RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
In England, as well as in Canada, events were moving towards
self-government. With the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1840 disappeared
the preference to Canadian wheat. "Destroy this principle of
protection," said Lord Stanley in the House of Lords, "and you destroy
the whole basis upon which your colonial system rests." Loud
complaints came from Canada, and in a despatch from Earl Cathcart to
the colonial secretary, it was represented that the Canadian waterways
had been improved on the strength of the report made to Great Britain,
and that the disappointment and loss resulting from the abolition of
the preference would lead to alienation from the mother country and
"annexation to our rival and enemy, the United States." Gladstone, in
his reply, denied that the basis of imperial unity was protection,
"the exchange, not of benefits, but of burdens;" the true basis lay in
common feelings, traditions and hopes. The _Globe_ held that Canada
had no right to complain if the people of the United Kingdom did what
was best for themselves. England, as an exporter of manufactures, had
to meet competition at the world's prices, and must have cheap food
supplies. Canada had surely a higher destiny than to export a few
hundred bushels of wheat and flour to England. Canadian home
manufactures must be encouraged, and efforts made to obtain free trade
with the United States. "The Tory press," said the _Globe_, "are out
in full cry against free trade. Their conduct affords an illustration
of the unmitigated selfishness of Toryism. Give them everything they
can desire and they are brimful of loyalty. They will shout paeans till
they are sick, and drink goblets till they are blind in favour of
'wise and benevolent governors' who will give them all the offices and
all the emoluments. But let their interests, real or imaginary, be
affected, and how soon does their loyalty evaporate! Nothing is now
talked of but separation from the mother country, unless the mother
continues feeding them in the mode prescribed by the child."
Some time afterwards, Lord Elgin, in his communications to the home
government, said that the Canadian millers and shippers had a
substantial grievance, not in the introduction of free trade, but in
the constant tinkering incident to the abandoned system of imperial
protection. The preference given in 1843 to Canadian wheat and to
flour, even when made of American wheat, had stimulated milling in
Canada; but almost before the newly-built mills were fairly at work,
the free trade measure of 1846 swept the advantage away. What was
wrong was not free trade, but Canadian dependence on imperial tariff
legislation.
Elgin was one of the few statesmen of his day who perceived that the
colonies might enjoy commercial independence and political equality,
without separation. He declared that imperial unity did not depend on
the exercise of dominion, the dispensing of patronage, or the
maintenance of an imperial hot-bed for forcing commerce and
manufactures. Yet he conceived of an empire not confined to the
British Islands, but growing, expanding, "strengthening itself from
age to age, and drawing new supplies of vitality from virgin soils."
With Elgin's administration began the new era of self-government. The
legislature was dissolved towards the close of the year 1847, and the
election resulted in a complete victory for the Reformers. In Upper
Canada the contest was fairly close, but in Lower Canada the
Conservative forces were almost annihilated, and on the first vote in
parliament the government was defeated by a large majority. The second
Baldwin-Lafontaine government received the full confidence and loyal
support of the governor, and by its conduct and achievements justified
the reform that had been so long delayed, and adopted with so many
misgivings. But the fight for responsible government was not yet
finished. The cry of French and rebel domination was raised, as it had
been raised in the days of Governor Bagot. A Toronto journal
reproachfully referred to Lord Elgin's descent from "the Bruce," and
asked how a man of royal ancestry could so degrade himself as to
consort with rebels and political jobbers. "Surely the curse of
Minerva, uttered by a great poet against the father, clings to the
son." The removal of the old office-holders seemed to this writer to
be an act of desecration not unlike the removal of the famous marbles
from the Parthenon. In a despatch explaining his course on the
Rebellion Losses Bill, Lord Elgin said that long before that
legislation there were evidences of the temper which finally produced
the explosion. He quoted the following passage from a newspaper: "When
French tyranny becomes insupportable, we shall find our Cromwell.
Sheffield in olden times used to be famous for its keen and
well-tempered whittles. Well, they make bayonets there now, just as
sharp and just as well-tempered. When we can stand tyranny no longer,
it will be seen whether good bayonets in Saxon hands will not be more
than a match for a mace and a majority." All the fuel for a
conflagration was ready. There was race hatred, there was party
hostility, there was commercial depression and there was a sincere,
though exaggerated, loyalty, which regarded rebellion as the
unforgivable sin, and which was in constant dread of the spread of
radical, republican and democratic ideas.
The Rebellion Losses Bill was all that was needed to fan the embers
into flame. This was a measure intended to compensate persons who had
suffered losses during the rebellion in Lower Canada. It was attacked
as a measure for "rewarding rebels." Lord Elgin afterwards said that
he did not believe a rebel would receive a farthing. But even if we
suppose that some rebels or rebel sympathizers were included in the
list, the outcry against the bill was unreasonable. A general amnesty
had been proclaimed; French-Canadians had been admitted to a full
share of political power. The greater things having been granted, it
was mere pedantry to haggle about the less, and to hold an elaborate
inquiry into the principles of every man whose barns had been burned
during the rebellion. When responsible government was conceded, it was
admitted that even the rebels had not been wholly wrong. It would have
been straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel to say "we will give
you these free institutions for the sake of which you rebelled, but we
will not pay you the small sum of money necessary to recompense you
for losses arising out of the rebellion."
However, it is easier to discuss these matters coolly in 1906 than it
was in 1849, and in 1849 the notion of "rewarding the rebels" produced
another rebellion on a small scale. A large quantity of important
legislation was brought down by the new government when it met the
legislature early in 1849, but everything else was forgotten when Mr.
Lafontaine introduced the resolution on which the Rebellion Losses
Bill was founded. In various parts of Upper Canada meetings were held
and protests made against the measure. In Toronto the protests took
the form of mob violence, foreshadowing what was to come in Montreal.
Effigies of Baldwin and Blake were carried through the streets and
burned. William Lyon Mackenzie had lately returned to Canada, and was
living at the house of a citizen named Mackintosh. The mob went to the
house, threatened to pull it down, and burned an effigy of Mackenzie.
The windows of the house were broken and stones and bricks thrown in.
The _Globe_ office was apparently not molested, but about midnight the
mob went to the dwelling-house of the Browns, battered at the door and
broke some windows. The _Globe_ in this trying time stood staunchly by
the government and Lord Elgin, and powerfully influenced the public
opinion of Upper Canada in their favour. Addresses calling for the
withdrawal of Lord Elgin were met by addresses supporting his action,
and the signatures to the friendly addresses outnumbered the other by
one hundred and twenty thousand. George Brown, Col. C. T. Baldwin, and
W. P. Howland were deputed to present an address from the Reformers of
Upper Canada. Sir William Howland has said that Lord Elgin was so much
affected that he shed tears.
This is not the place, however great the temptation may be, to
describe the stirring scenes that were enacted in Montreal; the stormy
debate, the fiery speech in which William Hume Blake hurled back at
the Tories the charge of disloyalty; the tumult in the galleries, the
burning of the parliament buildings, and the mobbing and stoning of
the governor-general.
Lord Elgin's bearing under this severe trial was admirable. He was
most desirous that blood should not be shed, and for this reason
avoided the use of troops or the proclamation of martial law; and he
had the satisfaction of seeing the storm gradually subside. A less
dangerous evidence of discontent was a manifesto signed by leading
citizens of Montreal advocating annexation to the United States, not
only to relieve commercial depression, but "to settle the race
question forever, by bringing to bear on the French-Canadians the
powerful assimilating forces of the republic." The signers of this
document were leniently dealt with; but those among them who
afterwards took a prominent part in politics, were not permitted to
forget their error. Elgin was of opinion that there was ground for
discontent on commercial grounds, and he advocated the removal of
imperial restriction on navigation, and the establishment of
reciprocity between the United States and the British North American
provinces. The annexation movement was confined chiefly to Montreal.
In Upper Canada an association called the British American League was
formed, and a convention held at Kingston in 1849. The familiar topics
of commercial depression and French domination were discussed; some
violent language was used, but the remedies proposed were sane
enough; they were protection, retrenchment, and the union of the
British provinces. Union, it was said, would put an end to French
domination, and would give Canada better access to the sea and
increased commerce. The British American League figures in the old,
and not very profitable, controversy as to the share of credit to be
allotted to each political party for the work of confederation. It is
part of the Conservative case. But the platform was abandoned for the
time, and confederation remained in the realm of speculation rather
than of action.