FREE

223 The Last Fôrty Years.

changes—rumours which were fully verified before the close of the year—and the opening of the session of 1851 was looked forward to with an unusual degree of interest,

À bye-election of some importance took place during the spring. By the death of Mr. David Thompson, member for Haldimand, in the month of February, that constituency was left without a representative in the Assembly, and within a month thereafter no fewer than five candidates appeared in the field as aspirants to the vacant seat. One only—Mr. Ranaid McKinnon, of Caledonia—came out in the Conservative interest. The four Reform candidates were William Lyon Mackenzie, George Brown of the Toronto Globe, Jacob Turner and Horace Case. The campaign was conducted with extraordinary vigour by all the candidates, but it soon became evident that the contest would really lie between Mr. Mackenzie and Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown has already been introduced to the reader with suffcient particularity.* As to Mr. Mackenzie, circumstances had combined to give him a notoriety and importance somewhat more than commensurate with his intellectual endowments, which, however, were considerably above the average. His life had been an eventful one. He was born at Dundee, Forfarshire, Scotland, in 1795. Affliction seemed to be enamoured of his parts from his earliest infancy, for before he was a month old the death of his father left him to the sole charge of a widowed mother in very straitened cireumstances. How he grew up from infancy to boyhood, and from boyhood to mature age, it boots not to tell in detail. He was brought into frequent contact with the woes of poverty. From his mother he inherited a high degree of mental energy and impulsiveness, which unfortunately, in his case, were not accompanied by anything like an equal share of prudence and judgment. Notwithstanding the disadvantages under which he laboured, he contrived

* Ante, Vol. I., pp. 362-367.

The End of the Great Ministry. 223

to acquire what for one in his rank might be considered a good common education, which was improved in after life by much reading and study. He was for a short time a draper’s apprentice, and was afterwards a clerk to a wood-merchant in Dundee. Having reached the age of nineteen, he embarked in a small mercantile business on his own account; but the venture proved unsuccessful, and was abandoned. After a sojourn in England, he in 1820 crossed the Atlantic and made his way to Upper Canada. He for a short time found employment in connection with the survey of the Lachine Canal, but soon afterwards embarked in business, first at York, and afterwards at Dundas, where :2 married, and achieved a fair share of commercial prosperity. His restless disposition, however, impelled him to constant change. In 1823 he removed to Queenston, and opened a general store. In 1824 he founded a newspaper called The Colonial Advocate at Queenston, and thenceforward became in some sort a public character. Up to this time he had troubled himself very little about politics ; but as he never went into any enterprise in à half-hearted way, he now threw himself into this new pursuit with the aggressive energy characteristic of him. As a journalist he adopted the rôle of a public censor, and in the year 1824 there was no lack of suojects for legitimate animadversion in Upper Canada. He was a man of decidedly liberal convictions, and could not shut his eyes to the fact that many things in the body politic needed reforming. He assailed the Family Compact and their doings far more openly and mercilessly than Robert Gourlay had ever ventured to do. He was master of a direct and not ineffective Literary style, and his paper obtained what in those days was considered a large cireulation. Its fiery denunciations soon began to produce a visible effect upon the publie mind. After publishing it at Queenston about six months, Mr. Mackenzie removed to York, where he carried on his enterprise with undiminished vigour. The oligarchy were fiercely

224 The Last Forty Years.

lashed, and the selfish greed of some of the officials was from time to time held up to public execration. A democratic atmosphere began to blow over the Province from end to end, and questions began to be asked which the shrewdest of the oligarchs found it exceedingly difficult to answer. Mr. Mackenzie doubtless fought the battle of Reform in those days with entire honesty of purpose, but the rôle he had assigned to himself was à most harassing one, and his aggressive, irritable temper did not tend to make it easier. He lacked discretion, and seldom calculated consequences beforehand. Never was there a man less fitted for the trade of a diplomatist. His mode of writing about persons in authority was always unconciliatory, and frequently abusive ; and he contrived to make himself the object of a hatred and contempt almost ferocious on the part of the faction which he assailed. Thus matters went on for some time. In June, 1826, his printing office was broken into by “a genteel mob,” as it has been called, which was chiefly made up of persons more or less closely connected with the dominant faction in York. The office was wrecked, the face of the type was battered, and a portion of it thrown into the bay. The rioters were promptly proceeded against by Mr. Mackenzie, civillÿy as well as criminally. He received a considerable sum by way of damages, and before the close of the year the Advocate was again in full swing. The pressriot and the subsequent proceedings were the means of bringing his name very prominently before the public. A great deal of sympathy was felt and expressed for him as a sincere and zealous upholder of popular rights, It was said, and with truth, that he had brought down upon his head the odium of the Compact by manfully speaking up for the people. A decided impetus was given to his fortunes, and in 1828 the county of York returned him as one of its representatives in the Assembly. The oligarchy, which had long contemplated his increasing influence with anxiety, were moved to profound disgust by his elevation to legislative honours,

pisse ik es dl iii:

The End of the Great Ministry. 225

They at that time commanded a majority in the Assembly, and a series of persecutions were set on foot against him with a view to keeping him out of the House. Parliamentary proceedings were instituted against him for breach of privilege, for having at various times, and without authority, published in his newspaper more or less voluminous reports of the doings in the Legislature. An obsolete rule of the House of Assembly sustained the letter of the prosecution, and Mr. Mackenzie was expelled. The electors of the county of York testified their disapproval of the expulsion by reélecting him. The same proceedings were gone through again, and were followed by a second expulsion. His constituency still stood faithful, and again reëlected him. Thus was the farce kept up for several years, until Mr. Mackenzie had been elected and expelled five times. His popularity increased with every expulsion, for his cause was now identified in the publie mind with that of the freedom of the press. It was evident to all that he was subjected to malignant persecution for no other reason than because he had exposed the shortcomings of persons in high places, and, in the language of that day, had refused to bow the l:nee to Baal. There was no pretence that in his capacity of a member of the Legislature he had done anything worthy of censure, The Assembly at last recognized the fact that it was useless to resort to further expulsions, for his constituency was evidently prepared to continue to return him to the end of the chapter. The only means whereby he could be kept out of the House was by refraining from issuing another writ for an election, and this arbitrary course was resorted to. The county of York was thus left with only one representative in the Assembly during a period of about three years. In 1832 Mr. Mackenzie repaired to England with the famous Petition of Grievances, He remained there more than a year, during which he was frequently received at the Colonial Oflice, where his representations on Canadian affairs were listened to with respect, and in several

Le AG RL

to 2 —

226 The Last Forty Years.

instances acted upon. Soon after his return to Canada the town of York became the city of Toronto, and he was elected the first mayor. At the general election of 1834 he was returned to the Assembly for the Second Riding of York, and was enabled to take his seat in spite of the machinations of his foes. In 183 Sir Francis Bond Head, the Lieutenant-Governor, dissolved Parliament, and a new election was held. The Executive resorted to most improper means to prevent the return of persons obnoxious to them, among whom Mr. Mackenzie occupied the foremost place. He was beaten, and felt that he had not been beaten fairly. Up to this time, though he had always been a cantankerous and somewhat impracticable man, there had never been any grounds for impugning his loyalty. The machinations employed against him, however, had thoroughly dissusted him. No need to tell the story of the rebellion here. Mr. Mackenzie’s share in it has already been referred to,* as have also his long exile, his struggles to obtain a livelihood for himself and his family, and his subsequent return to Canada, after the passing of the Amnesty Act of 1849. In 1837, and for years after, he had been an ardent republican. A long and close contemplation of United States polity had abated his ardour, and he had become, if not a zealous monarchist, at any rate an advocate of British institutions in preference to those of the land wherein his exile had been passed. At the period at which the narrative has now arrived he was fifty-six years of age. The storms that had passed over his head had left their impress upon him, by deepening the lines of his countenance and his character, He was conscious of misdirected energies, and serious errors of judgment., He was still, however, before all other things, an agitator, He retained much of the superabundant energy by which he had always been characterized, and was as ready to do battle for a chimera as for a well-settled conviction.

* Ante, Vol. I., p. 313. +Ante, pp. 137, 138,

2 ES art di © 5 ch © in | Là

The End of the Great Ministry. 227

Such was the man who presented himself to the electors of Haldimand as Mr. Brown’s most formidable opponent. The election came off during the third week in April. Mr. Brown offered himself as a member of the Reform party, differing in opinion on some points from the existing Government, but regarding that Government as by far the best that the country had ever had, and better than any other which could then be formed. He professed his determination to give them a general support. Mr. Mackenzie, on the other hand, offered himself as an independent candidate opposed to the Ministry. The key-note of his election cry was : “Beware of Mr. Brown, the advocate of high salaries and pensions, and the apologist of the Court of Chancery, bound hand and foot to a political party !” Such ebullitions as this would probably have done Mr. Brown little or no harm; but the latter gentleman’s defeat was a foregone conclusion from the beginning of the contest. There were reasons which made Mr, Brown an unpopular candidate at that time in a constituency which, like that of Haldimand, contained a large Roman Catholic population. The Pope’s bull creating a Papal hierarchy in Great Britain had been followed, towards the close of 1850, by the appointment of Cardinal Wiseman as Archbishop of Westminster, English Protestants regarded the action of the Vatican as presumptuous and aggressive, Coming, as it did, in the wake of the Tractarian excitement, it aroused an indignant anti-popery feeling in England such as had not been exhibited there for more than a hundred years. This feeling was vividly reflected among the Protestant population of Canada. Mr. Brown had been bred a Presbyterian, and he entertained the “No Popery” sentiments common among the adherents of that faith. On the 19th of December, 1830, he published in the Globe a copy of Cardinal Wiseman's famous manifesto, accompanied by a long and trenchant article written from a strictly Protestant point of view. The alarm having thus been sounded, the subject was taken up by the press of the country,

228 The Last Forty Years.

Catholic and Protestant, and an amount of irritation was expended altogether disproportionate to the occasion. Mr. Brown returned to the subject in the Globe again and again, and his cue was followed by a considerable section of the Protestant press of the Province. In this way he came to be regarded by the Roman Catholic population as the especial champion of Protestantism in Canada, and as the bitter opponent of their own most cherished doctrines. This potoriety was made the most of by his opponents in Haldimand, and was doubtless the chief cause of his defeat, Mr. Mackenzie was returned at the head of the poll, and for seven years thereafter sat in the Assembly for the constituency.

During the early months of 1851 various rumours were from time to time heard to the effect that a successor to Lord Elsin had been appointed, and that his Excellency’s term of office as Governor of Canada was rapidly drawing to a close. Among the persons accredited as his successor were Lord Saltoun, Sir John Harvey and Sir Denis Le Marchant. In each case the rumour was easily attributable to a Tory source, and it may fairly be presumed that in each case the wish was father to the thought. As matter of fact, no such changes were in contemplation, and Lord Elgin’s position at the Colonial Office was practically impregnable, As the months passed by, it was noticeable that the hostility of the Tory press to the Government—a hostility which had become specially intense since the agitation consequent on the Rebellion Losses Bill —began to perceptibly abate. A similar tendency was noticeable in the personal relations between leading public men of opposite political convictions. For this there were various reasons. A lull may confidently be expected after a furious storm, and the storm of 1849 had been furious beyond precedent in Canadian annals since the days of the rebellion, The Tory party not only smarted under a sense of defeat, but felt conscious that their defeat had been rendered more crushing by their own imprudence. They had placed

The End of the Great Ministry. 229

themselves at a disadvantage with the Home Government, and had disgusted the more moderate of their own supporters in the Province. There were numerous defections from their ranks, and as a party they were much disorganized. Their fury had largely spent itself, and its consequences had recoiled upon them. They had become alive to the fact that public opinion would not sustain them in waging war à l’outrance on questions of minor importance. Such would appear to have been the factors which dictated the Tory policy of the year 1851. As has been seen, the Reform party was also disorganized. The Clear Grits had become more pronounced in their opposition to the Government than were the Tories themselves. Mr. Brown was the leader of a small following opposed both to the Tories and the Clear Grits, and supported the Government in a very lukewarm and independent fashion. Under such auspices the fourth and last session of the Third Parliament met at Toronto on the 20th of May.

Mr. Mackenzie's reappearance in the Canadian Parliamentary arena was an event in its way, and was referred to in England as evidence of the short memories of Canadians.* Another new member who deserves special mention was M. Luc Letellier, known to us in comparatively recent days as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec. He was then thirty-one years of age ; a notary by profession, and a Liberal in politics. He took his seat as member for Kamouraska, a constituency whereir the lines of party have from time immemorial been drawn with exceptional rigidity.

The opening Speech referred to the era of prosperity which had set in, and, as usual, suggested the nature of some of the most important measures contemplated by the Government. The most noticeable feature of the early days of the session was the adoption by the Assembly, at a single sitting, and by a unanimous vote, of the Aûdress in leply. Sir Allan MacNab prepared certain amendments

* See Colonial Gazette for July, 1851.

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BEA PERTE TE

23 The Last Forty Years.

relating to the Clergy Reserves and the proposed increase in the Parliamentary representation ; but he contented himself with merely placing these amendments on the table, without moving them. The proximity of a general election, and the desire to avoid positively committing themselves on the burning questions of the time, may have had some influence in inducing the Tories to consent to the peaceful adoption of the Address; but as the session advanced it became more and more evident that party animosities had been to a great extent laid aside by the Tories, and that there was comparatively little disposition to take up the time of the House merely for the purpose of embarrassing the Government. The only strong opposition which the Government were called upon to encounter emanated from William Lyon Mackenzie and the Clear Grits; but this opposition, as will presently be seen, was destined te ÿroduce important consequences.

The railway legislation of the session was of primary importance. The great activity in railway construction displayed in the neighbouring republic had begun to be distinctly refiected in this Province. Railway activity, indeed, had become a Provincial necessity. In former years it had been believed that the completion of the canal system would secure for Canada a large share of the trade of the Western States. Such a belief had been a reasonable deduction from the facts ; but the advent of the railway era wrought a complete revolution in the aspect of affairs The construction of American railways bade fair to divert, not only the carrying-trade of the Western States, but even that of Western Canada, to American lines. Such a diversion could only be prevented by the construction of Canadian railways. ‘“ Unless Canada could combine with her unrivalled inland navigation a railroad system connected therewith, and mutually sustaining each other, the whole of her large outlay must forever remain unproductive.” *

* “Canada : 1849 to 1859,” by the Hon, A, T, Galt; p. 25.

RSS RTE ces “inst SI

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Such were the facts which stared Canadian statesmen in the face at the period under consideration, and they were facts which did not admit of dispute. The raïlway epoch had reached its practical stage, and some of the leading capitalists were busying themselves in maturing important enterprises for the development of the country. The Government, ever since their accession to power, had been compelled to bestow much attention upon the subject. It was during this session that Mr. Hincks’s Act to make provision for the construction of a main trunk line from Quebec to the Western confines of the Province was passed. In undertaking such a gicantic enterprise it was not intended that Canada should depend entirely upon her own resources. Parliament contemplated offering such inducements as might attract the attention of capitalists, and levislation was framed with that end in view. Aid was also expected from the Home Government, in the shape of a guaranteed loan. Such aid had been promised to Nova Scotia for the construction of a military line between Halifax and Quebec; and it was now hoped that the scheme might be extended so as to apply to the line westward. In the event of this hope proving fallacious, the Province contemplated building the line on her own credit, with the assistance of the municipalities most directly interested in the enterprise, and of such private capitalists as might be induced t embark in it. In case of the Imperial guarantee being granted, the Governor was authorized to make arrangements with the Governments of Great Britain and the Maritime Provinces for the construction of the intercolonial road from Halifax to Quebec, and of the line thence westward to Hamilton. Authority was also conferred upon the Governor in Council to apply any or all ungranted lands, to the extent of ten miles on each side of the line, in furtherance of the work, which, it was confidently believed, would, when completed, give Canada a practical monopoly of the carrying-trade of the Great West. The Canadian reader scarcely needs to be

2 # ER ÿ ; !

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232 The Last Forty Years.

informed that out of these projects were developed the lines sub-

sequently known respectively as the Grand Trunk and Intercolonial.

The rest of the legislation of the session must be very briefly

disposed of, Acts were passed providing for the trial of Parlia-

L. mentary Election Petitions; for the introduction of the decimal system into the Provincial currency; and for taking a periodical census. À measure prepared and introduced by Mr. Hincks made important changes in the territorial divisions of Upper Canada, for judicial, municipal and other purposes. Mr. Baldwin introduced and carried through an Act whereby a great change was made in the law regulating the descent of real property in cases of intestacy in Upper Canada. It abolished the doctrine of primogeniture as \ applied to real estate, and enacted that the lands of an intestate held in fee simple or for the life of another should descend to all 4 his children equally ; females inheriting equally with males in the | same degree. An equitable division was also provided for in case of there being no children or other lineal descendants. The plan of ; descent and inheritance introduced by this Act is based on the Civil k Law, and bears a close analogy to the mode of succession to personal estate established under a statute passed in the reign of Charles II, and known as the Statute of Distributions. Mr. Lafontaine introduced for the third time his project for increasing the representation. PL : The vote upon it stood 55 to 18, so that it was, as in 1849,* defeated by only one vote—the required majority being two-thirds, or 56 out of 84. An Address to the Queen, proposed by Mr. Merritt, with a view to the IRC convocation of an assembly of Provincial delegates to consider the project of a general confederation of all the British North American Provinces, was supported by only seven votes. The subject of the Seigniorial tenure came before the House too late in the session to admit of any decisive legislative action being taken upon it. It had been referred to a select committee, with Mr. Drummond,

lu

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* Ante, p. 142, note,

The End of the Great Ministry. 233

Solicitor-General East, as chairman. The committee had not been able to make much progress. Their time had been occupied in attempts to define the rights of the seigniors, and the legislation outlined by them was objectionable to Mr. Lafontaine on the ground that it provided no real <ettlement of the question, and was in reality a measure of confiscation.* Legislative proceedings relative to the tenure were accorcingly once more postponed. The Clergy Reserve question was similarly dealt with. A despatch from Earl Grey, announcing that Her Majesty’s Government had been compelled to postpone to another session the introduction of a Bill authorizing the Canadian Legislature to deal with the matter, was communicated to the Assembly. That House passed an Address thankins Her Majesty for the gracious manner in which she had been pleased to receive the Address of the previous session; and there, for the time, the matter rested. An attempt was renewed by Mr. H. J, Boulton to bring about immediate Provincial legislation on the subject, but the reasons against the adoption of such a course were weightier than ever since the passing of the Address in 1850, whereby the question had been formally relegated to the hands of the Home Government. Mr. Boulton’s attempt was a signal failure, the vote upon his proposal standing 52 to 5. Certain reports unfavourable to the Ministry, however, began to get abroad. Mr. Brown had gradually been drifting farther and farther away from the Government. He was conscious of having merited ‘consideration at their hands by his services to them and to the Reform party, and he was dissatisfied because ministerial influence had not been actively exerted in his favour during his campaign in Haldimand, As matter of fact, the Government would have much preferred the election of Mr. Brown to that of Mr. Mackenzie, but the latter had been put forward by old and influential Reformers

* On this subject see ‘* The Seigniorial Question. Its Present Position,” By a Mem. ber of the Legislative Assembly from Upper Canada (Mr. Hincks) ; Quebec, 1854,

234 The Last Forty Years.

in the county, and the Ministry had not deemed it expedient to interfere. Mr. Brown now assumed an attitude of open hostility to them, and criticized some of their acts and omissions with considerable vehemence. The Clergy Reserves question was one upon which he felt very strongly. He was eager for secularization, and opposed to any farther delay. His crusade against what he regarded as Roman Catholic aggression had made him very much disliked by the French Canadians, nearly all of whom professed the Roman Catholic faith. He was ready enough to retort this dislike, and it displeased him to see the Upper Canadian members of the Ministry acting in concert with those from the Lower section of the Province on questions of a quasi-religious character: such, for instance, as grants to denominational institutions, and the establishment of sectarian schools and colleges. In these opinions he was not altogether singular, although his personal following at that time was small, as he had no sentiment in common with the Clear Grits except a desire to see the Clergy Reserves secularized at once. But his opinions were given to the public through the medium of the Globe, and thus obtained wide circulation; so that even in some quarters where they did not find entire acceptance, they were more or less prejudicial to the Government. It was well known that Messieurs Lafontaine, Cauchon, Chauveau, and indeed most of the prominent French Canadians were not anxious to see the views of the ultra-secularists carried out. They were in favour of the repeal of the Imperial Act, and of an equitable settlement by the Canadian Legislature, but they had voted against one of Mr. Prices resolutions which affirmed that “no religious denomination can be held to have such vested interests in the revenue derived from the proceeds of the said Clergy Reserves as should prevent further legislation with reference to the disposal of them.” The Globe now censured the Upper Canadian Ministers for assenting to the introduction of the Rebellion Losses Bill until

The End of the Great Ministry. 285

the French Canadian members had pledged themselves to support secularization. Here Mr. Brown's enthusiasm led him to indicate approval of a course which his own maturer judgment would doubtless have condemned. Such a proceeding as the one suggested by him would certainly not have commended itself to such men as Messieurs Lafontaine and Baldwin, and, as Sir Francis Hincks remarks, would have been justly characterized as log-rolling.* Mr. Brown’s patience, however, was exhausted. He had, moreover, begun to suspect Ministers of double-dealing, and he even went so far as to express a suspicion that Lord Grey had received a hint from the Provincial Cabinet that the latter were averse to prompt action in the matter of the Reserves. There does not seem to have been the slightest ground for such a suspicion.+ All the well-known facts point to the conclusion that Earl Grey's postponement was entirely voluntary ; that is to say, that it was wholly unconnected with any suggestion to that effect from the Provincial Government. His only objects appear to have been to ensure the success of the proposed Bill, and to avoid stirring up fruitless opposition to the Administration of which he was a member. The Imperial Government were weak, more especially in the Upper House, where, owing to the presence and influence of the bishops, the proposed Bill was certain to be a most unpopular measure. The Government, indeed, had actually been defeated and compelled to resign in the month of February, and had only been reinstated in consequence of the inability of both Lord Stanley and Lord Aberdeen to form a Ministry. Early in the following year (1852) the Government fell to pieces on the Local Militia Bill. Carrying on the business of the country under such difficulties as they encountered all through

* “The Political History of Canada,” etc., by the Hon. Sir Francis Hincks ; p. 59.

+ ‘Lord Elgin’s reputation stands, E think, sufficiently high to shield him from the imputation of such a trick; and Messieurs Lafontaine and Baldwin were not men to whom such practices were imputed by those most in opposition to them.”’—7b., p. 59.

Na

236 The Last Forty Years.

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the year 1851, it is not surprising that they should have postponed the introduction of a measure which would be certain to meet with strong opposition; a measure, moreover, of which they did not themselves approve, and which they only undertook to introduce from a sense of what was due to the colonial constitution.

The Provincial legislation of the session of 1851 consisted of 170 Acts. A measure which did not receive the sanction of a majority, and which therefore did not become law, now requires to be mentioned, because of its ulterior consequences, rather than from any special significance attaching to the measure itself, Reference has already been made to the Chancery Act of 1849, and to the reforms effected thereunder in the practice and management of the Court. That measure had been introduced and carried through under the auspices of Mr. Baldwin. It had been found to work well, and the Court of Chancery in Upper Canada had begun to be regarded as a court of equity in fact as well as in name. The Clear Grits, however, as has been seen, had made the abolition of the Court a plank in their platform, and William Lyon Mackenzie, who had practically allied himself with the Clear Grits (though he still called himself an Independent), now brought forward a motion in accordance with their views. His proposition was that the Court of Chancery should be done away with, and that an enlarged equitable jurisdiction should be conferred upon the Courts of Common Law. The motion came on towards the end of June. It was voted down, but it received the support of a majority of the Upper Canadian members of Parliament, many of whom belonged to the legal profession, and might be supposed to be specially capable of forming an intelligent opinion on such a question. Mr. Baldwin, who felt himself responsible for the Court of Chancery, as it then existed, took this vote very much to heart. The question was one affecting Upper Canada only, and: the motion was defeated by the votes of the French Canadian members, who had no interest in the matter, and who merely voted

The End of the Great Ministry. 237

upon it at the bidding of their leader, Mr. Lafontaine. Mr. Baldwin was no stickler for the double-majority principle, but he felt that this was an exceptional question. If the Upper Canadian lawyers wanted to be rid of the Court of Chancery he was not disposed to force it upon them by virtue of à French Canadian majority. He regarded the Upper Canadian vote as indicative of non-confidence in himself, and so deep was his mortification that he resigned office. His announcement of his resignation was received in the Assembly with universal expressions of regret. Several gentlemen who had voted for Mr. Mackenzie’s motion declared that they would not have done so had they supposed it would produce such a result. Sir Allan MacNab and other Tories referred feelingly to Mr. Baldwin's great services to the country; and by more than one he was asked to reconsider his determination. But he had fully made up his mind, and his decision was irrevocable. Mr. Hincks and the other Upper Canadian members of the Cabinet approved of Mr. Baldwin’s resignation, and signified their own willingness to follow the example. Mr. Baldwin, however, in the interests of the Reform party, requested them not to do so, and they for the time remained in office. Mr. Lafontaine passed à warm eulogy upon his retiring colleague, and announced that the latter would continue to act as Attorney- General until the appointment of his successor. Mr. Lafontaine also took the unusual step of announcing that he himself would retire from public life at or soon after the close of the session.

The session was brought to a close on the 31st of August. Within a month afterwards Lord Elgin and many other influential Canadians visited Boston, and took part in the railway jubilee held in celebration of the completing of several lines of communication. His Excellency made one of his characteristically apt and effective speeches on the occasion, and thereby produced a decided impression even upon an audience familiar with the polished periods of

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: 238 The Last Forty Years.

F : Edward Everett.* His Excellency's visit tended to place the

; good feeling which had been established between Great Britain and

the States on a stiil firmer basis ; and for a time Her Majesty, to quote 1 Lord Elgin himself, was “ as much cheered and lauded in New Engà land as in any part of Old England.”+ During the month of Octo-

ber Mr. Lafontaine carried out his resolution, and retired from office. His colleagues followed his example, and the Great Ministry was no more,

The Great Ministry. Yes; for everything in this world is relative, and when the work of the second Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry is f | fairly contrasted with that of other Canadian Ministries of its epoch, it must be acknowledged to have been great at least by comi parison. No Administration known to our history has ever effected fee. so much during an equal space of time. None has contained so

, £ É Li il many men whose abilities entitled them to rank among colonial

: statesmen, as contradistinguished from mere politicians. It in- F0 herited several cumbrous and most undesirable legacies, with k ; some of which it was imperatively called upon to deal, It É k os was consequently subjected to attacks which would have broken f in pieces any Government which was not strong in a moral on as well as in a political sense. Much of its legislation survives

to the present day, and is a fitting monument to the justice, rectitude and broad statesmanship of its members. There is no need to review in detail the various Acts which signalized its too brief reign ; the more important of them having already been enumerated L: and commented upon. The thorough reform of the municipal system, and of the election, education and assessment laws; the estab- NE lishment of the Provincial credit abroad; the obtaining of the ‘A Y control of the Provincial Post Office, and the establishment of cheap

ab:

L * Both Mr, Everett and Joseph Howe, of Halifax (the latter incomparably the gre: ter ‘1 natural orator of thetwo), were present at the celebration, and delivered eloquent ad tr: ases,

| 15 + Walrond, p. 162.

The End of the Great Ministry. 239

and uniform rates of postage; the reform and remodelling of the

courts of law in both sections of the Province ; the amendment of

the exclusive charter of King’s College, and the establishment of

the University of Toronto on a non-sectarian basis ; the granting of a general amnesty for the misdeeds of 1837-38; the abolition of

the doctrine of primogeniture in Upper Canada as applied to real estate; the inauguration of railway legislation—these are a few among the many achievements for which the thanks of posterity are due to the Great Ministry which directed Canadian affairs from March, 1848, to October, 1851. With respect to the Clergy Reserves and the Seigniorial Tenure, only the first steps had been taken, and it remained for a Coalition Government to carry out, three years later, the schemes which two Reform Administrations had spent much time and labour in bringing to maturity.

Mr. Lafontaine’s retirement was due to a combination 0? circumstances. He did not assign any definite grounds for his détermination, even to his colleagues, but his reasons a:e not difficult to arrive at. He was a man of refined and scholarly tastes, and had never been enthusiastically devoted to the ceaseless worry and turmoil of public life. His Parliamentary career had, notwithstanding, been a brilliant and useful one, and he now had it in his power to retire with a spotless record and an honoured name. He enjoyed the respect of the entire Province, and he felt that he could not count upon being able to withdraw under equally favourable circumstances at à future time. He saw that it would erelong be absolutely necessary for Parliament to deal with various questions as to which he was not fully in accord with public opinion. His respect for vested rights prevented him from sympathizing with the views

of extremists with regard to the Seigniorial Tenure and the Clergy Reserves. Though he was a man of large and liberal mind, he was firm and unyielding in his views, and he well knew that he was growing more Conservative year by year. He more: + felt that in the

240 The Last Forty Years.

event of his remaining in the Government he would seriously feel the

loss of Mr. Baldwin. Everything pointed to the same conclusion. His best policy was to retire while he was in the plenitude of his power, leaving it to other hands to gather the crop which he had helped to sow. Although, owing to his silence on the matter, the foregoing reasons cannot be set down as definitely-ascertained historical facts, yet their plausibility is such that they are at least worthy of being recorded as throwing light upon a passage in our history which is greatly misunderstood.

Mr. Lafontaine’s resignation produced as widespread a regret throughout his own section of the Province as that of Mr. Baldwin had produced in Upper Canada. He resumed, for a time, the active practice of his profession in Montreal. In the month of August, 1853, he was appointed to the high office of Chief Justice of Lower Canada, which had been left vacant by the death of Sir James Stuart. In 1854 he was created a Baronet, contemporaneously with the conferring of a similar honour upon the Chief Justice of Upper Canada. He continued to sit on the bench as Chief Justice down to the period of his death, which took place at the city of Montreal on the 26th of February, 1864 He was confessedly one of the ablest jurists that ever sat on the Canadian bench, and his decisions are regarded with the highest respect by his successors.

Mr Baldwin, as has been said, felt very keenly the vote of the Upper Canadian lawyers in the Assembly on Mr. Mackenzie's Chancery motion. Another mortification was in store for him. At the ensuing general election he offered himself as à candidate for his old constituency, the North Riding of York. The influences of the tir» were not propitious to him. The Clear Grits brought out a candidate in the person of Mr. Joseph Hartman, a gentleman then unkn wn in the political world. A cry was raised during the campaign that Mr. Baldwin was averse to secularizing the Clergy Reserves, and that he had surrendered himself to French

The End of the Great Ministry. 241

Canadian influence on the subject of representation by population. Pledges were demanded from him which he refused to give. “I am not here,” he remarked, “to pledge myself on any question. I go to the House as a free man or not at all. TI am here to declare to you my opinions. If you approve of my opinions, and elect me, I will carry them out in Parliament. If I should alter those opinions I will come back and surrender my trust, when you will have an opportunity of either reëlecting me or choosing another candidate ; but I shall pledge myself at the bidding of no man.” On the subject of an elective Legislative Council, moreover, Mr. Baldwin was not in sympathy with the popular feeling in his constituency. He believed in continuing the system of appointments by the Crown, as provided by the Act of Union, whereas popular sentiment favoured the election of Legislative Councillors by publie vote. Upon the whole, Mr. Baldwin was too Conservative for the times, and the combined influences brought to bear against him were fatal to his candidature, Mr. Hartman was returned at the head of the poll, and Mr. Baldwin retired to private life, from which he never again emerged.

Before taking a final leave of Mr. Baldwin, it seems desirable to correct a very general misapprehension which prevails as to his attitude on the Clergy Reserves question at the date of his resignation, This misapprehension is due in great measure to a statement in Mr, MacMullen’s histury of Canada, a statement which has been adopted by subsequent writers who have not taken the trouble to investigate the matter for themselves. We are informed by Mr. MacMullen that “Mr. Lafontaine, Mr. Baldwin, and others of the older Reformers, opposed the revival of the agitation ”—1.e., on the subject of the Clergy Reserves—“and maintained that things ought to be left as they were.”* Now, this was certainly the attitude of the gentlemen referred to prior to the general election which resulted

* “History of Canada,” p. 514,

2 TER PE qe

242 The Last Forty Years.

in the formation of the second Lafontaine-Baldwin Government in 1848; but it is very misleading, at least so far as regards Mr. Baldwin, when it implies that his views had undergone no change before his resignation in 1851. The impression is conveyed, indeed, that he resigned office in consequence of his unwillingness to interfere with the settlement under Lord Sydenham. That no member of the Government was unwilling to interfere with that settlement was rendered abundantly clear by the significant fact that every one of them voted for its repeal. Not only was Mr. Baldwin not averse to secularization, but he was actually desirous of seeing it brought about. He was a zealous Churchman, and, like Mr. Lafontaine, he had a great respect for vested rights, but he did not approve of perpetuating vested wrongs. Before the Union he had repeatedly expressed himsel‘ unfavourably to the exclusive claims of the Church of England. He was not opposed on principle to State endowments for religious purposes ; but he recognized the fact that such endowments were neither necessary nor desirable in Canada. He well knew that their continuance was an injury to the Province, and he believed them to be an injury to the Church itself.* As has been seen,+ he deprecated the revival of the question in Parliament during Mr. Sherwood's tenure of office as Solicitor-General. This, however, was clearly because the project of revival emanated from the Church of England, which, in his opinion, already enjoyed all the rights to which it could possibly substantiate a just claim, and he was apprehensive that the Church would not only reap no additional advantage from a renewal of the agitation, but would render itself more unpopular than ever among other denominations of Christians. His respect for vested interests prevented him from setting on foot any agita-

* In an unpublished letter written to a friend in Toronto on the 4th of May, 1851, cccurs the following significant sentence : ‘They [the Reserves] are an injury to the Church of Christ, and probably to the Church of England in Canada.”

+ Ante, p. 202.

The End of the Great Ministry. 243

tion on the subject, even in later times; but when it had once been set on foot by others, and when public opinion had made itself clear, he became fully alive to the injustice of allowing matters to remain as they were. His sense of right prevailed over every other consideration, and the Father of Responsible Government recognized the supremacy of the majority. The more he thought upon the subject the more did his mind expand, as may plainly be discerned from his utterances during the sessions of 1850 and 1851. He voted for Mr. Price’s resolutions, and it was well understood by his colleagues that he would vote for secularization when the proper time for doing so should arrive; that is to say, when the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840 should enable the Canadian Legislature to deal with the question.* But his constituents in North York would accept nothing less than a distinct pledge in 1851, and such a pledge he was not disposed to give. As to his resignation, in spite of all that has been said and written to the contrary, it was due, as above stated, to the vote on the Court of Chancery, and to no other cause whatever.,

Though he was only in his forty-eighth year at the time of his withdrawal from public life, his constitution—never very robust —was considerably impaired by his close application to his ministerial and Parliamentary duties, and he never again came conspicuously before the world in any capacity. A seat on the judicial bench was in vain pressed upon his acceptance. In 1854 he accepted the dignity of a Companionship of the Bath, which was the only reward he ever received for his long and important services to the colony and the Empire. He continued to reside on his estate of Spadina, in the immediate neighbourhood of Toronto, where he passed his tin.e in the exercise of domestic and devotional duties during the few years of life which remained to him. He

* On this subject, see Sir Francis Hincks's Lecture on the Political History of Canada, pp. 50-52,

244 The Last Forty Years.

lingered until the 9th of December, 1858, when he calmly passed

to his rest. No Canadian statesman has left behind him a name more highly honoured by all classes of the community. To this day Canada points to Robert Baldwin as the man who spent himself in contending, through evil report and good report, for a righteous principle; who rested not until the claims of truth and justice had been conceded and secured; who passed unscathed through the ordeal of a trying period in our political life, and who yet left behind him a reputation at which the tinger of reproach has never dared to point.

CHaAPTER XXXII.

HINCKS-MORIN.

‘Whatever else has been gained, it is clear that two dangers have been avoided by the Reform party, by the formation of the new Ministry on the basis that has been adopted. The first was that the divisions which have existed in the party for the last two years might continue through the elections ; with the certain result that neither section would have obtained a majority. The second—and it would have been consequent on this —was à coalition between the Tories and the Lower Canadians.”— Toronto Exuminer.

URING the three months immediately preceding the resignation of the Ministry, a chaotic state of affairs prevailed in political circles. The portfolio of Attorney- General West was practically vacant, for although Mr. Baldwin, according to the prevalent usage, nominally held office until the appointment of his successor, he had ceased to take part in the direction of the Government, and did not attend at Cabinet meetings. The duties pertaining to the leadership for Upper Canada devolved upon Mr Hincks, whose knowledge and Parliamentary experience well fitted him to discharge them. Mr. Lafontaine, in view of his own contemplated retirement, would not assign Mr. Baldwin’s portfolio to any one else; nor would he entertain any proposals on the subject of ministerial changes. Vet important ministerial changes were imminent, and could not be postponed beyond the time of Mr. Lafontaine’s resignation. Upon whom would devolve the task of forming a new Ministry, or of reconstructing that already in existence? “It may be said with truth ”—-remarks one of the most active participants * in the minis-

* Sir Francis Hincks, in a review of ‘The Scot in British North America,” published in The Canadian Spectator for December 3rd, 1881. Sir Francis adds : ‘I never had the

246 The Last Forty Years.

terial embarrassments of the period—“that there was hardly a man of any influence, whether in or out of Parliament, who was not making forecasts of the future” The disunion in the Reform ranks was a serious matter, for it would be no easy task to make such an adjustment of the portfolios as should meet general approval, and à Tory Government, in the existing state of public opinion, was altogether out of the question.

The problem, however, found its solution. No sooner had Mr. Lafontaine tendered his resignation, early in October, than the Governor-General—who was then sojourning at Drummondville, near Niagara Falls—sent for Mr. Hincks, and committed to his charge the formation of a new Administration. Mr. Hincks was probably the shrewdest and most energetice man then in public life in this Province. He had long foreseen that the party-lines of the Reformers would have to be laid down afresh, and on a less rigid basis than would have seemed good to Messieurs Lafontaine and Baldwin. From the date of his accession to the leadership for Upper Canada his policy had been one of concession: concession to the French Canadians, to the Clear Grits, and indeed to any party which had it in its power to obstruct the carrying-on of public business. Upon receiving the Governors comrands to form a Government he put himself in communication wit: Dr. Rolph, who, though he was not then in Parliament, was the ruling spirit of the Clear Grit party—a party which it was absolutely necessary to conciliate, Mr. Lafontaine having retired from public life, Mr. Morin was by common consent the leader of the French Canadian Liberals ; and with him Mr. Hincks also held frequent conferences. The negotiations occupied several weeks, and were not finally completed until nearly the end of October, by which time the offices of the Government, in pursuance of the alternating system which had

least doubt that, in publicly announcing his intention to resign at a future time, Mr. Lafontaine acted contrary to all British precedent, and created a state of affairs that might have led even to more serious consequences.”

Hincks—Morin. 247

been adopted in 1849, had been removed to Quebec. The Governor- General himself had also removed thither, and taken up his quarters at Spencerwood, a pleasant mansion which had been purchased by the Government for a gubernatorial residence, and which was situated on the cliffs of Sillery, somewhat more than a mile westward from the city limits.

On the 28th of the month the members of the new Ministry* received the seals of office at Quebec, and entered upon the duties of administration. The distribution of portfolios was as follows:

FroM UPPER CANADA.

The Hon. Francis Hincks, Premier and Inspector-General, K W. B. Richards, Attorney-General West, L Malcolm Cameron, President of the Council.

John Rolph, Commissioner of Crown Lands, se James Morris, Postmaster-General.

* All except Mr. Cameron, who was not actually sworn in until some time afterwards, The delay was occasioned by his hesitation to accept the Presidency of the Council, an office as to which he had previously expressed his opinion that the duties appertaining to it might well be discharged by some member holding one of the other Government offices, whereby the salary of a President would be saved to the country. The Globe and the Tory press taunted him with his inconsistency, and he probably felt that the impeachment was not altogether groundless. He seems, however, to have been open to conviction on this subject—probably in consequence of the office of Minister of Agriculture being created and conferred upon him, as subsequently mentioned in the text,

Mr. Hincks does not seem to have contemplated the introduction of Mr. Cameron into the Ministry at all, until the claims of that gentlema::, -n party grounds, were pressed upon him by Dr. Rolph. The original intention was th.‘ Dr. Rolph should be President of the Council, and that Mr. J. S. Macdonald should be Commissioner of Crown Lands. The Doctor’s stipulations as to Mr. Cameron were a source of embarrassment to Mr. Hincks, as there was not another office at his disposal, until Mr. Macdonald’s refusal to accept the portfolio offered to him opened a way out of the difficulty. It was not deemed prudent to make Mr, Cameron Commissioner of Crown Lands, which office was accordingly assigned to Dr, Rolph. It was then arranged that the bureau of Agriculture should be attached to the Presidency of the Council—an arrangement subsequently carried out— and Mr, Cameron's scruples at accepting that office were got over.

f null î 248 The Last Forty Years.

{ | e E FROM LOWER CANADA, | The Hon. A. N. Morin, Provincial Secretary. 1 L L. T. Drummond, Attorney-General East, # John Young, Commissioner of Public Works.

#15 PR # R. E. Caron, Speaker of the Legislative Council. # E, P. Taché, Receiver-General.

The reader is already familiar with the personality of each of these | gentlemen. Messieurs Hincks, Taché and Morris were not re- MR | appointed to office, their resignations not having been accepted. A lé El fortnight later Mr. P. J. O. Chauveau accepted the Solicitor-Generalship for Lower Canada, and Mr. John Ross accepted the corresponding post for Upper Canada.* Among various reforms to which the new Government stood committed were the secularization of the Clergy Reserves, the abolition of the Seigniorial Tenure, an increased À Parliamentary representation, and an elective Legislative Council. The last-named project was one that Mr. Morin had long had at RARES heart, and Mr. Hincks, who does not appear to have felt strongly on

# the subject either one way or the other, yielded the point in return NE for Mr. Morin’s consent that secularization should be made a Cabinet HAbRE question.

FER The new Government was unquestionably as strong a one as,

under the circumstances, it was possible to form. Mr. Hincks’'s

ù qualifications have just been referred to. Mr. Morin was, with the

É Î single exception of Mr. Lafontaine, who could no longer be taken

into account, the most popular man in Lower Canada. He was 1 L respected and trusted by all, and his knowledge of the requirements “1e : of his compatriots was both profound and sympathetic. The only possible exception that could be taken to him was that he was some-

what deficient in energy, and could seldom be aroused to put forth

* A seat in the Cabinet was not attached to these offices,

Hincks—Morin. 249

his utmost strength. Mr. Drummond, the new Attorney-General East, was one of the ablest of Canadian lawyers. Mr. Young, though he had had no experience of political life, was a man of strict integrity and great practical ability, possessing a wide knowledge of the country’s needs. Messieurs Caron, Taché and Morris were all well fitted for their respective offices ; and Messieurs Rolph and Cameron brought much strength to the Government from their connection with the Clear Grit party,* which had become a recognized power in the land. With respect to Mr. Richards, the only remaining member of the Cabinet, it was objected to him in some quarters that his professional experience had not been such as to fit him for the high office of Attorney-General, but the legal profession generally admitted his fitness for the post, and his subsequent career, during his tenure of office and afterwards, has been such as to fully justify Mr. Hincks’s choice. The selection, however, raised up for the Government a somewhat formidable opponent in the person of Mr. John Sandfield Macdonald, the ex-Solicitor- General West, who had confidently counted upon succeeding to the Attorney-Generalship, and who never quite forgave Mr. Hincks for passing him over. Mr. Hincks seems to have been fully cognizant of consequences when he selected Mr. Richards: consequences, it is to be presumed, which he would willingly have avoided ; but he occupied a most responsible and embarrassing position, and was compelled to discriminate between a multitude of conflicting interests. He offered Mr. Macdonald the Commissionership of Crown Lands, but that gentleman would accept nothing short of the Attorney-Generalship, and was accordingly left out of the Ministry altogether.+

* Mr. Peter Perry, whose standing in the Clear Grit party had been as high as that of either Dr. Rolph or Mr. Cameron, died on the 24th of August, about two months before the formation of the Hincks-Morin Government,

+ Upon this subject it is only fair to let Mr. Hincks tell his own story. Inthe review of ‘‘The Scot in British North America,” in The Canadian Spectator for December 3rd,

250 The Last Forty Years.

The recognized organ of the Government in Upper Canada was The North American, which was still under the control of Mr. William McDougall. In the Lower Province the ministerial standard continued to be borne by The Pilot.

There was one conspicuous individual in Upper Canada who had long distrusted Mr. Hincks, and who viewed that gentleman’s increasing ascendency with much disfavour. This was Mr. Brown, of the Globe, who, as we have seen, had passed during the year from a lukewarm supporter of the Government to an active opponent. He published in his paper a series of letters addressed to Mr. Hincks, in which the latter’s alleged shortcomings were animadverted upon with much asperity. The Inspector-General was charged with shirking the Clergy Reserves question, and with having betrayed the interests of Upper Canada by surrendering himself to French

1881— already referred to in a note on page 245—we find the following account of the transaction referred to in the text: ‘* When I was called on to form a new Administration, Mr. Macdonald was clearly not entitled by any traditional usage to the post of Attorney- General, which he had never filled. I had but one colleague left from Upper Canada, the Hon. James Morris, a member of the Legislative Council. I had to find three new colleagues and a Solicitor-General, and I had to exercise my judgment as to the departments which should be assigned to each. I recognized most fully Mr. Sandfield Macdonald’s claims, but I had to determine how his abilities and those of others could be made most serviceable to our country. From the period of the Union, lawyers of much higher professional standing than Mr. Sandfield Macdonald had accepted offices unconnected with their profession, The Hon. R. B. Sullivan and the Hon. J. A. Macdonald had previously filled such offices, and many similar cases have occurred in later times. I head à grave responsibility, and I offered Mr. Sandfield Macdonald a seat in the Cabinet next to Mr. Morris, to whom, as my only remaining colleague, I first applied. The office I proposed was the Commissionership of Crown Lands, which, in view of circumstances, I conceived was the office in which Mr. Macdonald could be most useful. Mr. Macdonald, in the exercise of hisown judgment, said that he would have the Attorney-Generalship or nothing, and I was very reluctantly compelled to form my Government without him. That he was offended is certain, and that his subsequent election to the Speakership did not reinove the sense of injury from his mind is likewise certain. There is no use now in discussing such matters. My object has been to place on record the fact that, being called on to form an Administration, I offered Mr. Sandfield Macdonald an important department, with precedence over allthe new members of the Administration. I acted in strict accordance with precedent. The fact that Mr. Macdonald had been Solicitor-General under another Administration was no ground whatever for my selecting him as Attorney- General in mine.”

Hincks— Morin. 251

Canadian influence, These letters were written by Mr. Brown himself, and bore his own signature. The first of them was published in the Globe of the 11th of September, and the remainder appeared at intervals during the next few weeks. They were then collected and republished as a pamphlet, which was used as a campaign document during the ensuing election contest. The influence of the Globe was exerted:to the utmost to secure the defeat of the new Ministers and their supporters. The opposition then set on foot by Mr. Brown was persisted in by him so long as the Hincks-Morin Administration remained in power. That his opposition should be more or less injurious to Mr. Hincks was inevitable, for the circulation and influence of the Globe were widespread; but its immediate effects were not very perceptible, and some time elapsed before it had the effect of either modifying or retarding the prosecution of the Government policy. Mr. Brown, on the other hand, incurred a serious responsibility as a party man by creating further disruption among the Reformers, who were already suffering from a want of concord among their leaders. $So far as can now be ascertained, however, his motives were public and not personal. He was animated by a dislike of the French Canadian policy and institutions, and he had no confidence in the liberal professions of Mr. Hincks, whom he regarded as a man of expediency rather than of principle. An absurd allegation has time and again been repeated to the effect that his antagonism was due to his not being taken into the Ministry, and Mr. Hincks has been accused of want of judgment in forming his Cabinet without Mr. Brown. Who the originator of this extraordinary accusation may have been it is not easy to say; but assuredly it was some one not very familiar with the state of political affairs in Canada during the period under consideration. There were two remarkably good reasons for not asking Mr. Brown to join the Government. In the first place, it was well known that, owing to his

en vi

ares < Es Tree M

PER De PRE = œ De Une

252 The Last Forty Years.

opinions on various questions relating to Lower Canada, he would not accept a seat in it. This reason, of itself, would seem to be conclusive. But there was another equally so. Mr. Brown’s sentiments towards the French Canadians, and his stand on the Roman Catholic question, were matters of notoriety. His antipathy was fully returned. It was essential that Lower Canada should be fully represented in the Government by French Canadian members enjoying the confidence of the French Canadian electors. But no French Canadian member of the Assembly would have sat in the same Cabinet with Mr. Brown, and if any one of them had consented to do so he would have been execrated by public opinion in his section of the Province. Under such circumstances, how was it possible for Mr. Hincks to offer Mr. Brown a place in the Government, even if the latter had been desirous of accepting it? The alliance with the French Canadian Liberals was regarded by the Upper Canada Ministers as too valuable to be severed, even though such severance should secure for the latter the coôperation of Mr. Brown.

On the Gth of November the existing Parliament was dissolved. Writs were issued, and during the remainder of the year the country was in the throes of a general election. The result was the return of a considerable majority of supporters of the new Ministry. As regards the Ministers themselves, three—Messieurs Caron, Taché and Morris—were members of the Legislative Council. The other seven were all returned by considerable majorities. Mr. Hincks had a double return, being electea both tur the County of Oxford and Niagara Town. He eventually decided to sit for Oxford. Messieurs Drummond and Richards were respectively returned for Shefford and Leeds, the constituencies represented by them in the preceding Parliament. Mr. Morin was returned for Terrebonne, Mr. Young for Montreal City, Mr. Cameron for Huron, and Dr, Rolph for Norfolk. As regards the two Solicitors-General,

Hincks— Morin. 253

Mr. Ross was a Legislative Councillor, and Mr. Chauveau was returned for his old constituency of Quebec County. Most of the distinguished men who had sat in the last Parliament were reëlected, but among the exceptions were Mr. Baldwin (whose defeat in North York has already been recorded), Mr. Price, Mr. Notman, Mr. Cayley, Mr. J. H. Cameron and the two Sherwoods. Mr. Price, contrary to general expectation, recanted his determination to withdraw from public life, and offered himself for reëlection in South York. His candidature was unsuccessfu]l, his opponent, Mr. John W. Gamble being returned in his stead. With this defeat, Mr. Price’s active political career ended.* The ranks of the Conservative Opposition in the Upper Province were greatly thinned, and of those returned as Tories few belonged to the extreme school. The only distinguished ultra-Tory who found a seat was Sir Allan MacNab, who was reëlected for Hamilton, and it was noticeable that even he professed more liberal opinions during the campaign than had ever before been heard from his lips. Mr. (John A.) Macdonald was reëlected for Kingston, but that gentleman had already more than once displayed his impatience at the retrograde policy of his somewhile leaders, and could no longer be regarded as holding precisely the same political opinions. In the Lower Province the tendency, as proved by the result of the elections, was rather the reverse of that in Upper Canada, and was in the direction of Conservatism. Several of the most conspicuous Rouges were defeated by candidates of more moderate opinions. Even Mr. Papineau himself sustained defeat in the city of Montreal, though he found a seat in the following July as representative of the county of Two Mountains, where a vacancy occurred in consequence of the death of Mr. W. H. Scott,

* A few years later Mr, Price bade adieu to Canada, and repaired to England, whence he had emigrated to this country in 1828, He took up his abode in the neighbourhood of Southampton, where he has ever since resided, and still resides,

+‘ In fact, such a thing as an out-and-out Tory is hardly to be found in a day's walk.

Cor puct Toryism is dead and gone, never to be resuscitated.”—@lobe, December 20th, 1851.

254 The Last Forty Years.

The election as a whole was remarkable for the quantity of new blood it was the means of introducing into the Assembly, nearly half of the successful candidates being altogether new to Parliamentary life. In addition to those already mentioned, the most conspicuous new members were George Brown, returned for the county of Kent; Jean Charles Chapais, for Kamouraska ; Ulric Joseph Tessier, for Portneuf; and Louis Victor Sicotte for St. Hyacinthe. Mr. Brown’s defeat by Mr. Mackenzie during the previous spring had therefore only postponed by a few months his entry into the Parliamentary arena. As has been intimated, he came out strongly in opposition to the Government. He was from the first a conspicuous figure in the Assembly, where we shall erelong encounter him. Mr. Chapais was at that time a merchant, and a resident of St. Denis. He came out in opposition to Mr. Letellier, the sitting member, who had been the successful candidate for the constituency in the preceding February. On this occasion the same candidates took the field; but the former verdict was reversed, Mr. Chapais being returned at the head of the poll. He has since had a successful political career, and has sat in two different Administrations. He at the present time represents the De la Durantaye Division in the Senate of the Dominion. Mr. Tessier was an advocate, resident at Quebec, of which city he was then mayor. His election for Portneuf in 1851 was the beginning of a political career of considerable distinction. He was independent in his opinions, and recorded his votes with small regard to purely party considerations. He now occupies an honoured position on the judicial bench in his native Province. Mr. Sicotte was also an advocate by profession. He resided, and still resides, at St. Hyacinthe, the county town of his constituency, where he possessed much local influence. In politics he was a Liberal. He was destined to remain many years in public life, and to hold important offices in several Administrations. He is at the present time a Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec.

Qt Qt

Hincks— Morin.

The policy of the Government did not differ materially from that of the late one, except that it was somewhat more pronounced in its advocacy of reform, and that, as has been seen, it was committed to some questions upon which the previous Administration had been untrammelled. But purely political questions gave place, for a time, to those relating to the development and material progress of the country. Public attention was largely taken up with the various railway projects of the period. Early in January of the new year (1852; Mr. Hincks and two of his colleagues — Messieurs Taché and Young—proceeded to the Maritime Provinces to attend a conference at Halifax on the subject of the proposed intercolonial line of railway. At Fredericton they were joined by the late Hon. Edward Barron Chandler, a member of the New Brunswick Cabinet. The interests of Nova Scotia at the conference were chiefly represented by the late Hon. Joseph Howe. After much discussion an agreement was arrived at that the projected intercolonial line should be built by the three Provinces, and that it should run through the valley of the St. John. Messieurs Hincks, Chandler and Howe were appointed delegates to proceed to England to obtain the consent of the Imperial Government to extend the promised guarantee * to this arrangement. Mr. Hincks and his colleagues returned to Canada well satisfied with the result of their mission. It had been arranged that the three delegates to England should meet at Halifax in the beginning of March, and that they should cross the Atlantic together, In pursuance of this understanding Mr. Hincks repaired to the Nova Scotian capital at the beginning of that month, but upon his arrival there he was informed by Messieurs Chandler and Howe that they would be unable to sail until the lapse of another fortnight. Mr, Hincks nevertheless sailed from Boston on the 4th, and in due course reached

* Ante, p. 231,

PRÉPRPLE SRE DE]

256 The Last Forty Years.

London. Mr. Chandler kept his promise, and followed a fortnight later, but Mr. Howe again postponed his departure. Temporary ill-health and pressing political business at home probably had something to do with Mr. Howe’s course of action, but its chief cause was doubtless to be found in the fact that the people of Nova Scotia did not approve of the line of the contemplated railway as settled at the recent conference. Mr. Howe had only been brought to consent to the route by the valley of the St. John with great reluctance, and upon an undertaking by New Brunswick to assume a portion of Nova Scotia’s share of the debt. He seems to have regretted his consent after it had been given. At any rate he made up his mind, after repeated postponements, not to repair to London, and Messieurs Hincks and Chandler were thus left to carry out the negotiations without his assistance.

Upon Mr. Hincks’s arrival in England he found that a change of Government had taken place. The Earl of Derby had succeeded Lord John Russell as Premier, and Sir John S$S. Pakington (afterwards Lord Hampton) had succeeded Earl Grey as Colonial Secretary. With these distinguished persons Mr. Hincks and Mr. Chandler had an interview on the 30th of April. After the situation of affairs had been discussed, it was agreed to postpone the further consideration of the proposed guarantee until Nova Scotia’s representative should appear on the scene. It came out very clearly during the interview, however, that the Imperial Government were not favourable to the line by the valley of the St. John. They favoured a military line, such as had been recommended and surveyed several years previously by Major Robinson and Captain Henderson, of the Royal Engineers, and which was almost identical with the line eventually adopted. There is no need for going minutely into details. Mr. Howe, as has been seen, did not appear, and Messieurs Hiucks and Chandler felt that they had been treated cavalierlv. After an irritating delay it was found that the Imperial guarantee

Hincks— Morin. 257

would not be extended to the route by the valley of the St. John, the only basis upon which the delegates were empowered to treat,. The negotiations with the Government came to nothing, and the Provinces were left to the alternative of either building the road without Imperial aid or abandoning the project altogether. Now, Canada was much more vitally interested in the construction of the trunk line westward from Montreal than in the intercolonial one. Mr. Hincks accordingly, without waiting for a formal refusal on the part of the Imperial Ministry, entered upon arrangements with a number of wealthy English capitalists, who agreed to form a syndicate, and to build the desired line of road. The entire capital was to be raised in England, Canada guaranteeing half the cost, to be secured by a first mortgage on the road. The further particulars of the agreement belong rather to a history of the enterprise itself than to a history of Canada. Suffice it to say that the outcome of the negotiations was the Grand Trunk Railway. Owing to the Crimean war and other unforeseen events, the cost of construction was very much greater than had been anticipated, and the road had to contend against keen competition, as well as various other disadvantages. For these reasons the enterprise has not been a financial success. The chief sufferers, however, have been English capitalists,* and Canada has derived inestimable advantages for her guarantee through the development of her territory, the facilities afforded for transport and travel, and the increased value of property.

Another important subject engaged Mr. Hincks’s attention during his absence in England. Reference has been made to the cireum-

* “It is important to note that if Canada did not construct her Trunk Railway without involving Englishmen (and women) in ruin, it was because Englishmen would have it 80. Moreover, the demand came from such a quarter, that to those familiar with the resources of these ‘operators,’ it might have been extremely difficult for her to have gone into the money market on her own account, against their opposition.”—Æighty Years’ Progress of British North America, p. 199, note. The latter sentence above quoted is irrefragable in point of fact, though the grammar is susceptible of improvement.

258 The Last Forty Years.

stances under which Lord John Russell's Ministry had seen fit to postpone the introduction of a Bill for the repeal of the Imperial Act of 1840 relating to the Clergy Reserves in Canada. That Ministry had now been supplanted by one of a very different political complexion, and there was good reason for apprehending that the project of repealing the Imperial Act would either be indefinitely delayed or altogether abandoned. Soon after the news of the change of Government reached Canada, a meeting of a Committee of the Executive Council was held, at which it was resolved that pressure of some kind should be brought to bear upon the new Ministry with reference to this vital question. After full deliberation a motion was passed recommending that “the Inspector-General, while in England, be requested to seek an interview with Her Majesty's Ministers, and represent to them the importance of carrying out the pledges of their predecessors on the subject of the Clergy Reserves, and thus empowering the Colonial Legislature to deal with the

question in accordance with the well-understood wishes of the people of Canada.” An extract from the report of the committee, embodying this recommendation, was duly forwarded to Mr. Hincks, who, immediately upon receipt of it, forwarded a copy to the Colonial Secretary, accompanied by a letter from himself strongly pressing the subject-matter upon the attention of Her Majesty's Government.* It was soon evident that the solicitude of the

* TI have learned through the medium of the public journals,” wrote Mr. Hincks to Sir John Pakington, under date of May 3rd, ‘‘that Her Majesty’s Government has determined to take no action in the question of the Clergy Reserves during the present session of Parliament. . , . Ican assure Her Majesty’s Government . . that there will be no end to agitation in Canada if the attempt be made to settle this question permanently according to the public opinion of England, instead of that of the Province itself ; and I may add that it is well known that many who are opponents of the secularization of the Clergy Reserves are on constitutional grounds in favour of a settlement by the Provincial Parliament. I believe that after the assurance given by the late Government it will be found impossible to protract very long the repeal of the Imperial Act ; and I have no hesitation in affirming that no interests will suffer more by delay than those of the Church of England.”—$See Religious Endowments in Canada, a Chapter of Canadian History, pp. 76, 77.

Hincks— Morin. 259

Canadian Executive on the subject was not groundless, for on the 22nd of April—nearly a fortnight before their recommendation reached Mr. Hincks in England—the Colonial Secretary had forwarded to Lord Elgin a despatch in which his Excellency was informed that “ Her Majesty’s present advisers” did not propose to introduce any measure during the current session empowering the Canadian Legislature to alter the existing arrangement with regard to the Clergy Reserves. One of the reasons assigned for this determination was that a general election had only just taken place in Canada, and that it was as yet uncertain what view the new Assembly might take on the question. This suggestion was probably derived from some of the numerous petitions which had been forwarded from Canada to the Imperial Parliament by Dr. Strachan and other opponents of secularization.* The tone of the entire despatch, however, showed plainly enough that the Imperial Government would not easily be brought to consent to a repeal of the Act of 1840, “Her Majesty's Government,” wrote the Secretary, ‘“ feel serious doubts how far they would be able to give their consent and support to an arrangement, the result of which would too probably be the diversion to other purposes of the only public fund, except that devoted to the endowment of the Roman Catholic Church, which now exists for the support of divine worship and religious instruction in the colony.”+ It was further intimated that Her Majesty's Government would be willing to entertain a proposa] for reconsidering the mode of distributing the income arising from the Clergy Reserves, When Mr. Hincks wrote to the Colonial

* ‘While, however, I admit the respectability of the petitioners, I think I am justified in affirming that they do not represent anything like a majority of the population of Canada ; indeed, the very fact that they on all occasions endeavour to accomplish their wishes by appealing, not to their own representatives in Parliament, but to the Imperial Parliament, is conclusive proof that they are themselves conscious that their views are not in accordance with public opinion in Canada.”—$See Letter of Mr. Hincks to Sir J, S. Pakington, dated May 10th, 1852, quoted in Religious Endowments in Canada, pp. 78--83,

260 The Last forty Years.

Secretary as abovementioned, he was unaware of the existence of this despatch, but a copy of it was forwarded to him from the Colonial Office immediately upon receipt of his letter. After reading the despatch, Mr. Hincks wrote a long and urgent letter to the Secretary, in which the state of public opinion in Canada was set forth with unmistakable clearness. The writer expressed “serious alarm” at the tone adopted, and did not hesitate to declare his opinion as to how it would be regarded by a majority of the Canadian population. He deplored the prospect of collision between the Imperial Government and the Canadian Parliament on a question regarding which suck :trong feelings prevailed. “The people of Canada,” wrote Mr. :':ncks, “are convinced that they are better judges than any parties in England can be of what measures will best conduce to the peace and welfare of the Province” With respect to the intimation that the Imperial Government would be willing to reconsider the method of distributing the income from the Reserves, the Inspector-General spoke with remarkable frankness. “I have no hesitation,” said he, “in stating it as my conviction that the Canadian Parliament will not invite the legislation of the Imperial Parliament regarding the distribution of a local fund. Any such proposition would be received as one for the violation of the most sacred constitutional rights of the people” The foregoing statements and extracts ought effectually to dispose of the oftrepeated story that the Hincks-Morin Administration—at any rate up to the period at which the narrative has arrived—had manifested any disposition to shirk dealing with the Clergy Reserves question. Mr. Hincks’s representations to the Colonial Secretary, however, were for the time inoperative, Even had the Government been converted by his reasoning, and disposed to act upon his suggestions —both of which are rather extravagant suppositions—the session of the Imperial Parliament was too far advanced to admit of the introduction of a Bill. The receipt of Mr. Hincks’s appeal was duly

Hincks—Morin. 261

acknowledged, and the correspondence came to a close. It was a foregone conclusion that the question should come before the Provincial Parliament at the next session.

During his stay in London Mr. Hincks took a step towards the settlement of the vexed question respecting the Upper Canadian rectories. He directed à case to be prepared for the opinion of two of the most eminent counsel at the equity bar as to the validity of the patents granted, as already mentioned, by Sir John Colborne in 1836.* The opinion pronounced was that the acts done by Sir John for the endowment of the rectories in question were beyond his authority ; that they were not sustainable by the instructions given to any preceding Governor ; and that they were therefore inoperative and void. It was suggested that the question should be brought before the Canadian Courts in the forn of an information to be filed by the Attorney-General. The subsequent history of the matter may as well be here disposed of. The course suggested was adopted, and a Bill was filed by the Attorney-General in the Court of Chancery for Upper Canada, at the instance of the Legislative Assembly, on the 25th of August, 1852, for the purpose of testing the validity of “ certain letters patent granted by Sir John Colborne, bearing date the 15th of January, 1836, and purporting to constitute a rectory within the township of York, to be known as the rectory of St. James, and to set apart eight hundred acres of the Clergy Reserve lands as an endowment for said rectory, to be held and enjoyed forever as appurtenant thereto.” Considerable delay occurred before the case came on for hearing, and it was not finally disposed of nntil 1856, when the Court, after hearing able arguments by eminent counsel, decided that Sir John Colborne had full authority to create and endow rectories, and the validity of the patents granted by him was fully affirmed. The decision of the three

* Ante, p. 199.

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