No one can look into futurity and say what will be the destiny of this country. Changes come over peoples and nations in the course of ages. But so far as we can legislate, we provide that for all time to come the sovereign of Great Britain shall be the sovereign of British North America.
And he went on to predict that the measure would not tend towards independence, but that the country, as it grew in wealth and population, would grow also in attachment to the crown and seek to preserve it. This prophecy, as we know, has proved true.
The fear of annexation to the United States figured likewise in the debate, but the condition of the Republic, so recently in the throes of civil war, was not such as to give rise to serious apprehension on that score. The national sentiment, however, which would naturally arise when the new state was constituted, was a proper subject for consideration, since it might easily result in a complete, if peaceful, revolution.
There were other uncertain factors in the situation which gave the opponents of Confederation an opportunity for destructive criticism. The measure was subjected to the closest scrutiny by critics who were well qualified to rouse any hostile feeling in the country if such existed. Weighty attacks came from dissentient Liberals like Dorion, Holton, and Sandfield Macdonald. A formidable opponent, too, was Christopher Dunkin, an independent Conservative, inspired, it may be supposed, by the distrust of constitutional change entertained by his immediate fellow-countrymen, the English minority in Lower Canada.
Brown bore the brunt of the attack from erstwhile allies and faced it in this fashion:
No constitution ever framed was without defect; no act of human wisdom was ever free from imperfection.... To assert then that our scheme is without fault, would be folly. It was necessarily the work of concession; not one of the thirty-three framers but had on some points to yield his opinions; and, for myself, I freely admit that I struggled earnestly, for days together, to have portions of the scheme amended.
This was reasonable ground to take and drew some of the sting from the criticism.
But all the criticism was not futile. Some of the defects pointed out bore fruit in the years that followed. As already stated, the financial terms were far from final, and a demand for larger subsidies had soon to be met. Friction between the federal and provincial powers arose in due course, but not precisely for the reasons given. The administration of the national business has cost more than was expected, and has not been free, to employ the ugly words used in these debates, from jobbery and corruption. The cost of a progressive railway policy has proved infinitely greater than the highest estimates put forth by the Fathers. The duty of forming a ministry so as to give adequate representation to all the provinces has been quite as difficult as Dunkin said it would be. To parcel out the ministerial offices on this basis is one of the unwritten conventions of the constitution, and has taxed the resources of successive prime ministers to the utmost. With all his skill, as we shall see later, Sir John Macdonald nearly gave up in despair his first attempt to form a ministry after Confederation. Yet it must be said, surveying the whole field, that the critics of the resolutions failed to make out a case.
Both in the Legislative Council and in the Assembly the resolution for a nominated second chamber caused much debate. But the elective principle was not defended with marked enthusiasm. By the Act of 1840 which united the Canadas the Council had been a nominated body solely. Its members received no indemnity; and, as some of them were averse from the political strife which raged with special fury until 1850, a quorum could not always be obtained. Sir Etienne Taché drew an affecting picture of the speaker frequently taking the chair at the appointed time, waiting in stiff and solemn silence for one hour by the clock, and at last retiring discomfited, since members enough did not appear to form a quorum. To remedy the situation the Imperial parliament had passed an Act providing for the election of a portion of the members. Fresh difficulties had then arisen. The electoral divisions had been largely formed by grouping portions of counties together; the candidates had found that physical endurance and a long purse were as needful to gain a seat in the Council as a patriotic interest in public affairs; and it had become difficult to secure candidates. This unsatisfactory experience of an elective upper chamber made it comparatively easy to carry the resolution providing for a nominated Senate in the new constitution.