Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

4. In order, however, to render this narrative intelligible, I must premise that for some time past the House of Assembly, as at present constituted, has been the object of bitter denunciation, and not unfrequently of reckless menace, on the part of a certain portion of the press of the province, and more especially of that of Montreal. Your Lordship will probably recollect that the body in question is the product of a general election which took place about 18 months ago, under the auspices of the political party now in opposition, and after a dissolution, to which I had recourse on their advice, for the purpose of strengthening them in their position as a Government. The result of this measure was in the last degree unfavourable to those who had recommended it; not, however, so much so in Lower Canada, where the complexion of the representation was little affected by the dissolution, as in the Upper Province, where several constituencies, among which were some of the most populous, rejected conservative in favour of liberal candidates. On a question of confidence raised at the commencement of the session, immediately after the general election, the Administration was defeated by a majority of more than two to one, and a change of Government, as a matter of course, ensued.

5. This alteration in the political complexion of the Assembly, and the change of Government consequent upon it, were therefore clearly and distinctly traceable to a revulsion of sentiment in the British constituencies of Upper Canada. In Lower Canada nothing had occurred to account for either. This circumstance has, however, failed to secure for the decisions of the popular representative body either forbearance or respect from a certain section of those who profess to be emphatically the supporters of British interests. To denounce the Parliament as French in its composition, and the Government as subject to French influences, has been their constant object, and the wildest doctrines have been broached with respect to the right which belongs to a British minority of redressing by violence any indignity to which it may be subjected from such a source. I have now before me an article that appeared in one of the principal English newspapers of Montreal at a very early period of the session, of which I transcribe the concluding paragraph, as illustrative of the temper and language in which, even at that time, and before the public mind had been excited by the discussion of the Rebellion Losses Bill, a portion of the press ventured to criticise the proceedings of the local Parliament. The article treats of a measure affecting the townships, to which, I believe, no great objection was raised in Parliament. It terminates, however, in the words "We are very glad of it-the sooner the cloven foot is made "visible the better; the obvious intention of that majority, composed of "Frenchmen, aided by traitorous British Canadians, is to force French in"stitutions still further upon the British minority in Lower Canada. The "intention is obvious, as we said, and we are glad that it is openly shown. "We trust that the party of the Government will succeed in every one of "their obnoxious measures. When French tyranny becomes insupportable "we shall find our Cromwell. Sheffield, in the olden times, used to be "famous for its keen and well-tempered whittles; well, they make bayonets "there now, just as sharp and just as well-tempered. When we can stand "tyranny no longer, it will be seen whether good bayonets in Saxon hands "will not be more than a match for a mace and a majority."

6. To persons accustomed to the working of constitutional government in well-ordered communities, it may seem incredible that such language should be employed by the organs of any respectable party in reference to a body comprising the freely-chosen representatives of a constituency. formed on a most popular basis; but the cause of the anomaly is apparent enough to all who are acquainted with the history of Canada. For a series of years the popular representative body and the Executive, supported by the Legislative Council, were, in the Lower Province especially, in a condition of almost constant antagonism. To revile the one was the surest test of patriotism; to denounce the other, of loyalty. In a society singularly democratic in its structure, where diversities of race supplied special elements of confusion, and where consequently it was most important that

constituted authority should be respected, the moral influence of law and Government was enfeebled by the existence of perpetual strife between the powers that ought to have afforded to each other a mutual support. No state of affairs could be imagined less favourable to the extinction of national animosities, and to the firm establishment of the gentle and benignant control of those liberal institutions which it is England's pride and privilege to bestow upon her children.

7. I am not without hope that a steady adherence to the principles of constitutional government, and the continuance of harmony between the co-ordinate branches of the Legislature, may lead in process of time to the correction of these evils; meanwhile, however, I must ascribe mainly to the cause which I have assigned the tone of arrogant defiance with which the resolutions, not of the Government only, but also of the Parliament are treated by parties who happen for the moment to be unable to make their views prevail with either, and the acts of violence to which this inflammatory language has in the present instance led.

8. That many persons conscientiously disapprove of the measure respecting rebellion losses in Lower Canada which has been introduced by the Government, and which the local Parliament has passed by large majorities, and that in the minds of others it stirs national antipathies and recollections of former conflicts, which designing politicians seek to improve to their own selfish ends, cannot I fear, be doubted. It is therefore emphatically a measure which should have been approached with calmness and caution, by all at least who are not directly interested in the issue. Unfortunately, however, this has been by no means the case. Not only have appeals to passion of the most reckless description proceeded from the local press, but they have received encouragement from quarters from which they had little right to look for it. Passages such as the following, in which a London journal of influence treats of the British population as affected by the measure in question:-"They are tolerably able to take "care of themselves, and we very much misconstrue the tone adopted by the "English press and English public in the province if they do not find some "means of resisting the heavy blow and great discouragement which is "aimed at them," are read with avidity, and construed to mean that sympathy will be extended from influential quarters at home to those who seek to annul the obnoxious decision of the local Legislature, whatever be the means to which they resort for the attainment of that end.

9. The scenes by which the city of Montreal has been lately disgraced, are the natural fruits of an agitation of this character, operating on a people of excitable temper, who have been taught to believe that a race which they despise, and over which they have been wont to exercise dominion, has obtained through the operation of a constitutional system an authority which it could not otherwise have acquired. Hence, more especially, their vehement indignation against me personally, and the conviction, in many cases I doubt not perfectly sincere, that I have been guilty of a serious dereliction of duty because I have not, as my predecessors have often done before me, consented to place myself in the front of an agitation to counteract the policy of Parliament. The nature of the constitutional doctrines which practically obtain in this section of the community is curiously exemplified by the fact, that it is not the passage of the Bill by an overwhelming majority of the representatives of the people, or the acquiescence of the Council, but the consent of the Governor which furnishes the pretext for an exhibition of popular violence.

10. When I left the House of Parliament after giving the Royal Assent to several Bills, to which I have referred, I was received with mingled cheers and hootings by a crowd by no means numerous which surrounded the entrance to the building. A small knot of individuals consisting, it has since been ascertained, of persons of a respectable class in society pelted the carriage with missiles which they must have brought with them for the purpose. Within an hour after this occurrence, a notice, of which I enclose a copy, issued from one of the newspaper offices, calling a meeting in the open air. At the meeting inflammatory speeches were made.

On a sudden, whether under the effect of momentary excitement, or in pursuance of a plan arranged beforehand, the mob proceeded to the House of Parliament where the members were still sitting, and breaking the windows set fire to the building and burned it to the ground. By this wanton act public property of considerable value, including two excellent libraries, has been utterly destroyed. Having achieved their object the crowd dispersed, apparently satisfied with what they had done. The members were permitted to retire unmolested, and no resistance was offered to the military who appeared on the ground after a brief interval, to restore order, and aid in extinguishing the flames. During the two following days a good deal of excitement prevailed in the streets, and some further acts of incendiarism were perpetrated. Since then the military force has been increased, and the leaders of the disaffected party have shown a disposition to restrain their followers, and to direct their energies towards the more constitutional object of petitioning the Queen for my recall, and the disallowance of the obnoxious Bill. The proceedings of the House of Assembly will also tend to awe the turbulent. I trust, therefore, that the peace of the city will not be again disturbed. The newspapers which I enclose contain full, and I believe pretty accurate, accounts of all that has occurred since Wednesday last.

11. The Ministry are blamed for not having made adequate provision against these disasters; that they by no means expected that the hostility to the Rebellion Losses Bill would have displayed itself in the outrages which have been perpetrated during the last few weeks is certain. Perhaps sufficient attention was not paid by them to the menaces of the opposition press. It must be admitted, however, that their position was one of considerable difficulty. The civil force of Montreal-a city containing about 50,000 inhabitants of different races, with secret societies and other agencies of mischief in constant activity-consists of two policemen under the authority of the Government, and seventy appointed by the Corporation. To oppose, therefore, effectual resistance to any considerable mob, recourse must be had in all cases either to the military or to a force of civilians enrolled for the occasion. Grave objections, however, presented themselves in the present instance to the adoption of either of these courses until the disposition to tumult on the part of the populace unhappily manifested itself in overt acts. More especially was it of importance to avoid any measure which might have had a tendency to produce a collision between parties on a question on which their feelings were so strongly excited. The result of the course pursued is, that there has been no bloodshed, and, except in the case of some of the ministers themselves, no destruction of private property.

12. The proceedings in the Assembly have been important. I enclose the copy of an address which has been voted to me by a majority of 36 to 16, expressive of abhorrence at the outrages which have taken place in the city of Montreal, of loyalty to the Queen, and approval of my just and impartial administration of the Government with my late as well as my present advisers. Some of the opposition approve of the course which I have taken with respect to the Rebellion Losses Bill, as appears from the speeches of Messrs. Wilson and Galt, of which reports are given in the newspapers which I enclose. Mr. Wilson is an influential member of the Upper Canada conservative party, and Mr. Galt's views are the more important, because he has been returned to Parliament only a few days ago by a Lower Canadian constituency which comprises a large British population. Generally, however, as the amendments they have moved to the address show, they desire to avoid committing themselves on this point. The votes against the Address may be thus classed: Sir A. M'Nab and his party; my late ministers and their party; and Mr. Papineau. The first acts with perfect consistency in voting as he has done on this question; for he has always contended that government conducted on British principles is unsuited to Canada. The course of the second class is less intelligible; for, until the day on which they resigned their offices into my hands, they uniformly expressed approval of the principles on which my

conduct as Governor-General was guided; and these, as your Lordship well knows, have undergone no change with the change of administration. Mr. Papineau's vote conveys a useful lesson which will not, I trust, be lost on persons who had been induced to believe that the persecution of which I am now the object is really attributable to my having shown undue lenity to those who were led by him into rebellion.

13. I have now furnished your Lordship with as clear a statement of these important occurrences as I can give, and I can conclude by assuring you that the city is perfectly tranquil, and that there is no present likelihood of a renewal of disturbances. A few days will show what echo the proceedings of the violent party awaken in Upper Canada, and to what extent they are followed by reaction. Meanwhile it is my firm conviction that if this dictation be submitted to, the government of this province by constitutional means will be impossible, and that the struggle between overbearing minorities, backed by force, and majorities resting on legality and established forms, which has so long proved the bane of Canada, driving capital from the province, and producing a state of chronic discontent, will be perpetuated. At the same time, I think that if I am unable to recover that position of dignified neutrality between contending parties which it has been my unremitting study to maintain, and from which I would appear to have been for the moment driven-not, as I firmly believe, through any fault of my own, but by the unreasoning violence of faction-it may be a question with your Lordship whether it would not be for the interests of Her Majesty's service that I should be removed from my high office to make way for one who should not indeed hold views at variance with mine with respect to the duties of a constitutional Governor, but who should have the advantage of being personally unobnoxious to any section of Her Majesty's subjects within the province.

[blocks in formation]

Lord John's speech' on the colonies seems to have been eminently successful at home. It is calculated, too, I think, to do good in the colonies; but for one sentence, the introduction of which I deeply implore-the sting in the tail. Alas for that sting in the tail! I much fear that when the liberal and enlightened sentiments, the enunciation of which by one so high in authority is so well calculated to make the colonists sensible of the advantages which they derive from their connection with Great Britain, shall have passed away from their memories, there will not be wanting those who will remind them that, on this solemn occasion, the Prime Minister of England, amid the plaudits of a full senate, declared that he looked forward to the day when the ties which he was endeavouring to render so easy and mutually advantageous would be severed. wherefore this foreboding? or, perhaps, I ought not to use the term foreboding, for really to judge by the comments of the press on this declaration of Lord John's, I should be led to imagine that the prospect of these sucking democracies, after they have drained their old mother's life-blood, leaving her in the lurch, and setting up as rivals, just at the time when their increasing strength might render them a support instead of a burden, is one of the most cheering which has of late presented itself to the English imagination. But wherefore then this anticipaiton-if foreboding be not

And

1 On February 8, 1850, Lord John Russell delivered a speech in the House of Commons in which he anticipated colonial independence, and stated that in making the colonies fit for such an event England would "have the consolation of saying that [she had] contributed to the happiness of the world."

the correct term? Because Lord John and the people of England persist in assuming that the Colonial relation is incompatible with maturity and full development. And is this really so incontestable a truth that it is a duty not only to hold but to proclaim it? Consider for a moment what is the effect of proclaiming it in our case. We have on this continent two great empires in presence, or rather, I should say, two great Imperial systems. In many respects there is much similarity between them. In so far as powers of self-government are concerned it is certain that our colonists in America have no reason to envy the citizens of any state in the Union. The forms differ, but it may be shown that practically the inhabitants of Canada have a greater power in controlling their own destiny than those of Michigan or New York, who must tolerate a tariff imposed by twenty other states, and pay the expenses of war undertaken for objects which they profess to abhor. And yet there is a difference between the two cases; a difference, in my humble judgment, of sentiment rather than substance, which renders the one a system of life and strength, and the other a system of death and decay. No matter how raw and rude a territory may be when it is admitted as a state into the Union of the United States, it is at once, by the popular belief, invested with all the dignity of manhood, and introduced into a system which, despite the combativeness of certain ardent spirits from the South, every American believes and maintains to be immortal. But how does the case stand with us? No matter how great the advance of a British colony in wealth and civilisation; no matter how absolute the powers of self-government conceded to it, it is still taught to believe that it is in a condition of pupilage from which it must pass before it can attain maturity. For one, I have never been able to comprehend why, elastic as our constitutional system is, we should not be able, now more especially when we have ceased to control the trade of our colonies, to render the links which bind them to the British Crown at least as lasting as those which unite the component parts of the Union. . . .... One thing is, however, indispensable to the success of this or any other system of Colonial Government. You must renounce the habit of telling the Colonies that the Colonial is a provisional existence. You must allow them to believe that, without severing the bonds which unite them to Great Britain, they may attain the degree of perfection, and of social and political development, to which organised communities of free men have a right to aspire.

Since I began this letter I have, I regret to say, confirmatory evidence of the justice of the anticipations I had formed of the probable effect of Lord John's declaration. I enclose extracts from two newspapers, an annexationist, the Herald of Montreal, and a quasi annexationist, the Mirror of Toronto. You will note the use they make of it. I was more annoyed, however, I confess, by what occurred yesterday in Council. We had to determine whether or not to dismiss from his offices a gentleman who is both M.P.P., Q.C., and J.P., and who has issued a flaming manifesto in favour, not of annexation, but of an immediate declaration of independence as a step to it. I will not say anything of my own opinion on the case, but it was generally contended by the members of the Board, that it would be impossible to maintain that persons who had declared their intention to throw off their allegiance to the Queen, with a view to annexation, were unfit to retain offices granted during pleasure, if persons who made a similar declaration with a view to independence were to be differently dealt with. Baldwin had Lord John's speech in his hand. He is a man of singularly placid demeanour, but he has been seriously ill, so possibly his nerves are shaken-at any rate I never saw him so much moved. "Have you read the latter part of Lord J. Russell's speech?" he said to me. I nodded assent. "For myself," he added, "if the anticipations therein ex"pressed prove to be well founded, my interest in public affairs is gone for "ever. But is it not hard upon us while we are labouring, through good "and evil report, to thwart the designs of those who would dismember the "Empire, that our adversaries should be informed that the difference be"tween them and the Prime Minister of England is only one of time?

« AnteriorContinuar »