LAST YEARS OF THE UNION
In 1860, Mr. Brown contemplated retiring from the leadership of the
party. In a letter to Mr. Mowat, he said that the enemies of reform
were playing the game of exciting personal hostility against himself,
and reviving feelings inspired by the fierce contests of the past. It
might be well to appoint a leader who would arouse less personal
hostility. A few months later he had a long and severe illness, which
prevented him from taking his place in the legislature during the
session of 1861 and from displaying his usual activity in the general
election of the summer of that year. He did, however, accept the hard
task of contesting East Toronto, where he was defeated by Mr. John
Crawford by a majority of one hundred and ninety-one. Mr. Brown then
announced that the defeat had opened up the way for his retirement
without dishonour, and that he would not seek re-election. Some public
advantages, he said, might flow from that decision. Those whose
interest it was that misgovernment should continue, would no longer be
able to make a scapegoat of George Brown. Admitting that he had used
strong language in denouncing French domination, he justified his
course as the only remedy for the evil. In 1852 he could hardly find
a seconder for his motion in favour of representation by population;
in the election just closed, he claimed fifty-three members from Upper
Canada, elected to stand or fall by that measure. He had fought a ten
years' battle without faltering. He advocated opposition to any
ministry of either party that would refuse to settle the question.
The Conservative government was defeated, in the session following the
election, on a militia bill providing for the maintenance of a force
of fifty thousand men at a cost of about one million dollars. The
American Civil War was in progress; the _Trent_ affair had assumed a
threatening appearance and it was deemed necessary to place the
province in a state of defence. The bill was defeated by the defection
of some French-Canadian supporters of the government. The event caused
much disappointment in England; and from this time forth, continual
pressure from that quarter in regard to defence was one of the forces
tending towards confederation.
John Sandfield Macdonald, who was somewhat unexpectedly called upon to
form a ministry, was an enthusiastic advocate of the "double
majority," by which he believed the union could be virtually
federalized without formal constitutional change. Upper Canadian
ministers were to transact Upper Canadian business, and so with Lower
Canada, the administration, as a whole, managing affairs of common
interest. Local legislation was not to be forced on either province
against the wish of the representatives. The administration for each
section should possess the confidence of a majority of representatives
from that section.
Brown strongly opposed the "double majority" plan, which he regarded
as a mere makeshift for reform in the representation, and he was in
some doubt whether he should support or oppose the Liberal ministers
who offered for re-election. He finally decided, after consultation
with his brother Gordon, "to permit them to go in unopposed, and hold
them up to the mark under the stimulus of bit and spur."
In July 1862, Mr. Brown sailed for Great Britain, and in September he
wrote Mr. Holton that he had had a most satisfactory interview with
the Duke of Newcastle at the latter's request. They seem to have
talked freely about Canadian politics. "His scruples about
representation are entirely gone. It would have done even Sandfield
[Macdonald] good to hear his ideas on the absurdity of the 'double
majority.' Whatever small politicians and the London _Times_ may say,
you may depend upon this, that the government and the leaders of the
Opposition perfectly understand our position, and have no thought of
changing the relations between Canada and the mother country. On the
contrary, the members of the government, with the exception of
Gladstone, are set upon the Intercolonial Railway and a grand transit
route across the continent." He remarked upon the bitterness of the
British feeling against the United States, and said that he was
perplexed by the course of the London _Times_ in pandering to the
passions of the people.
The most important event of his visit to Scotland was yet to come. On
November 27th he married Miss Anne Nelson, daughter of the well-known
publisher, Thomas Nelson--a marriage which was the beginning of a most
happy domestic life of eighteen years. This lady survived him until
May, 1906. On his return to Canada with his bride, Mr. Brown was met
at Toronto station by several thousand friends. In reply to a
complimentary address, he said, "I have come back with strength
invigorated, with new, and I trust, enlarged views, and with the most
earnest desire to aid in advancing the prosperity and happiness of
Canada."
It has been seen that the Macdonald-Sicotte government had shelved the
question of representation by population and had committed itself to
the device of the "double majority." During Mr. Brown's absence
another movement, which he had strongly resisted, had been gaining
ground. In 1860, 1861, and 1862, Mr. R. W. Scott, of Ottawa, had
introduced legislation intended to strengthen the Roman Catholic
separate school system of Upper Canada. In 1863, he succeeded, by
accepting certain modifications, in obtaining the support of Dr.
Ryerson, superintendent of education. Another important advantage was
that his bill was adopted as a government measure by the Sandfield
Macdonald ministry. The bill became law in spite of the fact that it
was opposed by a majority of the representatives from Upper Canada.
This was in direct contravention of the "double majority" resolutions
adopted by the legislature at the instance of the government. The
premier had declared that there should be a truce to the agitation for
representation by population or for other constitutional changes. That
agitation had been based upon the complaint that legislation was being
forced upon Upper Canada by Lower Canadian votes. The "double
majority" resolutions had been proposed as a substitute for
constitutional change. In the case of the Separate School Bill they
were disregarded, and the premier was severely criticized for allowing
his favourite principle to be contravened.
Mr. Brown had been absent in the sessions of 1861 and 1862, and he did
not enter the House in 1863 until the Separate School Bill had passed
its second reading. In the _Globe_, however, it was assailed
vigorously, one ground being that the bill was not a finality, but
that the Roman Catholic Church would continually make new demands and
encroachments, until the public school system was destroyed. On this
question of finality there was much controversy. Dr. Ryerson always
insisted that there was an express agreement that it was to be final;
on the Roman Catholic side this is denied. At confederation Brown
accepted the Act of 1863 as a final settlement. He said that if he had
been present in 1863, he would have voted against the bill, because
it extended the facility for establishing separate schools. "It had,
however, this good feature, that it was accepted by the Roman Catholic
authorities, and carried through parliament as a final compromise of
the question in Upper Canada." He added: "I have not the slightest
hesitation in accepting it as a necessary condition of the union."
With confederation, therefore, we may regard Brown's opposition to
separate schools in Upper Canada as ended. In accepting the terms of
confederation, he accepted the Separate School Act of 1863, though
with the condition that it should be final, a condition repudiated on
the Roman Catholic side.
The Sandfield Macdonald government was weakened by this incident, and
it soon afterwards fell upon a general vote of want of confidence
moved by Mr. John A. Macdonald. Parliament was dissolved and an
election was held in the summer of 1863. The Macdonald-Dorion
government obtained a majority in Upper but not in Lower Canada, and
on the whole, its tenure of power was precarious in the extreme.
Finally, in March, 1864, it resigned without waiting for a vote of
want of confidence. Its successor, the Tache-Macdonald government, had
a life of only three months, and its death marks the birth of a new
era.