A caricature history of Canadian politics

by J. W. Bengough

From the date of the English conquest of Quebec and the Treaty of Paris (1763) down to the year at which the present brief historical sketch opens, (1841), the history of Canada is a story of unrest and agitation. The old-world simplicity and pious contentment of the French habitant was intruded upon by the advent of the more enterprising Briton, and ere long the inevitable struggle began. The French Canadian, whose language, laws and religion had been specially reserved to him by the Treaty, was not unnaturally apprehensive of the consequences of English domination, and with a new-born energy he awoke to the defence of his rights. His English fellow-colonist having discovered that the governmental arrangements were too primitive and narrow for the comfort of one who had formerly lived under the British constitution, lost no time in commencing the agitation for reform. In some of his views—outside of the sacred reservation referred to—his French neighbor joined him. Hand in hand they protested against the infringement of their common rights by the Governor and his Council, and demanded changes in the constitution. Meantime the English element was growing in the country west of Montreal, by emigration from the old land, and accessions of Loyalists from the newly-established Republic of the United States. The superiority of the British settler soon made itself manifest in the material conquests which he achieved over the forests. The new English Province rapidly surpassed the old French one in prosperity, and the flames of jealousy were rekindled. Ultimate ruin of the colony from internecine strife seemed inevitable unless some adequate remedy could be found. The separation of the rival races naturally suggested itself as that remedy, and as they were already practically divided geographically—the number of English settlers in the French Province being comparatively small—great hopes were built upon a similar division politically. The Imperial Government accordingly in 1791 passed the Constitutional Act, by which the country was divided into the two Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, each being granted a representative form of government and a constitution supposed to be suited to its population. The governmental machinery provided for each Province under this Act was a Governor, appointed by the Crown, and responsible to the Imperial authorities alone; a Legislative Council, appointed for life by the Governor, and a Legislative Assembly, elected by the people on a suffrage almost universal. The executive functions of the supposedly popular branch of this governmental system were nominally vested in a committee known as the Executive Council, the members of which were selected by the Governor, usually from the judiciary, the membership of the Legislative Council, and the ranks of salaried officials. Practically the Governor himself was the real executive, as his Council thus chosen (and responsible only to himself as representative of the Crown) was regarded by him merely as an advisory committee in grave matters of policy, but as possessing no control over appointments to office, and the various other matters, which under our present system appertain to the executive. This proved a fatal weakness. In both Provinces the Executive Councils gradually drifted away from the sympathy of the people as represented in the Assemblies. The breach became wider and wider, until at length the discontent of the people terminated in open rebellion (1838).

At this juncture the Imperial Government appointed Lord Durham to proceed to Canada and report upon the state and requirements of the country, civil and military. After five months spent in investigation, Lord Durham prepared his celebrated Report, which was duly submitted to the government of Lord John Russell (1839). In this document a legislative union of the Provinces was recommended, and the Home Government proceeded without delay to carry the recommendation into effect. It was thought desirable, however, to secure the assent of the people of the Provinces before passing the Union measure, and for this purpose Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson (afterwards Lord Sydenham), was despatched to Canada. On his arrival (17th October, 1839) he found Lower Canada without an Assembly—that body having been superseded by a Select Council appointed by Lord Durham’s successor in the governorship—Sir John Colborne. This Council being chiefly composed of adherents of the British party readily gave the required assent, and subsequently the Upper Canada Assembly and Legislative Council acquiesced. A draft Union Act was forthwith prepared and forwarded to England, and a measure founded upon it was at once passed.

By this Act, the country was renamed the Province of Canada, and the governmental machinery provided was, a Governor, representing the Crown, a Legislative Council of 24, to be appointed for life, and an assembly of 84 members, to be elected by the people, and executing its business through a Responsible Government. This Act went into effect in the year 1841, when the first United Parliament met at Kingston, which had been chosen as the Capital by the Governor. The first session passed off in a manner which on the whole promised well for the new system, although it was made manifest that the people of Quebec regarded the Union as a scheme to which they had not assented—the Special Council, which had acted for them in the matter, having been in no sense a truly representative body. The session was chiefly remarkable, however, for a distinct pledge given by the Ministry—though with apparent reluctance—that the Government would fully acknowledge its responsibility to the people as that term was understood under the British constitution. This was regarded as a signal victory by the advocates of the responsible system, as the first Cabinet was composed of mixed elements—some of its leading members having been known as pronounced opponents of “Responsibility.” The fact that there was no French representative in the Ministry augmented the discontent of Lower Canada, but the election of one of their trusted compatriots to the speakership did something to mollify this feeling.

(From Punch in Canada, after the attack by the mob on Lord Elgin, 1849.)

The Governor-General, who, for his services in connection with the Union, had been raised to the Peerage, under the title of Lord Sydenham, was in delicate health at the time of the first session of the House, and died before the second session began, his end being hastened by an accident which befel him while taking his customary horseback exercise. It was some months before the Home Government appointed a successor to the vice-royalty, and during the interregnum the affairs of the Province were administered by Lieut.-General Sir Richard Jackson, commander of the forces in Canada. Meantime, Sir Robert Peel had succeeded to power in England, and, as a natural consequence, the new Governor-General was selected from the Conservative ranks. The choice fell upon Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Bagot, who was known in Imperial politics as a “High Tory,” and was a man of acknowledged ability and wide diplomatic experience. The friends of Responsible Government in Canada were apprehensive of bad consequences to the newly inaugurated system as a result of this appointment, but their fears were in due time dispelled, as Sir Charles proved a thoroughly constitutional Governor. Indeed, so conscientiously did he keep within the exact limits of his powers throughout his term of office, that his only enemies were amongst the reactionary section of the Canadian Tory party. The new Governor, when he met Parliament in 1842, found the Sydenham Government still in office, though manifestly weak in the House, and almost certain of defeat on the first opportunity offered. A Kingston paper of the day described this Cabinet as follows: “Instead of being a coalition of moderate men it is a coalition of fierce extremes. How they can meet at the Council Board and not laugh in each other’s faces if in merry mood, or come to fisticuffs if in angry one, must be an eighth wonder of the world.” In Parliament they were earnestly opposed on the one hand by the old-line Conservatives, under the leadership of Sir Allan Macnab and Mr. John S. Cartwright, member for Lennox and Addington, and on the other hand by the Upper Canada Reformers and Radicals, under Hon. Robt. Baldwin, in alliance with the French Canadian members, who acknowledged Louis Hypolite Lafontaine as their leader. This distinguished gentleman now entered the Union Parliament for the first time, sitting for the fourth riding of York, for which constituency he had been elected on the personal introduction of Mr. Baldwin. A motion of no confidence was moved early in the session, but, instead of allowing the vote to be taken, the Cabinet resolved upon a reconstruction, and after considerable difficulty this was effected by the retirement of three of the Conservative members, and the accession in their stead of Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Lafontaine and Mr. Morin, the two latter being the first French representatives admitted to seats in the Cabinet. With the second session ended the career of the second Governor-General. Sir Charles Bagot was through illness obliged to relinquish the post. His successor was Sir Charles T. Metcalf, late of India and Jamaica, who assumed office in Canada, March 30th, 1843. Sir Charles Bagot died on the 19th of May following, at Kingston. The new Governor-General entered upon his duties with a high reputation for ability, rectitude and independence of mind, and a record which marked him as a Liberal statesman. His eastern experiences and training, however, were against the probability of his success in his new sphere, for a colonial application of Responsible Government was one of those things he did not understand. The Cabinet that saluted him on his arrival is known in our history as the Lafontaine-Baldwin Ministry, and on the assembling of the third session, it was found that this reconstructed Government commanded a large majority in the House. The weakness of the Opposition, composed as it was, in Sir Chas. Metcalf’s opinion, of representatives of “the only party in the country upon whom the mother country might confidently rely in the hour of need,” evoked the sympathy of the new Governor, and it was not long before the cordiality between him and some of the members of the administration began to wane. It became apparent that the Governor was not disposed to interpret “Responsible Government” to mean that the Governor-General was a mere figure-head. He claimed the right to exercise a certain amount of patronage on his own account, and asserted that his responsibility in various matters was to the Imperial authorities directly and not to the people of Canada through his ministers. Sir Charles’ ardent wish was to obliterate the strong party lines and allay the rancorous hostilities around him, and it is evident that he thought to effect these good ends by appointing Conservatives to various offices as opportunity might offer. In the meantime, while outwardly at peace with his ministers, the Governor openly cultivated very friendly relations with prominent members of the Opposition party.

The session of 1843 began on the 28th of September, and was signalized by a long and hot debate on the subject of the removal of the seat of Government, the ministry having decided to establish the capital at Montreal. The vote finally taken showed a good majority in favor of the removal, though as one consequence of it, Mr. Jameson, Speaker of the Legislative Council, resigned his seat. This resignation assumed some importance as a factor in the developments of the near future, when it came to the knowledge of the ministry that the vacant chair had been offered by the Governor-General—acting, of course, without their advice—to a prominent Conservative, Mr. L. P. Sherwood, and subsequently to another opponent of the Government, Mr. Neilson, of Quebec. Prior to this discovery, however, His Excellency appointed one Mr. Francis Powell (also a Conservative) to the position of Clerk of the Peace for Dalhousie District—of which action he subsequently informed his ministers in a note. This little missive was the signal for a long and stubborn contest, in which the very principles of Responsible Government were considered by the Reform Party to be at stake.

The Cabinet at once deputed Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin to wait upon the Governor-General, and to represent to him that in their view the exercise of the prerogatives of the Crown without reference to the responsible ministry was contrary to the letter and spirit of the resolutions of 1841, in which Responsible Government in its fullest sense had been affirmed as the new Canadian constitution. That the Governor possessed certain prerogatives of appointment to office, etc., they did not deny, but they insisted that before exercising any of these the system required him to consult his advisers, who, if they could not approve, had the alternative of resigning. Sir Charles Metcalfe could not be brought to take this view of his duty; on the contrary, he regarded it as derogatory to the dignity of the Crown to accept such a condition, which, he contended, was not contained in the Resolutions of 1841, as he interpreted them. In this position, which he maintained throughout the contest, the Governor appears to have been upheld by Lord Stanley, the Colonial Secretary in the Home Government. The conference having been without result—except to make the attitude of the Governor perfectly clear—all the members of the Government, excepting Mr. Dominic Daly, Provincial Secretary for Lower Canada, resigned their portfolios. A prolonged debate ensued in the House, which was brought to a close by the passage of the following resolution by a vote of 64 to 23: Moved by Mr. Price, seconded by Mr. Benjamin Holmes, “That an humble address be presented to His Excellency, humbly representing to His Excellency the deep regret felt by this House at the retirement of certain members of the Provincial Administration on the question of the right to be consulted on what the House unhesitatingly avow to be the prerogative of the Crown, appointments to office; and further to assure His Excellency that the advocacy of this principle entitles them to the confidence of this House, being in strict accordance with the principles embraced in the resolution adopted by this House on the 3rd of September, 1841.” Parliament rose on December 9th, and the country was thus left without any regular Ministry, in which condition it practically remained for some nine months. In the meantime, Mr. D. B. Viger, a prominent French Canadian, and Mr. Draper (afterwards Chief Justice) had been prevailed upon to join Mr. Daly—and for the greater portion of the period mentioned this semblance of a Cabinet were the only advisers of the Governor. These months, as may easily be supposed, were filled up with vociferous debate on the platform and through the press. The Conservative Party very generally sided with the Governor, and he was not without many able defenders of the course he had taken; on the other hand he was violently denounced and even defamed by the Liberals, who looked upon him and his sympathisers as the deliberate enemies of popular rights. It was during this “interregnum,” i.e., on the 5th of March, 1844, that the Toronto Globe made its first appearance as an organ of the Liberal Party under the editorship of Mr. Peter Brown and his subsequently famous son, George, and it was the struggle then going on which paved the way for the public career of the younger man. Mr. Viger exerted his utmost influence to win the Lower Canadians to the Governor’s side, but in this he signally failed, and when at length after vast trouble the vacant Cabinet places had been filled up, it was so evident that they could command no following in the House that a dissolution and general election were decided upon. The result of this contest—which was bitter beyond precedent—was a small majority for the Government in the Parliament of 1844. Amongst the newly-elected members was Mr. (now Sir) John A. Macdonald, who was returned as Member for Kingston. Mr. Draper resigned his seat in the Legislative Council to assume the leadership of the Government, and it required all his acknowledged ability to weather the storm of the Session, for meantime the Lafontaine-Baldwin Party was steadily gaining strength. While matters were in this precarious condition, the Governor-General was obliged on account of ill health to resign his office, and return to England. Ere leaving Canada he was raised to the Peerage with the title Baron Metcalfe of Fern Hill, but he had worn his new honors but a few months before death relieved him of his sufferings (5th September, 1846). Whatever may be thought of Lord Metcalfe’s political views or actions, all who are authorized to speak of him personally agree in describing him as a most generous, kindly and lovable man. Earl Cathcart, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in Canada, succeeded to the Governor-Generalship after a brief period as Administrator, and under his rule the struggle between the parties continued.

“FRENCH DOMINATION.”
(From Punch in Canada.)