVIL GOVERNMENT BILL}
The first clause of this bill transferred the proceeds of the
territorial and casual revenues, and of all woods, mines and royalties
which had been collected and were then in hand, or which should
thereafter be collected, to the provincial treasurer, who was authorized
to receive them for the use of the province, while the Act remained in
force. The second clause charged the revenues with the payment of
L14,500 for a civil list. The third clause enacted that all the surplus
over and above the sum of L14,500 currency, should remain in the
treasury of the province until appropriated or disposed of by an Act or
Acts of the general assembly. The fourth clause gave the
lieutenant-governor, with the advice of his executive council, power to
expend such sums as they might deem necessary for the prudent
management, protection and collection of the said revenues, a detailed
account of which was to be laid before the legislature within fourteen
days of the commencement of each session, with all vouchers for the
same. It was also enacted that all grants or sales of Crown lands should
be void, unless the land had been sold at public auction after due
notice in the _Royal Gazette_. By this arrangement the House of Assembly
had obtained the boon for which it had so long been contending, but
there was still one more obstacle to be overcome,--the opposition of the
lieutenant-governor, Sir Archibald Campbell, who had entered into a plot
with some of the enemies of freedom in the province for the purpose of
thwarting, not only the wishes of the House of Assembly, but also the
intentions of the home government. As soon as Sir Archibald Campbell was
apprised of the intention of His Majesty's advisers in England to
transfer the casual and territorial revenues to the provincial
legislature, he commenced a correspondence with the colonial office,
pointing out what he deemed to be imperfections in the scheme which they
had prepared for the management of the public lands. He pretended to
have discovered that there was some error in the calculation of the
lords of the treasury with regard to the sum to be paid in lieu of the
civil list, and that the amount of L14,500 currency would not be
sufficient to defray all the expenditures chargeable on the civil list.
{AN OBSTRUCTIVE GOVERNOR}
Sir Archibald Campbell, soon after the opening of the session of the
legislature, in December 1836, requested the House of Assembly to add a
suspending clause to any Civil List Bill they might pass, so that he
might forward it to the home government for their approval. As this was
entirely contrary to the understanding which had been reached between
Messrs. Wilmot and Crane and the colonial secretary,--it being
understood that the bill if passed in the form agreed upon would be
immediately assented to by the lieutenant-governor,--the House of
Assembly very naturally refused to comply with Sir Archibald's wishes.
He, however, held firm in his resolution, and the Civil List Bill which
had been agreed to by the home authorities, after being passed by both
Houses, did not receive his assent. At the close of the session, while
the matter was under discussion, at the instigation of the
lieutenant-governor one of the executive council, Solicitor-General
Street, was sent on a secret mission to Downing Street. The object of
this mission was to make such representations to the home authorities as
would induce them to delay giving their assent to the Civil List Bill.
The truth of the matter seems to have been that Sir Archibald Campbell
and his advisers in New Brunswick thought if they could only gain time
the Liberal government of England which had granted such favourable
terms to the province might be defeated, and a Tory government come into
power which would speedily undo all that their predecessors had done,
and refuse to grant any concessions to the legislature of New Brunswick.
There was great excitement in the province in consequence of the action
of the lieutenant-governor, and this excitement was fairly voiced in the
House of Assembly, where an address was prepared representing the
condition of affairs to His Majesty, and detailing the manner in which
the lieutenant-governor had sought to thwart the intentions of the
imperial government. This address was passed by a vote of twenty-seven
to two, the only members of the House who ventured to stand with the man
who occupied Government House being John Ambrose Street and William End.
{CIVIL GOVERNMENT BILL PASSED}
Messrs. Crane and Wilmot were again appointed a deputation to proceed to
England with the address of the House of Assembly, and took their
departure two days after it was passed, amidst great popular
demonstrations by the citizens of Fredericton. The legislature was
prorogued on March 1st, on which day the House of Assembly again
requested the lieutenant-governor to pass the Civil List Bill, pointing
out that under the arrangements made with the colonial office it was his
duty to do so, but their request fell upon deaf ears. In the speech
proroguing the legislature, Sir Archibald Campbell stated that he had
withheld his assent from this bill because a suspending clause had not
been appended to it. These were the last words that this obstinate
governor was destined to speak before a New Brunswick legislature.
Finding that all his hopes of impeding the progress of the province in
the direction of political liberty were in vain, he tendered his
resignation to save himself from being removed, as he would have been,
for his direct disobedience to the commands of his superiors in
England.[1] Sir John Harvey, another soldier, but a man of a very
different spirit, was appointed to succeed him as lieutenant-governor.
The Civil List Bill was again passed at a special session of the
legislature and received the assent of the governor, becoming law on
July 17th, 1837. From that time to the present, the province of New
Brunswick has controlled the revenues which it derives from its Crown
lands and similar sources, and, whether wisely expended or not, the
people of this province have at least the satisfaction of knowing that
the money is appropriated by their own representatives, and by a
government which is responsible to them for its actions.
The death of King William IV took place during the summer of 1837, and
brought about another general election. Mr. Wilmot again stood for the
county of York and was returned at the head of the poll. This was only a
proper recognition of his eminent services to the province in the
legislature and as a delegate to England. At this election, Charles
Fisher, a young lawyer, was also returned for the county of York. Mr.
Fisher, although not so fluent a speaker as Wilmot, was second to no man
in the legislature in devotion to Liberal principles, and he proved a
most valuable lieutenant in the battle for responsible government which
now began. The contest for the control of the Crown lands of the
province had been won, but a still more difficult task remained for the
friends of constitutional principles to accomplish,--the making of the
executive responsible to the people. The members of the House of
Assembly had been almost unanimous in demanding the control of the Crown
lands, but, when it came to applying the principles of responsible
government to the affairs of the province generally, there were many
deserters from the ranks of those who had called themselves Reformers.
This was partly due to the principles of responsible government not
being well understood even by some members of the legislature, and
partly to the fact that the question did not touch the self-interest of
the members in the same manner as the mismanagement of the Crown lands
department had done.
Under a thoroughly constitutional system of government the initiation of
money grants would have been in the hands of the executive, but in 1837
not a single member of the executive council had a seat in the House of
Assembly. Three of the five members of the executive council were also
members of the legislative council, but the two others had no seat in
either House, a fact which shows on what lax principles the executive
was constructed. The initiation of money grants being in the House of
Assembly, any private member had it in his power to move an
appropriation of money for any object that he pleased. In this way a
system of "log rolling" was inaugurated in the legislature, which
resulted in extravagant expenditures and the appropriation of money for
objects which, under a better system, would not have received it. It was
impossible to put any check upon the expenditure or to keep it within
the income under such an arrangement, and one of the first efforts of
the Reformers was therefore directed to the removal of this abuse.
Unfortunately this was, of all the proposed reforms in the constitution,
the one most difficult to carry, and it was not accomplished until after
Wilmot had retired from public life.
{KING'S COLLEGE}
One of the subjects which engaged the attention of Mr. Wilmot, at an
early period of his legislative career, was the charter of King's
College. This charter had been obtained in 1828 from His Majesty, King
George IV, and the legislature had granted the college an endowment of
eleven hundred pounds currency a year, in addition to ten hundred pounds
sterling granted by the king out of the casual and territorial revenues
of the province. The aim of the charter was to make the college a Church
of England institution exclusively, for it provided that the bishop of
the diocese should be the visitor of the college, and that the president
should always be a clergyman in holy orders of the United Church of
England and Ireland. No religious test was required of students
matriculating or taking degrees in arts, but the council of the college,
which was the governing body, was to be composed of members of the
Church of England, who, previous to their appointment, had subscribed to
the thirty-nine articles. The professors, to the number of seven, who
were members of the Church of England, were to be members of the
council, so that, although no religious test was required of them, it
was reasonably certain that none but persons of that denomination would
be appointed to professorships. These terms were much complained of, and
surely it was absurd to place a provincial college under the control of
a single denomination which could not claim more than one-third of the
population of the province as belonging to its communion. It is stated
in Fullom's _Life of Sir Howard Douglas_, who was lieutenant-governor of
the province at the time, that the charter would have been much less
liberal than it was if it had not been for his efforts. The Bishop of
Nova Scotia and the Bishop of London desired to confine it entirely to
students belonging to the Church of England, and to make subscription to
the thirty-nine articles a condition precedent to the granting of
degrees in arts. On the other hand, Attorney-General Peters in 1845,
when the amendments to the charter were discussed in the legislative
council, stated that the charter as originally drafted and sent to
England was much more liberal in its provisions than when finally
passed, but that in 1828, to the surprise of Sir Howard Douglas, the
then existing charter came out copied from one obtained by Dr. Strachan
for Upper Canada. If this statement was correct, it affords a singular
illustration of the injury that the bigotry of one man can cause to
future generations. If King's College had treated all denominations on
equal terms, all would have resorted to it for higher education. As it
was, it became the college of only a section of the people, the
different denominations established colleges of their own, and when
finally the connection between the Church of England and King's College
was severed and it became the University of New Brunswick, the
denominational colleges had become so well established that it could
hardly compete with them on equal terms.
{AN EXCLUSIVE INSTITUTION}
During the session of 1838 Mr. Wilmot, as chairman, submitted to the
legislature the report of the select committee which had been appointed
to take into consideration the state of the college. In this report it
was proposed to make certain alterations in the charter for the purpose
of rendering it more acceptable to those who were not in the communion
of the Church of England. In 1839 he introduced a bill in the House of
Assembly embracing these amendments. The principal changes were to make
the lieutenant-governor visitor of the college instead of the bishop, to
repeal the section which provided that the president of the college must
be a member of the Church of England, and to make persons of every
denomination eligible for members of the college council. The
professorship of theology was still retained, and students in that
course were still required to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles,
while services were held in the college morning and evening according to
the rites of the Church of England. These changes were certainly of a
very moderate character, but they were stoutly resisted by the college
authorities and their friends. They put forward the plea that the
legislature had no right to alter a royal charter, that to do so was an
interference with the royal prerogative, and that the direst consequence
would ensue if the constitution of the college was changed. According to
their view, a royal charter once granted, the king himself, even with
the assistance of both branches of the legislature, could not amend it.
The college authorities also denied that they were under the control of
the legislature in any way, or responsible to it for their management of
the institution, although they were living on money voted by the
legislature for its support.
{ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN}
Wilmot's bill passed the House of Assembly, but was defeated in the
legislative council. A similar bill was introduced by him in 1840, but
postponed in consequence of a communication from the college council
which seemed to show an inclination to yield something to the demands of
the public. But a fatal objection to these modifications being accepted
was the insistence of the college council that the bishop of the
diocese, or in his absence the archdeacon, should be a member of that
body. Representatives of the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists
pointed out in a memorial to the lieutenant-governor that the exclusive
character of the council would still remain, as that body would be
composed wholly of members of the Church of England. Lord John Russell,
the colonial secretary, to whom the matter had been referred, suggested
that the college should surrender its charter and that a new one should
be prepared embracing the proposed changes, but the college council took
no steps to carry these suggestions into effect. This being the case, at
Wilmot's instance the House of Assembly proposed an address to the queen
setting forth the facts of the case and asking Her Majesty to assent to
a bill, a draft of which was enclosed, which the House of Assembly was
prepared to pass.
At the session of 1842 Wilmot again introduced the King's College Bill,
and it was passed by the House, but again rejected by the legislative
council. Early in the session of 1843, the lieutenant-governor
communicated to the House by message two despatches from Downing Street
on the subject of the college. One of these was from Lord John Russell,
and the other from his successor, Lord Stanley. Lord John laid down the
doctrine that "it is a principle of undoubted validity that a grant of
franchise by the Crown is irrevocable and unalterable by a further
exercise of the royal authority unless the power of revocation and
change be embodied and reserved in the original grant, or unless the
grantees make a voluntary surrender of their franchises." Lord John had
evidently forgotten his English history, or he would have known that
English kings on many occasions had revoked charters granted by
themselves or their predecessors.[2] Lord John desired the college to
surrender its charter and accept a new one, but Lord Stanley and the law
officers of the Crown whom he had consulted held a different view, and
thought that a new charter could be granted to supersede the old. Both
colonial secretaries were desirous that the changes in the constitution
of the college should be effected by a new royal charter. But this did
not suit the views of the House of Assembly, and after another college
bill had been defeated in the House and rejected by the council, on
March 20th, 1843, the following resolution, which was moved by Mr.
Wilmot, was passed by the House without a division:--
"WHEREAS, The assembly, during several years past, have endeavoured,
without success, to effect certain reasonable modifications in the
charter of King's College; and whereas those modifications as contained
in the bill which has been rejected by the legislative council, during
the present session, have been loudly and repeatedly called for by
numerous petitions from nearly every county in the province, while no
petition has ever been presented against those modifications; and
whereas it is in vain to expect the amount of public benefit from the
institution which its munificent endowment from the provincial revenue
should ensure; therefore,
"_Resolved_, That this House have learned with much regret and
disappointment that a majority of the legislative council have rejected
the said bill during the present session; and further
"_Resolved_, That this House should persevere in their endeavours to
amend the said charter by legislative enactment, and not resort to an
address to the throne for a new charter; and that this House will
steadfastly adhere to the principle that all the educational
establishments of the province, which are endowed from the colonial
revenues, whether incorporated by royal charter or otherwise, should be
at all times subject to the supervision of the local legislature."
{COLLEGE CHARTER AMENDED}
This resolution embodied a great principle to which the House of
Assembly was determined to adhere, and which was very soon carried out.
In 1844 the college amendment bill was again rejected by the council,
but this was the last effort of that reactionary body to defeat the
wishes of the people. At the session of 1845, the college bill was
again introduced by Mr. Wilmot, and this time it passed both Houses.
But like many important bills of that day it was reserved for Her
Majesty's pleasure and although passed in March, 1845, it was not until
December, 1846, that it received the royal assent and became law.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This is shown by the correspondence of Sir John Harvey with the
colonial office. Sir John was then governor of Prince Edward Island.
[2] Charles II annulled the charter of Massachusetts, and disposed in a
similar fashion of the charter of the city of London, as well as of many
English towns.
CHAPTER V
LORD JOHN RUSSELL ON TENURE OF OFFICE
In the session of 1840 Sir John Harvey, the lieutenant-governor,
communicated to the legislature a despatch which he had received from
Lord John Russell a short time before. This dealt with the question of
the tenure of public offices in the gift of the Crown throughout the
British colonies. Lord John had been struck by the fact that, while the
governor of a colony was liable to have his commission revoked at any
time, the commissions of all other public officials were very rarely
recalled except for positive misconduct. In New Brunswick offices had
been held generally for life and sometimes for two lives, as was the
case with the Odells, father and son, who filled the position of
secretary of the province for sixty years. One attorney-general of the
province had held office for twenty-four years, another for nineteen
years and a third for twenty years. One surveyor-general held office for
thirty-three years and another for almost thirty years. Under such a
system, it was clear that responsible government could make no advance,
for these officials held their positions quite independently of the
wishes of the legislature. Lord John Russell thought that the time had
come when a different course should be followed, and his despatch was
for the purpose of announcing to the lieutenant-governor the rules which
would hereafter be observed in the province of New Brunswick. He said:--
"You will understand, and cause it to be made generally known, that
hereafter the tenure of colonial offices held during Her Majesty's
pleasure will not be regarded as equivalent to a tenure during good
behaviour, but that not only such officers will be called upon to retire
from the public service as often as any sufficient motives of public
policy may suggest the expediency of that measure, but that a change in
the person of the governor will be considered as a sufficient reason for
any alterations which his successor may deem it expedient to make in the
list of public functionaries, subject, of course, to the future
confirmation of the sovereign.
"These remarks do not extend to judicial offices, nor are they meant to
apply to places which are altogether ministerial, and which do not
devolve upon the holders of them duties, in the right discharge of which
the character or policy of the government are directly involved. They
are intended to apply rather to the heads of departments than to persons
serving as clerks, or in similar capacities under them. Neither do they
extend to officers in the services of the lords commissioners of the
treasury. The functionaries who will be chiefly, though not exclusively,
affected by them, are the colonial secretary, the treasurer or
receiver-general, the surveyor-general, the attorney-general and
solicitor-general, the sheriff or provost marshal, and other officers,
who under different designations from these, are entrusted with the same
or similar duties. To this list must be also added the members of the
council, especially in those colonies in which the legislative and
executive councils are distinct bodies.
"The application of these rules to officers to be hereafter appointed
will be attended with no practical difficulty. It may not be equally
easy to enforce them in the case of existing officers, and especially of
those who may have left this country for the express purpose of
accepting the offices they at present fill. Every reasonable indulgence
must be shown for the expectations which such persons have been
encouraged to form. But even in these instances it will be necessary
that the right of enforcing these regulations should be distinctly
maintained, in practice as well as in theory, as often as the public
good may clearly demand the enforcement of them. It may not be
unadvisable to compensate any such officers for their disappointment,
even by pecuniary grants, when it may appear unjust to dispense with
their services without such an indemnity."
{AN HISTORIC DESPATCH}
This despatch produced consternation among those who had been accustomed
to regard their offices as held on a life tenure, but it was looked
upon by all the friends of good government as the beginning of a new
and better order of things with respect to the public services. The
matter was considered by a committee of the whole House a few days after
the despatch was received, and an effort was made by Wilmot to have a
favourable vote with regard to it. But although the friends of the old
Family Compact always professed to be extremely loyal and to pay great
deference to the wishes of the British government, on this occasion they
pursued a different course. A majority of the House voted down a
resolution which affirmed that this despatch should be "highly
satisfactory," "affording, as it does, the most satisfactory proof of a
sincere desire on the part of our Most Gracious Queen and her government
to infuse principles in the administration of colonial affairs strictly
analogous to the principles of the British constitution." Instead of
passing this sensible resolution the committee, by the casting vote of
the chairman, passed the following absurd amendment:--
"_Resolved_, As the opinion of this committee, that there is nothing in
the despatch of the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, now under
consideration, to call forth any expression from the House on the
subject of colonial government, and that in the event of any occurrence
taking place to disturb the present happy political state of the
province, the House cannot but entertain the opinion that any loyal and
dutiful representations which they may have occasion to lay at the foot
of the throne will receive, as they have always done, the royal
consideration."
The vote on the original resolution was fifteen to thirteen, so that,
although defeated, it had a strong support in the House, yet it was
years before the principles embodied in the despatch of Lord John
Russell were carried into full effect in New Brunswick.
{OFFICIAL SALARIES}
When the Civil List Bill was passed in 1837, the salaries of the public
officials which were provided for in it were placed on a very liberal
scale. The lieutenant-governor was to receive L3,500 sterling, or almost
double the present salary of the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.
The commissioner of Crown lands was to have L1,750 sterling, or about
five times as much as the present holder of that office; the provincial
secretary got L1,430 sterling, or more than three times as much as the
secretary of the province now receives. All the other salaries were in
the same proportion, and on a scale altogether beyond the means of the
province. It was admitted by Lord Glenelg, when the arrangements were
being made for the transfer of the casual and territorial revenues, that
these salaries might require modification, and he suggested that the
legislative council and the House of Assembly should at some future day
present him with their views on this subject. At the session of 1837, a
committee of the House of Assembly, of which Wilmot was a member,
reported in favour of a reduced scale of salaries, and this report was
adopted by the House. During the same year, a committee of the council
recommended that the salary of the surveyor-general or commissioner of
Crown lands should be reduced to twelve hundred pounds currency. This
reduction was protested against by Mr. Baillie, who had held the office
for many years, but it was thought to be reasonable by Lord Glenelg. The
executive council, however, took no steps to effect this reduction,
possibly because Mr. Baillie himself was a member of that body. At the
instance of Mr. Wilmot, the matter was taken up by the House at the
session of 1839, and a strongly worded resolution passed censuring the
executive council for not carrying into effect the reduction of the
salary of the surveyor-general, according to the views of Lord Glenelg.
At a later period in the same session, a committee, of which Wilmot was
an active member, laid before the House a scale of salaries which they
had prepared and which they considered sufficient for the public
officials embraced in the civil list. Under this scale, the salary of
the surveyor-general was reduced to L600 currency, and that of the
provincial secretary to the same amount. This report was not accepted by
the House. There were strong interests working for the retention of the
existing salaries, and it was not until a much later period that the
salaries of the public officials were placed on a footing that agreed
in some measure with the means of the province.
At the session of 1842, Wilmot was an active member of a committee which
was appointed to take into consideration the subject of fees and
emoluments of the public officers, and at a later period in the session
they made a report recommending that all fees should go into the
treasury of the province and that all public officers should receive a
certain fixed salary. They presented with their report a scale of
salaries which they considered sufficient, which gave the provincial
secretary, surveyor-general and attorney-general each six hundred
pounds. Bills were introduced for the purpose of carrying these
recommendations into effect, but, although passed by the House, they
were rejected by the council, which for many years was the graveyard of
all measures for the improvement of the province.
{RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT}
The general election of 1842 was mainly fought on the Reform issue, and
the question of responsible government was discussed on every hustings.
Unfortunately very few of the candidates who offered their services as
legislators had a clear idea of what responsible government really
meant, and some of the gentlemen who were not ashamed to confess their
ignorance of the principles of the British constitution were men of
education and position, from whom better things might have been
expected. Mr. Robert L. Hazen, an eminent lawyer, who was a candidate
for the representation of the city of St. John, declared in his
nomination speech that he never met with any one who could explain to
him satisfactorily what responsible government meant. Mr. Humbert, one
of the candidates for St. John County, was entirely averse to the new
principles. "And what," he asked, "are these principles?" "Why," he
would ask, "should the old system be altered; it had never given cause
for complaint, it had always worked well,--then why should the people
complain?" He was not in favour of any innovations on British colonial
government. Very few people understood what responsible government
meant. He hardly understood it himself. It was, in his opinion, just
introducing another branch into our government. He was not in favour of
the government initiating the money votes. He was always sensitive about
the rights of the House--to them ought the power of originating the
supplies to belong, and to none other--and if returned he would oppose
the measure.
Such absurdities as the above would not be worth quoting, but for the
light they throw on the views of the average New Brunswick politician of
that period. Mr. Humbert had been for many years a member of the House
of Assembly, and yet he had been unable to understand the significance
of the changes which the Reformers proposed in the constitution of the
country. The result of the election in St. John showed that the people
of that city and county were quite indifferent to the new doctrines.
For the county, Mr. Partelow was at the head of the poll, and that
gentleman on the hustings had declared that he was opposed to any change
in the constitution. He went into the House, he said, under a
constitution of fifty years' standing, and he was determined to leave it
as he found it, unimpaired. He disapproved of the initiation of money
votes being placed in the hands of the executive. He thought "such a
system would be wrong and pernicious in the extreme."
{REFORMERS DEFEATED}
When the legislature met in January 1843, it was found that the
Reformers were in the minority. Mr. Partelow was determined to make this
fact very clear, for in nominating the speaker he made a speech of some
length in which he declared that the time had come for testing the
principles on which the House should act, and with this object in view
he would throw down the gauntlet to the friends of responsible
government by nominating Mr. J. W. Weldon, to fill the chair. This
gentleman was a very fit representative of the old system, for besides
being a member for Kent, he filled almost all the offices in that county
which one man could hold. He was postmaster of Richibucto, deputy
treasurer for the port of Richibucto, issuer of marriage licenses for
the county of Kent, keeper of the seals and clerk of the peace and of
the inferior court of common pleas, and registrar of probates for the
same county.
Mr. Wilmot was nominated for the speakership by Mr. Hill, of Charlotte,
but declined to run; the odds were too great, and so Mr. Weldon, the
opponent of responsible government, was elected without opposition. This
was an unsatisfactory result after so many years of conflict, but the
friends of Reform, although they had to admit defeat, were neither
daunted nor discouraged. They knew that many other questions besides the
abstract one of the adoption of responsible government had influenced
the recent election, and that the new principles had been blamed for
results that would have been avoided if they had been in operation. For
instance, the transfer of the casual and territorial revenues to the
treasury of the province in 1837 had placed a very large sum, amounting
to L150,000, at the disposal of the legislature. All this money had been
dissipated by extravagant grants, and in 1842 the province was actually
in debt. Many ignorant electors were made to believe that this result
was due to the Reformers who had been the means of obtaining this money,
which the legislature had squandered; and this feeling was so strong in
the county of York, that Messrs. Wilmot and Fisher stood lower on the
poll than the two anti-Reformers who were elected with them.
CHAPTER VI
THE READE APPOINTMENT
Although elected in opposition to responsible government, the
legislature of 1843 at its first session took one important step in
favour of Reform. The arrangement by which the executive and legislative
councils were separated, which had come into force ten years before,
although a decided improvement on the old state of affairs, did not
produce universal satisfaction.[3] The constitution of the legislative
council was complained of, and it was described as an obstructive body
which disregarded the wishes of the people. Bills of the utmost
importance, which had been passed by large majorities in the House of
Assembly, and which were demanded by the people, were frequently
rejected by the council without being even discussed. Most of its
members were opposed to any change in the constitution of the province,
and everything which seemed to be in the direction of giving power to
the people was denounced as an innovation and condemned as an
infringement of the vested rights of the council. One of the chief
causes of complaint against the council was their rejection of every
bill for the amendment of the charter of King's College. Wilmot had so
frequently had his efforts in this direction nullified by the council
that he introduced a resolution in the assembly condemning the conduct
of that body for rejecting the college bill, and the council retaliated
by unanimously voting this a breach of privilege.[4] The complaints of
the House of Assembly against the legislative council were now embodied
in an address to the queen. In this address it was stated that in the
opinion of the House the legislative council should be composed of
persons not only representing all the leading interests of the province,
but so independent in respect to property and so free from official
control as to form a constitutional check on the executive. Although, by
the laws that existed then, members of the assembly were required to be
possessed of real estate to the value of two hundred pounds, over and
above all encumbrances, there was no property qualification whatever
required for members of the legislative council. The address of the
House expressed the opinion that members of the council should be
required to possess a certain amount of real estate, and that their
seats should be vacant on the loss of this qualification, or on their
becoming bankrupt, or public defaulters, or from neglect to give their
attendance for a given time without leave of the lieutenant-governor.
The address also stated that the constitution of the legislative council
was defective and objectionable in other respects, because, of the
eighteen members who composed it, a great proportion held offices at the
pleasure of the Crown, and the principal officers of the government
usually formed a majority of the members present. It was also complained
that members of the Church of England had too great a preponderance in
the council, the only members not of that communion being one
Presbyterian and one Baptist.
{THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL}
At the next session of the legislature, despatches from Lord Stanley
were laid before the House of Assembly in which it was stated that the
council would be increased in number to twenty-one, and four new members
of the council were to be appointed. The new members then appointed were
T. H. Peters, Admiral Owen, William Crane and George Minchin, while the
Hon. Thomas Baillie, the surveyor-general, the Hon. Mr. Lee, the
receiver-general, the Hon. James Allanshaw, of St. Andrews, and the Hon.
Harry Peters, of Gagetown, retired. No doubt the retirement of two
officials who received large salaries was some improvement, but the
council required further remodelling before it could be said to be an
efficient body, or one in sympathy with the inhabitants of the
province.
The legislative council has now ceased to exist, and it may be said of
it that it was never a very satisfactory body for legislative purposes.
Perhaps the original composition of it created such a prejudice against
legislative councils as to hamper its activities; and, from having been
at first merely the echo of the wishes of the governor, it became
latterly, to a large extent, the echo of the wishes of the government.
Gradually it became relieved of its official members, and in its last
years no head of a department ever occupied a seat in the legislative
council; for it was thought, and rightly, that the power ought to be in
the House, where the responsibility to the people was most felt, and
that it was not wise to place an official whose department expended
large sums of money in a body which properly had no control over the
public expenditure. The legislative council had undoubtedly from time to
time many able and useful members, and, at certain periods in the
history of the province, particularly during the confederation
discussions, it took a firm stand in favour of measures which seemed
essential to the prosperity of the British North American provinces. No
one can deny that at that time it exercised an authority fully equal to
that of the Lower House, but it cannot be doubted that some of this work
was done at the expense of the proper balance of the constitution. Such
an exercise of unusual authority on the part of a body not elected by
the people may serve a purpose at a particular crisis, but cannot be
commended as an example, and if frequently repeated would end in the
destruction of the constitution.
{THE COUNCIL'S RECORD}
The legislative council lost a considerable proportion of its able men
at the time of confederation by the removal of eleven of its members to
the senate of Canada, although one or two remained with it who were not
inferior to any of those who then took their departure. The new members
who came in as their successors were naturally inferior to the old in
practical experience and ability, and this had, no doubt, an influence
on the future of the House. The example of Ontario, which was able to
conduct its affairs with one House, showed that two independent branches
of the legislature were by no means necessary, and that the council
might be abolished with safety. No doubt it was difficult to bring this
about among a people who had been trained to believe that there was
something essential to legislation in the balance of king, lords, and
commons, making up one legislative body. But in the course of time the
electors began to think that the council was not exactly the proper
equivalent of the House of Lords, and the lieutenant-governor very far
from standing in the position of a king. Old prejudices in favour of a
constitution framed after a particular model are difficult to remove,
but, in the case of New Brunswick, these prejudices were at length
overcome, and it is safe to say that in the course of time all the
provincial legislatures of Canada will consist of but a single chamber.
It is equally safe to assert that under the new system the work of
legislation will be as well done as it was under the old.
The session of the legislature in 1843 came to an end on April 11th, and
on the seventeenth of the same month Wilmot became a member of the
government. His appointment had been preceded by the resignation of five
members of the government--Messrs. Black, Shore, Robinson, Odell and
Crane--and by the appointment of Messrs. E. B. Chandler, Hugh Johnston,
John Montgomery and Robert L. Hazen, to fill the vacancies thus created.
Of the retiring members two--Messrs. Black and Shore--were members of
the legislative council; one of them, Mr. Crane, was a member of the
House of Assembly, while the other two were officials who did not belong
to either branch of the legislature. Of the new members of the executive
council, Messrs. Chandler and Johnston were members of the legislative
council, Messrs. Hazen and Wilmot were members of the House of Assembly,
while Mr. Montgomery had no seat in either House. The executive council
as made up at that time included four members of the legislative
council, three members of the House of Assembly and Mr. Montgomery, who
did not become a member of the House of Assembly until three years
later. There is no doubt that the composition of the new executive
council was more in accordance with correct principles than its
predecessor; yet little could be expected from it in the way of Reform,
for Wilmot was the only member who was in favour of responsible
government.
{ENTERS THE GOVERNMENT}
Mr. Wilmot has been censured for entering a government composed of men
who were opposed to the liberal views he held on public questions. It
was thought by many that his conduct in this respect looked too much
like a surrender of his principles for the sake of office or official
position, and it certainly would have been better if he had continued in
Opposition. Yet we can easily conceive that he may have thought at the
time he could do more for the cause of Reform inside the government than
out of it, and, although this proved to be an error, it was a natural
one for which it is not difficult to find an excuse. Fortunately for the
cause of Reform, Wilmot's connection with the government did not last
long at that time. A storm was gathering in an unexpected quarter which
was destined to wreck the government, and to cause some of its
Conservative members to reconsider their opinions with reference to some
questions which until then they had regarded as fixed and unchangeable.
It has been already stated that the governor of the province made such
appointments to office as he pleased, usually without the advice of his
council. He was supposed to have the power to do this as the
representative of the sovereign and in the exercise of what was termed
"the royal prerogative." In this way persons were frequently appointed
to offices who were not residents of the province, and in all other
cases appointments were given to the members of certain favoured
families. In 1834, a vacancy was created on the supreme court bench by
the death of Chief-Justice Saunders. Ward Chipman was appointed
chief-justice in place of Mr. Saunders, and the vacant puisne judgeship
was given to James Carter, who afterwards became chief-justice of the
province. Carter was a young Englishman then living in London, and was
certainly no better qualified to fill the position of judge than many
natives of the province, so that it was regarded as a gross insult to
the members of the New Brunswick bar, to give such an appointment to a
stranger. Yet so slow was public opinion to make itself felt in regard
to the evil of the appointing power being given to the governor without
qualification, that ten years later the House of Assembly presented an
address to Sir Charles Metcalfe, governor-general of Canada, expressing
the high sense entertained by them, as representatives of the people of
New Brunswick, of the "constitutional stand" taken by him in maintaining
the prerogative of the Crown in the then recent memorable "conflict."[5]
The city of St. John also, to show its loyalty, presented a similar
address; and one signed by one thousand persons was sent from the county
of York.
{SIR CHARLES METCALFE}
Yet nothing can be more clear than that the stand taken by Sir Charles
Metcalfe in 1844 was wholly wrong, for it consisted in refusing to
consult with his council in regard to appointments, and in making
appointments contrary to their advice. What would the people of Canada
say to-day to a governor-general who insisted on appointing men to
office against the advice of his cabinet? Yet it was for doing this that
the New Brunswick House of Assembly, the city and county of St. John and
the county of York actually grovelled in the dust before this despotic
governor, thus approving of all his acts. Such abasement and
subserviency to an unconstitutional governor was certain to bring its
own punishment, and it came much sooner than any one could have
anticipated. On Christmas Day of the same year the Hon. William Franklin
Odell, who had been provincial secretary for thirty-two years, died at
Fredericton. Mr. Odell's father had been secretary before him from the
foundation of the province, so that the Odell family had held that
important and highly lucrative office for sixty years.
The governor at this time was Sir William Colebrooke, and on January
1st, 1845, just one week after the death of Mr. Odell, he appointed his
son-in-law, Alfred Reade, who was a native of England and a stranger to
the province, to the vacant office. The gentlemen who had been most
prominent in shouting their approval of the "constitutional stand" taken
by Sir Charles Metcalfe, now suddenly discovered that Sir William
Colebrooke's conduct in making this appointment without consulting his
council, was a fearful outrage, and their distress was pitiable to
behold. Several members of the government, including such zealous
upholders of the prerogative as the Hon. Robert L. Hazen, of St. John,
at once resigned their positions. A communication from three of
them--Hugh Johnston, E. B. Chandler and R. L. Hazen--addressed to His
Excellency gave as their reasons for resigning that they could not
justify the exercise of the prerogative of the Crown in respect to Mr.
Reade's appointment, because they felt that "the elevation to the
highest offices of trust and emolument of individuals whose character,
services, and claims to preferment, however appreciated elsewhere, are
entirely unknown to the country generally, is prejudicial to the best
interests of the province." They did not, however, make it a ground of
objection that the appointment of Mr. Reade was forwarded for the royal
approbation without the advice or concurrence of the council. These
gentlemen evidently thought it was too early for them to eat the words
in regard to the prerogative of the Crown, of which they had been so
free a few months before, but they showed their true characters by
deserting the governor because he had been foolish enough to believe
that their profuse expressions in favour of the royal prerogative were
sincere.
{RESIGNATION}
Mr. Wilmot, who also resigned, sent a separate communication to the
lieutenant-governor in which he stated what he considered to be the true
constitutional doctrine which should govern such matters. He said:--
"In the first place, I consider it justly due to the people of this
province, that all the offices of honour and emolument in the gift of
the administration of the government should be bestowed upon inhabitants
of the province who have made this country their home, and, in the cases
of the principal offices, those persons should be preferred who have
claims for public services rendered to the province, and who can command
the respect and confidence of the country. With these views, which I
hope I shall ever retain, I must necessarily disapprove of the
appointment in question, as I can only look upon Mr. Reade as a
comparative stranger and a transient person, while, at the same time, I
am of opinion that he has no claim whatever on the ground of public
services rendered to this province.
"It would be in vain for the parents of our youth to make every exertion
in order to qualify their sons for the higher offices of the province,
if the avenues to honourable and profitable preferment are to be thus
closed against them; and I therefore cannot but view the appointment
under consideration as an act of great injustice to the people of this
country; and I can safely assure Your Excellency that it will be thus
considered throughout the length and breadth of the province.
"Your Excellency is well aware that ever since I have had the honour of
having a seat in the council, I have approved of, and advocated those
principles of colonial government which are now in full operation in
Canada, which have been distinctly enunciated by the present government
in the House of Commons, and which require the administration to be
conducted by heads of departments responsible to the legislature, and
holding their offices contingently upon the approbation and confidence
of the country as expressed through the representatives of the people.
Still entertaining a strong attachment to those principles from a clear
constitutionality, and, from a conscientious belief in their safe and
practical adaptation to a British colony enjoying the privileges of a
representative form of government, I can see no sufficient reason for
withholding their salutary influence from the loyal and intelligent
people of this province; and considering it more advisable that a
gradual advancement should be made by the government itself towards
those principles as opportunities may offer, than that a concession in
gross should hereafter be made to the urgent demands of the country, I
am of the opinion that the provincial secretary should now be brought
into the executive government, and should hold a seat in one of the
Houses of the legislature--his tenure of office being contingent upon
the successful administration of the government; and therefore, as the
appointment in question has been made irrespective of any of these
conditions, I am bound to give it my opposition."
{REMONSTRANCE OF THE ASSEMBLY}
When the House met in the latter part of January, the Reade appointment
immediately became the subject of discussion, and by the vote of
twenty-four to six, an address was passed to Her Majesty the Queen,
condemning the appointment, not, as the members said, because they
questioned "in the remotest degree the prerogative in its undoubted
right to make such appointments," but because they thought that the
right of appointment had been improperly or unjustly exercised. In other
words, the members of the House of Assembly surrendered the principle
that appointments should be made by the governor, with the advice of
his executive, and only objected to the Reade appointment because, in
their opinion, some one else should have been chosen. It is easy to see
that in subscribing to this address the members of the House stultified
themselves; for if it was a part of the prerogative of the Crown to make
appointments without the advice of the council, surely the exercise of
the prerogative in the appointment of a particular individual could not
be fairly questioned. The result of the difficulty, however, was the
cancelling of Mr. Reade's appointment by the home government. This
decision was communicated to the House of Assembly by message on
February 3rd, 1846. The despatch from the colonial office, upon which
the lieutenant-governor acted, was written on March 31st, 1845, and must
have been received by him at Fredericton not later than the last of
April. But notwithstanding this despatch Mr. Reade held office until
July 17th, so it will be seen that Sir William Colebrooke was in no
hurry to carry out the wishes of the home government. Lord Stanley, the
writer of the despatch in question, expressed the opinion that public
employment should be bestowed on the natives or settled inhabitants of
the province, and he thought that Mr. Reade did not come under this
description. He closed his despatch with the following singular
statement:--
{READE'S APPOINTMENT CANCELLED}
"I observe with satisfaction that the House of Assembly have not only
abstained from complicating the subject with any abstract question of
government, but have rejected every proposal for laying down formal
principles upon such questions. The House has, I think, in this course
done justice to the earnest desire of Her Majesty that the colonial
administration generally should be conducted in harmony with the wishes
of her people, whatever may be the variations arising out of local
considerations and the state of society in various colonies, subject to
which that principle may be carried into practice; and it is anxiously
hoped that the same wise forbearance which has led the House of Assembly
to decline the unnecessary discussion of subjects of so much delicacy,
may lead them also to regard the practical decision now announced as the
final close of the controversy, and to unite in the promotion, not of
objects of party strife and rivalry, but of the more substantial and
enduring interests of the colony which they represent." If these words
have any meaning, they seem to show that at that date the British
government believed the right of appointment to be in the Crown, without
reference to the council, and that they were unwilling that any general
principle should be laid down by the legislature of the province which
conflicted with this view.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] This change had been effected by a royal commission under the signet
and sign-manual dated December 3d, 1832. There is nothing in the records
of the province to show why this was done. Neither the council nor the
House of Assembly had asked for it. The Nova Scotia council was not
divided until 1838.
[4] Mr. Wilmot's resolution was carried in the assembly without a
division, so that he had the solid support of the popular branch of the
legislature, yet little good was to be expected from such votes in the
House.
[5] The resolution to present this address was strongly opposed by Mr.
Wilmot and his colleague, Mr. Fisher, who both declared the conduct of
Lord Metcalfe to be contrary to the principles of responsible
government. Mr. Wilmot's speech led to a singular result. He was
attacked in the _Loyalist_ newspaper for his opposition to the address,
and this attack having been brought to the notice of the House of
Assembly was voted a breach of privilege. Messrs. Doak and Hill, the
proprietors of the paper, were arrested on the warrant of the speaker
and committed to prison. On the application of their counsel, Mr. D. S.
Kerr, they were released by Mr. Justice Carter on a writ of _habeas
corpus_. Doak and Hill both brought actions against the speaker, Mr.
Weldon, and the result was a decision of the Supreme Court of New
Brunswick that the House of Assembly had not the power to arrest and
imprison the publisher of a libel on a member of the House touching his
conduct and proceedings in the House.
CHAPTER VII
WILMOT'S VIEWS ON EDUCATION
Among the questions in which Wilmot took a deep interest was that of
education. His views on this subject were far in advance of those of
most of his contemporaries. Education was in a very unsatisfactory
condition in the province of New Brunswick when he entered public life,
and it continued in that condition for many years afterward. If we may
judge from the statute-book, the founders of the province had very
little appreciation of the advantages of education, for no law was
passed with a view to the establishment of public schools until the year
1805. In that year "An Act for encouraging and extending literature in
this province" was passed, under the provisions of which a public
grammar school was established in the city of St. John, which received a
grant of one hundred pounds for the purpose of assisting the trustees to
procure a suitable building for school uses, and also an annual grant of
one hundred pounds for the support of the master. The same Act provided
for the establishment of county schools, and the sections relating to
them, being limited in respect to time, were continued by 50th George
III, Chap. 33 to the year 1816, when they expired and were replaced by
"An Act for the establishment of schools in the province." This Act
expired in 1823, and in its place "An Act for the encouragement of
parish schools" was passed the same year. This last Act was repealed by
"An Act in relation to parish schools" passed in 1833, which continued
in force for many years. All these Acts were essentially the same in
principle, as they provided for government aid to teachers who had been
employed to teach schools in the parishes under the authority of the
school trustees. The Act of 1833, which was considered to be a great
improvement on former Acts, provided for the appointment of three school
trustees in each parish by the sessions, and these trustees were charged
with the duty of dividing the parishes into districts and directing the
discipline of the schools. They were required to certify once a year to
the lieutenant-governor as to the number of schools in their parish, the
number of scholars and other particulars, and on their certificate the
teacher drew the government money. This money was granted at the rate of
twenty pounds for a male teacher who had taught school a year, or ten
pounds for six months, and ten pounds for a female teacher who had
taught school a year, or five pounds for six months, provided the
inhabitants of the school district had subscribed an equal amount for
the support of the teacher, or supplied board, washing and lodging to
the teacher in lieu of the money. Thus a male teacher in a district
where a school was always kept, would receive for his year's work his
board, lodging and washing, and twenty pounds in money; and a female
teacher ten pounds. Such a rate of remuneration was not well calculated
to attract competent persons, and the result was very unsatisfactory.
Most of the teachers employed were old men who had a mere smattering of
learning and who were very incompetent instructors. They usually lodged
with the parents of the pupils, living at each house in proportion to
the number of scholars sent. This system, which raised them but one
degree above the condition of paupers, was not conducive to their
comfort or self-respect. As there was no uniformity in the books
prescribed and no sufficient educational test, the results of such
teaching were not likely to be satisfactory. Sometimes the teacher was a
woman who eked out a scanty subsistence by communicating her small
learning to a few scholars whom she gathered in her kitchen. Generally,
however, the school building was a log hut without any of those
appliances which are now regarded as essential to the proper instruction
of youth.
{PROVINCIAL GRAMMAR SCHOOLS}
In 1816 an Act was passed providing for the establishment of grammar
schools in the several counties of the province. At that period St. John
and St. Andrews had already grammar schools which had been established
under separate Acts, and Fredericton had an academy or college, which
was founded by a provincial charter granted by Lieutenant-Governor
Carleton in 1800. The counties of St. John, Charlotte and York were
therefore excepted from the operation of the general Act for the
establishment of grammar schools. This Act, after being amended in 1823,
was finally repealed by the Act of 1829, which endowed King's College at
Fredericton and made new provisions for the establishment and support of
grammar schools throughout the province. King's College at a later
period developed into the University of New Brunswick. It had its
beginning in the original charter of 1800, already referred to, which
established the College of New Brunswick. In the same year the governor
and trustees of the College of New Brunswick received a grant, under the
great seal of the province, of a considerable tract of land in and near
Fredericton for the support of that institution of learning. Until the
year 1829, the New Brunswick College was merely a classical school
receiving from the legislature annually two hundred and fifty pounds,
which was the same amount then allowed to the St. John Grammar School.
{MADRAS SCHOOLS}
At an early period, the attention of the people of that province was
directed to what was called the Madras system of national schools as
conducted by Dr. Bell, the real founder of the system being Joseph
Lancaster. This system depends for its success on the use of monitors,
who are selected from among the senior pupils to instruct the younger
ones. It was supposed at the time to be a notable discovery, but, like
other short cuts to learning, has fallen out of favour. In July, 1818,
the first Madras school was established in St. John by a Mr. West from
Halifax. This was a boys' school; and a school for girls, on the same
system, was opened a year or two later. In 1819, a Madras school charter
was procured under the great seal of the province, and the Madras school
system established on a substantial foundation. The province gave a
grant of two hundred and fifty pounds for the erection of a suitable
building in St. John, and the National Society in England contributed to
its support. This charter was confirmed by an Act passed in 1820. The
St. John school was to be regarded as the central school, but it was the
design of the charter that the benefits of the system should be extended
to other parts of the province, and this was accordingly done. The
Madras schools received liberal appropriations of money, and large
grants of land, and they continued to exist until the introduction of
the free school system in 1872. Two or three of them, indeed, continued
in operation after that time, but they had lost their original character
and had become simply Church of England schools, that denomination
having appropriated the Madras school endowments to the support of
schools in which its principles and creed were taught. In 1900, by Act
of the legislature, the Madras school property was handed over to the
diocesan synod of Fredericton, with the exception of about ten thousand
dollars, which went to the University of New Brunswick.
From the day when Wilmot became a member of the House of Assembly in
1835, he began to press upon the attention of that body the necessity
for an improvement in the schools of the province. But the same spirit
of apathy which prevailed with regard to purely political questions
affected the legislature with respect to education. The people
throughout the province were not prepared to make the sacrifices
necessary to obtain sufficient schools. Their attitude with regard to
education was well described in a speech made by Wilmot in 1846, when
Mr. Brown, of Charlotte, brought in his bill to provide for a normal or
proper training school for the education of those who were to become
teachers. This bill did not become law, in consequence of the opposition
raised against it in the legislature on the ground of expense. It was
estimated that it would cost an additional two thousand pounds to
provide a normal school, and this sum the men who were at the head of
the government were not willing to pay for the purpose of giving the
children of the province properly trained teachers. Wilmot's speech on
that occasion concluded as follows:--
{PARISH SCHOOLS}
"Before I sit down I must again revert to the greatest difficulty which
has to be encountered to render the provisions of that bill effective in
promoting a better system of education in the parish schools. This is a
difficulty which in this country legislation cannot reach--I earnestly
wish it could. I mean the apathy of the parents themselves. The
honourable member now in the chair can bear me witness as to the extent
to which this apathy prevails in this county at this day. That
honourable member, when out of the chair, could tell the committee that
in a certain district of this county where there is no schoolhouse, a
philanthropic individual told the inhabitants that if they would get out
a frame and provide the boards, he would at his own expense provide
nails, glass, locks, and the necessary materials for finishing a
schoolhouse. What was the result? They did get out the frame and raised
it, and when I and the honourable chairman had occasion to visit that
part of the county together, we enquired why they did not go on and
finish it. The worthy individual who had made the proposition, and
bought and had in his house the materials for finishing the building,
told us that the inhabitants of the district would not find the boards,
and, in consequence of that, the erection of the schoolhouse had not
been gone on with. A gentleman now present (I will not mention names, as
the chairman might blush) offered to give them the boards from a
neighbouring mill if they would go and fetch them, but even this they
would not do. Although everything was to be had without money, there was
no one who felt interest enough in the education of their children to
go and bring them to the spot--and to this day the frame stands, as it
then did, a melancholy monument of the dreadful apathy which is
sometimes to be found even in this comparatively intelligent county."
Mr. Wilmot lived long enough to see a free school system in force in his
native province, although he had no share in bringing this result about.
Yet that his views on this subject were sound and far in advance of his
time is shown by a speech which he made at the time of the opening of
the first exhibition in the province in 1852. He said:
"It is unpardonable that any child should grow up in our country without
the benefit of, at least, a common-school education. It is the right of
the child. It is the duty not only of the parent but of the people; the
property of the country should educate the country. All are interested
in the diffusion of that intelligence which conserves the peace and
promotes the well-being of society. The rich man is interested in
proportion to his riches, and should contribute most to the maintenance
of schools. Though God has given me no child of my own to educate, I
feel concerned for the education of the children of those who do possess
them. I feel concerned in what so intimately touches the best interests
of our common country. I want to hear the tax collector for schools
calling at my door. I want the children of the poor in the remote
settlements to receive the advantages now almost confined to their more
fortunate brethren and sisters of the towns. I know full well that God
has practised no partiality in the distribution of the noblest of his
gifts--the intellect; I know that in many a retired hamlet of our
province--amid many a painful scene of poverty and toil--there may be
found young minds ardent and ingenious and as worthy of cultivation as
those of the pampered children of our cities. It is greatly important to
the advancement of the country that these should be instructed."
{MONEY VOTES}
The initiation of money grants by the executive, and the responsibility
of the latter to the people, are the two corner-stones on which
responsible government must rest. From the very first, Wilmot was an
earnest advocate of both these measures; but, owing to the apathy of the
people and the disinclination of the members of the legislature to give
up what they considered their privileges, it was a difficult matter to
accomplish these objects. A reference to the journals of the legislature
will show that on numerous occasions he pressed these subjects on the
attention of the House of Assembly, and he was ably assisted by his
colleague from the county of York, Mr. Charles Fisher, who deserves a
foremost place among the men who should be honoured for their efforts to
bring about responsible government in the colonies of British North
America. It was a peculiar feature in the struggle for responsible
government in New Brunswick that, before it ended, the opposition to it
came not so much from the British government as from the members of the
provincial legislature. It was evident that the system of appropriating
money which existed in the House of Assembly was one which was wrong in
principle and resulted in getting the province into debt, because there
was no guiding hand to control the expenditure. The transfer of the
casual and territorial revenues to the provincial treasury in 1837 had
placed a very large sum, amounting to about L150,000, at the disposal of
the legislature, but this sum was speedily dissipated; and in the year
1842, when Sir William Colebrooke became lieutenant-governor of the
province, its finances were in an embarrassed condition.
Towards the close of 1841, a despatch was received from Lord Stanley,
the colonial secretary, suggesting that it was desirable that a better
system of appropriating the funds of the province should be inaugurated.
This brought up a discussion in the legislature during the session of
1842 in regard to the propriety of adopting the principle of placing the
initiation of money grants in the executive council. Mr. Wilmot moved a
resolution in committee of the whole House "that no appropriation of
public money should be made at any future session in supply, for any
purpose whatever, until there be a particular account of the income and
expenditure of the previous year, together with an estimate of the sums
required to be expended, as well for ordinary as extraordinary services,
respectively, and also a particular estimate of the principal amount of
revenue for the ensuing year." To this an amendment was moved by Mr.
Partelow that "Whereas the present mode of appropriation, tested by an
experience of more than fifty years, has not only given satisfaction to
the people of this province, but repeatedly attracted the deserved
approbation of the colonial ministers as securing its constitutional
position to every branch of the legislature, therefore resolved, as the
opinion of this committee, that it is not expedient to make any
alteration in the same." This amendment was carried by a vote of
eighteen to twelve.
{AN ABUSE UPHELD}
Such an amendment as that passed by the House of Assembly of New
Brunswick in 1842 would now only be an object of ridicule, because, as a
matter of fact, the financial condition of the province showed that the
system of appropriation which prevailed was based on false principles,
while the alleged approval of the colonial ministers of which so much
account was made, had been extended to the most illiberal features of
the constitution. There was, however, some excuse for the reluctance of
the members of the House of Assembly to surrender the initiation of
money votes to the executive, because the executive council of that day
was not a body properly under the control of the legislature, or in
sympathy with the people.
When the House met in 1843, it was seen that the friends of responsible
government were still in the minority. Yet they brought up the subject
of the appropriation of the public moneys by a resolution which sought
to fix the responsibility of the expenditure on the government. This was
met by an amendment moved by Mr. J. W. Weldon, that the House would not
surrender the initiation of the money votes. The amendment was carried
by a vote of twenty-four to seven, which showed that the friends of
Reform had still much leeway to make up before they could hope to
impress their views upon the legislature.
{SPEECH ON APPROPRIATIONS}
As it was hopeless to expect that a House of Assembly thus constituted
would vote in favour of the transfer of the initiation of money grants
to the executive, Wilmot did not bring up the subject again during the
remainder of its term; but by the operation of the Quadrennial Act,
which came into force in 1846, a new House was elected in that year,
which was largely made up of the same members as the previous one, and
at the first session of this House, held early in 1847, Wilmot, during
the discussion of the revenue bill, brought up the question of the
initiation of money grants in a vigorous and characteristic speech. He
said:--
"Can my honourable gentlemen tell me within five thousand pounds of the
money asked for, or required for the present session? No, they cannot,
and here we are going on in the old way, voting money in the dark, with
a thing for our guide called an 'estimate'--a sort of dark lantern with
which we are to grope our way through the mazes of legislation. Where is
the honourable member for Gloucester who talked so much about the good
old rules of our forefathers? I am opposed to the present principle of
voting away money; it is, in fact, but giving to tax and taxing to give,
this way and that way--every stratagem is used which can be invented in
order to carry favourite grants, and thus we proceed from day to day by
this system of combination and unprincipled collusion. [Cries of 'Order,
Order!'] Honourable members may cry order as much as they please, it is
true, and I care not who knows it--let it go forth to the country at
large. This system is what the honourable and learned member for
Gloucester [Mr. End] denominates 'the glorious old principles of our
forefathers,' which should be held as dear as life itself. It is not now
as in times gone by, when the legislative council and executive council
were one, and consequently we cannot now take the initiation of money
grants. This left the whole power in the hands of the assembly; and now,
with the report of the committee of finance before us, His Excellency's
messages, petitions and everything else, there is not one honourable
member around these benches can tell me within five thousand pounds of
the amount to be asked for, much less within ten thousand pounds of the
amount that will be granted during the present session; and yet, here we
are in committee of ways and means for raising a revenue. But it will
never answer to have too much information upon this point--if we knew
exactly how far we could go and no farther--I perhaps would lose my
grant, or another honourable member might lose a grant; this is the
system that is pursued. I have held a seat here for twelve years and
know the 'ropes' pretty well."
In the following year there was another discussion on the initiation of
money grants, arising out of a despatch which had been received from
Earl Grey, then colonial minister, in which he referred to the laxity of
the system by which money was voted in the New Brunswick legislature
without any estimate, and suggested that the initiation of money grants
should be surrendered to the executive. This proposal was fiercely
opposed, and all the forces of ancient Toryism were rallied against it,
one member from Queens County, Mr. Thomas Gilbert, going so far as to
apply to the advocacy of the old rotten system the soul-stirring words
contained in Nelson's last signal at Trafalgar, "England expects that
every man this day will do his duty."
{END'S RESOLUTION}
In 1850, the last year that Mr. Wilmot sat in the House of Assembly, the
matter came up again on a resolution moved by a private member. This
was met by an amendment moved by Mr. End, of Gloucester, in the
following words:--
"WHEREAS, the right of originating money grants is inherent in the
representatives of the people who are constitutionally responsible to
their constituents for the due and faithful user of that right;
therefore,
"_Resolved_, As the opinion of this House, that the surrender of such
right would amount to a dereliction of public duty and ought not to be
entertained by the House of Assembly."
This was carried by a vote of sixteen to eleven. The three members of
the government who sat in the House, one of whom was Mr. Wilmot, who had
joined it in May 1848, voted with the minority. It was not until the
year 1856 that a resolution was passed by the House of Assembly
conceding to the executive the right of initiating money grants, and
this was carried by a majority of only two in a full House. The first
estimate of income and expenditure framed by a New Brunswick government
was not laid before the House of Assembly until the session of 1857.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DEMAND FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
When Mr. Wilmot first entered the House of Assembly, many of the members
were office-holders and therefore depended on the goodwill of the
governor for their positions. At the session of 1842, a bill was
introduced for the purpose of putting an end to this evil, in which it
was declared that any member of the House of Assembly who should accept
the office of executive councillor or any office of profit or emolument
under the Crown should be incapable of taking or holding his seat in the
General Assembly while in such office, unless reelected after acceptance
thereof. An amendment was moved to exempt executive councillors who did
not hold any office of emolument from the provisions of this section,
but it was lost by a close vote. Mr. Wilmot voted for the amendment on
the ground that a man who was merely an executive councillor without
office, and who received no emolument as such, should not be required to
go back to the people for reelection. The bill, nevertheless, was passed
by a full House, but it was disallowed by the home authorities on the
ground that it was not in accordance with British precedents. The
colonial secretary said, "This Act as actually drawn would therefore
seem to establish a principle of great importance as well as
novelty--the principle, namely, that the Crown may not select its own
confidential advisers from amongst representatives of the people unless
the person so chosen should be willing to hazard a new election. How far
it is wise to erect such a barrier between the executive government and
the popular branch of the legislature would seem to be a matter well
meriting serious consideration." In the same despatch, the propriety of
seats in the assembly being vacated for the same reasons which would
vacate seats in the House of Commons was fully conceded. The stand taken
by Wilmot in regard to this subject was therefore the one which was
approved by the home government and was further endorsed by subsequent
legislation. Yet it was not until 1849 that the Act was passed which
finally settled the question, and required members of the legislature
accepting office to vacate their seats in the House of Assembly and go
back to their constituents for reelection.
{THE GOVERNOR CENSURED}
Sir William Colebrooke had not been a popular governor since the
appointment of his son-in-law to the office of provincial secretary. The
House of Assembly, therefore, was disposed to watch his conduct very
closely and to criticize actions which perhaps would not have attracted
so much attention under other conditions. During the session of 1846, it
was shown that he had appropriated a portion of the surplus civil list
fund, amounting to about three thousand pounds, for the purpose of
defraying the expenses of surveying Crown lands in Madawaska.[6] This
money was taken by the order of the colonial secretary, Lord Stanley.
Thus it appeared that, although the province was supposed to have the
control of the territorial revenue, the British government assumed the
right to dispose of a portion of this revenue without the consent or
authority of the House of Assembly. The conduct of the governor in
connection with this matter was censured in a strongly worded resolution
which was passed by the House of Assembly almost unanimously.[7] The
time had gone by when the representative of the Crown could do as he
liked with the public funds of the province, as had been the case in
former years.
The legislature was dissolved in 1846 under the provisions of the Act
which limited its term to four years. On the last day of the session
Wilmot bade farewell to the members of the House, and stated that he did
not intend to offer himself again for reelection. No doubt he was quite
sincere in making this statement at the time, but he soon had reason to
change his mind. The people of the county of York were unwilling to lose
the services of the champion of their rights in the House of Assembly,
so that he found it necessary to consent to be again nominated. He was
returned at the head of the poll, and with him Mr. Charles Fisher, who
had been his colleague in two previous legislatures.
The general election of 1846 brought a considerable number of new men
into the House, and in point of liberality the new assembly was a slight
improvement on its predecessor. The legislature met near the end of
January in the following year. The government at that time consisted of
only five persons, of whom two were members of the House of Assembly and
three of the legislative council. It appeared that negotiations had been
going on with some of the members of the Opposition for the purpose of
filling up the vacancies in the executive council. Wilmot had been
offered a seat in that body, but made it a condition of his acceptance
that he should go in with two of his friends, provided the council was
filled up to the number of seven, or three, if filled up to the number
of nine. This was not agreed to, so he remained outside the government.
During the first week of the session three new members were added to the
government, one of them being the surveyor-general, Mr. Baillie, who had
been elected a member of the House of Assembly for the county of York.
The arrangements made were not satisfactory to Wilmot and his friends,
and the government had to face what was practically a want of confidence
resolution. It was moved by Mr. Fisher and was as follows:--
"_Resolved_, As the opinion of this House, that while it fully
recognizes the accountability of the executive council to the assembly,
it will expect that henceforth the provincial administration will, from
time to time, prepare and bring before the legislature such measures as
may be required for the development of the provincial resources and the
general advancement of the public interests."
{ASSAILS THE GOVERNMENT}
In the course of the debate Wilmot spoke with great power and effect.
The following report of his speech on that occasion may serve to convey
to the reader some idea of his manner and method as a public speaker:--
{SPEECH ON REFORM}
"The honourable gentleman might have spared himself the trouble of
making the defence he did. I have heard that he was to be presented with
a gold medal for his admirable defence of that nearly extinct race--the
old Family Compact. I see that I shall have to cross a lance with my
honourable and learned friend [Mr. Hazen] politically. Yet I hope the
same good feeling which has characterized the debate thus far will be
continued. A great deal has been said about politics and political
principles, but my political principles are not of yesterday--I have
gleaned them from the history of my country, a country which we are all
proud to own. Will any honourable member dare to tell me that because we
are three thousand miles from the heart of the British empire the blood
of freemen shall not flow through the veins of the sons of New
Brunswick? If so, I have yet to learn the reason. Before I sit down I
will endeavour to show my honourable friends what the distinction is
between Liberals and Conservatives--what the Liberals have done, and
what the Conservatives have not done. Now to the resolution. My
honourable friend said yesterday that the resolution meant initiation of
money grants. When this announcement was made I heard a shout from the
direction of my honourable friend, Mr. Partelow, in a tenor voice, and
an honourable member in the rear [Mr. Barberie] joining in a sort of
falsetto accompaniment. I think my honourable friend [Mr. Hazen] is much
to blame for having accused his honourable colleague [Mr. Woodward] with
writing an article in a city paper. What, suppose he did write it, do
not some of the first noblemen and statesmen in England write for the
papers? I will not deny that I have written for the papers myself some
little squibs. But it is wrong to place an honourable member in the
position where he will have to affirm or deny it. A great cry has been
raised of a contemplated attack on the government, and, after all, it
has turned out that their fears have been excited by a newspaper
paragraph. The government has fortified all their outposts, and His
Excellency and two aides have been on the lookout for the coming attack.
At length my honourable colleague [Mr. Fisher] brought forth his
resolutions when they said to each other, 'Why, this doesn't mean
anything; there is no attack.' But they slept over it one night, cracked
some wine upon it, and while sitting under the mahogany they
said--'Hazen, there is something in these resolutions of Fisher's,
depend upon it--some hidden meaning--what shall we say it is? what will
we call it? we must give them some ugly name, or they will pass.' 'Oh,'
said Hazen, 'I have it--initiation of money grants--that'll do; I'll
just go down to the House and cry out "mad dog," "initiation of money
grants"; members will become alarmed, and we'll succeed in defeating
them.' But the honourable member from St. John [Mr. Jordan] has made the
most wonderful discoveries; he has taken a peep from the lookout station
at the enemy; he has looked through a political microscope, and has
discovered more than the commander-in-chief himself. 'Why,' says he,
'there's everything there--I see "free trade" and "protection" both, and
let me see--I--there's the "Board of Works," too; and round on the other
side I see "Municipal Corporations."' I will endeavour before I sit down
to prove that the arguments of my honourable friend Mr. Hazen are
fallacious. He has been developing at a great rate yesterday; he was not
asked to develop the money, but to bring down such measures as would
develop the provincial resources; this is the meaning of the resolution,
and, had not my honourable friend become alarmed for the safety of the
government, there is no man into whose hands I would sooner place the
resolution. But he has chosen to put the construction upon the
resolution which he has done, and other honourable members said, 'Oh, he
knows what it means better than I do; he has cried "mad dog" and we'll
follow him.' The government is not asked to bring in the revenue bill,
or any other bill which involves the principle of money grants. All the
resolution requires is, that they shall be prepared, at the opening of
the session, with such measures as may be considered for the general
welfare of the country, and not keep the assembly waiting two or three
weeks for the motion of the government, as has been the case this
session. Honourable members will recollect that there is a constituency
behind them to whom they are accountable; but they may resolve and
re-resolve as they please. There is a spirit of inquiry abroad among the
people, a political intelligence, which was not to be found a few years
since when my honourable friend denounced responsible government as all
nonsense! What was the case when responsible government was first talked
of in this province? Who descended from their lofty eminence to warn the
people to beware of these new doctrines? The old official Family Compact
party--they who entrenched themselves behind the prerogative of the
Crown in 1836, came down to the people and said, 'We who have done so
much for you--we who have watched over and guarded you, beware of that
dreadful monster, responsible government.' These are the people who call
themselves Conservatives. What, I would ask, did they conserve?
Everything but the good of the country; and, had the Conservatism of
1836 been carried out, an insulted people would ere this have risen in
their majesty and would have shaken off the yoke of bondage under which
they had been labouring.
{RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT}
{THE PEOPLE SUPREME}
"It has been said by honourable members of the government that there is
no distinction between Liberals and Conservatives. If this is the case,
why did they object to have me and two others take seats in the council
because we were Liberals? Here is a question which I would like my
honourable friends to answer. The Conservatives do not wish to see any
power in the hands of the people. [Interjection from Mr. End--'Not too
much.'] The honourable member from Gloucester, Mr. End, has receded from
his principles wonderfully; his speech yesterday was certainly a most
extraordinary one. He said to the government in a most supplicating tone
of voice, 'Give me fair play--give me the appointment of all the
bye-road commissioners, magistrates, sheriffs, and so on, in Gloucester,
and I will support you; that is all I want.' I will take care not to be
misunderstood in these matters, I will not allow any man to be the
exponent of my political principles. I believe departmental government
to be inseparable from our institutions, but will oppose the immediate
introduction of the whole system; I will bring it in step by step as the
country is prepared for it. Some extraordinary notions are entertained
as to the source from whence the power of the government is derived; the
freedom of government does not come down from the Crown, it goes up from
the people; and if the people are fit for these institutions they are
fit for self-government. I have frequently said that they who get the
people's money shall do the people's work. [From Mr. Partelow--'Yes,
that's right.'] I will now come down a step further--what was the case
in 1837? I am not going to disclose any secrets this time--but will
speak low. I wish to ask my honourable friend [Mr. Hazen] if, after the
administration changed in 1837, the government had the cordial
cooperation of the heads of departments? No! There has been a
counter-working going on--a constant endeavour to lead the government
astray and place them in a wrong position, and my generous-hearted
friend [Mr. Hazen] has to come down to this House and defend them. It is
a political fact, that previous to 1841 the heads of departments in this
province were in open hostility to the government. [From Mr. End--'They
could do no harm.'] If the departmental system were in operation, and
their tenure of office depended upon their ability so to conduct the
government as to merit the confidence of the assembly and the people,
there would be none of this stabbing in the dark, and running off the
track. It is, in my opinion, the only constitutional remedy for the good
working of the government. These five gentlemen who have lately formed
the mixed government, asked for departmental government when they signed
the address to the queen; yet now they refuse to adopt it. I should like
to know when they intend to graduate--does it depend upon the age of the
country or the state of the atmosphere? The fact is, whenever the people
of this country, through their representatives, choose to ask for it
they must get it. In 1844 they ran to the rescue of the prerogative in
Canada; but the very next year the same case came down to their own
doors! The tune was changed then, and an address was prepared to the
queen signed by the whole assembly except five. Why is this brought
about--why is the tune changed so suddenly? They at first said
responsible government is not fit for a colony--the next cry was, it is
not fit for New Brunswick, and finally they said, when they addressed
the queen--we must have it. Mr. Roebuck called upon Lord John Russell to
explain what responsible government was, which he has done [reads the
speech as delivered in the British parliament], and, when they had first
asked for it here, it was in full operation in Canada. My honourable
friend [Mr. Hazen] has accused me of having receded; but I will now ask
him to point out how I have done so? He has also said that I was brought
forward at the last election by the Conservatives. True, but I was
backed by all my old friends, and I told them if they took me, they must
do so with all my former opinions--opinions which I never will give up.
When they talk about there being no difference in political
names,--there is a difference; those who have contended for Liberal
principles have their names covered with obloquy. We ask for a
constitution that, while it protects the queen upon the throne, throws,
at the same time, its paternal arms around the helpless infant. This we
ask for, this we want--the pure, the free, the glorious constitution of
England; for this we have contended, for this the Liberals of New
Brunswick have fought, and let them call us rebels who have nothing else
to write about, I care not; we ask for a system that will give fair play
to all--that will upset all Family Compacts, and give to the sons of
New Brunswick their birthright, the benefit of free institutions and
self-government. This is what we want, and I will not submit tamely to
be called a rebel; I defy any honourable member to look at my political
life and say where I have overstepped the bounds of the constitution? If
I do live three thousand miles from the great body of the empire, still
that empire sends its blood through the veins of every British subject.
A son of New Brunswick has the same right to the benefit of her
institutions as has a resident of London, and I will not submit to be
cut off by any political man[oe]uvring."
{REFORM DEFEATED}
After a long debate, Mr. Fisher's resolution was defeated by a vote of
twenty-three to twelve, which showed that the friends of Reform had
still much work to do.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] This occurred during the time of the "rump" government composed of
Messrs. Simonds, Allen and McLeod, the members of the executive who
refused to resign at the time of the Reade appointment.
[7] The following resolutions which were moved by Mr. Partelow were
carried in the House of Assembly by a vote of twenty to two:
"1st. _Resolved_, That this committee deeply regret that His Excellency
the lieutenant-governor in council should not have felt himself
authorized to communicate to the House the despatch of the Right
Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, of January 5th,
1845, relative to the appropriation of the surplus civil list, in answer
to the address of the House of Assembly of March 14th, 1845, whereby the
House was prevented from representing, by an humble and dutiful address
to Her Majesty, that such appropriation was not in accordance with the
despatch of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies
of August 31st, 1836.
"2d. _Resolved_, As the opinion of this committee, that any funds
necessary to carry out the fourth article of the Treaty of Washington,
being a national treaty with a foreign power, ought not to be chargeable
upon the funds of this province; and that the House should, by an humble
and dutiful address to Her Majesty, pray that any appropriation made for
that purpose from the surplus civil list fund may be refunded to the
same."
CHAPTER IX
THE VICTORY IS WON
The session of 1848 was destined to be a memorable one in the history of
responsible government in New Brunswick. It was evident that with the
House as then constituted no progress could be made unless a change were
brought about in the views of some of its members by outside pressure.
In this instance the pressure came from the imperial government, which
desired to bring the political condition of New Brunswick into line with
that of Canada and Nova Scotia. In March, 1847, Earl Grey, the colonial
secretary, addressed a despatch to Sir John Harvey, the governor of Nova
Scotia, in which he laid down the principles which he thought should
control colonial administration. The most important feature of this
despatch was its declaration with reference to the composition of the
executive council. With regard to office-holders in general, Earl Grey
thought that they ought not to be disturbed in consequence of any change
of government, but he was of opinion that a different rule should apply
to such officials as were members of the executive council. On this
point he adopted the language of Mr. Poulett Thomson (Lord Sydenham),
who, in a despatch to Lord John Russell, written at Halifax, in the
year 1840, said:--
"The functions of the executive council, on the other hand, are, it is
perfectly clear, of a totally different character; they are a body upon
whom the governor must be able to call at any or at all times for
advice, with whom he can consult upon the measures to be submitted to
the legislature, and in whom he may find instruments within its walls to
introduce such amendments in the laws as he may think necessary, or to
defend his acts and his policy. It is obvious, therefore, that those who
compose this body must be persons whose constant attendance on the
governor can be secured; principally, therefore, officers of the
government, but, when it may be expedient to introduce others, men
holding seats in one or other House, taking a leading part in political
life, and above all, exercising influence over the assembly.
"The last, and in my opinion by far the most serious, defect in the
government is the utter absence of power in the executive, and its total
want of energy to attempt to occupy the attention of the country upon
real improvements, or to lead the legislature in the preparation and
adoption of measures for the benefit of the colony. It does not appear
to have occurred to any one that it is one of the first duties of the
government to suggest improvements where they are wanted; that, the
constitution having placed the power of legislation in the hands of an
assembly and a council, it is only by acting through these bodies that
the duty can be performed; and that, if these proper and legitimate
functions of government are neglected, the necessary result must be not
only that the improvements which the people have a right to expect will
be neglected, and the prosperity of the country checked, but that each
branch of legislature will misuse its power, and the popular mind be
easily led into excitement upon mere abstract theories of government to
which their attention is directed as the remedy for the uneasiness they
feel."
He concluded by expressing the opinion that the peculiar circumstances
of Nova Scotia presented no insuperable obstacle to the immediate
adoption of that system of parliamentary government which had long
prevailed in the mother country.
{A MEMORABLE DESPATCH}
A copy of this despatch was sent to the lieutenant-governor of New
Brunswick and it was laid before the House in pursuance of an address
which had been passed a few days before. It was understood that the
principles laid down in this despatch would be equally applicable to the
province of New Brunswick, and Mr. Fisher moved that the House should
approve of them and of their application to New Brunswick. This
resolution was carried by a vote of twenty-four to eleven, which was a
complete reversal of the vote of the previous session. Among those who
voted for the resolution were the three members of the government who
had seats in the House of Assembly and who had been previously opposed
to any such change in the political system of the country. Thus the
victory for responsible government was practically won, and it only
remained to perfect the details.
Immediately after the prorogation of the legislature, a reorganization
of the government took place, Messrs. Baillie, Shore and Johnston
retired and their places were taken by Messrs. Wilmot, Partelow, Fisher
and Kinnear. Mr. Wilmot became attorney-general in the place of Mr.
Peters, recently deceased, who had filled that office for twenty years.
Mr. Partelow became provincial secretary in place of John Simcoe
Saunders. Mr. Kinnear, who had been made solicitor-general in 1846, now
became a member of the government under the new system, while Mr. Fisher
took his seat as a member of the government without office. Thus were
the principles of responsible government vindicated and established in
New Brunswick. The provincial secretary, the attorney-general and the
solicitor-general became political officers subject to change with every
change of government. The surveyor-general, Mr. Baillie, by resigning
from the government escaped this condition for the time being, but it
was not long before that office also became political, Mr. Baillie
himself retiring with a pension in 1851.
{INFLUENCE OF COLONIAL OFFICE}
Messrs. Wilmot and Fisher were much censured by their friends for
becoming members of a government that was essentially Conservative and
in which they were in a minority. But as the principles for which they
had contended had been admitted and were now in a measure established,
there seemed to be no reason why they should not assist in working them
out. Wilmot as attorney-general certainly had greater opportunities of
advancing the cause of Reform than as a private member, and he and
Fisher working together were able to exercise a strong influence on the
administration. In the following year, as has already been seen, a
measure was carried voiding the seats of members of the assembly who
became heads of departments in the government, or enjoyed any office of
profit or emolument under the Crown, and this was all that was necessary
to establish responsible government on a firm basis. There was indeed
one other difficulty, the interference of the colonial office and the
influence of the governor, who had been accustomed to govern the
province largely by means of despatches. This influence was one which
could only be got rid of by degrees, for the wise men of Downing Street
always thought they knew much better what colonists required than did
the colonists themselves. The colonial secretary undertook to dictate to
the province as to the kind of tariff it should pass, and to refuse
assent to the passage of bills by the legislature giving a preference
to any particular county or granting bounties to fishermen or others
engaged in any special calling. It was felt to be a hardship that the
province was not permitted to give encouragement to any industry which
it desired to assist, and so strong was this feeling that at the session
of 1850, immediately after the receipt of a despatch from Earl Grey
disallowing the bill of the previous session granting bounties for the
cultivation of hemp, a bill was introduced and carried by an
overwhelming majority in the assembly appropriating three thousand
pounds for bounties to fishermen. This bill was rejected by the council,
so that the colonial secretary was spared the difficulty which would
have been involved in being defied by the New Brunswick legislature. It
was also felt to be a great hardship that, at a time when the colonies
were being deprived of the preferential tariff they had so long enjoyed
in the English markets, they should be debarred from entering into
commercial arrangements with foreign nations. A series of strongly
worded resolutions on this subject was moved by Mr. David Wark, and was
well supported, although not carried. The language used by many of the
speakers during the debate showed that the loyal feelings which had
always distinguished the people of the province were being subjected to
a severe strain by the policy of the British government. These
interferences with provincial rights continued for many years after
Wilmot had retired from public life, and therefore it is unnecessary to
refer to them further.
{THE PORTLAND CONVENTION}
Wilmot had but few opportunities during his active career as a public
man of displaying his abilities outside of his native province. His fame
as an orator was therefore mainly a local one, and the Portland Railway
Convention of 1850 was the first occasion on which he was recognized as
one of the best speakers on the continent. That great gathering of the
railway and business men of the United States and Canada was assembled
for the purpose of taking measures to secure a shorter ocean route to
Europe than was afforded by steamships sailing from New York. It was
thought that a better plan would be to run steamships from some port on
the west coast of Ireland to a port on the east coast of Nova Scotia, a
distance of about two thousand miles, and to connect the latter with New
York by a line of railway. No one doubted at that time that this was a
plan that was likely to succeed, and probably it would have done so if
there had been no improvement in the construction of steamships. No one
dreamed in those days that boats with a speed of twenty-five knots an
hour and of twenty thousand tons displacement would be running to New
York before the century was ended, and that the voyage to Liverpool
would be reduced to less than six days.
The Portland Convention included many eminent men from the United States
and Canada and not a few that could justly be described as orators, but
it was universally admitted that in eloquence Attorney-General Wilmot,
of New Brunswick, exceeded them all. The reporter of the proceedings of
the convention stated, in the pamphlet afterwards published, that it was
due to the speaker and to himself to say that "he had been entirely
unable to give anything like a report of the remarks of Mr. Wilmot." The
reporter also quotes the statement of another that "Mr. Wilmot delivered
one of the most spicy, eloquent and enlivening speeches which he ever
heard, which, while it kept the audience in the best spirits, was
replete with noble sentiments commending themselves to the hearts of all
present. His remarks were generally upon the moral, social and
intellectual influences which would result from the contemplated work.
No sketch would do justice to its power and beauty, its flashes of wit
and humour."
{WILMOT'S GREAT SPEECH}
The following report of Wilmot's great convention speech, although
admittedly very imperfect, is given as almost the only example that
survives of his eloquence:--
"I find myself in a new position in addressing a convention in a city,
in a state, and under a government that is foreign to me, as far as
citizenship is concerned. But I feel myself at home, for I am among
those who derive their inheritance from the same common ancestry. I am,
Mr. President, not a son of New England, but a grandson, and I can find
the old gravestone which indicates the graves of my ancestors, in a
pleasant village of Connecticut [cheers].
"We in the provinces came to this convention at your call. We have
responded to your invitation and you have given us a brother's welcome.
Physiologists affirm that the exercise of the muscles tends to their
enlargement and fuller development; and phrenologists affirm that the
exercise of the different faculties develops in a corresponding degree
the bumps upon the cranium. I would beg to add something to this
category,--the exercise of benevolence and kindness enlarges the heart,
and since I have been among you I have felt my heart growing big within
me [cheers].
"I am delighted to see this day, and could I give expression to the
emotions which swell up within me I would do so, but my power fails in
the attempt, and I cannot presume to make a speech. We do not, however,
meet to consult about California, where one hundred and twelve hour
speeches are necessary, or about the admission of New Mexico into the
Union. Our object is to effect an admission into the great railroad
union, and on this question we admit of no 'compromises.' We go straight
ahead in our purpose and the union will be effected [cheers].
"I know, Mr. President, it is a great work in which we are engaged. I
know that it looks vast, if not impossible of achievement to those who
have not studied its relations and its details, but those who look at it
through the enlarged medium which its contemplation presents will find
that difficulties diminish as its importance grows upon their vision.
"Look at the progress of similar enterprises among yourselves in the
state of Maine, and other parts of New England, and then say whether
anything is required of us but union of effort and faith in the result
of our exertions. In prosecuting our work in this matter, we must have
faith; but as faith without works is dead, let us put forth our
exertions and go steadily forward to a speedy and glorious completion of
our great enterprise [cheers].
"If the timid falter and the doubting hold back, there are others who
will take their places and keep our ranks full. We have only to hold our
position, and drive back the army of doubters, or opposers, who may
resist our march. We must give them the same reception that General
Taylor gave to the army of Santa Anna at Buena Vista. If opposed by
superior numbers, or if on any part of the field there are those who
hesitate, or hold back when a stronghold of the enemy is to be carried,
I would repeat the order of General Taylor: 'A little more grape,
Captain Poor'[8] [tremendous cheers].
"It is written in the decrees of eternal Providence, Mr. President,
that we shall learn war no more; we may then go on side by side with
glorious emulation for the cause of virtue and philanthropy throughout
the world, striving who shall out-vie the other. How changed in every
respect, now, is the condition of our race! How glorious the sight of
two great peoples uniting as one, 'to draw more closely the bands of
brotherhood, that yet shall make of all mankind but one great
brotherhood of nations.' The sentiment of that resolution which embodies
this idea is worthy of its author and of the American character; but it
is also a sentiment to which the people of the British empire will
respond [cheers].
"Sir, I found in the circular which invited us here this sentiment
expressed, in terms which aroused to the fullest enthusiasm the mind of
every man in the British provinces: 'The spirit of peace has at last
prevailed--national animosities, sectional and political hostility have
disappeared between the English races since the establishment of the
boundaries of Maine and Oregon, and the contests of war have been
succeeded by a noble and generous rivalry for the promotion of the arts
of peace. The introduction of the steamship and the railway has made
former enemies friends. National hostility has given way to commercial
and social intercourse, and under whatever form of government they may
hereafter exist, they can never again become hostile or unfriendly'
[cheers].
"To this sentiment I respond with all my heart. It is this sentiment
that has brought us together. I know not who was the author of this
circular, but whoever he may be, in the name of every Englishman--in the
name of every American, sir, in the name of humanity, I tender him
thanks [cheers].
"An enterprise aiming to accomplish such results, and which is in and of
itself calculated to produce such results, cannot fail of success. The
whole civilized world is interested in its accomplishment. There are
some good old-fashioned people who think we are going too fast and too
far in our railroad enterprises. We have, they say, lived and got along
well enough without railroads, and now you seem to think that your
temporal salvation depends upon it! Blot out your telegraphs, lay up
your steamboats,--what darkness would come upon the world! We must form
ourselves into a council of war for the purpose of combating these old
prejudices, and, instead of being turned away from our objects, we will
take stronger grounds than ever occupied before.
"Mr. President, we of the provinces have made up our minds no longer to
remain quiet in our present condition. With all the fine natural
advantages our country possesses, we make comparatively slow progress,
and our province itself is scarcely known to the world. I shall be
pardoned here for relating an anecdote to illustrate the truth of this
remark.
"In a recent visit to Washington upon official business, I had occasion
to tarry a few days in the city of New York, and among the places that I
visited with a friend was one of the colleges in the city. My friend
introduced me to a learned professor as his friend, the
'Attorney-general of New Brunswick.' We entered into conversation on a
variety of subjects, and he inquired when I came over to the city, and
as to various matters going on in the neighbouring state. Seeing the
mistake of the learned professor, I thought it hardly kind to mortify
him by correcting it, and I answered in the best way I could, and took
my leave; and to this hour, I suppose, the learned professor thinks he
was talking with the attorney-general of the fine old state of New
Jersey [tremendous cheers].
"Seeing that my own country itself was hardly known beyond its bounds, I
felt a little concern that she should not always remain in this
condition. I felt, as many of my friends and neighbours have long felt,
that we must look at home for the means of making our province honoured
and respected abroad. And we intend to open this line of railway
entirely across the breadth of our province and bring ourselves into
connection with the world [cheers].
"Mr. President, I cannot omit, in this connection, the expression of my
profound regard for the American Union. It is the union of these states
that has given you greatness and strength at home and the respect and
admiration of the civilized world [long-continued cheers].
"The great interests of Christianity, of philanthropy and of liberty,
throughout the world, depend upon the union of these states. We of New
Brunswick, of Nova Scotia, and of Canada are deeply interested in its
existence. If there is any question of the day that interests us more
than all others, it is this very question of the perpetuity of the
union. For myself, I think there should be passed a law providing that
the man who would even conceive the idea of a dissolution of the union
should be guilty of treason. In the sincerity of my heart, I say, perish
the man who should dare to think of it [tremendous cheers]!"
With respect to railway legislation Wilmot was not in advance of many
others in the province whose general political views were less liberal
than his own. There was always a good deal of local feeling injected
into the discussion of railway matters and Wilmot, who was a resident of
Fredericton, incurred a good deal of censure for the ridicule which he
threw on the proposal to build a railway from St. John to Shediac, which
is now a part of the Intercolonial. As this railway brought the counties
bordering on the Straits of Northumberland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence
into easy communication with St. John, nothing is more clear than that
of all the railways then projected in the province it was the one most
likely to be useful and profitable, but Wilmot apparently could not
forget the fact that it did not touch his own county. His speech on this
subject was made in the legislature before the meeting of the Portland
Convention, and it is worthy of note that five-sixths of the Shediac
Railway was to be used as part of the magnificent European and North
American Railway scheme which was so much lauded by him in his Portland
speech.
{HIS WORK IN LEGISLATION}
There is not much to be said in regard to the political life of Wilmot
after he became attorney-general. His principal legislative achievement
while he filled that office was an Act for the consolidation of the
criminal law with regard to the definition of certain indictable
offences and the punishment thereof. This was a useful but not a
brilliant work, which many another man might have performed equally
well. In the session of 1850, Wilmot carried a bill through the House of
Assembly for the reduction of the salaries of the judges of the supreme
court and some other officials, but this measure did not pass the
legislative council. He had always been in favour of a low scale of
salaries as best suited to the conditions which prevailed in the
province. The scale had been fixed in 1836, when the casual and
territorial revenues were placed under the control of the province, but
an agitation soon afterwards commenced for further reductions. The
imperial government would not consent to the reduction of any salary
while the holder of the office lived, except in the case of the
surveyor-general, whose duties had been decreased, but it agreed to a
lower scale for future occupants of the offices. In this way the salary
of the provincial secretary had been reduced from L1,599 11s. to L600;
that of the surveyor-general from L2,019 4s. 4d. to L1,209 12s. 4d., and
that of the auditor-general from L500 to L346 3s. The salaries of the
judges, however, remained the same in 1850 as they had been in 1836,
viz., L1,096 3s. for the chief-justice and L750 for each of the puisne
judges. Wilmot's bill reduced these salaries to L700 for the
chief-justice and L600 to each of the other judges. He also voted for a
resolution in favour of making the legislative council elective, and
that an address should be presented to Her Majesty asking her to consent
to the passage of such a bill. A favourable answer was received from Her
Majesty, but the scheme to make the legislative council elective was
never carried into effect, in consequence of the opposition which it
encountered in that body.
There is no doubt that the popularity of Wilmot seriously declined after
he entered the government. This was very plainly seen at the general
election which took place in June, 1850, when he narrowly escaped
defeat, being the lowest on the poll of the members elected, while his
colleague in the government, Mr. Fisher, was defeated, polling less than
one-half the number of votes given to the candidate who was highest on
the poll. But, on the whole, the result throughout the province was
favourable to the cause of Reform, and among those elected in York who
stood higher on the poll than Wilmot were two new members who held
advanced views with respect to the amendment of the constitution.
{THE GOVERNOR AND THE JUDGES}
Although responsible government had been conceded to New Brunswick, and
it was admitted that public offices should be bestowed in accordance
with the wishes of the people, the close of Wilmot's legislative career
was marked by an event which showed that the old order of things had not
entirely passed away. Chief-Justice Chipman, owing to failing health,
resigned his seat on the bench in the autumn of 1850, and it became
necessary to provide for a successor. A meeting of the executive council
was called for the purpose of filling the vacancy, and six members of
the council out of the eight who were present signed a memorandum to the
effect that it was not advisable to appoint any person to the vacant
office, but that such a division of the work of the judiciary should be
made by the legislature as would secure the efficient discharge of the
judicial duties by three judges, together with the Master of the Rolls.
Wilmot was one of the persons who signed this memorandum, but on the
following day he called on the governor and asked that his name might be
withdrawn from it, he having in the meantime apparently changed his
mind. The governor, Sir Edmund Head, asked the judges whether, in their
opinion, three of them would be able to do all the judicial business of
the country, and received from them a strongly worded protest against
any such alteration in the number of judges. Mr. Fisher, who was one of
the members of the executive present at the meeting, submitted to the
governor a paper in which he took strong grounds against the proposal to
reduce the number of judges. Sir Edmund Head referred the matter to the
home authorities, and they decided that the proposed change in the
number of judges was not advisable. Moreover, they decided as to who
should fill the vacant offices, and asked the governor to appoint Mr.
Justice Carter to the position of chief-justice and to offer a puisne
judgeship to the attorney-general, Mr. Wilmot, and if he refused it to
the solicitor-general, Mr. Kinnear. Mr. Wilmot accepted, and thus
brought his political career to an end.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] This is an adaptation of General Taylor's words. John A. Poor was
the chief promoter of the European and North American Railway and the
chairman of the committee of arrangements of the Portland Convention.
CHAPTER X
JUDGE AND GOVERNOR
The opinion that was entertained of Mr. Wilmot by those who were closely
associated with him in the work of Reform was well expressed by the late
Mr. George E. Fenety, in his _Political Notes_.
"A great luminary," says Mr. Fenety, "set in semi-darkness on the day
that Mr. Wilmot left the forum for the bench. He was the light of the
House for sixteen years, the centre from whence radiated most of the
sparkling gems in the political firmament. It was at a time of life
(comparatively a young man) and a period when talents such as his were
most wanted by his party and his country. Notwithstanding his supposed
mistake in having joined a Conservative government, the Liberals were
always willing to receive their old leader back with outstretched
arms--ready to forgive and go along again with him over the old road,
and, to a man, would have held to him had he made a stand against Sir
Edmund Head, and told him--'thus far and no farther shalt thou go'."
Many of Wilmot's friends regretted that he should have accepted the
office of judge on the conditions under which it was offered. They
thought that as attorney-general he was entitled to the position of
chief-justice, and that in consenting to take the puisne judgeship he
had lowered himself. It is hardly necessary to discuss a question of
this kind at the present day. No doubt he had reasons of his own for
retiring from the arena of politics. The work he had been doing for the
public had placed a great strain upon him and interfered with his legal
business to a very serious extent. He was never a wealthy man, and had
therefore to consider his own future, while a position on the bench was
one of honour and dignity which was regarded as worthy of acceptance by
any member of the legal profession.
There was nothing worthy of note in the career of Mr. Wilmot as a judge.
He was never considered to be a deeply read lawyer, but he filled the
office of judge with dignity and general acceptance. His duties were not
sufficiently arduous to prevent him from having leisure to engage in
other lines of inquiry, for his mind was much interested in questions
connected with science. He frequently appeared on the lecture platform
and always with success.
When confederation was accomplished, it was felt that of all the natives
of New Brunswick he was the most worthy to be appointed its first
lieutenant-governor under the new regime. Judge Wilmot himself was
willing to accept the office as a fitting close to his long and active
career as a public man; but for some reason, which it is now impossible
to ascertain, the appointment was not made until about a year after
confederation. Judge Wilmot became lieutenant-governor on July 23rd,
1868, and continued to hold that honourable and important office until
November 14th, 1873, when he was succeeded by the Hon. S. L. Tilley.
{OTHER ACTIVITIES}
So far, we have been considering Wilmot as a politician and member of
the legislature, but a very imperfect idea of his character would be
gathered from regarding him merely in these capacities. He was a
many-sided man, and had other interests which occupied his attention as
much as, or more than, those public questions to which he devoted so
much of his vigour. It has already been stated that his father was a
member of the Baptist Church, and one of the founders of the church of
that denomination in Fredericton. It does not appear that the son ever
identified himself with that Church, or that while a youth he gave much
attention to religious matters. It was not until after the death of his
first wife, which took place in 1833, that he became affected by
religious influences and began to attend the services of the Methodist
Church, the pulpit of which was then filled by the Rev. Enoch Wood, a
man of much ability and eloquence whose style of oratory was very
impressive. Under his ministrations Mr. Wilmot became a convert, was
baptized and joined the Methodist Church in Fredericton, and from that
time until the close of his life he was a very prominent figure in it.
He filled the office of superintendent of its Sunday School for upwards
of twenty-five years, and was the leader of the church choir for thirty
years. When he was appointed governor it was thought that he would give
up these offices, but he still continued to fill them, and was
superintendent of the Sunday School up to the day when his life came to
an end. He always took a great interest in questions relating to the
Bible, and frequently lectured on topics connected with it. He
vehemently opposed the teachings of Darwin and others who followed the
same line of inquiry, and he stoutly maintained that wherever the Bible
and science were in conflict, science was in the wrong. He seems to have
been, from first to last, an unquestioning believer in the doctrines of
the Christian religion, and he viewed with great disfavour any one who
ventured to question any part of its creed. As a lecturer he was
eloquent and though discursive, always interesting. None of his lectures
were written, so that to-day they are only a fading memory to those who
heard them delivered. Though found acceptable at the time, it is hardly
likely that, if delivered at the present day, they would enjoy so high a
degree of popularity. People are not now so willing to accept sweeping
assertions which are in conflict with the conclusions of scientific men
who have devoted their lives to a patient study of the phenomena of life
and the records of creation.
{INTEREST IN MILITARY MATTERS}
One of the most pleasing features of Judge Wilmot's character was his
fondness for children. He was never so happy as when among the young
people, and long after he became a judge he took an intense interest in
drilling the schoolboys and instructing them in all martial exercises;
indeed, he seemed to be quite as much devoted to this work as he was to
any other of his numerous employments. When a very young man, he became
an ensign in the first battalion of York County militia, and speedily
rose to be captain. When the so-called Aroostook War[9] broke out in
1839 he was major of a company of rifles attached to that battalion, and
he volunteered for active service at the front. His interest in military
matters continued until a late period, and, in the first military camp
organized in the province by the lieutenant-governor, the Hon. Arthur
Gordon, in 1863, he commanded one of the battalions. If Wilmot had not
been a politician and a lawyer, he might have been a great evangelist or
a great soldier.
Judge Wilmot was very fond of flowers, and the beautiful grounds at
Evelyn Grove, where he resided, were looked upon as the finest in the
province. Nearly every visitor to Fredericton found his way to that
charming place and was sure of a cordial welcome from the judge, who
delighted to show strangers what he had been able to accomplish in
growing flowers and rare plants. Not the least interesting feature of
such visits was the conversation of the host, who abounded in knowledge
of horticulture, and was always ready to give others the benefit of his
information. It was in this lovely retreat that the last years of Mr.
Wilmot's life were passed. When his term as governor expired, the
government of Canada very properly gave him a pension as a retired
judge. In 1875 he succeeded the Right Hon. Mr. Childers, as second
commissioner under the Prince Edward Island Land Purchase Act. He was
nominated as one of the arbitrators in the Ontario and North-West
Boundary Commission, but did not live long enough to act in that
capacity.
{HIS DEATH}
During the last two or three years of his life he suffered much from
chronic neuralgia, which sometimes prevented him from stirring
out-of-doors. No serious result was anticipated, and he was generally
able to take active exercise and engage in his usual routine of duty. On
Monday, May 20th, 1878, while driving in his carriage with his wife, he
complained of a sudden and severe pain in the region of the heart. He
was at once driven home and a physician summoned, but in a few minutes
he passed away. He had not quite completed his seventieth year. His
death evoked expressions of regret and sympathy from every part of the
province, and tributes of respect and admiration from many who resided
in other parts of Canada and in the United States.
Judge Wilmot was twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1832,
was Jane, daughter of Mr. James Balloch, of St. John. She died very soon
after their marriage, and in 1834 he married Miss Elizabeth Black,
daughter of the Hon. William Black, of Halifax, and granddaughter of the
Rev. William Black, who is regarded as the apostle of Wesleyan Methodism
in the Maritime Provinces.
In estimating the character and achievements of L. A. Wilmot, regard
must be had to the conditions under which the battle for responsible
government was fought, and the peculiar difficulties he had to face. He
had not only to contend against governors determined to use their power
to the utmost, an immovable legislative council and a reactionary
executive, but he had to attempt to inspire with something of his own
spirit a House of Assembly which had but little sympathy with his views.
That he did not accomplish more is less a matter of surprise than that
he accomplished so much. With heavy odds against him, he contended for
the rights of the people and the improvement of the constitution, and he
lived to see the principles for which he had fought so firmly
established in his native province that they can never be disturbed.
{A CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE}
It was never his good fortune to be the leader and master of a
government or to have a free hand in the work of legislation. We are
therefore left in the dark as to what he might have accomplished under
more favourable conditions. Yet there is but little doubt that, had he
remained in public life, the progress of Reform would have been greatly
accelerated, and that such important measures as the establishing of
free schools would have been brought about much earlier than was the
case without his vigorous support. The faults of Wilmot were those that
belong to an ardent, enthusiastic and liberty-loving temperament. He
hated injustice in every form, and in his denunciation of evil he was
sometimes led to use stronger language than men of cooler feelings
approved. In this way he aroused opposition and left himself open to
attack. Yet it is doubtful whether the censure of his enemies was as
injurious as the flattery of some who professed to be his friends, and
who were ready to applaud whatever he said or did. Being accepted as a
leader when a mere youth because he had made a few eloquent speeches, he
missed the wholesome discipline which most men have to undergo before
they achieve fame. He would have been a greater and wiser man if he had
been spared the unthinking flattery which was too lavishly bestowed upon
him. Yet, after all has been said by those who would seek to minimize
his merits, the fact remains that this son of New Brunswick stood for
years as the foremost champion of the rights of the people, and that it
is impossible to deny him a place among the great men who have assisted
to build up Canada.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] The Aroostook War arose out of the unsettled boundary question
between Maine and New Brunswick. There was a large area on the St. John
River, the ownership of which was in dispute, and in 1839 the difficulty
came to a head in consequence of the governor of Maine undertaking to
solve the question in his own way by taking possession of the territory.
Governor Fairfield, of Maine, sent eighteen hundred militiamen to the
front and Sir John Harvey, the governor of New Brunswick, issued a
proclamation asserting the right of Great Britain to guard the territory
while it was in dispute, and calling on the governor of Maine to
withdraw his troops. Fairfield denied the right to issue a counter
proclamation and called on the state for ten thousand men. Sir John
Harvey then sent Colonel Maxwell with the 36th and 69th Regiments and a
train of artillery to the upper St. John to watch the movements of the
militia. A large force of New Brunswick militia was also embodied and
sent to the front. Fortunately, President Van Buren sent General
Winfield Scott to Maine with full power to settle the difficulty. He got
into a friendly correspondence with Sir John Harvey, which led to an
understanding by which the troops on both sides were withdrawn and all
danger of war averted. The boundary question was afterwards settled by
the Ashburton Treaty.
[Illustration: S. L. Tilley]
SIR LEONARD TILLEY
CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE AND BUSINESS CAREER
The political career of Samuel Leonard Tilley did not begin until the
year that brought the work of Lemuel Allan Wilmot as a legislator to a
close. Both were elected members of the House of Assembly in 1850, but
in the following year Wilmot was elevated to the bench, so that the
province lost his services as a political reformer just as a new man,
who was destined to win as great a reputation as himself, was stepping
on the stage. Samuel Leonard Tilley was born at Gagetown, on the St.
John River, on May 8th, 1818, just thirty-five years after the landing
of his royalist grandfather at St. John. He passed away seventy-eight
years later, full of years and honours, having won the highest prizes
that it was in the power of his native province to bestow.
{OF LOYALIST STOCK}
In these days, when a man becomes eminent an effort is usually made to
trace his descent from distinguished ancestors, but most of the early
inhabitants of New Brunswick were too careless in such matters to leave
much material to the modern maker of pedigrees. Sir Leonard Tilley was
unable to trace his descent beyond his great-grandfather, Samuel Tilley.
At one time it was thought that his first ancestor in America was John
Tilley, who came over in the _Mayflower_ in 1620, but a closer search of
the records of the Plymouth colony reveals the fact that John Tilley
left no sons. But there were persons of the name of Tilley in the
Massachusetts Bay colony as early as 1640, and there seems to be no
doubt that Sir Leonard Tilley's ancestors had been long in America. They
belonged to the respectable farming class which has given the Dominion
of Canada and the United States so many of their most distinguished
sons. Samuel Tilley, the great-grandfather of Sir Leonard, was a farmer
on Long Island at the time of the American Revolution. His farm was then
within the boundaries of the present borough of Brooklyn, and the
curious in such matters can find the very lot upon which he resided laid
down upon some of the ancient maps of that locality. At the time the
British occupied Long Island, after the battle which took place there in
the autumn of 1776, resulting in the defeat of the Americans, the
Brooklyn farmers were called upon to provide cattle for the sustenance
of the troops. Samuel Tilley, being a loyal man and a friend of the
government, complied, and for this he was made the subject of attacks by
the disloyal element among his neighbours, and in the course of time was
compelled to seek shelter within the British lines. The occupation of
Long Island by the British during the whole period of the war made it
secure enough for Samuel Tilley, as well as for all loyal men who lived
in the vicinity of Brooklyn; but when the war was over it became
necessary for him to seek shelter in Nova Scotia, the acts of
confiscation and banishment against the Loyalists being of the most
severe character. Samuel Tilley came to New Brunswick with the spring
fleet, which arrived in St. John in May, 1783, and was a grantee of
Parrtown, which is now the city of St. John. He erected a house and
store on King Street, on the south side, just to the east of Germain,
and there commenced a business which he continued for several years. He
died at St. John in the year 1815. His wife was Elizabeth Morgan, who
survived him for many years and died in 1835, aged eighty-four years.
Sir Leonard Tilley was not born when his great-grandfather died, but had
a clear recollection of his great-grandmother, who lived for about four
years after he came to reside in St. John. James Tilley, the grandfather
of Sir Leonard, was also a grantee of Parrtown, he having purchased for
a trifling sum, when a boy, a lot on Princess Street, which had been
drawn by some person who was anxious to dispose of it. James Tilley was
a resident of Sunbury County and a magistrate there for a great many
years, dying in the year 1851. Sir Leonard Tilley's father, Thomas
Morgan Tilley, was born in 1790, and served his time with Israel Gove,
who was a house-joiner and builder. He spent his early days as a
lumberman, getting out ship timber, his operations being carried on
mainly at Tantiwanty, in the rear of Upper Gagetown. He afterwards went
into business at Gagetown, and kept a store there down to the time of
his death, which took place in 1870. Sir Leonard's great-grandmother, on
his father's side, was Mary Chase, of the Chase family of Massachusetts,
she having come from Freetown, in that state. Sir Leonard's mother was
Susan Ann Peters, daughter of William Peters, who was for many years a
prominent farmer in Queens County, and a member of the legislative
assembly. William Peters owned a large property and had one of the
finest tracts of land possessed by any man in the province in his day.
But he was unwise enough to sell it for the purpose of obtaining money
with which to enter into lumbering with William Wilmot, the father of L.
A. Wilmot, and, being unsuccessful in his operations, his whole fortune
was swept away. The ancestors of William Peters were from New York
state, from which they came with the rest of the Loyalists in 1783.
{EARLY EDUCATION}
The house in Gagetown in which the future governor of New Brunswick and
finance minister of Canada was born, is still standing and is now used
as a hotel. Gagetown was at that period, and still is, one of the most
beautiful places in New Brunswick. The river St. John flows in front of
it, and Gagetown Creek, which is almost as wide as the river, laves its
shores. The land in the vicinity is fertile, and fine old trees line the
streets, giving an air of beauty and refinement to the locality. Sir
Leonard was named after his uncle, Samuel Leonard Peters, and the latter
was named after an English schoolmaster named Samuel Leonard, who was a
great favourite with William Peters, the grandfather of the subject of
this biography. Samuel Leonard, after leaving Gagetown, appears to have
removed to Nova Scotia, and probably died in that province. When Sir
Leonard was five years old he was sent to the Madras School in Gagetown,
of which Samuel Babbitt was the teacher. He attended this school from
1823 until 1827, when the grammar school was instituted in Gagetown. The
Madras school system was at that time in high favour with the people of
the province, and these schools received large grants from the
government, it being thought that this system was more advantageous than
any other for the instruction of youth. This idea, however, did not
prove to be universally correct, for in the course of a few years we
find the legislature declaring that while they believed the Madras
system suitable to towns and populous places, it did not answer so well
in rural districts. Samuel Babbitt, the teacher of the Madras School,
was clerk of the parish, and, according to the custom of that day, led
the responses in church. The rector of Gagetown at this period was the
Rev. Samuel Clark. The teacher of the local grammar school which young
Tilley attended from 1827 to 1831 was William Jenkins, a graduate of
Dublin University. Jenkins was a very severe man, and believed in the
doctrine that he who spares the rod spoils the child, and Sir Leonard
had a very vivid recollection of the vigour with which he applied the
birch. He removed from Gagetown shortly after 1831, and took up his
residence in Quebec, where he conducted a large school for many years,
dying about the year 1863. Sir Leonard, after he had become a well-known
political character and a member of the government of New Brunswick, had
the pleasure of paying him a visit some time in 1858.
An interesting incident occurred in 1827, at the time young Tilley
commenced to attend the grammar school. Sir Howard Douglas, who was then
governor of New Brunswick, paid a visit to Gagetown and was the guest of
Colonel Harry Peters, the speaker of the House of Assembly. While the
governor and his host were walking through Gagetown, they met young
Tilley and a son of Harry Peters returning from school, and the boys
were introduced to His Excellency, who presented each of them with a
Spanish quarter-dollar. Sir Leonard could remember and often spoke of
the appearance of Sir Howard Douglas, dressed in a blue coat with brass
buttons, a fine-looking gentleman, with a pleasant face and a kindly
smile. Little thought the then governor of New Brunswick that the boy to
whom he was speaking, a lad of nine years of age, would fifty years
later sit in his own chair in the government house.
{ENTERS ON BUSINESS LIFE}
Young Tilley was not the kind of youth likely to be satisfied to reside
all his life in Gagetown. Other boys of less ambition might be content
to settle down on the farm and to fulfil their destinies within the
comparatively limited sphere of action which that little town in Queens
County afforded, but he had within him longings for a higher destiny
than he was likely to attain as a resident of a rural district.
Young Tilley came to St. John in May, 1831, at the age of thirteen. He
at once entered the drugstore of Dr. Henry Cook, as a clerk, it being
the fashion of those times for medical men to have a dispensary in
connection with their professional practice, so that they could give
advice, and dispense their own prescriptions with equal facility. He
continued as clerk with Dr. Cook until February, 1835, when he entered
the service of William O. Smith, who, in later years, was mayor of St.
John. It was while a clerk with Smith that Tilley became a member of the
St. John Young Men's Debating Society, an organization which, if it has
no other claim to the remembrance of posterity, at least has that of
giving one distinguished statesman to British America, and a governor to
New Brunswick. It was in this society that he made his first attempt at
public speaking, and it may be said that from the very beginning he
showed a remarkable aptitude for debate and public discussions.
In December, 1837, he took one of the most important steps of his life
in espousing the cause of total abstinence. Having taken up this
movement, he threw his whole energy into it, and from that time down to
the day of his death he was a consistent temperance man, and a strong
advocate of the principle of total abstinence. It was, perhaps, this
strong advocacy of the cause of temperance, more than anything else,
that brought him before the public as a suitable person to become a
candidate for the House of Assembly, and led to his first election as a
representative for the city of St. John in the local legislature
thirteen years later. Certainly the fact that Tilley, from that time
until the close of his public career, had always the support of the
temperance societies, gave him a strength which he hardly would have
obtained otherwise, and rallied around him a phalanx of friends, who,
for fidelity to his interests and zeal for his political advancement,
could hardly have been surpassed.
Tilley commenced business on his own account in 1838, before he had
attained the age of twenty years, as a member of the firm of Peters &
Tilley, and he continued a successful career until 1855, when he
transferred his business to Mr. T. B. Barker, the founder of the present
firm of T. B. Barker & Sons. It is unnecessary to say anything more in
regard to Mr. Tilley's life as a business man than that it was a highly
prosperous one. He showed so much energy and enterprise that when he
entered political life he was comparatively wealthy. There is no doubt
that if he had continued in business instead of devoting his energies to
the service of the province and Dominion, he would have made far more
money than he obtained as a politician.
{COLONIAL TRADE}
The movement in behalf of free trade, which was changing the fiscal
policy of the United Kingdom in the closing years of the first half of
the nineteenth century, did not meet with much favour in New Brunswick,
because it seriously affected the leading industry of the province.
Colonial timber had long enjoyed a preference in the British market, but
this preference had been seriously impaired by imperial legislation and
was likely to be taken away altogether if free trade principles should
prevail. Many remonstrances had been sent to the British government
against the reduction or abolition of the duty on foreign timber which
came into competition with the colonial product, but these remonstrances
proved wholly unavailing, and it was seriously believed that the
colonial timber trade would be destroyed. This led to the annexation
movement of 1848, which affected all the provinces, while it also caused
the formation of organizations pledged to resist the free trade
movement. Tilley was in sympathy with these efforts to preserve colonial
trade, and it was in consequence of this that he first made his
entrance into political life.
{GENERAL ELECTION OF 1850}
At a meeting of the electors of St. John in favour of protection, which
was held previous to the general election of 1850, Tilley was nominated
as one of the candidates for the city of St. John. He was not present at
the meeting and had no knowledge whatever of the intention of the
electors to make such a nomination. A meeting was called a few nights
later in Carleton to confirm the nomination, and at that meeting Tilley
was present. He then made the strongest possible protest against the
nomination, but the electors present would not take "No" for an answer,
and he eventually consented to stand as a candidate, informing them at
the same time that he had an engagement to be in Boston on the day fixed
for the nomination, and could not be at the hustings on that day.
Notwithstanding this statement they still persisted in his nomination,
but as Tilley was absent in the United States, his nomination speech on
that occasion was made by Joseph W. Lawrence, who afterwards was found
among his strongest political opponents. At the general election of 1850
all the candidates elected for the city and county of St. John were
avowed opponents of the government. Tilley was returned at the head of
the poll, while W. H. Needham, who ran with him, was likewise elected.
The members elected for the county were R. D. Wilmot, William J.
Ritchie, John H. Gray and Charles Simonds; while J. R. Partelow,
Charles Watters and John Jordan were the three defeated candidates. The
list of candidates for the city and county of St. John included two
future governors, a future chief-justice of the supreme court of Canada
and two other judges, to say nothing of the provincial secretary, Mr.
Partelow, a speaker of the House of Assembly and a future mayor of St.
John. It must be admitted that few elections that have ever been held in
any part of British North America have had so many candidates presented
to the electors who were afterwards eminent in public life. This
election took place at an important epoch in the history of the
province, when the old order was passing away and men's minds were
prepared for a great change in political affairs. It was a Reform House
of Assembly, and, although all the members elected for the purpose of
upholding Reform principles did not prove true to their trust, still it
contained a larger number of men of Liberal views than any of its
predecessors.
Among the members of this House were several who had taken a very
important part in public affairs, or who afterwards became members of
the executive. The county of York sent among its representatives, Lemuel
A. Wilmot, who had been a member of the House for sixteen years, and who
had taken a leading part in many measures of importance for the
improvement of the system by which the country was governed.
Mr. Charles Fisher, who had been a colleague of Mr. Wilmot in the county
of York, was defeated at the general election, but soon afterwards
became a member of the House. Mr. Fisher had not the oratorical gifts
possessed by Mr. Wilmot, but he was even stronger in his Liberal views,
and as a constitutional lawyer he had no equal, at that time, in the
province. Although his manners were somewhat uncouth and his address far
from polished, Fisher had strong individuality and a singularly clear
intellect. His services in the cause of Liberalism in New Brunswick can
hardly be overestimated, and these services were rendered at a time when
to be a Liberal was to be, to a large extent, ostracized by the great
and powerful who looked upon any interference with their vested rights
as little short of treason.
Tilley's colleague from St. John city was William H. Needham, who
afterwards represented the county of York in the legislature. Mr.
Needham had some remarkable gifts as a speaker and a public man, and he
might have risen to a much higher position than he ever attained had it
not been that his principles were somewhat uncertain. In truth, Needham
never succeeded in getting sufficiently clear of the world to be quite
independent, and this misfortune hampered him greatly in his political
career.
{NOTABLE CANDIDATES}
One of the members from St. John County was William J. Ritchie, a lawyer
who had risen by his own efforts to a commanding position at the bar,
and who became chief-justice of Canada. Mr. Ritchie had been a member of
the House of Assembly for several years, and always a useful one. He
possessed what few members at that time had,--a clear knowledge of the
true principles of responsible government. He had an eminently practical
mind; he was a forcible and impressive speaker, and he was bold in the
enunciation of the Liberal principles to which he held. It was a serious
misfortune to the province that at a comparatively early age he was
transferred to the bench, so that his great abilities were lost at a
critical period when they might have been useful to New Brunswick in
many ways.
John H. Gray, a new member, also sat in this House for the county of St.
John. Mr. Gray was a man of fine presence, handsome appearance, and had
a style of oratory that was very captivating and impressive. His
fluency, however, was greater than his ability, and he injured himself
by deserting the Liberal party, which he had been elected to uphold.
Gray never quite recovered from the unpopularity connected with this
action, and he never became in any sense a real leader. The party he had
deserted soon obtained the control of the province, and his final
appearance in the legislature was as a supporter of Mr. Tilley, content
to play a secondary part during the great confederation conflict.
Robert Duncan Wilmot, another of the St. John County members, a first
cousin of L. A. Wilmot, was not new to the legislature, and his mind
being naturally conservative, it is in connection with the Conservative
party that he is best known in the history of the province. He was
elected as a Liberal, however, in 1850, but seems to have forgotten that
fact as soon as he reached the House of Assembly. This was not the only
occasion on which Wilmot contrived to change his principles, for he
performed a similar feat during the confederation contest, and left the
anti-confederate government of 1865 in the lurch at a moment when its
existence almost depended on his fidelity. Wilmot never was an eloquent
man, and he entertained some highly visionary views in regard to an
irredeemable paper currency, but he was a useful public servant, and he
afterwards became a member of the government of Canada and eventually
lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick.
{JOHN R. PARTELOW}
The Hon. John R. Partelow, who was defeated in St. John but elected for
Victoria, was a man who might have acquired a great political reputation
had the stage on which he appeared been a larger one. Partelow's
qualifications for high public position did not depend upon his oratory,
which was not of a high order, but upon his moderation and good sense.
Partelow's origin was humble, and his early days were spent as a clerk
in a store on the North Wharf, St. John. In that subordinate position he
made himself so useful and displayed so much ability that he was marked
for promotion. The idea of bringing him forward as a candidate for the
city of St. John seems to have originated with his employers, but when
he gained a seat in the legislature he speedily made his influence felt.
Partelow spoke but seldom, but when he did address the legislature it
was generally with good effect, and after the subject had been to a
large extent exhausted by previous speakers. He then had a faculty of
drafting a resolution which seemed to express the general sense of all,
and which was usually accepted as a solution of the matter. He was a
good business man, understood accounts thoroughly and, therefore, had a
great advantage in legislative work over those who were not so well
equipped in this respect. New Brunswick may have produced greater men
than he in public life, but none whose talents were more useful to the
province, or better fitted to serve its interests at a critical period
in its constitutional history.