RISE OF BROWN'S INFLUENCE
The condition of parties in the legislature was peculiar. The most
formidable antagonist of the Reform government was the man who was
rapidly rising to the leadership of the Reform party. The old Tory
party was dead, and its leader, Sir Allan MacNab, was almost inactive.
Macdonald, who was to re-organize and lead the new Conservative party,
was playing a waiting game, taking advantage of Brown's tremendous
blows at the ministry, and for the time being satisfied with a less
prominent part in the conflict. Brown rapidly rose to a commanding
position in the assembly. He did this without any _finesse_ or skill
in the management of men, with scarcely any assistance, and almost
entirely by his own energy and force of conviction. His industry and
capacity for work were prodigious. He spoke frequently, and on a wide
range of subjects requiring careful study and mastery of facts. In the
divisions he obtained little support. He had antagonized the
French-Canadians, the Clear Grits of Upper Canada were for the time
determined to stand by the government, and his views were usually not
such as the Conservatives could endorse, although they occasionally
followed him in order to embarrass the government.
Brown's course in parliament, however, was pointing to a far more
important result than changes in the personnel of office-holders.
Hincks once told him that the logical conclusion of that course was
the dissolution of the union. There was a measure of truth in this. If
he had said dissolution or modification, he would have been absolutely
right. Between the ideas of Upper Canada and Lower Canada there was a
difference so great that a legislative union was foredoomed to
failure, and separation could be avoided only by a federation which
allowed each community to take its own way. Brown did not create these
difficulties, but he emphasized them, and so forced and hastened the
application of the remedy. Up to the time of his entering parliament,
his policy had related mainly to Upper Canada. In parliament, however,
a mass of legislation emanating from Lower Canada aroused his strong
opposition. In the main it was ecclesiastical legislation
incorporating Roman Catholic institutions, giving them power to hold
lands, to control education, and otherwise to strengthen the authority
of the Church over the people. It is not necessary to discuss these
measures in detail. The object is to arrive at Brown's point of view,
and it was this: That the seat of government was a Catholic city, and
that legislation and administration were largely controlled by the
French-Canadian priesthood. He complained that Upper Canada was
unfairly treated in regard to legislation and expenditure; that its
public opinion was disregarded, and that it was not fairly
represented. The question of representation steadily assumed more
importance in his mind, and he finally came to the conclusion that
representation by population was the true remedy for all the
grievances of which he complained. Lower Canada, being now numerically
the weaker, naturally clung to the system which gave it equality of
representation.
In all these matters the breach between George Brown and the Lower
Canadian representatives was widening, while he was becoming more and
more the voice of Upper Canadian opinion. When, in the intervals
between parliamentary sessions, he visited various places in Upper
Canada, he found himself the most popular man in the community. He
addressed great public meetings. Banquets were given in his honour.
The prominent part taken by ministers of the Gospel at these
gatherings illustrates at once the weakness and the strength of his
position. He satisfied the "Nonconformist conscience" of Upper Canada
by his advocacy not only of religious equality but of the prohibition
of the liquor traffic and of the cessation of Sunday labour by public
servants. But this very attitude made it difficult for him to work
with any political party in Lower Canada.
In 1853 there was a remarkable article in the Cobourg _Star_, a
Conservative journal, illustrating the hold which Brown had obtained
upon Upper Canadian sentiment. This attitude was called forth by a
banquet given to Brown by the Reformers of the neighbourhood. It
expressed regret that the honour was given on party grounds. "Had it
been given on the ground of his services to Protestantism, it would
have brought out every Orangeman in the country. Conservatives
disagreed with Brown about the clergy reserves, but if the reserves
must be secularized, every Conservative in Canada would join Brown in
his crusade against Roman Catholic endowments." Then follows this
estimate of Brown's character: "In George Brown we see no agitator or
demagogue, but the strivings of common sense, a sober will to attain
the useful, the practical and the needful. He has patient courage,
stubborn endurance, and obstinate resistance, and desperate daring in
attacking what he believes to be wrong and in defending what he
believes to be right. There is no cant or parade or tinsel or
clap-trap about him. He takes his stand against open, palpable,
tangible wrongs, against the tyranny which violates men's roofs, and
the intolerance which vexes their consciences. True, he is wrong on
the reserves question, but then he is honest, we know where to find
him. He does not, like some of our Reformers, give us to understand
that he will support us and then turn his back. He does not slip the
word of promise to the ear and then break it to the lips. Leaving the
reserves out of the question, George Brown is eminently conservative
in his spirit. His leading principle, as all his writings will show,
is to reconcile progress with preservation, change with stability, the
alteration of incidents with the maintenance of essentials. Change,
for the sake of change, agitation for vanity, for applause or
mischief, he has contemptuously repudiated. He is not like the Clear
Grit, a republican of the first water, but on the contrary looks to
the connection with the mother country, not as fable or unreality or
fleeting vision, but as alike our interest and our duty, as that which
should ever be our beacon, our guide and our goal."
In 1853 the relative strength of Brown and the ministers was tested in
a series of demonstrations held throughout Canada. The Hon. James
Young gives a vivid description of Brown as he appeared at a banquet
given in his honour at Galt: "He was a striking figure. Standing fully
six feet two inches high, with a well-proportioned body, well balanced
head and handsome face, his appearance not only indicated much mental
and physical strength, but conveyed in a marked manner an impression
of youthfulness and candour. These impressions deepened as his address
proceeded, and his features grew animated and were lighted up by his
fine expressive eyes." His voice was strong and soft, with a
well-marked Edinburgh accent. His appearance surprised the people who
had expected to see an older and sterner-looking man. His first
remarks were disappointing; as was usual with him he stammered and
hesitated until he warmed to his subject, when he spoke with such an
array of facts and figures, such earnestness and enthusiasm, that he
easily held the audience for three hours.[8]
On October 1st, 1853, the _Globe_ was first issued as a daily. It was
then stated that the paper was first published as a weekly paper with
a circulation of three hundred. On November 1st, 1846, it was
published twice a week with a circulation of two thousand, which rose
to a figure between three thousand and four thousand. In July, 1849,
it was issued three times a week. When the daily paper was first
published the circulation was six thousand. To anticipate a little, it
may be said that in 1855 the _Globe_ absorbed the _North American_ and
the _Examiner_, and the combined circulation was said to be sixteen
thousand four hundred and thirty-six. The first daily paper contained
a declaration of principles, including the entire separation of Church
and State, the abolition of the clergy reserves and the restoration of
the lands to the public, cessation of grants of public money for
sectarian purposes, the abolition of tithes and other compulsory
taxation for ecclesiastical purposes, and restraint on land-holding by
ecclesiastical corporations.
An extract from this statement of policy may be given:
"Representation by population. Justice for Upper Canada! While Upper
Canada has a larger population by one hundred and fifty thousand than
Lower Canada, and contributes more than double the amount of taxation
to the general revenue, Lower Canada has an equal number of
representatives in parliament.
"National education.--Common school, grammar school, and collegiate
free from sectarianism and open to all on equal terms. Earnest war
will be waged with the separate school system, which has unfortunately
obtained a footing.
"A prohibitory liquor law.--Any measure which will alleviate the
frightful evils of intemperance."
The inclusion of prohibition on this platform was the natural result
of the drinking habits of that day. In a pamphlet issued by the Canada
Company for the information of intending immigrants, whiskey was
described as "a cheap and wholesome beverage." Its cheapness and
abundance caused it to be used in somewhat the same way as the "small
beer" of England, and it was a common practice to order a jug from the
grocer along with the food supply of the family. When a motion
favouring prohibition was introduced in the Canadian parliament there
were frequent references to the convivial habits of the members. The
seconder of the motion was greeted with loud laughter. He
good-naturedly said that he was well aware of the cause of hilarity,
but that he was ready to sacrifice his pleasure to the general good.
Sir Allan MacNab, the leader of the Opposition, moved a farcical
amendment, under which every member was to sign a pledge of
abstinence, and to be disqualified if he broke it. Brown made an
earnest speech in favour of the motion, in which he remarked that
Canada then contained nine hundred and thirty-one whiskey shops,
fifty-eight steamboat bars, three thousand four hundred and thirty
taverns, one hundred and thirty breweries, and one hundred and
thirty-five distilleries.
The marked diminution of intemperance in the last fifty years may be
attributed in part to restrictive laws, and in part to the work of the
temperance societies, which rivalled the taverns in social
attractions, and were effective agents of moral suasion.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Young, _op. cit._, pp. 58, 59.