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with them on the question of the Speakership to wish to extend or continue that connection. The Conservatives, though not numerically formidable, and though not without internal dissensions of their own, might be depended upon to vote almost as one man in a great Parliamentary emergency. They counted in their ranks several gentlemen of wide legislative knowledge and experience, conspicuous among whom were Sir Allan MacNab, John A. Macdonald and William Cayley. Sir Allan was a Parliamentary veteran, and his advice could not fail to be serviceable at such a crisis. To him accordingly, as the acknowledged leader of his party, Lord Elgin had recourse, and the task of forming an Administration was entrusted to his hands. Sir Allan consulted with Mr. Macconald and other leading coadjutors, and in the course of a few hours a plan was matured which was afterwards successfully carried out. The situation may be briefly saummed up in this wise. Responsible Government being an admitted principle in our constitution, no Administration could hold power unless it could command a majority of the votes in the Assembly. No new Government could hope to command such à majority unless it could obtain the support of the old Liberal party in both sections of the Province; that is to say, of the moderate Reformers who had supported the policy of the Hincks-Morin Ministry. Now, it was evident enough that there could be no alliance between the Clear Grits of Upper Canada and the Lower Canadian Liberais who acknowledged the leadership of Mr. Morin. At the head of the Clear Grits was Mr. : Brown, with whom, for reasons already fully explained, no French Canadian of moderate views would at that time have allied himself, But there was no insuperable antagonism between the French Canadian moderates and the Upper Canadian Conservatives ; nothing to prevent a junction of their Parliamentary forces. They were indeed in some respects the natural allies of each other, and had for several years past been gradually assimilating. True, that

The Liberal-Conservative Allianre. 307

very same French Canadian element had, as we have seen,* twice refused to enter into such an alliance; but years had elapsed since then, and the circumstances had undergone a material change. It was necessary that a compromise of some sort should be effected, and this was the most practicable one that seemed to offer.

The active mind of Mr. John A. Macdonald was not slow to take in these various phases of the situation, and it is commonly understood that his was the hand that shaped the course of subsequent negotiations. Since his entry into Parliament, ten years before, he had outgrown many of the party traditions of those times, and his mind had undergone a considerable transformation in the direction of Liberalism. Here, he perceived, was an opportunity for remodelling the Conservative party upon such a basis as might not improbably restore a large measure of their ancient prestige, and secure them in power for years to come. Some of the old party lines must be abandoned, and a policy more in accordance with modern ideas must be adopted. The Clergy Reserves, for instance, was a question on which Conservatives had from the first taken an uncompromising stand in favour of the ultra pretensions of the Church of England. But such an attitude was no longer tenable by a party that hoped to secure any considerable share of popular support. The general elections which had just taken place had proved most incontestably that the public voice imperatively demanded secularization. Many Conservative candidates had gone to the polls pledged to vote for secularization in case the public opinion of the Province should be unequivocally declared in favour of such a step. Several other questions of less importance stood on a similar footing. Nothing was more certain than that no stable Government could be formed which would not consent to the immediate introduction of a Secularization Bill as a Government measure. Mr. Macdonald and a majority of the most distinguished members of his party deter-

* Ante, pp. 21, 89.

308 The Last Forty Years.

mined to make the be:. oi the situation, and bow to the popular will. Their views had doubtless undergone modification in the course of the interminable debates on the Clergy Reserves.

Sir Allan MacNab, however, had hitherto held consistently by the principles which he had always professed, and had refused to abandon the cherished convictions of a lifetime at the bidding of expediency. The hour had now arrived for him to choose between becoming a party to secularization and abandoning the leadership to a younger and more liberal-minded man. That Mr. Macdonald was the coming leader was already safficiently apparent, but he was young, and could well afford to wait. Sir Allan had been identified with Upper Canadian Conservatism from his youth. During his Parliamentary career he had struggled in its behalf with a zeal which certainly was not according to knowledge, but which as certainly was sincere. Such a man could not now be summarily “shelved ” or thrown aside; unless, indeed, he shauld prove to be thoroughly impracticable. The gallant knight had beyun to feel the infirmities of declining years, but he did not feel those infirmities half so keenly as he felt his own waning influence and the growing power of his young rival. He well knew that if he refused to do what was demanded of him his candlestick would be removed out of its place —a removal not to be contemplated with an equable mind. After much deliberation, he proved open to conviction, and accepted the responsibilities of the position. Having resolved himself on this point, he had no difficulty in accepting all other conditions, the most material of which involved an alliance with the French Canadian moderates, He accordingly lost no time in putting himself into communication with Mr. Morin, and submitting the project of a coalition between the two parties which they respectively represented, Mr. Morin, after conferring with some of his political friends, returned a favourable answer to the proposal; and it was then agreed that the ex-Ministerialists of Upper Canada should be

The Liberal-Conservative Alliance. 309

included in the arrangement, A platform was laid down which included the immediate secularization of the Clergy Reserves and the passing of a measure regulating the Seigniorial Tenure. Mr. Hincks's concurrence was obtained, and he agreed to secure the support of his Upper Canadian adherents upon the understanding that he himself should have the privilege of naming two members of the proposed Administration, by way of security that the platform agreed upon should be faithfully carried out. The gentlemen so named by him were John Ross and Robert Spence. The ex- Ministerialist members, as a body, were easily induced to enter into the arrangement. Being unable to carry on the Government without assistance, it was a mere question with them as to which party they should choose for their allies. They upon the whole preferred a Conservative alliance to one with the Radicals who had conspired to break up the great party to which they belonged, and whose policy they regarded as altogether too extreme for the country and the times.*

All negotiations having been completed, the new Government was sworn into office on the 11th of the month. It contained six members of the late Ministry and four Conservatives. Its composition was as follows :

UPPER CANADA

The Hon. Sir Allan N. MacNab, President of the Council and Minister of Agriculture.

* (The question that arose in the minds of the old Liberals was this : Shall we hand over the Government of this country to the men who, calling themselves Liberals, have broken up the Liberal party by the declaration of extravagant views, by the enunciation of principles far more radical and reckless than any we are prepared to accept, and by a restless ambition which we cannot approve ? Or shall we not rather unite with the Conservatives, who have gone to the country declaring, in reference to the great questions which then agitated it, that if the decision at the polls was agaï t them they would no longer offer resistance to their settlement, but would, on the contrary, assist in such a solution of them as would forever remove them from the sphere of public or politieal agitation ?”’—Speech of Mr, Thomas White Jr., delivered at L'Orignal, March 5th, 1874,

310 The Last Forty Years.

The Hon. John A. Macdonald, Attorney-General West. se “William Cayley, Inspector-General, ; “Robert Spence, Postmaster-General.

ñ “John Ross, Speaker of the Legislative Council.

LOWER CANADA

The Hon. A. N. Morin, Commissioner of Crown Lands.

4 “LT, Drummond, Attorney-General East.

# P.J. O0. Chauveau, Provincial Secretary.

è “ E. P. Taché, Receiver-General.

‘6 “°° J, Chabot, Commissioner of Public Works.

It will be seen that the Lower Canadian section of the Cabinet remained unaffected by the change of Ministry, and that Sir Allan MacNab now found himself seated side by side, and in daily fraternal intercourse with, those whom he had stigmatized as “rebels ind aliens” during the debates on the Rebellion Losses Bill Mr. Dunbar Ross, late Solicitor-General for Lower Canada, was reinstated in that position, and the corresponding office for Upper Canada was conferred upon Mr. Henry Smith, member for Frontenac, and a staunch Conservative.

The coalition thus formed is known to our history as the Mac- Nab-Morin Government. It was acquiesced in by nearly the entire Conservative party of both sections of the Province, and by an overwhelming majority of the ex-Ministerialists.* It received the approval of Robert Baldwin, whose opinions were still regarded with respect by the Liberal party generally, and who sent forth, from his quiet retreat at Spadina, a cordial letter to Mr. Hincks, in

* The only member of the late Ministry who disapproved of the new combination was Dr. Rolph, who had been regarded as ‘‘unsafe ” for some time before the resignation. He joined the ranks of the Opposition, but was not a specially conspicuous figure there. His Parliamentary career came to an end at the close of the then-existing Fifth Parliament, when he retired from public life. He survived until the 19th of October, 1870, when he died at Mitchell, in the County of Perth, at the advanced ag” of seventy-eight years.

The Liberal-Conservative Alliance. 311

which that gentleman was declared to have acted with judgment and discretion, in the interest of his party and his country. The Grits and Rouges felt themselves to have been out-manœuvred, and, as might have been expected, denounced the “ unholy alliance” as an utter abandonment of principle, owing to the want of accord between the political views of the members included in it. In spite of the strenuous efforts of the Opposition, however, the new Ministers were all successful in securing reëlection at the hands of their respective constituents, and the coalition received the support of a large majority of members from each section of the Province.

One important effect of the coalition was a practical annihilation of the two parties which had so long contended for the control of public affairs in Canada. The concession of Responsible Government had sounded the death-note of old-time Conservatism, which had ever since been dying from sheer inanition. Some of the ante- Union Tories clung to old party traditions with a tenacity which knew no abatement, but Mr. Macdonald and the more energetic spirits of the party had long perceived that a new departure was necessary, and the crisis of 1854 afforded the required opportunity for carrying it into effect. The hard-and-fast policy of former days was relaxed. It was recognized that Government was made for the people, and not people for the Government. The old Tories did not surrender without protest, and several of them, including John Hillyard Cameron, John W. Gamble and Edmund Murney, refused to acquiesce in the new doctrines. But with few exceptions modern ideas obtained the mastery. More liberal lines of policy were adopted, and the party underwent such a reorganization that it retained few vestiges of the Toryism that had been a distinguishing feature of the Government which, under varying names and phases, held the reins of power from the end of 1843 till the formation of the Liberal Administration in March, 1848. The remodelled party which then sprang into existence has ever since been known as

312 The Last Forty Years.

Liberal-Conservative. It formed the main strength of the coalition Administration of 1854, and for nineteen years thereafter it enjoyed an almost uninterrupted lease of power. By degrees it absorbed the more Conservative element in the old Liberal party which had acknowledged the leadership of Messieurs Baldwin and Lafontaine. The remainder of them were absorbed by the Opposition, and the Baldwin-Lafontaine Reformers, as a separate party, practically ceased to exist. The adoption by the Liberal-Conservatives of the Secularization and Seïigniorial Tenure measures left the old Reformers without any substantial excuse for a separate and distinct existence. Another result of the combination was the virtual extinction of the British party in Lower Canada as a separate political body. Ever since the Union that party had acted in unison with the Upper Canadian Conservatives. They now readily gave in their adhesion to the arrangements of the coalition Ministry, and for the future voted with the French Canadian majority.

It was no small thing that had been accomplished under the auspices of Mr. Macdonald and his confreres. Some idea of its direct results may be derived from the simple statement that whereas three-fourths of the Upper Canadian members had been returned in the Reform interest, they now found themselves supporting a Government which had really been brought about by their political opponents. And in the event of the Government promptly proceeding to redeem their pledges—pledges which included the whole of the ex-Ministerial programme—there would be no excuse for withdrawing a support which had been voluntarily accorded. As for the Lower Canadian Liberals, most of them felt much more at home with their new allies than they had ever done with their former ones. An alliance between the Upper Canadian Conservatives and the Lower Canadian Liberals had indeed long been foreseen, and would doubtless have taken place years before this time had it not been for the strong personal bond of union between Mr. Baldwin and Mr.

The Liberal-Conservative Alliance. 313

Lafontaine. And thus it came about that the coalition Government found themselves strong in the support of about two-thirds of the entire representation.

The various clauses of the Address in Reply were carried by large majorities. The legislative business was then proceeded with, Attorney-General Drummond introduced and carried through a Bill giving effect, on behalf of Canada, to the Reciprocity Treaty with the United States. Similar measures were soon afterwards passed by the Legislatures of the Maritime Provinces, and the treaty having also received the approval of the British Parliament and the American Congress, it came into effect in March, 1855. The other two great measures of the session were the Secularization and Seigniorial Tenure Bills. The former was introduced into the Assembly by Attorney-General Macdonald on the 17th of October. It was not precisely such a measure in all its details as the Upper Canadian Opposition would have framed. It was, however, a wise and statesmanlike piece of legislation, which finally set the long-pending dispute at rest, and at the same time paid due respect to vested interests. It will be remembered * that the Imperial Act of 1840 authorized a sale of the Reserves, and à distribution of the proceeds among the various religious bodies in unequal proportions. The Provincial measure now passed abolished all distinctions between those bodies by depriving them all alike—the Church of England as well as the rest—of any participation in the fund. It was enacted that the proceeds arising from all sales should be paid into the hands of the Receiver-General, by whom, after the deduction of expenses, they were to be apportioned equally among the several county and city municipalities, in proportion to population. The amount so apportioned was in each case to be paid over to the treasurer, chamberlain or other officer having the legal custody of

21 * Ante, p. 201.

314 The Last Forty Years.

the municipal funds, to form part of the general funds of the municipality, and to be applicable to ordinary municipal purposes. The annual stipends or allowances which had been charged upon the Reserves before the passing (in 1853) of the last Imperial Act on the subject were treated as vested interests which the faith of the Crown was pledged to support, and provision was accordingly made for their continued payment during the lives of existing incumbents. The Provincial Government were authorized to commute such stipends, with the consent of the parties interested, for their value in money. The authority was acted upon; and thus was laid the foundation for a small permanent endowment—an arrangement which roused the ire of the Opposition, but against which they contended in vain. Such, in brief, was the purport of the Clergy Reserves Secularization Act of 1854, which removed one of the greatest abuses to which the Province had ever been subjected. The Act respecting the Seigniorial Tenure was passed through its various stages almost pari passu with that respecting the Clergy Reserves. It underwent many and important amendments in the Legislative Council, which amendments were accepted by the Assembly, so that the measure, as finally passed, bore little resemblance to the Bill as originally introduced by Attorney- General Drummond. While abolishing all feudal rights and duties in Lower Canada, ‘“ whether bearing upon the censitaire or the seignior,” it secured compensation to the latter for the vested rights which he had acquired by lapse of time. The Governor was authorized to appoint commissioners to enquire into the respective rights of the Crown and the seigniors in the various seigniories, and to fix the respective values. A tribunal was provided for the determination of all questions arising out of the enquiry; and a commutation fund was set apart for the indemnification of the despoiled seigniors. It may here be aüded that five years elapsed before the labours of the commissioners were completed, whereupon it was found that a

The Liberul-Conservative Alliance. 315

small additional appropriation was required. Parliament granted the requisite sum, and this was the last of the Seigniorial Tenure.

The remaining legislation of the session calls for no particular remark. With the settlement of the two momentous questions just referred to, the last of the great reforms of other days were removed from the arena of Parliamentary controversy. The session came to a close on the 18th of December, when the Houses adjourned to the 23rd of the following February. Lord Elgin was just on the eve of taking his final departure from the Province, and his successor, Sir Edmund Head, had for some time been at Quebec, ready to assume his official duties.

His lordship relinquished the charge of the Government to his successor on the day following the adjournment. Three days later he set out for England, by way of New York, whence he sailed in the steamship Pacific on the 28th. He landed at Liverpool on the 9th day of the new year. Soon after his arrival at home he received an offer of the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the Cabinet, but he preferred to rest for a season from all official employment, and declined the post. He spent the greater part of the next two years in quiet retirement at Broomhall, the family seat in Fifeshire. But he was too useful à man to be permitted to remain in the obscurity of private life. The history of his mission to China and Japan in 1857, 58 and ’59, is well known through the narrative of his secretary, Mr. Lawrence Oliphant. Scarcely had he returned from this expedition ere he accepted the office of Postmaster-General in Lord Palmerstons Government. Fresh complications in the East rendered necessary a second mission to China on the part of his Lordship in the spring of 1860. Having accomplished the object of his mission, in conjunction with the emissaries of the French Government, by opening Pekin to British diplomacy, he returned to England in April, 1861. Almost immediately afterwards the Viceroyalty of India, which Lord Canning

316 The Last Forty Years.

was jus: about to vacate, was offered to him by the Government of the day. So splendid an appointment was not to be refused. He quitted England, never to return, towards the close of January, 1862. He reached Calcutta in March, and conducted the affairs of his Administration about twenty months: a period too short to enable him to master all the duties incidental to so important a position : but he continued the wise policy which had been inaugurated by his predecessor, Lord Canning, and had his life been spared he might well have added the crowning sheaf to the very high reputation which he had already attained. But he was not destined to further achievement. While making a Viceregal progress through the North-West Provinces of India, during the auturn of 1863, grave disease of the heart rapidly developed itself in : s system, and was doubtless seriously aggravated by the fatigue to which he was subjected at various stages of his journey. He died at Dhurmsala, under the shadow of the Himalayas, on the 20th of November, and was buried in the cemetery there, in a spot selected, at his request, by Lady Elgin herself,

His lordship’s life was over, and well over. “ Perhaps,” says a sympathetic but discriminating critic,* “the noblest part of the history of England is to be fouud in the recorded lives of those who have been her chosen servants, and who have died in that service, Self-control, endurance, and an heroic sense of duty are more conspicuous in such men than the love of action and fame. But their lives are the landmarks of our race. Lord Elgin, it is true, can hardly be ranked with the first of British statesmen, or orators, or commanders. His services, great as they unquestionably were, had all been performed under the orders of other men. Even among his own contemporaries he fills a place in the second rank. But happy are the country and the age in which such men are to be found in the second rank, and are content to be there.”

* See Edinburgh Review, January, 1873.

CHAPrER XXXV.