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EGERTON RYERSON

THE MAKERS OF CANADA
EGERTON RYERSON

BY
NATHANAEL BURWASH

TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1912

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada
in the yea/r 1903, by George N. Morang and Company,
Li/mited, in ihe DepartTuent of AgricuUwre

PREFACE
THIS book does not profess to be either a
minute biography or a detailed history. It is
the presentation to our countrymen of the various
aspects of the work of a great man who has left his
impress upon several of the important institutions
of our province, and in each case for good. In these
sketches we have made no attempt, except in the
first brief chapter, to trace the record, either of his
personal or public life, or the development of his
character, or the lessons which might be gathered
from the example of his life. We have rather con
sidered his work as one of the makers of Canada,
and necessarily with that, something of the great
movements of the days in which he lived. The sub
ject is a noble one, and we must acknowledge that
we have done it but scant justice.
The volume is the product of joint labour with
my life-long friend and colleague, Dr. A. H.
Reynar. He has specially prepared the first chapter

PREFACE
dealing with the early life and ministry of Dr.
Ryerson, and the eleventh, dealing with the literary
work of Dr. Ryerson.
We must both acknowledge our constant indebt
edness to the indefatigable labours of Dr. J. George
Hodgins, LL.D. The rich storehouse of historic
material which he is accumulating in his many
works will place all future labourers in this field
under lasting obligations.
With the hope that our work may prove useful
to the thousands who in our schools are now reap
ing the advantages of Dr. Ryerson's labours, we
commit it to our fellow-citizens of Ontario. N. BURWASH.
Victoria College, Feb. SSth, 1901.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I Page
EARLY LIFE AND MINISTRY . . .1
CHAPTER II
RELIGION AND POLITICS IN UPPER CANADA IN 1826 29
CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUAL
RIGHTS ..... 61
CHAPTER IV
A METHODIST PRESS AND A METHODIST COLLEGE 81
CHAPTER V
MR. RYERSON IN THE POLITICAL ARENA . . 107
CHAPTER ri
THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION ... 133
CHAPTER VII
FOUNDING THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM . . 163

CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII Page
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM . 189
CHAPTER IX
THE SEPARATE SCHOOL QUESTION . . 216
CHAPTER X
THE GRAMMAR OR HIGH SCHOOLS . . 247
CHAPTER XT
LATER LITERARY WORK . . . 269
CHAPTER XIX
LATER CHURCH WORK AND CLOSING DAYS . 281
INDEX . . , , . .299

CHAPTER I
EARLY LIFE AND MINISTRY
Fr his book entitled "The Story of My Life,"
Dr. Ryerson speaks thus of his birth and par
entage: "I was born on March 24th, 1803, in the
township of Charlotteville, near the village of Vit-
toria, in the then London district, now the county
of Norfolk. My father had been an officer in the
British army during the American Revolution,
being a volunteer in the Prince of Wales' Regi
ment of New Jersey, of which place he was a
native. His forefathers were from Holland, and his
more remote ancestors were from Denmark. At
the close of the American revolutionary war, he,
with many others of the same class, went to New
Brunswick, where he married my mother, whose
maiden name was Stickney, a descendant of one of
the early Massachusetts Puritan settlers. Near the
close of the last century, my father with his family
followed an elder brother to Canada, where he
drew some 2,500 acres of land from the govern
ment for his services in the army, besides his
pension." Believers in the strong influence of heredity wUl
say that the child of such parents should inherit a
nature, sturdy, militant, and loyal on the one hand,
1

EGERTON RYERSON
and on the other hand, earnest, inward and devout.
Those again who magnify the influence of nurture
in the making of the man will find support for
their view in the following statement of this man,
so distinguished as one of the makers of Canada:
"That to which I am principally indebted for any
studious habits, mental energy, or even capacity or
decision of character, is religious instruction, poured
into my mind in my childhood by a mother's coun
sels, and infused into my heart by a mother's
prayers and tears. When very small, under six
years of age, having done something naughty, my
mother took me into her bed-room, told me how
bad and wicked what I had done was and what
pain it caused her, kneeled down, clasped me to
her bosom and prayed for me. Her tears, falling
upon my head, seemed to penetrate to my very
heart. This was my first religious impression, and
was never effaced. Though thoughtless and full
of playful mischief, I never afterwards knowingly
grieved my mother, or gave her other than respect
ful and kind words." Such is the beautiful tribute
that the old man, full of years and honours, pays
to the mother that looked on his chUdhood.
"Happy he
With such a mother ! Faith in womankind
Beats in his blood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and though he trip and fall.
He shall not blind hia soul with clay."
Whatever heredity alone may do or fail to do, and
2

EARLY SETTLERS
however the influences of early training alone may
make or mar the man, it is impossible to think that
the nature and the nurture that combined to bless
the early life of Egerton Ryerson could fail to lead
him to a place amongst the great and good.
The life of the first settler is sometimes described
as a life of many hardships and few privileges. But
except in a few cases and for a short time, the hard
ships were not more than enough to make the people
hardy, and their privations were less dangerous and
hurtful than the ease and plenty that so often leave
the body and the mind without struggle, and there
fore without strength. And as for the comparative
dearth of instruction in the early times, it may be
doubted whether the present generation, beschooled
and bechurched as it often is, and oppressed with
the surfeit and disgust of learning, has after all so
great an advantage over the people of the earlier
time. Then, the schools and the churches may have
been few and far between, but there was a better
relish and digestion of the simpler moral and intel
lectual, fare. It was in those times of hard work and
few privileges that the boyhood of Egerton Ryer
son was passed. He teUs us that he learned to do
all kinds of farm work. And before he had reached
his majority he "ploughed every acre of ground for
the season, cradled every stalk of wheat, rye, and
oats, and mowed every spear of grass, pitched the
whole first on a wagon, and then from the wagon
to the hay-mow or stack." Well might he look
3

EGERTON RYERSON
back without regret to the hardships of his youth,
if they built up the well-knit frame and much-
enduring strength that marked his manhood and
his age.
The story of Egerton Ryerson's school days is
not long. He had such advantages from the district
grammar school as might be had in those days by a
boy who was at the same time learning "to do aU
kinds of farm work," and when he was fourteen
years of age he was sent to attend a course of
lectures "given by two professors, the one an Eng
lishman and the other an American, who taught
nothing but English grammar." Into this study he
threw himself with great enthusiasm, and he made
such progress that his instructors were glad to secure
his help as a teacher when one of them was incapaci
tated by illness. In this way the chief maker of the
Ontario school system tried his prentice hand as a
teacher when a lad of only fifteen summers. Further
instruction from teachers was not given him in his
boyhood, but as soon as he reached his majority
and had the direction of his own life, he sought for
himself the best help available in the pursuit of
learning. In the story of his life he writes: "I felt a
strong desire to pursue further my classical studies,
and determined, with the kind counsel and aid of
my eldest brother, to proceed to Hamilton and
place myself for a year under the tuition of a man
of high reputation both as a scholar and a teacher,
the late John Law, Esq., then headmaster of the
4

FIRST SCHOOLS
Gore district grammar school. I apphed myself
with such ardour, and prepared such an amount of
work, both in Latin and Greek, that Mr. Law said
it was impossible for him to give the time and hear
me read all that I had prepared, and that he would
therefore examine me on the translation and con
struction of the more difficult passages, remarking
more than once that it was impossible for any
human mind to sustain long the strain that I was
imposing upon mine. In the course of some six
months his apprehensions were realized, as I was
seized with a brain fever, and on partially recover
ing took cold, which resulted in inflammation of
the lungs, by which I was so reduced that my
physician pronounced my case hopeless, and death
was hourly expected." From this illness he slowly
recovered, thanks to his good constitution and to
his mother's care. He took up his classical studies
again, but almost immediately afterwards began his
work as a Methodist preacher. This is aU the story
of the schooling received by one who for so many
years, and wdth so great distinction at home and
abroad, directed, and indeed created, the school
system of Ontario.
The story of the moral development of a young
life is always interesting, but it is peculiarly so in
the case of a man who may be regarded as a type.
Such a man was the subject of this memoir. He
furnishes an example of the development of the
religious life in one who has grown up under the
5

EGERTON RYERSON
influences of Christian nurture, and at the same
time an example of the way in which that life is
unfolded under the conditions found in the great
religious body to which he belonged, and to which
his talents and energies were given as an honoured
leader for nearly three score years. We have already
seen what he tells us of the religious influences and
impressions of his childhood. At the age of twelve,
when the passive and receptive stage is rising into
the stage of more serious reflection and more active
self-determination, he passed into a higher form of
religious life, a hfe in which he not merely accepted
the traditional teachings as to sin and salvation,
but realized in his own soul the profound interests
of the moral life, and bravely took up its struggle,
trusting all the issues of this life and of the great
hereafter to the High God and to Jesus Christ, who
had made His mercy known. He tells of the change
that took place in these words: "My consciousness
of guilt and sinfulness was humbling, oppressive
and distressing; and my experience of rehef, after
lengthened fastings, watchings, and prayers, was
clear, refreshing, and joyous. In the end I simply
trusted in Christ and looked to Him for a present
salvation; and as I looked up in my bed the light
appeared to my mind, and, as I thought, to my
bodily eye also, in the form of one, white-robed,
and with more of the expression of the countenance
of Titian's Christ than of any person I have ever
seen. I turned, rose to my knees, bowed my head
6

CONVERSION
and covered my face, rejoiced with trembling, say
ing to a brother who was lying beside me that the
Saviour was now near us. The change within was
more marked than anything without, and perhaps
the inward change may have suggested what ap
peared an outward manifestation."
It may be interesting to compare this experience
with that of Thomas Carlyle, who at about the
same time was passing through the pangs of a
belated and abnormal spiritual birth. He tells the
story in the Sartor Resartus, and he says it actually
took place in his own experience. "The heart within
me, unvisited by any heavenly dewdrop, was smoul
dering in sulphurous, slow-consuming fire. ... I
lived in a continual, indefinite, pining fear. ... It
seemed as if all things in the heavens above and in
the earth beneath would hurt me. . . . When all at
once there rose a thought in me, and I asked
myself: 'What art thou afraid of? Wherefore, Hke
a coward, dost thou forever pip and whimper, and
go cowering and trembhng? Despicable biped!
What is the sum total of the worst that hes before
thee? Death? Well, death, and say the pangs of
Tophet too, and all that the devil and man may, will,
or can do against thee! Hast thou not a heart; canst
thou not suffer whatever it be; and, as a child of
freedom, though outcast, trample Tophet itself
under thy feet, while it consumes thee?' . . . And as
I so thought, there rushed hke a stream of fire
over my whole soul; and 1 shook base fear away
7

EGERTON RYERSON
from me forever. . . . The everlasting No had said:
'Behold thou art fatherless, outcast, and the uni
verse is mine (the devil's);' to which my whole Me
now made answer: 'I am not thine, but free,
and forever hate thee!'" Elsewhere Carlyle writes:
"Foreshadows — call them rather fore-splendours —
of that truth, that beginning of truths, fell mysteri
ously over my soul. . . . The universe is not dead
and demoniacal, a charnel-house with spectres, but
God -like, and my Father's!"
It is of this experience that Carlyle says, " I
found it to be essentially what Methodist people
call their conversion — the deliverance of their souls
from the devil and the pit. Precisely that in a new
form. And there burned accordingly a sacred flame
of joy in me, silent in my inmost being, as of one
henceforth superior to fate. This holy joy lasted
sensibly in me for several years  nor has
it proved what I can call fallacious at any time
since." Carlyle was wont to assure his pious mother
that his opinions, although clothed in a different
garb, remained essentially the same as her own, and
we may well believe him for he would He to no
man and he could not lie to his mother. But in
comparing the experience of what he calls his new
birth with that of Egerton Ryerson, we must
remember that the one was a rugged man, hard-
headed and metaphysical, and a worshipper of wUl
and force, whilst the other was a bright but un
sophisticated boy who followed without doubting
8

CONVERSION
his moral intuitions and affections and recognized
the eternal goodness in the Son of Man. The one
was hke an oak tree that grew alone, through the
scorching heat of summer and the winter's cold and
tempests, the other was hke a pine tree that grew
tall and shapely in the forest.
This story of the moral and spiritual develop
ment of Egerton Ryerson has a historical as well
as a psychological interest. It is an example of the
change that usually attended the ministrations of
the pioneer preachers, and its presence or absence is
still looked upon amongst Methodists as the sign of
a standing or falling church. In telling the story
some of the converts, especially in later times, use
language less intense and striking than that of
Egerton Ryerson, and others use language almost
as mystical and imaginative as that of Carlyle, but
the essential things are always the same and in
harmony with the inwardness of the Great Apostle's
preaching, "repentance towards God and faith
toward our Lord .Tesus Christ."
The circumstances of the early settlers and their
habits of life and thought were in some respects
most favourable to the work of the first preachers.
The lives of the people were simple, laborious and
comparatively free from the distractions and dissi
pations of later times. They had no rehsh for the
fine-spun and mystifying speculations that so often
befog and enervate the mind. They had not learned
to question the truthfulness of the intuitive reason,
9

EGERTON RYERSON
and they no more called for logical demonstrations
of the Good than for logical demonstrations of the
Beautiful. Their intellectual palate had not been
vitiated and their digestion spoiled by daily doses
of newspaper omniscience or by a supping of the
devil's broth in low comedy and fiction. Whatso
ever things commended themselves to their simple
minds as lovely and of good report, those things
were beautiful and good to them beyond aU dis
pute. And they must either revere and obey or feel
that they were in opposition to the Eternal order.
When, therefore, the pioneer preacher came to
those people, he found the way open to their hearts
and minds. And the preachers were, as a rule, men
of the people, and they knew their hearers though
they did not always know Greek. They preached
the facts of the inner hfe and of the gospel of the
grace of God, rather than theories about the facts
and the gospel ; and above all things, they sought to
help the people to the supreme moral choice which
brought inward peace and supphed a fixed principle
of life.
A passing notice may here be given to the scenes
of the early rehgious experiences and labours of the
first makers of this country. Except in the cities
and towns a regular rehgious service seldom
occurred more than once a week. In many places it
would take two or three or even six weeks before
the pioneer preacher could complete his round of
hundreds of miles. But when the work of the year
10

EARLY RELIGIOUS SERVICES
was slack and the weather favourable, special rehg
ious services were held as if to compensate for the
usual dearth of rehgious privileges. In the larger
places what were called "protracted services" were
held, when evening after evening for two or three
weeks the preacher and his helpers brought all their
powers of instruction and persuasion to bear on
their hearers. These services were commonly held
in the winter season ; but in the pleasant summer
weather, between the spring work and the harvest
there were held in the sparsely settled districts
camp meetings, when for a week or ten days the
people would dwell in tents and give themselves
to religious exercises. They would then return to
their homes, some of them to have few opportuni
ties for public worship for the rest of the year.
As the places for regular religious services multi-
phed, these protracted meetings and camp meetings
gradually fell into disuse, but in the old time they
often served a good purpose.
Returning from these observations on the rehg
ious life of Canada in the early days, observations
intended to show something of the environment in
which Egerton Ryerson grew up, we resume the
story of his own hfe on the rehgious side. From his
thirteenth to his eighteenth year, no events of much
note are put on record. When, however, at the age
of eighteen he formally joined the Methodist
Church, he was met by his father with these words:
"Egerton, 1 understand you have joined the
11

EGERTON RYERSON
Methodists. You must either leave them or leave
my house." The military spirit of his early habits
seems to have followed the father into his domestic
life, and the young man knew him too well to ex
pect that there would be any change in the word of
command. But the son too was a good soldier when
called upon to endure hardness for what he con
sidered a sacred cause. His decision was soon made,
and the next day he left his father's roof to begin
the struggle of hfe on his own account. "In this
trying time," he says, " I had the aid of a mother's
prayers and a mother's tenderness, and a conscious
divine strength according to my need." It is a
further mark of his noble character that he utters
no word of reproach or bitterness on account of
treatment he had received, but to the end of his
hfe speaks words of tenderness and reverence for
his father.
For the next two years he was employed as
an assistant in the London district grammar school
and at the same time he dihgently pursued his own
studies. The bent of his mind even at this early
period is seen in the character of the works that
he read with greatest interest: — "Locke, 'On the
Human Understanding'; Paley's 'Moral and Politi
cal Philosophy,' and Blackstone's 'Commentaries,'
especially the sections of the latter on the Preroga
tives of the Crown, the Rights of the Subject and
the Province of Parhament."
His return for a year to his father's home and his
12

TEACHER AND FARMER
selection of a course of life for himself may best be
told in his own words :
" As my father had complained that the Meth
odists had robbed him of his son, and of the fruits
of that son's labours, I wished to remove that
ground of complaint as far as possible by hiring an
Enghsh farm-labourer, then just arrived in Canada,
in my place, and paid him out of the proceeds of
my own labour for two years. But although the
farmer was the best hired man my father had ever
had, the result of his farm productions during these
two years did not equal those of the two years that
I had been the chief labourer on the farm, and my
father came to me one day uttering the single
sentence: 'Egerton, you must come home,' and
then walked away. ... I had left home for the
honour of religion, and I thought the honour of
rehgion would be promoted by my returning home
and showing still that the religion so much spoken
against would enable me to leave the school for the
plough and the harvest field, as it had enabled me
to leave home without knowing at the moment
whether I should be a teacher or a farm-labourer. I
relinquished my engagement as a teacher within a
few days, engaging again on the farm. . . . My father
then became changed in regard both to myself
and the religion I professed, desiring me to remain
at home; but having been enabled to maintain
a good conscience in the sight of God, and a good
report before men in regard to my filial duty during
13

EGERTON RYERSON
my minority, I felt that my hfe's work lay in
another direction." What that other direction was
he does not teU us in the story of his hfe, but his
love for the study of political philosophy and con
stitutional law, and the quality of mind exhibited
throughout his life, incline us to think that the
legal profession was the one to which he was
attracted. However that may be, his first care was
to qualify himself for his hfe's work by a better
intellectual equipment and discipline. In those good
old times the study of the classics was the approved
method of preparation for all professional hfe. The
young man accordingly placed himself under the
tuition of the best scholar and teacher within his
reach, and apphed himself to his classical studies
with great zeal and success. But as we have aheady
seen, his zeal was not according to knowledge, for
the close hard work induced brain fever and led to
further illness from which it was thought he would
not recover.
During his iUness, and in the prospect of death —
a prospect not dreaded at the time, — ^he looked
again over his plans of hfe and asked himself what
might have been, and again what ought to be if his
life should be prolonged. Then he resolved that he
would not follow his own counsels, but "would
yield to the openings and calls which might be
made in the church by its chief ministers." With
this resolve, peace and joy came to his mind and
healing to his body, so that his mother, entering his
14

ENTERS THE MINISTRY
room soon after, exclaimed: "Egerton, your coun
tenance is changed: you are getting better." He
recovered, to the surprise of his friends, and in due
time resumed his classical studies at Hamilton. A
few days later he went to attend a religious service
where his brother Wilham was expected to preach.
His brother, however, did not appear at the ap
pointed time, being prevented by serious illness, and
the young student was suddenly called upon by
the authorities of the church to take his brother's
place in the ministry for the rest of the year. He
was astonished, and for a time speechless from
emotion, but, as St. Paul was "not disobedient
unto the heavenly vision" which appeared unto him
to make him "a minister and a witness," so did this
young Canadian student at the call of the church
give up his early plans and take upon himself the care
of souls. His first sermon was preached on Easter
Sunday, April 3rd, 1825, and his text was: "They
that sow in tears shall reap in joy." — Psa. 126: 5.
The brief records of his early ministry contained
in the young preacher's diary throw much hght on
the condition of the country and the habits of the
people in the first half of the last century. At the
same time they reveal the spirit of the men who, in
the heroic days gone by, attempted and achieved
great things for God and for their country. Our
respect for those men is none the less but rather
greater because they did not think that they were
great men or imagine that they were attempting 15

EGERTON RYERSON
extraordinary things. They thought humbly of them
selves, they felt the weaknesses and hmitations of
mortal men, but through all the changes of feehng
and through good report and iU, they persisted in
the brave endeavour to do their duty. They were
without the smug content that sometimes marks
the clever men of an inferior grade. They rather
felt — and felt most painfuUy at times — the depres
sion of the truly great who reahze how little they
know as compared with what they have yet to
learn, and how imperfect are their best works
as compared with the ideals towards which they
struggle and aspire. The following brief extracts
from his diary wiU tell of the young itinerant's
character and labours with simple eloquence:
"April 3rd, 1825 (Easter Sunday). — I this day
commenced my ministerial labours. . . . Oh, my
soul, hang all thy hopes upon the Lord! Forbid
that I should seek the praise of men, but may I
seek their good and God's glory. ..."
"April 8th. — The Lord being my helper, my
little knowledge and feeble talents shaU be un
reservedly devoted to His service. I do not yet
regret giving up my worldly pursuits for the wel
fare of souls. ..."
"April 10th (Sabhath).—  I felt much of the
presence of the Lord, and I do bless the I.«ord
he has converted one soul in this place to-day.
I feel encouraged to go on."
"April loth. — So bowed down with temptation
16

DIARY
to-day I almost resolved to return to my native
place. But, in God's strength, I wiU try to do my
best during the time I have engaged to supply my
brother Wilham's place."
"April 25th and 26th. — And thus I go on, de
pressed and refreshed; almost discouraged because
of the way, and then cheered by the kind and fath
erly conversation of the Rev. Thomas Madden."
"May 12th. — I have this day ridden nearly thirty
miles, preached three times and met two classes. I
felt very much fatigued, yet the Lord has given me
strength equal to my day."
"May 19th. — . . . . Since I commenced labouring
for my Master I have found fathers and mothers,
brothers and sisters, all ready to supply my every
want." "May 29th. — For many days I have been cast
down by a weight of care. My father is exceedingly
anxious that I should return home and remain
with him during his lifetime. A position in the
Church of England has presented itself, and other
advantageous attractions with regard to this world
offer themselves. It makes my heart bleed to see
the anxiety of my parents. But is it my duty? If
they were in want I would return to them without
hesitation, but when I consider they have every
thing necessary, can it be my duty to gratify them
at the expense of the cause of God? Surely if a
man may leave father and mother to join himself
to a wife, how much more reasonable to leave aU
17

EGERTON RYERSON
to join himself to the Christian ministry! My
parents are dear to me, but my duty to God is
dearer still. One thing I do desire, that I may live
in the house of the Lord forever.^ And shall I leave
a church through whose faithful instructions I have
been brought to know God for any advantages that
the entrance of another might afford me? No, far
be it from me. As I received the Lord Jesus, so
I will walk in Him. ..."
"August 10th. — My soul rejoices at the news I
have heard from home, that my eldest brother
(George) has resolved to join the Methodists and
become a missionary to the Indians. . . . My father
has become reconciled, and my mother is wilhng to
part with her sons for the sake of the church of
Christ." In September, 1825, Mr. Ryerson was appointed
an assistant preacher on the York and Yonge street
circuit. This circuit comprised the town of York
(now Toronto) and the surrounding country, "over
which," he says, " we travelled, and preached from
twenty-five to thirty-five sermons in four weeks,
preaching generaUy three times on Sabbath, and
attending three class meetings, besides preaching
and attending class meetings on week days."
1 It is worthy of note just here that Colonel Ryerson lived to an
advanced age, and died in 1854. If, therefore, his son had at this time
(1826) considered his filial emotions only and not also the work to
which he was called, he would have waited for twenty-nine years
to bury his father, and his duty to his church and country would have
been left undone. 18

METHODIST PREACHER
In the early part of the following year (April and
May 1826) these labours ofthe intinerant preacher,
excessive and exhausting as they must appear,
were greatly increased by the controversy that
arose on the question of the Clergy Reserves and
by his defence of his co-labourers and co-religion
ists from the ungenerous and unjust charges brought
against them by their privileged ecclesiastical op
ponents. In the next chapter the origin of this
controversy will be explained and the story told
of Egerton Ryerson's vahant championship of the
cause of rehgious hberty and equal rights. It was
not of choice that he engaged in controversy, but he
was constrained by the urgent appeals of those who
felt themselves wronged to undertake their defence.
Again and again he tells of his preference for the
care of souls and the preaching of the gospel. At
the same time we may be allowed to think that his
soldierly ancestral instincts found a certain satisfac
tion in the fray when he was once committed to it,
and when he knew that he was fighting for a good
cause. His controversial life seems to have been
guided throughout by the precept of the old coun
cillor in Hamlet, —
''Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but, being in,
Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee."
There was another conflict, however, into which
he threw himself with all the generous enthusiasm
of a good soldier. His arduous pastoral duties and
19

EGERTON RYERSON
his exciting theological and semi-political contro
versies did not so engross him as to prevent the
outgoing of his heart and mind in sympathy with
those who were in greatest need of light and help,
viz., the heathen aborigines of the country who
were then very numerous. So strongly did he feel
on this matter that he resolved to give his hfe to
these poor people; to turn aside and share their
affliction and poverty rather than go out to meet
the comfort and distinction that appeared before
him on another path. The following quotation from
his diary will reveal his mind on this matter :
"August 17th. — Scarcely a day passes without
beholding new openings to extend my ministerial
labours. To-day, in an affecting manner, I witnessed
the hands of suffering humanity stretched forth
to receive the word of life. More than five hundred
aborigines of the country were assembled in one
place. In a moral point of view they may be said to
be 'sitting in the valley of the shadow of death.'
'The day star from on high' has not yet dawned
upon them. Alas! are they to perish for lack of
knowledge ? . . . Oh, Lord, if Thou wilt qualify me
and send me to dispense to them the Bread of Life,
I will throw myself upon Thy mercy and submit to
Thy wiU!"
In accordance with this desire, Mr. Ryerson
received an appointment as missionary to the
Indians at the Credit, but at the same time he was
required to preach on two Sundays out of four
20

MISSION TO THE INDIANS
in the town of York. He commenced his work
among the Indians in the middle of September,
1826. That he endured some hardness may be
gathered from his account of his place of abode.
" In one of these bark-covered and brush-enclosed
wigwams, I ate and slept for some weeks, my bed
consisting of a plank, a mat, and a blanket, and
a blanket also for my covering ; yet I was never
more comfortable and happy." The spirit of chivahy
in which he entered upon this work is clearly seen
in his diary when he says, "I feel an inexpressible
joy in taking up my abode with them. I must
acquire a new language to teach a new people."
The practical nature of his work is seen in his
immediate effort to lift the people out of their
heathenish degradation into a higher state where
the comfortable environment of a Christian civih-
zation might foster the moral and intellectual
hfe of a people just emerging from paganism.
And the energy and perseverance of this young
missionary and maker of his country is seen in the
fact that in less that ten days after his arrival
amongst the Indians, they resolved to build a
house "to answer the double purpose of a school
house and a place for divine worship." The Indians
under his charge were about two hundred in num
ber, and very poor, but they entered with enthus
iasm into the new enterprise. They subscribed one
hundred doUars towards the building in less than an
hour. The missionary mounted his horse and visited
21

EGERTON RYERSON
his old friends in Hamilton, and in the York and
Yonge street and Niagara circuits, and begged the
rest of the money required. At the end of six weeks
the house was built and paid for. All this was done,
as he says, with a touch of humour, "while our
'swell' friends of the government and of the Church
of England were consulting and talking about the
matter. It was thus that the church-standing of
these Indian converts was maintained, and they
were enabled to walk in the Lord Jesus as they had
found Him."
The methods of missionary work followed by
Mr. Ryerson some five and seventy years ago, were
of the most modern and approved kind and worthy
of imitation by the missionaries of the present day.
He did not take his stand on a height of privilege
and attainment and call to the people, bidding
them to come up to him, but he came down to
them and helped them to ascend. He shared their
humble dwelhngs, hved on their homely fare, and,
like the Divine Teacher, he too became poor that
through his poverty his heathen brethren might
become rich. Writing to one of his brothers he
says: "I am very unpleasantly situated at the
Credit during the cold weather, as there are nearly
a dozen in the family, and only one fire-place. I
have hved at different houses among the Indians,
and thereby learned some of their wants, and the
proper remedies for these. Having no place for
retirement, and hving in the midst of bustle and
22

MISSIONARY WORK
noise, I have forgotten a good deal of my Greek
and Latin and made but httle progress in other
things. My desire and aim is to hve solely to the
glory of God and the good of men." Again he
writes in his diary, "I have been often quite unwell,
owing to change of living and being out at night;
my fare, as to food, is very plain but wholesome,
and I generally he on boards with one or two
blankets intervening." He could not but feel the
hardship of the situation and suffer from it, yet
even as he speaks of these things, he gives expres
sion to his admiration of the noble character of his
humble hosts.
In his endeavours to enhghten and uplift the
heathen he proclaimed "the grace of God that
bringeth salvation to aU men," but he preached also
a gospel of cleanhness, and decency, and industry,
and intelhgence. He brought help to them, and,
better still, he taught them to help themselves. He
stirred them up to build the House of the Lord.
And whilst that House was primarily a place for
preaching the Word and administering the sacra
ments in the congregation, it was also a Sunday
school and a day school, whence hght as well as
sweetness might come into the hves of the children
of the forest. Nor did the missionary despise the
work of an instructor in mechanics and agriculture.
In "The Story of My Life," Ryerson says: "After
collecting the means necessary to build the house of
worship and school-house, I showed the Indians
23

EGERTON RYERSON
how to enclose and make gates for their gardens,
having some knowledge and skill in mechanics.
"Between daylight and sunrise, I called out four
of the Indians in succession, and showed them how
and worked with them, to clear and fence in, and
plow and plant their first wheat and com fields. In
the afternoon I caUed out the school-boys to go
with me, and cut and pile, and bum the brushwood
in and around the viUage. The httle feUows worked
with great glee as long as I worked with them,
but soon began to play when I left them."
His brother William, writing to the Rev. George
Ryerson tehs of his observations made on the
mission: "I am very certain I never saw the same
order and attention in any school before. Their
progress in speUing, reading and writing is astonish
ing, but especiaUy in writing, which certainly ex
ceeds anything I ever saw. They were getting
forward with their work. When I was there they
were fencing the lots in the viUage in a very neat
substantial manner. On my arrival at the mission, I
found Egerton about half a mile from the village,
stripped to the shirt and pantaloons, clearing land
with between twelve and twenty little Indian boys
who were all engaged in chopping and picking up
the brush. It was an interesting sight. Indeed he
told me that he spent an hour or more every morn
ing and evening in this way, for the benefit of his
own health and the improvement of the Indian
children. He is almost worshipped by his people,
24

MISSIONARY WORK
and, I beheve, under God, wiU be a great blessing
to them."
Here we come again in sight of that first and last
great quahfication of the noblest helpers of mankind.
Something of their work may be done from the
sense of duty, and there may be times when nothing
but the sense of duty, that "stern daughter of the
voice of God," can hold them to their work; but
their noblest inspiration is dravsm from the heart of
God rather than from His will, and their greatest
success is achieved through the labour of love. This
generous affection transpires in many passages in
the diary of Egerton Ryerson. On coming to his
charge among the Indians he writes, "I feel an
inexpressible joy in taking up my abode with
them," and again "my heart feels one with them."
And when he had had experience of the privations
of Indian hfe and suffered frequent and depressing
illness from the hardship endured, he exclaims
on returning to his work after a short absence,
"I am now among the dear objects of my care.
My heart leaped for joy as I came in sight of the
village and received such a hearty welcome."
At the conference of 1827, Mr. Ryerson was
appointed to the Cobourg circuit which at that
time extended from BowmanviUe to Brighton. The
Indian work at the Rice Lake and Mud Lake
missions was still an object of his care, but his work
was on the whole of a more pastoral and evan
gelistic character than that of his Credit and York
25

EGERTON RYERSON
appointment. He speaks of the kindness received
from his people and of the greater comfort of
his circumstances and the corresponding advance
ment in his studies. But the work of controversy
continued with increasing pressure and anxiety.
It was about two years before this time that
he was forced, much against his own inclination,
into controversial writing. He speaks of it as of an
affhction, but adds, "I feel it to be the cause of
God, and I am resolved to foUow truth and the
holy scripture in whatever channel they will lead
me." A few months later he writes: "My engage
ment in controversial writing savours too much of
dry historical criticism to be spiritual, and often
causes leanness of soul; but it seems to be necessary
in the present state of matters in this colony, and
it is the opinion of my most judicious friends that
I should continue it tiU it comes to a successful
termination." Again he writes, "During the past
year (1826-7) my principal attention has been called
to controversial labours. If the Lord wiU, may this
cup pass by in my future life."
It was not the Lord's wiU, however, to answer
this prayer. On the contrary, controversy was more
and more required of the man who would have
chosen for himself the work of a missionary and of
an itinerant preacher. Mr. Ryerson tells us how he
had to compose on horseback sermons and rephes
to his ecclesiastical adversaries as he passed from
end to end of his extensive and laborious circuit.
26

CONTROVERSY
Indeed, in Cobourg, stories are still told to the third
generation of the way in which those replies were
written. The young preacher would come in at
nightfall from his long ride and sit up tiU morning
looked in upon him and saw the pile of firewood
consumed on the one side of him and a pile of
manuscript grown up on the other. In this work
thus thrust upon him, he so fuhUled the Apostohc
precept, " Quit you hke men, be strong," that when
the conference in 1829 estabhshed the Christian
Guardian newspaper, Mr. Ryerson was placed
in the editorial chair and charged with the duty of
vindicating the character and contending for the
civil and rehgious rights of his people.

2f

CHAPTER II
RELIGION AND POLITICS IN UPPER CANADA
IN 1826
MR. RYERSON had not completed his first
year of ministration to the religious wants of
the settlers in Upper Canada when a new work
was thrust upon him. This was no other than the
consideration of the relation of the Christian church
which he was serving and of sister churches to the
political movements of the time. Such consideration
was a necessary part of the work of a Methodist
minister of that day. It was, indeed, forced upon
him, if, as a citizen and a freeman, he would secure
for himself and his posterity the rights and liberties
which are now acknowledged without dispute to be
the glory of our province, viz., perfect hberty of
conscience and the absolute equality of aU the
churches in relation to the state. To understand
this question it wiU be necessary to study some
what carefully the constitution of Upper Canada
as a British colony at this date, and also the
pecuhar working of this constitution under succes
sive administrations for the preceding thirty-five
years. The Constitutional Act of 1791 separated Upper
Canada from the old province of Quebec, and
29

EGERTON RYERSON
created it what was known as a free crown colony.
The government was vested in:
1. A governor appointed by the British croviTi,
with constitutional powers to be exercised either at
his discretion, or on the advice of an executive
council appointed by and responsible to himself
alone, or under instructions which accompanied his
appointment, or were received from the colonial
office in England from time to time. To this office
he was directly responsible.
2. A legislative council composed of hfe-members
holding their appointment from the crown, and
with legislative powers similar to those exercised
by the House of Lords in England.
3. A legislative assembly elected by the people
and with legislative powers defined by the act.
The prerogatives of the governor as defined in
the act were: (a) the summoning or appointment
of members of the legislative council; (b) the di
vision of the province into electoral districts for the
election of members of the assembly, and the mak
ing of aU other provisions for the first election;
(c) the giving or withholding of the royal assent to
the legislative acts of the council and assembly ; and
(d) the caUing and proroguing of the legislature
and the dissolution of the assembly, and the call
ing for a new election, provision being made that
not more than twelve months shall elapse without
a session of the legislature. The appointment of the
executive council is also aUuded to in the act, but
30

THE COLONIAL CONSTITUTION
rather as a prerogative already existing than as
constituted by this act. But this appointment of
the executive council was not the only power vested
in the governor apart from the provisions of the
Constitutional Act. As the council held control of
the great departments of executive government,
and was responsible to the governor only, the
governor, by virtue of this authority, became de
facto the prime minister of the colony. He stood
not simply as the representative of the sovereign,
maintaining the constitution and seeing that it was
obeyed by all subordinate branches of the govern
ment, but he became the political leader of the
government, making appointments and controlling
pohcy in the great executive departments, though
without control of the legislation necessary for the
execution of that pohcy except in the upper cham
ber. On the other hand it lay in his power to
prevent any legislation intended to obstruct the
successful event of his executive pohcy. Of this
government Sir Erskine May, in his "Constitu
tional History of England," chapter seventeen,
says: "Self-government was then the theory; but
in practice, the governors, aided by dominant in
terests in the several colonies, contrived to govern
according to the policy dictated from Downing
Street. Just as at home, the crown, the nobles, and
an ascendant party were supreme in the national
councils, so in the colonies the governors and their
official aristocracy were generahy able to command 31

EGERTON RYERSON
the adhesion of the local legislatures." This, how
ever, was far from being the case in Upper Canada,
for reasons which our author proceeds to point out:
"A more direct interference, however, was often
exercised. Ministers had no hesitation in disallowing
any colonial acts of which they disapproved.^ They
dealt freely with the public lands as the property
of the crown, often making grants obnoxious to the
colonists, and peremptorily insisting on the condi
tions under which they should be sold and settled.
Their interference was also frequent regarding
church establishments and endowments, official
salaries and the colonial civil lists. Misunderstand
ings and disputes were constant, but the policy and
wiU of the home government usually prevailed.
Another incident of colonial administration was
that of patronage. The colonies offered a wide field
of employment for the friends, connections, and
pohtical partisans of the home government." In
Upper Canada this exercise of patronage by the
colonial office never reached the extremity of abuse
described by May as prevailing in the American
colonies during the preceding century. But there
was scarcely less objection to the irresponsible exer
cise of patronage by the governor and his council
on behalf of their adherents in the colony itself.
1 The Constitutional Act provided that all acts of the colonial legisla
ture might be disallowed within two years after being officially laid
before the secretary of state. The colonial office thus held a two-fold
veto on colonial legislation, first indirectly through the governor, and
later directly in the royal name.
32

IMPERIAL INTEREST SUPREME
A constitution with such inherent hability to
abuse could scarcely be expected to work to the
satisfaction of an intelligent people who had con
tinually before them the example of the operation
of a more thoroughly responsible system of govern
ment immediately to the south, and who were
many of them but lately immigrants from the
parent land, where already the principles of respon
sible government were being far more effectively
carried into practice. There was, of course, a bare
possibility that such a constitution might afford a
tolerably satisfactory government. If the colonial
office on the one hand and the governor on the
other used their large powers with wise considera
tion and discretion, anticipating the needs and
wishes of the people as expressed through their
legislative assembly, it might have been possible to
avoid what otherwise must lead to inevitable con
flict. But the spirit which framed this colonial
constitution was evidently still jealously tenacious
of imperial prerogatives, and determined to govern
the colonies for the good of the colonists, as they
viewed it, but at the same time in subordination to
what they considered the paramount interests of
the mother land. The constitution framed in this
spirit gave to the colonists the name, the idea of,
and the desire for self-government, while it withheld
the reality, and thus of itself planted the seeds of
dissatisfaction in the minds of a progressive people.
But this was not its only weakness. Its very
33

EGERTON RYERSON
efforts after good became in themselves the greatest
of evils. The colonial office itself was by no means
either regardless or forgetful of what it considered
the best interests of the colonists; and a large
part of the Constitutional Act is devoted to mak
ing provision for what it considered the highest
interests of these loyal children of the empire.
To say nothing of mistakes in the province of
Lower Canada, in Upper Canada two most serious
errors were the provisions for the endowment
of an estabhshed church and for the creation of
a titled hereditary aristocracy with places in the
upper legislative chamber. These provisions, both
embodied in the new colonial constitution, both
destined to utter practical failure, but both acting
as irritants provoking unfortunate conflicts, were
the beginning of misfortunes from which we have
not perfectly escaped even to-day, though we
have passed a century of effort to counteract
their far-reaching influence. These provisions, with
others which followed, were the result of the spirit
of an age when the supreme care of the state
was for what was regarded as the superior class
of people, and when the great body of the pop
ulation, whose labour and virtue constitute its
wealth and strength, were passed over with but
httle consideration. To such an age a governing
class, of which the clergy of the estabhshed church
were regarded as a part, seemed a prime necessity;
and to create and educate such a class and provide
34

IMPERIAL MISTAKES
for their maintenance seemed an imperative duty.
The rest of the people were expected "to labour
truly to get their own living, and to do their duty
in that state of hfe unto which it pleased God to
call them." It can now scarcely be doubted that
some such conception was in the minds of the
framers of the Constitutional Act; and it is even
more certain that such was the pohcy inaugurated
by the first governor of Upper Canada, Lieut.-
General John Graves Simcoe. His educational pohcy
alone is proof of this. It was more concerned with
the erection of schools after the model of the
Enghsh classical schools, and with the founding of
a university, than with the elementary education of
all the people; and while for the one class it
provided an endowment, which, if not sufficient,
has at least supphed our wants for an entire cen
tury in high schools and university, it left the
other to care for itself.
But the population which laid the foundations of
Upper Canada was not of the material to be treated
after this fashion. The men whose inteUigence and
whose moral and pohtical principles were so ma
tured as to lead them to sacrifice almost their
entire worldly fortune for the sake of those princi
ples, were not easily to be divided into upper and
lower classes, or relegated to any inferior position
while their neighbours were constituted a governing
class. Moreover, they were men of various forms of
rehgious faith. There were Puritan Independents 35

EGERTON RYERSON
from New England, Quakers from Pennsylvania
and Rhode Island, Lutherans and Dutch Reformed
from New York and Pennsylvania, Presbyterians
from New Jersey, and from various parts a large
body of the foUowers of John Wesley, and not
a few Baptists. Probably from the beginning the
adherents of the Church of England were a decided
minority of the population, while Presbyterians,
Methodists, Roman Catholics and Baptists together
constituted the majority. The founding of an en
dowed and established church under such circum
stances was as serious a mistake and as difficult an
enterprise as the creation of a titled governing
class. The body whom it was proposed to make the
established church was from the beginning behind
in the race, while energy, zeal, self-denying labour
and sympathy with the progressive spirit of the age
were largely if not exclusively on the side of the
so-called sects.
The policy then inaugurated might thus have
expired with its founder's term as governor, and
was liable at any time to have been abandoned
by the coming to the colony of an intelligent and
hberal- minded governor, had not two or three
notable circumstances combined to give it a living
continuity and fictitious support. The first of these
was the coming to the country in 1799, to inaugur
ate the educational side of the policy, of John
Strachan, afterwards first Anglican bishop of To
ronto. The post was first offisred to the famous
36

JOHN STRACHAN
Thomas Chalmers, then also a young man fresh
from coUege, and by him dechned. What might
have been the result of his acceptance no one can
now venture to conjecture. The event proved that
the man to whom it fell was preeminently fitted
for the work, and would have succeeded in its
accomplishment had it been possible to mortal man.
This young man, then a mere youthful school
teacher, was employed solely for that purpose, and
because of his success in that profession. But he
was endowed with aU the qualities of a great pohti
cal leader, a pleasing personality, intense energy,
tireless pertinacity of purpose, a mind fruitful of
resources for the practical accomphshment of his
purposes, and a judgment of men and of circum
stances which enabled him to take their measure
with accuracy and to make both serve his purposes.
He was not long in the country before he had
fuUy grasped the dominant policy and had shaped
himself and his hfe work for its accomphshment.
Though a divinity student of the Church of Scot
land his association with the rector of the Church
of England in Kingston, and with Mr. Cartwright
a leading layman of that body, led to his taking
orders in that church ; and from that day, May,
1803, his future course was determined. His great
talents were soon recognized and in a few years his
appointment as rector of York, and a little later
as member of the executive council, made him
virtual leader of the Church of England party
37

EGERTON RYERSON
in the province, and gave at once continuity, guid
ance and energy to its policy. Henceforth his
ambition was to make the Church of England
dominant as the established church in the country
with fuU control of the vast clergy reserve endow
ments and of the superior education as well as the
government of the province.
A circumstance which afforded some fictitious
strength to this ambitious politico-rehgious pohcy
was the relation of several of the other religious
bodies and particularly of the Methodists to the
sister or rather parent churches in the United States.
These churches had sprung from the American
colonies at the era of the Revolution, through the
United Empire Loyahst emigration which founded
Upper Canada. Methodist preachers, themselves
i/41so, almost to a man, of Loyalist sympathies, had
foUowed their people to their new homes in the
northern wilderness and had shared all their early
privations and trials. But under the Methodist
itinerant economy they did not estabhsh a separate
church, judging that the work of preaching the
gospel was not hmited by pohtical boundaries. As
the Methodists were the most effectual obstacle in
the way of the success of the church pohcy, their
opponents were not slow to attach to them the op
probrium of being repubhcans, annexationists, and
not loyal to the British throne and institutions. The
reproach was most unjust, for Canadian Methodism
was bom out of the great United Empire Loyahst
38

ANGLICAN ADVANTAGES
movement, and this was quite as true of her first
preachers as of her people, except that they had
httle or no property to lose and were precluded by
their clerical profession from taking up arms.
A second circumstance tending in the same
direction was the prestige afforded to the Enghsh
church by its relations to the estabhshed church in
England. If the relation of Methodism to the
parent church in the United States was a dis
advantage to Canadian Methodism, the relation
of the Anghcan church in Canada to the parent
Church of England operated to the advantage of
the colonial church. It thus secured not only pres
tige, but also, by the transfer of British law and
usage to the new colony, a legal status denied to
other bodies of Christians. Under that advantage it
even laid claim to be the estabhshed church of all
the colonies as well as of the parent country. This
claim was not made good, as the example of the
older American colonies was against it, and as the
estabhshed Church of Scotland at once put forth a
similar claim on the same ground. But both bodies
secured in this way rights of property and of the
legal performance of ministerial or clerical functions.
On the other hand the other denominations could
hold no property, and baptisms or marriages per
formed by their ministers were not recognized in
law; and only after a struggle of thirty years
were these disabilities removed. The facts thus
recited are the key to a large part of the first fifty
39

EGERTON RYERSON
years of the history of Upper Canada, and to a
good deal which has happened since that time. At
first indeed the people were so occupied with their
individual struggle in the wilderness for a bare
subsistence, that they scarcely noticed the lack
of these political rights and privileges. They built
their humble places of worship on a site cheerfuUy
offered by one of themselves and accepted and used
in simple christian confidence. The question of the
legal bearings of baptism was scarcely raised, and
as for marriage, while its importance could not be
overlooked, they accepted the legal provisions ex
isting, though often at great inconvenience and
sacrifice. During this first period also, the ecclesiastical
policy, while it had laid some foundations, had not
developed any considerable strength. Neither the
clergy reserves nor the educational endowment had
as yet become productive of appreciable revenue,
and the superior advantages of the Anglican church
were as yet imported from the old country rather
than acquired here. If the Enghsh church was
supported by government grants, they were made
in England and not in Canada.
But even in these times when the Methodists
and others were quietly inaking the best of their
disadvantages, the existence of a spirit of arrogant
enmity towards them was manifest not only in
social hfe, but also in the exercise of civil authority
in forms which exhibited the persecuting spirit
40

THE WAR OF 1812
of barbarous ages. The death of Charles Justin
McCarthy through the action of the civil authori
ties at Kingston, was the extreme instance of this.
He was the martyr of early Canadian Methodism.
But this preliminary period was brought to an
end by a convulsion thrust into our history from
without. This was the war of 1812-14. With the
causes or the events of this war we have nothing to
do, except to say that in it the Canadian Methodists
abundantly vindicated their loyalty to the British
throne and institutions. In the noble raUy to drive
the invader from our soil they bore a manly part;
and while all Canadian hearts were united by
the common danger and in the common struggle,
no one was found base enough even to whisper
a slander against either their loyalty or their
courage. With the close of the war came a new era of
political and industrial life to Upper Canada. The
wave of imperiahsm which through the South
African war has stirred our own time, is largely
sentimental. But it has made us feel that we are not
only Canadians but a part of Greater Britain. The
wave which foUowed the war of 1812 was intensely
sentimental. It made us feel that we were Canada,
a country, able to defend its rights and soil ; not
a mere outlying territory which our neighbours
might covet and take possession of But that wave
was one of great material uplift as well. The ex
penditure of British money during the war intro-
41

EGERTON RYERSON
duced an era of prosperity. The desperate struggle
with want and sometimes with starvation was over,
and the whole population began to feel that our
country was a home worth fighting for, dying for,
and hving for, that it might become still more
worthy of our affection. A new pubhc interest was
created in all that belonged to the country, and the
country began to feel the pulsations of pohtical hfe.
It was such an awakening as in all ages has led
nations into larger hfe and liberty. Nor was Canada
alone in feehng the power of this movement. It
stirred all western Europe, and it led in England
itself to the perfecting of her system of responsible
government. In fact, our Canadian movement might
in comparison seem to be but an insignificant side
current of the great movement of the time. But
httle as it might appear in the great world's history,
it had a distinctive unity and character of its own;
and to us it is aU-important — ^it is the foundation
history of our own country. It was not entirely an
isolated history. It had very definite relations to
the greater movement in the older lands, especiaUy
in England, as we shall see presently. But the
forces by which it was propeUed were not extra
neous ; they arose from within, and out of the facts
and conditions which we have already described. It
therefore assumed a character distinctively Cana
dian. It was neither American republicanism nor
English chartism, but Canadian reform. It was the
movement of the great body of the people of
42

CANADIAN REFORM
Upper Canada toward perfect civil and religious
equality and pohtical manhood and freedom.
This movement was along three distinct yet
closely related and parallel lines. One was political,
and its goal was responsible government. A second
was rehgious, and its goal was equal civil rights of
free churches in a free state. The third was educa
tional, and its goal was common provision for all the
people, without distinction of class or creed. It
would be a mistake to suppose that the actors in
this movement always clearly grasped the results
for which they were strugghng, or against which
they were striving in vain. Each felt the force and
direction of the current in his own immediate
vicinity, and was making as best he could for some
objective point within his own range of vision; but
the far-off" goal of the unexplored river in the stiU
distant sea, none as yet fuUy knew. In deahng,
therefore, with any one of these men of that time
as makers of Canada, we must judge of them not
only by final results, but also by the human motives
and limitations of their time. They sometimes
laboured more wisely and sometimes more vainly
than they knew. Their apparent defeats were some
times real successes, and at others their seeming
success was a real disaster. To impute to them
moral inconsistency because to us now, or even to
their neighbours then in another part of the cur
rent, they seemed to be moving in a wrong direc
tion, would be a great injustice. Such movements 43

EGERTON RYERSON
growing out of and impeUed by the needs of a whole
nation are too great to be controlled or even fully
grasped by the mind of any one man. But yet they
call for and make great men, and find the materials
out of which they may be made.
It was to the second and third of these movements
that Mr. Ryerson gave his life, and he was led into the
third from the second. Both movements, of neces
sity, touched politics, and were often closely related
to, if not identified with, the pohtical movement.
But from the beginning he was a Methodist preacher
and not a politician. Had he been a pohtician
his connection with these movements would have
thrown him into the ranks of political reform, if
not revolution. But for such an alhance he had no
'sympathy. His pohtical predilections were thor
oughly conservative. Through his studies of Black-
stone and Paley, at an age when very few have
formed clearly defined political opinions, he had
settled his conceptions of the rights of the crown,
the parhament, and the people; and from the con
stitutional principles thus defined he would have
considered it a sin in morals as well as a crime
in law to depart. It is scarcely necessary to say that
these conceptions were not repubhcan ; and it could
scarcely be said that they included aU that is under
stood by constitutional liberty and responsible gov
ernment in our time. What he was seeking was not
a change of constitution, but the righting of wrongs.
He wished that what he believed to be justice should
44

RELATION TO POLITICAL FREEDOM
be done under the existing constitution. The consti
tutional reformers on the other hand were firmly
of opinion that justice to the masses of the people
would never be done until the constitution itself
was so reformed as to give the voice of the people
power to determine the pohcy of the government.
Forming their judgment from the standpoint of
men of the world, and not from that of a devout
and enthusiastic young clergyman, they were quite
convinced that so long as the constitution placed
the power of shaping pubhc policy and controUing
legislation in the hands of a ruling class, they would
be shaped and controlled for the advantage of that
class. And in this opinion they were quite right,
and the whole course of subsequent history has
justified their struggle for constitutional reform.
But Mr. Ryerson's ideal objects were not of this
radical character. He sought equal rights for all the
churches, and equal and efficient provision of edu
cation for all the people. He perhaps at first did not
even see the necessity of complete separation of
church from state, although he fuUy recognized the
injustice of the establishment of one church as a
state, and so a dominant, church. The state might
assist religion,^ but there must be no favouritism.
In the same way he did not begin with a theory of
secular education separated from all religious bodies.
His earnest religious nature was in full sympathy
^ Even W. L. Mackenzie in 1824 held this view. See the first num
ber of the Colonial Advocate.
45

EGERTON RYERSON
with the idea that true education must be moral
and rehgious as well as intellectual. He would not
have divorced education from the influence of the
churches. But he could not brook the injustice of
having the educational endowments of the country
controUed for their own advantage by one religious
body. Simple, practical, and conservative as these ideas
appear to us to-day, they brought him into direct
conflict with the policy of Dr. Strachan. In 1813,
Dr. Strachan had been appointed a member of the
executive council of Upper Canada; in 1820 he
was made a member of the legislative council, and
in 1827 was made Archdeacon of York. These
appointments gave him a position of commanding
influence in both church and state for the success
ful development of his politico-ecclesiastical pohcy.
In fact, by 1820 it is clear that the pohcy and
patronage of Upper Canada were controUed not so
much by the heutenant-governor for the time being
as by the rector of York and the chief justice of
the province. It is not necessary for our purpose to
enlarge upon aU the aspects of their exercise of this
irresponsible power; we are concerned with the
facts only along the ecclesiastical and educational
hues. The Constitutional Act of 1791 had authorized
the setting apart for the support of a Protestant
clergy of a quantity of land equal in value to one
seventh of all the lands granted by the crown for
46

THE CLERGY RESERVES
settlement. This was in lieu of the tithes granted to
the Roman Catholic church in Lower Canada, The
lands so reserved in Upper Canada finally amounted
to nearly 2,400,000 acres. Although the intention of
some of the framers of the act was probably to
make these lands the foundation of an estabhshed
church — and this was certainly the pohcy of Sim
coe, both for pohtical and religious reasons — ^yet
the act did not specificaUy assign either the lands
or their revenue to the Anglican church. In fact,
by giving the governors power to assign a portion
or the whole of them in each township for the
support of a rectory, it excluded any legal claim to
them on the ground of the original grant. UntU
after the war the lands were not productive of any
appreciable revenue, and the support of the Angh
can clergy was derived from grants made by the
home government and by the Society for the Pro
pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Up to
1819 the annual product of the reserves did not
exceed £700. But before this date the clergy reserve
question was forced upon the attention of the
people and the legislature in another form. These
blocks of unoccupied land obstructed settlement
by separating the settlers by intervening tracts of
forest without roads, as weU as by increasing by
one-sixth the burden of taxation for any local pur
pose. A resolution was introduced in 1817 on this
subject, and in 1819 the House asked for a return
of the lands leased and of the revenue derived
47

EGERTON RYERSON
therefrom. The governor referred the matter to
England for instructions. At the same time a con
gregation of the Church of Scotland in the town of
Niagara petitioned the governor for an aUowance
of £100 a year for the support of a minister. The
governor transmitted the petition to England, and
with it he raised the question as to whether the
Church of Scotland was entitled to participate in
the reserves. These circumstances stirred up the
Anghcans to immediate action, and in the next
year, through the application of their bishop, Dr.
Mountain, they were created a corporation in each
province and invested with the management of the
clergy reserves. But under the advice of the law
officers of the crown, who recognized the claims of
the Church of Scotland, and as a matter of pohcy,
this power of management was not made to include
any right of ownership. This was to be reached, if
reached at aU, by the establishment and endow
ment of rectories by the governor under the exist
ing act. On this, under the existing temper of the
people, they did not venture, resting satisfied for
the present with the prestige of being guardians of
the property.
But the question, once raised, could not be post
poned. The claim of the Church of Scotland, now
supported by eminent legal authority at home, as
weU as by the advice of the Earl of Bathurst to
give them a share in the reserves, was at once
pressed. In 1823 they secured from the legislature
48

BEGINNING OF STRUGGLE
a presentation to the King in their favour which
was rejected by the legislative councU, and also
pressed their claims upon the heutenant-governor
for aid from any source. In the meantime Dr.
Strachan prepared a petition to the King asserting
the fuU pretensions of the Anglican church, and sup
porting them by statements concerning the rehgious
state of the province as unfounded as were those
which a few years later in his sermon were destined
to bring an entirely new force into the contest.
These statements, the same in substance whether
embodied in petition, chart, or sermon, were, how
ever, not yet made public in the province. They were
only for the sympathetic ears of councUlors of state.
The question has been asked, why did not the
Anglican party caU into effect the power of the
governor to establish rectories in every township,
and endow them with the lands, and so secure
legal possession ? The reason would seem to be that
they could not be satisfied with anything less than
the exclusive possession of the whole; and this they
could not expect to secure in the face of the
pohtical advice of the Earl of Bathurst that they
should divide with the Church of Scotland. With
out his assent they could not take action; and that
assent they were not hkely to secure in the face of
the storm of opposition which such a course would
have aroused in the province. The next year. Dr.
Strachan, now the leader of the Anglican cause,
was sent to England with the proposal "that the
49

EGERTON RYERSON
clergy corporation should be empowered to seU
one-half of the lands thus appropriated, to fund
the money derived from their sale, and to apply the
interest towards the support of the clergy." Such is
the statement of the proposition as given by Dr.
Bethune in his "Memoirs of Bishop Strachan."
This proposal again failed through Dr. Strachan's
desire to secure the largest possible advantage to
the church. The Canada Company offered to be
come the purchasers, but he objected to their price
as too low; the project was delayed for the appoint
ment of commissioners to value the lands, and
finaUy feU through. This termination was not
reached until after Dr, Strachan's return, and until
events made it perfectly clear that his plan for the
estabhshment and endowment of some hundreds of
Anglican clergy in the province could not be carried
into eff'ect. This was doubtless in large part due to
the influence upon the home government of the
action of the legislative assembly from 1824 to
1826, and of a petition from the province of Upper
Canada praying that the proceeds of the clergy
reserve lands be divided among the Protestant
denominations, or applied to the purpose of general
education. This petition was called out by Dr,
Strachan's famous chart, and was, with other Cana
dian questions, referred to a select committee of
the British House of Commons in 1827, It was
during this juncture that Dr. Strachan preached
his famous sermon on the death of the Bishop of
50

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS
Quebec, which caUed Mr, Ryerson into the conffict
in April, 1826,
We may now turn to the other question of the
time, the effort to control for denominational pur
poses the education of the country. The circum
stances that meet us here are very diff'erent from
those which we have just been considering. The
early settlers in Upper Canada were generaUy reh
gious people. By the end of thirty years they had
largely supplied themselves with the means of
grace. At that date the population of Upper Can
ada is estimated at 120,000, and a trustworthy
contemporary document gives the foUowing state
ment of the Protestant ministry in the province :
Church of England  16
Presbyterian and Congregational  15
Baptist  18
Methodist  33
Mennonites  7
Friends  10
Total  99
Besides these the Methodists employed 112 lay
preachers. These statistics are of themselves the
clearest evidence of the conditions which precluded
the monopoly of rehgious functions or even rights
and privileges by any one denomination. On the
other hand there was no such preemption of the field
of education. Here was a sphere of influence at first
entirely imoccupied, and one in which by the aid of
pubhc endowments the policy inaugurated by Gov
ernor Simcoe, and foUowed up with such marked
51

EGERTON RYERSON
abihty by Dr. Strachan, could find free and ample
scope. The fundamental mistake in their policy and
one that doomed it from the beginning to ultimate
failure was its neglect of the common people.
The education of a nation naturaUy faUs into
three grand divisions: first, the primary, which
should reach aU the people; then, the secondary,
which at best wiU not touch more than ten per
cent., generaUy not more than five; and last, the
university, reached by less than one-half of one per
cent. It was to these two last fields of education
that the pohcy we are considering was directed.
And its method from the beginning was the build
ing of a system of class education reserved for the
rightful rulers of the people, and with no broad
basis of universal instruction as its foundation. The
grammar schools and university which they pro
jected were not the higher departments of a com
prehensive system of education which knows no
distinction of class or rank, but opens the door of
learning wide for the humblest child to whom God
has given the ability to reach its very summit. They
were shaped rather as an exclusive system for a
caste ; if they admitted the gifted child of poverty,
it was an accorded privilege. They were never ex
pected to draw their patronage from the whole
body of the people. For these they did not attempt
any provision. Fortunately they did not attempt to
interfere with their making provision for them
selves. 52

FIRST SCHOOL LEGISLATION
The original plan of Governor Simcoe, as carried
into eff'ect by President Russell, set apart 550,000
acres of pubhc lands for the establishment of a
university and four royal grammar schools. These
were a little later proposed to be located — ^the uni
versity at York, and the grammar schools at Com-
waU, Kingston, Newark, and Sandwich. It is evident
that from the outset the character of the schools
thus proposed was not to the mind of the legislative
assembly, for nothing further was done tiU 1804,
and then a motion for the establishment of these
schools was negatived by a vote of seven to five.
The reason for this defeat seems to have been not so
much opposition to public provision for education,
though there may have been both indiff'erence and
opposition, as a feehng that the scheme was not
sufficiently comprehensive. A motion foUowing, to
estabhsh a school in each of the districts was lost
by the casting vote of the speaker. An act to this
eff'ect was finaUy passed in 1807, placing the ap
pointment of trustees for these district schools in the
hands of the heutenant-governor, and such trustees
were appointed for eight districts, viz., Eastern,
Johnstown, Midland, Newcastle, Home, Niagara,
London, and Western.
The legislation thus carried through both branches
of the legislature and acted upon by the lieutenant-
governor, finaUy became eff'ective in the estabhsh
ment of district grammar schools in the eight
districts, and, after repeated amendments, its opera-
53

EGERTON RYERSON
tion was extended to the establishment of twenty-
five schools, twenty of which reported an attendance
of 627 pupils, or an average of 31|^ for each school.
Allowing the same for the five which made no
returns, the whole number of children being edu
cated under this system in 1845 was less than 800.
The feehng of the great mass of the people towards
the system may perhaps be judged from two peti
tions presented to the legislature shortly after its
inauguration. One of these, from the Newcastle
district, set forth, "That your petitioners find the
said appropriation (£100 for the district grammar
school) to be entirely useless to the inhabitants of
this district in general." They therefore pray that
the said acts "may be repealed, and that such other
provision may be made to encourage common
schools throughout this district as to you in your
wisdom may seem meet." The other, from the
Midland district, where one of the oldest and one
of the best of these schools was estabhshed at
Kingston, speaks in these terms: "Its object, it is
presumed, was to promote the education of our
youth in general, but a little acquaintance with the
facts must convince every unbiased mind that it
has contributed little or nothing to the promotion
of so laudable a design. By reason of the place of
instruction being estabhshed at one end of the
district, and the sum demanded for tuition, in
addition to the annual compensation received from
the public, most of the people are unable to avail
54

THE SCHOOLS OF THE PEOPLE
themselves of the advantages contemplated by the
institution. A few wealthy inhabitants and those of
the town of Kingston reap exclusively the benefit
of it in this district. The institution, instead of
aiding the middle and poorer classes of His Ma
jesty's subjects, casts money into the lap of the
rich, who are sufficiently able, without public assist
ance, to support a school in every respect equal to
the one estabhshed by law."
This want of the people also voiced itself in
another and more practical form. It led to the ^
large estabhshment of private and subscription
schools, some of them of the more elementary char
acter afterwards known as common schools, and
others more pretentious and known as academies —
a term borrowed from the United States. It is not
possible for us now to obtain exact statistics of the
number of the common schools in existence through
out the province prior to the triumph of popular
education in the act of 1816. But in the next year,
1817, Mr. Gourlay coUected statistics of no less
than 259 common schools aheady in operation, and
these were by no means the whole number in the
province. From this we may safely infer that the •^
voluntary eff'orts of the people to provide for the
education of their own children had, even before
the act of 1816, far outstripped in extent of influ
ence the class system inaugurated in 1807.
The extension of the pubhc schools to each of
the eight districts, while seemingly in the interests
55

EGERTON RYERSON
of the mass of the people, did not prove so from
several causes. They were secondary rather than
primary schools ; there was but one in each district
— a district covering the area of three or more
counties ; the trustees were appointed by the gover
nor and the executive council, i.e., the irresponsible
ruling class; and finaUy the teachers selected by
them were men fitted to support their views, and
frequently clergymen of the Enghsh church. The
schools were, besides this, beyond the reach of the
people, on account of the expense of residence at a
distance from home, and of the high fees charged.
Their unpopularity appears from the fact that in
almost every session a repeal biU was introduced,
though failing either in the assembly, which at this
time was Conservative through the influence of the
war, or in the legislative council. The influence of
popular feeling finaUy resulted in the passage of
the Common School BiU of 1816. The main pro
visions of this act were the foUowing: — (1) It au
thorized the inhabitants of any locahty to convene
a meeting at which provision might be made for
building or providing a school-house, securing the
necessary number of scholars (twenty or more),
providing for the salary of a teacher, and electing
three trustees for the management of a school.
(2) It conferred upon the trustees power to examine
teachers as to qualification, to appoint such to the
school, to dismiss them if unsatisfactory, to make
rules for the governing of the school, including
56

SCHOOL BILL OF 1816
books to be used, and to grant the teacher a certifi
cate on presentation of which he would be entitled
to his proportion of the legislative grant to the
district. (3) It made provision for grants in aid to
the several districts, amounting in aU to £6,000 per
annum. (4) It authorized the lieutenant-governor
to appoint for each district a board of education
with the foUowing powers: — ^to receive quarterly
reports from the trustees of each school; to exercise
superintendence over the schools; to disaUow at
their discretion the regulations made by the trus
tees, or the books used in the schools; to make
further rules and regulations for the schools, and to
distribute or apportion the legislative grant. These
district boards were required to report to the lieu
tenant-governor. Their power to "proportion" the
legislative grant was unrestricted, and they could
use a part of it — up to £100 — in purchasing books
for use in the schools.
It will be seen that the first part of these pro- i
visions relating to school meetings, trustees and
their powers, was simply a continuation of the
existing institutions which the people had already
created for themselves. The loyalist immigrants,
from the time of their first arrival in the country,
had organized voluntary municipal institutions for
themselves on popular principles, and before the
passing of this act a considerable number of schools
had been thus created and supported in the older
settlements. The new provisions of the act were the
57

EGERTON RYERSON
legislative grant and the district boards, and the
chief purpose of the latter would seem to have
been, besides the apportionment of the money, the
exclusion of disloyal teachers and text books.
The educational development of the province
from the passing of this act (1816) to 1825 may be
summarized as foUows: (1) The reduction of the
grant to common schools in 1820 from £6,000 to
£2,500; (2) the introduction into a central school
in York of the BeU system (the Church of England
national system); (3) the constitution and appoint
ment in 1823 of a general board of education for
the province, consisting of the foUowing gentlemen:
the Honourable and Reverend John Strachan, D.D.,
Chairman; the Honourable Joseph WeUs, M.L.C.;
the Honourable George H. Markland, M.L.C.; the
Reverend Robert Addison; John Beverley Rob
inson, Esquire, Attorney-General; Thomas Ridout,
Esquire, Surveyor-General; (4) the passage of the
extension and amendment act of 1824, which con
tinued the grant and other provisions of 1820,
made a further grant of £150 to be expended by
the general board in the purchase of books for
Sunday schools, to be equaUy distributed among
the districts of the province, made provision for
the extension of the benefits of the common school
acts to Indian schools, and required that aU teachers
participating in legislative aid should pass an ex
amination before the district board of education.
In this act the provincial board of education was
58

PROVINCIAL BOARD OF EDUCATION
recognized as in existence or about to be appointed
by the heutenant-governor for the superintendence
of education, but it is not specificaUy constituted
by the act, nor are its powers defined other than in
the matter of the purchase of the books for Sunday
schools. It seems, therefore, that the appointment
of this board and the definition of its powers was a
matter of executive and not legislative authority.
Its initiation by communication with the colonial
office points in the same direction.^
On the incoming of the new legislative assembly
elected in 1824, we thus find an educational system
in existence, directed or supervised by district and
provincial boards appointed by the heutenant-gov
ernor, and at the head of the system the Reverend
John Strachan, D.D., as chairman of the provincial
board. The next steps in the development of this
system were the university charter of 1827, and the
founding of Upper Canada CoUege in 1829; but as
these enter into the struggle for equal rights, which
began in deadly earnest the next year, and in
which Mr. Ryerson was henceforth to take part as
a prominent actor, we need not consider them in
this prehminary review of the initial situation.
1 An incidental circinnstance, showing the trend or intent of move
ments at this time, is the petition of Dr. Strachan in 1818 for legislative
aid for theological students.

59

CHAPTER III
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE FOR
EQUAL RIGHTS
DR. STRACHAN, in one of his pubhshed
papers, refers to the year 1 820 as a memor
able one in the history of Upper Canada. The reason
for this was the erection of the clergy of the
Church of England into a body corporate, and
their control of the clergy reserves. This, with his
own personal accession to power and the hold
which he was gradually securing on the educational
work of the country, evidently made him sanguine
of success in the prosecution of his far-reaching
pohcy of making the Church of England the
estabhshed and endowed, and so the dominant
church of the young province, controlling the reh
gious hfe and education of the whole people.
The era is indeed memorable in the history of
Upper Canada, but for just the opposite reason. It
is the period from which dates the awakening of
the people to a fuU sense of their pohtical and
religious danger, and the beginning of that struggle
which finally resulted in the overthrow of the
Strachan policy and the complete civil and religious
emancipation of the province. For this result two
things were necessary: the people must be aroused,
61

EGERTON RYERSON
and competent leaders must be found. The first of
these needed elements was furnished by the ruhng
party, even the wise and far-seeing Strachan him
self contributing an essential part of the stimulus
which goaded the people into strenuous self-defence.
From this period we may date the beginning of
distinct party life and spirit in the politics of the
province, and this life was created, not by academic
theory, nor by the assembly of a convention, or the
formation of a platform, or the election of politi
cal leaders. It was the spontaneous revolt of manly
independence both in church and state against
unjust and arrogant assumptions and cruel wrongs.
As we are not attempting the pohtical history of
the province we cannot enter into the detaUed
statement of these wrongs, or of the political evUs
which culminated at this period. It wiU be sufficient
to mention a few events which combined to awaken
the mind of the whole province to a true sense of
the situation. It took not a little to do this. The
Upper Canadians were a loyal people. The older —
and on the whole, more influential — famihes were
United Empire Loyalists. No stronger appeal could
be made than to their loyalty. The war of 1812
had continued and strengthened this feehng. Since
the war, here and there a bolder spirit had caUed in
question wrong-doing in high places, or had claimed
recognition for the just rights of the people. The
school biU of 1816 was one concession to such
rights. But the voice of this party was constantly
62

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
hushed by the cry of disloyalty set up against aU
who dared to caU in question the policy or acts of the
ruhng power; and without leadership and cohesion
the voice of the people was as "one crying in the
wUderness." Besides aU this the people were too
busy with the hard necessities of hfe to give the
needed time and energy to these things. The first ^
event which contributed to the awakening of the
people was the prosecution and imprisonment of
Gourlay, and his banishment from the country
after his harsh treatment in prison had reduced him
to shattered senility. The story has been told with
thrilling eff'ect by Dent, and the feelings stirred by
its recital to-day are but a reflection of those
aroused in the country at the time.
The election contests of Barnabas BidweU fol
lowed, and, extending over two years or more, served
to perpetuate the feelings aroused and to give them
a more decidedly pohtical direction. The Appleton
case foUowing awakened interest in the educational
aspects of the question. FinaUy the sermon preached
by- Dr. Strachan on the occasion of the death of
Bishop Mountain aroused the religious feeling of
the entire body of the people who were not attached
to the Church of England. This sermon, the imme
diate occasion of caUing Mr. Ryerson into the field,
wiU require fuUer attention presently.
In the meantime we must deal with the more
immediate eff'ects of the general pohtical awaken
ing caused by these events. These eff'ects were
63

EGERTON RYERSON
clearly manifest in the general election of 1824 and
in the first session of the newly-elected legislative
assembly. Probably for the first time in the history
of the colony an election contest was carried on in
which not so much the individual candidates as the
principles which they represented were prominently
before the minds of the people. Nothing but the
influence of a new political hfe could have pro
duced this. This consciousness of a distinct issue
before the electors was not the result of any of the
pohtical agencies of our time. A party or provincial
press scarcely existed^Mackenzie's Colonial Advo
cate was only a few weeks old. No great con
ventions had been held. There were no clearly
recognized leaders of public opinion, and there was
no party organization. This movement seemed to
be the spontaneous uprising of pohtical manhood
against assumptions and injustice which could no
longer be endured. The result was the return to the
assembly of a majority of members opposed to the
ruling party and their policy, and the election of
one of their number, John WUson, as speaker, by
a majority of two. This narrow majority by no
means represented their influence in the House.
Feebler men whose convictions were with them
were not yet prepared to cut loose from the old
party stiU in power.
But this return of a majority to the assembly did
not introduce an era of political reform. It was
only the beginning of an era of political conffict
64

ADVANCE OF REFORM
culminating in the new constitution of 1840. The
ruhng party represented by the governor and the
executive council owed no responsibility to the
assembly, and through the legislative council and
the governor they held a negative control over aU
legislation. The direct advantage gained by the
triumph of reform at the poUs was the power to
prevent any legislation which would further sacri
fice the interests of the people. The assembly alone
could make no positive progress towards even legis
lative improvement. But outside of this they gained
another important advantage; they could express
the sentiment and wants of the people to the
people themselves. The popular branch of parha
ment became at least an organ for the clear and
definite expression of pohtical ideas and ideals. In
it the people found set forth in speech what they
had felt, but scarcely understood, and perhaps, as
isolated individuals, would not have dared to utter.
It even went further. It soon became the organ for
the expression of the same ideas at the foot of the
throne and before the parhament of England. It
was especiaUy in this latter way that it was able to
forward largely and effectively the cause of consti
tutional reform in the colony.
Another and scarcely less important result of
this new pohtical life was the creation of leadership.
Four men of conspicuous ability at once came to
the front in the assembly, — John Wilson, the new
speaker of the House, John Rolph, member for
65

EGERTON RYERSON
Middlesex, and Peter Perry and M. S. BidweU,
members for Lennox and Addington. Three others,
the Baldwins and W. L. Mackenzie, were as yet
co-workers outside of the House. Mackenzie worked
especiaUy through his paper The Colonial Advocate,
and the creation of a press through which the people
could be kept in touch with the new pohtical hfe
was another most important event of the period.
The new movement from the political side had
thus in the course of a very few years risen to com
manding influence among the people, had acquired
for itself a standing ground and organ of influential
work in parhament itself, had called to its front
able and energetic leaders, and had created a press
through which it could disseminate necessary in
formation among the people.
But important and far-reaching in its results as
was this pohtical side of the movement it by no
means exhausted its force. From the pohtical point
of view, many of the religious questions raised were
quite excluded, and others occupied a subordinate
place. But the religious interests of a people are too
important and he too near to their hearts to be
relegated to any secondary place ; and the party
in power were at this juncture fated to awaken
against themselves the full force of the rehgious as
weU as the political sentiments of the people. This
was brought about by three or four acts of Dr.
Strachan following close on the pohtical events
just sketched. 66

AN AWAKENING SERMON
The first of these was the sermon preached at
York on July 3rd, 1825, on the death of the late
Lord Bishop of Quebec. In this sermon, preached
before a sympathetic audience of his own people,
he expounded somewhat freely, not only his own
ecclesiastical views and pohcy, but also his senti
ments towards the other rehgious bodies of the
country. The main points were the foUowing:
(1) The maintenance of the Divine authority and
exclusive vahdity of the Episcopal Church polity;
(2) the necessity of a state church and the moral
obhgation of the government to provide for its
estabhshment and support; (3) the claim of the
Church of England to be the established church of
this colony and to the exclusive enjoyment of the
clergy reserves ; (4) disparaging references to other
rehgious bodies, in which he represents them as
disloyal, as imbued with repubhcan and leveUing
opinions, as ignorant, incapable, and idle, and
pictures the country which was largely supplied
with the means of grace through their services as in
a state of utter moral and rehgious destitution.
The persecution of Gourlay and the expulsion of
BidweU from the House of Assembly were scarcely
more eff'ective in arousing the pohtical feelings of
the country than was this unfortunate utterance in
arousing the indignation of the rehgious com
munity. This indignation immediately found a
voice and a capable leader in the person of Egerton
Ryerson, a young Methodist preacher then in the
67

EGERTON RYEKSOJN
first year of his ministry. He had been received
on trial at the conference of 1825 and was stationed
with the Rev. James Richardson on the Yonge
Street and York circuit. His entrance upon the
present controversy is thus described in "The Story
of My Life": "The Methodists in York at that
time numbered about fifty persons, young and old.
The two preachers arranged to meet once in four
weeks on their return from their country tours,
when a social meeting of the leading members of
the society was held for consultation, conversation,
and prayer. One of the members of this company
obtained and brought to the meeting a copy of the
Archdeacon's sermon, and read the parts of it
which related to the attacks on the Methodists,
and the proposed method of exterminating them.
The reading of these extracts produced a thrilhng
sensation of indignation and alarm, and aU agreed
that something must be written and done to defend
the character and rights of Methodists and others
assailed, against such attacks and such a pohcy.
The voice of the meeting pointed to me to under
take the work, I was then designated as 'The Boy
Preacher,' from my youthful appearance and as the
youngest minister in the church (he was then just
twenty -three years of age). I objected on account
of my youth and incompetence, but my objections
were overruled, when I proposed as a compromise,
that during our next country tour the Superintend
ent of the circuit (the Rev. James Richardson) and
68

FIRST LETTER
myself should each write on the subject, and from
what we should both write, something might be
compiled to meet the case. This was agreed to, and
at our next social monthly meeting in the town,
inquiry was made as to what had been written in
defence of the Methodists and others against the
attacks and pohcy of the Archdeacon of York.
It was found that the Superintendent of the circuit
had virritten nothing; and on being questioned, I
said I had endeavoured to obey the instructions of
my senior brethren. It was then insisted that I
must read what I had written. I at length yielded
and read my answer to the attacks made on us.
The reading of my paper was attended with alter
nate laughter and tears on the part of the social
party, aU of whom insisted that it should be printed.
I objected that I had never written anything for
the press, and was not competent to do so, and
advanced to throw my manuscript into the fire,
when one of the elder members caught me by the
arms and another wrenched the manuscript out of
my hands, saying he would take it to the printer.
Finding my eff'orts vain to recover it, I said if it
were restored I would not destroy but re-write it
and return it to the brethren to do what they
pleased with it. I did so. Two of the senior brethren
took the manuscript to the printer, and its publi
cation produced a sensation scarcely less violent
and general than a Fenian invasion. It is said
that before every house in Toronto (then the town
69

EGERTON RYERSON
of York) might be seen groups reading and dis
cussing the paper on the evening of its publication
in June; and the excitement spread throughout the
country. It was the first defiant defence of the
Methodists, and of the equal and civU rights of aU
rehgious persuasions, the first protest and argument
on legal and British constitutional grounds, against
the erection of a dominant church estabhshment
supported by the state in Upper Canada. It was
the Loyalists of America and their descendants
who first hfted up the voice of remonstrance against
ecclesiastical despotism in the province, and un
furled the flag of equal rehgious rights and hberty
for aU religious persuasions. The sermon of the
Archdeacon of York was the third formal attack
made by the Church of England clergy upon the
character of their unoff'ending Methodist brethren
and those of other rehgious persuasions, but no
defense of the assailed parties had as yet been
written. At that time the Methodists had no law to
secure a foot of land on which to bmld parsonages
or chapels and in which to bury their dead; their
ministers were not aUowed to solemnize matri
mony, and some of them had been the objects
of cruel and iUegal persecution on the part of
magistrates and others in authority. And now they
were the butt of unprovoked and unfounded asper
sions from two heads of Episcopal clergy, whUe
pursuing the 'noiseless tenor of their way' through
trackless forests and bridgeless rivers and streams,
70

FIRST POLITICAL PAMPHLET
to preach among the scattered inhabitants the
unsearchable riches of Christ."
These words from Dr. Ryerson's own pen indi
cate most clearly the circumstances under which
and the motives by which he was led into this
controversy. It was no itching for political notoriety,
but rather manly indignation against wrong which
forced the young Methodist preacher into the
strife. But the extract gives us no conception of
the abihty and thoroughness with which he per
formed his task. Replies from the Church of
England side quickly appeared, and again and
again he returned to the conflict. In a short time
a volume of the letters of two hundred and fifty
pages was written which forms to-day a most valu
able historical document. In these letters he shows
himself a master of the scriptural and even of the
patristic argument on the fundamental question
of church pohty, taking a position which is now
conceded by the very best Anghcan divines. He
discusses the question of a church estabhshment
with wonderful practical insight as weU as wide
historical learning. With keen satire he contrasts
the self-denying hfe and labours, and the con
secrated purity and zeal of the Methodist preachers
with the hves, work and emoluments of their
detractors. While not claiming for them scholastic
learning, he shows that they were at least men
of good sound fundamental education, practically
fitted and able for their work; and finaUy he vindi-
71

EGERTON RYERSON
cates their loyalty as citizens in words of burning
eloquence. Before the review of his sermon appeared in print
Dr, Strachan had left the province on a visit to
England where he spent some eighteen months im
proving the opportunity for the furtherance of his
ecclesiastical and educational policy. The character
of his eff'orts to this end appeared in three pubhc
documents which bear date in 1827. The first
of these was a biU introduced into the Imperial
parliament in February, 1827. Of it, Dr, Strachan
himself writes: "I should now be on my way to
Canada, but I got a biU introduced, in February,
into parhament, to enable the crown to seU a por
tion of the clergy reserves, as they are at present
totally unproductive, and a cause of clamour as
being a barrier to improvement, I was anxious to
avoid the great question that has been agitated
in the colony about the meaning of the words
'Protestant Clergy,' and confined myself simply to
the power of sale. But Mr, Stanley came forward
with a motion to investigate the whole matter, and
of consequence, the second reading of my bUl
is put off' to the first of May. In the meantime the
old ministry has fallen to pieces, and whether the
new ministry will attend to my business or not
remains to be seen." The second was the charter of
King's College, dated March 15th, 1827. Of this he
speaks in the same letter: "I am happy to teU you
that I had the good fortune to accomplish the most
72

UNIVERSITY CHARTER
material part of my mission before the crash
amongst the ministry took place. My university
charter was issued on March 22nd, and I have
had a few copies printed."
This charter, which was to be the subject of
acrimonious dispute for more than twenty years to
come, and the end of which we have not yet
reached, deserves attention as one of the most
important parts of Dr. Strachan's educational
policy. We have aheady seen his relation, first
to the district or secondary schools, and later to
the common or primary. Over each he had secured
some measure of control, but as yet by no means
complete in the case of the latter. His charter was
now about to leave no room for question as to the
ecclesiastical control of the university, as wiU ap
pear from the foUowing provisions of the charter:
1. The bishop of the diocese was made the visi
tor of the university. This placed the supreme
power of investigating and vetoing aU questions as
to its management and work in ecclesiastical hands.
2. The president must be a clergyman in holy
orders of the united Church of England and Ire
land, and the Rev, John Strachan, D.D,, was ap
pointed the first president,
3. The college was to be governed by a council
consisting of the chancellor, the president, and
seven professors who should be members of the
united Church of England and Ireland and sub
scribe to the thirty-nine articles. In the lack of
73

EGERTON RYERSON
seven such professors the council was to be filled by
graduates who should be members of the Church
of England and subscribe as above.
4, Degrees in divinity were conditioned on the
same declarations, subscriptions and oaths as were
required at that date in the University of Oxford.
They were thus confined to the clergy of the
established church.
The third document was a letter to Mr. Horton,
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, setting
forth the needs and claims of the church in Upper
Canada to an estabhshment of two or three hun
dred clergymen deriving the greater portion of
their income from funds deposited in England.
This letter was seemingly connected with the bUl
aheady referred to, and contained statements very
similar to those made in the sermon of 1825, and
was accompanied by an ecclesiastical chart or table
setting forth Dr. Strachan's estimate of the diff'er
ent religious bodies in Upper Canada. In this chart
the names of thirty-one Anglican clergymen were
given and the whole number was put at thirty-nine.
The Presbyterians were placed as eight, the Metho
dists were said to be very uncertain, "perhaps
twenty or thirty," and all others "very few" and
"very ignorant,"
These documents once more awakened the poh
tical and religious sentiment of the province.
Petitions extensively signed by the inhabitants of
the province were forwarded to England, and
74

PETITION AND RESOLUTION
representations by resolution of the House of
Assembly were laid before the British House of
Commons, and the whole subject of the civU
government of both Upper and Lower Canada,
which also had its important grievances, was refer
red to a select committee of the House, which,
after taking voluminous evidence on aU the ques
tions raised, reported to the House in July 1828,
Before this committee Mr. George Ryerson ap
peared on behalf of the Upper Canadian petitioners
touching the university charter and the clergy re
serves and the ecclesiastical chart. The petitioners
presented a counter chart, compiled by the Rev.
Dr. Lee of the Presbyterian Church. These facts
are evidence of the earnestness of the people in the
assertion of their civil and rehgious liberties at this
juncture. In the meantime. Dr. Strachan, having re
turned to Canada on March 7th, 1828, delivered a
speech before the legislative council "to repel the
charges against his conduct in relation to a certain
letter and ecclesiastical chart, said to have been
addressed by him to the Under-Secretary of State
for the Colonies, and in his agency in procuring the
charter for the University of King's CoUege for
many months past circulated in the pubhc jour
nals." This speech, which once more called forth
the pen of Mr. Ryerson, is largely occupied with
the defence of personal rectitude and consistency.
Apart from this, its most important elements were
75

EGERTON RYERSON
the history of the biU in the English parliament in
the summer of 1827, and of Dr. Strachan's relations
to it ; his appeal to the self-interest of the Church
of Scotland; his defence of the Church of England's
claim to be the estabhshed church of Canada and
to exclusive right as such to the clergy reserves;
and his defence of his university charter as "the
most hberal that has ever been granted." As a
minor point it may be noted that it contains an
indirect appeal to the "Wesleyan Methodists," by
which at this time he means the British mission
aries as distinguished from " those Methodists who
get their teachers and preachers from the United
States." These last he holds to be " the enemies
of the estabhshed church," because they are " at
this moment labouring to separate religion from the
State, with which it ought ever to be firmly united,
since one of its great objects is to give stabUity to
good government; nor can it be separated with
impunity in any Christian country."
It was scarcely to be expected that the Metho
dists would sit down quietly under such a chaUenge.
The address was published by request of the legis
lative council in March or April, and by the be
ginning of May Mr. Ryerson had commenced his
reply, which was completed by June 14th, in a
series of eight letters addressed to Dr. Strachan. In
these letters he cheerfuUy admits Dr. Strachan's
sincerity, but makes a very strong case against his
consistency, and exposes the artful character of
76

THE SECOND PAMPHLET
his appeals to self-interest. Once more he vindicates
the rights and the loyalty of the Christian body to
which he belongs, and points out the fictitious
character of the Doctor's sneering references to
their ecclesiastical movement toward independence
of the American Church as due to his advice. But
by far the weightiest part of his reply is his masterly
attack upon Dr. Strachan's fundamental principles
and pohcy. He discusses the great questions raised
as foUows :
1. Is an estabhshed church a benefit to the
state ?
2. Is such the necessary or best means for pro
moting the interests of rehgion ?
3. Is the Church of England already the estab
hshed church of Canada?
4. Ought it to be so estabhshed with peculiar
privUeges and endowments ?
To each of these questions the reply is a most
emphatic negative, enforced by such considerations
as these: — The great work of the church, is not
pohtical, but purely moral and spiritual. When it
enters the political sphere its presence there is pro
ductive of evil and a menace to the hberty of the
citizen and the unity of the state. History proves
that the estabhshment and endowment of a church
has a tendency to destroy its spiritual vitahty
and power, the Church of England herself, according
to the testimony of her own divines, being an
example. The answer to the question, Is the Church
77

EGERTON RYERSON
of England by law established in Upper Canada, is
a clear and comprehensive piece of legal argument
founded on the Constitutional Act of 1791, which
is interpreted by its own internal use of the terms
employed, and by the fact that to secure certain
special privileges to the Church of England, specific
enactments are made, such specifications excluding
a general comprehensive interpretation by a recog
nized principle of law. The claim that the Church
of England is by law estabhshed in all the British
colonies under acts of parliament from Ehzabeth
onward, by the language of the Coronation Oath
and by acts of royal prerogative is clearly disposed
of by the example of numerous British colonies
since that time, in which such claim was neither
recognized nor enforced, and by the fact that when
it was so estabhshed it was done by express Royal
Charter, and further by the recognition of the
Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada. Finally
he concludes the fourth question in the negative by
showing that every ground upon which such estab
hshment might be based is lacking in the case
of Upper Canada. It is not the church of the
majority, nor does its moral and rehgious influence
justify any such claim ; and to so establish and
force it upon the people would be to its own fatal
disadvantage. Turning from the church to the university char
ter, he points out its sectarian character, its lack of
adaptation to the wants of our country, its injustice
78

AN ACKNOWLEDGED LEADER
to aU religious bodies except the Anghcan, the
misrepresentations by which it had been secured,
and he concludes by contrasting Dr. Strachan's
educational system forced upon the people against
their wiU and under the complete domination of the
Anglican Church with the Scottish system founded
by act of their own parhament, fitted to their
national circumstances, commanding the general
assent and confidence of the people, and subject to
no undue interference or control from their clergy.
By this second eff'ort Mr. Ryerson became the
recognized leader of the religious side of this great
movement for religious hberty and equal civU
rights. The other side, involving the fundamental
question of a government completely responsible to
the people, was, as we have seen, led by other men
of acknowledged pohtical abUity; but while they
were contending for closely related and no less
important rights, there is nothing to show that
he stepped aside from his important rehgious re-
sponsibUities to interfere in these pohtical questions.
It is not even evident that he sympathized with the
pohtical side of the reform movement, but rather
probable that he held to the old conservative pohti
cal faith of not intermeddling with those who are
given to change.
Especially was the Methodist Church (numbering
at this time about ten thousand members and fifty
thousand adherents, with fifty-six ministers), fuUy
awakened to the dangers which now threatened its
79

EGERTON RYERSON
liberties and progress, and under a leadership seem
ingly raised up for the time by Divine Providence,
it moved forward to meet the needs of the situation
with an energy and self-sacrificing enterprise which
must command our highest admiration.

80

CHAPTER IV
A METHODIST PRESS AND A METHODIST
COLLEGE
DURING these years in which he was engaged
in this first controversy, Mr, Ryerson was stUl
a young preacher, not yet admitted to the fuU
responsibUities of the Christian ministry. At the
conference of 1829 he was ordained an elder, being
then twenty-six years of age. From this time
forward he takes a prominent place in the councUs
of the church. But even on this occasion the
powerful impulse which his writings had given
to the thoughts and energies of Methodism was
seen in two important actions of the conference.
At the conference of 1824 the Canadian Metho
dists had felt and expressed the desire for an
independent organization which would free them
from the reproach of being subject to the juris
diction of a church belonging to a foreign country.
At that date they were constituted a distinct
conference but stiU connected with and under
the jurisdiction of the General Conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.
In 1828 they had been erected into an independent
Canadian Church with the full consent of their
American brethren. This action was creditable to
81

EGERTON RYERSON
the Christian spirit and patriotism of both parties.
The American Church recognized the obhgations
which rested on the Canadians as citizens of another
country; the Canadians recognized their obhgations
to the parent church, through whose missionary
zeal their churches had been planted, and both
recognized that the work of God should not be
hindered or prejudiced by any pohtical comph-
cations. The separation was with mutual good-wUl
and aff'ection, a voluntary sacrifice of personal feel
ings and historic sentiment to the higher interests
of religion and citizenship. No refutation of the
slander that Canadian Methodism was disloyal could
be more complete than that which was aff'orded by
this action. Nor was it without important results
for the pohtical future of Upper Canada. An inde
pendent Canadian Methodism has been no smaU
factor in the creation of a united Canadian national
spirit as a part of the British Empire,
The new Canadian Methodist Church was now
free to develop a thoroughly Canadian policy in
founding church enterprises adapted to its dis
tinctive Canadian needs. The first of these was
a Methodist press. At the conference of 1829 steps
were taken for the estabhshment of a weekly paper,
to be called The Christian Guardian and Mr.
Ryerson was elected editor and stationed at York.
Henceforth this journal was to be the exponent of
the views of Methodism on the great questions
which agitated both the religious and the political
82

A LEADING PAPER
sentiment of the country, and in the hands of Mr.
Ryerson was shortly to be acknowledged by the
heutenant-governor himself as the leading paper
of the province, whose influence was of the highest
importance in the critical times which even then
were so close at hand. The editorial chair was the
official recognition by the Canadian Methodist
Church of Mr. Ryerson's leadership in the great
issues which were agitating the country and the
churches. The financial side of The Guardian was
characteristic of the self-denying spirit and enter
prise of this heroic age. Stock to the amount of
$2,000 in 100 shares of $20 each was subscribed,
the greater part of it by the fifty-four ministers and
preachers who composed the conference of that
year. The first number was issued on November
21st, 1829. The spirit and attitude of the paper
may be judged from the foUowing extract, quoted
from an editorial in the first volume in Dr. Web
ster's excellent history of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Canada: "The constitution of a Church
and State establishment is not suited to the at
mosphere of Canada. Such a monster, whether with
one, two or three heads, must very soon share
the fate in this country which he has lately met
with in France; for the unobstructed air of free
discussion is his mortal poison, and never can
he long maintain a successful contest against the
deathly piercings of that triple sword of truth,
justice and Puritan independence, which is turning
83

EGERTON RYERSON
every way, guarding the intellectual citadels of the
good people of Canada against his blasphemous
approach. 'Many are running to and fro, and
knowledge is increasing,' and it is too late in the
day to attempt to introduce into British North
America the policy of Portugal and Spain, or that
of Charles the Tenth."
The second important interest to which the at
tention of the Methodist conference was directed at
this early period was that of education. The entire
question, not only of religious instruction in the
fundamental doctrines of rehgion, but also the
broader question of higher education for ministers
and people occupied the attention of the confer
ence. At that date the other churches diff'ered as
widely from Methodism in theology as they did in
their quality and methods of work. The conference
of 1829 organized a Sunday School Union, the first
in Upper Canada, and the foundation of a Sunday
School organization which is to-day by far the
largest and most influential in our country. In 1830
the first formal steps were taken for the establish
ment of a Seminary of Learning. Mr. Ryerson's
name does not appear on the first committee as he
was StiU a junior member of the conference, but
before the project was carried into successful opera
tion, he was to become a foremost worker in
the labours by which its almost insuperable diffi
culties were overcome. But a Methodist college,
truly Christian in its educational influence, yet
84

A METHODIST COLLEGE
broadly liberal in its constitution and work, as
became the doctrines and spirit of Methodism, was
an essential part of the far-seeing and aggressive
pohcy which he had marked out for Methodism.
This pohcy had not been propounded in any con
ventional platform. It had scarcely been expressed
in words, perhaps not formulated to his own mind
in very definite propositions. It was a spirit which
foimd expression in deeds as well as words. This
spirit fired his own youthful impetuosity, and it was
thoroughly contagious, and the whole Methodist
Church felt its influence. Its voice was, we wiU
submit to no ecclesiastical domination, we wiU
acknowledge ourselves inferior to no other body of
people, we wiU assert our rightful place and in
fluence as citizens on an equality with every other
citizen of this free new country. But it was a spirit
of wisdom as weU as of manly independence, and
that wisdom clearly indicated that to hold their
own in this struggle for their rights, the young
Methodists must be as weU educated and as
thoroughly intelligent as their neighbours. In the
pursuit of this noble policy Mr. Ryerson had al
ready led the way by the example of his own young
hfe. Since his conversion no opportunity of gaining
knowledge had been aUowed to pass unimproved.
He had devoured both the English and the ancient
classics with a greedy appetite. He had become
thoroughly at home in the history of ancient and
modem times, he had studied the jurisprudence of
85

EGERTON RYERSON
Blackstone and the philosophy of Paley as weU as
the best English divines, and at twenty-six he was
perhaps the "best informed" man of his years in
the country. His example, his ambitions, as weU as
his words thus aroused the whole Methodist minis
try and people to the importance of the most
ample learning in ministers and laity if they were
to assert their rights against supercilious arrogance.
i Victoria College was thus bom out of the struggle
for rehgious hberty and equal civil rights. But
before entering upon the consideration of Mr,
Ryerson's active part in this new enterprise, we
must give our attention to another development
of the great struggle in which he was now so
thoroughly engaged.
We have seen that in his address before the
legislative council, in March, 1828, Dr. Strachan
made a bid not only for the aid of the Old Kirk
Presbyterians, but also for that of the Enghsh
Wesleyan missionaries, a few of whom were aheady
in Upper Canada, The action of the General Con
ference of the Methodist Episcopal church in the
United States providing for the independence of
the Canadian Methodists was taken a very few
weeks after the delivery of this address, and the
fact that this was in contemplation was aheady
weU known and is referred to by Dr. Strachan.
But another important circumstance was not so
weU known, though possibly known to Dr, Strachan
even at this date. What that circumstance was
86

ENGLISH METHODISM
appears from the evidence of Dr. Alder before
the select committee of the English House of
Commons in July, 1828, a few months after Dr.
Strachan's address, and three months before the
independence of the Canadian Methodist church
was formaUy completed, but two months after
the action of the American conference which pro
vided for it. In that evidence Dr. Alder reveals
these important facts :
1. That the Enghsh Methodist authorities were
already looking forward to the annexation of Upper
Canadian Methodism as a part of their work.
2, That for this purpose they were looking to
securing a share in the clergy reserves.
3. That this pohcy, if not based upon and origin
ated by, was at least associated with communications
which they had received from the Governor-Gen
eral, and communications to the colonial office from
Sir Peregrine Maitland, with which Dr. Alder had
evidently become acquainted. The references in the
evidence to these documents is as follows: — "This
is the opinion of the Governor-General, from whose
letter to me (which I received a few days before I
left the province) I beg permission to read an
extract. 'We aU know,' His Lordship observes,
'that the Established Church cannot provide clergy
men at all places where they are required and de
sired; in that difficulty the Wesleyan ministers
have rendered most valuable services, and I think
they are qualified and capable to render much
87

EGERTON RYERSON
greater services under the protection and encour
agement which they desire from His Majesty's
government,' Do you conceive that the colonial
government has manifested any desire for the ex
tension of the British Wesleyan Methodists in that
province? I beheve there are documents in the
colonial office addressed to Earl Bathurst and to
Mr, Huskisson from Sir Peregrine Maitland which
wiU show that His Excellency is very anxious that
the number of British Methodist ministers should
be increased as far as possible in Upper Canada;
and I understand that he wrote home a short time
ago recommending that pecuniary aid might be
allowed us for that purpose." One further extract
in answer to the claim of Methodists on the clergy
reserves will serve to make clear the whole situa
tion. "There is a diff'erence of opinion among us on
this subject; but the general opinion of our minis
ters in Lower Canada, I believe, is this, that if the
reserves be appropriated to the sole use of the
Church of England, we shall off'er no objection to
it; but if the Presbyterians are to have any part of
these reserves, then we conceive that we have at
least an equaUy good claim with them; and we
should be very much dissatisfied if our claims were
disallowed." This new factor, which speedily developed into
more definite form, introduced an entirely new
problem into the struggles in which the Methodists
and Mr. Ryerson were engaged. They were now
88

ALLIED OPPOSITION
called to meet not only the ecclesiastical and politi
cal influences which opposed them from without,
but also the possibility of weakness and division
from within. There appear to be good grounds for
the behef that this difficulty was itself brought
about by the insidious plans of the dominant party.
They expected, and with good reason, that the
Enghsh Wesleyans, who up to this time in the
mother land had always been politicaUy subservient
to the established church, would here also be wiU-
ing to yield to their claims. In looking back now
this should not be ascribed as a reproach to these
English Wesleyans. As yet they, with the great
body of the people of England, had not been
awakened to a sense of political responsibilities and
rights. It seemed to them quite right and natural
that the institutions of the old land should without
change be transplanted to Canada.
Notwithstanding the anticipations of Dr. Alder i/'
in 1828 that "the Methodists of Upper Canada
wUl soon be brought to act under the direction of
the British conference," they held on their way
with increasing influence and prosperity for four
years. In May, 1832, a communication was received
from Dr. Alder that the Wesleyan Missionary
Committee in London had again resolved to send
missionaries to Upper Canada, and that Dr. Alder
and twelve missionaries would sail shortly. "This
announcement," says Mr. John Ryerson, then presi
dent of the Canada Conference Missionary Society,
89

EGERTON RYERSON
"was to us hke a thunderclap. For eight or nine
years our church had been wading through deep
waters of affliction, and enduring fightings without
and fears within, while contending for the right to
hold property on which to erect places of worship
and in which to bury our dead, for right to solem
nize matrimony, against the clergy reserve mon
opoly, and for equal rights and privileges before
the law with the Church of England, in eff'ecting
by mutual consent our separation from the Metho
dist Episcopal Church in the United States, and
our organization into an independent church, pre
ceded and followed as it was by the tumults and
schisms of Ryanism. And now when peace and
quiet had apparently returned, and when expecta
tions of increased prosperity were beginning to
cheer us, to receive such an announcement was
disheartening and crushing beyond what can be
expressed. It was easy to predict what would be
the result of rival Methodist congregations in every
town and principal neighbourhood, and the rival
congregations served by able ministers from Eng
land." This resolution of the London Wesleyan Mis
sionary Committee was not, however, altogether
sudden. As we have seen, it was foreshadowed as a
plan of absorption by Dr. Alder four years before;
and during a visit of Mr. Case and Peter Jones to
England in 1831, it had been intimated to them
that the London committee purposed undertaking
90

A REJECTED APPEAL
missions to the Indians and new settlers in Upper
Canada, On his return home Mr. Case laid the
matter before his own missionary committee; and
an earnest appeal was made to the London Wes
leyan Missionary Committee against such unfor
tunate rivalry of work, as contrary to the agreement
of 1820, in which the Enghsh Wesleyans agreed to
confine their labours to I^ower Canada, and the
American missionaries to hmit theirs to Upper
Canada, the toven of Kingston, as a military sta
tion, being made an exception. The reply to this
remonstrance was that this agreement was made
with the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United
States, and not with the now independent Metho
dist Episcopal Church of Canada, a reply which
was valid neither in law, equity, nor Christian
charity. It is not surprising that United Empire Loyal
ists, who, for loyalty's sake, had just severed them
selves from their parent church, and who had just
entered upon the onerous task of building up a
loyal Canadian Methodism in the face of great
difficulties, should feel deeply wounded and dis
couraged by such treatment from their English
brethren, who refused to them as Canadians the
consideration accorded to the Methodist Church of
the United States, The difficulty of their position
was enhanced by another circumstance. Their In
dian missions providently placed in their hands by
the remarkable conversion of over a thousand pagan
91

EGERTON RYERSON
Indians since 1824, were a heavy financial burden.
Up to the time of their independence, and for two
or three years after, they had received aid from the
United States. In 1831 they were induced to make
an appeal to England, with the result that they
received the intimation already referred to and a
gift of £300, It is difficult to resist the conclusion
that the I^ondon Wesleyan Missionary Committee
was at this time under other influence than that
which Dr. CarroU so charitably assigns, the behef
"that the provincial conference had more mis
sionary ground than it had men and means to
occupy." But setting this question aside, the Cana
dian Methodists, after serious deliberation over the
situation, first in their missionary committee and
subsequently in their conference, resolved to seek a
union with the Enghsh Wesleyans. By the terms
of this union the identity of their conference and
church was to be preserved, and to be related to
the British conference after the model of the Irish
Wesleyan conference. But their missions, including
both the Indian missions and missions to the new
settlements, were handed over to the London Wes
leyan Missionary Committee to be controUed by
a superintendent appointed from England. This
arrangement seemingly retained for the Canadian
conference the control of its own work, and granted
to the English Methodism what it sought, the new
mission field. It also relieved the Canadian con
ference of the heavy financial responsibUity of the
92

TERMS OF UNION
missionary work, which was entirely undertaken by
the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee, to
which the Canadian conference contributed its mis
sionary funds.
Up to this point the basis of union seems reason
able and just from the standpoint of both bodies,
and most hkely to result in the best interests of
Methodism and rehgion. But there were two om
inous facts behind the entire arrangement which
were portentous of future trouble. One was the fact
that the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee
were aheady committed to a subsidy from the
colonial office of the British government. The other
was the fact that the Canadian Methodist confer
ence was most decidedly, by pubhc conference
action, committed to opposition to the government
pohcy on the questions of an established state
church and the clergy reserves. These questions
were not referred to in the articles of union. Both
parties were aware of the facts, for the previous
correspondence indicates such knowledge on the
part of the English committee, and that corres
pondence was afterwards pleaded as if it were a
stipulation of the union. There is nothing to shew
that it was so intended or understood. On the
other hand there is nothing to shew that the
Canadian conference protested against the position
of the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee.
If these difficulties were at aU referred to in the
negotiations, the reference was verbal, and would
93

EGERTON RYERSON
seem to have amounted to a tacit understanding
that the unpleasant facts would be ignored, each
body being responsible for its own action. If such
was the case the hope was illusory, the unpleasant
facts would not disappear, and to no one did they
cause more trouble than to Mr. Ryerson himself.
M Further difficulties arose from two provisions of
the basis of union adopting the Enghsh form of
church government and an Enghsh presidency.
These soon became the occasion of serious trouble.
Of Mr. Ryerson's personal relations to the prelim
inary negotiations we have no record. Probably as
a younger man he deferred to his seniors. But
his attitude seems clear from the subsequent his
tory. At the close of the negotiations with Dr.
Alder at the conference of 1832, he at first refused
to allow his name to be put in nomination for
editor. Later he assented, but James Richardson
was elected editor. Mr, Ryerson was elected repre
sentative to England for the purpose of the ne
gotiations with the British conference. In those
negotiations he was entirely bound by the articles
of union to which his conference had agreed. Six
years later, when the difficulties arising from the
union were approaching a crisis, it was claimed
that he was bound by other matters of verbal
agreement between IMr, Alder and the leading
representatives of the Canadian conference. That
there had been conversation on the two points of
the political relations of The Christian Guardian,
94

UNCERTAIN STIPULATIONS
and on the grant from the British government
to the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee of
a subsidy from the casual and territorial revenue,
there seems to be no room for doubt. That the
Canadians assented to the general principle that
The Guardian should not intermeddle in politics
is probably also correct; as also that they agreed
to leave the responsibihty of accepting aid from
the government entirely to the British conference
without interference on their part. But the evi
dence seems clear that they reserved their right to
independent action on the questions of a state
church and the clergy reserves, as these were not
merely political but also religious questions. That
this was the exact position of aff'airs appears, first
of aU, from the fact that before the British con
ference, when presenting the Canadian case, Mr,
Ryerson made a full historic statement vindicating
the action of the Canadian conference and Metho
dist people, as well as the course of The Guardian
on these points. It is further confirmed by the fact
that when in England Mr, Ryerson presented to
the secretary of state for the colonies the complete
case for the Canadian opponents of an estabhshed
and endowed church in Canada, In this presenta
tion he sets forth that the English Church is not
the established church in Canada; replies to the
petition of the English Church in Canada ; defends
the Methodists as to their loyalty, work and num
bers, and concludes by pressing that the reserves
95

EGERTON RYERSON
be not invested in the home government; that
they be not given to the English Church; that
they be not divided among the Canadian Protes
tant churches, but that they be sold and the
proceeds applied for education. Before this presen
tation was sent to the colonial secretary, it was
endorsed by at least one of the English missionary
secretaries. Again, after his return to Canada, Mr. Ryerson
was elected once more to the editorial chair. Almost
his first work was the publication of this presen
tation in The Guardian. At the same time he
claims that his views on these great questions are
unchanged, and that he will maintain them as con
sistently as ever. These facts seem to prove that
the clergy reserve question and the state church
question in Canada were reserved in the general
understanding that the Canadian conference and
The Guardian were to refrain from interference in
politics. Mr. Ryerson's subsequent course, resulting
finally in the disruption of the union, is further
confirmation of this. Possibly these facts as they
became generally known to the friends of reform,
and especially to the Methodist people, would have
quieted the fears that their political freedom had
been betrayed by union, but for another product of
Mr. Ryerson's facile pen which appeared at the
same time. And yet this was perhaps no less
conducive to the best interests of the country than
his previous battle for equal civil rights.
96

"IMPRESSIONS"
WhUe in England, from March to August, he
had abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted
with English institutions and people. The results he
gave to the readers of The Guardian in a series of
articles entitled "Impressions." The first of these
dealt with pohtical parties and leaders in England.
These he divided into ultra-Tories, whom he de
scribed as tyrants and bigots ; moderate Tories,
whom he praises as men distinguished for justice,
conscientiousness and religion ; Whigs, who act from
expediency, whom he describes as including the in
fidels and socinians, and as being republicans with
a king instead of a president, and as an obstacle to
true reforms. There can be no doubt that in this
article Mr. Ryerson's true pohtical sympathies
appear. As a United Empire Loyalist he was
himself a moderate Conservative, and already Cana
dian reform was developing a radical wing with
which he could have no affinity. It is not at all
impossible that he already discerned that the goal
of this radical tendency was rebellion or annexation,
and that the articles were written to awaken the
loyal fears of Methodists that they might not be led
into a compromising political position. If so they
served their purpose, and it was his boast in later
times that not a member of the Wesleyan Metho
dist Church in Canada was imphcated in the
rebeUion. But the "Impressions" feU like a spark in a
tinder box among the Canadian radicals, and the
97

EGERTON RYERSON
next issue of Mr. Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate
contained the following: "The Clnistian Guardian,
under the management of our reverend neighbour
Egerton Ryerson, has gone over to the enemy,
press, types and all, and hoisted the colours of a
cruel and vindictive Tory priesthood. His brother
George, when sent to London, became an easy
convert to the same cause, and it appears that
the parent stock were of those who fought to
uphold unjust taxation, stamp acts and Toryism in
the United States, The contents of The Guardian
to-night tell us in language too plain, too intelligible
to be misunderstood that a deadly blow has been
struck in England at the liberties of the people
of Upper Canada by as subtle and ungrateful
an adversary in the guise of an old and familiar
friend as ever crossed the Atlantic. The Americans
had their Arnold, and the Canadians have their
Egerton Ryerson," It is quite unnecessary to foUow
the political storm, of which this is a first gust,
through aU its tempestuous course during the next
three years. It resulted as Mr. Ryerson had partiaUy
foreseen and predicted, in a check to the reform
movement in 1836, in the rebeUion in 1837, and in
the final triumph of constitutional reform in 1840,
But before we turn our attention to these final
results, we must take note of an ecclesiastical
tempest scarcely less violent, and much more ex
tended in its results. In fact, say what men would,
and do what they could to prevent it, at this period
98

RELIGION AND POLITICS
rehgion and politics were inevitably intermingled.
The party in power was an ecclesiastical as well as
a political party, and its policy was an ecclesiastical
as well as a political policy, and men could not
contend for their pohtical rights without religious
feehng, nor could they defend their religious hberties
without pohtical weapons. But at this time the
most violent animosities were to be found in the
political arena, and to a large number their pohtical
rights were quite as dear as any other. But there
were purely ecclesiastical questions which were
to co-operate with the political suspicions already
aroused in creating the new struggle. It not in
frequently happens that a progressive spirit in
politics is associated with the conservative spirit in
rehgious or ecclesiastical matters, Mr, Gladstone
affords a good example. The Methodist union in
volved a large change in the polity of the church.
Into its particulars it is by no means necessary that
we should now enter. It is sufficient to say that the
change raised a number of questions as to the
constitution of Methodism, the rights of the laity,
the orders of the ministry and so forth, which the
subsequent progress of the church to a higher
ground has completely left behind. They are many
of them now ecclesiastical antiquities. Others in
volved fundamental principles of religious liberty
which are now fuUy recognized under the new
constitution of the reunited church. Before the
union of Canadian and British Methodism had been
99

EGERTON RYERSON
in existence two years, these forces brought about a
schism, which left the main body in 1835 just about
where it stood in 1832,
But this was not to be the end of ecclesiastical
disaster to Methodism, Immediately after the re
beUion, Mr. Ryerson, after an interval of three
years, one-half of which had been spent in England
on coUege matters, was again caUed in 1838 to
the editorial chair of The Guardian. It was the
juncture at which the great constitutional and re
hgious questions which had been pending for years
in Upper Canada were about to be settled, and it
was admitted by aU that at this time his influence
should once more be felt through the official
journal of the church. With all his former earnest
ness of purpose and vigour of argument he applied
himself to the question of the clergy reserves, which
was now the centre of the religious or ecclesiastical
side of the matter. The Guardian was used with
great power as of old, and a new volume of letters,
addressed to the Hon. W. H. Draper, discussed
the entire question in its legal and historical aspects,
supported distinctly the voluntary system as the
only religious system suitable to a country hke
Canada, and advocated the application of the clergy
reserves to the purposes of education. In the pro
gress of aff'airs towards what seemed to promise a
settlement, but which was finally found to be a
delusive hope, it was proposed to divide the reserves
between the several Protestant bodies, aUowing aU
100

THE CONFLICT REOPENED
to use their share for such purposes as they might
judge right. Under this proposal the representatives
of the London Wesleyan Missionary Committee
insisted that as this settlement was to terminate aU
rehgious grants from other sources, and they had
been the recipients of a grant from the casual and
territorial revenue of the British crown, they should
be the recipients of the apportionment of the clergy
reserves. Mr. Ryerson, on the other hand, insisted
that as this was a Canadian question, and the
apportionment to Canadian churches of a fund
derived from the sale of Canadian lands, the Cana
dian conference should receive and control the
apportionment, which he proposed to devote to the
work of education. In a few months the dispute led
to another schism in Canadian Methodism, and at
the census of 1842 Methodism stood divided be
tween three major bodies and a minor group, as
foUows: —
Canadian Wesleyan Methodists  32,313
British Wesleyan Methodists   23,342
Episcopal Methodists  20,125
Other Methodist Bodies  7,141
Such an outcome of the policy and convulsions
of ten years can scarcely be regarded in any other
hght than as a disaster. It was the very outcome
which in 1832 all parties were seeking by right
methods or wrong to prevent, viz., a divided and
weakened Methodism. The question is natural^ —
what were the causes of such a result? A further
101

EGERTON RYERSON
question is almost unavoidable — where lay the mis
take, and who was to blame?
The causes of this misfortune lay in no single
circumstance, nor yet in the action of any single
individual. They lay in the meeting at various
points of institutions and ideas which had grown
up on opposite sides of the Atlantic and embodied
in the life of this young country thoroughly antag
onistic elements. Between these elements, whether
in the political or the religious field, a conflict was
inevitable. Well meant eff'orts at compromise might
postpone it for a little, but they scarcely secured
even a truce. Peace could be secured only by
victory, and that victory was certain to be on the
side of the young free life of the new world, before
which the eff'ete and already corrupting ideas and
forms of the old world must certainly go down.
Crown colony absolutism must inevitably disappear
before the sturdy Anglo-Saxon capacity for self-
government. Aristocratic officialism must certainly
give way before the rising spirit of independence
and the asserted rights of the people. And in the
rehgious field the voluntary principle fuU of spirit
ual zeal and life and appealing to the religious con
science and inteUigence for its support, could not
fail to displace all forms dependent on state aid
and endowment for support. The English Church
was only saved from utter failure by being forced
back upon the powers of its own spiritual hfe. The
conflict of fifty years, through which our young
102

MISTAKES
country passed, was inevitable, and its unfortunate
results were a part of the price of our political and
religious hberties.
If we ask where was the mistake, the answer is:
the first mistake was in the attempt to transplant
to this new world the decadent institutions of the
old world. Whether that mistake was made on the
larger scale in the Constitutional Act of 1791; or
on a minor scale in the policy and ambitions of
English Methodism, it was only a mistake, Enghsh
Methodism has long since rectified that mistake at
home, and now almost unanimously casts in her lot
with the free churches of England, The subser
viency to and dependence upon the estabhshed
church which prevailed there seventy years ago
have given place to an independent church life,
independent politically as well as financially and
spirituaUy. This result was not reached without
sore conflict, and before the demon was exorcised,
Enghsh Methodism was well-nigh as sorely riven
as Canadian Methodism.
The second mistake lay in either a partial com
promise or an unconscious compromise of the
young hfe of progress with the opposing forces.
That compromise was probably disguised even from
those who made it. They were seeking not loaves
and fishes, as they were sometimes slanderously
said to be doing, but, as they supposed, the unity
and peace of the church and the furtherance of the
gospel. They thought that their responsibility was
103

EGERTON RYERSON
discharged by asserting the voluntary principle
for themselves; and permitting others to act ac
cording to their own convictions of right. In seven
short years the development of circumstances made
such a working arrangement impossible, and the
union became a rope of sand. In the meantime aU
those whose convictions were such that no com
promise was possible had also separated and formed
a third Methodist Church.
Who was to blame? In one sense no one was
altogether blameworthy. It must be borne in mind
that the fundamental principles which appear so
clear to us through the development of subsequent
history were two generations ago but very imper
fectly apprehended even by the clearest minds.
Men were convinced of them rather by an in
stinctive feeling than by reason. They felt injustice,
revolted against submission to arrogance, were
spurred on to action by manly independence and
generous ambition, before they understood the
great ethical principles towards which they were
making progress. And they moved towards these
results, as the world of humanity has ever moved,
in two grand divisions, the one restless, impatient,
eager, impetuous, dissatisfied with the past, impa
tient for the hfting of the veil of the future; the
other cautious, and timid, clinging to the seen and
tried, and even asserting that it alone is eternal,
immutable and divine. It is not given to mortals in
such historic movements to be infalhble; and in
104

PARTING FRIENDS
awarding praise or blame we must credit their
good intentions.
But, on the other hand, aU were more or less to
blame, inasmuch as the individual passions and
frailties of humanity added fuel to the fire, and so
aggravated the evils which are inseparable from
such a conflict of moral forces. But after we have
said this, as we see such men as WiUiam Case,
James Richardson and Egerton Ryerson stand at
the parting of the ways, those of us who knew
them aU will most heartily acknowledge that few
men of any age could have acquitted themselves
better under the circumstances. As this later mis
take was the mistake of Methodism, so Methodism
alone was the suff'erer. The healing of her schisms
was to take nearly half a century, and was not to
be accomphshed tiU aU the actors in the original
struggle had passed away. But her misfortunes
tended on the whole to the political redemption of
the country. Methodism has, in fact, been closely
identified with every forward step in the history of
Upper Canada. She was present at its foundations
as the chief agency for the maintenance of moral
and religious life among the first settlers. Her
people formed the first influential body to protest
against the incubus which threatened her civil and
rehgious hberty. Her self-sacrifice of early rehgious
attachments rendered permanent the attachment
of the colony to the British empire. And now her
very divisions were to be made subservient in the
105

EGERTON RYERSON
order of an over-ruling Providence to the more
perfect establishment of civil and religious liberty
in the country. The introduction of British Metho
dism was a conservative influence at a point where
a conservative influence was essentially necessary.
The later growth to extensive influence of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and the severance of
the Canadian Wesleyans from the British once
more reinforced the ranks of reform and progress
at a point when powerful forces in this direction
were needed; and thus a divided Methodism, whUe
the least political of all our Canadian churches,
has been most potential in the pohtical advance
ment of the province. But this wiU appear more
fuUy as we turn back for a few years to foUow up
another chapter in the hfe work of Mr. Ryerson as
one of the makers of Canada.

106

CHAPTER V
MR. RYERSON IN THE POLITICAL ARENA
DOWN to 1833 Mr. Ryerson's work in its
interest and motive was purely religious. He
was a Methodist preacher standing for the rights
and liberties, the interests and prosperity of the
church and people which he represented. The cir
cumstance that these rights and interests must be
maintained on the side of their political relations
was entirely beyond his control. The circumstance
that they coincided with the principles of one
pohtical party, and that they were invaded and
threatened by the policy of the other, was also a
matter beyond his control. The party with which
he acted was not the party of his hereditary sym
pathies or of his settled political convictions, so far
as he had formed any; but he was working not for
pohtical party or policy, but for religious freedom
and equal civil rights. So far as one may judge
he was as sensible as any other clergyman of that
time of the giavity of unnecessary intermeddhng
with politics; and the concessions made to Dr.
Alder in 1832 were doubtless due in part to the
influence of this principle on his own mind and
those of his associates. So far was he from having
formed any new or progressive political theories
107

EGERTON RYERSON
that it may be questioned whether he had fuUy
comprehended the importance and far-reaching in-
fiuence of the voluntary principle, notwithstanding
the fact that it was a principle as important to
religion as to political hfe. He was rather seeking
justice under the existing constitution of govern
ment than such a change of pohtical constitution as
would conform the government to the will of the
people. His method, too, had been appeal to argu
ment and free discussion by the use of the press.
We have no intimation that he took any part in
political meetings or conventions, or in the elec
tions, or in the petitions which moved the legis
lative assembly to action. For the first time, so far
as we can learn, in 1833 he stepped aside from this
guarded course by becoming the bearer to England
of a petition, signed by 20,000 people, setting forth
the grievances of the Canadian people, and praying
that the clergy reserves be devoted to education.
The passage of the Reform BiU in 1832 and the
accession to power of the Whigs under Earl Grey
had doubtless raised hopes in the minds of the advo
cates of Canadian reform that their cause might be
undertaken by the home government. In the fulfiU-
ment of this mission he not only presented the
petition of which he was the bearer, but also, as we
have seen, supported it by an able presentation
of the entire Canadian case to the secretary of
state for the colonies. At this time, also, he gave
close attention to the debates in the British House
108

ENGLISH POLITICS
of Commons and studied the English political
parties and party leaders with careful scrutiny. We
have aheady referred to the results of this new ex
perience, as embodied in the series of papers known
as the "Impressions," pubhshed in The Guardian
in November, 1833. These studies, without doubt,
shaped more definitely Ryerson's future pohti
cal opinions and conduct. Of the English parties,
the moderate Tories represented by Mr. Gladstone
secured his most complete approval as guided by
justice and religion. The ultra Tories and even
the Duke of Welhngton seemed too near akin
to the Canadian Tories — arrogant, despotic and
bigoted; while the Whigs seemed to be too much
governed by "expediency." But of aU the English
pohtical parties the most abhorrent to him seemed
to be the Radicals, and these, unfortunately, were
the friends and almost representatives in the Eng
hsh parliament of the Canadian party of con
stitutional reform. We have already seen how the
"Impressions" aff'ected Mr. Mackenzie's attitude
towards Mr. Ryerson. The eff'ect of these first
studies of Enghsh politics was scarcely less pro
nounced on the mind of Mr. Ryerson himself.
Seeing danger both to British monarchical govern
ment and to rehgion and morality in the principles
of the English Radicals, he began to be suspicious
of their Canadian friends. The treatment which he
received from the reform press on his return home
certainly did not tend to allay this feeling; and the
109

EGERTON RYERSON
extreme language which they used and the covert
threats they uttered led him to a full conviction
that they were secretly meditating the erection of a
republic in Canada, or the annexation of the pro
vince to the United States. This conviction he did
not hesitate to express thirty years later. It cannot
be said, in view of subsequent events, to have been
an altogether groundless suspicion, and yet it did
injustice to the great body of honest reformers,
including many who were stiU Methodists, though
now separated from the Wesleyan body.
For two years Mr. Ryerson contended, as editor
of The Guardian, against this new and now rapidly
increasing danger, at the same time endeavouring
to maintain, as best he could, his old-time position
of contention against a state church and for equal
civil rights in religious matters. Speaking three
years later of his eff'orts at this time, he says: "It
wiU be seen that the object I have had in view at
all times and under aU circumstances was a just,
hberal, and popular, as weU as constitutional gov
ernment, in this province. The majority of the late
House of Assembly {i.e., the House prior to the
election of 1836) put it out of my power to act
with them because they made the clergy reserve
question subservient to other objects which I had
never embraced and with which I could not identify
myself individually nor the Methodists as a body,
whatever might be the free opinions of the indi
vidual members." 110

THE AFFAIRS OF THE CANADAS
In the year 1835 the Rev. E. Evans was elected
to the editorial chair, and Mr. Ryerson, though still
a member of the "Committee for Guarding our
Religious Privileges," was relieved of the responsi
bihty which had devolved upon him for the past
two years. During the course of the year he pro
ceeded to England to seek funds and a charter for
the new academy, now nearing completion. On
arriving in England he soon foimd that his sus
picions — or rather convictions — as to the tendencies
of Mr, Mackenzie's policy were confirmed by ru
mours, which appear to have originated with Mr,
Hume, that Canada was quite prepared to declare
her independence and to set up a republican gov
ernment. This caUed out one of his strongest and
most famous pamphlets, a series of letters to The
Times on "The Aff'airs of the Canadas," The object
of these letters was the vindication of the loyalty
of Canada against the "machinations and mis
statements of Messrs. Hume and Roebuck, shew
ing from their own letters to Messrs. Papineau and
Mackenzie that they were the first promoters of
the project." But while thus maintaining and vin
dicating Canadian loyalty to the British crown
and British institutions, he was by no means un
mindful of the questions which disturbed the colony
so long as they remained unsettled, and in an
interview with Lord Glenelg and Mr. Stephen, he
discussed the clergy reserve question, the legisla
tive council, and the executive council. What his
111

EGERTON RYi^KSOJV
proposals were on these three important questions
does not now appear. They were certainly more
conservative than those which finally prevailed
under the constitution of 1840, and probably more
of the nature of administrative than of constitu
tional reform. As his letters to The Times were
conservative in their tendency and intended to
prove that the people would be satisfied by a
righteous administration of the existing constitu
tion, this was probably also the purport of his
recommendations to Lord Glenelg, If so, his views
had aheady been anticipated.
It is very certain that English statesmen were
now more perfectly informed on Canadian aff'airs,
and quite prepared to inaugurate a new pohcy,
though not so radical as that proposed by Mr.
Mackenzie in his "Seventh Report on Grievances,"
Sir Francis Bond Head had been sent to the
province in the preceding January with instructions
which, if carried out in a liberal, concihatory spirit,
might stiU have prevented the outbreak of the now
ominous storm. The people were certainly expect
ing great things from him, and when, in 1834 — ¦
shortly after his entrance on office, — ^he appealed
to them on the ground of loyalty and the constitu
tion, he was sustained by a large majority. But "it
was not," as Mr. Ryerson says in reviewing this
period a little later, "on the ground of the consti
tution in utter opposition to every kind of reform.
It was by his taking his stand upon the constitution
112

SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD
in connection with the elaborate concihatory des- ^
patch of Your Lordship to him, dated December
15th, 1835, and the elaborate conciliatory despatch
of the Earl of Ripon, dated November 8th, 1832,
to which Your Lordship referred him as his guide;
it was by his assuring the people of Upper Canada
in every possible form of address that if they would
support him, he would 'correct every grievance'
according to the letter and spirit of those concilia
tory instructions, while he maintained the happy
constitution inviolate." This concihatory policy of
just, and impartial, and hberal administration of
the existing form of government had doubtless
been Mr. Ryerson's own ideal of reform in Upper
Canada. And it would appear that even early in
1836 he was not without faith in this as a political
remedy. This faith, however, was to be rudely
shaken by subsequent events. Sir Francis Bond
Head did not fulfiU "the expectations which his
promises and pledges had created. His administra
tion in financial as weU as in ecclesiastical and
general aff'airs fell so far short of [these] expecta
tions that he was aware that he would have been
left in the minority in his own House of Assembly
during the late (1838) session, had it not been for
the insurrection,"
Such was the pohtical course of Mr. Ryerson up "^
to the rebeUion of 1837-8 — an earnest pressure for
such administration of the government as would
secure equal civil rights, and just and faithfid
113

EGERTON RYERSON
administration, and rehgious liberty to all His Ma
jesty's subjects, while at the same time he was not
in sympathy with any radical constitutional changes.
Sir Francis Bond Head's administration termin
ated in March, 1838, A month later Mr. Ryerson
wrote to a leading member of the government in
England in the terms which we have just quoted,
and once more took his stand maintaining the cause
of the people of Upper Canada against the domi
nant oligarchy. At the foUowing conference he was
again elected to the editorial chair under circum
stances and influences which clearly appear from
the following letter written by Dr. Stinson to the
Rev. John Ryerson: — "I am quite of your opinion
that Bro. Egerton [Ryerson] ought to take The
Gruardian next year. There is a crisis approaching
in our aff'airs which wiU require a vigorous hand to
wield the defensive weapon of the conference. There
can be no two opinions as to whom to give that
weapon. We now stand on fair grounds to maintain
our own against the encroachments of the oli
garchy, and we must do it or sink into a compara
tively uninfluential body. This must not be." Such
was the opinion even of the representative of the
London Wesleyan Missionary Committee, who,
after five years' residence in Canada, now under
stood and at least in part sympathized with the
situation. Mr. Ryerson was now once more fairly in the
field of battle for religious hberty and equal civil
114

EDITOR OF THE GUARDIAN
rights and against a state church and a political
oligarchy. In accepting this official position, to
which was added the further responsibihty of being
secretary and convener of the Committee for the
Protection of Civil and Religious Privileges, he at
once fuUy and clearly defined his platform both
before the conference and in his editorial inaugural.
He says:— "In respect to the ecclesiastical aff'airs
of this province I stiU adhere to the principles and
views upon which I set out in 1826. I believe the
endowment of the priesthood of any church in this
province wiU be an evil to that church, as well as
impolitic in the government. In accordance with
the declaration put forth by several principal minis
ters in the Methodist Church in January last, I
believe that the appropriation of the proceeds of
the clergy reserves to general educational purposes
wiU be the most satisfactory disposal of them that
can be made. If in the way of such a disposal of
the clergy reserves insuperable obstacles should be
thrown or found to exist, although I beheve noth
ing is impossible with the Earl of Durham in these
provinces, I think the next best settlement of that
question wiU be to divide the proceeds of the
clergy reserves among diff'erent rehgious denomina
tions in proportion to what is raised by each,
leaving to the discretionary disposal of each re
hgious body its own apportionment." .... "To
the very natural and important inquiry, in relation
to civU aff'airs 'Do you intend to be neutral?' 1
115

EGERTON RYERSON
answer 'No, I do not,' and for this simple reason:—
I am a man, am a British subject, am a professing
Christian, and represent a British community. The
present is a period in the aff'airs of this province in
which no man of intelligence or consideration can
be safely or justifiably neutral. The foundation of
our government is being laid anew, the future
character and relations and destinies of the country
are involved in pending dehberations, the last whis
per of rebellion is to be silenced in the land. My
decision, however, is to be not one of party but of
principle; not one of passion but of conviction; not
one of partial proscription but of equitable compre
hensiveness. To be exphcit as weU as brief, I am
opposed to the introduction of any new and un
tried theories of government. I assume that this
country is to remain a portion of the British em
pire, and view every measure, not in reference to
every or any abstract political theory, however
plausible that theory may be, but in reference to
the well-being of the country in connection with
Great Britain. I take my stand upon the established
constitution of the country as expounded by royal
despatches, and as illustrated by the usages of the
British parliament, British courts of justice, and
the common law of England. Nothing more is
wanted to render the province happy and pros
perous, than the practical and efficient application
to every department of our government and to our
whole system of legislation of the principles and
116

THE EARL OF DURHAM
instructions laid down in the despatch of the Earl
of Ripon addressed to Sir John Colborne, dated
November 8th, 1832, and the despatch of Lord
Glenelg, addressed to Sir Francis Bond Head,
dated December 15th, 1835."
To the platform thus candidly set before the
church and the country, we think it must be
admitted Mr. Ryerson held fast during the two
stormy years which followed. It was a time of
intense excitement both in church and state. Politi
cal parties became more distinct than ever before;
the Wesleyan Methodist Church was rent in twain
on an issue in part ecclesiastical and yet growing
out of the political situation; recriminations and
imputations abounded; in the heat of passion par-
hamentary proprieties were often transgressed; but
throughout this strenuous period the powerful in
fluence of Mr. Ryerson's pen and personality was
courageously and continuously exerted.
To the policy proposed by the Earl of Durham
and elaborated in his able report on the aff'airs of
British North America, Mr, Ryerson gives in his
editorials repeated and cordial assent. To Sir George
Arthur's eff'orts to repel the attacks upon the pro
vince from the American frontier he gave hearty
support, which appears to have been attended with
the best results in leading the people to respond
to the governor's call for volunteers. But while
thus loyal in support of the government, he was
equally faithful in pressing upon their attention the
117

EGERTON RYERSON
demands of the people, and pointing out to them
the stiU existing causes of dissatisfaction, whidTire
regards as more dangerous than the incursion of
foreign foes. These he sums up as follows: —
' 1, Lack of just consideration in the treatment
of the volunteers in the late campaign,
2, Appointments of adventurers and youths to
office over the heads of old and influential residents
of the country,
3, Slanderous imputation of the insurrection to
reformers generaUy, when four-fifths or nine-tenths
of them had proved their loyalty by their acts,
4, Unnecessary severity towards the rebel pris
oners, 5, Abuse of Her Majesty's government in Eng
land by the high church party,
6. The non-settlement of the clergy reserve
question, and the estabhshment and endowment of
the fifty-seven rectories.
It is noteworthy that every one of these was a
question of administration or public conduct, and
not of constitutional change, shewing how practical
and conservative his ideas of needed reform stiU
continued to be. But of even these moderated
hopes he was as much disappointed in Sir George
Arthur as he had previously been in Sir Francis
Bond Head. This disappointment especiaUy cul
minated in his replies to various Methodist ad
dresses at the close of 1838 and the beginning of
1839, in which he expresses his gratification that
118

THE CLERGY RESERVES
the Methodists were loyal, but his disappointment
that they had not rallied to the support of the
Enghsh Church; The significance of this complaint
wUl appear from the fact that in the October
preceding', the church party had memoriahzed the
home government asking for a judicial decision as
to their exclusive right to the reserves, or, if this
was refused, that the provincial assembly might
pai^s a biU re-investing them in the British crown,
subject once more to their disposal. Both requests
were refused. The opinion of the law officers of
the crown had been given as far back as 1819. The
management of the reserves was a subject for the
Canadian House and not for the British parliament,
and the imperial government expressed their un
willingness to interfere in the matter. This led to a
proposition from Sir George in his speech from the
throne, February 27th, 1839, for division of the
fimd if the biU for reinvestment failed. To the
reinvestment scheme Mr. Ryerson was thoroughly
opposed. He was wiUing to assent to division pro
vided each denomination were free to determine
the disposition to be made of its apportionment.
His clearly expressed judgment favoured the ap
propriation of the whole proceeds to education. He
accepted division only as a dernier ressort for the
sake of settlement, and with an expressed expecta
tion that the Methodist apportionment would in
that case be devoted to education and the building
of churches, and not to clerical endowment. These
119

EGERTON RYERSON
views he presented not only in his weekly editorials
but also in a series of ten letters to the Hon. W.
H. Draper, Her Majesty's Sohcitor-General. The
scheme of division was thus clearly a compromise,
and we have already seen how speedily it became a
ground of contention in the Methodist Church
itself; and how fatal were its results to the peace
and unity of that body. The outcome was another
division of Methodism. But that division, by re
uniting the forces of reform, probably saved the
country from what would have been an unfortunate
mode of settlement, giving us several endowed
churches instead of one. The division biU was in
deed passed under Lord Sydenham in 1840, but the
forces arrayed against it by the division of Metho
dism, and a little later, by the disruption of the
Presbyterian Church, made the apparent settlement
a temporary aff'air. It served one important pur
pose in bringing the whole fund once more under
the control of the Canadian government, where
it remained until its settlement in 1854.
While the clergy reserve battle was thus being
fought out in church and state, Mr. Ryerson's voice
was also uplifted on behalf of wider reform, and his
letters to Lord Normanby once more brought
important aspects of the Canadian cause before the
government at a time when Lord Durham's report
was opening the way for the most successful remedy.
Lord Durham's report reached this country early
in the summer, and was the subject of universal
120

LORD DURHAM'S REPORT
discussion both in the press and by the provincial
legislatures. Mr. Ryerson supported Lord Durham's
proposals, not only in his letters to the Marquis of
Normanby, but also in reply to the attacks which
identified it with the system of "responsible govern
ment proposed by the Canadian AUiance society in
1834." He dwells with special emphasis on the
conservative and moderate character of Lord Dur
ham's proposals. He says: — "Does Lord Durham
propose a government purely democratic, under the
name of responsible government ? No. Does he
propose to abohsh one branch of the present govern
ment ? No. Does he propose that our relations with
foreign countries, or our military aff'airs, or the
crown lands or crown resources be placed under the
control of the provincial legislature ? No, he pro
poses to place them exclusively in the control of the
imperial parliament. What does His Lordship pro
pose then ? Lord Durham, except in the single case
of the union of the Canadas, proposes not the
alteration of a single letter of the established con
stitution; he proposes nothing more or less than
that the people of Upper Canada within the defined
and secured limits of local legislation and govern
ment, should be governed, as in England, by the
men, as well as institutions of their choice." He
thus vindicates his own consistency and that of
thousands of the staunchest constitutionahsts who
had opposed Mackenzie, but were now prepared to
support Lord Durham's responsible government. 121

EGERTON RYERSON
A later editorial brings out the fact that the form of
responsible government to which Mr. Ryerson so
strenuously objected was that of purely elective
institutions, such as are so largely adopted in
the United States ; and yet that he saw clearly that
no system of responsibility was a guarantee for
satisfactory administration, save responsibUity to
the people, directly or indirectly.
After the departure of the Earl of Durham,
Mr. Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Sydenham)
came to Canada as governor-general. He, as weU as
his successor. Sir Charles Bagot, received from Mr.
Ryerson cordial and able support in the delicate
task of introducing the new constitution, and the
principles of responsible government. Lord Syden
ham in the introduction of the system determined
to ignore party, and in this step was supported
by the wisest and best men of both the old parties.
As was said by contemporary vn-iters, such a step
brought to the province "peace." Lord Sydenham's
first ministry was composed of moderate men of
both parties in about equal numbers, but did not
include a French Canadian. At the opening of the
House, Mr. Baldwin resigned because his advice
for a reconstruction of the ministry was not fol
lowed, and with Mr. Hincks, LaFontaine and others,
formed an opposition party, who pressed for a more
exphcit declaration of the principles upon which
responsible government was to be conducted. For
this purpose Mr. Baldwin moved a series of resolu-
122

A CANADIAN MAGNA CHARTA
tions to which Mr. Harrison moved in amendment
three resolutions, said to have been drawn up by
the hand of Lord Sydenham himself, and which are
sometimes referred to as the Magna Charta of
Canadian responsible government. These resolutions
in amendment were as follows: —
1. That the head of the executive government
of the province, being within the hmits of his
government the representative of the sovereign, is
responsible to the imperial authority alone.
2. That, nevertheless, the management of our
local aff'airs can only be conducted by him by and
with the assistance, counsel and information of
subordinate officers in the province.
3. That in order to preserve between the diff'erent
branches of the provincial parliament that harmony
which is essential to the peace, welfare and good
government of the province, the chief advisers of
the representative of the sovereign, constituting a
provincial administration, ought to be men possessed
of the confidence of the representatives of the
people, thus aff'ording a guarantee that the weU
understood wishes and interests of the people, which
our gracious sovereign has declared shaU be the
rule of the provincial government, will on aU
occasions be faithfuUy represented and advocated.
By these resolutions the general principles of
responsible government as involved in the relations
between the crown and the representative branch
of parhament were declared. The concurrence of the
123

EGERTON RYERSON
two was required for all legislation and all executive
acts. That concurrence is to be mediated by the
executive council or ministry, who shaU always
command the confidence of and hence represent
the representatives of the people. The prerogative
of the crown is limited by the requirement that it
shaU be exercised by and with the assistance,
counsel and information of the executive council.
These principles, so fundamental in the British
constitution, admit of considerable latitude of in
terpretation and application. They require, indeed,
the concurrence of two powers before aught can be
executed in government or enacted in law. But
they do not define the source from which such acts
or laws shall originate. Does the initiation of aU
legislation and executive action belong to parha
ment or to the ministry, and is the prerogative
of the crown merely judicial, revisory and negative?
It is upon this question that the character of British
institutions as aff'ording a perfectly free government
must ultimately depend. The answer gives the
advantage of positive power to one side or other of
the two estates. This answer has not been given by
positive constitutional declaration, but by pro
cedure established by usage. From the date of the
constitutional or limited monarchy in 1688, that
usage has passed through a process of evolution.
It is true that all our parliamentary language and
the terms of all commissions to office and warrants
for executive acts imply the supreme authority
124

CONSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION
of the crown. But to-day in practice, if we reckon
the executive council as an expression of the power
of the people, the initiative has largely passed to
that side. The calling to his councils of a new body
of advisers is now the most important act of initia
tive on the part of the crown, and even then
he caUs a leader, giving him wide discretion in
the selection of his associates.
But we have not to go very far back in the
history of British constitutional monarchy to find a
time when the crown exercised a far more positive
and initial influence in the work of government.
Even in 1841 when responsible government was
being introduced in Canada, the change which took
place between the days of George III. and Victoria
was not yet complete. It is thus by no means sur
prising that during the first ten years of responsible
government in Canada, there should be conflict
between advanced I.,iberal and Conservative ideas
on this point. This arose the more easily inasmuch
as up to this time the executive council, repre
senting not the people, but the crown and the
governor, had been in a position to control the
whole policy of the country, the representative
assembly possessing a power which could do little
but object and set forth grievances. It is possible
that with the incoming of the new system the
reformers expected too much. It may be that the
colonial governors, acting under a sense of responsi
bUity to the home government, and with express
125

EGERTON RYERSON
reserve of all questions aff'ecting imperial interests,
were disposed to assert too positive an influence
over the policy of the Canadian government. It
is certain that not till the coming of Lord Elgin
was there a clear understanding established on
these delicate points. Certain it is that almost from
the beginning, notwithstanding the wisdom of the
measures proposed both by Lord Sydenham and
his successor. Sir Charles Bagot, there was dissatis
faction on the part of the reformers. An attempt to
allay this by a reconstruction of the ministry, in
which the reformers had a majority and the French
Canadians were represented, served only to bring
the matter to a crisis. Some minor appointments
and the reserve of the Secret Societies' BiU, aimed
at the Orange Societies, served to precipitate a
conflict between the governor-general and his minis
ters, and led finally to an appeal to the country. It
was at this crisis that Dr. Ryerson, now president
of Victoria College, once more took a prominent
place in the political arena in defence of Sir Charles
Metcalfe. On the opposite side of the conflict new
names came into prominence, especiaUy George
Brown and Adam Ferguson. The leaders in parha
ment were W. H. Draper and Robert Baldwin.
The facts from which the crisis was precipitated
were two — the appointment of a clerk of the peace
in Dalhousie district and the reservation of the
Secret Societies' Bill for Her Majesty's pleasure.
Other appointments were referred to, but all were
126

THE METCALFE CONTROVERSY
admitted to be of minor importance. But from
the outset the leaders of the reform party made
a mistake both in parliamentary procedure and-
in pohtical tactics. On the question of the reser
vation of the biU against the secret societies the
governor was so clearly within his rights that
even they could not object. They could only point
to the act as a proof of his sympathy with the
Tory party. As to the question of appointments
it appears that the appointments were actuaUy
made, and as they could be made only by the
commission being signed by the responsible minis
ter who held the provincial seal in his keeping,
they had thus become formaUy consenting parties.
To complain of an act to which they had formaUy
assented by seal and signature was technicaUy a
violation of the faith required of Her Majesty's
privy councUlors. The appointments should have
been prevented by the refusal of the seal and
signature, and if the persons recommended by the
ministry for appointment were objected to and
refused by the governor, they should have resigned.
The governor could make no appointment without
the assistance of a responsible minister, and if he
dismissed his ministry or accepted their resignation,
then upon him devolved the task of finding a
ministry wiUing to be responsible for the measure
which he proposed, and able to secure the confi
dence of parhament. This method of procedure
secures at once the prerogative and influence of
127

EGERTON RYERSON
the crown and the power of parhament, and is the
very essence of British responsible government.
Mr. Baldwin's ministry on the other hand aUowed
the appointments to be made, and then sought
from the governor "an understanding" that in
future no appointments should be made without
previously taking the advice of the council; that
the lists of the candidates should in every instance
be laid before the council; that the council should
recommend any others at discretion; and that the
governor-general, in deciding after taking their ad
vice, "should not make any appointment prejudicial
to their influence." To these stipulations or under
standings the governor-general refused to commit
himself, and in his refusal was sustained by the
imperial government and probably by aU British
precedent. On this refusal the ministry, with one
exception, tendered their resignations. Upon this
resignation the whole matter was thrown back
upon parliament, and a few months later — by the
dissolution of the House — upon the country. The
contest was one of the most bitter in Canadian
political history, accompanied by scenes of vio
lence and bloodshed. The reformers made not only
the mistake in procedure referred to, but also
what seems now a mistake in political tactics by
introducing two or three extraneous elements into
the arena. One was the race and provincial diffi
culty. They allied themselves with the French
Canadians, and as a result were beaten in the
128

THE METCALFE CONTROVERSY
election by an Upper Canadian majority sufficient
to give their opponents a majority of the whole
House, This interprovincial jealousy was tided over
for a time by the "double majority," and finally
led to a deadlock, out of which confederation arose.
Possibly the ghost is not yet laid. Another source of
trouble was the prominence given to party in the
working of responsible government. There can, we
think, be no doubt that even in their communica
tions with the governor they introduced this matter
to some extent. In their discussions before the
House and the country it was not concealed. They
even caUed upon the country to define more dis
tinctly party hues. The governor, on the other
hand, took his stand on the principle that in the
making of appointments he should not be asked
to do so on party hues. This doubtless secured him
the support of many moderate men of both parties,
who desired the cessation of extreme party conflict.
Dr, Ryerson's defence of Sir Charles Metcalfe is,
we think, his ablest piece of pohtical writing. His
positions are taken with the clearest judgment, and
defended with consummate logical skill, and with a
mastery of constitutional principles and a wealth of
historical learning which is amazing when we con
sider his times and his opportunities. Examples and
iUustrations are taken from all periods of English
history and made to teU on the argument and case
in hand with wonderful force, and one can scarcely
study the case as a grand debate without awarding
129

EGERTON RYERSON
him the victory. And yet within half a dozen years
the fundamental principle which no one had as yet
clearly defined, but towards which the country
was unconsciously tending, was admitted by aU as
henceforth an element of our responsible govern
ment. The whole responsibihty of public pohcy
now rests with the ministry, and there is scarcely
even a practical reservation of imperial interests
except of the most vital character. The royal pre
rogative guards the constitution and the whole
people against wrong and injustice, and graciously
modifies by the power of moral influence the poh-
cies of aU parties, bringing them into more perfect
harmony with truth, and justice, and liberty, and
mercy, and at times it curbs the violence of party
impetuosity and passion. But for this higher task
it must stand above party and pohcies. Yet this
result has been attained not by the destruction of
the royal prerogative, which might have resulted
had the reformers of 1844 secured their "stipula
tions," but by a mode of exercise which, perhaps,
was beyond the wisest and best of men at that date.
In one respect both parties erred through fear,
and each did injustice to the other. The reformers
looked upon Sir Charles Metcalfe and Dr. Ryerson
as the foes of responsible government, and predicted
the return of the absolutism of the "family com
pact." We can see now no ground for such a fear.
Dr. Ryerson certainly never was disposed to make
a truce with the "family compact," or to submit to
130

LEARNS POLITICS
the injustice of absolutism, and Sir Charles's only
desire seemed to be to avoid such a one-sided dis
tribution of government patronage as would renew
the old evil in another form. On the other hand
even a Liberal imperial government and Sir Charles
as their representative seemed afraid to trust the
young Canadian baby to walk alone, and wished to
keep a good hand on its legislation and policy.
They seemed to be stiU afraid of republican ten
dencies, and possibly another insurrection. We do
not forget that though Canada had passed under
the administration of three governors her constitu
tion was then but four years old; and that the
guiding hand of Lord Sydenham in legislation,
as weU as his comprehensive administration of
aff'airs with equal favour to aU parties tended to
strengthen the better political hfe of the province
and to heal the sores of the past. These things fully
explain the course of Sir Charles Metcalfe, and of
the Whig government at home, as weU as the atti
tude of Dr. Ryerson in their defence. But they too
were not yet fuUy conscious of the power of the new
pohtical hfe which was now becoming national, nor
did they foresee either the exact form or the magni
tude to which it must shortly grow.
After this contest Dr, Ryerson never again re
turned to the arena of general politics. His position
in the educational work of the country brought him
into contact with both parties, as one or the other
held the reins of power. In the early fifties he
131

EGERTON RYERSON
contributed some letters on the clergy reserve ques
tion, otherwise his future work was exclusively in
the field of education. In 1867, as united Canada
entered upon her larger life as a young dominion,
he addressed to his feUow-countrymen a letter
replete with wise counsels and patriotic sentiment.
But in this there was but the loving advice of
a father, and no more the strenuous contest of the
man who is fighting the battle of national hfe.
Reviewing his work in the political field we think
we may safely say that from first to last in the three
great conflicts in which it was exercised it was
conservative, timely, and, in the result, for the
good of the country.

132

CHAPTER VI
THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION
A THIRD important question involved in the
early struggle of the province was that of
education. The policy inaugurated as we have seen
in Governor Simcoe's day was too comprehensive
and far-seeing to omit this. To control the execu
tive government, the religion and the education
of the country was to mould its future at wiU;
and whUe the dominant party doubtless believed
they were discharging their duty by their trust, and
acting for the highest interest of the country, they
quite forgot the fact that the men to whom they
thus extended a paternal government were men of
equal capacities as men and of equal rights as
citizens with themselves.
In the matter of education, the early pohcy pro
jected a university and four royal grammar schools,
two in the east at Cornwall and Kingston, and two
in the west at Newark (Niagara) and a place unde
termined. The university was reserved for York,
the new capital of Upper Canada. Had this policy
been carried into eff'ect, though some of the loca
tions might have proved unfortunate, it might have
resulted, with subsequent change of location to
suit the needs of the population, in a most compre-
133

EGERTON RYERSON
hensive and efficient scheme of higher education.
Even now, a central university with strong affih-
ated collegiate institutes at centres of population
solves the problem of the wider diffusion of at least
a portion of university education.
We have already seen that the secondary part of
this scheme shaped itself into the district schools as
early as 1807 and 1816. The lack of funds delayed
the university part until the royal charter of 1827,
and even then the only practical result was Upper
Canada CoUege, an institution answering to the
royal grammar schools as originaUy projected.
But the entire system thus created was domi
nated throughout by the idea of a state church, with
exclusive privileges in religion, education, and even
civil power. When, therefore, in 1826, and again in
1828, Mr. Ryerson took up his pen in defence of
the rights of the great majority of the people
against this unjust pohcy, the subject of education,
and, in 1828, the subject of the proposed constitu
tion of the new university occupied a prominent
place. On taking his position as editor of The
Christian Guardian in 1829, he made fuU use of
the columns of the new journal to awaken the
country to a proper estimate of the importance of
this subject, and practical results almost immedi
ately foUowed. In the conference of the Methodist
Church of 1829, the subject of an institution of
learning was discussed, and while it was postponed
for that year in order to estabhsh The Guardian,
134

FIRST COLLEGE MOVEMENTS
in the foUowing year the subject was again taken
up and practical measures adopted, resulting in the
opening of Upper Canada Academy in June, 1836,
The Presbyterians were actuated by the same
spirit, and two movements appear among them, one
to estabhsh a hterary and theological institution
at Pleasant Bay, in the township of HUlier, Prince
Edward County, and the other to secure from the
government the appointment of a theological pro
fessor on a status of equahty with the professor of
divinity of the Enghsh Church in the staff' and
council of King's CoUege. These Presbyterian move
ments reached their final results in the opening
of Queen's CoUege in March, 1842. A third move
ment, quite independent of these two and antedat
ing both, appears in the Upper Canadian legislative
assembly. As soon as the nature of Dr. Strachan's
charter and ecclesiastical chart was known in the
province, the assembly prepared an address to the
King on the political aff'airs of the country, based
on a report of a select committee of the House,
in which this passage closes the reference to the
new university charter following an expression of
strong condemnation of its exclusive sectarian
provisions: "It should not be a school of political
or sectarian views. It should have about it no
appearance of a spirit of partiality or exclusion. Its
portals should be throvrai open to aU, and upon none
who enter should any influence be exerted to attach
them to any particular creed or church. It should
135

EGERTON RYERSON
be a source of intellectual and moral hght and
animation, from which the glorious irradiations of
literature and science may descend upon aU with
equal lustre and power. Such an institution would
be a blessing to the country, its pride and glory.
Most deeply, therefore, is it to be lamented that the
principles of the charter are calculated to defeat its
usefulness, and to confine to a favoured few all its
advantages." {Report of March 17th, 1828.) The ad
dress of the colonial assembly to the King brought
the matter before the British House of Commons
in 1828, where it was further pressed by petitions
signed by thousands of Upper Canadian subjects.
Mr. George Ryerson, an elder brother of Mr,
Egerton Ryerson, was the bearer of these petitions.
A select committee of the British House of Com
mons took up the matter in connection with other
Canadian aff'airs, and in regard to the university
reported in the foUowing terms: " It cannot be
doubted as the guidance and government of the
coUege is to be vested in the hands of members of
the Church of England, that in the election of
professors, a preference would inevitably be shown
to persons of that persuasion; and in a country
where only a small proportion of the inhabitants
adhere to that church a suspicion and jealousy of
religious interference would necessarily be created."
This declaration is followed by the recommenda
tion of essential changes in the charter, both as
to its theological faculty and the appointment of
136

UPPER CANADA ACADEMY
professors generally. One of these provisions was
adopted in the first amendment of the charter by
the provincial legislature in 1837.
It was with the movement in the Methodist
Church that Mr. Ryerson was most directly con
nected. During the first two or three years his
official influence as editor of The Guardian and his
personal influence as a member of the conference
and church were very helpful to the committee
who were strugghng with the difficult task of
bringing into operation a large hterary institution
without any aid from pubhc sources. The following
extract from an editorial in April, 1831, will indi
cate the character of his support, as weU as the
principles upon which the new institution was being
founded: — "It is the first literary institution which
has been commenced by any body of ministers in
accordance with the frequently expressed wishes of
the people of Upper Canada. The Methodist con
ference have not sought endowments of pubhc
lands for the establishment of an institution con
trary to the voice of the people as expressed by
their representatives; much less have they sought
to acquire such endowments to erect 'essentiaUy a
missionary college' for the purpose of carrying on
an extensive proselytizing warfare upon the terri
tories of their religious neighbours. But the Metho
dist conference, in the manner in which they have
commenced and are proceeding in the estabhsh
ment of this institution, say, in eff'ect, to the people
137

EGERTON RYERSON
of Upper Canada, 'We have not laboured among
you for the promotion of selfish and party pur
poses, but for the diff'usion of pure and undefiled
rehgion ; nor have we sought or received any other
subsistence than the voluntary off'erings of your
hberality. Desirous of promoting more extensively
the interests of the rising generation and of the
country generaUy, we have resolved upon the es
tabhshment of a seminary of learning. We have
done so upon liberal principles; we have not re
served any peculiar privileges to ourselves for the
education of our own children; we have pubhshed
the constitution for your examination; and now we
appeal to your hberality for assistance, we feel
confident that you will not withhold it ; we beheve
your good wishes are with us in this undertaking,
and we submit to your decision for the success
or failure of it,'"
The undertaking proved much more arduous and
costly than its promoters had anticipated. When
completed the building was by far the most classic in
architecture and imposing in appearance of any up to
that time erected in Upper Canada for educational
purposes, not excepting Upper Canada CoUege; and
instead of costing £6,000 as estimated, the cost,
with furnishings, reached £9,000. The perfection
of the workmanship may be estimated from the fact
that after seventy years the government of Ontario
find it stiU a substantial, valuable building. The
amount collected by the trustees from the Canadian
138

COMMISSION TO ENGLAND
Methodist people and their friends, who by 1834
had been thoroughly canvassed, was £4,000. By
that date the building was enclosed and weU ad
vanced towards completion; but the trustees, who
were not a body corporate, and had hitherto pro
ceeded entirely upon their personal responsibility,
were under obhgations to the banks and for pri
vate loans to the extent of £2,000. It was at
this difficult juncture that Mr. Ryerson became
officiaUy connected with the college, being ap
pointed by the trustees as their agent to England
to solicit aid for the institution, and to petition the
imperial government for a royal charter. The first
part of this commission was to him exceedingly
uncongenial, as literally it was true of him " To beg
I am ashamed." But this is the letter which foUowed
him from Mr. Lord, the Enghsh president of the
Canadian conference: — "You must stay in England
until the money is got. Use every eff'ort, harden
your face to ffint, and give eloquence to your
tongue. This is your caUing. Excel in it. Be not
discouraged with a dozen refusals in succession. The
money must be had, and it must be begged. My
dear brother, work for your hfe, and I pray God to
give you success. Do not borrow if possible. Beg,
beg, beg it all. It must be done."
But the more difficult, as weU as more important
part of Mr. Ryerson's commission was the securing
of the royal charter. It must be borne in mind that
up to this time no such legal recognition had been
139

EGERTON RYERSON
afforded to a body of non-conformist ministers,
either in England or in any of the colonies. A biU
for the purpose of incorporating the trustees had
aheady failed to pass the Canadian legislature.
There was thus no precedent to which he could
appeal, and no model which he could copy, and his
sole hope was in the justice of his cause, and in the
spirit, now rapidly growing in England, of equal
civil and religious rights and privileges.
To grant the Methodists equal legislative, if not
equal governmental support for their college, with
that which had already been conceded to Dr.
Strachan on behalf of the Church of England, was
only a fair practical outcome of this spirit. But
a technical difficulty was at once proposed by
the law officers of the crown. How could a body
unknown to the law be officially recognized as the
recipients of a royal charter? Mr. Ryerson's legal
acumen here stood hira in good stead, and found
a way out of the difficulty. Although the Methodist
conference, as such, was as yet unknown to English
law, the Methodist preacher as such had aheady
been given a recognized legal status by the grant of
legal authority for the solemnization of matrimony.
Mr. Ryerson accordingly constituted his funda
mental chartered body of all men so recognized by
law in Upper Canada, and the charter granted
to these authorized them to elect trustees and
visitors who should be a body corporate for aU
the purposes of the coUege. The first legal name of
140

ROYAL CHARTER
the coUege was Upper Canada Academy, its name
at once designating its comprehensive character,
off'ering its services to all the people of the province,
and yet distinguishing it from Upper Canada
CoUege, aheady in operation. Both were designed
to prepare the way for higher institutions of learning
in the immediate future, when the number of
students prepared for a university course shoiUd
warrant the advance. In the race toward this goal
the Methodist institution won by two years, com
mencing university work in 1841 and reaching its
first graduating class in 1845.
Mr. Ryerson's return from his English mission
was a veritable triumph of patient industry and
remarkable ability devoted unsparingly to a high
purpose. It was but five years since a governor-
general had supercihously replied to a loyal address
of the Methodist conference, in which they ventured
to refer to their projected coUege, of which a stone
had not yet been laid, " That the system of edu
cation which has produced the best and ablest men
in the United Kingdom, wiU not be abandoned here
to suit the limited views of the leaders of societies
who perhaps have neither experience nor judgment
to appreciate the value or advantages of a liberal
education." Within three years Mr. Ryerson, one
of the leaders referred to in this disparaging para
graph, was on his way to England with recommen
datory letters from this same governor-general, who
had aheady learned to form a truer estimate of the
141

EGERTON RYERSON
Methodist people and their leaders ; and now after
nearly two years of arduous toU and able work for
his church and his country, he returned home with
the first royal charter ever granted by the imperial
government for an educational institution outside
of an estabhshed church, and with a fair prospect
of its release from financial embarrassment. Already
as the result of his labours he found, on his arrival
home, the buildings completed and occupied by a
promising body of teachers and pupils, under the
principalship of Rev. Matthew Richey, M.A., who
had opened the academy on June 18th, 1836. This
step had been secured through the financial assist
ance which he had obtained from friends in England.
But financial difficulties were as yet by no means
ended. He had received in England from Lord
Glenelg instructions to the new governor-general.
Sir Francis Bond Head, to recommend to the
Canadian legislature a grant in assistance of the in
stitution. Mr. Ryerson, who knew well the state of
aff'airs in the two branches of the legislature at that
date, was fully aware that this last recommendation
would be of no practical service. He therefore per
sisted in his eff'orts, until in April, 1837, a few days
before saihng for home, he secured further instruc
tions from the imperial government to Sir Francis
Bond Head to advance the amount, £4,100, out of
the unappropriated revenues of the crown. One-half
of this amount was paid in November foUovdng, in
the midst of the excitement which immediately
142

VICTORIA COLLEGE
preceded the insurrection. The balance was with
held by the governor until the whole matter was
brought before parhament by petition from Mr.
Ryerson. The question was carried back to Lord
Glenelg, but upon report and address of the House
of Assembly to the governor it was settled.
The establishment of responsible government in
Canada in 1840 led to important consequences in
regard to university work. During the first session
of the provincial legislature a biU prepared by Mr.
Ryerson was introduced, and passed both Houses,
extending the charter of Upper Canada Academy
under the new name of "Victoria College," so as to
confer university powers. This biU received the
royal assent at the hand of Lord Sydenham, Aug
ust 27th, 1841. In October of that year Mr, Ryer
son was appointed the first president under the
enlarged charter, and opened the session on the
21st of that month. His formal inaugural took
place on June 21st, 1842, and on August 3rd
foUowing he was honoured by the Wesleyan Uni
versity, Middletown, Connecticut, with the degree
of doctor of divinity.
The official relation to Victoria College thus
begun he held for four years, during which time
students flocked to the college from aU parts.
Among those who became eminent in after years
in various walks of life were the late Judge
Springer; S. S. NeUes, afterwards his successor in
office; the Hon. J. C. Aikins; the Hon. Wm.
143

EGERTOJN KYEiKSUJN
Macdougall, C.B.; J. George Hodgins, his life-long
friend and associate in work; the Rev. Wm. Or-
miston, D.D., one of the brightest ornaments of
the Presbyterian Church; Col. Walker PoweU,
Adjutant- General; Stoughton Dennis, Surveyor-
General; the Hon. W. H. Brouse, and James
L. Biggar, M.P. Out of such materials as these
were organized in four years four undergraduate
classes, under a curriculum equal in extent of
science, hterature and philosophy to that of the best
American colleges of the time. Its matriculation
embraced both Latin and Greek — in the former
Nepos, Cgesar, Sallust, and Virgil, — arithmetic and
algebra in mathematics, with Enghsh grammar,
history, geography, and elementary science. The
subsequent course included four years' work in the
Latin and Greek languages, four in mathematics,
three in science, two years each in English consti
tution and history, philosophy, evidences of natural
and revealed religion, Hebrew and French. Rheto
ric, composition and elocution received attention
throughout the course, and the study of the Greek
testament and Bibhcal hterature was also pro
vided for.
The following words from the pen of the late
gifted Dr. Ormiston give a most vivid portraiture
of the impression made upon his students by Dr.
Ryerson as college president : " Dr. Ryerson was at
that time in the prime of a magnificent manhood.
His well-developed, finely-proportioned, firmly-knit
144

COLLEGE PRESIDENT
frame, his broad, lofty brow, his keen, penetrating
eye, and his genial, benignant face, all proclaimed
him every inch a man. His mental powers, vigorous
and weU disciplined; his attainments in literature,
varied and extensive; his experience, extended and
diversified ; his fame as a preacher of great pathos
and power, widely spread; his claims as a doughty,
dauntless champion of the rights of the people to
civU and rehgious hberty, generaUy acknowledged;
his powers of expression, marveUous in readiness,
richness and beauty; his manners aff'able and win
ning; his presence magnetic and impressive, — ^he
stood in the eye of the youthful, ardent, aspiring stu
dent, a tower of strength, a centre of healthy, help
ful influences, a man to be admired and honoured,
loved and feared, imitated and foUowed. And I may
add, that frequent intercourse for nearly forty years,
and close official relations for more than ten,
only deepened and confirmed the impression first
made. A more famihar acquaintance with his do
mestic, social and rehgious life, a more thorough
knowledge of his mind and heart constantly in
creased my appreciation of his worth, my esteem
for his character, and my aff'ection for his person.
"Not a few misunderstood, undervalued or mis
represented his public conduct, but it wiU be found
that those who knew hifn best, loved him most, and
that many who were constrained to diff'er from him
in his management of pubhc aff'airs, did fuU justice
to the purity and generosity of his motives, to the
145

Jj^GKKTOJN KYJiJlSUrM
nobUity, loftiness and ultimate success of his aims,
and to the disinterestedness of his manifold labours
for the country and the church of Christ.
"As a teacher he was earnest and efficient,
eloquent and inspiring, but he expected and exacted
too much work from the average student. His own
ready and affluent mind sympathized keenly with
the apt, bright scholar, to whom his praise was
warmly given, but he scarcely made sufficient
aUowance for the dullness or lack of previous
preparation which failed to keep pace with him
in his long and rapid strides; hence his censures
were occasionaUy severe. His methods of examina
tion furnished the very best kind of mental discip-
hne, fitted ahke to cultivate the memory and to
strengthen the judgment. All the students revered
him, but the best of the class appreciated him most.
His counsels were faithful and judicious, his admo
nitions paternal and discriminating, his rebukes
seldom administered, but scathingly severe. No
student ever left his presence without resolving to
do better, to aim higher and to win his approval,"
While Mr, Ryerson was thus engaged in laying
the foundations of Victoria CoUege, two other
coUeges were being brought into operation. The
Presbyterian Church had in 1839 petitioned the
legislature of Upper Canada for an act of incorpora
tion for a university at Kingston. The act was
passed in 1840, but as they desired a royal charter,
it was found necessary to ask for its disaUowance,
146

FOUR COLLEGES
and the charter was issued October 14th, 1841. The
institution was accordingly opened for the reception
of students on March 7th, 1842, and as the curricu
lum for the degree of B.A, extended over three
years, the first graduates had completed their course
in 1845. FinaUy King's College after long delay
was brought into operation, and on June 8th, 1843,
the inauguration took place, the college being
located in the Parliament Buildings. The practical
work of instruction appears to have commenced in
October following, and the warrants of the first
professors in arts bear date September, 1843. On
March 4th, 1837, the royal assent had been given
by His ExceUency, the Governor-General, to a bill
incorporating Regiopolis CoUege, Kingston, under
the direction of the Roman Catholic Church.
These various steps growing out of the exclusive
character of the university charter obtained in
1827, and which Dr. Strachan so innocently caUed
his charter, presented Upper Canada as early as
1843 with her university problem. There were then
in operation in the province four coUeges, the best
equipped of which had not more than four fuU
professors in arts. One of these. King's CoUege,
was in possession of the provincial endovnnent,
consisting of nearly £39,000 in provincial deben
tures and other stock, hesides a large quantity of
lands. Although no building had been erected or
instruction given, there was aheady a considerable
debt against this endowment. The other colleges
147

EGERTON RYERSON
were without endowments or property other than
the buildings which had been erected for Victoria
as already related, and real estate and buildings
which had been secured by the Roman Catholic
Church for Regiopolis. Queen's was as yet without
buildings, and was seriously considering the problem
before her. Victoria and Queen's had each been
voted a legislative grant of £500, but apart from
that were dependent on fees and church funds. The
total number of undergraduate students in arts in
the province was less than fifty, and these were
divided among three coUeges.
It was at this juncture that in 1843 the first
eff'ort to secure a truly provincial university was
made by the Honourable Robert Baldwin. His
scheme embraced a large number of the distinctive
features of the Federation Act of 1887. It proposed
to include all the existing colleges by removing
them to Toronto ; also any that might hereafter be
founded. It deprived aU the coUeges of their degree
conferring powers. It proposed to erect a central
university, with teaching faculty, in which the
students of all the colleges should receive instruc
tion on equal terms. The only subjects excluded
from the university course were the divinity sub
jects. Each college was left free to teach whatever
it chose. The colleges were placed somewhat largely
under the control of the central university au
thority or council, in which they were aU equally
represented; and while the university endowment
148

THE BALDWIN BILL
was to remain intact and for the university, for a
period of four years each coUege was to receive a
grant in aid of £500. A minimum amount invested
in buUdings, outfit, and endowment was required
to entitle a coUege to claim its place and status in
the university. It is said that this scheme was the
work of Mr. Baldwin's own mind, having been
prepared after a single interview with each of the
parties concerned.
From the Anghcan party, who were now in
possession of the endowment, this biU met with
the most uncompromising opposition. They claimed
that the endowment belonged by gift of the crown
to King's CoUege exclusively; that King's CoUege
had been constituted by royal charter a Church of
England institution; and that the provincial parha
ment had no power to interfere with either the
property or the charter. They petitioned parha
ment for leave to present their case by counsel at
the bar of the House, and the Hon. W. H. Draper
was deputed for that purpose, and in an able
address of over two hours laid the constitutional
argument before the members.
The Presbyterians, whose college had been in
operation for a year and a half, but who had not
yet erected buUdings, and had thus no financial
complication, supported the proposed plan most
heartily, and were prepared to surrender their uni
versity powers and remove to Toronto at once. In
fact the whole movement originated with the
149

EGERTON RYERSON
expressed desire of Queen's to take part in the
provincial university. Dr. Liddell, the principal of
Queen's, was a very hearty advocate of the scheme,
and pressed it upon the Methodists in a series of
letters to Dr. Ryerson. The Methodists, on the
other hand, were in a most embarrassing position.
They were now divided into three bodies, the
largest numbering 32,000 and the smallest 20,000
adherents. They had only some three or four years
previously completed a most exhausting eff'ort to
secure the last of the nine thousand pounds needed
for the building of their coUege, and they were as
yet entirely without endowment. The most toU-
some labour of this work had, as we have already
seen, faUen on Dr. Ryerson. He was now asked to
leave the institution thus founded to fall back upon
its previous work of an academy or minor college,
and begin anew the task of founding a Methodist
coUege in the provincial university. His reply —
penned by his own hand, though presented as that
of his church through resolution of the coUege board
— is such as Methodism need never be ashamed of
The essential parts of this document are contained
in the fourth and fifth resolutions, as follows: —
"4. That viewing the general objects and opin
ions of the University Bill in this light we cordiaUy
concur in them, and give that bill our warm appro
bation and support; although its present apphcation
to the Wesleyan Methodist Church as a body,
from circumstances peculiar to ourselves, deprives
150

FEDERATION PROPOSED
us of important rights and privileges which we
now enjoy, without conferring upon us any corres
ponding advantages, since all the resources which
we have been able to obtain both in this country
and in England for the erection of college buildings
have been expended in the completion of a com
modious and expensive edifice at too great a dis
tance from the seat of the University of Toronto
to render any of its advantages available to the
scholars and students of Victoria CoUege.
"5. That in view of the pecuhar inconveniences
and disadvantages to which the operation of the
bill must necessarily subject us, without its being
in our power to enjoy the advantages of the uni
versity, we appeal to the just and enhghtened
consideration of the government to grant us such
assistance as our pecuhar chcumstances suggest,
and to aid us to the utmost of its power in making
any arrangements which may hereafter be deemed
expedient and advisable to secure to the persons
under our institution the advantages of the uni
versity." But this expression of approval and of desire as
soon as possible to take part in the project did not
end Dr. Ryerson's efforts on its behalf. The biU
was meeting with powerful opposition on plausible
constitutional grounds. Into its defence he threw
himself with aU his abihty, energy, and learning,
and in a most complete reply to Mr. Draper's
address to the parhament, he proved that the
151

EGERTON RYERSON
province had a right to a truly provincial university;
that the original endowment was not a gift to the
Enghsh Church or to a particular college, but was
granted by the crown for the education of the
people of Canada in response to a request from the
legislative assembly of the province, and that over
both the charter and the endowment, parliament —
which includes the crown itself — possessed com
plete power, and that over both of these the present
tenants had no personal rights or control, being but
trustees for the people.
The political comphcation to which we have
aheady referred, ending in the resignation of Mr.
Baldwin and the majority of his colleagues, brought
this first promising eff'ort for the establishment of a
provincial university to an end, but the funda
mental principles of the whole question were de
veloped in this first attempt at solution, and were
clearly grasped and maintained both by Mr. Bald
win and Dr. Ryerson. Their eff'ort was to build the
new university into the past history of the people;
to make it include rather than antagonize or destroy
existing institutions; to make it comprehensive,
meeting the wants, conciliating the sympathies,
and enlisting the support of all the people; and
finaUy to make it impartial, off'ering perfectly equal
rights and privileges to all. The province was des
tined to wait for fifty years before another measure
equaUy comprehensive would be proposed, and in
those fifty years the university question was to
152

THE DRAPER BILL
pass through six successive phases of attempted
legislation and party conflict. Before this history
was completed, if completed it be even yet, Robert
Baldwin, Bishop Strachan, Dr. Ryerson, W. H.
Draper, J. B. Robinson, R. B. Sullivan, and aU the
other actors in the beginning of things had passed
from the scene.
The second attempt at the solution of the uni
versity question was made by Mr. Draper in 1846,
The general principles of Mr. Draper's biU were
the same as those presented by the Baldwin Bill,
and it was supported and opposed by the same
parties, and on the same grounds, Dr, Ryerson at
this time defined his position in the foUowing pro
positions: —
1, That there should be a provincial university
furnishing the highest academical and professional
education, at least in respect to law and medicine,
2. That there should be a provincial system of
common school education, commensurate with the
wants of the entire population.
3. That both the university and the common
school system should be established and conducted
upon Christian principles, yet free from sectarian
bias or ascendency.
4. That there should be an intermediate class of
seminaries in connection with the diff'erent religious
persuasions who have ability and enterprise to es
tabhsh them, providing, on the one hand, a theo
logical education for their clergy, and, on the other
153

EGERTON RYERSON
hand, a thorough English and scientific education
and elementary classical instruction for those of
the youth of their congregations who might seek
for more than a common school education, or who
might wish to prepare for the university, and who,
not having the experience of university students,
required a parental and religious oversight in their
absence from their parents,
5. That it woiUd be economic as weU as patri
otic on the part of the government to grant a
hberal aid to such seminaries, as weU as to provide
for the endowment of a university or a common
school system.
It is evident from the contemporary press that
already a new principle was making its way into
the university question, viz,, the entire separation
of the higher education from rehgion, leaving that
entirely to the voluntary eff'orts of the churches,
"I cannot, for the life of me, see," says a prominent
editor of that time, "what religion has to do with
the department of the university devoted to arts and
sciences." Dr. Ryerson's view was the very opposite
of this, religion with him forming an essential ele
ment in aU education.
Another element in the educational problem of
that time was the appearance of residential second
ary schools either owned by or patronized by the
principal religious denominations. Upper Canada
College was reaUy such under the control of the
Church of England, Upper Canada Academy, stiU
154

THE MACDONALD BILL
continued as a preparatory adjunct of Victoria
CoUege, was another. Knox College filled for some
years a siirular place for the Free Church Presby
terians, and the Society of Friends were estab-
hshing another in Bloomfield. Those institutions,
the outcome of the religious and inteUectual spirit
of the age, were destined for a time to be eclipsed
by the rise of the high schools as a part of the
system which Dr. Ryerson was now inaugurating;
but their persistence to the present and their large
extension in secondary coUeges, both for young
men and young women, is the best proof of their
value in an educational system.
Mr. Draper's biU was lost by the carrying of an
amendment to the second reading, and so ended
the second attempt at the formation of a provincial
university. Its failure was due to two causes. The
voluntary party in the House and outside were
now taking the ground that even for education no
state grants should be made to churches. The
church party, on the other hand, were making a
most determined eff'ort to retain control of the
university and its endowment. Mr. Draper's bill
suited neither, and was killed by their combined
vote. A similar fate befell the effort in 1847 made by
the solicitor-general, Mr. John A. Macdonald, to
solve the university problem. His bill off'ered the
largest concessions yet tendered to the church
party. He proposed to hand over to them King's
155

EGERTON RYERSON
College, with the building now completed, to
gether with an annual income of $12,000, and to
give to Queen's and Victoria and Regiopolis $6,000
each. The balance of the annual income arising
from the university endowment was to be ex
pended on the district grammar schools and in
promoting the teaching of scientific agriculture.
This biU, known as the partition scheme, caUed
forth the most strenuous opposition of the Liberals,
who had now planted themselves firmly on the
principle that the university endowment should not
be divided, and that the provincial university should
be completely secularized. On the other hand, it
was rejected by the church party, who still claimed
the whole endowment, as well as the college. The
combined opposition of these two parties caused its
vsdthdrawal. This partition biU of Mr. Macdonald was the
introduction of an entirely new phase of the uni
versity question. Hitherto aU were agreed on the
idea of a single provincial university. The question
at issue was its control in the interests of a single
religious body, as opposed to the equal rights and
privileges of all. Nor was there any question as to
the relation of the churches and religious teaching
to university education. AU university reforms pro
posed to retain this by the incorporation of the
existing coUeges. The principle of historic con
tinuity was thus maintained. There was no pro
posal to destroy existing institutions for the erection
156

THE SECOND BALDWIN BILL
of the new, Mr. Macdonald's proposition was thor
oughly conservative. It proposed to do fuU justice
to all existing institutions, but at the expense of
the central university, which had now become the
ideal of hberal thought. The ground of conflict
was thus shifted, and henceforth the battle was to
be between one secular state university and the
four church colleges. Mr. Macdonald's partition bill
received Dr. Ryerson's strong support, and deter
mined his position on the university question to the
end of his hfe, for the following reasons:
1. It appeared to him to meet the fuU extent of
the needs of university education as at that time
existing in the leading colleges of the English-
speaking world. The vast modem extension of the
sphere of the university was then unknown.
2. It coincided with his conservative instincts,
which always led him to work with spontaneous
historic growth rather than upon theory.
3. It satisfied his convictions of the need of^
rehgion as an essential part of all education.
4, He judged that the four coUeges already es
tabhshed would afford the advantages of higher
education to a larger number than would receive
them in one central university.
The defeat of the Conservative government at
the next election and the return of the Liberals to
power, placed the university question once more in
the hands of Mr, Baldwin, and his now largely
advanced positions were embodied in the biU of
157

EGERTON RYERSON
1849, The central idea of this biU was the complete
separation of the provincial university from aU
ecclesiastical influence and control. The subject of
divinity was excluded from the university; all re
ligious tests, subscriptions and exercises were done
away with; it was forbidden to the government
to appoint an ecclesiastic on the senate, and such
could not fill the office of chancellor. The only
privilege off'ered to the outlying colleges estabhshed
by the churches was the right to appoint one
member of the senate, and this privilege was of
fered only on condition of their being deprived
at once and forever of the power to confer degrees
except in divinity. The central idea was the extinc
tion of all other coUeges as educational institutions
and their conversion into theological schools, and
this to be accomplished either by their voluntary
surrender, or by the force of state-endowed com
petition. It is not surprising that this bill satisfied neither
the high church party, who found themselves
stripped by it of the coUege and endowments to
which they had held so tenaciously, nor the other
religious bodies, who at so much sacrifice, had
founded coUeges of their own. It met the wishes of
the thorough "voluntaries" alone, who as yet had
not founded colleges of their own. It certainly was
at variance with Dr. Ryerson's fundamental princi
ples of education, which sought to combine morals
and rehgion with inteUectual cxUture and to unite
158

THE HINCKS ACT
voluntary eff'ort vsdth the aid of the state. The
fundamental principle of the new biU was that the
state alone should control and maintain education,
and that all aUiance of the churches with the state
was to be avoided. It cut loose from all past history
of education in the province, ignored all church insti
tutions, and built upon a purely secular foundation.
In four years' time the exclusive rigidity of this
bUl was broken, and a bill apparently more liberal
in its attitude to outlying colleges was introduced
by Mr. Hincks in 1853. Dr. Ryerson, who had
strongly opposed the Baldwin Bill in 1849, in 1850
had secured legislative authority for the removal of
Victoria CoUege to Toronto; and in 1852 he ad
dressed a series of open letters to the Hon. Sir
Francis Hincks, now the head of the Canadian
government, outhning a most comprehensive and
patriotic plan for the establishment of the provin
cial university upon a basis which might secure the
cooperation of aU the sections of the community.
The Hincks BiU of 1853 did not foUow Dr,
Ryerson's outhne, which anticipated some of the
most important features of the Federation Act of
1887, but was modeUed on the example of the
London University, and possibly implied, though
it did not specifically enact, the partition features
of Mr. Macdonald's bill of 1847. It made more
liberal provision for the affiliation of the outlying
colleges, separated the teaching faculty of arts from
the university, making provision for its support
159

J^^GliKTOJN KYl^KSUJN
as a state coUege from the university endow
ments, and provided that the balance of income
from the university endowment after meeting the
wants of the university and college should be at
the disposal of the legislature for the aid of higher
education. These provisions were accepted by the
outlying colleges as a promise of more harmonious
relations, and they aU accepted affiliation with the
reconstructed university, and for a time their repre
sentatives took their places on the university senate.
Parliamentary acts, however, can change names
and constitution, but not spirit, pohcy or nature;
they can constitute an institution the provincial
university in form and theory without making it
such in the aff'ections and support of the people or
in its spirit and attitude toward the other educa
tional institutions of the country. The new uni
versity and state college consisted still very largely
of the same men; its policy was stiU the pohcy of
the old state church college, to use the provincial
endowments as the rival of the outlying colleges.
The Baldwin Act had, as we have seen, converted
this policy into one of extinction; and although the
new act pointed towards a better way, there was
under it not the slightest eff'ort toward a combina
tion of resources and colleges for the building up of
a truly provincial university. If such a result was
ever to come it could under this policy come only
when the outlying colleges had been destroyed by
the force of an unfair financial competition. These
160

CONTEST OF 1860
coUeges had from the very first maintained the
attitude of willingness or even desire for friendly
cooperation in some form to build up a truly
provincial university. They were now doomed to
see aU hope in this direction extinguished.
Dr. Ryerson had from the first been a leader in
this movement. He had throughout opposed all
sectional and exclusive pohcies, whether ecclesiasti
cal or pohticaL When, therefore, the sectional char
acter of the university pohcy — for the policy rather
than, the constitution was at fault — culminated in
the conflict of 1860, he threw himself with aU his
force and abUity into it and in favour of a compre
hensive policy. The particular form of that policy
was not the best. It stiU clung to the old partition
scheme of John A. Macdonald, which would have
been a fatal mistake. The conflict resulted for a
httle time in increased legislative aid to the de
nominational colleges, in itself a very doubtful
advantage. But it embittered the state university
party, and at the first opportunity aU state aid was
taken from the denominational colleges, their affili
ation with the provincial university was canceUed,
and they were left, as was supposed, to die, but in
reahty to renew their youth when once they were
left to live by the merit of their work and the truth
of the principles upon which they were founded.
Dr. Ryerson was their consistent friend and sup
porter by pen and tongue and purse to the end. He
beheved in rehgion and morals in aU education,
161

EGERTON RYERSON
He believed in a comprehensive unity of aU forces
in a truly provincial system. His chief mistake was,
perhaps, that he did not unflinchingly apply the
voluntary principle to the religious side of the
work. It, perhaps, was financiaUy impossible in his
time. If so, then even this was not an error on his
part, for in maintaining the rehgious principle even
at^ the compromise of the other he has preserved
for us a goal which is most abundantly vindicated
by the strength and influence of the religious col
leges to-day, and the reflex influence of which has
been of the greatest benefit to the state coUege
itself.

162

CHAPTER VII
FOUNDING THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM
IN Mr. Ryerson's last interview with Lord Syden
ham, shortly before the accident which resulted
in His ExceUency 's death, the governor discussed
with him his contemplated measures for the im
provement of popular education, and proposed that
Mr. Ryerson should take charge of that important
work. The matter was again considered under Sir
Charles Bagot's administration in 1842, but the
Rev. Mr. Murray was appointed. Near the close
of 3 843 Sir Charles Metcalfe conferred with Dr.
Ryerson on educational matters and again sug
gested that he should undertake the necessary
work, which had made no progress under Mr.
Murray's tenure of office. A few weeks later the
rupture took place between the governor and his
cabinet. At first Mr. Ryerson was disposed to take
a view unfavourable to the position assumed by the
governor. But after a careful study of the question
involved, as it was set forth by the newly organized
Reform Association, he took up his pen in defence
of Sir Charles, at the same time avowing his inten
tion to accept no office untU this question had been
settled by the voice of the people at the polls.
At the election in the autumn of 1844, the new
163

EGERTON RYERSON
advisers of Sh Charles, led by Mr, Draper, were
sustained, and in September Dr, Ryerson was ap
pointed superintendent of schools under the act of
1843, with permission to visit the United States
and Europe for the purpose of studying the best
systems then in operation before preparing a new
biU for the improvement of common schools in
Upper Canada, On this tour of investigation and
study, Dr, Ryerson started in November, 1844,
returning early in 1846, We cannot foUow him
through the various interesting episodes of this
visit, but before taking up his work on his return,
as it appears in the Common School Act of 1846
and the reports which preceded and followed im
mediately on that measure, it wiU be necessary to
review briefly the state of the common schools
of Canada West when he accepted office.
The elementary schools of Upper Canada had
been organized into something approaching system
by the acts of 1841 and 1843. Parliamentary aid to
the extent of £20,000 annually supplemented the
local eff'ort. Schools were generaUy established in
all the older settled parts of the country, and were
to some extent under the oversight of a provincial
superintendent and local superintendents. But there
were several fatal defects in the so-caUed system.
The central authority was weak. It was authorized
by the law to apportion the grant, to receive re
ports, and to make regulations for the schools. But
it lacked authority to enforce its regulations or
164

SCHOOLS OF 1843
to secure proper reports, and its principal function
was the distribution of the parliamentary grant.
The local authorities, consisting of the district or
township superintendent, the district, town or city
municipal councU, and the trustees, were possessed
of large powers, but were generally incompetent
for their exercise. The powers and duties of the
local superintendents were the examination and
hcensing of teachers, the inspection of the schools,
the making of reports to the provincial superinten
dent and the distribution of the provincial and
county grant. But as these duties were associated
most frequently with other employment, they were
often performed in the most superficial manner,
and there was absolutely no uniformity of standard
in the qualification of teachers; and it is perhaps
not too much to say that the majority of them
were quite inefficient. The municipal councils pos
sessed absolute authority in the selection and ap
pointment of these superintendents, there being no
standard of qualification; and the same body fixed
their remuneration, and hence the grade of service
which they were able to render. The other powers
of the municipal councU consisted in levying a
county assessment to equal the parhamentary grant,
and the formation of school sections. To the local
trustees were assigned some of the most important
functions. They selected and hired the teacher, they
determined the character and appointments of the
schoolroom and the text books to be used, and to
165

EGERTON RYERSON
their regulations the teacher was responsible, as
the regulations of the provincial authorities were
recommendatory and not imperative. One power
they lacked: they could estabhsh a school only for
those who desired it and were wiUing to pay, they
could not make it a school for aU the chUdren.
Finally, while model schools were encouraged and
estabhshed in the older districts at which teachers
might learn by example, there was no efficient high
class provision for the thorough professional train
ing of teachers.
Such a system among a people the most of
whom had grown up without enjoyment of proper
school advantages and whose circumstances made
the keeping down of expenses one of the most
influential considerations of their hves, was certain
to produce miserable school houses, haphazard
school books and poor teachers, and even these
inefficient provisions reached only a part of the
population. In the state of New York from which
they had been originaUy borrowed they were
already largely modified so as to obviate the chief
objections. For the work of reconstructing this inefficient
system and of remedying its great defects, no man
was better qualified than Dr. Ryerson. He had
himself grown up and had been educated under its
influence. He had seen it in its best and in its
worst results. He had lived in touch with it all his
hfe, now over forty years. A large part of his life
166

EXISTING DEFECTS
work had been in the field of education, and he
knew the people of the country, their wants and
their possibihties as few men knew them. Moreover
his careful conservative habit of mind made him
a safe as well as a practical and successful reformer
of defects. In addressing himself to his task, the
comprehensive grasp of his mind, his clear judg
ment, and keen observation revealed to him at once
both the important defects in the existing system
and their real causes. He has set these before us
very fuUy in his first and fundamental reports, and
with the defects he sets forth the remedies. First of
aU, properly qualified teachers must be provided,
proper school house accommodation and equip
ment, proper and uniform text books and proper
inspection of schools. To secure these with fair uni
formity and efficiency they must be more largely
controUed or directed from the central provincial
department. These important elements were now
entirely in the hands of the local authorities, and
the result was a body of starved and inefficient
schools with here and there a notable exception.
To secure the necessary central control and direc
tion without creating fatal antagonism was a task
calling for the very highest qualities of the wise
statesman, clearly defined ends, good judgment as
to ways and means, courage and firmness in ad
ministration, and yet sympathy with the difficulties
and forbearance with even the prejudices of the
people. The success of Dr. Ryerson's effort is the
167

EGERTON RYERSON
best proof of the high order of ability which he
brought to his work.
As we have seen, before entering upon his work
he had devoted a year to the study of the school
systems of many lands, but it is evident from the
results that he was most deeply impressed by three,
those of Prussia, Ireland and Massachusetts. In
Prussia he had seen the advantages of strong and
wise central direction and authority. In Ireland he
had found a promising solution of the rehgious
question in education to which we must presently
devote specific attention, and in Massachusetts he
had found examples and methods of dealing with
many of the problems which arise in the apphcation
of a central administrative system to a free people
in this western world. But while learning from aU
these, his mind was too independent and original to
borrow any one of them or use it as a model.
His strong conservative instinct led him to build
upon historic foundations and to use the materials
which had grown up ready to his hand. His work
was not to sweep these away but to mould them to
his great ends. He found a central superintendency
and a board of education; he increased the power
and extended the functions of these until they were
sufficient for his purposes. He found a local super
intendency; he brought it under proper control
and responsibility, made it a profession in the work
of education, occupying the entire time and gifts of
quahfied men who should make this their only and
168

SKILFUL REFORMS
hfelong caUing. He found the municipal councils
taking part in the work, and he skilfuUy encour
aged as well as directed their co-operation in the
task without depriving them of a single function
which they had previously exercised, and, as in a
few years the municipal system was perfected in
form, he adapted its educational functions to the
more perfect municipal institutions. He found as
the fundamental element of the whole system
boards of school trustees elected according to im
memorial Saxon custom by the assembly of the
people. These too he adopted, and without seeming
to deprive them of any of their accustomed func
tions, he first of aU gave them experience and
continuity of hfe as a body corporate by making
each member hold office for three years, while the
continuous interest was maintained by the annual
election of one new member of the board, and
by the annual discussion of all school matters at
the school meeting of all the ratepayers. While
skilfuUy stimulating their ambition to have a good
school through the inspectors' reports and free pub-
hcation of results and honourable mention when
ever possible or deserved, and by insisting on at
least a minimum of efficiency, he secured them
from personal liability by making them a corporate
body of trustees, so that the whole people whom
they represented, and not the mere patrons of the
school were hable for their lawful action ; and at the
same time he gave them such power to levy school
169

EGERTON RYERSON
rates as weU as fees as should secure adequate
support. As an off'set to the limited financial views
of local authorities, he made the parliamentary
grant a stimulus to larger liberahty, helping those
who helped themselves, and making the minimum
of efficiency an indispensable condition to sharing
in the pubhc grants.
The Common School Act of 1846 seemed then
to be but an amendment here and there, somewhat
thorough it is true, but stiU no more than an
amendment of that of 1843. But in reality it was
inspired by a new principle of life. The old system
dealt out a legislative grant and left the individual
schools very much to care for themselves, scarcely
securing even a complete return of the number and
attendance at the schools. The new system directed
the whole educational force of the country into
a combined, wise, scientific eff'ort for the proper
education of every child of the land, and held every
officer of the system to proper responsibility both to
the people and to the central government. On no
point was Dr. Ryerson more careful than to make
it appear that his system was in thorough harmony
with the principles of responsible government. At
the one end of the system he maintained the most
thorough responsibihty to parliament through report
of the entire work of the department as a branch of
the civil service. At the other end he brought
the local trustees of each school section under
responsibihty to the local meeting of ratepayers,
170

EFFICIENCY AND RESPONSIBILITY
as weU as the local superintendents to the muni
cipal authorities. The new political principle was
that, under this universal responsibility, there was
instituted all along the hne a strong executive.
Every officer from the chief superintendent to the
local trustee was invested with power, and held
responsible for its exercise, both to the people and
their representatives, and also to the higher execu
tive authorities. But on the other hand the enforce
ment of responsibihty or of penalty for neglect was
in no case matter of individual judgment. The
dehnquent could be displaced only by the authority
by which he was appointed, or punished by regular
process of law. There was no room for individual
caprice. It is thus evident that Dr. Ryerson very fairly
claimed that his system was based throughout
on the principles of responsible government ; at the
same time it is equaUy certain that it was animated
by the idea of a thoroughly eff'ective government.
To this efficiency his own strong convictions, clear
judgment and masterful character were largely
contributory. Separated as he was by at least one
remove from the changing forces of popular pohti
cal hfe, he felt himself, hke the men who have with
so remarkable a record presided in our courts of
justice, shielded from those transient and changeful
currents of popular influence which must be felt
by the ordinary minister of the crown. The latter
can assert his manhood and his convictions only by
171

EGERTON RYERSON
holding office loosely, as a thing which he wiU at
any time resign rather than compromise his prin
ciples. Dr. Ryerson held that the dignity and
importance of the work in which he was engaged
demanded, as in the administration of justice, abso
lute independence of action and position. He felt
that this work was a sacred caUing to be directed
by fundamental principles, and not by considera
tions of temporary expediency, as expressed by the
changes of popular opinion, and that it demanded,
by its very nature, stabihty and permanency of
method as weU as of ideal.
Two principles which he adopted from the out
set as the very basis of his system were destined
to give rise to no httle difficulty in the future. One
was that religion and morahty are essential elements
in aU education. We have already seen how steadUy
he held by this principle in the discussion of the
university question, and we shall presently see
how large and difficult were the problems to which
it gave rise in the field of elementary schools.
The other was that the state provision of educa
tion should be comprehensive, bringing its advan
tages as a matter of equal rights to every child
irrespective of creed, wealth, or class. We have
seen that these two principles were to him matters
of sacred conviction and essential justice at every
period of his career. They appear in every contro
versy in which he took part, and always ranked
with him as higher and more imperative than even
172

THE NORMAL SCHOOL
the very important political maxim of the complete
independence of church and state.
Before entering on the special study of the free
school question and the separate school question as
they appear in the work of Dr. Ryerson, we must
devote a httle space to another important aspect of
his system as he introduced it from the beginning,
viz., the normal school as a provision for the train
ing of teachers. Up to the time of Dr. Ryerson's
taking office the only provision in this direction
was the model school in each district. These were
merely better schools, they made no provision for
either practical or theoretical training in the art
of teaching. As usual, in this work he started from
a sound fundamental principle, to create a fountain-
head of good teaching and well-trained teachers
and wait till its streams flowed forth to enrich the
whole land. His report on a normal school foUowed
close upon his report on a system of common
schools, and a year later he succeeded in his task of
founding the Toronto Normal school.
His wisdom in this foundation was in no way
more conspicuous than in the choice of the principal
and first masters of the school, Thomas Jaff'ray
Robertson, M.A., was a man whose power over
students has seldom been equalled. In remote parts
of the country long years after they had left the
"Normal," we have met with students still under
the speU of his power. His original methods of
teaching reappeared in every county in Ontario and
173

EGERTON RYERSON
passed down to the second and third generations
of teachers. Henry Youle Hind, M,A., the distin
guished scientist, was afterward to win fame in a
wider field. The Rev. WiUiam Ormiston, M,A,,
was another of the mighty men of his choice in that
early day, foUowed by J, H. Sangster, M.A., M.D.,
another strong man. Dr. Ryerson was preeminently
a believer that the power to educate lay in the
mental and moral power of the teacher and not in
his mere technical learning, and in the choice of
such men he laid one of the very strongest founda
tions of his new system.
No large part of the instruction of the normal
school in those days was devoted to theories of
education, or to what is known as "scientific peda
gogics." Lectures were given on the management
and organization of a school, and perhaps on the
history of education, but the strength of the school
lay in thorough mastery of the subjects to be subse
quently taught, in the example and influence of
master teachers, and the criticism of the practi
cal eff'orts of the normal students by experienced
teachers in the model school. But though the
method might to-day be considered empirical, the
results in a very few years raised the standard of
teaching in every part of the province, and provided
able teachers for aU the centres of population, as
weU as many of the better rural schools, and also
furnished an experienced and efficient class of men
to act as local inspectors.
174

SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM
The system thus introduced by Dr. Ryerson in
1846', and much more completely by the act of
1850 which has really been the foundation of all
subsequent school legislation, was by no means
completed at one stroke. Apart from the great
questions of free schools, separate schools, and
grammar or high schools which have in some sense
a distinct history of their own, experience suggested
many minor improvements and adaptations to the
growing development of the country and the rising
standard of inteUectual hfe which was the result of
the successful work of the school systems. But the
fundamental principles and even machinery were
adopted from the very outset, and were so wisely
chosen that each subsequent change seemed only
natural historic growth. The following summary
may represent the main elements of the system as
introduced between 1846 and 1850, the principles
of which we have already discussed :
1. It was brought into operation in every school
section in the province by an annual meeting of the
freeholders and householders of the section. At this
meeting school matters were reported and discussed,
a trustee board formed or filled for the ensuing
year, and the manner of raising school monies for
the next year determined, whether by fees, by
taxation, or both.
2. The trustee board thus formed was made a
body corporate, responsible for and holding all
school property for the section, and with fuU
175

powers to provide school room, teachers and equip
ment, and to appoint a secretary-treasurer and a
collector, or to apply to the township or munici
pality for the collection of aU such school rates as
were raised by general taxation of all taxable pro
perty in the section. They were required to see
that the school was conducted according to law,
that uniform and authorized text books were used,
and to make a full annual report according to legal
form to the local superintendent, which report was
also read at the annual school meeting, the report
to shew the time the school was kept open, the
money expended and how raised, the number of
children in the section and the number attending
school, the branches of education taught and the
visits of inspection, examinations and other special
exercises connected with the school during the
year, thus bringing the whole work of the school
for the year under review.
3. It made fuU provision for the proper quahfi
cation of teachers, and made them accountable for
their duties in the school to the trustees and to the
local superintendent of schools. The qualification
of teachers was secured through a county board of
education consisting of the grammar school trus
tees and the local superintendent or superintendents
of schools for the county.
4. It made it the duty of municipal councils in
the townships and in cities, towns and incorporated
viUages, to levy assessments as desired by the
176

SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM
trustees, or to authorize loans for the purchase or
erection of school buildings, to form proper school
sections, and to report aU acts of the council aff'ect
ing the schools to the local superintendent.
5. It made it the duty of the county municipal
council to appoint the local superintendents and
the grammar school trustees, who formed the
county board of education, and to levy, by a county
school rate, a sum at least equal to the share of the
parliamentary school grant aUotted to the county.
The provision of public libraries was also placed in
the hands of the municipal council of the county
and the county board of education.
6. It made fuU provision for the appointment,
support and duties of the local superintendents of
schools. It not only provided for thorough inspec
tion of schools, but it placed in the hands of
the inspectors power to enforce the observance of
the law by giving them authority to distribute the
school grant under conditions of the fulfilment
of aU legal requirements, and also power to act as
arbitrators in case of dispute on school matters,
subject to appeal to the chief superintendent. It
gave also the power to cancel or suspend teachers'
certificates for neglect of duty, or inefficiency in its
discharge or breach of law. The local superinten
dents thus became the executive officers through
whom the most important provisions of the law
were enforced. A local visitorial power was also
placed in the hands of clergymen, judges, members
177

EGERTON RYERSON
of parliament, magistrates, and municipal councU
lors, by which a local interest and confidence in
the schools might be created in the minds of the
people. 7. At the centre of this system, vidth adequate
powers to secure energy and efficiency in its entire
working, was placed the chief superintendent of
schools, and the council of pubhc instruction. The
chief superintendent was invested with duties and
powers for the province corresponding to those of
the local superintendents in their district. They
were required to report to him, and the final
executive administration of the whole system was
under his supervision, with power to direct and
enforce its efficient operation, and with judicial
powers either on reference or appeal. His direct
power of enforcement lay in the administration of
the legislative grant. The law must be observed, or
the warrant for the money was not issued. His
power of direction lay in the preparation of the
forms and regulations through which the provisions
of the law were to be observed.
Matters of more obvious legislation, such as the
authorization of text books, rules for the govern
ment and discipline of schools, and the entire
responsibUity and direction of the normal school
were wisely placed in the hands of the councU
of pubhc instruction, who also prescribed the classi
fication, quahfication, and subjects of examination
of teachers. 178

PERSONAL INFLUENCE
The simphcity, unity, and efficiency of this sys
tem are its highest praise. It was built upon no
theory of education. It involved no complicated
machinery. It was not unduly centralized. It in
volved the intelhgent cooperation of the people of
the whole country, and of aU the bodies responsible
for executive government and legislation. It thus
made the schools at once the schools of the people,
of the counties and of the province, almost com-
peUing an interest in them at every point. But
beyond aU this, its grand success — for its success
every one must acknowledge — depended in no
smaU measure upon the energy, the wisdom, the
administrative abihty and the tireless industry
of the grand personality who stood at its head
as chief superintendent. Devoting his magnificent
abilities to this one work, turned aside from it by
no complications of the pohtical, the ecclesiastical,
or the commercial world, he put the energy of his
hfe into it, and that energy was felt throughout the
entire system. But even his work could not have
been so complete apart from the cooperation of a
younger man who mastered all details, compiled aU
reports, and generalized all particulars, and kept
before the eye of his chief the entire working of
the system. J. George Hodgins was the indispens
able complement of Dr. Ryerson, and no one knew
or appreciated this more than the doctor himself.
A system introducing forces and principles so
decidedly new in Canadian educational hfe was not
179

EGERTON RYERSON
to be launched without strong opposition. Perhaps
its most disturbing characteristic was the fact that
in almost all its features it touched the pockets of
the people who had never before regarded educa
tion as a matter in which they had any special
concern, and also of the people who desired edu
cation, but at as cheap a rate as possible. It de
manded quahfied and efficient teachers, and this
caUed for better salaries; the Gore district council
proclaimed throughout the country that old men
and cripples, who could do nothing else, and poor
immigrants, glad of work at any wage, were quite
competent for this work. It demanded uniform
text books of better quality, and loyal and British
in their teachings; many people thought that the
school books were a matter of indiff'erence. It caUed
for school houses properly built, warmed and ven
tilated, and provided with proper furniture, maps,
and other means of teaching; the whole community
who were taxed for these purposes rebeUed against
the expense. It required a moderate outlay for
administration and inspection, both general and
local; several district councUs united in proclaiming
this a useless waste of money. AU the essential
features of the system which contributed directly
to improve the character of the schools were thus
assailed, nominaUy as unnecessary, but really on
the ground of expense. A people who had grown
up themselves under the school bill of 1816 were
seemingly utterly without power to appreciate the
180

OPPOSITION
need of better things. A few places were noble
exceptions to this outburst of ignorant opposition.
The municipal councU of the Colborne district
(Peterborough) was conspicuous in its enlightened
support of the new measures, while in the far east
municipal authorities refused to recognize or to act
under the new law.
The opposition was first encountered in the par
hament itself As the biU was prepared by Dr.
Ryerson and introduced by the government, it
aimed at bringing education within reach of all the
people, poor as weU as rich. For this purpose it
proposed not at first to make the schools entirely
free, but it looked in this direction, and many
clauses of the bill making provision for this were
ehminated or so modified as to be ineff'ective. In
1848 a new administration came into power, per-
sonaUy opposed or unfavourable to Dr. Ryerson,
and, without consulting him, a new bill was intro
duced in 1849 making stUl further changes, crippling
the power of administration and inspection. One of
the objections of those who were un wiUing to
appear ilhberal in the matter of education was that
the system placed too much power in the hands of
the central authority; that in fact it was the intro
duction of a Prussian despotism, with the chief
superintendent as absolute monarch. While the
new bUl copied verbatim aU the local provisions of
the act of 1846, and thus seemed to maintain the
system in the main intact, yet by restoring the old
181

EGERTON RYERSON
township superintendents, by making the district
board of education an appointment not of the
municipal council but of the govemor-in-councU
(and so pohtical), and by hmiting the powers of
the chief superintendent and council of public in
struction, and throwing the text book question
back upon local authorities, it took the strength,
the unity and the efficiency out of the system, and
gave scope once more for that ignorant prejudice
and selfish penuriousness which had nuUified aU
previous attempts at educational advancement. The
animus of the whole measure was manifest in one
of its first clauses, which reduced the moderate
salary of £500 assigned to the chief superintendent
to £420, a magnificent saving to the country of
$320 1 Mr, Baldwin, fortunately, was too enhghtened
and high-minded a statesman to descend to petti
ness or to be deceived as to the results of such
a measure, and although the biU — introduced by
an individual member, who lived to see his mistake
and make generous amends — was passed through
the House, it was, on Mr. Baldwin's advice, dis
allowed by the governor, and in 1850 Dr, Ryerson
was given opportunity in a new school act to
advance the system towards his ideal conception.
The act of 1850 was the complete foundation of
that school system which Ontario maintains to-day,
and which has commanded the admiration of the
whole civilized world. The battle for the funda
mentals of the system was by no means ended
182

ACT OF 1850
when the act of 1850 was passed. Other grave
questions arose, the history of which is still before
us. But with the passage of the act of 1850 the
victory was won for the system, and in contending
for that victory Dr. Ryerson had exhibited aU the
characteristics of the true British statesman. He
was courageous in the face of opposition, patient
and wise in his measures in the midst of difficulty,
strong and clearly defined in his convictions and
pohcy, and not afraid to resign at once when by
the passage of the biU of 1849 he seemed to be
defeated, thus maintaining his manly independence
and the strength and truth of his principles. The
results have more than justified his course.
Our review of Dr. Ryerson's system of common
schools would be incomplete without some refer
ence to two or three important adjuncts of that
system, which furnished exceUent service at this
time, but which are now remembered only by the
older people. The first of these was the educational
depository. The supply of the new uniform text
books to the 200,000 school chUdren of the coun
try off'ered so obvious a field for commercial enter
prise that it might safely be left to the trade,
only taking care to protect the public as to price
and quahty. This was from the beginning the
pohcy both of the council of public instruction and
of the chief superintendent. Having obtained per
mission for the free use of the Irish national series
of text books, which they resolved to adopt, these
183

EGERTON RYERSON
rights were transferred to responsible dealers who
agreed to furnish books of approved workmanship
and reasonable price. But other matters requisite
for efficient or high-class schools did not as yet
off'er the same encouragement to commercial enter
prise. They were not the things universally neces
sary and soon worn out by use, and hence ii.i
continuous demand in large quantities. Such were
philosophical apparatus, iUustrative specimens, and
advanced books required by teachers, or for school
hbraries or prizes. AU these were at first the
luxuries of education, the demand for them was
hmited, and their use needed encouragement, as
leading to the highest perfection in the work of
education Such encouragement Dr. Ryerson se
cured in the form of government assistance to aU
schools making an eff'ort to secure these higher and
more perfect aids in their work. The requisite
voucher being presented that the articles required
were bona fide for the use of the teacher or of the
school, they were furnished from the educational
depository at half the cost price. The teachers of
forty and fifty years ago wiU remember very dis
tinctly the large assistance aff'orded in their work
and especially in the improvement of their schools
or of their own scholarship by those simple, hberal,
but thus necessary provisions, A holiday visit to
Toronto nearly always resulted in bringing home
something which added to the interest and intel
lectual hfe of the school. Even the country log
184

DEPOSITORY AND MUSEUM
school house often had its case in which were
preserved the means of iUustrating the zones and
the changes of the seasons, and the mysteries of
square and cube root; and a few well-selected prize
books were indeed light-bearers in the darkness in
the days when books were stiU not abundant.
Associated with this depository was the educa
tional museum, which stiU survives in its enlarged
and modern form. The art critics of to-day wiU
perhaps smile at the copies of the old masters
imported from France, Germany and Italy. But in
those days they served their purpose, and sowed
the seeds of that eesthetic hfe which to-day is de
veloping a true Canadian art.
Closely associated with the depository was the
scheme for the establishment of public school
libraries throughout the country. These were not
hbraries for use in the school, but libraries for the
people and attached to the school. The object was
to improve the taste and intelhgence pf the adult
population, as weU as of the senior scholars. This
had been a favourite idea with Dr. Ryerson for
many years. When the first suggestion was made
to him by Lord Sydenham of undertaking the
superintendence and improvement of the pubhc
school system, he connected with it in his own
mind and in his private letters this wider object.
In his opinion no people could exercise the exalted
responsibilities of self-government apart from mor
ahty and inteUigence, and at a time when the
185

EGERTON RYERSON
intelligence of the people was far less widely
aff'ected by the pubhc press than now, he looked
very largely to the public hbrary planted in the
public school to give the whole people that higher
knowledge which would make them wise, patriotic,
broad-minded citizens. Science, too, was then begin
ning the wonderful and briUiant career of discovery
which has been the most remarkable characteristic
of the nineteenth century, and her work had not
yet grovsm so technical as to be beyond the power
of ordinary inteUigence to foUow with both profit
and interest. The refinement of the pubhc taste by
means of poetry and hterature was also before his
mind. In aU these respects he had been deeply
interested and impressed by the ideas of Horace
Mann, as expressed in his reports and addresses on
the school system of Massachusetts. His earlier
conceptions on this subject may be Ulustrated by
the following paragraph from the close of his
report of 1846: — "The advantages of the school
can be but very partially enjoyed unless they are
continued and extended by means of books. As the
school is the pupil's first teacher, so books are his
second; in the former he acquires the elements of
knowledge, in the latter he acquires knowledge
itself; in the former he converses with the school
master, in the latter he holds intercourse with the
greatest and wisest men in aU ages, and countries
and professions, on aU subjects and in every variety
of style. But in any community few persons can be
186

PUBLIC LIBRARIES
expected to possess the means necessary to procure
anything like a general assortment of books — in a
new and rural community perhaps none. One hb
rary for the whole community is the best substi
tute. Each one acquires the fruits of the united
contributions of aU, and the teacher and the poor
man with his family participate in the common
advantage." The outcome of these ideas was the provision
made in the early school acts for the establishment
of township or district circulating libraries. Through
the depository a supply of appropriate and judic
iously selected books was brought within easy
reach. By means of a supplementary legislative
grant the eff'ort to secure this boon was substanti-
aUy aided. By a simple system of sections circul
ating from school to school, a very considerable
library was brought within reach of every school
section in the township or county. The care of the
books was provided for through the municipal
officers, the trustees and the teachers; and many
older persons wUl remember with hearty apprecia
tion the advantages accruing to many municipali
ties forty years ago from these provisions.

187

CHAPTER VIII
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM
THE school system established on a firm foun
dation by the act of 1850, contemplated two
main objects, comprehensiveness or universality and
efficiency. While there were many obstacles which
interfered with the attainment of the latter object,
such as the lack of qualified teachers, the lack of
proper school buildings and furniture, and the lack
of proper text books, the great obstacle to the
accomplishment of the first purpose was the matter
of expense. Under the act of 1843 the expense of
the school feU largely upon the parents of the
children attending school, who paid by subscription
or rate bill, seldom less than 7s., 6d. a quarter. The
result of the system was that in 1845, when Dr.
Ryerson began his work, the number of children in
the province of school age was estimated by Mr.
Hodgins at 198,434, of whom 110,002, or 55 per
cent, attended school. This included all who were
in attendance during any part of the year, and
as the average time during which the school was
kept open was 9f months, when the usual allowance
is made for absence it will be seen that the schools,
such as they were, were not reaching at any
time one half of the children of the country. Dr.
189

EGERTON RYERSON
Ryerson's first object was to give the advantages of
a good school to every child in the land from five
to sixteen years of age. This object attained would
certainly mean a high average of intelligence for the
whole country. Even eight years of eff'ective school
ing out of the eleven years of school age would be
a vast advance on the state of things with which he
commenced. His practical knowledge of the country and of
the people convinced him at the outset that the
remedy lay in free schools and compulsory edu
cation. But these two means involved an exercise of
executive authority for which the country was
by no means prepared. The first school biU intro
duced by Dr. Ryerson contained provision for the
option of free schools by a majority of the rate
payers of the school section. The provision was
ehminated by the legislature. The act of 1850
restored this provision, and so opened the question
in every school section of the province. Many can
stiU remember the contention which arose through
the country over this measure and the profound
discussions by pohtical philosophers over the rights
of property and the responsibilities of parents. Dr.
Ryerson was too wise to propose any arbitrary
measure. He secured provision of law by which the
people could aU in their own time ordain that
their own school should be free, and left that pro
vision to work its own way through the influence of
enlightened convictions and higher interests. But in
190

FREE SCHOOLS
each annual report, as weU as in his pubhc addresses,
he kept before the minds of the people such prin
ciples as these : a free country requires an intelligent
people ; a common school education is the right of
every child in the land; the property which is
accumulated by the help of the common industry
and intelhgence of the people, and protected as weU
as increased in value by the institutions of the land,
is justly chargeable with that which is absolutely
necessary for the general welfare of the country, and
to enable every man born in the country to dis
charge the common duties of citizenship for the
common good. Slowly, it is true, but stiU surely
these principles made their way, assisted by the
fact that the majority of ratepayers, especiaUy in
the newer parts of the country, had children of
their own to be educated. In 1858, 45 per cent, of
the schools were wholly free, and 38 per cent, more
partiaUy so, i.e., they charged less than the legal
maximum of school fees, while 74 per cent, of the
children of school age were now found in the
schools. In 1865, no less than 83 per cent, of the
schools of the province were entirely free, and
nearly 85 per cent, of the school population were in
attendance at the schools. It easily and naturaUy
foUowed that in 1871 aU the schools were made
free by law. No better Ulustration could be given
of the patient wisdom by which Dr. Ryerson pur
sued and attained his great ends.
The other aspect of the development of the
191

EGERTON RYERSON
school system in the quality and efficiency of the
schools involved much more complicated problems
and a much more varied history.
The first point in the efficiency of a school is the
qualification of the teacher. We have no means of
ascertaining the average or even the maximum
quahfication of the teachers of Upper Canada in
1845. The average salary paid, £29, or $116 a year,
indicates a low standard. For the first few years the
certificates were issued by the local superintendents,
and while the total number of teachers possessing
such certificates was nearly equal to that of the
schools, no certain opinion can be formed as to the
extent of qualification. There was no definite stand
ard of attainments ; and the examination of the
teacher was entirely personal.
In 1847 the normal school was opened and a
standard was prescribed for first and second class pro
vincial certificates of qualification. This was shortly
afterwards foUowed up by the act of 1850 estab-
hshing county boards of education with authority
to issue first, second and third class certificates
of qualification according to a specific programme
of examination. In 1857 the results of these
measures were apparent in the fact that of nearly
4,000 teachers, 640 possessed first class certificates,
over 2,000 second class, and less than 1,000 were
teaching on certificates of the lowest class. By this
date 734 teachers had already graduated from the
normal school in the first or the second class, con-
192

TRAINED TEACHERS
stituting a considerable percentage of the teachers
of that class throughout the province and extending
the influence of their professional training through
out the schools of the entire system. County
teachers' associations were now very generaUy
established under the advice and influence of the
county superintendents, and through the aid of
these the influence of the normal school graduates
was extended to aU grades of teachers, as their
methods of teaching were used as examples and
iUustrations. In the schools conducted by the nor
mal graduates many of the county teachers received
their training under what might be termed a Lan-
casterian system. By this date, through this im
provement in the qualification of teachers, there
might be found in almost every county in Ontario
schools of a grade of efficiency of which any country
might be proud. The people who ten years before
had rebelled against the expensiveness of the new
system and were wiUing to place the education of
their chUdren in the hands of cripples, worn out old
men and stranded immigrants, were now becoming
jealous of the reputation of their school and quite
ambitious to have the very best in the county.
The furnishing of the schools was also rapidly
improved. Brick and stone buildings of handsome
architectural appearance replaced the old log and
frame structures ; proper means of heating and
ventilation were supphed; maps, blackboards and
other apparatus were secured; and above all, the
193

EGERTON RYERSON
old benches and high waU desks were superseded
by comfortable seats and desks in which the pupils
were ranged two and two, facing the teacher and
the long platform from which his blackboards and
maps were displayed. With these improvements
new methods of order and systematic work were
introduced, class instruction superseded the indi
vidualism of the early days, and an orderly pro
gramme, in itself an important element of education,
became possible in every school.
At the very outset of his work Dr. Ryerson
recognized the possibihty of a stiU higher standard
of school work in the towns, cities and even incor
porated viUages, In 1847, his first bill, making
special provision for these centres of population,
was introduced. The object from the beginning
of these special provisions was the construction of
the schools of the city or town into an educational
system. The first step in this direction was the
appointment of a larger board of trustees who had
charge of aU the pubhc schools of the municipality,
maintained them from a common school fund,
and appointed a local superintendent of the whole.
From this the steps were easy to a graded school
system for the city or town. Primary schools were
estabhshed for the several sections or wards in
which the junior pupUs were taught by themselves
in schools convenient to their homes, while the
elder pupils were massed in a graded central school
of more advanced forms, and this at a later period
194

GRADED SCHOOLS
was sometimes combined with the grammar school,
under the designation of a union school. Perhaps
the most widely known example of the successful
working of this system was to be found in the city
of Hamilton under the direction of Mr, A. Mac-
aUum, one of the first graduates of the normal
school. It was no slight tribute to Dr. Ryerson that
in the very district which was the centre of rebeUion
against his new system in 1847, there should be
found the most successful illustration and the most
enthusiastic working out of his most advanced
ideas of high class public schools.
In the larger city of Toronto the graded school
system was worked out on another model. The
ward schools were each one a graded school cover
ing the whole field of public school work from the
most elementary to the highest form. Here the
grammar school work was always kept distinct.
In smaUer towns and villages, the graded system
was introduced as a single central school with
several rooms and teachers covering the whole
work as in the ward schools of Toronto.
Such were some of the steps by which the school
system through the fifties and the sixties was
graduaUy developed to higher perfection. In this
process much was left to local enterprise and co
operation. From time to time legislation was intro
duced which opened the way for improvement.
EspeciaUy after the perfection of our municipal
system, by the act of 1856, the whole school
195

EGERTON RYERSON
system was harmonized with the improved forms of
municipal government. But the object of these new
provisions of the school law was not to force a cast-
iron form of schools upon the people, but to provide
facilities by which they could themselves work out
in their own way and according to local needs and
ability the higher models which were thus placed
before them. The municipal relations of education
were thus very fuUy developed under Dr. Ryerson's
direction. As the school law finaUy passed from his
hands, aU common or pubhc schools, whether in
townships, incorporated viUages, towns or cities,
were placed under the control of trustees elected
directly by the people and forming a distinct body
corporate for the purpose of the school alone.
Education was in this way separated, not only
from general pohtics, but also from municipal
interests of other kinds. Constituting in itself an
interest of the most permanent character, requiring
continuity of policy and an income not subject to
fluctuations, the independence of the educational
work and of the board to which it is committed is a
most important principle in the system.
It was a bold pohcy which ventured to place so
much power in the hands of trustees, enabhng
them to apply to the municipal council for the
levying of aU monies required for the proper main
tenance of the schools. Had such a provision been
suggested in 1846, or even in 1850, it would in aU
probability have been at once rejected. But after
196

POWER OF TRUSTEES
the schools had advanced step by step both in
efficiency and popularity, until by the voluntary
act of an inteUigent people they were made free to
aU, it was an easy matter to secure assent to a law,
which required the municipal councils to coUect
with the other local taxes, the ways and means for
the support of the schools. To transfer the manage
ment of the schools even now to the mimicipal
bodies woxUd doubtless result in their rapid de
terioration. To give these bodies power to hmit the
expenditure of the school trustees would tend in
the same direction. It is a pecuhar feature under
any government, that one body should be responsi
ble for raising the funds and another for their
expenditure. But the pecuhar circumstances and
the unusual importance of the interest involved
we think fuUy justify the anomaly, and have com
mended it to the common sense of the people. The
school under Dr. Ryerson's system is not a local
but rather a national interest. The chUd is educated
not merely as an inhabitant of a particular locahty,
but also as a future citizen. The whole country
on that basis contributes to the support of every
local school. The county school rate is an inter
mediate hnk in the same direction. The school
trustees are thus not merely the representatives
of the local interest. Theirs is hke that of members
of parhament, a wider responsibihty. Their duty is
not merely to furnish pubhc services, sidewalks,
street hghts and so forth, to a locahty for the
197

EGERTON RYERSON
coming year, but to furnish the country with an
intelhgent citizenship for a whole generation. Such
wider and higher responsibihty demands a cen-
trahzation of power and an independence of action,
passing beyond the ordinary hmits of mvmicipal
government, and justifies the apparent anomaly,
OccasionaUy attempts are made from the municipal
side to create dissatisfaction by representing the
school trustees as an irresponsible body who load
the people with taxes. But the patriotic instinct of
the people has protected them against such unworthy
suggestions. They are weU satisfied, provided they
have reaUy good schools, to provide the means for
their support, and they do not forget that school
trustees as weU as municipal councils are directly
and finally responsible to the people, and they have
manifested no desire to make them, in addition to
this, responsible to the municipal council. The
coUection of the school funds by the officers of the
municipahty is after aU only a matter of economy
and convenience. In the nature of the case it cannot
imply that the municipal body is responsible either
for the amount or for its proper expenditure. To
attempt because of this common sense economical
provision to bring the educational system completely
imder municipal control would prove fatal. Educa
tion, hke the administration of justice to which Dr.
Ryerson often compared it, is an interest of the
nation, as weU as of the locality and the individual.
It is one of the glories of the Ontario system that it
198

INSPECTION
has so well preserved the balance of controlhng
forces, keeping both these important interests so
largely out of the field both of local and general
pohtics, and combining both local and central
supervision and support.
A second municipal duty in relation to public
school education is provision for supervision by the
appointment of pubhc school inspectors. These
officers constitute one of the most important ele
ments in the system. When Dr. Ryerson began his
work, inspection was provided for by township
superintendents, but, as we have seen, these officers,
except as clerks for the distribution of the school
fund, were either in large part incompetent or
perfimctory in the discharge of their duty. The
superintendency of the schools was not their chief
work. The first step was the appointment of county
inspectors, whose whole time should be given to
this work. A second step was provision for thorough
qualification. Professional training, experience in
practical teaching, and a high-grade teacher's certifi
cate were successively demanded for this important
work. The rapid improvement of the schools was
doubtless largely due to this feature of the system.
At an early day the best graduates of the normal
school were rapidly passed into this commanding
office, and through them the influence of the nor
mal school reached every part of their district. In
the cities and towns the inspector was appointed
by the pubhc school board directly, and became
199

EGERTON RYERSON
their executive officer and professional counsel. In
no part of the system was the influence of the
inspector as an efficient officer more evident than
here. With the development of graded schools
along the two lines which we have aheady de
scribed, under efficient and able inspectors the or
ganization and perfection of the schools made very
rapid and gratifying progress in aU the cities, and the
larger towns, where the system but slightly diff'ered,
by no means fell behind. We have before referred
to the cities of Toronto and Hamilton as conspic
uous examples of the two methods of grading
schools, and as forming city systems, one adapted to
a city covering a more extended area, the other to
a city where aU the older children were within reach
of a central school. This latter system, slightly modi
fied, became the tj^e for the larger towns, and in
a short time beautiful and commodious central
schools, as weU as neat, comfortable and conveni
ently located primary schools, became a prominent
feature of our then rising towns, which are now
numbered among our cities.
The material and visible improvement in school
buildings and architecture was, perhaps, the readiest
measure of the improvement in the educational
status of the schools. Dr. Ryerson served his pro
vince as chief superintendent thirty -three years, the
hfe of a single generation. At the beginning of that
time the pubhc school buildings even of Toronto
were an eyesore; at the end they were in almost
200

SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE
every town of ambition or consequence the pride of
the people and the chief ornament of the place, fitly
representing the high character of the inteUectual
life within. It may be said that aU this was the
natural result of the growth of the people in wealth
and intelligence. True, but it was the result of that
growth under a system which called out their
enterprise, enlisted their interest, wisely composed
their diff'erences and united their energies, and
which directed their eff'orts by placing before them
patiently and continuously the best models and
methods. It is not easy to form a true estimate of the
personal influence of Dr, Ryerson in this remark
able process of the development of our public
school system. We have already noted that at its
very foundation he wisely utihzed the common
forces which move human society in such a way as
to make the work grow by its own inner vitahty.
His work was not so much to force a system upon
an unwilling people, as to construct a system so
accommodated to the needs, the interests, the
habits, and even the selfish motives of the people,
that they would readily and naturally adopt it as
their own. In a few years its success became to
them a matter of honest pride. The intelhgence
and enterprise of trustees, the ambition of teachers
to excel, the patriotic hberahty of municipal bodies,
the fidelity and abihty of inspectors, even the emu
lation of the school children and the sympathetic 201

EGERTON RYERSON
cooperation of the whole people became powerfully
enhsted in this work. The schools seemed to grow
of themselves. But behind aU this there was a wise,
sympathetic, unostentatious, but powerful mind at
the helm. One secret of his success, as we have
aheady seen, lay in the choice of the ablest young
men as his helpers in various departments of the
work. Another lay in his unusual skill in avoiding
or overcoming difficulties. His interpretation and
administration of school law was remarkable in its
success, and in this Dr. Hodgins was his right-hand
man. But these were a part of the progressive
movement of the system ; his most important work
was always in advance of that movement, the
discovery and the devising of new and more perfect
things as the country was prepared for them. For
this purpose he kept in constant touch with the
school work and the men most inteUigently inter
ested in it throughout the entire province. He
made a special study of the county superinten
dents' reports. He made periodical tours through
the province, calhng conventions of trustees, super
intendents, municipal officers, teachers, and aU per
sons interested in education, and discussing at
length with them the questions which seemed to
require advanced legislation. He was at the same
time a dihgent student of the progress of education
in other countries, and for this purpose made
extended and repeated visits abroad, to become
personaUy acquainted with the working of new
202

STEPS OF PROGRESS
methods and educational theories. And yet he was
least of all things a theorist. His mind was pecul
iarly practical and conservative, and adopted noth
ing except under conviction of its utility, and with
most intimate knowledge of the conditions of his
own people, he moulded all new things to their
needs and capacity.
The results of this constant mental activity ap
pear in his annual reports which are admirable
digests not only of the progress of the work but
also of suggested improvements, which were fre
quently the precursors of new legislation. As we
have aheady seen, the School Act of 1850 was the
broad and fairly complete basis of the whole edu
cational system. Dr. Ryerson was too wise a legis
lator to render his work nugatory by too frequent
or too radical changes. When the act of 1850 was
foUowed up by the supplementary act of 1855 it
was merely a step forward. The powers of trustees
were more clearly defined and extended, so that
the efficiency of the school could not be prevented
by legal quibbles or individual obstinacy. The
danger that separate schools might be made to
destroy the unity and comprehensiveness of the sys
tem was guarded against, and provision was made
for the extended usefulness of the Journal of Edu
cation, for the estabhshment of the Museum of Art,
and for larger legislative aid to the schools. In like
manner the amendment act of 1860 secured more
perfectly the discharge of the duties of trustees by
203

EGERTON RYERSON
enforcing reports, providing for proper audit, insist
ing that trustees should be properly qualified in the
section for which they were elected, and by demand
ing proper notice of all legal meetings of school
trustees. It prohibited trustees from any interest in
contracts for school supplies or buildings, gave them
power to sell school property, called for definite
written agreement between trustees and teacher. It
provided a more definite programme for the exami
nation and classification of teachers by the county
boards. From these examples it will be seen that
the successive acts of legislation proposed by Dr.
Ryerson for twenty years after the fuU estabhsh
ment of the new system in 1850, involved no
important change of the system. They aimed rather
at growth and perfection, and at remedy of practical
defects, which the working out of the system had
revealed. The second most important period in the his
tory of our common school legislation was ushered
in by the act of 1870-71. The subject of education
had at confederation been placed in the hands of the
provincial legislature, and in this act it for the
first time grappled with the problems presented by
the common schools, which were now named pubhc
schools. The act of 1870-71 was supplemented by
that of 1874, and the two together represent Dr.
Ryerson's last legislative work on behalf of the
schools of Ontario.
Preceding this legislation Dr. Ryerson made his
204

ACT OF 1870-71
fourth and final educational tour in Europe and
America, and also held his fifth and last series of
conventions through the province, discussing the
most important features of the new legislation.
The legislation itself was also shaped on the basis
of our new federal and provincial constitution, and
thus may be considered as the beginning of what
may be regarded as a reconstruction of the school
system. It is a fact noted by Dr. Hodgins that
a principal objection to this proposed legislation
was the fear of the people that the system of 1850
would be materially changed. The system which in
1848-9 had excited such violent opposition as an
introduction of Prussian despotism was in 1870 so
prized and had so completely commended itself to
the judgment and aff'ections of the people, that
they looked with jealousy upon any proposal for
change. Commended abroad as one of the best, if
not the best in the world, and the ground of honest
pride at home, it was now being carefully shielded
by the very people who once regarded it as a
foreign intrusion.
But when we come to examine in detail the
changes of 1870-71 we find that they were not
radical. They did not in any way disturb the estab
hshed method of working with which the people
had now become famihar and which had been
productive of such exceUent results. They perfected
the free school system, and introduced a carefuUy
guarded and most moderate form of compulsion. 205

EGERTON RYERSON
To the schools under this new extension of pubhc
interest was given the designation, not of "com
mon" schools, as open to all, but of "public"
schools, as belonging to and used by aU the people.
The principle of compulsory attendance at school
for at least four months in each year was the most
radical change introduced. This Ryerson had made
the subject of most careful study both in Europe and
America, and it was only when fully convinced of
its necessity by such study, and with the example
before him of its success in several states of the
Union, as weU as in several countries of Europe,
that he ventured upon its introduction. Even then
he guarded scrupulously against any undue pressure
upon the poor. The trustees and magistrates by
whom the law was to be enforced were given wide
power of discretion, and the term made compulsory
was but four months in the year, as against six
months required in Massachusetts.
A very important part of the legislation of
1870-71 was the eff'ort to render uniform and to
improve the standard of qualification of teachers.
For this purpose the examination for teachers seek
ing first class certificates was placed in the hands
of the council of public instruction, and such cer
tificates became provincial. The county boards were
also improved, being composed with the inspector
of two persons who themselves held certificates of
quahfication for that purpose from the council
of pubhc instruction. Provision was also made that
206

TEACHERS' EXAMINATIONS
certificates should be given to inspectors, the con
dition being a university degree or the highest
grade of provincial certificate, experience in teach
ing, and proof by written thesis of mastery of the
fundamental principles of the science of education.
In this eff'ort to elevate the standard of qualifica
tion in the interest of the schools, the interests of
the teachers were never forgotten. It is true their
ranks were thinned by the elimination of incom
petent or unqualified persons, but at the same time
every eff'ort was made to render their position and
work such as might be desired as a permanent
caUing or profession in life. The period of service of
even one third of the early normal school graduates
was three and a half years on the average. Every
year scores of the best teachers after a short term
of service entered the Christian ministry, or law or
medicine, often attaining the highest eminence in
these professions. But others left the teaching pro
fession, not for a wider or more ambitious sphere of
usefulness, but from pecuniary and family consid
erations alone. As teachers they were not secure of
a permanent position, and a home and status in the
community. Teachers were stiU frequently changed
at the end of a year, and the average length of
service was scarcely three years. Few schools made
provision for a residence for the teacher, and in a
large number of the country schools the teacher
must of necessity be an unmarried man or woman.
Many of these final provisions devised by Dr.
207

EGERTON RYERSON
Ryerson aimed at the remedy or at least alleviation
of these evils, by making the work of the teacher a
profession, by providing him a home in connection
with the school, by improving the scale of remun
eration, and by making provision for a retiring
allowance for teachers who had given their life to
the service. The evU of frequent change of teachers
and of the employment of young and inexperienced
teachers was easily seen; but the causes lay deeper
perhaps than the reach of any legislative enactment.
In any case they could be removed only by a long
and patient policy in which the government and
the people would unite in continuous eff'ort to
make the position and work of the teacher as desir
able as those of any other profession. Dr. Ryerson's
work was now too near its close to permit of his
accomplishing so desirable a result.
The introduction of compulsory education brought
to the front the problem of the neglected and
unfortunate classes of our population. The recogni
tion of the principle that the education of aU the
children was the duty of the state, made more
prominent the condition of the street arabs of our
cities, of the children of criminal and inebriate
parents, and of those who come into the world
deprived of sight, or speech, or ordinary mental
powers. These problems were also the subject of
Dr. Ryerson's latest studies and reports and were
matters left, as he retired from his life work in the
seventy -fourth year of his age, to be wrought out
208

COMPETITIVE FORCES
by his successors. But before he passed from his
office at least legislative provision was made for
the better care of all these classes of the population.
The later years of Dr. Ryerson's work were not
without their prophecy of several minor though stUl
important changes in his school system. The date
was the time of the high tide of the laisser faire
system both in England and Canada. The doctrine
that the needs of the country should be supplied
by private enterprise as far as possible without
legislative interference was just then popular. The
government ownership and control of aU pubhc
franchises, or the communistic supply of common
needs was then looked upon as a dream of wild
theorists. And yet the very idea of an educational
system is paternal ; and the system built up by Dr.
Ryerson was certainly such. It was in its very
nature the undertaking by the government, whether
provincial, municipal or local, of the supply of one
of the most universal needs of the people. To-day
we think it quite reasonable to consider and even
vote upon the pubhc supply of hght, of transporta
tion, and of telegraphic as weU as postal communi
cation. The justification of aU these projects is the
well-being of the whole people. This certainly was
the justification of the paternalism involved in Dr.
Ryerson's system. It had worked weU for the
people. The children were being educated as never
before. lUiteracy was disappearing from the land,
and the standard of intelligence was being advanced
209

EGERTON RYERSON
beyond all precedent in aU classes of society. No
one could venture to criticize a system marked by
such success as a whole.
The cry of Prussian despotism had quite dis
appeared, but against some of its features the cry
was raised of interference with the interests of
trade. The educational depository was the ground
of objection. It had in its day accomplished a most
important and excellent work. It had placed nearly
two hundred thousand volumes, not of inferior
fiction, but of high class science, history, travel and
literature in public hbraries throughout the coun
try, and it had furnished the schools of the country
with an equipment of school apparatus which would
have been beyond their reach otherwise for years to
come. It had accomplished this work without other
expense to the country than the legislative grants
in aid which were whoUy employed in supplement
ing the money raised by the schools and in thus
furnishing them with apparatus at one half the cost
price. The depository had thus served the three-fold
purpose of bringing into the country the best school
apparatus, of furnishing it at cost price, and of
distributing the grant in aid of the purchase of
such outfit on the basis of local contribution. The
attack on this section of the education department,
and the personal form which it assumed, was a
matter upon which one can now look back only
with pain and shame. It was poor requital to the
man who had done so much for his country, and
210

THE DEPOSITORY
the so-called principles upon which it was grounded
wiU scarcely bear critical examination in the hght
of history. But at the time it carried with it a large
section of the public, and under its influence the
depository came to an end. It can be said now, with
no httle confidence, that the depository was in
its day at least, one of the most important con
tributory means to the success of Dr. Ryerson's
work. Fortunately for the country it was not des
troyed untU the need which it supplied was so mani
fest that other means could be used to do its work.
Private enterprise would have failed completely
in that work at an earlier date, and even now
it succeeds in some measure only by the help of
legislative enactment. What Dr. Ryerson tempted
the schools to do as a benefit to their children, we
now command them to do under pain of loss of the
legislative grant.
Another and much more important change in
the central education department Dr. Ryerson
himself anticipated, and proposed almost immedi
ately after the introduction of the federal system
of government into Canada, This was the creation
for the province of a minister of education as a
member of the executive council of the province,
placing the department on the same footing as then
were the pubhc works, the crown lands, and the
executive administration of law. There was no httle
hesitation on this point on the part of leading states
men. Dr. Ryerson urged the supreme importance 211

EGERTON RYERSON
of the work involved, the need of direct and
authoritative representation of that work on the
floor of the legislature, and in the executive council.
He proposed that the educational system should
be unified from the provincial university to the
elementary school under the control of a minister
of the crown, as a most important department of
the provincial government. For this purpose he
voluntarily placed his resignation in the hands of
the lieutenant-governor.
The hesitancy of the government and of the
public mind to accede to this change arose from
a consideration of the danger of the intervention of
party politics in so important and national an
interest. Here, if anywhere, the interests of the
public service should not be subordinated to, or
even for a moment endangered by the unfortunate
tendency to reward political adherents by appoint
ments in the public service. Dr. Ryerson himself
acknowledged the difficulty and continued in office
for several years after making this proposition.
Immediately on his retirement in 1876, the proposal
was carried into eff'ect, and has powerfuUy influ
enced the history of education in Ontario for the
last twenty-five years. During that time the politi
cal danger has not appeared to be so important.
The appointing power is so diff'used among munici
pal and local bodies that there has scarcely been
room for criticism even by the most suspicious;
and the few appointments at the central office have
212

MINISTER OF EDUCATION
been very judiciously made. Dr. Ryerson's idea of
greater facUity and eff'ectiveness in the presentation
of educational interests to the legislature has been
fuUy sustained by the results in the hands of able
ministers of education. Perhaps the one weakness
of the new system was scarcely anticipated at the
time. The minister of education, under the pressure
of the general work of government, and of the
demands made upon a pohtical leader, must depend
to no smaU degree upon subordinates, and he him
self is hable at any time to step out of office. There
can scarcely be thus the same conservative unity
and continuity of pohcy and the same careful
development of great principles which were such
conspicuous features of Dr. Ryerson's administra
tion. Perhaps we could not have secured them
under any other man as chief superintendent.

218

CHAPTER IX
THE SEPARATE SCHOOL QUESTION
AT the date of the founding of our Upper Cana-
-^^ dian school system aU parties were agreed
that rehgion and morahty should form an essential
part of the education of the young, Puritans and
Presbyterians, Anglicans and Roman Cathohcs,
stood firmly by this principle as a matter of convic
tion as weU as of traditional usage, and Methodists
were no exception to the consensus. They had shewn
their faith by their works in the buUding of their
coUege. When, therefore. Dr. Ryerson addressed
himself to his important task, he did so upon the
basis of this principle, beheving that he had behind
him the support of almost unanimous conviction
on the subject; and he took especial pains to make
provision for the recognition of rehgion in the
schools, and for the instruction of the children in
the fundamental principles of religion and morality.
This provision was made in three ways — ^first the
trustees were given power for the regulation of
rehgious teaching and exercises in the schools in
harmony with the desires of the parents ; again aU
clergymen were made visitors of the schools with
the right to instruct the children of their com
munion by themselves for an hour each week; and
215

EGERTON RYERSON
in addition the text books selected for the schools
were made to embody a very considerable amount
of rehgious and scriptural knowledge, without in
volving any dogmas caUed in question among the
rehgious bodies. As a result of these provisions
it is a well-remembered fact that at least in the
rural schools rehgious influence syid instruction were
fairly weU maintained. In the year 1859, with 3,665
schools, 4,360 visits were made by clergymen; in
2,510 schools the scriptures were read daily, and
1,708 schools were opened and closed with prayer.
In aU the schools the text books used contained the
moral and rehgious lessons referred to. In the last
report issued by Dr. Ryerson, of 4,758 schools
reported, 4,033 were opened and closed with prayer,
and the ten commandments were taught in 3,167.
On these facts Dr, Ryerson in his report makes
the foUowing remarks: — "The religious instruction,
reading, and exercises, are, hke religion itself, a vol
untary matter with trustees, teachers, parents, and
guardians. The councU of pubhc instruction pro
vides facihties, even forms of prayer, and makes
recommendations on the subject, but does not
assume authority to enforce or compel comphance
with those provisions or recommendations. As
Christian principles and morals are the foundation
of aU that is most noble in man, and the great
fulcrum and lever of pubhc freedom and prosperity
in a country, it is gratifying to see general and
avowed recognition of them in public schools,"
216

DIVERGENT VIEWS
While Dr. Ryerson with his strong personal influ
ence continued at the head of the school system,
these general provisions exerted a distinct moral
and religious influence on the schools, but they
were by no means a complete solution of the
educational and political questions involved. To
one class of the people the rehgious instruction
thus given appeared altogether inadequate. They
would be satisfied with nothing short of fuU in
struction in the doctrines and usages of their own
church; and they were not satisfied to confine this
extended rehgious instruction to the Sunday school
or catechumen class, or to a weekly hour in the
pubhc school under the direction of the clergyman.
Another tendency due to the growth of the modern
spirit which would completely separate the work of
the church from the political sphere is thus referred
to by Dr. Ryerson in his last report: — "There are
many rehgious persons who think the day school,
hke the farm fields, the place for secular work, the
rehgious exercises of the workers being performed
in the one case as in the other in the household
and not in the field of labour." This class of the
people would, of course, find the solution of the
problem in a strictly secular government school for
aU classes of the population.
The first of these two classes had, as early as
1841 {i.e., when the first attempt at a general
system of public schools was made, three years
before Dr. Ryerson's appointment, and five years
217

EGERTON RYERSON
before the introduction of his fiurst Common School
Act,) already secured for themselves the concession
of separate schools. They were thus in possession of
a vested right; and of this the act of 1846 did not
attempt to deprive them. The act of 1849, which
failed to come into eff'ect, dropped the provision
and would apparently have resulted in purely se
cular schools, and this formed one of Mr. Ryerson's
most serious objections to it. From the very out
set of Mr. Ryerson's carefully conceived plan of
schools on a moral and religious basis which might
be accepted by aU the members of a Christian
community, it was thus exposed to two antagonistic
influences which were at the same time directly
and irreconcilably in conflict with each other. The
separate school party were anxious to strengthen
and extend their position, and the other party were
anxious to extinguish the separate schools by the
general enforcement of a purely secular system.
Dr. Ryerson desired to secure the maintenance
of the general moral and Christian aspect of the
common schools, making them free from any valid
objection on the ground of sectarian teaching, with
at the same time such supervision of the separate
schools as would secure their efficiency, and prevent
their being forced upon any person without his free
consent or desire. The common schools were to be
maintained in their true position as the schools of
aU the people.
The active conflict of these opposing parties may
218

BEGINNING OF CONFLICT
be said to date from 1852. Up to that date the
number of separate schools established had been
fifty, of which thirty-two had been discontinued in
the last thrge years. Of the remaining eighteen,
three were Protestant, two being in sections where
the majority of the population was French, and
two were schools for coloured children in Kent and
Essex, leaving only thirteen Roman Catholic separ
ate schools in operation at the close of 1852. No
better proof could be aff'orded of the success of the
fair and concihatory pohcy of Dr. Ryerson. Up to
the time of his death. Bishop Power acted as chair
man of the councU of pubhc instruction and was a
most valued member of the board, and by his
presence, counsel, and general attitude, contributed
not a httle to make the common school system
acceptable to the Roman Cathohc population. Dur
ing the first three years of his administration the
attitude of Bishop Charbonnel was at least not
antagonistic, and the aggressive position assumed
in 1852 was, to the friends of a common school
system, a surprise.
But on looking back, a circumstance connected
with the passing of the School Act of 1850 seems
to indicate that the new bishop, while seemingly
acquiescent, was at heart anxious for thoroughly
Roman Catholic schools. The bill of 1849 had
disturbed the confidence created under the pohcy
of Dr. Ryerson, and gave occasion for a movement
on the part of those desirous of denominational 219

EGERTON RYERSON
schools. In this the high church party of the Angli
cans and the Roman Catholics united their forces.
Dr. Ryerson's bill as introduced proposed to place
the power of establishing separate schools in the
hands of the board of trustees, instead of making it
possible for ten householders to demand a separate
school. To this the separate school party proposed
an amendment, making it possible for any ten
householders, either Catholic or Anghcan, to de
mand a denominational school without restriction.
The acts of 1843 and 1846 had restricted this
power to cases when the teacher was a Protestant
in a Protestant community, or a Catholic in a
district mainly Catholic, and so made no provision
for the subdivision of Protestantism and the estab
lishment of Protestant denominational schools. By
means of strong influence brought to bear on the
members, this amendment was on the verge of
passing when Dr, Ryerson feU back on a shght
modification of the provisions of 1843 and 1846,
which satisfied the Roman Cathohcs and broke up
the combination, and so prevented a most serious
inroad upon the principle of common schools. But
shortly after this difficulty had passed another cir
cumstance brought the question again to the front.
The city of Toronto was under the new act but a
single school section divided for municipal and
other purposes into wards, in each of which there
was a graded common school. The trustees, who
were decidedly opposed to the separate schools,
220

THE TORONTO CASE
refused to grant more than a single separate school
under the provisions of the act, and the courts
sustained them in the refusal. Dr. Ryerson used his
influence to secure more favourable consideration
for the Roman Catholics, but without avail. It was
certainly within the power of the trustees to grant
such consideration, as the law specified "one or
more," but equally within their right, as interpreted
by the court, to grant but the one, and upon that
right they took their stand. This led to the demand
for an amendment to the act, giving room for a
more aggressive separate school pohcy. This Dr.
Ryerson refused, but provided an amendment in
1851 which conferred the right of a separate school
on each ward or union of wards for that purpose.
During this period also, and for several years fol
lowing, the advocates of the biU of 1849 kept the
question ahve by a constant eff'ort to eliminate
from the common school act aU provision for or
concession of the right of separate schools. Dr.
Ryerson consistently opposed this pohcy, beheving
that such a concession constituted a means of
rendering the great body of the Roman Cathohc
inhabitants satisfied with the provisions of the law,
and thus secured a more general acceptance of the
common school system than would be otherwise
possible. While Dr. Ryerson's policy, as we have
seen, was, down to 1852, largely successful, the
agitation against separate schools and the other
circumstances referred to kept alive an opposing
221

EGERTON RYERSON
force which suddenly became active in 1852. By
his fair consideration of the claims of the Roman
Catholics in the Toronto separate school case in
1850-1, as well as by his consistent opposition to
all attempts to deprive them of the rights already
conceded by law, Dr. Ryerson had gained the
ill-wiU of the radical party who wished to abolish
all separate schools at once. He was now doomed
to encounter almost equal difficulty from the ultra
separate school party.
The initial point of the agitation was furnished
by the growing establishment of free schools. These
schools were supported entirely by their apportion
ment of the school fund, made up of legislative
grant and county school tax, in which the separate
school shared pro rata, and supplemented by a
municipal tax upon all the property of the school
section. In this last tax the Roman Catholics now
demanded that the separate schools should also
share pro rata of their average attendance. The
case was brought up on appeal from the towns
of BelleviUe and Chatham, in which Dr. Ryerson
sustained the trustees in refusing to the separate
schools a share in the second part of their school
revenue. This led to the preparation by the Roman
Cathohc authorities of a biU which they were
determined to press through parliament, and which,
in the opinion of Sir Francis Hincks, would be
a serious blow to the common school system and
to free schools. To meet this emergency the Sup-
222

ACT OF 1853
plemental Act of 1853 was prepared by Dr. Ryerson
and passed through parliament. The opportunity
afforded by the passage of this act was embraced to
define and improve many of the general provisions
ofthe act of 1850, but in regard to separate schools
its essential feature was the exemption from the
local or municipal school tax of all who were con
tributing supporters of a separate school. In making
this equitable concession to the supporters of the
separate' school, care was taken to guard the rights
of the common schools by provisions which- Dr.
Ryerson summarizes as foUows: —
1. No separate school can be established or con
tinued otherwise than on the conditions and under
the circumstances specified in the nineteenth section
of the School Act of 1850.
2. No part of the municipal assessment can be
applied, and no municipal authority or officer can
be employed to coUect rates for the support of any
separate school.
3. If any persons, whether Roman Catholic or
Protestant, demand a separate school in the cir
cumstances in which it may be aUowed, they must
tax themselves for its support, and they must make
returns of the sums they raise and of the children
they teach,
4, Separate schools are subject to the same in
spection and visits as common schools.
5. AU ground and semblance of complaint of
injustice is taken away from the supporters of a
223

EGERTON RYERSON
separate school, while they no longer employ mu
nicipal authority and municipal assessments for
sustaining their school.
6. The supporters of separate schools cannot
interfere in the aff'airs of the public schools.
The new act was thus a fresh proof of Dr. Ryer
son's consistent support of the fundamental princi
ple of a common school system, and of the separation
of the state from entanglement with any church.
By this date the separate school question had
aroused an intensely violent discussion and pohtical
contention on the part of two extreme parties. We
have aheady seen that a party, led in the House of
Parliament by Messrs. W. L. Mackenzie, George
Brown and Malcolm Cameron, and joined by a very
few of the extreme opposite political faith, main
tained a most active crusade against separate schools,
whether maintained as a matter of principle or as a
compromise. With these Dr. Ryerson agreed in
principle but not in policy. Of both his principle
and pohcy he made the most open avowal, saying
in an official letter to Bishop Charbonnel (after
wards published): — "I always thought the intro
duction of any provision for separate schools in a
popular system of common education hke that of
Upper Canada was to be regretted and inexpedient;
but finding such a provision in existence, and that
parties concerned attached great importance to it,
I have advocated its continuance, leaving separate
schools to die out not by force of legislative enact-
224

RYERSON'S POSITION
ment, but under the influence of increasingly en
hghtened and enlarged views of Christian relations,
rights, and duties between different classes of the
community. I have at all times endeavoured to
secure to parties desiring separate schools, all the
facilities which the law provides, though I beheve
the legal provision for separate schools has been
and is seriously injurious rather than beneficial to
the Roman Cathohc portion of the community, as
I know very many inteUigent members of that
church beheve as weU as myself." As this calm
statement was written in reply to a letter from the
Bishop inveighing in very forcible language against
the whole system of common schools, there can be
no question that it candidly and clearly expresses
Dr. Ryerson's position and policy.
The leader in the opposition to this pohcy was
Mr. Brown, then influential in parhament and
throughout the province as the editor and pro
prietor of The Globe. Mr. BroAvn's policy, in which
he was supported not only by a large section of
Liberals but also by a section of the Orange body,
was the radical one of no separate schools. His
contention is fuUy expressed by the following quo
tation given by Dr. Hodgins from The Globe.
Addressing Dr. Ryerson, he says: "And did this
third concession to the claimants of separate schools
satisfy them? Was your oft-repeated assurance re
alized that 'the existence of the provision for sep
arate schools' in the national system prevented
225

EGERTON RYERSON
'oppositions and combinations which would other
wise be formed against it?' On the contrary the
separatists only advanced in the extent of their
demands, and became more resolute in enforcing
them. The very next year the matter was again
brought to a crisis, a general election came on.
Bishop Charbonnel pressed his demands, and Mr.
Hincks consented to bring in yet another sec
tarian school act.' The position of the Bishop wUl
fully appear from another extract from a letter
written by him to Dr. Ryerson in March, 1852: —
"Therefore, since your school system is the ruin of
rehgion, and persecution of the church; since we
know, at least as weU as anybody else, how to
encourage, diff'use, promote education, and better
than you how to teach respect toward authority,
God, and His church, parents and government;
since we are under the blessed principles of relig
ious liberty and equal civil rights, we must have
and we wiU have, the fuU management of our
schools, as well as Protestants in Lower Canada;
or the world of the nineteenth century wiU know
that here as elsewhere, Cathohcs, against the con
stitution of the country, against its best and most
sacred interests, are persecuted by the most cruel,
hypocritical persecution."
No analysis or description of the case could more
clearly present the situation than do these three
extracts. Each of the extremists stands on his ideal
principle and is ready to carry it in practice to its
226

THE riA MEDIA
logical conclusion regardless of the convictions of
his opponent and of aU collateral interests; Dr.
Ryerson stands in a via media, striving to reconcile
their conflicting ideas of right and truth and to
harmonize both with other equally important inter
ests of religion and patriotism, only to find himself
the object of bitter invective from both. Dr.
Ryerson's letters at this period rank again amongst
the best work of his life as an exposition of the
principles ethical, pohtical and religious, which
should govern in a mixed community of varying
rehgious convictions, in matters in which, as citi
zens, they are caUed upon to cooperate with each
other. We cannot, of course, claim that in the
enunciation of these principles there does not
appear at times some evidence of a strong and
fiery spirit. It is scarcely given to a great soiU
pursuing with single purpose a great object of hfe,
not at times to be roused to ire when needless
difficulties are thrown across his pathway by men
of ahen ideas and spirit. Hence we must not be
surprised if at times his words are almost as strong
as those of Mr. Brown or Bishop Charbonnel. But
the via media for which he contended throughout
was respect to conscientious convictions on both
sides and patient waiting for that unity of thought
which truth is sure to bring in the long run. But
for many years the conflict of parties made the
via media a very thorny path to the chief superin
tendent of education. 227

EGERTON RYERSON
Returning from the field of controversy to that
of legislative and political action, we scarcely find
the supplemental act of 1853 in operation before
the occasion arises for further agitation and new de
mands. There can be no doubt that the underlying
cause of the new agitation was a clearly defined
and persistent policy on the part of the Bishop to
separate the entire body of Catholic children from
the common schools and place the management of
their education under the control of the church. To
this policy Dr. Ryerson was, as we have seen,
strenuously and inflexibly opposed. But as the
Bishop was careful to wait for a reasonable occasion
or favourable opportunity for each forward step
in his policy. Dr. Ryerson was equaUy careful in
his opposition not to contravene any principle of
equity or fairness.
The occasion for the new agitation again arose in
Toronto, where the extreme party opposed to sep
arate schools was strong and quite ready for heroic
measures. In St. David's ward one Roman Cathohc
teacher was employed in a school of six teachers,
and on this ground the application of the Roman
Catholics for a separate school was refused. This
refusal Dr. Ryerson pronounced contrary to law.
In the next year, by error, some supporters of the
separate schools were included in the common
school taxation and a refund of the amount so paid
was refused on the ground that the proper returns
of names had not been made by the separate school
228

SECOND TORONTO CASE
trustees. These circumstances were made the foun
dation of the foUowing complaints by Bishop Char
bonnel: —
1. That the supporters of separate schools were
unjustly required to pay amounts equal to those
required for common schools in order to secure
exemption from the common school taxation, and
that for the same purpose the trustees were required
to make returns not required of common school
trustees. 2. That the trustees of the several wards of a
city or town could not act together as one board as
could the trustees of the common schools.
3. That the government grant was distributed
by the city or town board, or in the townships by
the local superintendent, a provision which did not
secure impartiality. It does not appear that any
instance of partiality was cited.
To remedy these complaints Dr. Ryerson added
to a short grammar and common school bill of
1854 three clauses touching separate schools pro
posing: (1) To relieve the supporters of separate
schools of the defined rate at which they must be
taxed and also the trustees of the obnoxious
returns; (2) To enable the trustees to unite as
one board in towns and cities; (3) To place the
distribution of the legislative grant in the hands
of the chief superintendent of education. These
provisions Dr. Ryerson caUs his ultimatum of legis
lation on separate schools, but as they were not
229

EGERTON RYERSON
accepted they appear to have been withdrawn from
the biU.
Early in the following year the Roman Catholic
Bishops of Toronto, Bytown and Kingston pre
pared a comparative table of the Upper and Lower
Canada school laws and a draft of a separate school
biU setting forth their terms This biU proposed to
repeal all previous provisions for separate schools;
to empower any number of dissidents of any pro
fession to form a separate school board; to give
such board all the rights and powers of common
school boards; to erect a single board in a town or
city; gave the trustees power to fix their own
hmits to their separate school sections, and their
own standard of qualification for separate school
teachers, and to claim their share not only of
aU legislative grants but also of aU provincial or
municipal school funds and of aU taxes for school
and hbrary purposes in proportion to the popula
tion which they claimed to represent. This biU was
immediately answered by Dr. Ryerson in a thorough
and able exposure of its objectionable features in
volving, as he truly and emphaticaUy asserted,
"the complete destruction of our public school
system," Notwithstanding this opposition of Dr,
Ryerson, six weeks later and without his knowledge
or consent, a biU very similar in many of its pro
visions was introduced into the legislative council
by Sir E, P, Tachd, Mr. Gamble at once telegraphed
Dr. Ryerson and mailed him a copy of the biU.
230

THE TACHE BILL
Dr. Ryerson telegraphed the Hon. J. A. Macdon
ald asking that the bUl should be restricted to
Roman Cathohcs, and should not admit the separ
ate schools to the municipal council assessment. To
these amendments Mr. Macdonald assented and
the biU, as so largely amended, became the Roman
Cathohc separate school law.
Dr. Ryerson always denied aU responsibility for
this act, though as amended he considered it harm
less in its eff'ect upon the common school system.
In his view, the bulwark of that system lay in the
principle that the machinery of the government
could be used to raise funds only for the support of
common schools and not for the purposes of sec
tarian education, and that no individual should be
compeUed to contribute to such education without
his consent. The most objectionable feature of the
law was its utterly inefficient provision for the
quahfication of teachers, but this was a defect
which concerned only those who voluntarily placed
themselves under it. The large majority by which
the biU was passed even in amended form was
secured from Lower Canadian votes which stood
forty-five to two, those from the upper province,
which alone was aff'ected, being sixteen to fifteen.
Dr. Ryerson gives great credit to Church of. Eng
land members on both sides of the House for their
aid in amending the biU and supporting the com
mon school system, naming Gamble, Stevenson,
Robinson, Langton and Crawford. 231

EGERTON RYERSON
It will be seen that in this second stage the
separate school question had now passed into the
purely political arena. It was no longer a question
of what was in the best interests of the country,
or of what was wise, and just, and practicable in
the furtherance of those interests, but rather this:
what are the demands of the contending parties?
and what votes and influence can they bring to
bear to enforce those demands ? This political rela
tion gave to the separate school question not only a
new though extrinsic interest and importance, but
also the fierce intensity of conflict which marked
its history for the next few years. It became part of
a new constitutional question in Canadian politics,
should Upper Canadian interests be determined by
Lower Canadian votes? — a question the solution of
which was tentatively sought in the principle of the
double majority, but which finally forced aU parties
to turn to the broader principle of federal govern
ment now embodied in the constitution of our
Dominion and its provinces.
Thus, once again, Dr. Ryerson found himself at
the very centre of an intensely active and highly
important political movement in our Canadian
history. But in this movement he was now not so
much the active participator as the passive occasion.
On the school question the position of the extreme
parties was now clearly defined. The Liberal party
demanded the abolition of separate schools, and
whatever measure of secularization was necessary
232

CONFLICT OF RIGHTS
for that purpose. The Roman Cathohc authorities
sought the complete control of the education of the
children of their church, holding that education
must be moral and religious as weU as secular or
else be defective and even injurious. Dr. Ryerson
stood between the two parties, by turns fighting
the battles of each, and yet hated and assailed
by both. He recognized that the Roman Cathohcs
had conscientious convictions, and also vested
rights which he felt bound to respect and protect.
But while he maintained this position, he recog
nized the vested rights, the conscientious convic
tions, and the pohtical equity which required that
the rights of the Roman Catholic population should
not infringe upon the equally important and much
more extensive rights of the great body of citizens
who desired an eff'ective system of common schools.
With this position of Dr, Ryerson, the Hon,
John A, Macdonald, now coming into the foremost
rank in the Conservative party, was in fuU sym
pathy, although through the exigency of party
interests he was forced to compromise, as in the
Tach^ BiU. The Liberal party, on the other hand,
identified Dr. Ryerson, Mr. Macdonald, and the
Roman Catholic hierarchy as the common foes of a
common school system, and thus the conflict be
tween Dr. Ryerson and Mr. Brown was for some
years of a most intensely bitter and even personal
character. In the meantime the separate school party were
233

EGERTON RYERSON
very far from confining their eff'orts to the legis
lative and political arena. Every eff'ort was put
forth to bring the provisions of the separate school
law into operation. Even under the act of 1853 the
Roman Catholic separate schools were increased
from thirteen in 1852 to forty-four in 1855. Under
the Tach^ Act the number was raised to one
hundred in 1857-8, attended by nearly 10,000
pupils, an increase due, perhaps, not so much to
any change in the law as to the active efforts of
the ecclesiastical authorities, of which the lenten
pastoral of Bishop Charbonnel in 1856 may be
cited as an example. In this pastoral he says: —
"Catholic electors who do not use their electoral
power on behalf of separate schools are guilty of
mortal sin. Likewise parents who do not make the
sacrifices necessary to secure such schools, or send
their children to mixed schools."
During this period the agitation of the public
mind over this question was such that the governor-
general. Sir Edmund Head, requested from Dr.
Ryerson a special report. In this report, of which
Dr, Hodgins has published extracts in his compre
hensive history of separate schools in Upper Can
ada, he exposes very clearly the attitude of the
Roman Catholic hierarchy at this period toward
the common school system, summing it up in these
words: — "It is this double aggression by Roman
Catholic bishops and their supporters, in assailing
on the one hand our public schools and school
234

REPORT ON SEPARATE SCHOOLS
system, and invading what has been acknowledged
as sacred constitutional rights of individuals and
municipahties ; and, on the other hand, in demand
ing the erection and support at the public expense
of a Roman Cathohc hierarchal school system,
which has aroused to so great an extent the people
of Upper Canada against permitting the continu
ance any longer of the provisions of the law for
separate schools," At the same time he deprecates
the interference of bishops and priests in Lower
Canada, or of their representatives, with the school
system of Upper Canada, pointing out that "there
has been no interference in Upper Canada with the
school system of Lower Canada." Many of the
most essential parts of this report, re-wTitten and
enlarged, were laid before parhament in the same
year. The next important attempt at separate school
legislation began in 1860 with the introduction of
a separate school biU by Mr. R. W. Scott, then
member for Ottawa. Mr. Scott's first attempt failed,
and was repeated in 1861 and 1862 with the same
result. FinaUy, in 1863, a modified bill to which
Dr. Ryerson consented was passed. Mr. Scott was
a Liberal in pohtics, as weU as a Roman Cathohc
in rehgion. His introduction of the question thus
marks a new phase of the movement.
Early in 1860 Bishop Charbonnel had resigned
the charge of the diocese of Toronto, and Bishop
Lynch became his successor. His policy does not
235

EGERTON RYERSON
appear to have been as aggressive as that of his
predecessor. There was now no attempt to break up
the public school system by provisions for a general
introduction of denominational schools. Several pro
visions aimed at the removal of disabilities which
Roman Catholics had imposed upon themselves by
the Tach^ Act, which, in 1855, repealed indiscrim
inately the provisions of 1853, Other clauses at
tempted once more to introduce provisions to
which Dr, Ryerson had from the outset been
inflexibly opposed, especially two, the distribution
of aU school funds according to population, and the
employment in any form of the municipal authori
ties to collect funds for the purposes of denomina
tional schools.
In 1862, Dr. Ryerson, willing to concede the
more equitable parts of Mr. Scott's bill, and if
possible to reconcile the authorities of the Roman
Catholic church to the public system of common
schools, at least through the country generaUy,
proposed the name of Bishop Lynch as a member
of the council of pubhc instruction for Upper
Canada, finding, as he says, that his views on the
subject "were moderate and constitutional, appre
ciating the rights of citizens and the institutions of
our country, as well as the interests and institutions
of their own church." He accordingly prepared a
draft of a bill repealing the objectionable require
ment of an oath to returns, providing for separate
schools in incorporated viUages as in towns and
236

THE SCOTT BILL
cities, enabhng separate school trustees to form
union school sections for their purposes, and ex
empting the ratepayer who has once formally given
notice that he is a supporter of a separate school
from the necessity of annual renewal of such notice,
substituting therefor a return by the trustees of
the names of aU supporters of their school.
This draft seems never to have come before the
House, as Mr. Scott again introduced his bill with
the two objectionable demands. These were, how
ever, removed in committee, and to the bill as thus
amended. Dr. Ryerson assented on condition that
the bill should be accepted as a settlement of the
question by the authorities of the Roman Catholic
Church and should receive the assent of the govern
ment. For this purpose the bill was thoroughly
revised by Dr. Ryerson in consultation with the
representatives of the Roman Catholic Church,
accepted by them, two copies prepared, and the
assent of the government asked to Mr. Scott's
proceeding with the biU in this form. Of it Dr.
Ryerson says: — "Everyone who examines the biU
wiU see that it brings back the school system in
respect to separate schools as near as possible to
what it was before the passing of the Roman
Catholic Separate School Bill of 1855 .... an
object I have been most anxious to accomplish."
The parliament was now, however, approaching
that period of perplexity which finally forced con
federation to the front, and the defeat of the
237

EGERTON RYERSON
government laid the school biU over for another
year. Early in the foUowing session, under the
Sandfield Macdonald administration, Mr. Scott once
more introduced the bill, and it was accepted as a
government measure and passed shortly before
another change of administration. In the final vote
the double majority principle announced by Mr,
Sandfield Macdonald failed, as there was an Upper
Canadian majority of ten against it. The act was,
notwithstanding, assented to on May 5th, and so be
came law a week before the defeat of the ministry.
The passage of this Separate School Act of 1863
may be regarded as the final settlement of the
principle of Roman Catholic separate schools as
a part of the public school system of Canada. In
that part of his school policy in which Dr, Ryerson
hoped through careful and impartial administration
of the common schools to make them so acceptable
to the Roman Catholic population that separate
schools would disappear as undesirable, he had not
been able to succeed. In spite of his hberal measures
and strenuous eff'orts, the vigorous policy of the
Roman Catholic authorities from 1852 onward gave
strong and rapid growth to the separate schools.
This growth was stimulated, as is always the case,
by the eff'orts of the opposite party to wipe out
separate schools by adverse legislation. The number
of separate schools then in existence was 120, at
tended by 15,859 pupils, nearly one fourth of the
Roman Catholic school population of the province.
238

A PERMANENT INSTITUTION
Yet this fact aff'orded no ground for discouragement
as to the success of the pubhc schools, which com
manded a voluntary attendance of more than four-
fifths of the whole school population of the pro
vince, and employed the services of 333 Roman
Cathohc teachers, or nearly twice as many as were
employed in the separate schools.
But while these figures prove that the strength
and comprehensive character of the common school
system had been maintained without serious break,
they also show that the separate schools had grown
too strong to be overthrown by any form of pohcy,
and that Dr. Ryerson was now wisely accepting
the logic of facts, in making every provision for
their equitable treatment and their highest effici
ency. On the defensive side of his policy, he had
certainly succeeded, and had foiled every attempt
either to make the municipal authorities an agency
for the maintenance of denominational schools, or
to make the property of any but their declared sup
porters contribute thereto. They were thus left to
work their own way on the voluntary principle,
a right to which certainly every citizen is entitled
in matters aff'ecting his religious convictions, and
for this purpose they were freed from all contribu
tions to the pubhc system of common schools, an
exemption which, if not imperative on rigid pohti
cal principles, is certainly fair as between Christian
neighbours. But notwithstanding the importance of the posi-
239

EGERTON RYERSON
tion thus reached, the story of Dr. Ryerson's struggle
with this problem is not yet quite complete. In
1865 a new agitation of the separate school question
was begun in Kingston and Toronto the principal
importance of which was the occasion which it
furnished for one of Dr. Ryerson's ablest dehver-
ances on the subject. After meeting the main
objections of his opponents and reviewing the
whole history of the question from 1840 onward,
showing that no privilege was granted to common
school trustees which was not accorded to separate
schools, with the single exception that they were
not permitted to employ the municipal machinery
for sectarian purposes, and pointing out the injus
tice of using general taxation for denominational
purposes against the will of the majority, he states
the fundamental political principle involved in the
question as follows : — " Separate schools cannot be
claimed on any ground of right, as I have often
shown in discussing the subject in former years.
All that any citizen can claim as a right on this
subject is equal and impartial protection with every
other citizen. All that can be claimed or granted
beyond this must be on the ground of compact or
of expediency or indulgence. I have ever regarded
the existence of the separate school provisions of
the law in the light of a compact commencing with
the union of the Canadas ; and, as such, in behalf of
the public, I have endeavoured to maintain it faith
fully and liberaUy. But if the supporters of separate
240

NOT A RIGHT BUT A COMPACT
schools continue to violate that compact, as they
have done repeatedly, by denouncing it, and de
manding its modification and extension, then they
forfeit aU right to the original terms and conditions
of it, and reduce the whole question to one of
expediency, in which hght I will briefly consider it.
"I think no one wiU maintain that separate
schools are expedient for the interests of the state.
Nay, those interests are more or less injured by
every act of class legislation, and the strength of the
state is weakened by every sectional division which
its citizens have created by law. If it was a source
of individual pride and of the strength of the state,
in ancient days, for every man to say 'Romanus
sum' — 'I am a Roman' — so would it be now, under
a legislation of equal rights and privileges, without
the shadow of distinction in regard to sect or party,
for a man to say 'I am a Canadian,' For every man
to feel that he stands in aU respects upon equal
ground of right and privilege with every other man
in relation to the state and law, must best contri
bute to the true interests and real strength of the
state, and best respond to the spirit and principles
of free government. Upon public grounds, there
fore, the law for separate schools cannot be main
tained," After pointing out at a considerable length that
separate schools are equally inexpedient for the
educational, social and political interests of Roman
Cathohcs themselves, he concludes thus: — "The fact
241

EGERTON RYERSON
is that the tendency of the public mind and of the
institutions of Upper Canada is to confederation
and not to isolation, to united eff'ort, and not to
divisions and hostile eff'ort in those things in which
all have a common interest. The eff'orts to estabhsh
and extend separate schools, though often energetic
and made at great sacrifice, are a struggle against
the instincts of Canadian society, against the neces
sities of a sparsely populated country, against the
social and political, present and future interests
of the parents and youth separated from their
fellow-citizens. It is not the separate school law
which renders such eff'orts so fitful, feeble, and little
successful ; their paralysis is caused by a higher than
human law — the law of circumstances, the law of
nature, the law of interest, if not the law of duty
from parent to child.
"If, therefore, the present separate school law
is not to be maintained as a final settlement of the
question, and if the legislature finds it necessary to
legislate on the separate school question again,
I pray that it will abolish the separate school law
altogether ; and to this recommendation I am
forced, after having long used my best eff'orts to
maintain and give the fuUest and most liberal
application to successive separate school acts ; and
after twenty years experience and superintendence
of our common school system."
This discussion was followed by a single abortive
eff'ort to secure further separate school legislation
242

FINAL SETTLEMENT
in 1866. In 1867 the question was finally settled by
the foUovdng provisions of the British North
America Act: — "In and for each province, the
legislature may exclusively make laws in relation
to education, subject and according to the foUowing
provisions : —
" 1. Nothing in any such law shall prejudicially
aff'ect any right or privilege Avith respect to denom
inational schools which any class of persons have
by law in the province at the union,
" 2. AU the powers, privileges and duties at the
union conferred and imposed in Upper Canada on
the separate schools and school trustees of the
Queen's Roman Cathohc subjects shaU be and the
same are hereby extended to the dissentient schools
of the Queen's Protestant and Roman Cathohc
subjects in Quebec,"
These two fundamental provisions are followed
by right of appeal to the governor-general-in-coun-
cil, and the right of remedial legislation by the
parhament of Canada,
Before dismissing this important subject we may
give a brief notice to the eff'orts of the Anglican
Church in Upper Canada to secure separate church
schools. The first of these eff'orts preceded Dr,
Ryerson's appointment, and was made by Bishop
Strachan in 1841 and 1843. The eff'ort was renewed
in 1850. Of this eff'ort Dr. Ryerson says: — "An
amendment to the nineteenth section was concocted
and agreed upon by the clerical Roman Cathohc
243

EGERTON RYERSON
and high Episcopahan parties, by which any twelve
members of either church could demand a separate
school in any school section of Upper Canada. The
leaders on both sides of this new combination were
very active, and in the course of a few days boasted
that they would have a majority of fourteen or
twenty votes against the government on the nine
teenth section of the biU. I saw at once that the
proposed amendment, if carried, would destroy the
school system, and in order to break up the com
bination and save the school system, I proposed to
amend the nineteenth section of the bill so as to
secure the right of establishing separate schools to
the applicants (Roman Catholics) as provided in
the school acts of 1843 and 1846."
The Tache Bill, as introduced, embodied a simUar
provision, opening the door to a general system of
denominational schools, and very strenuous efforts,
as we have seen, were required to secure the ehmina-
tion of its objectionable features. Even during the
legislation of 1860-63 the attempt was renewed,
but in aU these cases the effort was defeated by
the liberal and inteUigent stand taken by lay mem
bers of the Church of England.
In closing this review of the separate school agi
tation it would be very wrong to attribute other than
honourable motives to the supporters of the move
ment. Denominational ambitions may, of course,
have had an influence; but behind aU else there
was, without doubt, a deep conviction of the im-
244

RELIGION IN EDUCATION
portance, or rather necessity of religion and morals
in the education of the young. In that conviction
Dr. Ryerson shared, and his whole lifework was
proof of its deep hold upon his own mind. As a
result, from the beginning he sought to make the
common schools Christian in a broad, comprehen
sive, unsectarian sense of the term. Beyond that he
provided facilities for more specific religious teach
ing after school hours by the pastors of the several
churches, and took great pains to interest them in
this work. It cannot be said that this last provision
has been a success. The children generally cannot
be held after four o'clock for another hour of
school, even by the minister. But side by side with
the school system was growing up in all the
churches an independent and purely voluntary
system of moral and rehgious education, in the
Sunday school, the Bible class, the Sunday school
teachers' normal class, the catechumen class, and in
the eff'orts after higher rehgious intelligence of the
young people's societies. In these lies the true
solution of the moral and religious side of educa
tion, a solution in which the conscientious and
pious zeal of our churches should keep pace with
the inteUigent and harmonious work of the state.

245

CHAPTER X
THE GRAMMAR OR HIGH SCHOOLS
THE foundation of the present high school sys
tem of Ontario was laid in 1798 when half a
mUlion acres of public lands were set apart for
education, to include both a university and four
secondary schools. This wise provision was vitiated
by the class-spirit in which it was proposed to be
carried into eff'ect ; but before it was made available
by the Act of 1807, the growth of the country
expanded it into a provision for a system of district
grammar schools, at first eight in number. Each of
these district schools was placed under the complete
control of a board of trustees for the district,
appointed by the heutenant-governor -in -councU.
These trustees appointed the teacher, made regula
tions for the school and issued the certificates under
which the teacher received from the government
the legislative appropriation for his salary which
was £100 for each school. No provision was made
for uniformity in curriculum or text books, nor was
any standard of quahfication prescribed for the
teacher, and the governor-in-council was the only
central authority supervising the appointments
made by the trustees. In 1819 this act was amend
ed so as to require the trustees to hold an annual
247

EGERTON RYERSON
examination of the school in which they were
required to take part and also to make an annual
report to the governor of the state of the school,
the number of pupils, the branches taught and any
other matters pertaining to the prosperity of the
school. Provision was also made for ten free scholars
in each school. In 1831 a proposal was made in the
legislature to make these schools free with a grant
of £400 a year to each school, and in 1832, a bUl
was introduced to place them under the direction
of a general board of education for the province,
but neither of these measures was carried through.
In 1 839 a new Grammar School Act was passed
under which the schools were conducted until 1853.
By this act the district schools were henceforth
legaUy known as grammar schools, and were thus
brought under the provisions of the royal grant of
1797. For each school the board of trustees was
appointed as before to have the superintendence of
the school and to receive the monies authorized to
be paid for its support. The rules and regulations
for the conduct and good government of aU the
schools were placed in the hands of the council of
King's CoUege, thus bringing them for the first
time under a uniform system. A not less important
provision of the act was a more definite and hberal
financial pohcy and provision, under which a per
manent grammar school fund was created from the
investment of the proceeds of the sale of the old
school lands and from a new appropriation of
248

THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL FUND
250,000 acres for this purpose ; and the proceeds of
this investment were placed in the hands of King's
College councU for distribution according to the
needs ofthe schools. In addition to the £100 here
tofore paid to each district school, a further grant
of an additional £100 each was authorized for the
establishment under certain conditions of two addi
tional schools in each district, and a sum of £200 to
aid in the erection of a suitable schoolhouse in each
district. A fuU financial as weU as educational report
was also required from each district board of trustees.
The council of King's CoUege was further author
ized to apply a portion of the monies from invested
endowment in aid of the grammar schools, and
to extend aid from this and the grammar school
revenue at their disposal to four additional gram
mar schools in any district where they deemed
it necessary. Under the impulse of this act the
grammar schools, then twelve in number, rose
by 1842 to twenty-five, and by 1845 to thirty in
number ; and when to the more hberal provisions
of the law there was added the stimulus and even
competition of the new common school system, the
number of grammar schools was rapidly multiphed,
rising in 1853 to sixty-four. Many of these new
schools were of a respectable character and in some
places the old schools were doing good work. But
the influence of the university council in their
direction was exceedingly feeble, the majority of
well-prepared university matriculants were furnished
249

EGERTON RYERSON
by Upper Canada CoUege, and the majority of
the old schools continued to be schools of a class,
doing, with the addition of Latin, elementary work
in Enghsh, mathematics and science below the
standard of the best common schools, and taking
their pupils from private schools in which they
were taught the first rudiments. There was still
no legal standard of quahfication for the teacher,
and the teacher was not seldom the local curate.
There was no provision for inspection, and although
the number of schools was multiplied, there was no
guarantee that the large amount of public monies
expended on their maintenance was profitably em
ployed. They were now teaching 3,221 pupils, of
whom 102 were returned as unable to read and 285
unable to write. About one-sixth (556) studied
Latin, and one-ninth algebra and Euclid. The
expenditure on these schools was £10,743. lis. Id.,
or nearly $43,000 — $13.35 for each pupU.
The situation was thus one which demanded the
attention of the legislature, and the Grammar
School Act accompanying the new University Act
of 1853 was the result. By this act the grammar
schools were separated from the university in ad
ministration and made for the first time a part
of the public system of which Dr. Ryerson was
the superintendent, and it is with the preparation
and administration of this act that his work on a
grammar or secondary school system begins.
He began by placing the whole system on a more
250

SECONDARY SCHOOL SYSTEM
popular basis by vesting the appointment of trustees
in the hands of the municipal councils and provid
ing a separate board for each school. This was
eff'ected gradually, the change of system being
completed in three years. At the same time the
responsibihty for the support of the schools was
placed upon the municipahties acting through their
trustees, the legislative grant and the income from
the invested proceeds of the grammar school lands
forming a grammar school fund to aid the munici
pahties in their work. These two radical changes
brought the grammar schools under the same funda
mental principles as the common schools. They
henceforth belonged not to the government but to
the people. They were immediately controUed by
their representatives and supported by their money
contributed either as fees or by direct municipal
taxation. The whole body of the people were thus
brought to feel a direct and financial as weU as
educational interest in their secondary schools.
The third principle of the new act was equaUy
important and also on a hne with the consti
tution of the common school system. This was an
efficient system, not only for the distribution of
grants in aid, but also for making proper regula
tions for the government of the schools, and for
their inspection. This system was administered as in
the common schools through the council of public
instruction, of which the president of University
CoUege and of the other coUeges affiliated to the
251

EGERTON RYERSON
provincial university were now made members for
this purpose, and through the chief superintendent
of education. These provisions included a standard
of quahfication for aU teachers in the grammar
schools, and the appointment of a provincial board
of examination for that purpose ; a curriculum
which covered all subjects required for matricula
tion in the provincial university as weU as the
elements of science, needed for industrial and com
mercial education ; provision of proper text books
for use in the schools ; directions as to organization
of the schools, and provision of suitable apparatus
and equipment, including provision for a system of
meteorological observations throughout the pro
vince, and the appointment of provincial inspectors
of grammar schools. The chief superintendent was
authorized to require complete reports of the gram
mar schools as of the pubhc schools according to
forms provided, and again as in the common schools
satisfactory compliance with these regulations was
made the condition of receiving the annual govern
ment grant. The trustee boards were also clothed
with aU the necessary powers for the efficient
discharge of their duties placing them on a footing
in this respect approaching to that of the common
school trustees, to whom such large powers had
been safely entrusted under the common school
acts. It is not too much to say that here again these
fundamental principles, few and simple as they are,
252

PRINCIPLES OF THE SYSTEM
brought order out of chaos. To call into exercise
the local interest, authority and responsibility of
the people, to aid it by judicious grants, to direct
it by wise regulation and inspection, these were the
simple principles from which the practical genius
of this man of the people constructed one of the
most efficient systems of education that the world
has known. These principles once estabhshed were
never disturbed, and all subsequent amendments
were minor provisions for their more perfect de
velopment. The first of these provisions to become eff'ective
were the appointment of inspectors and the proper
qualification of masters. At the end of three years
thirty-eight out of sixty-one headmasters were
graduates in arts — twenty-three of Canadian and
thirteen of British universities, while two held
American degrees. Of the rest, ten had quahfied by
examination, the others holding their position in
virtue of appointment before the passing of the act.
The first inspectors, the Rev. Wm. Ormiston,
M.A., and T. J, Robertson, M,A., were men of
great ability, thorough scholarship, experience in
educational work, and masters in the organization
and management of schools, and under their influ
ence the schools rapidly improved in system and
method of work. Pupils fit only for primary schools
were excluded by means of entrance examinations,
the pupils were properly classified, and something
like an orderly curriculum of school work was intro-
253

EGERTON RYERSON
duced. Still the work of the first few years served
rather to bring to light the defects of the schools
than to bring them up to a satisfactory degree of
perfection. The masters were under-paid, the school
houses defective and unsuitable, the schools with
out needed equipment, many of them without even
suitable maps and blackboards, and the county
councils unwilling to furnish trustees with funds,
since they looked on the schools as belonging to the
towns and viUages, while these complained that the
control of the schools through appointment of
trustees was not in their hands. Notwithstanding
these complaints it did not seem desirable to change
the law, as the schools were intended not for the
benefit of the immediate locality but of the entire
county or section of the county in which and for
which they were established.
To obviate these financial difficulties in viUages,
and even in some towns and cities, the trustees
took advantage of the provision for the union of
the grammar with the common school, giving for
the united school the powers of local taxation
enjoyed by the common school board. In 1858 no
less than thirty-nine of the seventy-five grammar
schools were so united. The report of the inspector
shows that while such union resiUted in financial
advantages, it was detrimental to the higher work
of the school. In fact Dr. Ormiston soon reported
that it furnished satisfactory work neither in the
common school nor in the grammar school depart-
254

UNION SCHOOLS
ment. The motive— a cheap school — reduced it too
often to an attempt to carry on the union school
with a staff' sufficient for a good common school.
Under these circumstances the high school work
was reduced to a minimum, and that minimum
became an incubus on the common school. Not
withstanding these difficulties a steady and gratify
ing progress was made in the character of the
grammar school work and also in the buildings and
equipment used for grammar school purposes. This
was especiaUy the case in the western and central
parts of the province. The attendance of county as
against town pupils was graduaUy increased. The
influence of the universities as directing the curri
culum of the grammar schools was making itself
felt. And while the intense local interest attached
to the common schools was not yet awakened for
the secondary schools, a deeper and more intelhgent
interest was being created.
After ten years experience of the new law, in
which the schools had increased in number from
64 to 95 and the attendance from 3,221 to 5,589,
whUe the classical pupUs had risen from 556 to
2,825, we meet the next important movement in
advance. In the year 1863, the Rev. George Paxton
Young was appointed inspector of grammar schools.
This was another example of Dr. Ryerson's peculiar
wisdom in the choice of able co-workers. In his
reports for 1864 and 1865, Mr. Young presents an
exhaustive statement of the still existing defects in
255

EGERTON RYERSON
the grammar school system, and of the remedies
which in his judgment should be applied.
The first point to which Mr. Young caUs atten
tion is the abuse of the power of county councils to
establish new schools whenever their proportion of
the grammar school fund enabled them to do so
without lowering the grant to each school beneath
the prescribed minimum of $200. This results, as
he finds, in the establishment of weak grammar
schools. In fact Mr, Checkley, his predecessor, had
already reported some of these as positively inferior
to good common schools. This undue multiplication
of schools he found, further, to aff'ect the attend
ance, finances, and consequently the efficiency of the
existing schools. It was, besides, bringing the whole
system of grammar schools into contempt, and
depressing the average work of the common schools
by substituting poor grammar schools for good
common schools. The remedy for this abuse Mr.
Young leaves to the chief superintendent, though
he quietly suggests the application of Dr. Ryerson's
old device of a solid financial requirement.
Next to this undue multiplication of schools,
Mr. Young places the evils growing out of the
union of the common with the grammar schools.
He reports that now three out of every five gram
mar schools in the province have common schools
united with them. He points out the cause of this
in the financial provisions of the law, giving the
united board of trustees a power of direct taxation
256

DEFECTS OF THE SCHOOLS
not possessed by the grammar school trustees alone.
He also shows the advantage which it possesses of
bringing the whole body of common school pupils
into touch with the higher work and exciting their
ambition to continue their studies beyond the
hmits of the common school programme. But he
finds that these advantages are far more than
counterbalanced by the resulting evils which Dr.
Ormiston had already pointed out. It put upon the
grammar school master the burden of instructing
the common school pupils in their higher work, to
the detriment of his own curriculum. It filled up the
common school department with inferior teachers,
and led to cheaper and poorer schools in both
departments. WhUe Mr. Young, in common with his prede
cessors, deplored the still existing defects of build
ings and equipment, and urged strong pressure for
reform in this direction, he does not consider it
advisable to extend the power of direct taxation
to a second board of trustees. He considers rather
that pressure should be brought to bear upon the
municipal councils to secure the needed improve
ments. The last item of Mr. Young's exceedingly
able report deals with improvements in the method
of teaching such subjects as algebra, geometry, and
the Latin and Greek languages, and strikes at
an evU which has persisted to our own time, the
lack of thorough elementary instruction, and the
use of methods suitable only for advanced pupils.
257

EGERTON RYERSON
On this report was founded Dr. Ryerson's Act of
1865 "for the further improvement of grammar
schools in Upper Canada." The main features of
this act were: —
1, A change in the method of distributing the
grammar school fund. The old distinction between
senior and other schools was abolished. The county
lines were also virtually abohshed as a basis of
distribution according to population; and the fund
was distributed directly to the several schools of the
whole province according to their works, i.e., the
average attendance of bona fide grammar school
pupils. To prevent abuse here the entrance examina
tion to the grammar school was placed entirely in
the hands of the inspector, also in this way secur
ing uniformity throughout the province. This pro
vision at once put a premium upon reaUy strong
schools, 2. To maintain these schools efficiently it was
required that in every case a local contribution,
outside of fees, equal to the grant from the gram
mar school fund should be raised by the munici
pality or by the trustees,
3. To create a more directly local interest in the
school, in towns and incorporated viUages one half
the trustee board was appointed by the council of
the town or viUage and one half by the county,
while the cities were separated from the county
for grammar school purposes, except in the rare
instances where the city was the location of the
258

ACT OF 1865
only grammar school in the county, in which case
the county council appointed one half. These enact
ments were of themselves a strong influence against
the undue multiphcation of schools; but in the
same direction was the further proviso that no new
school should be established until it could secure a
grant of $300 from the grammar school funds with
out diminishing the grants to existing schools.
Provision was also made for the dissolution of the
union between grammar and common school boards
by the vote of a majority of the united board. One
of the last but not least important of the new
provisions made a university degree necessary for
the head master of a grammar school.
The new law was immediately followed up by
a revised and thoroughly graded programme of
studies for the pupils of the grammar schools,
accompanied by a completely revised code of regu
lations. These regulations were scarcely less im
portant than the act, as conformity with these was
a condition of participation in the grammar school
fund. By these regulations elementary English was
excluded from the grammar school programme, and
the schools were made strictly secondary schools.
A programme of modern languages was provided
for students who did not wish to take classics, and
to this course girls were, at the option of the trus
tees, admitted on the same terms as boys. This step,
taken apparently with a good deal of hesitation
and conditioned upon the assent of the trustees,
259

EGERTON RYERSON
was one of the most important of all the new
features now introduced.
These new departures were still considered some
what tentative, and in his succeeding report Mr,
Young examines with care their results. The ex
pected diminution of the number of grammar
schools did not follow. Two fell off' the first year,
but from that time there was a steady though more
moderate rate of increase. The non-classical course
for grammar school pupils was another feature
which did not meet with large response in the
public demand. The inspector himself, while not
approving of this course, was decidedly in favour
of it for the girls ; but although the girls were not
encouraged in this direction, their avidity for Latin '
seemed almost increased by the fact that it had
been so long to them forbidden ground. In five
years the attendance on the grammar schools had
risen to 7,280, an increase of 36 per cent,, while the
number studying Latin had risen to 6,658, an
increase of 81 per cent, Greek had in the same
period experienced a relative dechne, falling from
12f to 10|^ per cent., a decline which has continued
steadily to the present time.
The transfer of the entrance examination to the
inspector revealed the fact that the preparation
of the pupils was still largely defective, pointing to
the need of a more definite course in the public
school before coming up for the entrance examina
tion. In fact, the lack of a sohd foundation in
260

ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS
the elementary English branches was now clearly
apparent as the most serious drawback to the
success of the secondary schools. The new law was
also stiU found defective as a means of making
adequate financial provision for first class schools.
The trustees were, as a rule, anxious to improve the
schools, but being entirely dependent upon the
municipal bodies and upon fees for financial support,
they were quite unable to give eff'ect to their wishes.
In the meantime the completion of confederation
and the formation of the new Dominion had given
to the country the impulse of a new national hfe.
With that life Dr. Ryerson, a Canadian of the
Canadians, was himself in the warmest sympathy.
The provincial legislature, to whom the whole
field of education was now entrusted, was likely to
be a far more progressive body in the matter of
educational legislation than the united parliament
of the past, and Dr. Ryerson, under its auspices,
once more addressed himself to the work of ad
vancing and perfecting both the public and high
school systems.
The legislation of 1874 and its immediate results
in the new regulations issued by the council of
pubhc instruction, was without doubt the most
important in the history of education from 1850
onward. Its chief features were the foUowing: —
1. It introduced the representative principle into
the composition of the councU of pubhc instruc
tion, thereby bringing it into distinct touch with
261

EGERTON RYJ^KSUJN
the universities, the high schools and the pubhc
schools and inspectors. This feature, which might
have been productive of most important practical
results, was discontinued at the reorganization of
the education department under a minister of
education. 2. It reorganized the grammar schools as high
schools and coUegiate institutes, providing in the
latter for a far more complete programme of secon
dary education than had ever been attempted in
the country before.
3. To maintain this advanced programme ef
ficiently, the trustees of the high schools and
collegiate institutes were now for the first time
authorized to make requisition upon the municipal
council or councils of their district, for such sums in
addition to the government grant and its equivalent,
as were necessary for the maintenance of the school,
thus placing them in this respect on an equahty
with the pubhc school trustees. It wiU be seen that
this provision was carried into eff'ect only after
twenty years of eff'ort in this direction. The pro
vision for new buildings or grounds was stUl left to
the voluntary action of the municipal bodies.
4. The union of public with high school boards
was discontinued, and the provision for dissolving
existing unions was re-enacted.
5. In the distribution of the high school grant
the principle of payment according to results was
now first introduced. The regulations under which
262

ACT OF 1874
these resiUts were to be ascertained were placed in
the hands of the councU of public instruction.
6. The conditions of the estabhshment of col
legiate institutes were definitely fixed by law ; four
quahfied masters must be fuUy employed in teach
ing the subjects of the prescribed curriculum, and a
daUy average of not less than" sixty male pupils
must be pursuing the study of Latin or Greek. On
fulfilment of these conditions the heutenant-gov-
emor-in-councU was authorized to confer on any
high school the name of collegiate institute, with
an additional grant from the grammar school fund
of $750.
Under these provisions of the law the council of
pubhc instruction, with Dr. Ryerson at its head,
proceeded with great energy in their important
work. The programme of studies was once more
completely revised, and especiaUy for the work
of the collegiate institutes, extended in the hues of
modem hterature and science. Three able men were
appointed as inspectors, devoting their entire time
to this work, and representing by their eminent
attainments as speciahsts, the three great branches
of the curriculum, classics, mathematics and science,
and modem literature, especiaUy Enghsh. But per
haps the most influential step of aU taken by
the council was the estabhshment of the inter
mediate examination at the end of the work of the
second form as a means of testing the results of the
work of the school as a basis for the distribution of
263

EGERTON RYERSON
the grant. This was the first introduction in a
truly influential form of the examination system
into our school work below the university. In
twenty-five years it has extended its influence, until
now it dominates our whole educational work.
The devising of these last measures for the per
fecting of the high school system, we may call Dr,
Ryerson's last great contribution to the educational
work of Upper Canada. For twenty years he had
devoted his energies to the perfecting of the high
schools, as for thirty he had laboured on the public
school system. In both cases he had found it neces
sary to overcome the obstacles arising from popular
ignorance, apathy, or penuriousness, by wise enact
ments and patient eff'ort. He was especially patient
of delay. With remarkable accuracy of judgment
he was able to discern the true ends to be ultimately
attained, and to gauge the abihty and wiUingness of
the majority of the people to furnish the means for
their attainment; and we have found him waiting
patiently and working steadfastly for the accom
phshment of such ends as the estabhshment of free
common schools, or properly sustained high schools.
And this labour he continued for ten or even twenty
years, never losing sight of his ultimate object, em
ploying gentle pressure whenever necessary, but
always avoiding a friction which would render the
whole system unpopular. It was doubtless of great
advantage to him during his hfe-long labour that his
work, hke the administration of justice, stood just
264

OUTSIDE OF POLITICS
outside the field of politics, and was thus not
subject to the ordinary contingencies of political
changes. If it made his difficulties a little greater,
and his progress somewhat more tardy, as he over
came difficulties with the people, difficulties with
municipal bodies, difficulties with the legislature
and the government of the day, this very slowness
of growth and absence of startling change made his
work in the end more strong and gave it a deeper
foundation in the habits as weU as the confidence of
the people. Retiring from this work in the seventy-
fourth year of his age, after devoting thirty years of
his matured manhood and great endowments to
this service of his country, with an old man's
pardonable pride, he thus, in his last report, sums
up the results of his work: —
"In concluding this report for 1874, I may be
permitted to note the progress which has been
effected in the development of the pubhc school
system, of which I took charge in 1844. At that
time there were 2,706 public school teachers, in
1874 there were 5,736, increase 3,030. In 1844 the
amount paid for salaries of teachers was $206,856 ;
in 1874 the amount paid for salaries of teachers was
$1,440,894. In 1844 the total amount raised and
expended for public school purposes was $275,000 ;
in 1874 it was $2,865,332, increase $2,590,332, In
1844 the number of pupils in the public schools
was 96,756; in 1874 the number of pupils was
464,047, increase 367,291. In 1844 the number
265

EGERTON RYERSON
of school-houses was 2,495, in 1874, 4,827, increase
2,332, The number of log school-houses in 1844
was 1,334; in 1874, 115, decrease 1,229. The number
of frame school-houses in 1844 was 1,028; in 1874,
2,080, increase 1,052, The number of stone school-
houses in 1844 was 84; in 1874, 463, increase 379,
The number of brick school-houses in 1844 was 49;
in 1874, 1,169, increase 1,120. These are mere
naked figures, which convey no idea of the im
proved character, furniture and fittings of the
school-houses, the improved character, uniformity
and greater cheapness of the text books, the intro
duction of maps, globes, blackboards, etc, in the
schools, the improved character, quahfications and
position of teachers and their teaching. In 1844
maps and globes were unknown in the public
schools; up to 1874, 2,785 globes and 47,413 maps
and charts have been furnished to the schools,
nearly all of which are now manufactured in the
country. In 1844 there were no public hbraries
or hbrary books ; in 1874 there were 1,334 public
school libraries, containing 266,046 volumes, pro
vided and sent out by the department. In 1844
there were no prize books distributed as rewards for
good conduct, diligence and success in the schools;
up to 1874, 766,645 prize books had been sent
out by the department and distributed in the
schools. In this summary statement no mention
has been made of the normal schools and their
work, the standard of qualification and examination
266

LAST REPORT
of teachers, and the improved organization and
inspection of the schools.
"In regard to the grammar or high schools the
duty was imposed upon me in 1852 of framing and
administering the law respecting this important
class of our public institutions. The number of
these schools then in existence was 84; the number
in 1874 was 108, increase 24. The number of pupils
in 1852 was 2,643; in 1874 it was 7,871, increase
5,228. In 1852 the amount of legislative grant or
grammar school fund was $20,567; in 1874 it was
$75,553; besides a sum equal to half that amount,
raised by county and city councils, and corporate
powers in boards of trustees to provide additional
means for the payment of teachers and the buUding
and repair of school houses, many of which are
now amongst the finest school buildings in the
province. In 1852 the amount paid for the salaries
of teachers was $38,533; m 1874 it was $179,946,
increase $141,413. In 1852 the grammar schools
received pupUs from their 'a-b-c's' upwards; now
pupils are only admitted on an entrance examina
tion from the fourth form of the public schools,
and the high schools have uniform programmes
and text books, and are under the semi-annual
inspection of three able inspectors. It is by the
cooperation of successive administrations of govern
ment and parhaments, and the noble exertions of
the country at large that this great work has been
developed and advanced to its present state." 267

EGERTON RYERSON
Such was the kindly and honourable farewell of
a great man to the country for which he had
wrought out his noble work. That work was buUt
upon such secure foundations that not only its per
manency but also its perpetual expansion was
insured. It was sustained by the common sense
and best feehngs of aU the people. It is now more
than a quarter of a century since this report was
issued, and the statistics of the first year of the
new century are in our hands, showing 5,663 pubhc
schools, 379 separate schools, 414,619 pupils in the
pubhc schools and 43,978 in the separate schools,
and a total expenditure for schools of $4,328,682,
In the high schools there is an attendance of
22,523 pupUs, with a total expenditure of $728,132.
While these figures indicate the growth among us
of a population who are neglecting the education of
their children, the vast increase in the expenditure
for education shows the continuous growth of
interest in and appreciation of this work.

268

CHAPTER XI
LATER LITERARY WORK
TOWARDS the close of his long and honoured
hfe. Dr. Ryerson was for a long time one of a
very few surviving actors in the stirring and im
portant events of the early years of the nineteenth
century. His intimate knowledge of the past was
frequently of great use in the conduct of affairs
ecclesiastical and civil, and it was frequently sought
and highly prized. Those who had the benefit of
his experience and counsel could not but think
themselves happy, and they could not but think
that the time would soon come when his genial
presence could no more be found amongst them,
and the rich treasure-house of his memory would
be forever darkened and sealed up by death. Hence
it came that he was again and again importuned
to commit to writing the story of his life, and to
leave some record of the observations and experi
ences of his long and eventful career. It was felt
that such a record would not only be interesting as
a story of the beginnings of our Canadian life, but
it would be helpful as a guide to a true policy for
the present and the future — a pohcy weU grounded
on the foundations of the past. And it was but
natural that such a man would love to teU the
269

EGERTON RYERSON
story of his hfe, and that aU who knew him would
love to hear the story told.
It was not tiU about six years before his death
that Dr. Ryerson found time to enter seriously
upon the work in question. The makers of history
are not often at the same time the writers of
history, and Dr. Ryerson was engaged in making
the history of his country tiU he had passed three
years beyond the three score years and ten. This
was in 1876, when he retired from the office of
chief superintendent of education. Between that
date and his death in 1882 he prepared his three
works of chief literary and historical interest. They
are "The Story of My Life," "Canadian Method
ism, Its Epochs and Characteristics," and "The
Loyalists of America and Their Times."
The writings of Dr. Ryerson are aU marked by
the complete subordination of the style to the
matter. Indeed there is no pretence at style. Some
times, it is true, a certain statehness and formahty
of expression appears, such as was often found in
the old-time writers and speakers, and was thought
becoming in treating serious things, just as the
powdered wig or swallow-tailed coat was thought
becoming on occasions of ceremony. As a general
thing, however, the style is familiar and idiomatic,
and such as marks a ready speaker rather than a
writer. "The Story of My Life," an octavo of more than
six hundred pages, is in part only an autobiography.
270

"THE STORY OF MY LIFE"
It may have been the original intention of Dr.
Ryerson to tell the story of his life as an ordinary
autobiography, and some part of the work is actu
aUy written in that way. On the seventieth anni
versary of his birthday he wrote a short sketch of
his hfe. This sketch ends with an account of his
first sermon, preached on Whit Sunday, 1825. The
story is continued to 1832 chiefly by extracts from
a diary kept from 1829 to 1832. Beyond that time
the title, "The Story of My Life," if taken too
hterally, would not be correct, for Dr. Ryerson's
work becomes less and less and the book becomes
more and more the story of Dr. Ryerson's life,
prepared with admirable skiU and loving care by
Dr. J. George Hodgins, the faithful friend and
feUow-labourer of Dr. Ryerson for many years.
The grand old man never found time to teU more
than the beginning of the story and some later
fragments, and the work as completed was prepared
by Dr. Hodgins as a monument to his revered
friend. It is at the same time a noble monument
to the friend who made it for his friend, and for
long years to come it wiU associate in the story of
the making of Canada the names of Ryerson and
Hodgins. The second of the three works to be mentioned
here is that entitled "Canadian Methodism, its
Epochs and Characteristics." It is a coUection of
articles or essays, as they are caUed, prepared at the
request of the Methodist conferences of London,
271

EGERTON RYERSON
Toronto and Montreal, and first pubhshed in the
Canadian Methodist Magazine. The essays were
collected into a volume of 440 pages by the Rev.
Dr. Withrow, the editor of the magazine.
When we remember the mUitant character of the
Methodist church for many years after Dr. Ryerson
had entered the ministry, and especially when we
remember the heroic part taken by him in the
religious conflicts forced upon his people, we cease
to wonder at the warmth that sometimes is dis
played in the narrative. We rather wonder that
there is so little warmth and we admire the evident
and heartfelt charity that forgave the off'ences of
the past and would even forget all that the fidehty
of a historian would permit him to forget. Can
we wonder, for example, that in the essay on the
Loyal Origin of Methodism, some warmth of feel
ing should be kindled when the men who fought,
bled, and suff'ered exile for the flag of England,
flung back the charge of disloyalty brought against
them by sectarian prejudice and animosity? In hke
manner we may look for some indignation when
the writer sees the eccentricities and vagaries of
excited and uncultivated people held up as the
standard of doctrine and practice of a whole church,
in spite of the clear statements of their acknowl
edged teachers. The marvel rather was, and that
marvel stiU remains in this new century, that men
of intelligence and conscience in ordinary aff'airs
should lose all conscience and intelligence under
272

CANADIAN METHODISM
the blinding influence of religious antipathy. Even
to-day the caricatures and slanders of the early part
of the last century are repeated, and if Dr, Ryerson
were living stiU, he might find a respectable authority
amongst his old antagonists, gravely charging him
with the absurd doctrine that genuine conversions
and convulsions go regularly and properly together.
Such being the case, some men might say that it is
vain to contend against rehgious prejudice for it
can not be eradicated, but others would reply
as would Dr. Ryerson, that we must not cease
to contend against noxious weeds and venomous
creatures, though we may scarcely hope to see them
utterly eradicated and destroyed.
In the same volume of essays the whole story of
the clergy reserves controversy is told from Dr.
Ryerson's point of view. There are also five essays
on the divisions amongst the Methodists in Canada.
These essays are written by the Rev. John Ryerson,
a brother of Dr. Ryerson and a highly respected
authority on the history and usages of Canadian
Methodists. There are also several essays on the
relations of the Canadian Methodists to the British
conference. HappUy all the misunderstandings and
divisions recorded in these essays have given way to
union at home and the most cordial relations
with the mother churches in England and the
United States, and the essays may ere long be
of interest to none but historians and antiquarians
and book coUectors. 273

EGJiKTOJN RYEiRSUJN
The most considerable of Dr. Ryerson's literary
works and the only one remaining for consideration
in this volume is his " Loyahsts of America and
their Times." It is in two octavo volumes and con
tains over a thousand pages. For some twenty
years the author had this work in mind, and as
he could find time from his official duties he pre
pared for its pubhcation. But long before he had any
thought of authorship, and indeed from his earhest
youth, he was himself in course of preparation for
the task. Remote as the subject may seem to this
generation, it was the great subject of family
history and table talk in the home of young
Egerton Ryerson. His father. Col. Joseph Ryerson,
when only fifteen years of age, joined the royal
army on the breaking out of the American Revo
lution in 1775. About eighteen months later he
received an ensign's commission as a reward for
distinguished service. And soon after that his skiU
and energy and daring secured the further pro
motion to a heutenancy in the Prince of Wales
Regiment. Throughout the war he fought under
the royal standard and at the close of the war
in 1783, when Great Britain acknowledged the
independence of the United States, Joseph Ryerson
and his brother Samuel left the young repubUc
to seek new homes under the old flag in that
true North that had remained loyal to the empire.
The brothers went first to New Brunswick, and
afterwards removed to Ontario, or Upper Canada,
274

LOYALISTS OF AMERICA
as it was then called, where they settled on lands
awarded to them by the government in consid
eration of their services and sacrifices in the cause
of a united empire. Then came the experiences
of pioneer settlers in the Canadian wilderness, the
joumeyings and toils and privations, the enterprise
and success, the simple life, the neighbourly help
fulness and generous hospitality of the good old
times. These aU were famihar to Egerton Ryerson,
as they came to him fresh from the fountains of
household talk, or as they were matters of personal
experience. The manner in which Dr. Ryerson teUs the story
of the United Empire Loyalists and their times, is
strongly suggestive of the manner in which he
became famihar with the facts. His work is not
history, such as we think of it from the examples
of our great historians. The scenes and events are
seen at short distance, and the reader is left to
supply proportion and perspective to the narrative.
But if the enchantment that distance lends is want
ing, we find ourselves carried away by a new
enchantment back into the closest contact with the
persons and events described. We seem to hsten to
the story as it faUs in the twihght from the hps of
the sturdy old United Empire Loyahsts and their
brave wives and children. We catch the tones of
strife, and pain, and pathos, and humour, and we
lend ourselves to this new enchantment with no
less pleasure than we do to that of the grand
275

EGERTON RYERSON
panorama of Gibbon and the briUiant pictures of
Macaulay. There is, however, a distinct historic value in
this work of Dr. Ryerson's in that it has helped to
qualify and correct an opinion that has obtained
too widely even amongst Canadians and English
men — the opinion that the English people were all
wrong in the unhappy struggle of the American
revolution, and the colonists all right. In his at
tempt to change what was to many of his readers
a fixed opinion. Dr. Ryerson thought it necessary
to produce copious documentary evidence to prove
that the prevailing impressions were seriously at
fault. The following is his apology for this method —
a method that is to some readers tedious enough : — ¦
"The United Empire Loyahsts were the losing
party; their history has been written by their ad
versaries and strangely misrepresented. In the vin
dication of their character I have not off'ered
assertion against assertion; but in correction of
unjust and untrue assertions I have off'ered the
records and documents of the actors themselves,
and in their own words. To do this has rendered
my history to a large extent documentary, instead
of being a mere popular narrative. The many fic
tions of American writers wiU be found corrected
and exposed in the following volumes, by authori
ties and facts which cannot be successfully denied.
In thus availing myself so largely of the proclama
tions, messages, addresses, letters and records of
276

THE LOYALISTS VINDICATED
the times when they occurred, I have only foUowed
the example of some of the best historians and
biographers." It is pleasing to note that the latest and best
of the American historians themselves have come
round to views substantiaUy the same as those of
Dr. Ryerson on some of the important issues in the
history of the American revolution. And especiaUy
do they, in just and generous spirit, maintain that
the men who staked aU and lost all for the integrity
of the empire were in numbers far more consider
able than had long been supposed, and that they
were in standing and character of the very best in
the colonies. Dr. Ryerson does not undertake any
defence of the conduct of the English government.
On the contrary he condemns it in strong terms.
He maintains, however, that the bad policy of
compulsion was not that of the English people but
of the king and of a court party whose overthrow
was desired by the mass of the Enghsh people and
whose success would have been as great a disaster
to England as it would have been to the colonies.
The true thought of England found expression in
the words of Chatham and Burke and not in the
message of the king and his ministers. Neither does
Dr. Ryerson blame the colonists for resisting the
attempt to subvert their hberties. He rather com
mends them for it, even to the length of taking up
arms as a last resort. But he does blame them for
their secession from the empire when further patience
277

EGERTON RYERSON
and forbearance would inevitably have secured aU
their rightful demands — and their demands were in
the main rightful. Moreover this would have been
secured with the good wiU and assistance of their
kin beyond the sea from whom the colonists derived
their English love of hberty, and without the help
of their French allies, who were actuated by the
hate of England rather than by the love of America.
The part of Dr. Ryerson's book which treats of
the American revolution seems to be whoUy in
favour of those who maintain that war is always a
blunder and a crime. But we are left in some
uncertainty in this case as to which party is entitled
to the bad preeminence as blunderers and criminals.
We still ask ourselves sometimes what might
have been if the counsels of Edmund Burke in
England and Joseph GaUoway in America had
prevailed, and the whole British people had pre
sented a united front against aU falsehood and
oppression. But the God of battles, the God of aU
the earth, ruled otherwise. His thoughts were not
our thoughts, neither were our ways His ways. We
submit to His ruling, and yet we trust that He was
in those troublous times leading His people by
ways they knew not to the larger and more stead
fast achievement of both law and hberty for aU
the nations.
That portion of Dr, Ryerson's work which treats
of the United Empire Loyahsts in their pioneer
Canadian hfe has always been interesting, but in
278

PIONEER LIFE
our times there is a new awakening of interest in
the subject. We are now far enough away from the
times of the first settlers to find a certain quaint-
ness in aU that was theirs, and we are also in
danger of losing many of the traditions of those
times if we do not speedUy secure in some way the
coUections and recoUections of those who stood in
closest connections with the past. Dr. Ryerson's
book is of special value to Canadians from this
point of view. It is written by a maker and the son
of a maker of Canada, And if it has something of
the irregularity of aU such early things, it is fuU of
the spirit of hberty and law and truth, and buoyant
with the breezy strength that makes "this Canada
of ours" so dear to aU Canadians.

279

CHAPTER XIX
LATER CHURCH WORK AND CLOSING DAYS
AFTER his appointment to the office of chief
-^^ superintendent of education. Dr. Ryerson stiU
maintained both his connection with and his active
influence and leadership in the Methodist con
ference. In that influence he was closely associated
with his two elder brothers, the Revs. John and
WUham Ryerson. The former down to his death
in 1878, was respected by the whole conference
for his eminent gifts as a legislator and ad
ministrator of Methodist polity. AU three were
active and able promoters of the reunion of the
British with the Canadian Wesleyans which took
place in 1847, and in the union of the Lower
Canada District which took place in 1854. These
various unions as weU as the growth of the
church introduced new elements and new leader
ship into the church in which three parties might
now be distinctly traced. The British members of
the conference with such men as Dr. Wood, Dr.
Rice and Dr. Evans as prominent representatives
constituted an able class of preachers, strongly
conservative of aU the views and usages of Enghsh
Methodism. A thoroughly Canadian and progres
sive section of the conference was led and repre-
281

EGERTON RYERSON
sented by such men as the Hurlburts, James
EUiott, Jeff'ers and Spenser ; while a more con
servative Canadian section was represented by
the Ryersons, Green, Jones, and Rose, with such
younger men as Sanderson and NeUes. It would
not be right to call these sections of the confer
ence parties in the modern sense of the term, for
there was no organization or pledged foUowing;
and in aU the sections there were many men of
such strong individuahty that they foUowed no
man. But history had given to each of these
sections its pecuhar tendency and character so
definitely that the attitude of each on any great
question might be safely predicted. The Ryersons,
with the more conservative Canadians, were in
general a mediating influence between the British
and the more radical Canadians, and in that way
did not a httle to bring about and cement the unity
of the body.
But in 1854 an incident occurred which for a
time made Dr. Ryerson appear as the most ex
treme of radicals in Methodist pohty, and even
threatened to sever his connection with the con
ference. An intimate friend, a man whose Method
ist lineage reached back to John Wesley's day,
a man of spotless Christian character and hfe, and
one active and useful in many fields of Christian
work was " dropped " from church membership for
non-attendance at class. The circumstance was at
once so painful, and, though according to the letter
282

THE CLASSMEETING
of the law as well as the practice of the time, so
anomalous from the broader point of view, that Dr,
Ryerson took up the question with great earnest
ness, pubhshed a pamphlet on the subject, and
when his views were not sustained by the majority
of the conference, emphasized his protest by tender
ing his resignation as a minister of the church. In
his pamphlet he claimed that membership in the
Christian church was a sacred right as inviolable as
the rights of citizenship and only forfeited by posi
tive vprong doing. He held that now that Method
ism had assumed the status and responsibilities of a
church, a condition of membership which was
estabhshed for a society in the church was no
longer the proper test of true church membership,
which should be based only upon the requirements
of the New Testament, Beyond this he also pressed
the right of aU baptised children to more definite
recognition and admission to the fuU privileges of
church membership,
Dr, Ryerson's presentation of the case made at
the time a deep impression upon the younger mem
bers of the conference. It certainly contained large
elements of truth which were obviously neglected
by the Methodism of that day. These truths were
emphasized by the constant exercise of a somewhat
arbitrary power to drop members from the church
roU by simply omitting their names in the copying
of the list to a new page at the end of the quarter,
Wesley's regulations required that this should be
283

EGERTON RYERSON
done only after the cases had been examined in the
leaders' meeting and admonition had been duly
given. But even this safeguard was now very largely
omitted. In the majority of cases where the mem
ber had grown careless and no longer valued his
position and privilege as a member of the church,
it might be that no substantial injustice was done.
It was but the lopping off' of dead branches which
would in time fall off' themselves if they had not
aheady done so. But in seasons of ecclesiastical
convulsion both in Canada and in England this had
without doubt been used as an easy way of getting
rid of troublesome persons. On the other hand, up
to this time both in Canada and in the old coun
try Methodism laid the emphasis in aU her work
upon the revival as the important means of fiUing
the ranks of her membership, and upon the class
meeting as the manifestation of a hving Christian
experience. To admit as co-ordinate or even super
ior to these two fundamentals, the use of catechu
men classes and a permanent roU of membership
conditioned upon the maintenance of a consistent
Christian life, appeared to the old country Method
ists and to the more conservative Canadians, and
even to many who ranked as progressives, but were
intensely earnest in their religious spirit, a most
serious forsaking of the old ways. Strong pamphlets
were written in reply to Dr, Ryerson's tract, and
one important truth was brought into prominence,
viz,, that Christian feUowship was in the Apostohc
284

W. M, PUNSHON
church a co-ordinate means of grace with the Word
or teaching of the apostles, the stated seasons of
prayer, and the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's Supper. It was recognized as a scriptural
ordinance and not simply as a human and pru
dential institution. On the other hand, from that
date onward the legislation of Canadian Methodism
moved steadily in the direction of more ample
provision and more careful eff'ort to gather the
chUdren into the church, and also in the direction
of more careful guarding of the sacred right of
church membership until finaUy the class meeting
has been placed on a par with the other scriptural
means of grace as a condition of membership in
the church.
In 1866-7, while making an educational tour
of Great Britain and Europe, Dr. Ryerson was
once more brought into close touch with Enghsh
Methodism, and especially with the late honoured
WiUiam Morley Punshon, then at the height of
his fame as a pulpit orator. The acquaintance
ripened into fast friendship and resulted in Mr.
Punshon's devoting his services for the benefit
of Canadian Methodism for the five years foUowing
the summer of 1868, perhaps the most eff'ective
period of his pulpit and platform work. The impulse
given to Canadian Methodism by this term of
service can never be fully estimated. He began by
attracting crowds of all classes of the population to
the old, and hitherto often despised Methodist
285

EGERTON RYERSOJ^
chapels. Easily outranking in oratorical powers the
men of aU other churches, he gave to Methodism an
acknowledged status, corresponding to her superior
numbers and rapidly increasing wealth and social
position. With such a man in their pulpits even
men of the world were no longer ashamed to be
called Methodists. He made the Methodists respect
themselves, and inspired them in all parts of the
country with the ambition to erect places of worship
commensurate with the work which they were
called in the providence of God to perform. He
met a crisis in the aff'airs of Victoria CoUege by
helping to establish that institution on the firm
foundation of purely voluntary support. He at
tracted the attention of all branches of Methodism
to the larger body, and by his relations to England
smoothed the way to those needed adjustments
which removed aU obstacles to union and finaUy
resulted in the consolidation of Canadian Metho
dism, first in part in 1874 and in full in 1883.
Into all this work of his chosen friend, Dr,
Ryerson entered with the fire and enthusiasm of
youth, mingled with the sagacity and wise experi
ence of age. It became a favourite saying of his that
one of his most important works for his church and
country was the bringing of Mr. Punshon to Can
ada. With this new inspiration of church life
throughout Canadian Methodism, the fifty years'
services of Dr. Ryerson for his native land began to
be estimated at their true value; while his wisdom
286

METHODIST UNION
and experience as a legislator placed him in the
forefront of the negotiations for the first union. To
him no more congenial task could be assigned than
the heahng of these breaches, which had all occurred
in his own hfetime and as the result of struggles
in which he himself had borne a prominent part;
and when in 1874 the first stage of success was
reached, he was by the united voice of aU parties to
the union, placed in the chair of the first general con
ference of united Canadian Wesleyan Methodism.
In the constitution of the united church, over
which Dr. Ryerson was thus called to preside, two
great principles were incorporated which had not
previously obtained in the larger bodies composing
the union. These were lay representation in the
supreme assembly of the church, and a representa
tive general conference for legislation, and the
administration of the common connexional work of
missions, education and religious literature. It was
into this body alone that lay representation was
introduced, the executive pastoral functions con
tinuing in the annual conferences whose rights were
very carefully guarded. In the hands of these
annual courts, and their subordinate courts, district
and circuit or station, the administration of the
general work of the church was vested. Four de
partments, missions, education, book and pubhshing
interests, and the support of worn-out ministers and
widows were placed under separate bodies corporate,
and administered by boards constituted by the
287

EGERTON RYERSON
general conference in accordance with their several
corporate charters. The president of the general
conference presided in these boards, but exercised
no general pastoral function in the church at large.
This form of organization continued for nine
years, or until the completion of the second union
in 1883, and was presided over by Dr. Ryerson
from 1874 to 1878. From the beginning it was
clearly seen that the sohdarity and connexional
spirit of the whole church were seriously imperilled
by such a constitution. Even uniformity in the
administration of the law and discipline of the
church could scarcely be secured where the annual
presidency changed yearly, and where, as in the
east and west, historic traditions and usages had
been somewhat diff'erent. The compactness, and,
within the law of the discipline, the complete
autonomy of the annual conferences, gave them,
on the other hand, great efficiency in the building
up of all local interests, and under strong leadership
could easily make them a unit in their vote and
influence in the general conference. The one in
fluence to counterbalance these strong tendencies
was the strength of the men at the head of the
general conference administration, and their ability
to reach the whole church at least every year.
The foUowing extract from a letter to Dr, Ryer
son from the late Dr. Punshon wiU iUustrate this
point: — "I am looking with some sohcitude to the
result of the appeal to the quarterly meetings
288

VISIT TO ENGLAND
on the union question. I hope it wUl be carried,
though your modifications of the scheme do not
quite meet my approval, as one who would like
to see a statesman's view taken of things. I do not
see the bond of cohesion twenty years hence when
those who are now personaUy known to and there
fore interested in each other, have passed off' the
stage. Then the general conference wUl meet as
perfect strangers, having hardly a common interest
but that of a common name, and as there are
no general superintendents who know all the con
ferences there wiU not be, as in the States, any hnk
to bind them together."
The history of the first and even of the second
quadrennium was on these accounts very much
of the nature of an experiment, and did not afford
to Dr. Ryerson such an opportunity as would have
made his large experience and great administrative
abihty most widely useful to the church. But as
opportunity off'ered he gave most freely of his
abUity to the services of the church, and was found
once more not only presiding over the great church
boards and attending their great anniversary meet
ings, but also occupying the prominent pulpits of
the church to lend assistance both in connexional and
local work. His work in this way and still more that
of his successor, the eloquent Dr. Douglas, did much
to prepare the way for conferring larger powers on
the chief executive officer at the second union.
One of the most interesting and important duties
289

EGERTON RYERSON
imposed upon Dr. Ryerson by the general confer
ence was a visit to England as representative of the
Methodist Church of Canada to the British Wes
leyan Methodist Conference. This mission he ac
comphshed in the summer of 1876. Forty-three
years earher he had occupied a similar position for
the first time, and thrice since he had been deputed
to the same honourable duty. On this last visit his
dignified and venerable appearance, his courteous
manners, his eloquent and impressive address, and
above aU, the rich fulness of matter furnished by
the experience of fifty years in the Christian minis
try all combined to make his appearance before
the conference an unusuaUy marked event.
Apart from his duties as representative, his time
in England was largely occupied in the coUection
of material for the completion of his last great
work, the history of the United Empire Loyahsts,
to which we have aheady referred. Visiting the
London annual conference assembled in Guelph
there was laid upon him another hterary labour, in
response to which he prepared a most valuable
volume entitled the " Epochs of Canadian Metho
dism," also already referred to in these pages.
There was now wanting but one year before the
next assembly of the general conference, and aheady
its important interests were engaging his earnest
attention. His experience had deepened the con
viction of the necessity of some form of general
superintendency by which the community of interest
290

CHURCH POLITY
and unity of action of the whole church might
be more fuUy maintained. At the same time in the
several conferences there were forming strong demo
cratic tendencies and most pronounced opposition
to any policy of greater centralization. The final
conflict on this point did not take place until
after Dr. Ryerson's death. But even as early as 1878
the opposing forces were cohering into defined
parties and pohcies under able and active leader
ship. The general conference held in Montreal in
1878 was thus one of significant importance, start
ing as it did some of the movements which almost
suddenly culminated in action, and in the union of
the several annual and two general conferences
of 1882 and 1883, Before these years with their
strenuous conflict and victory for union and greater
solidarity arrived. Dr. Ryerson had passed to his
rest. It is therefore a matter of greater interest to
trace his active part in the legislation of the pre
ceding conference of 1878 which proved to be his
last general conference.
As retiring president he opened the conference
with an address in which, after sketching the history
and growth of Methodism during his fifty years of
ministerial life, he thus refers to the changes which
he regards as necessary for its eff'ective constitu
tion : — " I doubt not you will deem it necessary to
revise and improve the system of the transfer of
the preachers from one part of the conferential
work to another when judged necessary, as the
291

EGERTON RYERSON
experiment of a transfer committee introduced four
years ago has proved cumbrous, expensive and in
efficient. Equally, if not more important will it be
for you to supply some principle or authority of
connexional unity, as at present our connection
consists of a mere congeries of co-ordinate annual
conferences, and your president is the mere chair
man of the general conference and is not even
a member of any annual conference except that
from which he happens to have been elected. The
oneness and unity of the body of the church ob
viously requires not merely a figurehead, but a real
head, hke that of the natural body, as illustrated
by the example of the Methodist church both in
England and in the United States,"
The two points thus referred to were intimately
related. The men who are called from one part of
the work to another are generaUy the men of mark.
They become known in all parts of the church. By
their personal knowledge of the diff'erent sections
and great centres of the work, they acquire a
broader interest and a wider outlook than if they
spent their whole life in a single conference and
were always identified with its interests. Nothing is
more conducive to the unity of interest and to
broad sympathy in all parts of the church than this
free circulation of the strongest men throughout
the work. If they breathe the free air of the west,
if they feel the full life of the great cities with their
manifold moral need, if they come into contact
292

SUPERINTENDENCY
with the great problems of diff'erent races and
faiths, if from the seaports of the east they learn to
look out upon the whole world, they cannot but
carry with them throughout the church the influ
ence of this varied hfe, and so bring its various
sections into sympathy with each other. A general
superintendency brings the power of one man to
bear upon this problem of unification ; a free trans
fer brings the power of scores of such to bear in
the same direction. At best, the general superin
tendent can be but a passing visitor. The trans
ferred pastor, on the other hand, remains long
enough both to take in and to transmit the spirit
of his successive environments.
But, accustomed as Dr. Ryerson had been all
his hfe to strong leadership and central govern
ment, the superintendency appeared to him at
present the most important need of the church.
Two facts since demonstrated by history were not
then so fuUy manifest. Individual leadership was
weakening. The great leaders of the past, men who
had entered the ministry in the twenties and the
thirties were on the eve of passing. Ryerson him
self. Green, CarroU, Douse, Evans, Rose, James
Elliott, George Young, J. H. Robinson, Borland,
were members of a general conference for the last
time, Lachlin Taylor was present only as a visitor,
and Asahel Hurlburt, elected a member, died
before the session. The younger men, even if equal
in ability, could not wield the same influence in the
293

EGERTON RYERSON
larger sphere and over men who were more nearly
their equals in inteUectual power. On the other
hand, constitutional forces were increasing in in
fluence and becoming far more powerful and im
portant than individual men. The transfer system
and the status and attitude of the annual conference
were thus more important questions than the gen
eral superintendency, and as the result has proved
much more difficult to solve.
Early in the conference Dr. Ryerson gave notice
of motion on the subject of a virtual superintend
ency as foUows : — " That the president of the
general conference shaU devote his time, as far
as possible, in visiting every part of the work ; that
he shall be considered a member of each of the
several annual conferences, and when present at
their sessions shaU preside over their proceedings;
and that the president of each annual conference
shall preside over its proceedings in the absence of
the president of the general conference."
A discussion of this resolution resulted only in
provision for such assistance to the president of the
general conference as woiUd enable him to give
more time to travel throughout the church, but
gave him no status in the annual conference. The
subject of transfers was taken up by younger legis
lators but no very substantial progress was made
towards its solution. Both of these important ques
tions thus stood over for the second union.
The close of the general conference was virtuaUy
294

LAST DAYS
the close of Dr. Ryerson's active ministerial hfe. In
1879 after fifty-four years' active work, the longest
period on record in Canadian Methodism, he took
his place on the list of superannuates, being now in
the seventy-sixth year of his age. His remaining
days were spent in the quiet of his home near the
scene of his life work, and in visits to the home
of his boyhood and to his aged brother. As strength
permitted he continued his hterary work almost
to the last, often assisted by younger friends who
coimted it a privilege to be associated with a great
and good man in the closing labours of his hfe.
Into the beautiful scenes of aflPectionate tenderness
and Christian hope of these last days it would not
become this work to enter. They belong rather to
the field of personal and rehgious biography. But
we cannot forbear to copy the words in which his
lifelong friend and co-labourer. Dr. Hodgins, de
picts the final scene: —
"To such a man death had no terrors, the heart
had no fear. It was cheering and comforting to
hsten to him (as I often did alone) and to hear him
speak of his near departure as of one preparing for
a journey, ceasing from duty in order to be ready
to be conveyed away and then resuming it when
the journey was over. Thus he spoke of the time
of his departure as at hand, and he was ready for
the messenger when he should caU for him. He
spoke of it trustfuUy, hopefuUy, cheerfuUy, neither
anxious nor fearful, and yet, on the other hand,
295

EGERTON RYERSON
neither elated nor fuU of joy. But he knew in
whom he had trusted, and was persuaded, and
was not afraid of evU tidings either of the dark
vaUey or of the river of death. He knew whom
he believed, and was persuaded that He was able
to keep that which he had committed unto Him
against that day.
"Thus the end drew near, and with it, as the
outward man began to fail, the feehng of unwaver
ing trust and confidence was deepened and strength
ened. At length hearing failed, and the senses one
by one partiaUy ceased to perform their functions.
Then to him were fully reahzed the inspired words
of Solomon : 'Desire failed, and the silver cord was
loosed, the golden bowl was broken, the pitcher
broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken
at the cistern.' Gradually the weary wheels of hfe
stood stUl, and at seven o'clock on Sunday morning
February 19th, 1882, in the presence of his loved
ones and dear friends, gently and peacefully the
spirit of Egerton Ryerson took its flight."
After such a hfe the pageant of a funeral and
the pomp of monumental grandeur are empty
trifles. But to honour him in his death, as he had
served them in his life the whole country seemed
assembled in its representatives. Government house,
legislative halls, the bench of judges, university
and academic authorities, ecclesiastical dignitaries
of aU names, thousands from the schools which he
had founded, and above aU, the common people
296

HONOURED IN DEATH
for whose cause he never failed to stand, foUowed
to the grave the remains of the great Canadian
who had hved so faithfuUy and weU for his country.
" Hush, the dead march wails in the people's ears ;
The dark crowd moves, and there are sobs and tears ;
The black earth yawns, the mortal disappears ;
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust ;
He is gone who seemed so great, —
Gone ; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own
Being here, and we beheve him
Something far advanced in state.
And that he wears a truer crown
Than any wreath that man can weave him."

297

INDEX

Abuses of colonial constitution,
32
Act of 1850, 183
Act of 1853, 223 ; separate school
provisions, 224
Act of 1870-71, 204
American War of Independence,
277
Ancestors, 1
Anglican church, prestige in Can
ada, 39
Anglican separate schools, 243
Architecture of schools, 201
Aristocracy, a Canadian proposed,
34
Arthur, Sir George, 118
B
Baujwin, leader in reform, 66 ;
government resigns, 122 ; opposes
Metcalfe, 128 ; first university bill,
148 ; first defended by Ryerson,
151 ; second university bill, 168 ;
sustains Ryerson, 182
BidweU, leader in reform, 66

Causes of Methodist misfortunes
102
Charter of King's College, 72 ; pro
visions of, 73 ; discussed by Ryer
son, 78
Charbonnel, Bishop, 219
Christian Guardian founded, 82
Church of England offers him
position, 17
Church and State principles dis
cussed, 77
Civilizing the Indians, 23
Classical studies, 5
Class meeting controversy, 282
Clergy Reserves founded, 47 ; first
opposition to, 47 ; and Church of
Scotland, 49; to be sold and
funded in England, 60, 72, 74;
conflict renewed, 114, 119
Cobourg, appointment to, 25
Collegiate Institutes, 262
Compulsory attendance, 206
Constitution of Upper Canada, 30 ;
evolution of, 126
Controversy, engages in, 19 ; con
tinued, 26
Conversion, 6

CAMP-aiEETINGS, 11
Canadian Methodism, its epochs,
271
Carlyle, 7
Cartwright's influence on Strachan,
37

D
Defects of schools in 1843, 1G7
Defence of Metcalfe, 129
Depository founded, 183; abolished,
210.
Diary, 16
299

EGERTON RYERSON

Difficulties arising from the union
of English and Canadian Metho
dism, 96
District schools, failure of, 66
Draper, Ryerson's letters to, 100 ;
opposes Baldwin's bill, 149 ; uni
versity bill, 153
Durham, Lord, his policy approved,
115-17, 121 E
Ecclesiastical chart, statistics in
1820, 61
Editor of the Christian Guardian,
83, 115
Education, effort to control, 62 ; de
velopment of, 68 ; based on
morals and religion, 172
Efiiciency an important requisite in
schools, 171
English Methodism : looking to Can
ada, 87 ; encouraged by Lieuten-
an1>Governor Maitland, 87 ; can
cels agreement as to fields of
labour, 91
Episcopal Methodism in Canada, 99
Equal rights, Ryerson defender of,
44
Established Church to be endowed,
34
Estimate of Ryerson's work, 265
Examination, intermediate, 264

" Family compact," not to return,
130
Free schools, 190 G
General conference, 287
Graded schools, 194
300

Grammar schools, 247; acts of 1807,
247 ; acts of 1831 and 1839, 248 ;
fund, 249 ; inferior work of in
1868, 250 ; formed into a system,
251 ; act of 1863, 261 ; inspectors,
253 ; report of George Paxton
Young, 256; act of 1866,268;
programme of studies, 269 ; girls
admitted, 259 ; entrance examina
tion, 260 ; legislation of 1874,
261 ; statistics 1874, 267
H
Hamilton Central school, 196
Hardships of early settlers, 3
Hardships oC missionary life, 21
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 112; dis
appoints expectations, 113
High schools, 260-2
Hincks's university act, 159
Hind, H. Y., 174
Hodgins, J. George, 179, 202, 271
Home, he leaves, 13
I
Illness, 14
Imperial interest supreme, 33
''Impressions": Ryerson's in Eng
land, 97 ; effect of on Methodism,
97 ; effect on W. L. Mackenzie, 98
Indian missionary, 20
Inspection of schools, 199
Irish national schools, 168
K
King's College, charter, 72, 73, 78 ;
opened, 147

Last days of Ryerson, 296

INDEX

Lay representation in conference,
287
Leaders, of reform, 65 ; of Canadian
Methodism, 282
Libraries, 186
Literary work of Dr. Ryerson, 269
Loyalists of America, 274
M
Macdonald's university bill, 165
Malcolm Cameron's bill, 181
Massachusetts school system, 168
Metcalfe controversy, 126
Method of constructing a school
system adopted by Ryerson, 168
Methodists, he joins the, 12
Methodism, connected with United
States, 38 ; U. E. Loyalist, 38 ;
without civil rights, 40 ; Cana
dian, becomes independent, 81
Methodist Union, 287
Minister of Education, 211
Ministry, he enters the, 16
Missionary work, methods of, 22
Missionaries, Wesleyan, to Canada,
89
Mother's influence, 2
Municipal institutions founded, 67
Museum, educational, 185
N
New principles introduced by Ryer
son, 170
Normal school founded, 173
Normanby, Lord, letters to, 120

Parliament and Crown, relations
of, 124
Parties in England, 109
Party life created, 64
Paternalism in school system, 209
People aroused to seek reform, 63
Perry, leader of reform party, 66
Petition, to the House of Commons,
75 ; to British parliament, borne
by Ryerson, 108
Pioneer life, 279
Political condition of Upper Canada,
29
Political life, awakened after the
war, 41 ; part of a world-wide
movement, 42
Political ideas of English and Cana
dian Methodism divergent, 93
Power of the Assembly limited,
65
Power, Bishop, 219
President of the general conference,
287
Progress by gradual change, 203
Progress of education under Ryer
son's administration, 266
Programme of studies for high
schools, 263
Prussian school system, 168
Punshon, W. Morley, 285

Queen's College founded, 136, 147 ;
approves of federation, 150

O
Opposition to school system, 180
Ormiston, Dr. William, 173, 253

R
Radical tendencies opposed by
Ryerson, 110
301

EGERTON RYERSON

Reform movement in Canada, origin
of, 42 ; three-fold, 43
Reform, struggle begins, 61 ; ma
jority in assembly, 64
Religious services in the first settle
ments, 9
Religious diversity of the popula
tion, 36
Religious interests in reform, 66
Religion in education, 246
Report, Ryerson's last, 266
Representative to English confer
ence, 94, 240
Responsible government, principles
of, 122-3
Robertson, T. Jaffray, 173, 263
Rolph, leader of reform, 65
Ryerson, not a politician, 44, 107 ;
held no radical theories, 46 ; re
plies to Strachan's sermon, 68 ;
second reply to Strachan, 76 ;
position in 1836-7, 114 ; view of
Macdonald bill, 157
Ryerson, Col. Joseph, 274
Ryerson, Rev. John, 273

S
Sangster, J. H., 174-180
School days, 4
School system, 163, 176 ; adapted
to provincial government, 205
School houses, 193
Schools : first district schools, 63
first schools of the people, 55
Common School Bill, 1816, 66
state of, in 1843, 164^6
Secular schools, 217 ; Brown, Mac
kenzie and Cameron, 224
Separate school question, 216
Separation of Methodist bodies, 106
302

Separate schools : Ryerson's policy,
225 ; Brown's view, 226 ; via
media, 227 ; second Toronto case,
228 ; Charbonnel's demands, 229 ;
the Tache hill, 231 ; as a political
question, 232 ; pressed into opera
tion, 234 ; Ryerson's report, 236 ;
Scott's bills, 236 ; permanently
established, 239 ; merely a con
cession, 241 ; British North
America Act, 243
Simcoe's policy, 36
Statistics of Methodism in Canada,
1842, 101
Strachan, comes to Canada, 36 ; be
gins ecclesiastical and political
career, 46 ; sermon in 1825, 67
"Story of my life," 270
Studies in jurisprudence and philo
sophy, 12
Studies of foreign system, 202
Superintendency in Methodism, 288
Sydenham Lord, 122

Tach^ separate school bill, 231
Teacher in grammar school, 13
Teachers improved qualification, 192
Teaching, a profession, 207
Terms of union of Methodism, 92
Text books for schools, 183
Thomson, Mr. Poulett, (Lord Syd
enham), 122
Times, letters to on the affairs of
the Canadas, 111
Toronto graded schools, 195
Toronto separate school case, 221
Tours of consultation, 202
"Transfers" in Methodism, 291
Trustees and their powers, 196

INDEX

u
Unfortunate classes in education,
208
Union, of Canadian and English
Methodism, 92 ; dissolved, 100
Union schools, 264 ; defects, 255
University question, 133 ; compli
cated with the question of a state
church, 134 ; discussed by the
legislature, 136 ; before the Brit
ish Commons, 136 ; Baldwin's
biU of 1843, 148 ; taking more
radical form, 166; Draper's bill,
153; Macdonald's bill, 156; Bald
win act, 168 ; Hincks act, 169 ;
conflict of 1860, 160
Upper Canada Academy, 84, 136 ;
charter, 140

Vested rights of Roman Catholics,
218

Victoria College, founded, 135 ;
assisted by Ryerson's pen, 137 ;
charter and funds secured by
Ryerson in England, 139, 140 ;
university powers and first gradu
ates, 141 ; Ryerson petitions
legislature for aid, 143 ; Ryerson
president, 143-6 ; relation to
Baldwin's first university bill, 160
Vindication of the U. E. Loyalists,
277
Visits to England, 94, 100, 111,
139, 285, 290
W, X, Y, Z
War of 1812, 41
Wilson, speaker of house of assem
bly, 65
Yonge street circuit, appointed to,
18
Young, George Paxton, report on
grammar schools, 256

303

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS

THE MAKERS OF CANADA
BALDWIN
LAFONTAINE HINCKS
RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT

BY
STEPHEN LEACOCK

TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1912

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada
in the year 1907 by Morang & Co., Limited, in the
Department of Agriculture

PREFACE
IN the present volume the narrative of personal
biography is subordinated to the record of
pohtical achievement. The name of Robert Baldwin
and that of his distinguished colleague Louis La-
Fontaine wiU always be associated with the words
responsible government. Baldwin was frequently de
rided by his contemporaries as a "man of one idea."
Time has shown that this " one idea " of Robert
Baldwin, — the conception of responsible govern
ment, — has proved the corner-stone of the British
imperial system. It is fitting, therefore, that this brief
account of the pohtical career of Robert Baldwin
and his associates should centre round the evolution
of responsible government in the province of Can
ada. In other works of the present series the periods
of Canadian history preceding and following the
LaFontaine-Baldwin administrations have already
been treated. The biography of Papineau, already
published, and the forthcoming biography of
WiUiam Lyon Mackenzie offer an ample ac
count of the stirring events of the rebeUion. Sir
John Bourinot in his Lord Elgin and Mr. Lewis in
his George Brown have told the story of the ad
ministration of Hincks and Morin after the retire
ment of their former chiefs. The present narrative is
therefore especiaUy concerned with the two LaFon-
ix

PREFACE
taine-Baldwin ministries and with the great
pohtical controversy during the administration of
Sir Charles Metcalfe.
The author desires to express his sincere thanks
for the very valuable assistance and useful sug
gestions received from Dr. James Bain, Librarian
of the Toronto Public Library, and from Mr.
Charles Gould, Librarian of McGiU University.
The author owes much also to the kindness of
Dr. A. G. Doughty, C.M.G., Archivist of the
Dominion Government. STEPHEN LEACOCK.
McGill University,
July 31st, 1906.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I Page
INTRODUCTORY ..... 1
CHAPTER II
THE MODERATE REFORMERS AND THE CANADIAN
REBELLION , . . , .23
CHAPTER III
THE UNION OF THE CANADAS ... 61
CHAPTER IV
LORD SYDENHAM AND RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT . 73
CHAPTER V
THE FIRST LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN MINISTRY . 113
CHAPTER VI
THE COMING OF METCALFE . . . .165
CHAPTER VII
THE METCALFE CRISIS . . . .199
xi

CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII
IN OPPOSITION . . . . .249
CHAPTER IX
THE SECOND LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN MINISTRY . 281
CHAPTER X
THE REBELLION LOSSES BILL . . .305
CHAPTER XI
THE END OF THE MINISTRY . . .336
INDEX . . . . . .363

301

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
FROM the time of the surrender of Canada by
the capitulation of Vaudreuil at Montreal in
1760, the government of the province presented an
unsolved problem, whose difficulties finally culmin
ated in the outbreak of 1837. In the beginning the
country was entirely French, an appanage of the
British Crown by right of conquest. Its population,
some seventy thousand in number, thinly spread
along the vaUey of the St. Lawrence, was almost
entirely an agricultural peasantry. Ignorant and
iUiterate as they were, they cherished towards their
Church an unfaihng devotion, while a stubborn pride
of nationality remained with them as a heritage
from the great country from which they had sprung.
Of initial loyalty to the British Crown there could
be no question. Still less could there be any ques
tion of self-government. Military rule was estab
lished as a necessity of the situation. Even when,
in 1764, a year after the final treaty of cession, the
purely military rule was superseded by the institu
tion of an executive council, this body consisted
merely of a group of officials appointed by the gover
nor of the province. Nor is it to be said that this
foma of government was of itself an injustice. The
1

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
inhabitants of French Canada had known nothing
of political rights^ or representative institutions.
Only in rare cases had offices, favour, or promotion
been bestowed upon native Canadians. Even the
Church itself, in spite of its democratic tradition in
favour of capacity and zeal, had withheld all superior
offices from the children of the humble peasantry
of the St. Lawrence. To have instituted among such
a people a system of democratic self-government
on the morrow of the conquest, could only have
ended in chaos and disaster.
The government thus established by royal pro
clamation was systematized and consolidated by
the British parliament through the Quebec Act of
1774. '^ This statute established in Canada a province
of magnificent extent. Northward it extended to the
Hudson Bay Territory; on the south it bordered
New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the
Ohio; westward it reached to where all trace of
civilization ended with the Mississippi River. The
Ohio valley was already dotted here and there in its
forests and open meadow lands with the cabins of
adventurous settlers. Of the rest of Canada the val
ley of the St. Lawrence was the only occupied part.
Thither had come already, since the conquest, a few
British immigrants, for the most part smaU traders^
* Kingsford, History of Canada, Vol. IX., pp. 190 et seq.
' 14 Geo. III., c. 83.
3 See V. Cofiin, The Province of Quebec and the Early American
Revolution (1896), Ch. II. pp. 303 et seq.
2

THE QUEBEC ACT
and needy adventurers. The upper portion of the
province was stiU a wilderness. The Quebec Act
restored to the country the old French civil law, the
" Coutume de Paris," under which it had lived before
the conquest. It retained the English criminal law.
It repeated the guarantee of freedom of worship
already extended to the adherents of the Roman
Catholic Church, and, in permitting to the clergy of
that Church the enjoyment of their "accustomed
dues and rights," it legalized the collection of the
tithe. ^ The government was committed to a gover
nor with a legislative council to be nominated by
the Crown, to which was added by Major-General
Carleton (1776), in accordance with instructions
from England, an executive (or privy) council of
five members. The Act declared it "inexpedient
to call an assembly." Fox, indeed, pleaded in the
House of Commons in favour of representative in
stitutions, but was met with the argument that a
Protestant government could not safely entrust
power to a Roman Catholic legislature.^
It is a disputed point how far the concessions thus
granted to the French were adopted as a means of
preserving the country from the infection of the
revolutionary discontent, widespread in the colonies
of the Atlantic sea-board, and of preventing the
French habitant from making common cause with
1 The tithe was, however, only to he collected from persons professing
the Roman Catholic religion.
2 Sir H. Cavendish, Debates on the Quebec Act, (1839), pp. 246-8.
3

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the malcontents of New England and Virginia.
Such, if not the purpose, was at any rate the
effect of the Act. The pulpits of Massachusetts
were loud with denunciation of the toleration of
popery embodied in the statute. The American
congress (September 5th, 1774) expressed its
alarm in documentary form, and the small British
minority aheady settled in Lower Canada for
warded to England a petition of energetic protest.
The fact that the British government, in the face
of bigoted opposition, passed and maintained the
statute which stands as the charter of religious lib
erty for Roman Catholic Canada, may be said to
have laid the foundation of that firm attachment of
the Canadian French to the Crown, which, after the
lapse of four generations, has become one of the
fundamental factors of the political life of Canada.
The effect of the Act in preventing the adherence
of the habitants to the cause of the American revo
lution is undoubted. The clergy of the province
threw the whole weight of their influence in favour
of the British side. The agitators sent into the
country found but few sympathizers of influence, and
the attempt at military conquest ended in failure.
The issue of the Revolutionary War and the sep
aration of the revolted colonies from Great Britain
had a momentous effect upon the destinies of British
North America. That province now became a haven
of refuge for the distressed Loyalists, who aban
doned the United States in thousands rather than
4

THE LOYALISTS
sever their aUegiance from their mother country. Of
these nearly thirty thousand found their way into
the Maritime Provinces. Others, ascending the St.
Lawrence or coming by Lake Champlain, settled in
the Eastern Townships of Quebec or near to Mont
real itself. Still others, pushing their way up the
river or passing over the rough wagon-trails of the
forest country of New York, embarked on Lake
Ontario to find new homes upon its northern shores.
Liberal grants of land were made. Settlements
sprang up along the Bay of Quints, on the Niagara
frontier, on the Grand River, on the Thames and
as far west as the Detroit River. By the year 1791
there were some thirty thousand settlers in the
districts thus thrown open. The newcomers, im
poverished as most of them were, made excellent
pioneers. Their conviction of the righteousness
of their cause lent vigour to their arduous
struggle with the wilderness. The sound of
the axe resounded amid the stillness of the
pine forest; farmsteads and hamlets arose on the
shores of the lake and beside its tributary streams.
But with the coming of the Loyalists Canada be
came a divided country. The population of the
upper country was British, that of the lower, French.
French law and custom seemed to the new settlers
anomalous and unjust. British Protestantism was
abhorrent to the devout Catholics of French Canada.
The new settlers, too, accustomed to the political
freedom which they had enjoyed in the colonies of
5

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
their origin, chafed under autocratic control, and
in repeated petitions demanded ofthe home govern
ment the privilege of a representative assembly.^
To meet this situation the British parliament
adopted the Constitutional Act of 1791,^ by which
the province was separated into two distinct govern
ments under the names of Upper and Lower Can
ada. It was presumed that a natural solution of the
vexed question of British and French rivalry had
thus been found. " I hope," said Pitt, "that this
settlement will put an end to the competition be
tween the old French inhabitants and the new set
tlers from Britain and the British colonies." Burke
at the same time expressed the opinion that "to
attempt to amalgamate two populations composed
of races of men diverse in language, laws, and cus
toms, was a complete absurdity."^ To each province
was given a legislature consisting of two Houses,
the Lower House, or assembly, being elected by the
people,theUpper, called the legislative council, being
nominated for life by the Crown. By the Crown
also were to be appointed all public officers of each
district, including the governor-general of the two
provinces, the lieutenant-governor who conducted
the administration of Upper Canada, and the
members of the executive councils which aided in
'^Canadian Archives, Q. 24. 1. pp., 76, 232.
2 31 Geo. in. c. 31.
8 See Parliamentary History. Vol. xzvii, p. 1271, Vol. xxxix, pp.
359-469.

THE CONSTITUTIONAL ACT
the administration of each province. The British
parhament reserved to itself the right of imposing
duties for the regulation of navigation and commerce.
The free exercise of the Roman Catholic religion
was again guaranteed. It was further enacted that
the Crown should set apart one-eighth of all the
unallotted Crown land in the province for the main
tenance of a Protestant clergy, a provision which
subseqently entailed the most serious consequences.
The measure was undoubtedly liberal, and at the
time of its passage furnished an instrument of gov-
erment weU suited to the requirements of the situa
tion. It was intended to extend to Canada something
of the degree of political liberty enjoyed by the
people of Great Britain. Its object was declared by
Lord GrenviUe,^ to be to "assimilate the constitu
tion of Canada to that of Great Britain as nearly as
the difference arising from the manners of the
people and from the present situation of the pro
vince will admit." Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe,
speaking to his "parliament" of twenty-three mem
bers in the rough frame-house at Niagara where
first they met, spoke of the new government as
" an image and transcript of the British constitu
tion."^ For some years, indeed, after the adoption
of the new constitution, the government of the
provinces was carried on with reasonable success
1 Letter to Lord Dorchester, Oct. 20th, 1789.
* Consult D. B. Read, lAfe and Times of Governor Simcoe, Ch. XI. and
D. C. Scott, John Graves Simcoe (Makers of Canada Series) (1905), Ch. VI.
7

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
and a fair amount of harmony. Had the constitution
been of a more flexible character and had the con
duct of the administration been adapted to the pro
gressive settlement of the country, its success might
have continued indefinitely. The incoming century
found a contented country;^ wealth and population
were on the increase. A tide of immigration from
Scotland and Ireland turned steadily towards Upper
Canada. Pennsylvania farmers crossed the lakes to
find new homes in the fertile land of the province.
The little hamlet of York, on the site of the old
Indian post of Toronto, became the seat of govern
ment. To the north of it a wide, straight road, caUed
Yonge Street in honour of the secretary of war,
carried the tide of settlement towards Lake Simcoe.
At the head of Lake Ontario, Dundas Street ran
from the settlement at Hamilton to the Thames, and
presently was opened eastward as far as York. The
inhabitants of the province in the year 1811 were
estimated at seventy-seven thousand.^ Into Lower
Canada also British immigrants had come in con
siderable numbers. Ere long it began to appear that
the racial conflict, which it was the intention of the
Act of 1791 to obviate, had but shifted its ground
and was renewed with increasing bitterness in the
province of Lower Canada. The War of 1812, in
which the energies of both French and British set
tlers were absorbed in repelling American invasion,
1 McMullen, History of Canada (1868), pp. 222 et seq.
* J. Bouchette, British Dominions in North America (1832), Vol. I.
p, 108. 8

POLITICAL DIFFICULTIES
stiUed for the time the internal conflict of races.
But with the renewal of peace the political difficul
ties of both Upper and Lower Canada assumed an
increasingly serious aspect.
The political situation in the two provinces in the
twenty years succeeding the peace of 1 815 presented
analogous, though not identical, features. In each of
them the fact that the executive was not under the
control of the representatives of the people con
stituted the main cause of complaint. But in the
Lower Province the situation was aggravated by
the fact that the executive heads of the administra
tion were identified with the interests of the British
minority and opposed to the dominance of the
French-Canadians. Even in Upper Canada, how
ever, the position of affairs was bad enough. The
actual administration of the province was in the
hands of the lieutenant-governor and his executive
council of five, later of seven, members, a whoUy
irresponsible body of placemen appointed by the
Crown from among the judges, public officers and
members of the legislative council. Of the legis
lature itself the Upper House, or legislative council,
was, as aheady said, a nominated body. Under such
circumstances the political control of the colony had
passed into the hands of a privileged class who en
grossed the patronage of the Crown, received hberal
grants of land and were able to bid defiance to the
efforts of the assembly to free itself from oligarchi
cal control 9

JBALUWIJN LAFUJMAIJNJil UIJNUKS
Had the constitution been in any real sense a
"transcript" ofthe constitution of Great Britain, the
assembly might have fallen back upon the power
of the purse as an effective method of pohtical con
trol. But this remedy, under the system in vogue,
was inadequate, owing to the fact that the assembly
possessed only a limited power over the finances of
the colony. The Crown was in enjoyment of a per
manent civil list. Exclusive of the revenue from the
clergy reserve, it had at its disposal a patronage of fifty
thousand pounds a year. I^ocal expenditure within
the province was under the direction of magistrates
appointed by the Crown meeting in Quarter Session.*
The legislative council itself claimed the right to
reject, and even to amend, the money bills passed
by the representatives of the people. Under such
circumstances the House of Assembly found itself
deprived of any effective means of forcing its wishes
upon the administration.^ Quite early in the history
of the period, it had vigorously protested against
the impotence to which it was reduced. In an ad
dress presented to the acting governor in 1818, the
assembly drew attention to the " evil that must re
sult from the legislative and executive functions
being materiaUy vested in the same persons, as is
unfortunately the case in this province, where His
Majesty's executive council is almost wholly com-
^ See in this connection C. Lindsey, lAfe and Times of William
Lyon Mackenzie (1862), Vol. I., pp. 330-2.
2 Kingsford, Vol. IX., pp. 216 et seq.
10

THE FAMILY COMPACT
posed of the legislative body, and consisting only of
the deputy superintendent-general of the Indian
department, the receiver-general and the inspector-
general, the chief-justice, the speaker of the legisla
tive council, and the honourable and reverend chap
lain of that House." The essence of the financial sit
uation appears in the famous Seventh Report ofthe
Committee on Grievances* drawn up in 1835. "Such
is the patronage of the colonial office," it declares,
"that the granting or withholding of supplies is of
no political importance, unless as an indication of
the opinion of the country concerning the character
of the government."
It has become customary to apply to the pri
vileged class who thus engrossed political power and
office in the colony of Upper Canada, the term
Family Compact. The designation itself appears to
be, in strictness, a misnomer, for there existed among
the ruling class no further family relationship than
what might naturally be expected in a community
whose seat of government contained, even in 1830,
only two thousand eight hundred and sixty persons.
But it is undoubted that, from 1815 onwards, the
members ofthe administration with their friends and
adherents formed a distinct pohtical party united
by ties of mutual interest and social cohesion, de-
^ The report was published in detail by M.Reynolds, King's Printer,
Toronto (1835), and contains an index and much valuable material. It
must, of course, be remembered that the report is a document of a par
tisan character, but the quotation in the text above may be accepted aa
representing the situation. 11

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
termined to retain the influence they had acquired,
and regarding the protests of the plainer people of
the province with a certain supercilious contempt.
Nor is it to be supposed that the adherents of the
Family Compact embodied in themselves the very
essence of tyranny. They represented merely,
within their restricted sphere, those principles of class
government and vested interests which were stiU
the dominant political factor in every country of
Europe. Of the high moral quality and sterling pat
riotism of such men as Robinson, the attorney-gen
eral, there can be no doubt. The exaggerated dia
tribes of the indignant Radicals in which the ruling
class figure as the "tools of servUe power,"* are as
wide of the mark as the later denunciations launch
ed against the party of Reform.
The growing agitation in Upper Canada presently
found an energetic leader in WiUiam Lyon Mac
kenzie, a Scotchman of humble parentage. Born
at Springfield in Forfarshire in 1795, he came
in 1820 to try his fortunes in Canada. He set
up in business in a smaU way at the village of
York, removing presently to Dundas. It is typi
cal of the restricted commercial hfe of the time
that Mackenzie and his partner dealt in drugs,
hardware, jewelry, toys, confections, dye stuffs
1 Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate, No. I. Compare the petition pre
pared for presentation to the home government by Robert Fleming
Gourlay, whose agitation in the second decade of the century was
one of the first expressions of the gathering discontent : " Corruption,
indeed, has reached such a height in this province that it is thought no
part of the British empire witnesses the like. "
12

WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE
and paints, and maintained in addition a circulat
ing library. From Dundas, Mackenzie moved to
Queenston. Interested from the first in the politi
cal affairs of the colony, he started in 1824 the
publication of the Colonial Advobate, the first num
ber of which, distributed gratuitously through the
countryside, commenced an unsparing attack upon
the governing class. Its editor, the "westernmost
journalist in the British dominions on the continent
of America," assumed, as he himself subsequently
expressed it, "the office of a pubhc censor." He de
nounced the Family Compact and all its works. He
denounced the jobbery of the public land. He de
nounced the land monopoly of the Church of Eng
land, the lack of schools, the perversion of justice
and the greed of the official class. The appearance of
the Colonial Advocate aided in consolidating the
party of Reform. In the elections of 1824 they car
ried a majority of the seats in the House of As
sembly, a victory which only served to reveal the
impotence of the opposition in the face of the
established system. Dr. Rolph, elected for Middle
sex, the stalwart Peter Perry, member for Lennox
and Addington, and other leaders of the Reform
party, found they could do httle beyond selecting
a farmer speaker of their own liking and passing
resolutions condemning the existing conduct of
affairs. None the less their presence as a majority of
the House remained as a standing protest and threw
into a clearer hght the irresponsible position of the
13

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
executive.* The better to aid their opposition Mac
kenzie moved his printing presses to York. The
virulence of his pen awoke embittered opposition in
return. His printing office was sacked in broad day
light by a gang of young men whom his biographer
has called an "official mob." A lawsuit ensued with
mutual recriminations, followed presently by pro
secutions for libel. Mackenzie, in historic phrase,
denounced the minority party in the assembly as
an "ominous nest of unclean birds," and invited
the people of Upper Canada to sweep them from
the " halls that have been so long and shamefuUy
defiled with their abominations."
The provincial quarrel went from bad to worse.
The election of 1828 again returned a majority of
Reformers, this time including Mackenzie himself.
Resolutions of grievances were presented to the
House. A select committee on grievances, of which
Mackenzie was chairman, was caUed upon to re
port. A new lieutenant-governor in the person of
Sir John Colborne, a tried soldier and a veteran of
Waterloo, appeared on the scene (1828). Him the
assembly hastened to warn against the "unhappy
policy they [the executive council] had pursued in
the late administration." The assembly asserted its
right to the full control of the revenue and de
manded (1830) the dismissal of the executive
counciUors. " Gentlemen," was the curt reply of Sir
^ A list of the members of the assembly is given by Lindsey, ojk
cit. p. 69. 14

PETI'TIONS AND COUNTER-PETITIONS
John, " I thank you for your address." In the
election of 1830, following on the death of George
III, the party of the Compact, aided by an influx
of British immigrants, regained a majority of the
assembly. Mackenzie, elected for the county of
York, was expelled from the House for libel and
branded as a " reptile unworthy of the notice of
any gentleman."* Reelected by his constituents, he
was again expelled and declared disqualified to sit
in the existing parliament, a proceeding which
occasioned wild tumult in the village capital, with
sympathetic meetings in the other settlements of
the colony. The Tory party retaliated, perpetrated
a second attack on the printing office of the
Advocate, and burned Mackenzie in effigy in the
streets of York. Mackenzie, seizing the moment of
martjTdom, sailed for England laden with indig
nant petitions from his constituents and their sym
pathizers, (April, 1832). The signatures on the
documents numbered twenty-five thousand, but
the counter-petitions forwarded by the party of the
Compact were subscribed with twenty-six thousand
names. Mackenzie received at the colonial office a
not unfavourable hearing. Lord Goderich, the co
lonial secretary, forwarded to the colony a cen
sorious despatch, characterized by the indignant
Tories as an "elegant piece of fiddle faddle."
Hagerman, the solicitor-general, was removed
1 A phrase used by Solicitor-General Hagerman. See Colonial Ad
vocate, Dec. 15th, 1831. 15

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
from office, only to be restored when Lord God
erich gave place to Mr. Stanley. Boulton, the
attorney-general, was permanently removed. Be
yond this nothing of account was done by the
home government to remedy the situation in the
colony. Mackenzie on his return again presented
himself to his constituents for election, (December
16th, 1833), only to be again expelled from the
House. The general election of the ensuing year,
(October, 1834), resulted in the return of a major
ity of the Reform party to the House, Mackenzie
being among those then elected. Opposition to the
oligarchical system now became more and more
pronounced. A " Canadian Alhance Society" was
founded at York, (henceforth incorporated as a city
and known as Toronto), whose political programme
opened with the demand for responsible govern
ment and the abolition of the nominated legislative
council. A select committee on grievances, appointed
by the assembly, drew up a voluminous report, in
which the misgovernment of Upper Canada was
scathingly reviewed. Such was the position of affairs
in the province at the time when Sir Francis
Bond Head entered upon his momentous admin
istration. During the same period a stiU more aggravated
situation had been developed in Lower Canada.
Here the conflict represented something more
than a struggle between an office-holding minority
and the excluded masses. It was a conflict inten-
16

LOWER CANADIAN DIFFICULTIES
sified by the full bitterness of racial and religious
antagonism. It was not merely as in Upper Can
ada, (to use the historic phrases of Lord Durham) ,
" a contest between a government and a people ; "
the spectacle presented was that- of " two nations
warring in the bosom of a single state," a " struggle,
not of principles, but of races."* The British min
ority in the province, insignificant in the early
years of the new regime, had grown constantly in
numbers and influence. The incoming of the
United Empire Loyalists and of immigrants from
the mother country had swelled the ranks of a
party which, though smaU in proportion, was de
termined to assert its claims against the prepon
derating race. British merchants controlled the
bulk of the sea-going trade of the colony.^ An
Anglican bishop of Quebec had been appointed
(1793), and an Anglican cathedral erected (1804)
on the site of an ancient convent of the RdcoUets.
The governors of the province looked to the British
party for support, and selected from its ranks the
majority of their legislative and executive coun
cillors. In the minds of the latter the French-
Canadians still figured as a conquered people whose
claims to pohtical ascendency were equivalent to
disloyalty. The blundering patriotism of such a
governor as Craig (1807-11), widened the cleav
age between the rival races and intensified in the
i Report of the Earl of Durham, (Ed. 1902) p. 8.
« D. B. Read, Bebellion of 1837, p. 49. 17

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
minds of the French inhabitants the sentiment of
their national solidarity. Excluded from the control
of the executive government, the French fell back
upon the assembly in which they commanded an
easy and permanent majority. Nor were they,
although in opposition, altogether powerless against
the government. The public revenue of Lower
Canada during the period under review was raised,
in part by virtue of imperial statutes,* in part by
the provincial legislature itself. To these sources of
income were added the "casual and territorial"
revenue of the Crown arising from the Jesuits'
Estates, the postal service, the land and timber sales
and other minor items. The duties raised by the
j imperial government,^ together with the casual and
territorial revenue, were inadequate to meet the
public expenditure, and it was necessary, therefore,
to have recourse to the votes of supply passed by
the House of Assembly. The House of Assembly,
dominated by the French -Canadian party, made
full use of the power thus placed in its hands. It
insisted (1818) that the detailed items of expendi
ture should be submitted to its consideration. It
asserted its claim to appropriate not merely the
revenue raised by its own act, but the whole
expenditure of the province. It insisted on voting
the civil list from year to year, refusing to vote a
permanent provision for the salaried servants of the
1 14 Geo. III. c. 88, and later 3 Geo. IV. c. 119.
* The appropriation of this revenue was surrendered in 1831.
18

LOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAU
Crown. On each point it met with a determined
opposition, not only from the governor-general but
from the legislative council, whose existence thus
began to appear as the main obstacle to that full
control of the province which had become the
avowed aim of the popular party.
With the advent of Lord Dalhousie as governor-
general (1820) the quarrel between the two branches
of the legislature and the conflict of races from
which it had sprung, reached an acute stage. Dal
housie, one of Wellington's veterans, was more
fitted for the camp than the council chamber, a
disciphnarian devoid of diplomacy who naturaUy up
held the side of the British party and discounten
anced the financial claims of the assembly.* Mean
time the occasion had found the man, and a leader
had appeared well-fitted to head the agitation in the
province. Louis-Joseph Papineau, born in Montreal
in 1789, had been elected to the assembly in 1812
and early distinguished himself by the brilliance of
his oratory. In 1815 he was elected speaker of the
House, a position which he filled with decorum until
the trend of affairs under the Dalhousie administra
tion aroused him to virulent and sustained opposi
tion to the governing class. From now on, petitions
and addresses for redress of grievances in Lower
Canada poured in upon the imperial government.
The French-Canadian press roused the simple farm-
1 See A. D. DeCeUes, Papineau, (Makers of Canada Series) 1904.
Ch. VI, 19

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ers of the countryside with the cry of national rights ;
even a certain minority of the English residents, led
by such men as Cuthbert of Berthier and Neilson of
Quebec, in close aUiance with Papineau, made com
mon cause with the French for a reform of the
government of the province. On the other hand, the
adherents of the ruling powers openly expressed
their desire to rid the country of every vestige of
French control. "This province" the Quebec Mer
cury had said as long ago as 1810, "is far too French
for a British colony. After forty-seven years' posses
sion it is now fitting that the province become truly
British." Such indeed had become the avowed policy
of the dominant faction. Papineau, supported alike
by the people, the clergy* and the majority of the
assembly, became emphatically the man of the hour
and figured as the open adversary of the governor-
general A petition signed with eighty-seven thou
sand names was forwarded (1827) to the home gov
ernment. Dalhousie, departing in 1828 to take com
mand of the forces in India, was succeeded by Sir
James Kempt whose efforts at conciliation proved
unavaihng. In vain the imperial government sur
rendered its control over the proceeds of its customs
duties (1831). The assembly refused to grant a
permanent civil list and the leaders of the popular
party clamoured for the abolition of the nominated
Upper House. Against such a measure of reform,
which appeared out of harmony with monarchical
^ DeCelles, op. cit. p. 61.
20

STOPPAGE OF SUPPLIES
institutions, the British ministry resolutely set its
face. Stanley, the colonial secretary, hinted that the
government might be forced to curtail even the ex
isting privileges of its colonial subjects. Aroused to
furious opposition the assembly adopted the famous
"Ninety -two resolutions," indicating a long catalogue
of grievances and denouncing the existence of the
Upper House (February 21st, 1834). The elections
of 1834 were attended with riots and tumultuous
gatherings. Revolutionary committees sprang into
being. Votes of supplies since 1832 had come to a
fuU stop and the governor. Lord Aylmer, (1831-
5), had been driven to pay salaries by loans taken
from the war chest. The malcontents of French
Canada corresponded busily with the "patriot" party
of the Upper Province. The current of the two
movements ran side by side with increasing swift
ness, approaching rapidly the vortex of insurrection.

21

CHAPTER II
THE MODERATE REFORMERS AND THE
CANADIAN REBELLION
SUCH was the environment in which Robert
Baldwin and his future coUeagues in the
Reform ministry of Canada, entered upon political
life. The Baldwins were sprung from an Irish
family resident on a little property called Summer
HiU, near Carragoline, in the county of Cork.
The father of Robert Baldwin had come out to
Canada with his father (himself a Robert Baldwin)
in 1798. The family settled on a tract of land on
the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the present
county of Durham, where Robert Baldwin (senior)
set himself manfully to work to clear and cultivate
a farm to which he gave the name of Annarva.*
His eldest son, Wilham Warren Baldwin, did not,
however, remain upon the homestead. He had
already received at the University of Edinburgh
a degree in medicine and, anxious to turn his pro
fessional training to account, he went to the little
village of York. Here he took up his abode with a
Mr. Wilcocks of Duke Street, an Irish friend of his
family, who had indeed been instrumental in induc
ing the Baldwins to come to Canada. In a pioneer
^The details which follow are taken from the Memorial of the
Baldwin Family, (Archives of Canada, M. 393^ and from the Cana-
dian Portrait Gallery, published at Toronto, 1881.
23

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
colony like the Upper Canada of that day, the
health ofthe community is notoriously sound, and
Dr. Baldwin soon saw that the profession of medicine
at York could offer but a precarious livelihood. He
determined, therefore, to supplement it with school-
teaching and inserted in the Gazette an announce
ment of his intention to open a classical school: —
"Dr. Baldwin, understanding that some gentlemen
of this town have expressed an anxiety for the
establishment of a classical school, begs leave to in
form them and the public that he intends on Mon
day, the first of January next [1803], to open a school
in which he will instruct twelve boys in writing,
reading, classics and arithmetic. The terms are, for
each boy, eight guineas per annum, to be paid quar
terly or half yearly; one guinea entrance and one
cord of wood to be supphed by each of the boys on
opening the school." It is interesting to note that
among the earliest of Dr, Baldwin's pupUs was John
Robinson, distinguished later as a leading spirit in
the Family Compact and chief-justice of the
proi'ince. School-teaching with the ambitious Irishman was,
however, only a means to an end. The legal profes
sion, then in its infancy in the colony, offered a more
lucrative and a more honourable field, and for this
in his leisure hours Baldwin hastened to prepare
himself. Indeed no very arduous preparation or pro
found knowledge was needed in those days for ad
mission to the legal fraternity of "Muddy York." A
24

ROBERT BALDWIN
summary examination, conducted in person by the
chief-justice of the province, was all that was re
quired of Baldwin as a candidate for the bar, and on
April 6th, 1803, he was admitted as a duly qualified
practitioner. His entry upon his new profession was
signalized by his marriage in the same year with
Miss Phoebe Wilcocks, a daughter of the family
friend with whom he had lived. The newly married
couple took up their quarters in a new house on the
corner of Frederick and Palace Streets,* the latter
a street running parallel with the shore of the bay
and receiving its grandiloquent name from the ex
pectation that it would presently become the site of
a gubernatorial "palace." In this house Robert
Baldwin, eldest son of William Warren Baldwin
was born on May 12th, 1804.
Little need be said of Robert Baldwin's youth
and school days. By no means a precocious child, he
was distinguished at school rather for a painstaking
diligence than for exceptional natural aptitude. He
received his education at the Home District Gram
mar School, at the head of which was Dr. John
Strachan, then rector of York and subsequently
distinguished as Bishop of Toronto and champion of
the Anglican interest. Baldwin's conscientious in
dustry presently made him "head boy" ofthe Gram
mar School, from whose walls he passed with credit
to enter upon the study of the law (1819), After
spending some years in his father's office, he was caUed
* Palace Street is the present Front Street.
25

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
to the bar in Trinity Term, 1825, and became a part
ner in his father's business under the firm name of
"W- W. Baldwin and Son." The fortunes of the
elder Baldwin had in the meantime rapidly im
proved. Not only had he met with success in his dual
profession, but he had the good fortune to faU heir
to the property of a Miss Elizabeth Russell, a distant
connection of the Baldwins, and sister to a certain
Peter Russell, a bygone magnate of the little colony
whose extensive estates she had herself inherited
and now bequeathed to William Baldwin. Desirous
to use his new found wealth for the foundation of a
family estate,* Dr. Baldwin purchased a consider
able tract of land to the north of the little town on
the summit of the hiU overlooking the present city
of Toronto. To this property the name " Spadina "
was given, and the wide road opened by Dr. Bald
win southward through a part of the RusseU estate
was christened Spadina Avenue.
Both father and son were keenly interested in the
political affairs of the province. The elder Baldwin
was a I^iberal and prominent among the Reformers
who, even before the advent of William Lyon Mac
kenzie, denounced the oligarchical control of the
''¦ " His purpose was to establish in Canada a family whose head was
to be maintained in opulence by the proceeds of an entailed estate.
There was to be forever a Baldwin of Spadina." H. Scadding, Toronto
of Old, p. 66. The same work contains many interesting details in
reference to the Baldwin residences and some account of the "closing
exercises" of Dr. Strachan's school (Aug. 11-12, 1819) at which Robert
Baldwin delivered a "prologue." Op. cit. Index. Art. Baldwin.
26

BALDWIN'S POLITICAL VIEWS
Family Compact. But he was at the same time pro
foundly attached to the British connection and
averse by temperament to measures of violence.
While making common cause with the Mackenzie
faction in the furtherance of better government,
Dr. Baldwin and his associates were nevertheless
separated from the extreme wing of the Reformers
by aU the difference that lies between the Whig
and the Radical. The political aims were limited to
converting the constitution of the colony into a
real, and not merely a nominal, transcript of the
British constitution. To effect this, it seemed only
necessary to render the executive officers of the
government responsible to the popular House of
the legislature in the same way as the British
cabinet stands responsible to the House of Com
mons. This one reform accomphshed, the other
grievances of the colonists would find a natural and
immediate redress. Robert Baldwin sympathized
entirely with the pohtical views of his father.
Moderate by nature, he had no sympathy with the
desire of the Radical section of the party to abolish
the legislative council, or to assimUate the institu
tions of the country to those of the United States.
The Alpha and Omega of his programme of political
reform lay in the demand for the introduction of
responsible government. His opponents, even some
of his fellow Reformers, taunted him with being a
"man of one idea," Viewed in the clearer light of
retrospect it is no reproach to his political insight
27

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
that his " one idea " proved to be that which
ultimately saved the situation and which has since
become the corner stone of the British colonial
system. The year 1829 may be said to mark the com
mencement of Robert Baldwin's public life. He
had already taken part in election committees and
was known as one of the rising young men among
the moderate Reformers, He had, moreover, in the
election of 1828, unsuccessfully offered himself as a
candidate for the county of York, But in 1829 we
find him figuring as the draftsman of the petition
addressed to George IV in connection with the
Willis affair. Willis, an English barrister of some
prominence, had been appointed in 1827 to be one
of the judges of the court of king's bench in Upper
Canada. While holding that office he had held
aloof from the faction of the Family Compact and
had thereby incurred the displeasure of the authori
ties, who had become accustomed to view the jud
ges as among their necessary adherents. A technical
pretext being found,* Sir Peregrine Maitland dis
missed Willis from office. The cause of the latter
was at once espoused by the Reform party. A public
meeting of protest was called at York under the
chairmanship of Dr. Baldwin, and a petition drawn
up addressed "to the king's most excellent Majesty,
and to the several other branches of the imperial
^ Willis had refused to sit in term at Toronto on the ground that the
court was not properly constituted.
28

THE WILLIS PETITION
and provincial legislatures," The petition is safd to
have been drafted, at least in part, by Robert Bald
win. The occasion was considered a proper one, not
only for protesting against the injustice done to
Judge Willis, but for drawing the attention of the
Crown to the numerous evils from which the colony
was suffering. The list of grievances, arranged under
eleven heads, included the already familiar protests
against the obstructive action of the legislative
council, the precarious tenure ofthe judicial offices,
and the financial extravagance and favouritism of
the executive government. Of especial impor
tance is the eighth item of the list, which called
attention to "the want of carrying into effect that
rational and constitutional control over public func
tionaries, especially the advisers of your Majesty's
representative, which our fellow-subjects in Eng
land enjoy in that happy country." FoUowing the
catalogue of grievances is a list of "humble sug
gestions " of adequate measures of reform. The
essential contrast between the moderate Reform
ers of Upper Canada on the one hand, and the
Radical wing of their party and the Papineau^,
faction of the Lower Province on the other, is
seen in the fact that no request is made for an
elective legislative councU. It is merely asked that
only a "small proportion" of the council shall be
aUowed to hold other offices under the govern
ment, and that neither the legislative counciUors
nor the judges shaU be permitted to hold places
29

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
in the executive council.* The sum and substance
of the wishes of the petitioners appears in the sixth
of their recommendations, in which they pray
"that a legislative Act be made in the provin
cial parliament to facilitate the mode in which the
present constitutional responsibility of the advisers
of the local government may be carried practicaUy
into effect; not only by the removal of these advisers
from office when they lose the confidence of the
people, but also by impeachment for the heavier
offenses chargeable against them." The petition was
forwarded for presentation to Viscount Goderich
and the Hon. E. G. Stanley, from each of whom
Dr. Baldwin duly received rephes. A quotation from
the letter sent by Stanley, who became shortly
afterwards colonial secretary, may serve to show
to how great an extent the British statesmen of
the period failed to grasp the position of affairs in
Upper Canada. "On the last and one of the most
important topics," wrote Stanley, "namely, the
appointment of a local ministry subject to re
moval or impeachment when they lose the con
fidence of the people, I conceive there would be
great difficulty in arranging such a plan, for in
point of fact the remedy is not one of enactment
but of practice — and a constitutional mode is open
to the people, of addressing for a removal of
advisers of the Crown and refusing supplies, if
^ The full text of the petition and of the letters from Stanley and
Goderich to Dr. Baldwin is given in the Seventh Report of the Committee
on Grievances already mentioned.
30

BALDWIN IN THE ASSEMBLY
necessary to enforce their wishes." From what has
been said above it is clear that this was the very
mode of redress which was not open to the people
of the province.
In this same year (1829) Robert Baldwin first
entered the legislature of the province. John Bever
ley Robinson, the member for York and attorney-
general, had been promoted to the office of chief-
justice of the court of king's bench, his seat in the
assembly being thereby vacated. Baldwin contested
the seat and was successful in his canvass, being
strongly aided by the influence of WiUiam Lyon
Mackenzie. A petition against his election, on the
ground of an irregularity in the writ, caused him to
be temporarily unseated, but in the second election
Baldwin was again successful and entered the legis
lature on January 8th, 1830. In the ensuing session
he appears to have played no very conspicuous part,
his membership being brought to a premature ter
mination by the death of George IV. The demise of
the Crown necessitating a dissolution of the House.
Baldwin again presented himself to the electors of
York. In this election the adherents of the Family
Compact contrived to carry the day, and Baldwin
was among the number of Reformers who lost their
seats in consequence. During the year that ensued
he had no active share in the government of the
country but continued to be prominent among the
ranks ofthe moderate Reformers of York with whom
his influence was constantly on the increase. To
31

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
his professional career also he devoted an assiduous
attention. He had, in 1827, married Augusta Eliza
beth Sullivan, whose mother was a sister of Dr.
WiUiam Baldwin. He now (1829) entered into
partnership with his wife's brother, Robert Baldwin
Sullivan, who had been his fellow-student in his
father's law office, a young man whose showy in
tellectual briUiance and lack of conviction con
trasted with the conscientious application of his
painstaking cousin. Of Baldwin's public hfe there
is, however, during this period, nothing to record
until the advent of Sir Francis Bond Head
brought him for the first time into public office.
Among the intimate associates of the Baldwins
in the year preceding the rebellion, there was no
one who sympathized more entirely with their polit
ical views than Francis Hincks. Hincks came to
Canada in the year 1830. He was born at Cork on
December 14th, 1807, and descended from an old
Cheshire family which for two generations had been
resident in Ireland, in which country he spent his
youth. He received at the Royal Belfast Institution
a sound classical training. He had early conceived
a wish to embark in commercial life, which his
father, the Rev. T. D. Hincks, a minister of the
Irish Presbyterian Church, did not see fit to combat.
He entered as an articled clerk in the business
house of John Martin & Co., Belfast, where he spent
five years.* On the termination of his period of ap-
1 See Sir F. Hincks, Reminiscences of his Public Life, (Montreal,
1884) Chap. i.
32

FRANCIS HINCKS
prenticeship Hincks resolved to see something of
the world and sailed for the West Indies (1830),
visiting Barbadoes, Demerara and Trinidad. At Bar-
badoes, he accidentaUy fell in with a Mr. George
Ross of Quebec, by whom he was persuaded to sail
for Canada. After spending some time in Montreal
he determined to visit Upper Canada and set out
for the town of York, traveUing after the arduous
fashion of those days "by stage and schooner," a
journey which occupied ten days. Hincks spent the
winter of 1830-1 at York, conceived a most favour
able idea of the commercial possibilities of the little
capital, and interested himself at once in the threat
ening political crisis. He was a frequent visitor at
the Parliament House, a brick structure at the
foot of Berkeley Street, intended presently "to be
adorned with a portico and an entablature,"* whose
gallery was open to the pubhc. Here, and in the
hall of the legislative council, which, in the words of
an enthusiastic writer, "corresponded to the House
of Lords" (being "richly carpeted, while the floor of
the House is bare,"^) Hincks listened to the exciting
debates of the session in which Mackenzie was de
nounced as a "reptUe" and a "spaniel dog," and ex
pelled by the indignant majority ofthe Tory faction.
Early in 1831 he left Canada for Belfast to "fulfil
a matrimonial engagement" which he had already
^ J. S. Buckingham, Canada, (1843) p. 14. See also H. Scadding,
Toronto of Old, pp. 27, 28.
* Buckingham, Op. cit., loe. cit.
83

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
contracted. The matrimonial engagement being
duly fulfilled (July, 1832), Hmcks returned to Can
ada to settle in York. Here he became one of the
promoters and a director ofthe Farmers' Joint Stock
Banking Company; from this institution Hincks
very shortly seceded, on account of its connection
with the Family Compact. In company with two
or three other seceding directors he joined the
Bank of the People, which was established in the
interests of the Reform party. Of this bank Hincks
was manager during the troubled period of the re
beUion. With Robert Baldwin and his father the
young banker had already formed an intimate con
nection. Hincks's house at No. 21 Yonge Street
was next door to the house occupied at this time by
the Baldwins, to whom both houses belonged,* The
acquaintance thus formed between the families
ripened into a close friendship from the time of his
arrival at York, Hincks's practical good sense had
led him to sympathize with the moderate party
of Reform, and he now found in Robert Bald
win an associate whose political views harmonized
entirely with his own. In addition to his manage
ment of the Bank of the People, Hincks was
active in other commercial enterprises. He became
the secretary of the Mutual Assurance Company,
^ According to Walton's York Directory (1833-4), No. 23 Yonge
Street was occupied by "Baldwin, Dr. W. Warren; Baldwin, Robert,
Esq., Attorney, etc., Baldwin and Sullivan's ofiice and Dr. Baldwin's
surrogate ofiice round the corner in King Street, 195^.'' Dr. Baldwin
lived at Spadina only a part of each year.
34

SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD
founded at Toronto shortly after his coming, and
appears also to have carried on a general ware
house business at his premises on Yonge Street.
That his eminent financial abilities met with ready
recognition, is seen from the fact that he was ap
pointed, in 1833, one of the examiners to inspect
the accounts of the WeUand Canal, at that time
the subject of a parliamentary investigation. The
practical experience and insight into the commer
cial life of the colony which Hincks thus early
ac(|uired, enabled him presently to bring to the
financial affairs of Canada the trained capacity of
an expert.
At the time when Baldwin, Hincks, and their
friends among the constitutional Reformers of Up
per Canada were viewing with alarm the increasing
bitterness which separated the rival parties, a new
lieutenant-governor arrived in the province whose
coming was destined to bring matters rapidly to a
crisis. Francis Bond Head was one of those men
whose misfortune it was to have greatness thrust
upon them unsought. He was awakened one night
at his country home in Kent by a king's messenger,
who brought a letter from the colonial-secretary
offering to him the lieutenant-governorship of
Upper Canada. Head was a military man, a retired
half-pay major who received his sudden elevation to
the governorship with what he himself has described
as "utter astonishment." On the field of Waterloo
and during his experience as an engineer in the
35

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Argentine Republic,* he had given proof that he
was not wanting in personal courage. Of civil gov
ernment, beyond the fact that he had been an assis
tant poor law commissioner, he had no experience.
Of politics in general he knew practically nothing;
of Canada even less. Nor had he a range of intellect
such as to enable him to rise to the difficulties of
his position. With a natural incapacity he combined a
natural conceit, to be presently enhanced still further
by his elevation to a baronetcy. Convinced of his own
ability from the very oddness of his appointment, he
betook himself to Canada puffed up with the pride
of a professional pacificator. How Lord Glenelg, the
colonial secretary, could have been induced to make
such an appointment, remains one of the mysteries
of Canadian history. Rumour indeed has not scrupled
to say that the whole affair was an error, that the
name of Francis Head had been confused with that
of Sir Edmund Head, also a poor law commissioner
and a young man of rising promise and attainments,
Hincks in his Reminiscences'^ asserts that he was
informed of this fact in later years by Mr, Roebuck
and that a "distinguished imperial statesman had
also spoken of it."
In so far as he had had any political affiliations
in England, Head had been a Whig. The news of
this simple fact had gone before him, and the Reform
'^ D. B. Read, Lieutenant-Governors of Upper Canada and Ontario
(Toronto, 1900), pp. 163 et seq.
^ Reminiscences, pp. 14, 15.
36

THE TRIED REFORMER
party were prepared to find in him a champion of
their interests ; Sir Francis in consequence found
the role of saviour of the country already prepared
for his acceptance. "It was with no little surprise,"
he writes in his Narrative, in speaking of his first
entry into Toronto (January, 1836), " I observed
the waUs placarded with large letters which de
signated me as Sir Francis Head, a tried Re
former."* The administration on which the new
governor now entered was from first to last a
series of blunders. It had been impressed upon
him by the British cabinet that he must seek to
conciliate the Reform party and to compose the
factious differences by which the province was torn.
The Seventh Report on Grievances had become,
since his appointment, the object of his constant
perusal, and the Reformers of the province crowded
about him in the fond hope of political redress. It
was impossible, therefore, that Sir Francis should
fail to make some advances to the Reform party.
This indeed he was most anxious to do, although
the tone of his opening address to his parliament, in
which he asked for a loyal support of himself, al
ready began to alienate the sympathy of those
whose support he was most anxious to secure. As a
pledge, however, of his good intentions, he deter
mined to add three members to his executive coun
cil and to fill their places from among the Reform
party. The men upon whom his choice feU were
1 Sir Francis B. Head, Bart., A Narrative (London, 1839),
pp. 32, 33.
37

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Robert Baldvidn, Dr. John Rolph, a leader of
the Mackenzie faction, and John Henry Dunn
who had fiUed the office of receiver-general but had
not been identified with either of the rival parties.
In a despatch addressed to the colonial secretary,*
the lieutenant-governor speaks thus bi Baldwin : —
" After making every enquiry in my power, I be
came of opinion that Mr, Robert Baldwin, advocate,
a gentleman already recommended to your Lord
ship by Sir John Colborne for a seat in the legisla
tive council, was the first individual I should select,
being highly respected for his moral character, being
moderate in his pohtics and possessing the esteem
and confidence of all parties,"
Now came a critical moment in the history ofthe
time. With a majority in the assembly kndVith a
proper control over the executive offices, the Reform
party would find themselves arrived at that goal of
responsible government which had been the object
of their every effort. They conceived, nevertheless,
that the acceptance of office was of no import or
significance unless it were conjoined with an actual
control of the policy of the administration. Such,
however, was by no means the udea of Sir Francis
Head. The "smooth-faǤd ir^sidfoii^^ctrine"^ of re
sponsible government,-as he afterwards^alled it, and
the self-effacement of the governor which it implied,
could commend itself but little to one who had con-
1 Head to Glenelg, February 22nd, 1836
' Sir Francis Bond Head, A Narrative, p. 71,
38

:k ''

ro ro00

o

C

oa

BALDWIN AND HEAD
fessedly come to Canada as a "political physician"
proposing to rectify the troubled situation by his
own administrative skill. Interviews followed be
tween Baldwin and Sir Francis Head, at which the
former refused to hold office unless the remaining
Tory members of the executive, who were also legis
lative counciUors,* should be dismissed, Baldwin
indeed, suffering from the domestic affliction he had
just sustained in the loss of his wife, appears to have
been reluctant to assume the cares of office. On re
consideration, however, the Reformers decided to
accept the positions offered and were duly appointed
(February 20th, 1836). It was, nevertheless, made
quite clear to the governor that Baldwin and his
friends accepted office only on the understanding
that they must have his entire confidence. A letter,
written at this time by Baldwin to Peter Perry, his
father's friend and fellow Reformer, accurately ex
plains the situation and elucidates also the full force
of the "one idea" by which the writer was animated.
"His ExceUency having done me the honour to send
for me .... expressed himself most desirous that I
should afford him my assistance by joining his ex
ecutive council, assuring me that in the event of
my acceding to his proposals I should enjoy his fuU
and entire confidence .... I proceeded to state
that .... I would not be performing my duty to
my sovereign or the country, if I did not with His
ExceUency 's permission, explain fuUy to His Ex-
1 See Lord Durham's Report (Ed. 1902), p. 111.
39

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
cellency my \'iews of the constitution of the pro
vince and the change necessary in the practical ad
ministration of it, particularly as I considered the
delay in adopting this change as the great and all
absorbing grievance before which all others in my
mind sank into insignificance, and the remedy for
which would most effectually lead, and that in a
constitutional way, to the redress of every other
grievance .... and that these desirable objects
would be accomplished without the least entrench
ing upon the just and necessary prerogative of the
Crown, which I consider, when administered by a
lieutenant-governor through the medium of a pro
vincial ministry responsible to the provincial parlia
ment, to be an essential part of the constitution of
the province." Baldwin adds that the "call for an
elective legislative council which had been formally
made from Lower Canada, and which had been
taken up and appeared likely to be responded to in
this province, was as distasteful to me as it could
be to any one."
The new ministry were no sooner appointed than
they found themselves in a quite impossible position.
Head had no intention of governing according to
their advice. On the contrary he proceeded at once
to make official appointments from among the ranks
of their opponents, calling down thereby the cen
sure of the assembly. The new council now found
themselves called to account by the country for
executive acts in which they had had no share. The
40

A BREAD AND BUTTER ELECTION
formal remonstrances which they addressed to the
lieutenant-governor drew from him a direct denial
of their cardinal principle of government. "The
lieutenant-governor maintains," they were informed,
"that responsibility to the people who are aheady
represented in the House of Assembly, is uncon
stitutional; that it is the duty of the council to serve
him, not them." To say this was, of course, to throw
down the gauntlet. The new ministers resigned at
once (March 4th, 1836), and henceforth there was
war to the knife between the governor and the
party of Reform. The majority of the assembly, es
pousing the cause of the outgoing ministers, refused
to vote the appropriation of the moneys over which
it had control. Sir Francis had recourse to a dis
solution (May 28th, 1836). In the general election
which followed, he exerted himself strenuously on the
side of the Tories.* To Lord Glenelg he denounced
the "low-bred antagonist democracy" which he felt
it his duty to combat. In an address issued to the
electors of the Newcastle district,^ the voters were
told, "if you choose to dispute with me and hve on
bad terms with the mother country, you wiU, to use
a homely phrase, only quarrel with your bread and
butter." The Tories made desperate efforts. Large
sums of money were subscribed. The Anglican in
terest was enlisted on behalf of the clergy reserves,
1 Durham's Report (Ed. 1902), pp. 115 et seq. C. Lindsey, Life
and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie, pp. 371 et seq.
' See D. B. Read, RebeUion of 1837, p. 241. 41

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the special landed provision for the Anglican Church
(under the Constitutional Act of 1791) out of which
Sir John Colborne, the preceding governor, had
endowed forty-four rectories, a policy to which the
Reformers were bitterly opposed. The Methodists,
fearing to be carried to extremes, veered away from
the party of Reform.* The latter, meanwhile, were
not idle. Baldwin himself, indeed, had no share in
the campaign, having sailed for England shortly
after his resignation, pursued by a letter from the
irate governor to Lord Glenelg in which he was
denounced as an agent of the revolutionary party.
Meantime the Reform party had organized a
Constitutional Reform Society of Upper Canada
(July 16th, 1836) of which Dr. WiUiam Baldwin
was president and Francis Hincks secretary. The
programme of the society caUed for "responsible
advisers to the governor" and the "abohtion of the
rectories established by Sir John Colborne." In the
tumultuous election which ensued, the governor and
his party, with the aid of intimidation, violence and
fraud, carried the day. Sir Francis found himself
supported by a "bread and butter parliament," as the
new assembly was christened in memory of the
Newcastle address. Henceforth the extreme party
of the Reformers lost hope of constitutional redress.
It is no part of the present narrative to relate the
story of the armed rebellion which followed and in
^ See Egerton Ryerson, Story of my Life, Chapters xviii-xxx, and
see also Hincks, Reminiscences, pp. 18, 19,
42

REBELLION IN UPPER CANADA
which the subjects of the present biography had no
share. Mackenzie and his adherents now gathered
the farmers of the colony into revolutionary clubs.
Messengers went back and forth to the malcontents
of Lower Canada. Vigilance committees were form
ed, and in secret hollows of the upland and in the
openings of the forest the yeomanry ofthe country
side gathered at their nightly driU. Mackenzie
passed to and fro among the farmers as a harbinger
of the coming storm. He composed and printed a
new and purified constitution for Upper Canada,
blameless save for its unconscionable length. * An
attack on Toronto, unprotected by royal troops and
offering a fair mark for capture, was planned for
December 7th, 1837. A veteran soldier, one Van Eg-
mond who had been a colonel under Napoleon, was
made generahssimo of the rebel forces. The whole
affair ended in a fiasco. Rolph, joint organizer of
the revolt with Mackenzie, fearing detection, hur
riedly changed the date of the rising to December
4th. The rebels gathering from the outlying country
moved in irregular bands to Montgomery's tavern,
some three mUes north of the town, and waited
in vain for the advent of sufficient members to
hazard an attack. In Toronto, for some days intense
apprehension reigned. The alarm bells rang, the citi
zens were hurriedly enroUed and the onslaught ofthe
rebels was hourly expected. With the arrival of sup
port from the outside in the shape of a steamer from
* The text is given in D. B. Read's Rebellion of 1837, pp. 282 et seq.
43

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the town of Hamilton with sixty men led by Col
onel Allan MacNab, confidence was renewed. More
reinforcements arriving, the volunteer militia on a
bright December afternoon (December 7th, 1837)
marched northward with drums beating, colours fly
ing, two small pieces of artillery following their ad
vance guard, and scattered the rebel forces in head
long flight. The armed insurrection, save for random
attempts at invasion of the country from the Ameri
can frontier in the year following, had collapsed.
In the insurrectionary movement, neither Baldwin
nor Hincks, as already said, had any share. The for
mer who had now returned from England, did,
however, play a certain part in the exciting days of
December, a part which in later days his political
opponents wilfully misconstrued. Sir Francis Bond
Head in the disorder of the first alarm, whether from
a sudden collapse of nerves or with a shrewd idea of
gaining time, was anxious to hold parley with the
rebels. Robert Baldwin was hurriedly summoned to
the governor and despatched, along with Dr. John
Rolph, under a flag of truce, to ask of the rebels the
reason of their appearance in arms. Baldwin and
Rolph rode out on horseback to Montgomery's
tavern, where Mackenzie informed them that the
rebels wanted independence and that if Sir Francis
Head M'^ished to communicate with them it must be
done in writing. Rolph meanwhile, who was himself
one of the organizers of the revolt, entered into
private conversation with Samuel Lount (hanged
44

BALDWIN'S EMBASSY
later in Toronto for his share in the rebellion),
teUing Lount in an undertone to pay no attention
to the message. Baldwin returned to Toronto, but,
finding that the governor would put no message in
writing, he again rode out to the rebel camp and
apprised Mackenzie of this fact. The peculiar na
ture of this embassy and the known complicity of
Rolph in the revolt, gave a false colour in the
minds of the malicious to Baldwin's conduct. By
the partisan press he was denounced as a rebel and
a traitor. Even on the floor of the Canadian parlia
ment (October 13th, 1842) Sir AUan MacNab did
not scruple to taunt him with his share in the
events of the revolt. But it is beyond a doubt that
Baldwin had no complicity in the rebeUion, nor was
his embassy anything more than a reluctant task
undertaken from a sense of public duty.
While these affairs were happening in Upper
Canada, the insurrectionary movement in the Lower
Province had run a like disastrous course. The home
government, alarmed at the continued legislative
deadlock, had ordered an investigation at the hands
of a special commission with a new governor-gen
eral. Lord Gosford, (who arrived on August 23rd,
1835) at its head. Gosford tried in vain the paths
of peace, spoke the malcontents fair and invited the
leaders of the party to his table. But the assembly
would nothing of Lord Gosford's overtures. Papi
neau denied the powers of the imperial commis
sioners and boasted on the floor of the assembly
45

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
that an "epoch is approaching when America will
give republics to Europe." The report ofthe commis
sioners (March, 1837) dissipated the last hopes of
constitutional redress. It condemned the principle
of an elective Upper House, declared that ministerial
responsibility was inadmissible, suggested that means
should be found to elect a British majority by alter
ing the franchise, and recommended coercion in the
last resort. FoUowing on the report came a series of
resolutions moved in the House of Commons by
Lord John Russell, who declared in terms that "an
elective council for legislation and a responsible
executive council combined with a representative
assembly would be quite incompatible with the
rightful inter-relationship of any colony with the
mother country." A bill was brought forward to
dispose of the revenue of I^ower Canada without
the consent of the assembly. After this the leader
of the movement saw no recourse but open rebel
lion. The peasanty of the Montreal district, obedient
to the call, took up arms. There was a short, sharp
struggle along the Richelieu, at the little villages of
St. Denis and St. Charles, and southward on the
American frontier. Sir John Colborne, hurriedly re
called to Canada to take command, crushed out the
revolt. Papineau fled to the United States, leaving
to his foUowers nothing but the memory of a lost
cause. Among those who had warmly espoused the side
of Reform in Lower Canada, but who, like Baldwin
46

LOUIS LAFONTAINE
and Hincks in the Upper Province, had had no sym
pathy with armed insurrection, was Louis-Hippolyte
LaFontaine. LaFontaine, the son of a farmer of
Boucherville,* in the county of Chambly, was born
in October, 1807, His grandfather had been a mem
ber of the assembly of Lower Canada from 1796
until 1804, LaFontaine was educated at the College
of Montreal, where he distinguished himself as well
by the natural alertness of his mind as by a stub
born self-assertion which rendered somewhat irk
some to him the narrow, clerical discipline of the
institution. After studying law in the office of a
Mr. Roy, LaFontaine entered upon legal practice
in the town of Montreal. Here in 1831 he mar
ried Mile. Adele Berthelot, daughter of a Lower
Canadian advocate, who died, however, a few
years later leaving no children. Into the political
struggle of the time Lafontaine threw himself
with great activity. He was elected a member of
the assembly for Terrebonne in 1830 and became
a supporter, though not entirely a follower, of the
turbulent Papineau. Between the two French-Can
adian leaders, there were from the start marked dif
ferences both of opinion and of purpose. Papineau,
aware of the great influence of the clergy,^ was
anxious to conciliate their interests and enhst their
support. LaFontaine, bold if not heterodox in his
views, stood out as the champion of Le Jeune Can-
1 L. O. David, Biographies et Portraits, (Montreal, 1876), pp. 96 et seq.
' Kingsford, Vol. IX, p. 453.
47

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ada, against the traditional dominance of the priest
hood. Although LaFontaine had no sympathy what
ever with violent measures, he distinguished him
self during the constitutional agitation as one of the
boldest of the agitators. His first action in the legis
lature was to second a motion for the refusal of sup
plies, and throughout the years preceding the rebel
lion, both from his place in parliament and in the
press, he exerted himself unceasingly in the cause
ofthe popular party. When the storm broke in 1837,
he endeavoured in vain to dissuade his feUow-
countrymen from taking up arms. A few days after
the skirmishes on the Richelieu (December, 1837) he
went from Montreal to Quebec to beg Lord Gos
ford to call a meeting of the legislature with a view
to prevent further violence. On the refusal of the
governor to do so, LaFontaine took ship for Eng
land. Fearing, however, that his complicity in the
agitation preceding the Canadian revolt might lead
to his arrest, he fied from England and spent some
little time in France. Thence he returned to Canada
in May, 1838. This was the moment when Sir John
Colborne was busily employed in extinguishing the
stiU smouldering ashes of revolt. Wholesale arrests
of supposed sympathizers were made. An ordinance
passed by Sir John Colborne and his special council,
appointed under the Act suspending the constitution
of Lower Canada,* declared the Habeas Corpus Act
^1 and 2 Vict. c. g. For the Habeas Corpus Act question see R. Christie,
History of the Late Province of Lower Canada, Vol. VI., pp. 263 et seq.
48

LAFONTAINE AND THE REBELLION
to be without force in the province. The prisons
were soon filled to overflowing. Among those
arrested was Hippolyte I^aFontaine, an arrest for
which legal grounds were altogether lacking, La
Fontaine, since his return to Canada, had written a
letter to Girouard, one of his associates in the con
stitutional agitation, in regard to the frontier dis
turbances of 1838, recommending, in what was
clearly and evidently an ironical vein, a continuance
of the insurrection. On the strength of this and on
the ground of his having been notorious as a leader
of the French-Canadian faction, he was arrested on
November 7th, 1838, and imprisoned at Montreal.
The evident insufficiency of the charges against
him, led shortly to his release without trial,* The
collapse of the rebellion, the flight of Papineau and
O'CaUaghan, and the arrest of WoKred Nelson and
many other leaders, naturaUy induced the despairing
people of Lower Canada to look for guidance to the
moderate members of the party who had realized
from the first the foUy of armed revolt. In the period
^ The following extract from a letter written by Sir Charles Bagot
to Lord Stanley under date of November 25th, 1842, is of interest in
this connection : — " With regard to Mr. LaFontaine, I have always
understood that he was arrested upon mere suspicion. He protested
strongly at the time, and subsequently, against the unjustifiableness
of the proceeding, and demanded, but in vain, to see the warrant or
afiidavit on which he was arrested. The public ofiices furnish no record
of the transaction, but Mr. Daly has supplied me with a copy of a
letter which Mr. LaFontaine addressed to him from New York, and
which was shown by him to Lord Durban. This document bears satis
factory evidence of his readiness to court inquiry." (Archives of Can
ada. MS. Letters of Sir C. Bagot.)
49

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of reconstruction which now followed under the
rule of Lord Durham and Lord Sydenham, LaFon
taine was recognized as the leader of the national
Reform party of Lower Canada, energetic in its pro
test against the proposed system of union and Brit
ish preponderance but determined by constitutional
means, when the union was forced upon them, to
turn it to account in the interest of French Canada.

50

CHAPTER III
THE UNION OF THE CANADAS
THE collapse of the rebellion of 1837 opens a
new era, not merely in the history of Canada
itself, but in the history of colonial government.
The revolt, unsuccessful though it was, had brought
into clear light the fact that the previous system
of colonial management could not permanently
endure, that its continuance must inevitably mean
discontent and discord which could only terminate
in forcible separation. The lesson that the mother
country had failed to learn from the loss of its At
lantic colonies in 1776 had now been repeated. This
time, fortunately for the mother country and the
colonies, there were statesmen ready to give heed
to the lessons of the past. The years of reconstruc
tion that ensued may be considered to constitute
the truly critical period of our colonial history. The
position was indeed a difficult one. England found
itself in possession of a colony still bleeding from
the strife of civil war, and torn with racial and re
ligious antagonism. The majority of its inhabitants
cherished, indeed, a conscientious loyalty to the
British connection, but smarted from a sense of
unredressed wrongs and long- continued misgovern
ment, while those who had been forced into sub
mission at the point of the bayonet, harboured an
51

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
embittered hatred against their conquerors. That a
means was found to establish, in such a situation, a
form of government fitted to restore peace, pros
perity and loyalty, ranks among the finest triumphs
of British administrative skill; and it stands as the
great political achievement of the colonial states
men whose work forms the subject of the present
volume, that they both planned the adoption and
sustained the execution of the sole policy that could
preserve to an illustrious future the colonial system
of Great Britain. Responsible government was the
chief, indeed the only, demand of Robert Baldwin
and his associates ; it had been a leading demand of
the Radicals in Upper Canada who had been drawn
into revolt, and it had been one of the demands of
the French- Canadian party of discontent. The his
tory of British administration, like the structure of
British government, is filled with inconsistencies
and contradictions. Nor is there any inconsistency
more striking than this: that the imperial govern
ment, after strenuously denying the possibility of
colonial self-government and suppressing the rebel
lion of its subjects who had taken up arms largely
to obtain it, proceeded to grant to the conquered
colony the privilege which peaceful agitation had
constantly failed to obtain.
The British government, stirred from the lethargy
and ignorance which had so long characterized its
colonial administration, was now anxious to redeem
the past, " The Downing Street conscience," as a
52

LORD DURHAM
Canadian historian* has called it, was quickened
into a belated activity. With a view to ascertaining
the grievances of the Canadians and enabling the
government of Lord Melbourne to adopt remedial
measures, a special high commissioner and governor-
general was sent out to British North America in
the person of Lord Durham, John George Lamb-
ton, created Baron Durham in 1828, and Earl of
Durham in 1832, is one of the notable characters of
Canadian history, and one whose name will ever be
associated with the grant of responsible government
to Canada. The scion of a Whig family whose mem
bers had represented the city of Durham in the
House of Commons continuously from 1727 until
1797,^ Durham came honestly by Liberal principles,
which his ardent temperament and domineering
intellect carried to the verge of radicalism. He had
already enjoyed a career of distinction, had served
in the army, sat in the House of Commons and
had held the post of Lord Privy Seal in the minis
try of Earl Grey (1830). Over Lord Grey, whose
eldest daughter he had married, Durham possessed
an unusual ascendency, "une funeste infiuence" the
aged Talleyrand had called it.^ Prominent as
one of the leading supporters of the British Reform
Bill and identified in ideas, if not in practice, with
^ Dr. George Bryce, Short History of the Canadian People, Ch. xi.
Section iii.
2 Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, Vol. I. Ch. iii.
8 Qreville Memoirs, Ch. xvi.
53

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the Liberal creed of equal rights. Lord Durham
appeared preeminently suited to typify to the
people of Canada the earnest desire of the mother
country to redress their wrongs. From the moment
of his arrival at Quebec (May 29th, 1838), he threw
himself with characteristic energy into the task
before him. The powers conferred upon him as
high commissioner, Lord Durham interpreted with
the utmost latitude. He regarded himself in the
light of a benevolent dictator, and supported the
extraordinary powers which he thus assumed with
an ostentatious magnificence. He reconstructed Sir
John Colborne's council in Lower Canada, issued
an amnesty to the generality of political prisoners
still in confinement and to the participants in the late
rebeUion, and, on his own authority, banished to
Bermuda certain leaders in the insurrection.* He set
up at the same time special commissions to enquire
into education, immigration, municipal government
and Crown lands; paid a brief visit to Upper
Canada, where he was received with enthusiasm,^ and
in his short stay of five months gathered together
the voluminous materials which formed the basis
of the celebrated report. Meanwhile, however, the
governor-general's enemies in England were work
ing busily against him. The iUegal powers which he
had seen fit to assume were made the basis of an
^ F. Bradshaw, Self-government in Canada (London, 1902), p. 142.
2 R. Christie, History of the Late Province of Lower Canada.
Vol. v., Ch. xliii.
54

THE HIGH SEDITIONER
unsparing attack. Durham's actions were denounced
in the House of Lords and but feebly defended by
the government. The ordinance by which he had
granted pohtical amnesty was disallowed by the
Crown. On the news of this, Durham, conscious of
the real utility of his work in Canada, and stung to
the quick at the pettifogging legality of the govern
ment, issued (October 9th, 1838) an iU-considered
proclamation, in which he recited the aims of his
mission and declared that "if the peace of Lower
Canada is to be again menaced, it is necessary that
its government should be able to reckon on a more
cordial and vigorous support at home than has been
accorded to me." This was too much. The high
commissioner had become, in the words of the
London Times, a " High Seditioner," and the
government reluctantly ordered Lord Durham's
recall. For this, however, the governor-general had
not waited. He had already reembarked for Eng
land, and completed during the voyage the pre
paration of his report.
Among all the state papers on British colonial
administration, the report of Lord Durham, both in
point of form and of substance, stands easily first.
It is needless here to discuss how much of its
preparation was owed to the ability of the governor-
general's secretaries ; it is certain that a part of it at
any rate was the personal work of Lord Durham
himself. In its bearing upon the topic which is the
main subject of the present volume, it stands as a
55

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Magna Charta of colonial hberty. The report con
tains a masterly analysis of the origin and progress
of those grievances which had driven the provinces
to revolt, together with a survey of the existing
situation with recommendations for its amehoration.
The distracted condition of the Canadian provinces
was attributed by Lord Durham to two causes.
The first of these was the intense racial animosity
existing between the English and the French, an
animosity still further inflamed by the arrogant pre
tensions of the English minority in Lower Canada,
which the report pitilessly exposed. The second cause
of disturbance was found in the absence of that
system of responsible government which could
alone confer upon the people of Canada the politi
cal liberty to which they were entitled. As a remedy
Durham proposed the reunion of the two Canadas
into a single province, with a legislature representa
tive of both the races. Such a union he anticipated
would necessarily mean, sooner or later, the domin
ance of British interests and British nationality.
"I have little doubt," wrote Lord Durham,*
"that the French when once placed, by the legiti
mate course of events and the working of natural
causes, in a minority, would abandon their vain
hope of nationality .... I certainly shaU not
like to subject the French-Canadians to the rule of
the identical English minority with whom they
1 Report of the Earl of Durham, (Methuen & Co., new edition, 1902,)
pp. 227, 228.
56

DURHAM'S REPORT
have so long been contending; but from a majority
emanating from so much more extended a source, I
do not think that they would have any oppression
or injustice to fear." Had Lord Durham's report
rested for its reputation upon his view of the prob
able future of French Canada it would never have
achieved its historic distinction. Indeed Durham's
political foresight failed him in that he did not see,
as LaFontaine, Morin and the leaders of the moder
ate party presently demonstrated, that the system
of government which he went on to recommend for
the united provinces would prove the very means
of sustaining the nationality and influence of the
French- Canadians. It is in its recommendation of a
change in the system of government that the chief
merit of the report is to be found. "Without a
change in our system of government the discontent
which now prevails wiU spread and advance ....
It is difficult to understand how any English states
man could have imagined that representative and
irresponsible government could be successfully com
bined . , , , It needs no change in the principles
of government, no invention of a new constitutional
theory, to supply the remedy which would, in my
opinion, completely remove the existing political
disorders. It needs but to foUow out consistently
the principles of the British constitution, and in
troduce into the government of these great colonies
those wise provisions by which alone the working of
the representative system can in any country be
57

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
rendered harmonious and efficient . , , . The re
sponsibility to the united legislature of all officers
of the government, except the governor and his
secretary, should be secured by every means known
to the British constitution."
The administration of Lord Durham and the
policy which he was about to recommend to the
imperial government, commanded among the Re
formers of Upper Canada a cordial support. Hincks
established at Toronto, July 3rd, 1838, a weekly
paper called the Examiner, (there was as yet no daily
pubhshed in the little town) which bore as its motto
the words, "Responsible Government." On the
first page of it Hincks printed each week for some
months "three extracts which were intended to
explain the principles it was intended to advocate."*
The first of these was the well-worn saying of
Lieutenant-governor Simcoe, that the constitution
of the colony was nothing less than "the very image
and transcript of that of Great Britain." In a
leading article of the first number of the Examiner,
Hincks wrote in support of Lord Durham: "We
trust his advice wiU be followed by all parties in
this province, and we would urge those Reformers,
who, guiltless of any violation of the laws, have
been wantonly oppressed and insulted for the last
six months, to forget their injuries, and repose
confidence in the illustrious individual to whom the
government of these provinces has been entrusted,"
* Reminiscences, p. 22.
58

LORD SYDENHAM
Meantime the imperial government had decided
to act upon the advice presented in Lord Durham's
report and to effect a union of the Canadas. A biU
to that effect was brought into parliament, but on
reconsideration was withdrawn, in order that stiU
further information might be obtained about the
state of opinion in the colony, and in order that, as
far as might be, the terms of the union should be
proposed by the colonists themselves. To effect this
purpose a new governor-general was dispatched to
the Canadian provinces, in the person of Mr. Charles
Poulett Thomson. Thomson came of a mercantile
family, had been in the Russian trade at St. Peters
burg, had sat in the Commons, had served as vice-
president of the Board of Trade in the ministry of
Lord Grey, and had no little reputation as a Liberal
economist and tariff expert. His business career
enabled him at his coming to make a pleasing
show of democratic equality with the colonial com
munity. "Bred a British merchant myself," he told
the Committee of Trade at Quebec, "the good
opinion of those who follow the same honourable
career is to me naturally and justly dear." The
"British merchant" was, however, very shortly re
moved to a higher plane by his elevation to the
peerage as Baron Sydenham and Toronto. At
Quebec the governor-general took over the ad
ministration of Lower Canada from the hands of
Sir John Colborne. Thence he went to Montreal,
where he arrived on October 22nd, 1839, and pro-
59

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ceeded to lay the imperial plan of union before the
special council, a body of nominated members ap
pointed by Colborne, the representative institutions
of the colony being still in suspense. This plan,
as conceived in outline by the imperial govern
ment, involved the estabhshment of a legislature
in which the two provinces should be equaUy re
presented, the creation of a permanent civU hst,
and the assumption by the united provinces of the
debt already incurred in public works in Upper
Canada. Sydenham had come to Canada in the now fami
liar role of pacificator general, and in especial as the
apostle of union. Being endowed, moreover, in a
high degree with that firm belief in his own abilities
and in the efficacy of his own programme, which
was the especial prerogative of so many colonial
governors, he was fatuous enough to suppose that
the plan of union was highly acceptable to the
people of Canada. To Lord John RusseU, now
colonial secretary, he wrote in the foUowing terms:
"The large majority of those whose opinions I have
had the opportunity of learning, both of British
and French origin, and of those, too, whose charac
ter and station entitle them to the greatest au
thority, advocate warmly the estabhshment of the
union."* It was indeed easy enough for His Excel
lency to obtain a vote of approval from the special
council convoked at Montreal, (November 13th,
^ Parliamentary Papers, Canada, 1840.
60

LAFONTAINE OPPOSES THE UNION
1839). But as a matter of fact the mass of the
people of French Canada were bitterly opposed
both to the union in general and to the special
terms on which it was offered. Nor was there
a more outspoken opponent of the union than La
Fontaine, now recognized as the leader of French-
Canadian opinion. Under his auspices a public
meeting was held at Montreal, at which he de-
hvered a powerful address of protest against the
proposed amalgamation of the two Canadas. Lord
Sydenham, aware of the influence of LaFontaine
and anxious to concihate all parties, offered to him
the post of sohcitor-general of Lower Canada. This
position, in view of the existing suspension of con
stitutional government, LaFontaine did not see fit
to accept.
Before, however, these advances were made to
LaFontaine, Sydenham had already visited Upper
Canada (November 21st, 1839 and February 18th,
1840), in the interests of the project of Canadian
union. Here his task was decidedly easier. The Re
formers who were led, as will presently be seen, to
identify the Union BiU with the adoption of respon
sible government, were strongly in its favour. The
party of the Family Compact were indeed opposed
to the scheme, fearing that it might put an end to
the system of privileged control which they had so
long enjoyed. Chief -justice Robinson, then, as ever,
the protagonist of the party, hastened to draw up a
pamphlet of protest, which voiced the sentiments of
61

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
his immediate adherents but had httle effect upon
the pubhc at large.* The Tories found themselves,
moreover, in a perplexing position. Attachment to
the imperial tie, obedience to the imperial wish, —
this, if anything, had been their claim to virtue. To
oppose now the project offered them by the mother
country, seemed to do violence to their loyal past.
A formidable secession took place from their ranks,
and very few of their number in the legislature
were prepared to offer to the union an uncompro
mising opposition. It was owing to this that the
assembly elected in 1836 as the Tory parliament of
Sir Francis Head, was now prepared to vote resolu
tions in favour of the union. The utmost that the
extreme Tories would do was to endeavour to make
the terms of union as onerous as possible to the
French-Canadians. For this purpose they attempted
to pass in the assembly a resolution^ demanding a
representation for Upper Canada, not merely equal
but superior to that of the Lower Province. In
view of the fact that the populations of the two
provinces of Upper and Lower Canada stood at
this time respectively at four hundred and seventy
thousand and six hundred and thirty thousand, the
proposal for a representation inversely proportion
ate to population only evinced the obstinate deter
mination of the Upper Canadian Tories to ex-
^ Sir John B. Robinson, Canada and the Canada Bill. London, 1840.
^ Journals of the Assembly, 1825-40, p. 338. The resolution in question
appears as an amendment by Mr. Sherwood to the resolution finally
62

THE REFORM ALLIANCE
tinguish the influence of French Canada. The
result of their attempts was merely to hasten on
that alliance between the Reformers of the two
provinces which offered presently the key to the
situation. Francis Hincks had, during a visit paid
to Montreal and Quebec in 1835, made the ac
quaintance of LaFontaine, Morin and other leaders
of the moderate party in French Canada. He now,
in common with Robert Baldwin, entered into a
correspondence with them in which the principles
of responsible government and the part it might
play in the interests of both races in Canada, were
fuUy discussed.
It is to be observed that to the Reform party,
the essence of the union question lay in the adop
tion of responsible government. Without this their
projected alhance with the French-Canadian leaders
could have no significance save to establish a
factious opposition of continued hopelessness. With
responsible government a fair prospect was opened
for reconcihng the divergent interests of the Cana
dian races and carrying on a united government
resting upon common consent. It is important to
appreciate this point, since the conduct of Robert
Baldwin in what followed has been freely censured.
Baldwin had been appointed by Sydenham, in pur
suance of his policy of conciliation, to be sohcitor-
general of Upper Canada (February, 1840) without,
however, being offered a seat in the executive
councU. Baldwin accepted the office, and, after the
63

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
proclamation of the union (February 5th, 1841),
was made in addition an executive councillor. On
the day of the opening of parliament (June 14th,
1841), however, Baldwin resigned his office, thus
laying himself open to the charge at the hands of
Lord Sydenham's biographer* of being guilty of
conduct "impossible to reconcile with the principles
of pohtical honour by which British statesmen are
governed." To understand the motives by which
Robert Baldwin was animated in his acceptance
of the office which he subsequently so suddenly
resigned, it is necessary to review the position in
which the question of responsible government
stood while the union was in course of making
(1839-40). Lord Sydenham himself in reality had no more
idea of applying colonial self-government in the
sense in which it is now known and in which it was
understood by Robert Baldwin, than had Sir Francis
Head. Indeed a system of administration which
would have reduced his own part to a benevolent
nullity was foreign to his temperament, and the
thought of it occasioned him serious apprehension
for the welfare of the colony. This has since been
fully disclosed by his published correspondence. "I
am not a bit afraid," he wrote (December 12th,
1839), "of the responsible government cry; I have
already done much to put it down in its inadmis-
1 G. Poulett Scrope, Life of Lord Sydenham, (1844), p. 219. See
also Major Richardson, Eight Years in Canada, (1847), pp. 190, 191.
64

SYDENHAM'S DESPATCH
sible sense, namely, the demand that the council shall
be responsible to the assembly, and that the governor
shall take their advice and be bound by it ... .
And I have not met with any one who has not at
once admitted the absurdity of claiming to put the
council over the head of the governor .... I have
told the people plainly, that, as I cannot get rid of
my responsibihty to the home government, I wiU
place no responsibihty on the council; that they are
a council for the governor to consult, but no more."
Sydenham might claim to have told the people
plainly this old-time doctrine of gubernatorial
autocracy, but the people had certainly not so
understood his views. Indeed they had good reason
for believing the contrary. The governor-general
had received from Lord John Russell, under date of
October 16th, 1839, a despatch in which the posi
tion to be held by colonial executive officers was
explained. "You will understand, and wiU cause it
to be generally made known, that hereafter the
tenure of colonial offices held during Her Majesty's
pleasure, wiU not be regarded as equivalent to a
tenure during good behaviour: but that not only
such officers wiU be called upon to retire from the
public service as often as any sufficient motives of
public policy may suggest the expediency of that
measure, but that a change in the person of the
governor will be considered as a sufficient reason for
any alterations which his successor may deem it
expedient to make in the hst of pubhc functionaries, 65

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
subject, of course, to the future confirmation of the
sovereign."* The publication of this despatch had been put
by Lord Sydenham (who laid it before the legis
lature of Upper Canada), to a special purpose.
It served as a notice to the office-holding Tories
of the legislative council that they must either
conform to the wishes of the imperial government
in proposing the union or forfeit the positions which
they held. But the Reform party, not vsdthout jus
tice, read in it a still further significance. Interpreted
in the light of Lord Durham's recommendations,
it distinctly implied that the executive council, of
which in a later paragraph it made particular men
tion, should be expected by the governor to resign
when no longer commanding the confidence of the
country. This view had been, moreover, distinctly
emphasized by the presentation (December 13th,
1839) of an address to the governor-general, in which
it was requested that he would be pleased to inform
the House whether any communications had been
received from Her Majesty's principal secretary of
state for the colonies on the subject of responsible
government. To this Lord Sydenham replied that
"it was not in his power to communicate to the
House of Assembly any despatches upon the sub
ject referred to," but added, that "the governor-
general has received Her Majesty's commands to
^ For the full despatch see Journal of the Legislative Assembly of
Upper Canada, 1839-40, p. 61.
66

BALDWIN ACCEPTS OFFICE
administer the government of the provinces in
accordance with the well understood wishes and
interests of the people, and to pay to their feelings,
as expressed through their representatives, the de
ference that is justly due to them," The matter had
thus been left, purposely perhaps, in a half light.
But in order that there might be no doubt as to the
views of the Reform party whose wishes he repre
sented, Baldwin, on accepting office, had addressed
to Lord Sydenham and had caused to be published
the following statement of his position: "I distinctly
avow that in accepting office I consider myself to
have given a public pledge that I have a reasonably
weU grounded confidence that the government of
my country is to be carried on in accordance with
the principles of responsible government which I
have ever held," In this position, then, the matter
rested until the resignation of Baldwin after the
union, under circumstances described in the foUow
ing chapter.
Meantime the union project was carried forward.
The special council of Lower Canada, the assembly
and the legislative council of Upper Canada, had
aU adopted resolutions accepting the basis of union
proposed by Lord Sydenham on the part of the
imperial government. The assembly of Upper Can
ada accompanied its resolutions with an address
requesting that " the use of the Enghsh language
in all judicial and legislative records be forthwith
introduced, and that at the end of a space of a
67

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HIJNCKS
given number of years after the union, all debates
in the legislature shall be in English." It was asked
also, that the seat of government should be in Up
per Canada.
The inteUigence of the proceedings having been
forwarded to England, the Act of Union was duly
enacted by the imperial parhament. Its terms, in
summary, were as foUows.* In the place of the two
former colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, there
was to be a single province of Canada. A legislature
was instituted consisting of two Houses, the Upper
House, or legislative council, consisting of not fewer
than twenty persons appointed for life by the
Crown, and the Lower House, or assembly, being
elected by the people. Of the eighty-four members
of the Lower House, forty-two were to be elected
from each of the former divisions of the province.
Enghsh was made the sole official language of
legislative records. Out of the consolidated revenue
of the province the sum of seventy-five thousand
pounds was to be handed over yearly to the Crown
for the payment of the civil list, namely, certain
salaries, pensions and other fixed charges of the
government. The executive authority was vested
in a governor-general, to whom was adjoined an
executive council appointed by the Crown.^ The
extent of the responsibility of this council to the
^ 3 and 4 Vict. c. 36. See Houston, Constitutional Documents of Can
ada, for the text of the Act with comments.
^ 3 and 4 Vict. c. 36, sec. xlv.
68

ELECTIONS TO THE ASSEMBLY
parliament is not defined in the Act. Inasmuch,
however, as the entire system of responsible, or
cabinet government, in Great Britain itself is only
a matter of convention and not of positive law, a
definite statement of responsibility was in the pre
sent case not to be expected. The debt previ
ously contracted in the separate provinces now
became a joint burden.
The union thus prepared went into operation (by
virtue of a proclamation of the governor-general)
on February 10th, 1841.* On the thirteenth of the
same month the writs were issued for the election
of members of the legislature, returnable on April
8th. Robert Baldwin was elected in two constitu
encies, the south riding of York and the county
of Hastings. Francis Hincks offered himself as a
candidate to the electors of Oxford, a county which
he had been invited to visit shortly before on the
strength of his writings in the Examiner,"^ and in
which he secured his election. To the electors he
published an address in which he took his stand
on the principle of responsible government, a sys
tem, "which by giving satisfaction to the colonists,
would secure a permanent connection between the
British empire and its numerous dependencies."
The elections in Lower Canada were marked by
scenes of unusual fraud and corruption. No pains
were spared by the administration to carry the
^ The proclamation itself was issued under date of February 5th.
2 Reminiscences, p. 44.
69

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
day in favour of union candidates. The governor-
general, by virtue of a power conferred under the
Act of Union, reconstructed the boundaries of
the constituencies of Quebec and Montreal. Else
where intimidation and actual violence were used
to stifle the hostile vote of the anti-union party.*
To this was due the defeat of the French- Cana
dian leader, LaFontaine, in the county of Terre
bonne. The latter, in his electoral address, had
again denounced the union in embittered terms.
" It is," he said, " an act of injustice and of des
potism, in that it is forced upon us without our
consent; in that it robs Lower Canada of the legiti
mate number of its representatives ; in that it de
prives us of the use of our language in the proceed
ings of the legislature against the faith of treaties
and the word of the governor-general; in that it
forces us to pay, without our consent, a debt which
we did not incur." But LaFontaine realized the
futility of blind opposition to an accomplished fact.
The attempt to repeal the union, he argued, would
merely lead to a continuation of despotic govern
ment by an appointed council. To him the key to
the situation was to be found in the principle of
ministerial responsibility. "I do not hesitate to say,"
he said, "that I am in favour of this English prin
ciple of responsible government. I see in it the
only guarantee that we can have for good, consti-
' L. P. Turcotte, Canada sous T Union, (1891), pp. 62, 63. See also
C. H. Dent, The Last Forty Years, (1881), Vol. I., pp. 60, 61
70

DEFEAT OF LAFONTAINE
tutional and effective government. . . . The Re
formers in the two provinces form an immense
majority. . . . Our cause is common. It is in the
interest of the Reformers of the two provinces to
meet in the legislature in a spirit of peace, union,
friendship and fraternity. Unity of action is neces
sary now more than ever."
In despite, however, of the defeat of LaFontaine
and several other Reform candidates in Lower
Canada, the result of the election of 1841 was not
unfavourable to the cause of Reform. Of the eighty-
four members of the Lower House only twenty-four
were pledged supporters of the governor-general,*
while the Reform party, together with the French
Nationahsts, included weU over forty members of
the House.
1 Poulett Scrope, Ufe of Lord Sydenham (1844), p. 217.

n

CHAPTER IV
LORD SYDENHAM AND RESPONSIBLE
GOVERNMENT
UNDER the Act of 1840 (sec. xxx), the choice of
a seat of government for the united provinces
was left to the governor-general. In the troubled
state of racial feeling, such a selection was natur
aUy a matter of difficulty. While it was clear that
the capital city of the country must be chosen in
Upper Canada, Sydenham was, nevertheless, anx
ious to concUiate the French-Canadians as far as
might be by appointing a capital neither too re
mote from their part of the province, nor too little
associated with their history. Kingston, situated on
the north shore of Lake Ontario, at the point where
the lake narrows to the river St. Lawrence, seemed
best to fulfil these requirements. The foundation of
the settlement antedated by nearly a century the
English occupation of Canada, and the fort and
trading station then established had been one of the
western outposts of the French regime, while its
erstwhile name of Frontenac associated the place
with the bygone glory of New France. British loy
alty, with a characteristic lack of inventiveness, had
altered the name of the little town to Kingston, A
strong fort built upon the limestone hills that com
manded the sheltered harbour, and garrisoned by
73

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
imperial troops, testified to the mUitary importance
of the place. Its central position rendered it at once
the key to the navigation of the lake and river,
while the construction of the Rideau Canal had
placed it in control of an inland waterway whose
possession minimized the dangers of an American
frontier attack. In this favoured situation there had
now sprung up a town, of some seven thousand in
habitants, built largely of the limestone on which it
stands and patterned upon the now inevitable rec
tangular plan. At the time of the union Kingston
was a town of about a mile and a half in length,
with a breadth of three-quarters of a mile. * It con
tained six churches, was able to boast of three
newspapers, and was, moreover, the seat of a very
considerable milling industry, large quantities of
grain being brought across the lake to be ground
at Kingston and exported thence to Great Britain,
thereby enjoying the special tariff preference ac
corded to colonial products. The one hundred and
sixty miles which separated it from Toronto re
presented in those days a steamboat voyage of
about eighteen hours, or in winter time a sleigh-
drive, under favourable conditions, of about a day
and a night's duration. From Montreal to King
ston, a distance of about one hundred and seventy
miles, the journey was accomplished while navi
gation was open, partly by steamer, partly by
stage. A letter of Lord Sydenham's under date of
^ J. S. Buckingham, Oareada (London, 1843), Chap, v., pp. G2etseq.
74

STEAMBOATS AND STAGES
December 3rd, 1839, illustrates the arduousness
of travel to and from the new provincial capital.
"The journey," he writes, "was bad enough. A por
tage (from Montreal) to Lachine ; then the steam
boat to the cascades, twenty-four miles further ;
then road again (if road it can be called) for six
teen miles ; then steam to Cornwall, forty miles ;
then road, twelve miles ; then by a change of
steamers, into Lake Ontario to Kingston." The all-
water route by the Rideau Canal, passing through
Bytown (now Ottawa) occupied some forty-eight
hours. It was in Kingston, then, that Lord Syden
ham had summoned the new Canadian legislature
to meet on June 14th, 1841, and in the early sum
mer of that year the little town was aheady astir
with sanguine hopes of becoming the metropolis of
Canada. Before, however, the legislature had as yet come
together, the governmental problem, which was to
be the central feature of the pohtical life of Canada
from now until the administration of Lord Elgin,
the problem of ministerial responsibility, had al
ready developed itself. Under the new regime it feU
to the task of Lord Sydenham to appoint not only
the members of the legislative council, which was to
form the Upper House of the parliament, but also
those of the executive council. These appointments
were made a few days after the inauguration of the
union (February 13th, 1841). The list of executive
counciUors was as foUows : from Upper Canada,
75

BALDWIN LAFONTAlNi: HINCKS
W. H. Draper as attorney-general of Upper Can
ada ; Robert Baldwin SuUivan, president of the
council; J. H. Dunn, receiver-general; S. B. Harri
son, provincial secretary for Upper Canada ; and
Robert Baldwin, solicitor-general for that province.
The Lower Province was represented in the execu
tive government by C. R. Ogden, attorney-general
for Lower Canada ; Dominick Daly, provincial sec
retary ; and C. D. Day as solicitor-general. Mr. H,
H, KiUaly was presently added to the ministry
(March 17th, 1841), as commissioner of public works.
We have already seen that in accepting a seat in
the executive council Robert Baldwin had made it
abundantly clear that he did so on the presumption
that the operation of the incoming government
would be based upon the principle of executive re
sponsibility. Beyond this preliminary declaration,
however, Baldwin did not think it desirable to
take any further action until the election of the
assembly and the relative representation of political
parties should have given some indication of the
standing of the ministry with the country at large.
The executive council, as thus constituted, was
a body of multicoloured complexion and varying
views. Ability it undoubtedly possessed, but it rep
resented at the same time so little agreement in
political sentiment or conviction, that it might well
be doubted whether joint and harmonious action
would be possible, Baldwin, as we have seen, was
an uncompromising Reformer, devoted to the prin-
76

THE FIRST MINISTRY
ciples of popular sovereignty and executive respon
sibility. Sullivan, his cousin, was a man of different
temper. Keen in intellect, ready in debate, he
brought to the practical business of politics the
point of view of the lawyer, the tactician, the man
of the world. For abstract principles of government
he cared not a brass farthing. It was his wont to
say to his colleagues, "Fix on your policy. Take
what course you like, and I wiU find you good
reason for doing so."*
William Henry Draper, the attorney-general,
differed stiU more radically in his political outlook
from Robert Baldwin. Draper, after an adventurous
and wandering youth, had come to Canada some
twenty years before, had drifted from school-teach
ing into law and politics, and at this time belonged,
like Baldwin and Sullivan, to the legal fraternity
of York. He had sat in the Upper Canadian as
sembly, been one of the council of Sir Francis
Bond Head and had succeeded Christopher Hager
man in 1840 as attorney-general of Upper Can
ada. This office he still held in the ministry of
the united provinces. Draper was a man of great
ability, eloquent and persuasive of speech, skilled as
a parliamentary manager and dexterous in the game
of politics. He was by principle and temperament a
Conservative, and although of undoubted patriotism
and devoted to the cause of good government, he
viewed with alarm the increasing tendency of his
time towards the extension of democratic rule.
1 N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada (London, 1887), p. 546.
77

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Harrison and KiUaly were Liberals of a moderate
cast. John Henry Dunn has already been noticed as
one of Baldwin's colleagues of the short-lived minis
try of Sir Francis Head, and may be considered as
sharing the opinions of the moderate Reform party.
The councillors for Lower Canada could lay but
little claim to be representative of the sentiments of
that province. Dominick Daly, the provincial secre
tary, and presently member for Megantic, an Irish
man now nearly twenty years in Canada, of an easy
and affable personality, was not displeasing to the
French-Canadians whose religion he shared. Ogden,
a lawyer and a former office-holder in the govern
ment of Lower Canada, was identified with the
British interests and was unpopular with the French.
Day represented the same class. It will be observed
that the refusal of LaFontaine to accept office left
the French-Canadians wholly without representa
tion in the executive government.
Baldwin appears to have been convinced from the
outset that such a ministry would be quite incom
patible with any system of government save one
under which the governor-general would be the sole
motive force of the administration. To his published
communication, already cited, he shortly added a
letter to Lord Sydenham (February 19th, 1841) in
which he wrote : " With respect to those gentlemen
[his fellow-members of the council], Mr. Baldwin
has himself an entire want of pohtical confidence in
all of them except Mr. Dunn, Mr. Harrison and
78

BALDWIN'S ATTITUDE
Mr. Daly. He deems it a duty which he owes to the
governor-general, at once to communicate his opin
ion that such an arrangement will not command the
support of parliament." This opinion had been con
firmed by the result ofthe elections and by the cor
respondence * which had ensued between the leaders
of the Reform party in the two provinces. In despite
of the defeat of LaFontaine, it was plain that the
Upper Canadian section of that party would find
in Morin, the member for Nicolet, Aylwin of Port-
neuf, Viger of Richelieu, and others of LaFontaine's
party, a group of sympathizers with whom they
might enter into a natural and profitable aUiance.
On the strength of this expectation, Baldwin called
together at Kingston, a few days before the open
ing of the session, a meeting of the Reform party.
The attending members, while not agreeing on
a decisive hne of public policy, expressed them
selves as unanimous in their want of confidence
in the administration as existing.^ Shortly after
this meeting, Baldwin addressed to the governor-
general (June 12th, 1841) a letter in which he re
commended that a reconstruction of the ministry
should be made in such a way that the Reform
party of French Canada, now prepared to cooper
ate with their Upper Canadian allies, should be
represented in the executive. The Reformers, said
1 See in this connection a letter from Morin to Hincks, May 8th,
1841, fully reviewing the situation. Sir F. Hincks, Reminiscences,
pp. 60-6.
» Ibid, p. £&
79

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Baldwin, could not extend their support to a min
istry which included Messrs. Draper, SuUivan,
Ogden and Day, whose views differed so entirely
from their own. I^ord Sydenham, in answer, drew
attention to the fact that such a request, at the
very moment of the assembly of parliament, was
inopportune, and that the French-Canadians whom
he proposed to substitute for the ministers to be
dismissed, had been radical opponents of the very
union of which the new government was the em
bodiment. The governor-general's communication,
followed by further correspondence of the same
tenor, left Baldwin no choice but to resign his office.
His resignation, offered on June 12th (1841), was
still awaiting its formal acceptance when the House
met on the fourteenth.
The action of Robert Baldwin in this connection
has been, as already indicated, roundly censured by
Lord Sydenham's biographer. " This transaction,"
writes the latter, " looking to the character of the
gentleman who was the principal actor in it, and
to the manner in which he conducted his negotia
tion with the representative ofthe Crown, iUustrates
more clearly than anything else, the ignorance at
that time prevailing, even among the leaders of the
pohtical parties in Canada, as to the principles on
which a system of responsible government can alone
be carried on."* The true explanation of the matter
is to be found in reality in the uncompromising
1 Poulett Scrope, Life of Lord Sydenham (1844), p. 223.
80

RESIGNATION OF BALDWIN
stand which Robert Baldwin was prepared to take
in defence of his "one idea." To have formed part of
a ministry which would inevitably find itself voted
down in the popular assembly (as Baldwin expected
would now be the case), and which would have to
rely on the expedients of political management for
the conduct of public affairs, would have seemed to
him nothing short of trafficking with the fundamen
tal right of the people whom he represented. The
error that Baldwin made, speaking from the stand
point of practical politics, lay in his overestimating
the union and power of the Reform party. He did
not fully realize that the party had as yet but an
imperfect basis of organization, that its programme
was not one of positive agreement but merely of
negative opposition, and that this alone was not
calculated to give it the cohesion requisite for its
ends. The expectation that the government could
be voted out of office and that the system of minis
terial responsibility could thereby be forced upon
Lord Sydenham, was not borne out by the sequel.
The difficulties, moreover, of establishing at once
an operative system of cabinet government is real
ized when one views the complex character of the
party divisions among the newly-elected members
of the assembly. One may distinguish among them
at least five different groups. There was, first of all,
the party pledged to the support of the administra
tion, drawn chiefly from Upper Canada and led by
Attorney-General Draper, as member for the county
81

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of Russell. To these were closely affihated the mem
bers elected, largely by coercion, in the British in
terest in Lower Canada, among whom was Dr. Mc-
CuUoch who had defeated LaFontaine in Terre
bonne. These two groups numbered together about
twenty-four. As an extreme Conservative wing, were
the Upper Canadian Tories, the remnant ofthe days
of the Compact, some seven in number. These were
under the redoubtable leadership of Sir Allan Mac
Nab, the hero of the "men of Gore" of 1837, by
whose direction the Caroline had been sent over Ni
agara Falls, a feat which had earned him the honour
of knighthood, a man of the old school, the sterling
qualities of whose character redeemed the rigidity
of his intellect. Of quite opposed complexion were
the Reformers, a large and somewhat uncertain
group including the moderates of both provinces,
and shading off into the ultra- Reformers and into
the group of French Nationalists who as yet stood
in no affiliation to the English party of Reform.
The classification thus adopted would indicate in
the assembly the following numerical divisions :
1st, the party supporting Lord Sydenham, twenty-
four ; 2nd, the party of Sir AUan MacNab, seven ;
3rd, the moderate Reformers, twenty ; 4th, ultra-
Reformers, five ; 5th, French Nationalists, twenty.
There were, in addition to these, eight doubtful
members that cannot be classified with any of the
groups, making up in all eighty-four members of
the assembly. Such classification is, however, too
82

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
precise to indicate the true state of affairs. Party
hues were not as yet drawn with precision. The
system of the union being stiU in its experimental
stage, party tradition and parliamentary precedent
were absent, and individual members were naturaUy
led to follow the dictates of their own judgment,
and voted sometimes with and sometimes against
the particular group with which their names were
chiefly associated.
Meantime a legislative council of twenty-four
members had been appointed (June 9th, 1841)
by Lord Sydenham. The French- Canadians were
represented by Rene Caron, mayor of Quebec, (a
man of liberal views and subsequently a member of
LaFontaine's ministry), Barth^ldmy, Joliette and
six others. Of the sixteen British members of the
councU, Robert Baldwin SuUivan, Peter McGill
of Montreal, William Morris, formerly of the leg
islative council of Upper Canada and notable as
the champion of the Presbyterian Church in the
matter of the Clergy Reserves,* were of especial
prominence. The constitutional history of the first session of
the union parliament which now ensued, and in
which the first test was made of the operation of
the united government, has the appearance of an
indecisive battle. The Reform party, anxious to
force the issue, endeavoured to obtain an expres-
* H. J. Morgan, Sketches of Celebrated Canadians (1862), pp. 429 et
seq.
83

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
sion of want of confidence sufficiently emphatic to
compel the government to resign office. The gov
ernment, on the other hand, strove to put the ques
tion of parliamentary theory in the background
by bringing forward a programme of great public
utility and inviting for its accomplishment a united
support. The members of the Reform party found
themselves thus placed in a dilemma. Should they
persist in an uncompromising attitude of oppo
sition, they might delay the carrying out of pubhc
works of whose urgency they were themselves
convinced. Should they break their ranks and
vote with the party of the government in favour
of measures of undoubted utility, they thereby
seemed to justify the existence of an admini
stration of which they had at the outset expres
sed their disapproval. It was, in a word, the oft-
recurring dilemma occasioned by the conflicting
claims of parf;y policy and public welfare. In a long-
established legislature where rival parties of bal
anced powers alternate in office, such a dUemma
presents less difficulty, since, with the defeat of the
government, the incoming party is enabled to carry
on such part of the programme of its opponents as
may enlist its support. But in the case of the newly
inaugurated government of Canada, both the ur
gency of the time and the doubtful complexion of
the parties themselves seemed to favour individual
action as against the claims of party cohesion. It
foUowed as a consequence that the question of re-
84

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT
sponsible government, albeit the real issue of the
moment, remained for the time in suspense. Lord
Sydenham with his able lieutenant. Attorney-gen
eral Draper, was enabled to obtain sufficient sup
port to carry on his government, while the Reform
ers contrived, nevertheless, to force from the admin
istration a somewhat reluctant assent to the proposi
tion that only this fortuitous support gave them a
valid claim to office. It has been necessary to under
take this preliminary explanation in order to make
it clear how men, so like-minded in their political
views as Hincks and Baldwin, should presently be
found voting on opposite sides of the House. But if
the state of public affairs at the time is properly
understood, it appears but natural that Hincks, as
a man of affairs, should have preferred a policy of
immediate effectiveness, while Baldwin, of a more
theoretical temperament, clung fast to his uncom
promising principle.
As already mentioned, the first united parlia
ment met at Kingston on Monday, June 14th,
1841. The place of its meeting was a stone build
ing about a mile to the west of the town, that
had been intended to serve as a general hospital,
but for the time being was given over for the use of
the legislature. The comfort of the members ap
pears to have been well cared for. The halls, both of
the council and the assembly, were spacious and
well furnished, " with handsome, stuffed arm-chairs
of black walnut, covered with green moreen, with
85

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
a small projection on the side to write upon." Syd
enham himself seems to have been somewhat im
pressed with the luxurious surroundings of his col
onial legislators. " The accommodation," he Avrote
home to England, " would be thought splendid by
our members of the English House of Commons.
But these fellows in their colonies have been spoilt
by all sorts of luxuries, — large arm-chairs, desks
with stationery before each man, and Heaven knows
what,— so I suppose they will complain."
The governor-general was not present in person at
the first meeting of the Houses. In his absence the
members were sworn in, and the proclamation
convening the parliament read by the clerk of the
assembly. After this the assembly addressed itself to
the task of electing one of their number as Speaker.
Here occurred, in accordance with a plan prearrang
ed* by the Reformers, the first passage-at-arms bd^-
tween the government and its opponents. The Re
formers had decided to nominate for the speakership
a Mr. Cuvillier, member for Huntingdon, a man
fluent in both English and French, identified form
erly with the popular party in Lower Canada, but
moderate^ in his views and acceptable on aU sides.
It had been hoped by the Reformers that the gov
ernment might oppose Mr. Cuvilher's nomination,
¦^ Hincks, Reminiscences, p. 68.
2 Cuvillier had been one of those deputed, in 1828, to carry the peti
tion of the eighty-seven thousand to the imperial government, but he
had voted against Papineau's "Ninety-two Resolutions."
86

HINCKS AND CUVILLIER
and thus be led to make a trial of strength by which
means the election of Mr. CuviUier would appear as
an initial defeat of the administration. It seemed,
however, as if the administration, either because they
considered Mr. Cuvillier well suited to the office or
in order to avoid a hostUe vote, would aUow that
gentleman to be elected without opposition. This
the Reformers were minded to prevent, " I was de
termined," wrote Hincks in a letter to the Examiner
in which he described this preliminary onslaught on
the government, " that the advisers of His Excel
lency should swallow the bitter pill by publicly
voting for a gentleman who had declared his entire
want of confidence in them," In order, therefore, to)
force the government into a corner, Hincks rose'
and stated that he considered it his duty to his con
stituents of North Oxford to explain publicly why
he supported the nomination of Mr, Cuvillier. His
reason was, he said, that that gentleman had oppos
ed certain provisions of the Union BiU of which he
himself disapproved, notably the provision for a
permanent civil list. He was furthermore led to
support Mr. Cuvillier because of " his [Mr. Cuvil
her's] entire want of confidence in the present ad
ministration." This, of course, was a direct chaUenge, and left
the government and the Tories no choice but to
come out and fight. Sir AUan MacNab was
proposed as a rival candidate. Aylwin of Portneuf,
Morin and others, followed the lead of Hincks. A
87

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
heated debate followed, in which Mr, Cuvilher's
" want of confidence " did service as an opportune
bone of contention. Peace-loving members begged
Mr. Cuvillier to state, in the interests of harmony,
whether he had, or had not, a "want of confidence."
Mr. Cuvillier did not see fit to do so. The situation
became somewhat confused. Smith of Frontenac, an
over-belligerent friend of the government, attacked
the bad taste of the member for North Oxford in
trying to force an adverse vote at such a time, and
spoke of a dissolution of parliament as the possible
outcome of the day's proceedings. The danger
ous word " dissolution " brought i^ ttorney-general
Draper to his feet with soothing words in the in
terests of peace. MacNab having meanwhile caused
his name to be withdrawn, the discussion subsided,
and Mr. Cuvillier was declared unanimously elected.
Baldwin, being still technically a member of the
government (his resignation awaiting its formal ac
ceptance), took no part in this preliminary discussion.
There was some debate over the question whether,
as the governor-general had not come down to
parliament on the day for which it was summoned,
it could be said, legally, to have met at all. A motion
for adjournment was, however, carried, which prac
tically affirmed the proposition that the House had
legally meet.
Next day Lord Sydenham appeared in person,
and with no little pomp, in the chamber of the legis
lative council, and read to the assembled members of
88

PUBLIC WORKS
the two Houses the speech from the throne. The
measures outlined therein showed that the governor
and his advisers were prepared to adopt a vigorous
forward policy in the administration ofthe country.*
They declared their intention to adopt legislation
for " developing the resources of the province by
well considered and extensive public works," to ob
tain a reduction of the rate of postage and a speed
ier conveyance of letters, and to effect the improve
ment of the navigation from the shores of Lake
Erie and Lake Huron to the ocean. The governor
had, moreover, the satisfaction of informing the
members of the two Houses that he had received
authority from Her Majesty's government to state
that they were prepared to caU upon the imperial
parliament to afford assistance towards these im
portant undertakings. It was announced that the
imperial parhament would be asked to guarantee a
loan of one and a half million pounds sterling, to be
raised for the expenditure on pubhc works in the pro
vince. The intention of the government to complete
the establishment of representative institutions in
Canada by a law providing for municipal self-
government was also indicated, and a promise was
given of a law for the establishment of a system of
common schools.
No practical programme could have been better
devised at this juncture for enlisting public support,
especially among the people of Upper Canada, in
'¦ Journal of the Legislative Assembly (Canada, 1841), Vol. I., pp. 7, 8.
89

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
whose division of the country the rapid progress of
immigration and settlement called urgently for gen
erous public expenditure. It was part ofthe shrewd
ness of the concerted policy of Sydenham and
Draper that they sought thus to remove attention
from questions of theory to questions of practical
utility, while the promise of the imperial govern
ment to assist the province by a guaranteed loan and
by public aid to immigration into Canada, seemed
to hold out a strong inducement towards reconcilia
tion and harmonious action. The Reformers, how
ever, were determined that the question of principle,
the question ofthe constitution itself, should not be
forced altogether into the background. Before com
ing to a vote upon the resolutions on which the ad
dress in answer to the speech from the throne was
to be framed, they pressed the administration for a
definite statement in regard to the aU-important
subject of responsible government. The House be
ing then in committee of the whole upon the speech
from the throne, Malcolm Cameron opened the dis
cussion by declaring that " the dry and parched
soil is not more eager for the coming shower than
all the people of this country for the establishment
of the administration ofthe government of this pro
vince upon such a basis as will ensure its tranquil
lity,"* Mr. Cameron, foUowed by Buchanan, Hincks
1 The debates of the parliament were not officially reported. What
follows is based on the report published in The Church (Toronto), June
26th, 1841.
90

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
and others, urged upon the government the desira
bility of a definite explanation of principle. The
attorney-general, fortified with a budget of manu
script notes whereby he might speak the more accur
ately, then undertook a formal statement of the
principle of colonial government as he conceived it.
In the first place, he would declare, he said, for the
information both of .those who act with him and
those who act against him, that so long only as he
could give a conscientious support to those meas
ures which the head of the government might deem
it his duty to submit to that House, so long only
would he continue to hold office under the govern
ment  He would next, he continued, state the
views which he entertained respecting the duties of
His Excellency : he looked upon the governor as
having a mixed character, firstly, as being the rep
resentative of royalty ; secondly, as being one of
the ministers of Her Majesty's government, and re
sponsible to the mother country for the faithful dis
charge of the duties of his station— a responsibility
that he could not avoid by saying that he took the ad
vice of this man or that man. He looked upon it as
a necessary consequence of this doctrine, that where
there is responsibility there shall be power also. For
he could not admit the idea that one man should
possess the power, and another be liable for the re
sponsibility, , . . The attorney-general went on to
explain that this same doctrine of responsibility cor
responding to power, apphed not only to the gov-
91

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ernor but to the ministers below him. " Whenever,"
he said, " I find the head of the government and the
minister ofthe Crown desirous of propounding meas
ures which I cannot conscientiously support, honour
and duty point out but one path, and that is resig
nation. There are few men who have long acted in
a public capacity, who have escaped animadversion
and censure, but a man must indeed be hardened
in sentiment and feeling who does not acknowledge
a degree of responsibility to public opinion. ... It is
to be desired above aU things that between the
government and the people there should exist the
greatest possible harmony and mutual good under
standing. ... It is the duty of the head of the gov
ernment to preserve that harmony by all the means
in his power. ... If he find that he has been led
astray by incapable or dishonest advisers, he may
relieve himself of them by their dismissal."
The attorney-general, with his usual persuasive
ness of speech, had succeeded in talking all round
the question of responsible government without
really touching upon it. The blunt question, do
the ministers resign when they have no majority
behind them, was stiU left unanswered. Not with
out cause, indeed, had Draper's oratorical powers
earned him the nickname of "Sweet William." In
this instance, the Reformers were quick to see the
weak side of the attorney-general's presentation.
Baldwin, rising to reply, brushed aside the subtleties
of the leader of the government and forced the
92

BALDWIN VERSUS DRAPER
question to a direct issue. He agreed, he said,
that the head of the government is of a mixed
character, and that he is responsible to the home
government for the proper administration of the
government of the colony. He would admit that, in
the administration of the government, questions
may arise in which he may not be prepared to
adopt the advice which may be tendered to him.
But if he (Mr. Baldwin) understood the honourable
and learned gentleman aright, that the council of
His Excellency are to offer their advice only when
it is demanded of them, and on all occasions remain
mere passive observers of the measures adopted by
the government, he would beg leave from such a
system as this entirely to dissent. . . . Such a
council would be no council at all. The honourable
and learned gentleman, Mr,^ Baldwin continued,
admits that in the event of the administration not
retaining the confidence of parliament, they should
resign ; if he had understood the honourable gen
tleman aright as intending to go to this extent,
then it would seem that the difference between the
views of that honourable gentleman and his own
amounted only to a difference in terms and not
a difference in fact. But should those gentlemen be
prepared, notwithstanding a vote of want of confi
dence should be passed by that House, to retain
their seats in the council, then he must say that he
entirely dissented from them. ... If the honour
able gentleman had intended to be understood as
93

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
going to this length, theii he would perfectly con
cur with him.
Baldwin expressed his regret that this impor
tant matter had not been made the subject of
a distinct communication in the speech from
the throne. "It was, " he said "a great and import
ant principle, on the faithful carrying out of which
the continuation of the connection with the mother
country in great measure depends." The compre
hensive refutation of Mr. Draper's position thus
made by Mr. Baldwin was followed up by a series
of " teasing questions "* from other Reformers de
termined to force the attorney-general to a direct
answer to the question whether or not he would
resign. Brought to bay finaUy by these attacks and
having in the series of seven speeches which he
made during the debate involved the issue in as
much intricacy as possible, Mr. Draper admitted
that he would resign.
So prolonged, however, had been the debate, and
so confused had become the theoretical arguments
pro and con, that at the end of it the members
seem to have been but little the wiser. Some sup
posed that responsible government was now a fact,
others that it had been merely the subject of a
meaningless wrangle. The Montreal Herald"^ an
nounced that Mr. Draper's final and reluctant
" Yes," had been "succeeded by a burst of applause
1 New York Albion, July 3rd, 1841.
2 Cited by the Albion, July 3rd, 1841.
94

A TALENTED ASSEMBLY
from the House. The cry is, responsible govern
ment is come at last." The Kingston Chronicle^ in
formed its readers that "the great monster, res
ponsible government, was actuaUy ground into
nothing," but added in a tone of complacent pat
ronage that this " seeming waste of powder ought
not to be considered as altogether unprofitable."
The same journal, in its discussion of the great
debate, informed its readers that "the perpetual
foaming and puffing of the honourable gentlemen
reminded us of a set of smaU steam engines whose
safety valves kept them from actually bursting
their boilers on the floor of the House." Then, as if
apprehensive of the consequences of its own wit,
the journal hastened to add : " By this passing re
mark we do not mean any disrespect to the honour
able House, far from it, for we think it altogether
the most talented and respectable House of As
sembly that ever met in this section of the prov
ince. In despite of the seeming harmony of opinion
thus established, the fact remained that the attor
ney-general had to a large extent come off" victori
ous. His opponents had wished to make the ques
tion one of men; Draper had succeeded in making
it one of measures. His declaration was in reality
an invitation to the members to judge the pro
gramme of the government upon its merits, and to
accord it their support irrespective of any previous
» Wednesday, June 22nd, 1841. 95

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
confidence, or want of it, in the originators of the
programme. Mr. Draper's difficulties were not,
however, at an end. The Upper Canada Reform
party being for the moment placated, he had
yet to deal with the French-Canadian section,
whose opposition to the terms of the union itself
now sought expression. Neilson of Quebec moved
an amendment to the address, to the effect that
" there are features in the Act now constituting
the government of Canada which are inconsistent
with justice and the common rights of British sub
jects."* Although the combined Upper Canadian
vote easily defeated this amendment, Baldwin,
Hincks and four other Upper Canadians voted in
favour of it. Hincks spoke at some length in its
support. He attacked the provision of the Union
Act whereby the imperial parliament fixed a civU
hst for Canada. He declared that the basis of re
presentation now established was unjust : in Upper
Canada there were forty-two members, twenty-six
of whom were returned by constituencies consisting
of three hundred and fifty thousand souls, while
the remaining sixteen only represented sixty-three
thousand. The representation of Lower Canada was
equally out of proportion. " It is," he said, " idle to
concede responsible government unless there is
a fair representation of the people." The suppression
of the French language as an official medium, he
denounced as an " unjust and cruel provision."
^ Journal ofthe Legislative Assembly, Vol. 1., p. 64.
96

SYDENHAM'S CORRESPONDENCE
Hincks's speech was, however, but a further "waste
of powder." The amendment was voted down by
fifty to twenty-five.
With the termination of this preliminary debate
upon responsible government and the rejection of
Neilson's amendment, the government had safely
passed its initial difficulties, and was free to turn to
the work of positive legislation. That the issue in
volved in the debate was not, however, one of mere
ly abstract interest, amply appears from the corres
pondence of Lord Sydenham and the view which
he took of his constitutional position in the govern
ment of Canada, In describing the attempt of the
Reform party to " ensure a stormy opening " of the
parhament, he wrote (June 27th, 1841) : " My offi
cers, (ministers I) though the best men, I beheve, for
their departments that can be found, were, un
fortunately, many of them, unpopular from their
previous conduct, and none of them sufficiently
acquainted with the manner in which a government
through parliament should be conducted to render
us any assistance in this matter, / had therefore to
fight the whole battle myself. . . . The result, how
ever, has been complete success. / have got the
large majority of the House ready to support me
upon any question that can arise. . . . Except the
rump of the old House of Assembly of Lower
Canada and two or three ultra-Radicals who have
gone over with my solicitor-general, whom I have
97

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
got rid of, every member is cordiaUy with me and
with my government."
Thus established on a fair working basis, with
the question of responsible government for the
moment set aside, the administration was able to
proceed with its programme. In the ensuing session,
which lasted until September 17th, 1841, it man
aged to make good a large part of its promises. A
vigorous programme of public works was instituted.
Backed by the imperial guarantee of the interest on
a £1,500,000 sterling loan, the province undertook
an expenditure of £1,659,682 on works of pubhc
utility. The WeUand Canal, hitherto in the hands of
a private company, was bought up by the govern
ment, which spent £450,000 on its improvement
The navigation of the St. Lawrence, which, as has
been seen, was still obstructed by intervening rapids,
was aided by a vote of £696,182 for the construc
tion of canals at CornwaU and Lachine; £58,500
was laid out upon deepening the channel in Lake
St, Peter; and £25,000 on the construction of roads
in the Eastern Townships and in the Bale des
Chaleurs district, A sum of £45,000 was devoted to
the Burlington Canal. The remainder of the money
was appropriated largely to the construction of new
roads in Upper Canada. This question of public works
introduced serious divisions among the members of
the Reform party. Hincks who was, to use his own
phrase, a "warm supporter" of pubhc works,* voted
^ Reminiscences, p. 69.
98

LEGISLATIVE MEASURES
with the government. The French-Canadians, on the
other hand, opposed the policy of public expendi
ture wherever it seemed, in their opinion, to favour
Upper Canada unduly. Baldwin, for the sake of
party cohesion, was inclined to side with the French-
Canadians, and so preserve a united opposition. Ayl
win endeavoured to secure a vote of the House to
the effect that no debt should be incurred on pubhc
works save with the consent of a majority from
Lower Canada. Baldwin voted in favour of it, but
found only one of his Upper Canadian foUowers
prepared to go to this length. On the matter of road
building in western Canada, Baldwin and Hincks
again found themselves voting on opposite sides.
Thanks to the divisions in the ranks of their oppon
ents, the ministry were enabled to carry on the gov
ernment with a fair show of support.
Certain other measures of the session were also
of considerable importance. The criminal law was
modified by measures reducing its severity. The
pillory was abolished and the number of capital of
fences considerably reduced. The provincial tariff
was revised, the duties on imported merchandise
being advanced from two and one-half to five per
cent. A resolution of the House of Assembly af
firmed the necessity of abolishing seigniorial tenure
in Lower Canada and a commission was appointed
for its consideration. A biU in reference to the
corrupt practices which had been prevalent in the
recent election, excited great public attention and
99

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
caused more difficulty to the government than any
other measure of the session. Petitions had come
up to the House from Terrebonne (where LaFon
taine had been defeated) and elsewhere praying
the assembly to cancel the elections. Technical
flaws in the petitions prevented their reception.
A bill brought into the House to overcome the
difficulty and permit the reception of the petitions
was passed by a large majority, receiving the sup
port, not only of the entire Reform party, but of
Sir Allan MacNab and the Upper Canadian Tories.
The influence of the government caused the biU
to be rejected in the legislative council. This was
only one of eighteen measures rejected during the
session by the Upper House, a circumstance which
served to show that on its present nominated basis
it might prove an obstructive influence.
But the measure of the greatest importance adopt
ed during the session was the law in reference to
municipal government. As this was a subject with
which, in the sequel, the LaFontaine-Baldwin ad
ministration was intimately associated, a brief ac
count of the legislation under Lord Sydenham is
here necessary. The institution of democratic self-
government is nowhere complete until it is accom
panied by the establishment of self-governing bodies
for local affairs. Parliamentary reform, therefore,
naturally goes hand in hand with municipal reform.
This had already been seen in England, where the
great reform of parliament in 1832 had been foUow-
100

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ed in 1835 by the introduction of municipal self-
government. It was now proposed to take an init
ial step in this same direction in regard to the local
government of Upper Canada. Until this time there
existed in the districts into which Upper Canada
was divided, no elective municipal bodies. The jus
tices of the peace, nominated by the Crown, had ex
ercised in their quarter sessions a supervision over
local affairs and had levied local taxation. In the
Lower Province local taxation had not been raised
previous to Lord Sydenham's administration. The
latter had sought to insert into the Act of Union
provisions for district government but, finding the
imperial parhament averse to such detailed legisla
tion, he had, by means of the special council, cre
ated in Lower Canada municipal bodies consisting
of nominees of the CroAvn. It was not proposed to
alter the system thus estabhshed in Lower Canada,
where the government stiU felt apprehensive of
giving full play to the principle of election. The biU
presented to the united parliament referred, there
fore, only to Upper Canada. This occasioned a pe
culiar difficulty. If the local bodies estabhshed were
to be entirely elective, the French might with jus
tice complain of the special privileges thus accorded
to the British part of the province. If, on the other
hand, the municipal institutions of Upper Canada
were framed after the model of those already creat
ed by the special council in Lower Canada, the
101

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
British section of the province would cry out against
the denial of representative government.
In this delicate situation the government attempt
ed a middle course. The provisions of the biU per
mitted the inhabitants of the districts of Upper
Canada to form themselves into municipal bodies.
Councillors were to be elected in each district, but
the warden, the treasurer and the clerk, were to be
nominated by the Crown. The bill as thus drawn
had the disadvantage which attends aU measures of
compromise ; it met with opponents on both sides.
Mr. Viger, on behalf of the French-Canadians, en
tered an energetic protest* on the ground that
Upper Canada was unduly favoured. " I will express
myself," he said, " as sufficiently selfish to oppose
such great advantages being accorded to the Upper
Canadians alone," Robert Baldwin and the general
ity of his following objected, on the ground that the
advantages conferred were not sufficiently great
and that aU the municipal offices ought to be made
elective. Here again Hincks found himself compeUed to
differ from his leader and, in a speech of consider
able power, undertook to defend this course in re
gard to the bill, and to free himself from the charges
of desertion now brought against him by his fellow
Reformers, To him it seemed that half a loaf was
better than no bread. He would have preferred that
local elective government might also have been con-
' Turcotte, Le Canada sous l' Union, pp. 98, 99.
102

STRAINED RELATIONS
ceded to Lower Canada, but if this could not be
obtained he saw no reason to deny it to Upper Can
ada on that account. He would have preferred that
aU the offices should have been elective, but he was
wiUing, in default of this, to accept the modified self-
government granted by the bill. " I acknowledge
myself," he said, "to be a party man, and that I
have ever been most anxious to act in concert with
that political party to which I have been long and
zealously attached. ... I have been held up in pub
hc prints as having sold myself to the government.
From political opponents I can expect nothing else
but such attacks, but, sir, I confess I have been
pained at the insinuations which have proceeded
from other quarters. ... I can assert that my vote
in favour of this bill is as conscientious and indepen
dent as that of any honourable member on the floor
of this House."
Baldwin, in rising to reply, denied that he had
had any share in originating, repeating, or sanc
tioning any insinuations against Mr. Hincks's
behaviour towards the party. The means of demon
strating the groundlessness of such insinuations
rested with Mr. Hincks himself. He assured the
honourable member for Oxford that if a time should
come when the political tie which bound them to
each other was to be severed forever, it would be
to him by far the most painful event which had oc
curred in the course of his political life. Neverthe
less, in spite of these words of conciliation, the tem-
103

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
porary breach occasioned by the divergent policy of
the leaders of the Upper Canadian Reformers
tended to widen. Hincks, with the best of motives,
was drawn towards the practical programme of the
government. He not only voted with them on the
question of public works and municipal institutions,
but took issue with his leader also in the votes on the
usury laws, the Upper Canadian roads and other
matters. His services on the special committee in
regard to currency and banking still further com
mended him to the government as a pohtical ex
pert, of whose services the country ought not to be
deprived. To meet the charges now freely brought against
him in the liberal press, Hincks published in
his Examiner a letter (September 15th, 1841) in
which he fully explains the motives of his conduct.
" The formation of a new ministry on the declared
principle of acting in concert having failed, all par
ties were compeUed to look to the measures of the
administration, and we can now declare that, pre
vious to the session of parhament, our opinion was
given repeatedly and decidedly, that in the event of
failure to obtain such an administration as would be
entirely satisfactory, the policy of the Reform party
was to give to the administration such a support as
would enable it to carry out liberal measures which
we had no doubt would be brought forward." In
the face of so consistent an explanation the charges
brought against Hincks of having " sold himself to
104

COMMON SCHOOLS
the government " and of "having ratted from his
party "* feU entirely to the ground. The support of
Hincks, and of four French- Canadian members of
like mind, enabled the government to carry the
municipal biU by a narrow majority. The question
of a more extended form of local self-government
remained, however, in the foreground of the Reform
programme, and received no final settlement until
the passage of the statute known as the Baldwin
Act in 1849.
The Act for the establishment of a system of,
common schools passed both Houses of parliament
with but little opposition. The people of Upper
Canada were firm believers in the advantages of
pubhc education. Especially was this the case with
those who came of Loyalist stock, and among whom
the traditions of New England still survived. Until
this period, however, no successful attempt had
been made to establish a general system of elemen
tary schools. The government of the province had
committed the mistake of beginning at the wrong
end ofthe scale, and ambitious attempts to institute
grammar schools and secondary colleges had preced
ed any efforts towards the education of the mass of
the people.^ Governor Simcoe, eager to extend to
1 The expression is quoted by Major Richardson, Eight Years in
Canada (1847^, from a virulent Montreal article in which Hincks is
called an "adder," and his career a "libel on colonial politics."
2 N. Burwash, Egerton Ryerson ('Makers of Canada Series), pp. 63
et seq.
105

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
his Loyalist settlers the advantages that their fore
fathers had enjoyed in Massachusetts or Connecti
cut, planned the institution of a university at York,
with grammar schools at CornwaU, Kingston, New
ark and Sandwich, a proposal which failed of adop
tion. A little later, however, (1807) grammar
schools were instituted in each of the eight dis
tricts of the province. These were supplemented by
private schools, such as those of Dr. Strachan and
Dr. Baldwin mentioned above. But to the gener
ality of the people these advanced schools were of
no utility, and the settlers were forced to rely on
their own efforts and on spontaneous cooperation
for the teaching of their children.
Not until 1816 was the attempt made to or
ganize by an Act of the legislature a system of
elementary schools. Under this Act the people
of any locality might organize themselves for the
building and maintenance of a school, for whose
management they elected three of their num
ber as trustees. A general grant of funds was made
by the legislature in aid of schools thus organized,
while in every district a board of education appoint
ed by the lieutenant-governor exercised a general
supervision over the trustees of each school. This
statute had been supplemented by further legisla
tion in the same direction,* providing for the insti
tution of a provincial board and for district examina
tion of teachers. The intention of these statutes had
1 Acts of 1820, 1823, 1824.
106

THE SCHOOL ACT OF 1841
been better than their operation. Neither attend
ance at schools nor local taxation in support of
them had been made compulsory, and a large ma
jority ofthe chUdren of the province were stiU with
out adequate education. Day, the solicitor-general
of Lower Canada, in introducing the measure,
stated that not more than one child out of eighteen
was in attendance at the existing elementary schools
to whose support the government contributed. In
I>ower Canada the condition of things was stiU less
advanced. There existed as yet "no legal establish
ment, no provision of the law by which the people
could obtain access to education," Such schools as
existed were private establishments founded and
supported in great measure by the Church. The
secondary colleges of this kind were sufficiently
numerous and efficient, but of elementary schools,
especiaUy in the rural parts of the country, there
was a sad lack.
The present law* provided an annual grant of
two hundred thousand doUars for primary schools,
—eighty thousand for Upper Canada, one hundred
and twenty thousand for the Lower Province, It
enacted that the district council in each district
should act as a board of education, distributing the
annual government grant, assessing on the inhabi
tants of the different school districts the sums nec
essary for the erection of new schools. Within each
of these school areas a board of commissioners was
1 4 and 6 Vict., c. 18.
107

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
to be elected who should act as the trustees of the
school, appointing the teacher and regulating the
course of study. A fee of one shiUing and three pence
per month was to be exacted for each child in atten
dance, save in cases of extreme poverty. The prin
cipal objections raised to the biU as first drafted
turned on the question of religious instruction. A
great number of petitions were presented to the
assembly praying that the Bible should be adopted
as a book of instruction in the elementary school
curriculum. To meet the views of the petitioners a
separate school clause* was added to the Act, where
by inhabitants possessing a religious faith different
from that of the majority, might estabhsh and main
tain a school of their own and receive a proportion
of the government grant.
In spite of the success of their practical policy,
the session was not destined to end in unqualified
victory for the administration. On September 3rd,
(1841) Baldwin presented to the assembly a series
of resolutions affirming the principle of responsible
government. The government succeeded in voting
down the resolutions in the form in which they
were presented, but only at the price of substi
tuting for them a set of resolutions almost equiva
lent. These resolutions, hereafter associated with
the name of Robert Baldwin, stand as the definite
achievement of the United Reformers in their first
' 4 and 6 Vict., c. 18, sec. XI.
108

THE SEPTEMBER RESOLUTIONS
constitutional struggle under the union. They read
as foUows :*
1. " That the most important, as well as most
undoubted, of the political rights of the people of
this province is that of having a provincial par
hament for the protection of their liberties, for the
exercise of a constitutional influence over the execu
tive departments of their government, and for
legislation upon aU matters of internal government."^
2. " That the head of the executive government of
the province being, within the limits of his govern
ment, the representative of the sovereign, is respon
sible to the imperial authority alone ; but that,
nevertheless, the management of our local affairs
can only be conducted by him, by and with the as
sistance, counsel and information of subordinate
officers in the province."^
3, "That in order to preserve between the
different branches of the provincial parliament that
harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare
and good government of the province, the chief
1 Journal of the Legislative Assembly, Vol. I., September 3rd,
1841, pp. 480, 481.
^ Baldwin's resolution had ended. ..." legislation upon all matters
which do not, on the grounds of abolute necessity, constitutionally be
long to the jurisdiction of the imperial parliament as the paramount
authority ofthe legislature."
8 Baldwin's resolution had read . ..." is not constitutionally re
sponsible to any other than the authorities of the empire. " The mean
ing is that the governor is properly to be considered dissociated from
the party government of the province.
109

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
advisers of the representative of the sovereign,
constituting a provincial administration under
him, ought to be men possessed of the confidence
of the representatives of the people, thus affording
a guarantee that the weU-understood wishes and in
terests of the people, which our gracious sovereign
has declared shall be the rule of the provincial gov
ernment, will, on all occasions, be faithfully repre
sented and advocated."*
4. "That the people of this province, have,
moreover, a right to expect from such provincial
administration the exertion of their best en
deavours that the imperial authority, within its con
stitutional limits, shall be exercised in the manner
most consistent with their wishes and interests.^
^ Baldwin's resolution read : "That in order to preserve that har
mony between the different branches of the provincial parliament
which is essential to the happy conduct of public aifairs, the principal
of such subordinate officers, advisers of the representative of the
sovereign, and constituting as such the provincial administration under
him, as the head of the provincial government, ought always to be men
possessed of the public confidence, whose opinions and policy harmon
izing with those of the representatives of the people, would afford a
guarantee that the well-understood wishes and interests of the people,
which our gracious sovereign has declared shall be the rule of the pro
vincial government, will at all times be faithfully represented to the
head of that government and through him to the sovereign and imper
ial parliament."
'' Baldwin's resolution was a much more direct affirmation of princi
ple. It read : " That as it is practically always optional with such ad
visers to continue in or retire from office, at pleasure, this House has
the constitutional right of holding such advisers politically responsible
for every act of the provincial government of a local character, sanc
tioned by such government while such advisers continue in office."
110

DEATH OF SYDENHAM
It is said that the resolutions in their final form
were drafted by Lord Sydenham himself. It would
be difficult to say just what would have been the
scope of their operation had that energetic and pur
poseful nobleman remained at the head of Canadian
affairs. But his melancholy and untimely death, just
as the session came to a close, gave a new turn to
the current of history and rendered it possible for
those who had opposed his administration to put
into operation the principles of government whose
validity he had conceded. A fall from his horse
(September 4th, 1841) resulted in injuries which
proved too much for his constitution, already en
feebled by the severity of his labours, to withstand.
He lingered for a fortnight, his mind still busied
with pubhc cares, worn out with insomnia and racked
with unceasing suffering. On the seventeenth of the
month, while the governor-general was hovering
between life and death, the parliament was proro
gued in his name by the officer commanding the
forces at Kingston. On Sunday, September 19th,
Lord Sydenham breathed his last. His memory
has been variously judged. A well-known French-
Canadian historian* has denounced the "politi
cal tyranny which he exercised against the Liber
als of the population," and has spoken of his "hand
of iron" pressed heavily upon French Canada.
A British- Canadian historian of prominence ^ has
^ Turcotte, Le Canada sous V Union, p. 106.
2 John McMullen, History of Canada, (1868), p. 496.
LU

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
called him the " merchant pacificator of Canada,"
and ranked his achievements with those of Wolfe
and Brock. But all are united in testifying to his
untiring zeal, his wide range of knowledge and the
integrity of his personal character.

118

CHAPTER V
THE FIRST LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN MINISTRY
THE sudden death of Lord Sydenham occasioned
an interregnum in the government of the
province, during which time the administration
was carried on under Sir Richard .lackson, com
mander of Her Majesty's forces in Canada, On
October 7th, 1841, a new governor-general was ap
pointed in the person of Sir Charles Bagot, who
arrived at Kingston on Monday, January 10th,
1842, The news of his appointment had been the
subject of a premature jubilation on the part of the
thorough-going Tories of the MacNab faction. The
nominee of the Tory government of Sir Robert
Peel, and himself known for a Tory of the old
school. Sir Charles was expected to restore to Can
ada an atmosphere of official conservatism which
should recall the serener days of the FamUy Com
pact, The sequel showed that Sir Charles was pre
pared to do nothing of the kind. He was, indeed, a
Tory, but his long parliamentary and diplomatic
training had stood him in good stead. As an under
secretary of state for foreign affairs and on dip
lomatic missions at Paris, Washington and St,
Petersburg, he had learned the value of the ways
of peace. At the Hague, whither he had been sent
in connection with the recent disruption of the
113

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
kingdom of the Netherlands, he had already had
to face the problem of rival religions and hostile
races. The natural affability and kindness of his
temperament, combined with the enlightened wis
dom of advancing years, led him to seek rather to
conciliate existing differences than to inflame anew
the smouldering embers of partisan animosity. De
void of the personal egotism which had so often
converted colonial governors into "domineering
proconsuls," Sir Charles was wiUing to entrust the
task of practical government to the hands most
able to undertake it. For the role of pacificator, the
new governor-general was weU suited. His dis
tinguished bearing and upright carriage, and the
ease with which he mingled with all classes of
colonial society rapidly assured him in the province
a personal esteem destined greatly to facilitate that
conciliation of rival parties which it was his hope to
accomplish. It only remained for Bagot to find, among the
political groups which divided his parliament, a
party, or a union of parties, strong enough to en
able him to carry on the government on these lines.
As the parliament was not summoned for eight
months after his arrival. Sir Charles had ample time
to look about him and to consider the political
situation which he was called upon to face. Visits
to Toronto, Montreal and Quebec brought him
into contact with the political leaders of the hour,
and enabled him to reahze that, with the ministry
114

CONCILIATION OF LOWER CANADA
as it at the moment existed, it would not be pos
sible long to carry on the government. Indeed the
Draper ministry had owed its continued existence
solely to the recognized value of certain of the
measures which it had initiated. It had enjoyed
a sort of political armistice, at the close of which a
renewed and triumphant onslaught of its opponents
might naturaUy be expected. In particular the new
governor realized that it would be impossible to
carry on the government of the country without an
adequate support from the French-Canadians. He
made it, therefore, his aim from the outset to adopt
towards them an attitude of friendliness and confi
dence. Several important appointments to office
were made from among their ranks. Judge Valli^res,
one of Sir John Colborne's former antagonists, was
made chief-justice of Montreal; Dr. Meilleur, a
French-Canadian scholar of distinction, became
superintendent of public instruction. As a result of
this policy Bagot was greeted in Lower Canada
with signal enthusiasm and his memory has still an
honoured place in the annals of the province.
Meantime it had become evident even to Mr.
Draper that some reconstruction of the ministry
and some decided modification of its policy were
urgently demanded. French Canada was still loud in
its complaints against its lack of proper representa
tion in the cabinet, against the injustice of the pre
sent electoral divisions, and against local government
by appointed officers. " The government," said Le
115

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Canadien, a leading journal in the Reform interest,
" may keep us in a state of pohtical inferiority, it
may rob us, it may oppress us. It has the support
of an army and of the whole power of the empire to
enable it to do so. But never will we ourselves give
it our support in its attempt to enslave and degrade
us," The tone of the province was clearly seen in
the bye-elections which took place during the recess
of parliament. D. B. Papineau, a brother of the ex
iled leader, was elected for Ottawa, James Leslie, who
had been one of the victims of the election frauds
of 1841, was elected for Verch^res. Most significant
of all was the return to parliament of Louis Hippo
lyte LaFontaine, Baldwin, it wiU be remembered,
had been elected in 1841 for two constituencies,
Hastings and the fourth riding of York. He had
accepted the seat for Hastings, and the constituency
of York was thereby without a representative. He
proposed to his constituents that they should bear
witness to the reality of the Anglo-French Reform
alliance by electing LaFontaine as their represen
tative, LaFontaine accepted with cordiality the
proposal of his ally. " I cannot but regard such a
generous and liberal offer," he wrote in answer to
the formal invitation from the Reform committee of
the riding, " as a positive and express condemnation,
on the part of the freeholders, of the gross injustice
done to several Lower Canadian constituencies,
which, in reahty, have been deprived of their elec
tive franchise, and which, in consequence of vio-
116

Sir Louis H. LaFontaine

ELECTION OF LAFONTAINE
lence, riots and bloodshed, are now represented in
the united parliament by men in whom they place
no confidence."
To his new constituency LaFontaine issued
an address in which he urged the need of co
operation between the French and English par
ties. "Apart from the considerations of social order,
from the love of peace and political freedom, our
common interests would alone establish sympathies
which, sooner or later, must have rendered the mu
tual cooperation of the mass of the two populations
necessary to the march of government. . . . The po
litical contest commenced at the last session has re
sulted in a thorough union in parliament between
the members who represent the majority of both
peoples. That union secures to the provincial gov
ernment solid support in carrying out those meas
ures which are required to establish peace and con
tentment." LaFontaine's candidacy was successful
and he was elected in September, 1841, by a ma
jority of two hundred and ten votes.
It was the design of Bagot to meet the impend
ing difficulties of the situation, before the meeting
of parliament, by such a reconstruction of his minis
try as should convert it into a coalition in which aU
parties might be represented. To men of moderate
views, of the type of Sir Charles Bagot, there is an
especial fascination in the idea of a political coalition.
To subordinate the petty differences of party ani
mosity to the broader considerations of national
117

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
welfare, is a task so congenial to their own tempera
ment that they do not realize how difficult it is for
others. To gather into a single happy famUy the
radical and the reactionary, the clerical and the sec
ularist, is a hope as tempting as it is fatuous. The
initial success which had attended Bagot's efforts,
the enthusiasm of his reception in French Canada,
concealed for the moment the difficulties of the
peaceful reunion which he proposed. At Montreal
the governor had been received by a " procession
upwards of a mile in length, while the hundred ban
ners and flags which fluttered in the gentle breeze,
together with the animating strains of martial music,
formed a tout ensemble which had never before been
witnessed in Canada."*
" The millenium," wrote a British correspon
dent, a month or two later, " has certainly arrived.
Lord Ashburton has settled all difficulties be
tween John Bull and Brother Jonathan, and the
lion and the lamb are seen lying down together
in Sir Charles Bagot's cabinet." This last allu
sion referred to the elevation of Francis Hincks
and Henry Sherwood to executive office. On
June 9th, 1842, Hincks was given the post of in
spector-general. Previous to the union this posi
tion (in each province) had been of a somewhat
routine character, the chief duties of its incumbent
being to vouch for the correctness of the warrants
1 New York Albion, Saturday, June 4th, 1842.
118

HINCKS IN OFFICE
issued on the receiver-general,* But even in Syden
ham's time it was intended that the office should be
converted into what might be called a ministry of
finance, and that the inspector-general should hold a
seat in the legislature as the official exponent of the
financial policy of the government. The voluntary
retirement of the Hon, John Macauley of Kings
ton, inspector-general for Upper Canada, had made
an opening, and Hincks was accordingly given
the position of inspector-general of Canada, while
the former incumbent of the office in Lower Cana
da was made deputy-inspector for the united pro
vinces. It had been charged against Hincks that, even
during the preceding session of the parliament,
the prospect of this office had been held out as a bait
to allure him from his aUegiance to the Reformers,
But according to his own statement^ no approaches
of this kind were made to him at all during the year
1841, Nor did he intend, in accepting a seat in the
executive council, which was to accompany the
inspectorship, to forego any of his previous princi
ples. In his address to his Oxford constituents on
the occasion of his reelection on appointment to
office, he said : " I have accepted office without the
shghtest compromise of my weU-known political
principles, and I shall not continue to hold it unless
the administration with which I am connected shall
^ Hincks, Reminiscences, p. 81.
' Reminiscences, p. 80. 119

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
be supported by the public opinion of the country."
Nevertheless the bitter comments of the rival fac
tions on Hincks's appointment showed already the
impossibilities of a general reconciliation. " The ap
pointment of Mr. Hincks to the lucrative and im
portant office of inspector-general," said a contem
porary journalist,* "has been received with strong
expressions of disapproval by the great bulk of the
loyal party of the province. . . . Mr. Hincks has long
conducted a journal which has been accused of min
istering sedition to its readers, and at the breaking
out of Mackenzie's rebeUion he stood with his arms
folded, rendering no assistance towards queUing the
atrocious attempt of that mountebank. ... It is for
these reasons that the honours now bestowed on him
are so objectionable to a great part of the people."
It will be noted that both now and later it was an
article of faith with the Tories that they were the
only loyal part of the population, a fiction which
rendered any political compromise with them aU
the more difficult to effect.
In order to offset the appointment of Hincks,
Bagot at the same time offered the post of solicitor-
general for Upper Canada to CartAvright, a leading
member of the MacNab party. Cartwright declined
the office, and forwarded to Sir Charles Bagot a let
ter in explanation of his refusal. The recent appoint
ment, he said, had been viewed with disapproval by
' Correspondent of the New York Albion, July 2nd, 1841.
120

CABINET CONSTRUCTION
the Conservative party to which he belonged. He
construed it as an evidence that the government
was indifferent to the political principles of its
supporters, even when their principles were un
friendly to British supremacy. The cry for respon
sible government was a danger to the country,
and was a request incompatible with the position
of Canada as a British colony. Of this dangerous
movement, Mr. Hincks had been the "apologist."
He had been the defender of Papineau and
Mackenzie up to the very moment of the re
bellion. To go into a government with "this
individual" would ruin Mr. Cartwright's char
acter as a public man.* As Mr. Cartwright's ob
jections appeared invincible, the post was
offered to one of his fellow Conservatives,
Henry Sherwood, a lawyer of Toronto. Mr.
Sherwood, contrary to the expectation of his
party, accepted the office, entering upon his
duties in July, 1842. The ministry was therefore
(in the month of August, 1842) of a decidedly
multi-coloured complexion, containing as it did,
representatives of the Tories, the Reformers,
and of the old council. But it was the intention
of Bagot to carry his principle of combination
stiU further, and to enlist, if possible, the ser
vices of the two men most influential in the
country, Baldwin and LaFontaine. Of LaFon
taine's support the governor felt a particular need.
^ See N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada, p. 478. 121

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
The ministry contained no French-Canadians, and
of the special offices which were concerned ex
clusively with the affairs of Lower Canada, one
(the office of solicitor-general) had been rendered
vacant by the elevation of Mr. Day to the
bench, while the incumbent of another (Ogden,
the attorney-general) was absent in England.
It was becoming clear that, unless a recon
struction could be effected, the present ministry
would be left almost unsupported in the House.
Mr. Draper seems to have accepted the situation
with philosophic resignation. He was quite ready,
if need be, to resign his own place, and he har
boured no delusions about his abihty to carry
on the government with inadequate support.
The meeting of parliament at Kingston (Septem
ber 8th, 1842) was made the occasion of an
attempt on the part of the governor to complete
his system of coalition. His speech from the
throne, while referring to the prosperous financial
position of the government and the rapid pro
gress of the public works undertaken, expressed
an ardent wish that " a spirit of moderation and
harmony might animate the counsels of the parha
ment," The debate on the address in answer
to the speech was fixed for Friday, September
13th. On that afternoon the governor, who had
already been in personal consultation with
LaFontaine, wrote to him in the foUowing
terms : — 122

LAFONTAINE APPROACHED
" Government House,
" Kingston, September 13th, 1842.
"Sfr: "Having taken into my most earnest
and anxious consideration the conversation which
passed between us, I find my desire to invite
to the aid of, and cordial cooperation with my
government the population of French origin in
this province, unabated. ... I have, there
fore, come, not without difficulty, to the con
clusion that, for such an object, I wiU consent to
the retirement of the attorney-general, Mr. Ogden,
from the office which he now holds, upon its being
distinctly understood that a provision will be made
for him commensurate with his long and faithful
services. Upon his retirement I am prepared to off'er
to you the situation of attorney-general for Lower
Canada with a seat in my executive council. . . .
"Mr. Baldwin's differences with the government
have arisen chiefly from his desire to act in concert
with the representatives of the French portion of the
population, and, as I hope these differences are now
happily removed, I shaU be wilhng to avail myself
of this service. Mr. Draper has tendered me the re
signation of his office, I shall always regret the loss
of such assistance as he has uniformly afforded me,
and I shaU feel the imperative obligation of consid
ering his claims upon the government, whenever an
opportunity may offer of adequately acknowledging
them. . . . 123

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
" From my knowledge of the sentiments enter
tained by all the gentlemen who now compose my
constitutional advisers, I see no reason to doubt
that a strong and united council might be formed
on the basis of this proposition. In this persuasion
I have gone to the utmost length to meet and even
to surpass your demands, and if, after such an over
ture, I shaU find that my efforts to secure the polit
ical tranquillity of the country are unsuccessful, I
shall at least have the satisfaction of feeling that I
have exhausted all the means which the most
anxious desire to accomplish the great object has
enabled me to devise,
" I have the honour, etc, "C, Bagot,"
The promise was given in the same letter that the
position of solicitor-general for Lower Canada should
be filled according to LaFontaine's nomination, pro
vided only that the person nominated was British,
The commissionership of Crown lands was likewise
to be offered to M. Girouard, a former associate
and friend of LaFontaine during the constitutional
struggle preceding the rebellion. At the same time
a pension was to be granted to Mr. Davidson, the
previous commissioner, an old servant of the gov
ernment. That the proposal thus made went a long
way towards meeting the demands of the Reform
party can be seen by reading the comments on it in
the Tory press, when the letter was subsequently
read out in the assembly by Mr. Draper as a proof
124

LAFONTAINE REFUSES OFFICE
of the intractable attitude of the Reformers. " In
credible and humiliating as it may appear," said the
Toronto Church, "it was really written by Sir
Charles Bagot to Mr. LaFontaine. ... A Radical
ministry cannot last long. Loyal men need not de
spair; they have God on their side. We must begin
to agitate for a dissolution of the union between
Upper and Lower Canada, or a federal union of
aU the British North American provinces." It wiU
be seen from this that the exasperated Tories
claimed a monopoly, not only of loyalty to the
Crown, but even of the sheltering protection of
Providence. Flattering as was Sir Charles Bagot's proposal,
LaFontaine, after hurried consultation with his
future colleague, did not see fit to accept it. It had
been the aim of the Reform leaders not merely to
obtain office for themselves personally but to force
a resignation of the whole ministry, to be followed
by a cabinet reconstruction in due form. Even with ^
Draper absent, there were several members of the
existing administration, notably Sherwood, the Tory
solicitor-general just appointed, with whom they
would find it difficult to cooperate. To accept the
responsibility of providing pensions for Ogden and
Davidson seemed to LaFontaine, wrongly perhaps,
a bad constitutional precedent. The suggestion of
giving pensions was not indeed without defence,
under the circumstances. Davidson was an old pub
hc servant who had taken no active part in politics,
125

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
and who had no wish to continue to hold an office
which was now to be made a subject of party ap
pointment and dismissal.* The office held by Ogden
had also been non-political at the time of his
assuming it. But a further objection to the pro
posal lay in the fact that the united Reformers
were in complete command of the situation, and
could afford to insist on better terms of entry
upon office than those offered by Sir Charles
Bagot. Foiled in the plan of friendly reconstruction, there
was nothing for it for the government but to fight
its way with the address as best it might. The reso
lutions for the adoption of a cordial response to the
speech from the throne were the signal for a debate
of unusual interest and excitement, during which
the galleries of the legislative chambers were packed
with eager listeners who felt that the fate not only
of the government, but of the system of govern
ment, hung on the issue. The newspapers of the day
testify to the intense interest occasioned by the
prospect of the approaching trial of strength. " This
afternoon," writes the Toronto Herald of September
13th, " the great battle commenced. The war is even
now being carried into the enemy's camp — excite
ment increases — members rave — the people wax fur
ious — and where it wiU end no one can guess." " The
House was so crowded," complained a local journa
list, " that we were unable to obtain any space for
^ Hincks, Political History of Canada, (a lecture) 1877, p. 26.
126

DRAPER AND LAFONTAINE
writing in, and had to rely on our recoUection for
an abstract of the day's proceedings."*
Mr. Draper was too keen a fighter to surrender
tamely and without a struggle. He addressed
the House in what was called by the Kingston
Chronicle, "one of the most splendid and elo
quent speeches we have ever heard." He sub
mitted to the consideration of the assembly
an account of the unsuccessful attempt to obtain
the services of IjaFontaine in the government. It
had been recognized, he said, that it was absolutely
right that the gentlemen representing the popula
tion of French Canada should have a share in the
administration of affairs. It had not escaped atten
tion that an alliance had been formed between the
representatives of French Canada and the honour
able member for Hastings. When the government
had opened negotiations with the honourable mem
ber for the fourth riding of York (Mr. LaFontaine),
it had appeared that the inclusion of Mr. Baldwin
in the government was made a sine qua non. He
(Mr. Draper) had felt that he could not remain in
the council if Mr. Baldwin were brought into it.
It was for this reason that he had tendered his
resignation. Mr. Draper then read aloud the
governor's letter to LaFontaine. On what grounds
His ExceUency's proposal had been declined he
would leave to the honourable members opposite
to explain.
1 Cotrespondence of Toronto Herald.
127

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
LaFontaine and Baldwin both spoke in answer,
LaFontaine spoke in French. At the opening of his
speech he was interrupted by a member asking him
to speak in English. LaFontaine refused. " Even
were I as familiar with the English as with the
French language," he said, " I should none the less
make my first speech in the language of my French-
Canadian compatriots, were it only to enter my
solemn protest against the cruel injustice of that
part of the Act of Union w^hich seeks to proscribe
the mother tongue of half the population of Canada."
In the course of his speech LaFontaine dwelt upon
the unfair position in which French Canada was
placed and its lack of representation in the cabinet.
He had no wish for office unless his acceptance of
it should mean the introduction pf a new regime.
In default of that, " in the state of enslavement in
which the iron hand of Lord Sydenham sought to
hold the people of French Canada, in the presence
of actual facts which stiU bespeak that purpose, he
had (in refusing), but one duty to fulfil, — that of
maintaining that personal honour which has distin
guished his compatriots and to which their most em
bittered enemies are compelled to do homage."
Baldwin, following LaFontaine with an amend
ment to the address embodying a declaration
of want of confidence, was able to feel that his
hour of triumph had come. The government at
the close of the last session had acquiesced in the
resolutions affirming the principle of responsible
128

ATTACK ON THE GOVERNMENT
government ; these they must now repudiate or
inevitably find themselves out of office. Baldwin
could scarcely be called an eloquent speaker.
His language was often cumbrous and was de
void of imagery. But in moments such as the pres
ent he was able to present a clear case with over
whelming force.* He challenged the government to
abide by the principle which they had avowed. In
that principle lay the future safety of the imperial
connection and the union of the Canadas. " I wiU
never yield my desire," he said, " to preserve the con
nection between this and the mother country : and
although it is said a period must arrive demanding
a separation, I, for my part, with the principle that
has now been avowed being acted on, cannot sub
scribe to that opinion. If a conciliatory policy is
adopted towards all the people of this country, such
an opinion could have no existence. I was, and stiU
am, an advocate of the union of the provinces, but
an advocate not of a union of parchment, but a
union of hearts and of free born men."
If, the speaker continued, the ministry believed
it but an act of justice to the Lower Canadians
to call some of their representatives to the councils
of their sovereign's representative, why had they
kept this conviction pent up in their own minds
without the manhness to give it effect ? They
admitted the justice of the principle but
had not the manliness to give it effect. Out of
^ Kingston Chronicle and Gazette, September 17th, 1842.
129

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
their own mouths they stood convicted. Other
members joined in the debate. Aylwin denounced
the government in unstinted terms. The letter to
LaFontaine, he said, was a trick. It was intended
to increase discord. Mr. Draper had said that he was
unwilling to remain in office as a coUeague of Mr.
Baldwin. He could not act with the master, but he
had no objection to acting with the disciple. This
sneering aUusion to Hincks provoked from that
member an embittered denial of the aptness of the
phrase. He had never been, he said, a disciple of
Robert Baldwin ; the great question on which they
had agreed, and for which they had acted together,
had been responsible government; that was now
settled and conceded. The pohcy of the administra
tion had been worthy of support, and he had
supported it.
The attack thus opened on the government
waged hotly through the sitting of the afternoon
and evening. Barthe of Yamaska, Viger and others
joined in the onslaught. When the debate was at last
adjourned, a little before midnight, it was plain to
all that if a vote should be taken on Baldwin's
amendment the government must inevitably suc
cumb. It was in vain that Sullivan in the Upper
House had undertaken the defence of the govern
ment with his usual brilliance and power ; in vain
that he had tried to show that the Reformers were
merely a party of obstruction, bent on impeding
the legitimate operation of government for their
130

GREAT EXPECTATIONS
own selfish ends. " Are we," he cried, "to carry on
the government fairly and upon liberal principles,
or by dint of miserable majorities ? by the latter or
by the united acclamations of the people ? We
wish to know, in fact, whether there is sufficient
patriotism to aUow us to work for the good of the
people." The argument against miserable majorities,
whatever it might mean to a philosopher, was
powerless to meet the situation or to save the
government from its imminent defeat. Great, there
fore, was the expectation of the public for a renewal
of the struggle on the following day. The halls and
gaUeries of the legislature were packed with an ex
pectant audience. All the greater was the surprise
of the spectators to find that the storm which had
raged so fiercely in the House had now suddenly
and entirely subsided. Very obviously something
had happened. The members of the assembly, who
yesterday had appeared instinct with an eager in-
tentness, now sat with quiet composure in their
luxurious chairs of "green moreen," meditating in
sUence or even chatting and joking with their fel
lows. There was for a moment a thrill of expecta
tion in the audience when Hincks arose ; he, if
any one, might be expected, with his incisive speech
and telling directness, to precipitate an encounter,*
But, to the disappointment of the hstening crowd
in the gaUeries, the inspector-general merely moved
' See N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada, p. 481. 131

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
that the debate on Mr, Baldwin's amendment
should be postponed tiU Friday, The quiet accep
tance of this proposal by the House showed that
the majority of the members were aware of its
meaning. The government, unable to face the rising
storm of opposition, had capitulated, Mr, Draper's
resignation was again to be handed in, and a general
reconstruction of the ministry was to be effected.
Some few of the members ventured an immediate
protest. Dr. Dunlop, an " independent " member
for Huron, known as " Tiger Dunlop,"* denounced
the contemplated adjustment. The political trans
formation that seemed about to be accomplished
would introduce, he said, within a space of twenty-
four hours, changes as extraordinary as those
witnessed by Rip Van Winkle after a lapse of
twenty years. The new ministry that was in the
making would be as composite as Nebuchadnezzar's
dream ; he would not be invidious enough to say
who would be the head of gold or who the feet
of brass, but the greater part of it he feared would
be of dirt.
In despite, however, of Dr. Dunlop's salhes and
the loud outcry of the Tory press, the proposed
arrangement was carried to its completion. Baldwin
withdrew his amendment ; Mr. Draper resigned,
and LaFontaine and his coUeague entered upon
^ The epithet did not refer to the Doctor's pugnacity, but to his
record as a tiger slayer in India. See W. J. Rattray, The Scot in British
North America, Vol. II., pp. 446 et seq^.
132

RESIGNATION OF DRAPER
office. The change effected was not a complete
change of cabinet, inasmuch as Hincks, KiUaly,
Sulhvan and three others stiU remained in office.
As Hincks has pointed out, the name, " LaFon
taine-Baldwin ministry " commonly applied to the
new executive group is therefore inaccurate.*
SuUivan was in reality the senior member of
the councU. But in the wider sense of the
term the designation, "LaFontaine-Baldwin min
istry," indicates the essential principle of its
reconstruction, and, as a matter of historical
nomenclature, has long met with a general accep
tance. The formation of the ministry involved a
certain element of compromise. The disputed ques
tion of the pensions was left as a matter of indi
vidual voting, and in the sequel was satisfactorily
arranged, Ogden being given an imperial appoint
ment and Davidson a coUectorship of customs. It
was not, according to Hincks,^ definitely and for
maUy stipulated that the ministers left over from
the old ministry should retain their seats on con
dition of conforming to the policy of their new
chiefs. But, with the exception of Sullivan, their
known opinions were such as to render this con
formity more or less a matter of course. The minis
try as finally constituted — the change occupied two
or three weeks — was as follows : —
L, H, LaFontaine, attorney-general for Lower
1 Political History of Canada, p. 27,
» Op.cU, p. 26.
133

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Canada ; Robert Baldwin, attorney-general for Up
per Canada ; R. B. Sullivan, president of the coun
cU ; J. H. Dunn, receiver- general ; Dominick Daly,
provincial secretary for Lower Canada ; S. B. Har
rison, provincial secretary for Upper Canada ; H.
H. KiUaly, president of the department of public
works ; F. Hincks, inspector-general of pubhc ac
counts ; T. C. Aylwin, solicitor-general for Lower
Canada ; J. E. Small, solicitor-general for Upper
Canada ; A. N. Morin, commissioner of Crown
lands. The last named office had been declined by
Mr. Girouard, whose name had been mentioned in
Sir Charles Bagot's letter, and was, at LaFontaine's
suggestion, conferred upon Morin, his most intimate
friend and political associate.
The incoming ministers, in accordance with par
liamentary practice, now resigned their seats and
submitted themselves to their constituents for re
election. The election of LaFontaine in what the
Tories caUed his " rotten borough " of the fourth
riding of York, was an easy matter. Baldwin, on
the other hand, encountered a stubborn opposition.
The following newspaper extracts (both taken, it
need hardly be said, from journals opposed to the
new ministry) may give some idea of the elections
of the period and the virulence of the party
pohtics of the day.
"The Hastings election commenced on Monday.
At half past ten the speeches began and lasted tiU
three. Although Mr. Baldwin came in with a large
134

DEFEAT OF BALDWIN
procession and Mr. Murney had none, yet the latter
was listened to with extreme attention, and spoke
admirably. Mr. Baldwin could not be heard half
the time, there was incessant talking while he
spoke. At five o'clock on Tuesday evening the poll
stood thus: — Murney, 130; Baldwin, 124. The poU
does not close tiU Saturday night. Let every loyal
man consider that on his single vote the election
may depend, and let him immediately hasten and
record it for Murney.
"The fourth riding election commenced on Mon
day. Wilham Roe, Esq., a popular and loyal man,
resident at Newmarket, opposes Mr, LaFontaine,
The poU is held at David-town (fit place!). By the
last accounts the votes stood thus : — LaFontaine,
191 ; Roe, 71, Mr, Roe was recovering his lost
ground and wiU fight manfully to the last. Every
out- voter should repair to his aid. Saturday will noi-
be too late."

"The Hastings election has terminated in favour
of Mr. Murney. The numbers at the last were: —
Mumey, 482 ; Baldwin, 433. A number of shanty-
men having no votes were hired by Mr. Baldwin's
party to create a disturbance. They did so, and ill-
treated Mr. Murney's supporters. The latter, how
ever, rallied and drove their dastardly assailants
from the field. Two companies of the 23rd Regi
ment were sent from Kingston to keep the peace,
and polling was most unjustly discontinued for one
135

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
day. The returning officer, Mr. Sheriff Moodie, is
described to us, on good authority, as having en
tirely identified himself with the Baldwin party.
He has made such a return as will prevent Mr.
Murney from taking his seat, and no doubt the
tyrannical and anti-British majority in the House
wiU sustain him in any injustice, especially if it be
exceedingly glaring."
A less prejudiced journal* gives the foUowing
more impartial account of the same proceedings: —
"On Wednesday, (October 5th), it appears that
bodies of voters, armed with bludgeons, swords,
and firearms, generally consisting of men who had
no votes but attached to opposite parties, alter
nately succeeded in driving the voters of Mr. Bald
win and Mr. Murney from the poUs. . . . One
man had his arm nearly cut off by a stroke of a
sword, and two others are not expected to hve
from the blows they have received. All the persons
injured whom we have mentioned were supporters
of Mr. Baldwin, but we understand that the riotous
proceedings were about as great on the one side as
the other."
Baldwin was of course compelled to seek another
constituency. The election in the second riding
of York had been declared void and Baldwin was
put up as a candidate by well-intentioned friends,
in despite of the fact that he had already arranged
^ The Prince Edward Gazette, quoted by J. C. Dent, Canada Since
the Union, Vol. I., p. 248.
136

BALDWIN ELECTED BY RIMOUSKI
to offer himself to a Lower Canadian constituency.
The upshot was that Baldwin, who made no canvass
of the York electors, was again beaten. But his
aUies in French Canada were now only too anxious
to make a fitting return for his action in this respect
towards LaFontaine. For the debt of gratitude
incurred, an obvious means of repayment suggested
itself. Several French- Canadian members offered
to make way for the associate of their leader.
Baldwin accepted the offer of Mr. Borne, the
member for Rimouski, for which constituency he
was finaUy elected (January 30th, 1843), but not
until after the session had closed.
The incoming of the first LaFontaine-Baldwin
ministry as thus constituted, offers an epoch-making
date in the constitutional history of Canada. It
may with reason be considered the first Canadian
cabinet,* in which the principle of colonial self-
government was embodied. This is not to say that
it marks the establishment of responsible govern
ment in Canada, for to assign a date to that might
be a matter of some controversy. Durham had
recommended responsible government ; Russell in
his celebrated despatch had indicated, somewhat
vaguely, perhaps, the sanction of the home govern
ment to its adoption ; Sydenham had evaded, if
not denied, it. Even after this date, as wiU appear
^ " Canadian " in this sense refers to the two provinces then known
as Canada. A responsible ministry had already been seen in Nova
Scotia. See in this connection, Hon. J. W. Longley, Joseph Howe
(Makers of Canada Series), Chapters iii, iy.
137

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
in the sequel, Metcalfe refused to accept it as the
fundamental principle of Canadian government.
Not until the coming of Lord Elgin can it be said
that responsible government was recognized on both
sides of the Atlantic as a permanent and essential
part of the administration of the province. But it
remains true that in this LaFontaine-Baldwin min
istry we find for the first time a cabinet deliberately
constituted as the delegates of the representatives
of the people, and taking office under a governor
willing to accept their advice as his constitutional
guide in the government of the country.
The distinct advance that was thus made in the
political evolution of the British colonial system
becomes more apparent upon a nearer view of the
attendant circumstances of the hour. At the present
day the people of Britain and the British colonies
have become so accustomed to the peaceful opera
tion of cabinet government that they are inclined
to take it for granted as an altogether normal phe
nomenon, the possibility and the utility of which
are self-evident. It is no longer realized that re
sponsible government, like the wider principle of
government by majority rule, rests after all upon
convention. Unless and until the minority of a
country are willing to acquiesce in the control of
the majority, the whole system of vote counting
and legislation based on it is impossible. In a
community where the voters defeated at the poUs
resort to violence and rebeUion, majority rule loses
138

THE NEW MINISTRY
its political significance, for this significance lies in
the fact that it has become a general political habit
of the community to accept the decision of the
majority of themselves. On this presumed con
sensus, this general agreement to submit if voted
down, rests the fabric of modern democratic govern
ment. The same is true, also, of the particular form
of democratic rule known as cabinet or responsible
government : it presupposes that the beaten party
recognize the political right of their conquerors to
take office ; that they wiU not consider that the
whole system of government has broken down
merely because they have been voted out of power;
nor meditate a resort to violent measures, as if the
political victory of their opponents had dissolved
the general bonds of aUegiance. So much has this
party acquiescence become in our day the tradi
tional pohtical habit, that in British, self-governing
countries His Majesty's ministers and His Majesty's
Opposition circulate in and out of office with de
corous alternation, each side recognizing in the
other an institution necessary to its own existence.
But at the period of which we speak the case was
different. To the thorough-going Tories the ad
mission to office of LaFontaine, Baldwin and their
adherents seemed a political crime. Loyalty raised
its hands in pious horror at the sight of a ministry
whom it persisted in associating with the lost
cause of rebellion and sedition, and one of whose
two leaders was under the permanent stigma
139

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
attaching to an alien name and descent. Even the
traditional lip service due to colonial governors
was forgotten, and the Tory press openly de
nounced Bagot as a feeble-minded man led
astray by a clique of seditious and irresponsible
advisers. The journals of the autumn of 1842 are filled
with denunciations of the new government, "If the
events of the past few weeks," wrote the Montreal
Gazette, " are to be taken as a presage of the future
— and who doubts it? — Lower Canada is no longer
a place of sojourn for British colonists. A change
has come over the spirit of our dream in the last
few weeks, so sudden, so passing strange, that we
have been scarcely able to comprehend its nature
and extent. By degrees, however, the appalling
truth develops itself. Every post from Kingston
confirms the fact that the British party has been de
liberately handed over to the vindictive disposition
of a French mob, whose first efforts are directed
towards the abrogation of those laws which protect
property and promote improvement. Every step in
the way of legislation since the 8th ultimate, has
been a step backward, and the heel falls each time,
with insulting ingenuity, on the necks of the British.
'Coming events cast their shadows before.' They are
cast broadly and ominously, almost assuming in our
sad and most reluctant eyes, the mysterious charac
ters of sacred writ — Mene, Mene, Tekel,
Upharsin." 140

ATTACKS ON BAGOT
The Montreal Transcript was even more out
spoken in its denunciation. " To a governor with
out any opinion of his own and ready to veer about
at every breath of opposition, no worse field could
have been presented than Canada. Were His Excel
lency only resolute, the presence of three or four
men in his cabinet could not avail to render him
powerless and passive. But from the moment that
the patronage of the Crown was surrendered, in
such an unexampled manner, to such men — from
the moment a seat in the cabinet was offered and
pressed upon a man^ who had fought in open rebellion
and faced the fire of British musketry in a mad at
tempt to carry out his hostility to the government
that then was — from that moment the governor
placed himself with his hands tied in the power of
his new advisers." Another leading Conservative
paper did not scruple to say that the " composition
of the present cabinet is the germ of colonial sepa
ration from the mother country."
One can understand how great must have been
the difficulties of Bagot's situation. It was not pos
sible for him merely to fold his hands and to an
nounce himself, with general approval, as the long-
desired constitutional governor. If he attempted to
actually govern, the Reformers would be up in
arms ; if he left the government to his ministers,
he must face the outcry of the Tory faction. The
1 The reference is to Mr, Girouard who is said to have fought at St
Eustache. 141

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ideal of one party was the abomination of the other.
The French press was of course loud in its praise
of the new policy. " To-day," said La Minerve, in
speaking of the formation of the ministry, " com
mences a new era, and one which wiU be signalized
by the administration of equal justice towards aU
our fellow-citizens and the return of popular con
fidence in the government." " The great principle
of responsibility," said the same journal, " is thus
formally and solemnly recognized by the representa
tive of the Crown, and sealed with the approbation
of the assembly. From this epoch dates a revolu
tion, effected without blood or slaughter, but none
the less glorious." But the more the French press
praised Bagot's action, the more did the "loyal"
newspapers denounce it, subjecting the governor to
personal criticism and abuse entirely out of keeping
with the system he laboured to introduce. " To
hear the stupid Aurore and the venomous Minerve
lauding a British governor," declared the Toronto
Patriot, " is surely proof plain that he is not what
he might be ; that he is a changed man and not
worthy of the cordial sympathy of the Conservative
and loyal press of Canada." It is small wonder that
Bagot's health began to suffer severely from the
anxiety and distress of mind occasioned by these
malignant attacks upon his character.
A proper appreciation of the state of public feel
ing evidenced by such extracts renders clear the
great significance of the LaFontaine-Baldwin aUi-
142

FRENCH AND ENGLISH
ance in the history of Canada. Its importance is of
a double character. It afforded, in the first place,
an object lesson in the principle of responsible gov
ernment; for it showed in actual operation a group
of ministers united in policy, backed by an over
whelming majority in the popular branch of the
legislature, and receiving the constitutional approval
of the governor, of whom they were the advisers.
Henceforth responsible government, the "one idea"
of Robert Baldwin, was no longer merely an " idea";
it was a known and tried system whose actual
operation had proved its possibility. Its trial, in
deed, in the present case was but brief, yet brief as
it was, it remained as an ensample for future effort.
But the new government had a further significance.
It indicated the only possible policy by which the
racial problem in the pohtical life of Canada could
find an adequate solution. To the old-time Tory
the absorption, suppression, or at any rate the sub
ordination of French Canada seemed the natural,
one might say the truly British and loyal, method
of governing the united country. From now on a
new path of national development is indicated in
the alliance and cooperation of the two races, each
contributing its distinctive share to the political life
of the country, and each finding in the other a
healthful stimulus and support. This is the prin
ciple, entirely contrary to the doctrines of the older
school, first introduced by the aUiance of Baldwin
and LaFontaine, which has since governed the
143

BALDWIN LAFONTAINI^ HIINCJIS
destinies of Canada. On the validity of this prin
ciple the future ofthe country has been staked.
If we pass from the general consideration of the
ministry before us to the legislative history of its
first session, there is but little to record. The ses
sion was but of a month's duration (September 8th
to October 12th, 1842), the new ministers during
the first part of it were still seeking reelection, and
time was lacking for a wide programme of reform.
Such measures as were carried, however, indicated
clearly the policy which it proposed to follow:
to conciliate the people of French Canada by
removing some of the more burdensome restric
tions imposed by the special council and to
make at least a beginning of a programme
of reform, was the cardinal aim of the govern
ment. The first law placed upon the statute-
book for the session — the law in regard to elections
— evinced this latter purpose. The elections
of the day were notoriously corrupt. Fraud and
violence had been the rule rather than the excep
tion. Under the existing system there was but a
single poUing place for each constituency, an ar
rangement which favoured riotous proceedings and
the assemblage of tumultuous crowds. The new
election law* provided that there should be a sepa
rate polling place in each township or ward of every
constituency, and that each elector should vote at
the polling place of the district where his property
* statutes of Canada, 6 Vict. , c. 1.
144

NEW ELECTION LAW
was situated. Electors might be put on oath as to
whether they had already voted. The polls were to
stay open only two days. An oath in denial of
bribery could be imposed on any voter, if it were
demanded by two electors. Firearms and other
weapons might be confiscated by the returning
officer, under penalty, in case of resistance, of fine
and imprisonment. Under similar penalties it was
forbidden to make use of ensigns, standards or flags,
" as party flags," to distinguish the supporters of a
particular candidate, either on election day or for a
fortnight before or after ; a similar prohibition was
laid down against "ribbons," "labels" and "favours"
used as party badges. These last clauses offered an
easy mark for the raillery of the Conservative press,
and offered a favourable opportunity for wilful mis
interpretation by pressing into service the never-
failing Union Jack and British loyalty. The Patriot
of Toronto speaks as foUows of the tyranny of the
election law : —
" This law also prohibits, under penalties of fines
of fifty pounds, and imprisonment for six months,
or both, the exhibiting of any ensign, standard,
colour, flag, ribbon, label or favour, whatever, or
for any reason whatsoever, at any election or on
any election day, or within a fortnight before or
after such a day I I ! So that any body of honest
electors who for a fortnight before or after an elec
tion (being a period of one month), shall dare to
hoist the Union Jack of Old England, or wear a
145

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
green or blue ribbon in the button-hole, shall be
fined fifty pounds or imprisoned six months, or
both, under Mr. Baldwin's election biU. We defy
the whole world to match this biU for grinding and
insupportable tyranny. Verily, Messrs. LaFontaine
and Baldwin, ye use your victory over the poor,
loyal serfs of Canada with most honourable mode
ration! How long this Algerine Act wiU be
aUowed to pollute our statute-book remains yet
to be seen."*
Another statute '^ of the session undertook to re
medy the injustice done by Lord Sydenham to
wards the city constituencies of Montreal and Que
bec. He had used the power conferred upon him
under the Act of Union^ to reconstruct these con
stituencies by separating the cities from the sub
urbs* ; under the present statute the " ancient
boundaries and limits " of the cities were restored.
A further reversal of Lord Sydenham's policy was
seen in the repeal* of a series of ordinances by
which the special council had undertaken to alter
the system of law courts in Lower Canada, Syden
ham's Act in reference to winter roads in Lower
Canada, a needlessly officious piece of legislation,
1 Toronto Patriot, October, 1842.
2 6 Vict. c. 16.
» Section 21.
*¦ Letters patent March 4th, 1841.
^ By a statute 6 Vict., c. 13, the ordinances were 3 and 4 Vict, c.
46 : 4 Vict c. 15 and 4 Vict 19.
146

END OF THE SESSION
was also partially repealed.* A special duty of three
shillings a quarter was imposed upon wheat from
the United States ; a loan of one million, five hun
dred thousand pounds sterhng was authorized, and
the sum of eighty-three thousand, three hun
dred and six pounds was voted for the civU
list. A resolution was, moreover, passed by
a large majority of the assembly (forty against
twenty) declaring that Kingston was not suit
able to be the seat of government. The session
came to an end on October 12th, 1842. A
useful beginning had been made but no legislation
of a sweeping character had been passed. The ad
versaries of the government did not hesitate to
taunt the ministry with having promised much and
done little. "After all the rumpus about responsible
government," said the Woodstock Herald, "the
session is over, and we are all just as we were —
waiting for something, we scarcely know what. But
we all know that the parhament has shown itself
nothing but a debating club."
At the time of their first ministry both LaFon
taine and Baldwin may be said to have been enter
ing upon the prime of life. Baldwin was thirty-eight
years old, LaFontaine only thirty-four. In personal
appearance they presented in many ways a contrast.
LaFontaine was a man of striking presence, of more
than ordinary stature, and robust and powerful
1 The clause repealed had enacted that horses when driven double
must be driven abreast. This was intended to improve the sleighing.
147

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
frame. His massive brow and regular features, the
thoughtful cast of his countenance and the firm
lines of the mouth, offered an almost exact resem
blance to the face of the Emperor Napoleon. On
his visiting the Invalides in Paris, LaFontaine was
surrounded by the veterans of Napoleon's guard,
who are said to have thrilled with emotion at seeing
among them the walking image of their dead em
peror. When Lady Mary Bagot, who remembered
the emperor, saw LaFontaine for the first time she
could not repress an exclamation of astonishment,
" If I was not certain that he is dead," she cried,
" I should say it was Napoleon." The habitual
gravity of LaFontaine's manner and the dignity of
his address enhanced still further the impression of
power conveyed by his firm features and steady
eye. His colleague was a man of different type and
less striking in general appearance. In stature
Baldwin stood rather above the average, being
about five feet ten inches in height, though his
heavy frame and the slight stoop of his broad shoul
ders prevented him from appearing a taU man. His
eyes were grey and his hair of a dark brown, as yet
untinged with grey. The features were lacking in
mobility and the habitual expression of his face
was that of serious thought, but the extreme kind
liness of his heart and the truthfulness of his whole
being, coupled with a manner that was unassuming
and free from conceit, lent to his address a sugges
tion of rugged honesty and force and extreme
148

ILLNESS OF BAGOT
gentleness, that won him the unfailing affection of
those about him.
As the autumn progressed, disquieting rumours
began to prevail in regard to the state of the gov
ernor-general's health. It is a strange thing that
thrice running the destinies of Canada should have
been profoundly affected by the premature death
of those sent out to administer its government.
"Canada has been too much for him," John Stuart
Mill had said of Lord Durham. With equal truth
might it be said that Canada had proved too much
for Sir Charles Bagot. The governor had come to
the country in excellent health. The firm and
vigorous tone in which he had read his first and
only speech from the throne had been the subject
of general remark, and had seemed to indicate that
Bagot was destined for a vigorous old age. But the
cares of office weighed heavily upon him. He had
not anticipated that his policy of good-will and
conciliation would have exposed him to the bitter
attacks of the discomfited Tories; still less had he
expected that his conduct, as appears to have been
the case, would have been an object of censure at
the hands of the home government. It is undoubted
that the symptoms of heart trouble and general
decline which now began to appear were aggravated
by the governor's sense of the failure of his mission
as peacemaker, and by the distress caused by the
crude brutality of his critics. 149

BALDWIN LAI OJN TAIN Jb: MliNLJJVS
The autumn months of 1842 must indeed
have been full of bitterness to Bagot. The
opposition to his administration had assumed
a personal note, for which the rectitude of his
intentions gave no warrant. Organizations called
Constitutional Societies, in remembrance of Tory
loyalty before the rebellion, had sprung into new
life. The parent society at Toronto* was reproduced
in organizations in the country districts. The "anti-
British policy of Sir Charles Bagot " was denounced
in the plainest terms. His ministry was openly
branded as a ministry of traitors and rebels. The
influence of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and other
private advisers was made a salient point of attack,
and the governor was represented as surrounded by
a group of counsellors — " the Hinckses, the Wake-
fields and the Girouards, remarkable for nothing
but bitter hatred to monarchical and loyal institu
tions." The press of the mother country joined in
the outcry. The Times undertook to demonstrate
the folly of admitting to the ministry a man like
IjaFontaine, " who," it asserted, " had had a price
set upon his head." The Morning Herald"^ went
stiU further; it declared the whole system of repre
sentative institutions in Lower Canada a mistake.
That province, it said, needed " despotic govern
ment, — strong, just and good — administered by a
I Organized October 28th, 1842, or, as it was called, "reorgan
ized," (from the Society of 1832).
" October 23rd, 1842.
150

THE BRITISH CABINET
governor-general responsible to parliament," " If
Sir Charles Bagot be right," it argued, " then Lord
Gosford and Sir Francis Head must have been
wrong," which evidently was absurd.
In how far the British government itself joined
in these censorious attacks cannot accurately be
told, but Bagot had certainly received from
Lord Stanley, the colonial secretary, letters con
demning the policy he had seen fit to adopt. The
Duke of Wellington had denounced the acceptance
of the new Canadian ministry by the governor as
surrendering to a party stiU affected with treason.
"The Duke of Welhngton," wrote Sir Robert Peel,
" has been thunderstruck by the news from Canada.
He considers what has happened as likely to be
fatal to the connection with England, , , Yester
day he read to me aU the despatches, and com
mented on them most unreservedly. He perpetually
said, ' What a fool the man [Bagot] must have been,
to act as he has done ! and what stuff and nonsense
he has written I and what a bother he makes about
his pohcy and his measures, when there are no
measures but roUing himself and his country in
the mire!'" Even Peel himself felt by no means
easy about the situation, nor did he accept the
absolute validity of the constitutional principle
as applied to Canadian government, " I would
not," he wrote to Stanley, "voluntarily throw
myself into the hands of the French party
through fear of being in a minority. ... I would
151

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
not allow the French party to dictate the appoint
ment of men tainted by charges, or vehement
suspicion, of sedition or disaffection to British
authority, to be ministers."*
As the winter drew on it was evident that Sir
Charles could no longer adequately fulfil his duties.
He was obliged to postpone the meeting of the
parhament which was to have taken place in No
vember. His physicians urgently recommended that
he should relinquish his office, and the oncoming of
a winter of unwonted severity still further taxed
his failing strength. He forwarded to the home
government a request for his recall. In view of his
enfeebled condition, the government was able to
grant his prayer without seeming to refiect upon
the character of his administration. But Bagot was
not destined to see England again. Though released
from office on March 30th, 1843, the day on which
he yielded place to Sir Charles Metcalfe, he was no
longer in a condition to undertake the homeward
voyage, and was compelled to remain at Alwington
House, in Kingston. Six weeks later, (May 19th,
1843), his illness terminated in death. Before going
out of office he had uttered a wish to his assembled
ministers that they would be mindful to defend his
memory. The prayer was not unnecessary, for the
bitter invective of his foes was not hushed even in
the presence of death.
1 C. S. Parker, Sir Robert Peel from his Private Papers (London,
1899), Vol. I., pp. 379 et seq.
152

DEATH OF BAGOT
"Even when Sir Charles Bagot breathed
his last," says a chronicler of the time, himself
a Tory and a disappointed place-hunter, " such
was the exasperation of the public mind, that
they (sic) scarcely accorded to him the common
sentiments of regret which the departure of a
human being from among his feUow-men occa
sions. . . . The Toronto Patriot in particular, the
deadly and uncompromising enemy of the adminis
tration of the day, hesitated not to proclaim that
the head of the government was an imbecile and a
slave, while other journals, even less guarded in
their language, boldly pronounced a wish that his
death might free the country from the state of
thraldom into which it was reduced."* Every good
cause has its martyrs. The governor-general had
played his part honestly and without self-interest,
and when the list of those is written who have up-
buUt the fabric of British colonial government, the
name of Bagot should find an honoured place
among their number.
1 Major Richardson, Eight Years in Canada, p. 213. Chapters xiv.
and XV. of Richardson's work may be consulted for characteristic
abuse of Sir Charles Bagot

158

CHAPTER VI
THE COMING OF METCALFE
ON March 29th, 1843, the httle town of King
ston was once more astir with expectancy and
interest over the arrival of a new governor-general.
Sir Charles Metcalfe had sailed from Liverpool to
Boston, and thence had journeyed overland to
Kingston, the country being in that inclement
season "one mass of snow,"* His journey termin
ated in a drive across the frozen lake and river, and
a state entry, with no little pageantry, into his
colonial capital, " He came," said a Kingston cor
respondent of the time, " from the American side,
in a close-bodied sleigh drawn by four greys. He
was received on arriving at the foot of Arthur
Street by an immense concourse of people. The
male population of the place turned out en masse
to greet Sir Charles, which they did with great en
thusiasm. The various branches of the fire depart
ment, the Mechanics' Institution and the national
societies, turned out with their banners, which, with
many sleighs decorated with flags, made quite a
show. Sir Charles Metcalfe is a thorough-looking
Enghshman, vidth a jolly visage,"
^ The winter was exceptionally severe. " Governor Metcalfe," said
a New York official at Albany, " you'll admit, I think, that this is a
clever body of snow for a young country."
155

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
In the drama of responsible government in Can
ada, it was the unfortunate lot of this "thorough-
looking Englishman with a joUy visage," to be cast
for the part of villain. His attempt to strangle the
infant Hercules in its cradle, to reassert the claim
of the governor to the actual control of the admin
istration, forms the most important and critical
episode of the story before us and merits a treat
ment in some detail. Such a treatment may, per
haps, be best introduced by a discussion of the
personality and personal opinions of the new gov
ernor, and in particular of his opinions on the vexed
question of colonial administration. The word "vil
lain " that has just been used, must be understood
in a highly figurative sense. Metcalfe was a man of
many admirers. Gibbon Wakefield has pronounced
him a statesman "whom God made greater than
the colonial office."* Macaulay indicates for him a
perhaps even higher range of distinction in caUing
him, "the ablest civil servant I ever knew in
India." His enthusiastic biographer^ tells us that
on his retiring from his administration of Jamaica,
the " coloured population kneeled to bless him,"
while " all classes of society and all sects of Chris
tians sorrowed for his departure, and the .Tews set
an example of Christian love by praying for him in
their synagogues." In face of such a record it seems
almost a pity that Sir Charles should have aban-
^ Fisher's Colonial Magazine, July, 1844.
2 J. W. Kaye, Life of Lord Metcalfe, 1859.
156

METCALFE'S OPINIONS
doned the coloured populations of Jamaica and
Hyderabad to assume the care of the uncoloured
people of Canada. That Metcalfe was an upright,
honourable man, disinterested in his motives and
conscientious in the performance of what he took
to be his duty, is hardly open to doubt. But it may
weU be doubted whether the antecedent training
that he had received had not unfitted, rather than
fitted, him for the position he was now called
upon to assume.
In the British system a great gulf is fixed
between the administration of a dependency
and the governorship of a self-governing colony.
Of the greatness of this gulf Metcalfe appears to
have had no proper appreciation, and he was, in
consequence, unable to rid his mind of the supposed
parallel between the different parts of the empire
in which he had been caUed upon to act as gover
nor. In a letter which he addressed to Colonel
Stokes, one of his Indian correspondents, during
his troubles in Canada, he undertakes to make his
difficulties with the Canadian legislature apparent
by the foUowing interesting analogy : "Fancy such
a state of things in India, with a Mohammedan
council and a Mohammedan assembly, and you wiU
have some notion of my position." In view of the
very hmited number of Mohammedans in the Cana
dian assembly, it is to be presumed that the notion
thus communicated would be a somewhat artificial
one. 157

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Sir Charles Metcalfe, at the time of his coming
to Canada, was fifty-eight years old.* For some time
previous he had been suffering from a dangerous
and painful malady — a cancerous growth in the
left cheek — which had occasioned his retirement
from his previous position. An operation performed
in England had seemed to remove aU danger of
a fatal termination of the disorder, and Sir Charles,
in coming to Canada, hoped that he had at last
recovered from his long affliction.
What may seem strange in connection with
Metcalfe's regime in Canada, and his attitude to
wards Canadian political parties, was that he was
not, as far as British pohtics were concerned, a
Tory or a friend of the royal prerogative. He was,
on the contrary, to use the words of his biographer,
" a Whig and something more than a Whig." The
same authority^ has further described him as " a
statesman known to be saturated through and
through with Liberal opinions." Metcalfe himself,
in a letter written shortly before his appointment,
spoke of his own opinions and his political position
in the foUowing terms: "In the present predomi
nance of Toryism among the constituencies, there
is no chance for a man who is for the abohtion of
the Corn Laws, vote by baUot, extension of the
suffrage, amelioration of the Poor Laws for the
benefit of the poor, equal rights to all sects of
^ He was born on January 30th, 1785.
2 J. W. Kaye, Ufe of Lord Metcalfe, Vol. II., p. 452.
158

METCALFE ON CANADIAN PARTIES
Christians in matters of religion, and equal rights
to aU men in civil matters."*
On the strength of such a declaration it
might have been supposed that Metcalfe would
have gravitated naturally towards the Reform
party of Canada, at the basis of whose pro
gramme civU and religious equahty and the
doctrine of equal rights lay as a corner-stone.
But the lamp of Metcalfe's Liberalism burned dim
in the colonial atmosphere. His inclinations were
aU on the side of the Tory party, whose fervid and
ostentatious loyalty offered a cheering contrast to
the stiff-necked independence of the Reformers,
" It is," he said, " the only party with which I can
sympathize. I have no sympathy with the anti-
British rancour of the French party or the selfish
indifference towards our country of the Republican
party. Yet these are the parties with which I have
to cooperate." The expression, "Republican party,"
shows that the incessant accusation of disloyalty
brought by the Conservative journahsts against
their opponents, was not without its eff'ect upon
the governor's mind. By sheer force of iteration the
Conservatives had convinced themselves that they
were the one and only section of the people truly
loyal to the Crown ; and since the governor was the
immediate and visible representative ofthe Crown in
Canada, there was a natural temptation to construe
this attitude into a declaration of personal allegiance.
1 Letter to Mr. Mangles, January 13th, 1843.
159

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
But although Metcalfe might plead guilty to a
spontaneous sympathy with the Tory party, he had
no intention of identifying or aUying himself with
any of the rival factions. On the contrary, he
cherished, as had his predecessors, the belief that
his proper attitude and vocation should be that of
the peacemaker, the wise administrator enabled by
the altitude of his office to compose the diff'erences
that severed his fractious subordinates. " I dislike
extremely," he said, "the notion of governing as a
supporter of any particular party. I wish to make
the patronage of the government conducive to the
conciliation of all parties by bringing into the public
service the men of greatest merit and efficiency,
without any party distinction."*
The governor seems, however, to have recog
nized that he could not disregard the fact that
the party at present in power had the support
of the assembly behind them. " Fettered as I
am," he wrote, " by the necessity of acting with
a council brought into place by a coahtion of
parties, and at present in possession of a decided
majority in the representative assembly, I must
in some degree forego my own inclinations in
those respects." It was his intention, he told the
colonial secretary, to treat the executive council
with the confidence and cordiality due to the
station which they occupied, but he was prepared to
be on his guard against any encroachments. This last
1 Metcalfe to Stanley, April 24th, 1843
160

METCALFE TO STANLEY
phrase touches the root of the matter. Of what
nature were the " encroachments " which Metcalfe
was determined not to permit ? How did he inter
pret his own position in reference to the executive
officers that were his constitutional advisers? What,
in other words, was his opinion on the application
of responsible government ? The answer to this
question can best be found by an examination of
Metcalfe's own statements as they appear in his
confidential correspondence with the colonial office.
"Lord Durham's meaning," he wrote,* "seems to
have been that the governor should conduct his
administration in accordance with public feeling,
represented by the popular branch of the legislature,
and it is obvious that without such concordance
the government could not be successfully adminis
tered. There is no evidence in what manner Lord
Durham would have carried out the system which
he advocated, as it was not brought into effect
during his administration. Lord Sydenham arranged
the details by which the principle was carried into
execution. In forming the executive council he
made it a rule that the individuals composing it
should be members of the popular branch of the
legislature, to which, I believe, there was only one
exception: the gentleman appointed to be president
being a member of the legislative council. Lord
1 Metcalfe to Stanley, April 24th, 1843. Metcalfe's colonial des
patches can be found in the Selections from the Papers of Lord Metcalfe,
(Undon, 1886, Ed., J. W. Kaye). 161

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Sydenham had apparently no intention of surren
dering the government into the hands of the execu
tive council. On the contrary, he ruled the council,
and exercised great personal influence in the election
of members to the representative assembly. ... I
am not aware that any great change took place
during that period of the administration of Sir
Charles Bagot which preceded the meeting of the
legislature, but this event was instantly followed
by a fuU development of the consequences of mak
ing the officers of the government virtually depen
dent for the possession of their places on the plea
sure of the representative body. The two extreme
parties in Upper Canada most violently opposed to
one another, coalesced solely for the purpose of turn
ing out the office-holders, or, as it is now termed,
the ministry of that day, with no other bond of
union, and with a mutual understanding that
having accomplished that purpose, they would take
the chance of the consequences, and should be at
liberty to follow their respective courses. The
French party also took part in this coalition, and
from its compactness and internal union, formed
its greatest strength. These parties together accom
plished their joint purpose. They had expected to
do so by a vote of the assembly, but in that were
anticipated by the governor-general, who in appre
hension of the threatened vote of want of confidence
in members of his council, opened negotiations with
the leaders of the French party, and that negotia-
162

GOVERNOR AND MINISTRY
tion terminated in the resignation or removal from
the council of those members who belonged to what
is caUed by themselves the Conservative party, and
in the introduction of five members of the united
French and Reform parties, . , . These events were
regarded by all parties in the country as establishing
in full force the system of responsible government
of which the practical execution had before been
incomplete. From that time the tone of the mem
bers of the council and the tone of the pubhc voice
regarding responsible government has been greatly
exalted. The councU are now spoken of by them
selves and others generaUy as the 'ministers,' the
'administration,' the 'cabinet,' the 'government,'
and so forth. Their pretensions are according to
this new nomenclature. They regard themselves as
a responsible ministry, and expect that the policy
and conduct of the governor shall be subservient to
their views and party policy."
Very simUar in tone is a despatch of May 12th,
1843, in which the governor declared that none
of his predecessors had reaUy been face to face with
the problem of granting or withholding self-govern
ment. "Lord Durham," he said, " had no difficulty
in writing at leisure in praise of responsible govern
ment. . . Lord Sydenham put the idea in force
without suffering himself to be much restrained by
it. . . Sir Charles Bagot yielded to the coercive
effect of Lord Sydenham's arrangements. Now
comes the tug of war, and supposing absolute sub-
163

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
mission to be out of the question, I cannot say that
I see the end of the struggle if the parties alluded
to really mean to maintain it." The part that the
new governor intended to play in this impending
tug of war is clearly indicated in this communica
tion to Lord Stanley. He had no intention of
adapting himself to the position of a merely nom
inal head of the government, controlled by the
advice of his ministers.
"I am required," he wrote, "to give myself
up entirely to the council ; to submit absolutely
to their dictation ; to have no judgment of my
own ; to bestow the patronage of the government
exclusively on their partisans; to proscribe their
opponents; and to make some pubhc and un
equivocal declaration of my adhesion to these
conditions — including the complete nulhfication of
Her Majesty's government — a course which he
[Mr. LaFontaine], under self-deception, denom
inates Sir Charles Bagot's policy, although it is
very certain that Sir Charles Bagot meant no
such thing. Failing of submission to these stipu
lations, I am threatened with the resignation
of Mr. LaFontaine for one, and both he and
I are fully aware of the serious consequences
likely to follow the execution of that menace,
from the blindness with which the French-Can
adian party follow their leader. , , , The sole ques
tion is, to describe it without disguise, whether the
governor shall be wholly and completely a tool
164

DIVERGENT VIEWS
in the hands ofthe council, or whether he shall have
any exercise of his own judgment in the adminis
tration of the government. Such a question has
not come forward as a matter of discussion, but
there is no doubt the leader of the French party
speaks the sentiments of others of his council
beside himself. . . . As I cannot possibly adopt
them, I must be prepared for the consequences of
a rupture with the council, or at least the most
influential portion of it. It would be very im
prudent on my part to hasten such an event, or to
aUow it to take place under present circumstances,
if it can be avoided — but I must expect it, for I
cannot consent to be the tool of a party. . . .
Government by a majority is the explanation of
responsible government given by the leader in
this movement, and government without a majority
must be admitted to be ultimately impracticable.
But the present question, the one which is coming
on for trial in my administration, is not whether the
governor shall so conduct his government as tc
meet the wants and wishes of the people, and
obtain their suffrages by promoting their welfare
and happiness — nor whether he shall be responsible
for his measures to the people, through their repre
sentatives — but whether he shaU, or shall not, have
a voice in his own council. . . , The tendency and
object of this movement is to throw off the govern
ment of the mother country in internal affairs
entirely — b'ut to be maintained and supported at
165

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
her expense, and to have all the advantages of
connection, as long as it may suit the majority of
the people of Canada to endure it. This is a very
intelligible and very convenient pohcy for a Canadian
aiming at independence, but the part that the
representative of the mother country is required to
perform in it is by no means fascinating."
The tenor of Sir Charles Metcalfe's correspond
ence cited above, which belongs to the period be
tween his assumption of the government and the
meeting ofthe parliament, shows that the difficulties
which were presently to culminate in the " Metcalfe
Crisis " were already appearing on the horizon.
Meantime the new governor was made the recip
ient of flattering addresses from aU parts of the
country and from citizens of all shades of opinion.
The difficulties of Metcalfe's position can be better
understood when one considers the varied nature
of these addresses and the conflicting sentiments
expressed. Some were sent up from Reform con
stituencies whose citizens expressed the wish that
he might continue to tread in the path marked out
by his predecessor. Others were from "loyal and
constitutional societies " whose prayer it was that
he might resist the designing encroachments of his
anti-British advisers. The people of the township
of Pelham, for example, declared that they "had
learned with unfeigned sorrow that unusual eflbrts
had been made to weaken His Excellency's opinion
of Messrs. Baldwin and LaFontaine and the other
166

PARTY ANIMOSITIES
members of his cabinet," The Constitutional Society
of Orillia begged to " state their decided disapproval
of the pohcy pursued by our late governor-general."
"We have not the slightest wish," they said, "to
dictate to your ExceUency, but, conscientiously be
heving that it would tend to the real good, happiness,
and prosperity of the country, we in aU humility
venture to recommend the dismissal of the follow
ing members from your councils : The Hon,
Messrs, Harrison, LaFontaine, Baldwin, Hincks
and Small," In some cases* rival addresses, breath
ing entirely opposed sentiments were sent up from
the same place. It is small wonder that Metcalfe
became deeply impressed by the bitterness of party
faction existing in Canada,
"The violence of party spirit," he wrote to
Lord Stanley,^ "forces itself on one's notice
immediately on arrival in the colony ; and
threatens to be the source of all the difficulties
which are likely to impede the successful ad
ministration of the government for the welfare
and happiness of the country," In this statement
may be found the basis for such defense as can be
made for Metcalfe's conduct in Canada. He was
honestly convinced that the antipathy between the
rival factions was assuming dangerous proportions,
and that it threatened to culminate in a renewal of
civU strife. In this position of affairs it seemed to
^ For example the addresses from the Talbot district.
•April 26th, 1843.
167

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
him his evident duty to aUeviate the situation by
using such influence and power as he considered to
be lawfully entrusted to him, to counteract the
intensity of the party struggle. In particular it
seemed to him that his right of making appoint
ments to government offices ought to be exercised
with a view to general harmony, and not at the
dictates and in the interests of any special political
group. " I wish," he wrote, " to make the patron
age of the government conducive to the con
ciliation of all parties, by bringing into the public
service the men of greatest merit and efficiency,
without any party distinction."
This sentiment is no doubt, as a sentiment,
very admirable. But what Metcalfe did not realize
was that it was equivalent to saying that he
intended to distribute the patronage of the gov
ernment as he thought advisable, and not as the
ministry, representing the voice of a majority of
the people, might think advisable. Metcalfe seems
to have been aware from the outset that his views
on this matter would not be readily endorsed by his
ministers. He spoke of the question of the patron
age as " the point on which he most proximately
expected to incur a difference with them." Indeed
it may be asserted that Metcalfe Avas convinced
that he must, sooner or later, come to open antag
onism with his cabinet. As early as June, 1843,
he wrote to Stanley : " Although I see no reason
now to apprehend an immediate rupture, I am
168

THE TWO LEADERS
sensible that it may happen at any time. If all [of
the ministers] were of the same mind with three or
four it would be more certain. But there are
moderate men among them, and they are not aU
united in the same unwarrantable expectations."
It is not difficult to infer from what has gone be
fore that Metcalfe had but little personal sympathy
with the two leaders of his cabinet. In his published
correspondence we have no direct personal estimate
of LaFontaine and Baldwin. But the account given
by his "official" biographer of the two Canadian
statesmen undoubtedly reflects opinion gathered
from the governor-general's correspondence, and is
of interest in the present connection. " The two
foremost men in the council," writes Kaye,* "[were]
Mr. LaFontaine and Mr. Baldwin, the attorneys-
general for Lower and Upper Canada. The former
was a French -Canadian and the leader of his party
in the colonial legislature. . . . AU his better
qualities were natural to him ; his worse were the
growth of circumstances. Cradled, as he and his
people had been, in wrong, smarting for long years
under the oppressive exclusiveness of the dominant
race, he had become mistrustful and suspicious ;
and the doubts which were continually floating in
his mind had naturally engendered there indecision
and infirmity of purpose." How little real justifica-
^ Kaye's Life of Lord Metcalfe was written at the request of
Metcalfe's trustee. Many thousand letters, written to and by Metcalfe,
were put in the hands of his biographer.
169

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
tion there was for this last expression of opinion
may be gathered from the comments thereupon
published by Francis Hincks in later years. " I can
hardly believe that there is a single individual in
the ranks of either party," he says " who would
admit that Kaye was correct in attributing to [Sir]
Louis LaFontaine 'indecision and infirmity of
purpose.' I can declare for my own part that I
never met a man less open to such an imputation."*
Metcalfe's biographer saw fit, however, to qualify
his strictures of LaFontaine by stating that he
was a "just and honourable man" and that "his
motives were above suspicion."
A still less flattering portrait is drawn by the
same author when he goes on to speak of Robert
Baldwin. " Baldwin's father," says Kaye,^ "had
quarreUed with his party,^ and, with the characteristic
bitterness of a renegade, had brought up his son in
extremest hatred of his old associates, and had
instilled into him the most liberal (sic) opinions.
Robert Baldwin was an apt pupil ; and there was
much in the circumstances by which he was sur
rounded, — in the atrocious misgovernment of his
country . . . — to rivet him in the extreme opinions
he had imbibed in his youth. So he grew up to be
'^Political History of Canada, p. 16.
= J. W. Kaye, Life of Lord Metcalfe. Vol. II., pp. 490, 491. The
errors of fact made by Mr. Kaye in reference to Baldwin's parentage,
etc., need no correction.
* By this is meant the Family Compact of which Kaye supposes
Dr. Baldwin to have been a member,
170

DESCRIPTION OF BALDWIN
an enthusiast, almost a fanatic. He was thoroughly
in earnest ; thoroughly conscientious ; but he was
to the last degree uncompromising and intolerant.
He seemed to dehght in strife. The might of mild
ness he laughed to scorn. It was said of him that
he was not satisfied with a victory unless it was
gained by violence — that concessions were valueless
to him unless he wrenched them with a strong hand
from his opponent. Of an unbounded arrogance and
self-conceit, he made no allowances for others, and
sought none for himself. There was a sort of sub-
hme egotism about him — a magnificent self-esteem,
which caused him to look upon himself as a patriot,
whilst he was serving his own ends by the promotion
of his ambition, the gratification of his vanity or
spite. His strong passions and his uncompromising
spirit made him a mischievous party leader and a
dangerous opponent. His influence was very great.
He was not a mean man : he was above corruption :
and there were many who accepted his estimate of
himself and beheved him to be the only pure
patriot in the country. During the illness of Sir
Charles Bagot he had usurped the government. The
activity of Sir Charles Metcalfe, who did everything
for himself, and exerted himself to keep every one in
his proper place, was extremely distasteful to him."
It is an old saying that there is no witness whose
testimony is so valid as that of an un wiUing witness :
and it is possible to read between the lines of this
biased estimate a truer picture of the man. "In
171

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
this dark photograph," says the author of The
Irishman in Canada,^ " the impartial eye recognizes
the statesman, the patriot, the great party leader,
who was not to be turned away by fear or favour
from the work before him."
As early as May, 1843, an important episode took
place in reference to the question of appointments,
a question destined later to be the cause of the
resignation of the ministry. The matter is of special
historical significance in that LaFontaine saw fit
to draw up a memorandum explaining what had
occurred and putting definitely on record the
attitude assumed by himself and his coUeagues
in their interpretation of their relation to the
governor-general. The facts in question were as
follows.^ The office of provincial aide-de-camp
for Lower Canada had fallen vacant. The post
was a sinecure, the salary for which was voted
yearly by the assembly. A certain Colonel De
Salaberry, a son of the De Salaberry of Chateau-
guay, came to Kingston to solicit the office. He
had an interview with Sir Charles Metcalfe,
as a result of which it was reported that he
had received the promise of the appointment. The
private secretary of the governor-general, a certain
Captain Higginson, met LaFontaine at a dinner
given by His ExceUency in King.ston. Higginson
1 N. P. Davin, The Irishman in Canada, p. 490.
2 See The Pilot, September 18th, 1844 ; also Hincks's Reminiscences,
pp. 93 et seq.
172

THE HIGGINSON INCIDENT
discussed the vacant office with LaFontaine and
was informed that, if the post were given to Colonel
De Salaberry, the appointment would be viewed
with disfavour by the people of Lower Canada. On
this Higginson asked the attorney-general if he
might, at his convenience, have an opportunity of
discussing with him the present political situation.
LaFontaine granted this request and Higginson
caUed upon him at his office next day. A conversa
tion of some three hours duration ensued in which
the question of the nature and meaning of respon
sible government was discussed at full length.
Captain Higginson declared that he was acting in
the matter in a purely personal character and not as
the accredited agent of the governor-general. This
was probably true in the technical and formal sense,
but it cannot be doubted that Higginson was
expressing the known sentiments of Sir Charles
Metcalfe, and that he duly reported the conversation
to the governor, whose subsequent actions were
evidently influenced thereby. The substance of the
argument may best be given in the words of
LaFontaine's published memorandum,*
" Being requested by Captain Higginson to
explain to him what was understood by responsible
government, the councillor^ informed him of the
1 Space will not permit the presentation of the entire document,
which may be found (in translation) in Hincks's Reminiscences, pp. 98
et seq. ' LaFontaine writes in the third person, speaking of himself as a
" member of the executive council," a " councillor," etc,
173

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
opinions which had been so often expressed on this
subject as well in the House as elsewhere. He ex
plained to him that the counciUors were responsible
for aU the acts of the government with regard to
local matters, that they were so held by members
of the legislature, that they could only retain office
so long as they possessed the confidence of the
representatives of the people, and that whenever
this confidence should be withdrawn from them
they would retire from the administration ; that
these were the principles recognized by the resolu
tions of September 3rd, 1841, and that it was on the
faith of these principles being carried out that he had
accepted office. The question of consultation and
non-consultation was brought on the tapis with
reference to the exercise of patronage, that is to
say, the distribution of places at the disposal of the
government. The councillor informed Captain Hig
ginson that the responsibility of the members of the
administration, extending to all the acts of the
government in local matters, comprehending therein
the appointment to offices, consultation in all those
cases became necessary, it being afterwards left to
the governor to adopt or reject the advice of his
counciUors; His Excellency not being bound, and
it not being possible to bind him, to foUow that
advice, but, on the contrary, having a right to reject
it : but in this latter case, if the members of council
did not choose to assume the responsibility of the
act that the governor wished to perform, contrary
174

LAFONTAINE AND HIGGINSON
to their advice, they had the means of relieving
themselves from it by exercising their power of
resigning." As Captain Higginson appears to have
demurred to this interpretation of the meaning of
the September resolutions, LaFontaine asked him
to state the construction which he himself put upon
them. Higginson replied, — and in replying may
properly be considered to have expressed the senti
ments of Sir Charles Metcalfe, — ^that although the
governor ought to choose his counciUors " from
among those supposed to have the confidence of
the people," nevertheless " each member of the ad
ministration ought to be responsible only for the
acts of his own department, and consequently that
he ought to have the hberty of voting with or
against his coUeagues whenever he judged fit; that
by this means an administration composed of the
principal members of each party might exist ad
vantageously for all parties, and would furnish the
governor the means of better understanding the
views and opinions of each party, and would not
faU, under the auspices of the governor, to lead to
the reconciliation of all." From these views I.ia-
Fontaine expressed an emphatic and unqualified
dissent. " If," he said, " the opinions [thus] ex
pressed upon the sense of the resolutions of 1841
were those of the governor-general, and if His Ex
cellency was determined to make them the rule for
conducting his government, the sooner he made it
known to the members of the council the better, in
175

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
order to avoid all misunderstanding between them."
LaFontaine added that in such a case he himself
would feel it his duty to tender his resignation.
Since there is undeniable evidence that Higginson
related this conversation in fuU to Sir Charles
Metcalfe, it is plain that henceforth the latter was
quite aware of the point of view taken by his
cabinet, and must have felt that a persistence in
the course he contemplated could not but lead to
an open rupture. Indeed it appears to have been
very shortly after this incident that he wrote to
Lord Stanley that his " attempts to conciliate aU
parties are criminal in the eyes of the council, or at
least ofthe most formidable member of it."
As yet, however, the difficulties that were im
pending between the governor and his ministers
were unknown to the country at large. The " want
of cordiality and confidence " between Metcalfe and
his advisers had indeed become " a matter of pubhc
rumour,"* but His Excellency had been careful in
his answers to the addresses praying for the removal
of the ministry to rebuke the spirit of partisan bit
terness in which they were couched.^ The governor
was consequently able to summon parliament in
the autumn of 1843 with a fair outward show of
harmony, and it was not until near the close of the
year that the smouldering quarrel broke into a
1 The phrases are taken from LaFontaine's letter of November
27th, 1843, cited in the following chapter.
» Kaye, Vol. II., p. 610.
176

THE THIRD SESSION
flame. Meantime the parliament had passed through
a session of great activity and interest, and had
undertaken a range of legislation which rapidly
developed the extent and meaning of the Reform
programme. In this, the third session of the first
parliament, which lasted from September 28th
until December 9th (1843), the ministry enjoyed in
the assembly an overwhelming support. Of the
eighty-four members of the House, some sixty
figured as the supporters of the government; and
even in the legislative council, the appointment of
Dr. Baldwin, the father of the attorney-general,
iEmilius Irving and others, lent support to the
government. Mr, Draper, on the other hand, now
elevated to a seat in the legislative council, em
barked on a determined and persistent opposition
to the measures of the administration. Six new
members had been elected during the recess to fill
vacancies in the assembly. Prominent among these
was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, elected for Beau-
hamois, notable presently as one of the defenders
of Sir Charles Metcalfe. Wakefield had already
attained a certain notoriety in England for his views
on the " art of colonization," and for the theories of
land settlement which he had endeavoured to put
into practice in Australia and New Zealand.* He
had aheady spent some time in Canada with Lord
^ See Dictionary of National Biography, Art. Wakefield, E.G. See
also W. P. Reeves, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand,
(1902), Vol. I., Ch. vi.
177

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Durham in an unofficial capacity, and had had some
share in the preparation of the report. He had re
turned to Canada in 1841, and as has been already
noted, had been on intimate terms with Bagot and
his ministry. He was anxious, according to Hincks,
to press a certain land scheme of his invention on
the government, and it was their refusal to meet
his views which led him presently to oppose their
policy and to become the confidential adviser and
the apologist of Sir Charles Metcalfe.
Hopelessly outvoted as they were in the Lower
House, the Tories and other opponents of the gov
ernment nevertheless maintained a spirited oppo
sition. Sir Allan MacNab and his adherents persisted
at every available opportunity in raising the racial
question, in reviving uncomfortable recoUections of
1837, and in assuming a tone of direct personal
attack, the impotence of which against the sohd
majority of the government lent it an added
venom.* The government in its turn was well repre
sented in debate. Baldwin, LaFontaine and Hincks
were aU members of the assembly ; being now
united in policy, the combined power of their
leadership and the ardour which they put into their
legislative duties, easily held their foUowers together
^ The following extract is illustrative of the amenities of the day : —
"Then Mr. Johnston came into full play — right and left he dashed
into the supporters of the bill with his peculiar sarcasm — he told one
honourable gentleman from Montreal that he never yet had had the man
liness to express an independent opinion — told others that they would
make good feather breeches to hatch eggs, etc., etc." — Kingston Whig,
October 1843.
178

A DESCRIPTION OF HINCKS
and enabled them to enjoy a continued and un
wavering support, A sort of natural division of
labour had been instituted among them. The larger
measures of the Reform programme were intro
duced by Baldwin : LaFontaine was especially
concerned with the alterations to be effected in
the judicial system of Lower Canada and cognate
matters, while Hincks assumed the care of fiscal
and commercial legislation,
A contemporary account* of Francis Hincks
during the session of 1843, gives a vivid idea
of the legislature of the day and the prominent
part played in its dehberations by the inspector-
general, "He [Mr, Hincks] had a portable desk
beside him and a heap of papers. He was as busy as
a nailer, writing, reading, marking down pages,
whispering to the men on the front seat, sending a
shp of paper to this one and that one, a hint to
the member speaking ; there was no mistaking that
man. Presently he stood up and started off full drive,
— half a dozen voices cry out, ' Hear, hear !' ' No 1
No I ' He picks up a slip of paper and the whole
House is silent. The figures come tumbling out like
potatoes from a basket. He snatches up a journal
or some other document, and having estabhshed
his position he goes ahead again. The inspector-
general, Mr, Hincks, is decidedly the man of that
House, When one has observed with what attention
'^The Examiner, October 25th, 1843. Hincks had severed his con-
nection with this paper on assuming office.
179

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
he is listened to by every member, when we look
up to the reporters, who are, during half the time
when the other speakers are up, looking on wearily,
now all hard at their tasks, catching every word
they can lay hold of, it is not difficult to guess how
it has happened that Francis Hincks has been one
of the best abused men that ever lived in Canada,
No wonder the old Compact hated him : they fore
saw in him a sad enemy to vermin. He is a real
terrier. He speaks much too rapidly ; and in conse
quence runs into a very disagreeable sort of stam
mering. His manner of reading off statistical
quotations is peculiarly censurable. It is impossible
for reporters to take down the figures correctly, and
the honourable gentleman should reflect of what
great importance it is to himself and the ministry
that all such matter be correctly reported."
The measures of the session included altogether
sixty-four statutes assented to by the governor,
with nine other bills reserved for the royal assent,
of which four subsequently became law. Of these,
many were of an entirely subordinate character and
need no mention, but the more important measures
require some notice. Among the matters to which
the attention of the House was early directed was
the question of the seat of government. Lord
Sydenham's selection of Kingston had given dis
satisfaction in both sections of the province, and
many representations had been forwarded to the
home government requesting that some other
180

Notie Dame 6lreel, Montreal, 1840

CITY OF MONTREAL
capital might be selected. Montreal, Quebec and
Toronto all aspired to the coveted honour. Even
Bytown, as the present city of Ottawa was then
caUed, was favoured by some persons, owing to its
inland situation and its immunity from frontier
attack. But in point of wealth, importance and
natural situation, Montreal seemed obviously des
tined to be the capital of Canada. It was at this
time a city of over forty thousand inhabitants.
Its position at the head of ocean navigation
rendered it, as now, the commercial emporium
of the country, and the narrow streets near the
water front, — St. Paul and Notre Dame, then the
principal mercantile streets of the town, — were
crowded during the season of navigation with the
rush of its seagoing commerce. The extreme beauty
of the situation of the city, its historical associa
tions and its manifest commercial greatness of the
future, ought to have placed the superiority
of its claims beyond a question. But the racial
antagonism, which was the dominant feature of
the pohtics of the hour, rendered the question
one of British interest as opposed to French.
Montreal was indeed by no means an entirely
French city. It numbered several thousand British
inhabitants, had two daily newspapers published
in English and had in it (to quote the words of Dr.
Tachd in the assembly) more " real English, more
out and out John BuUs, than either Kingston or
Toronto." 181

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
But the Conservatives of Upper Canada persisted
in identifying Montreal with the Lower Canadian
province, "It is not," said the New York Albion
in an editorial article,* " a mere matter of holding
parliamentary sessions in this place or in that, that
is involved ; it is a matter that carries with it the
great question of English or French supremacy for
the future," Legally speaking the matter lay with
the imperial government^ (acting through the gov
ernor-general) but a representation' was made to
Sir Charles Metcalfe and communicated by him to
the Canadian parliament to the effect that " Her
Majesty's government dechne to come to a determi
nation in favour of any place as the future seat of
government, without the advice of the provincial
legislature," It was, however, made a proviso that
the choice must be between Kingston and Montreal;
Quebec and Toronto " being alike too remote from
the centre of the province," In accordance with this
message a resolution was introduced by Robert
Baldwin, and seconded by LaFontaine (November
2nd, 1843), advising the Crown to remove the seat
of government to Montreal, The members of the
administration (with the exception of Mr. Harrison,
the member for Kingston, who now resigned his
post as provincial secretary) were entirely in favour
of the measure. Sir Charles Metcalfe himself sup-
' November 11th, 1843.
' 3 and 4 Vict c. 36, Sec. xxx.
2 See Journal of the Legislative Assembly, October 6th, 1842.
182

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT CHANGED
ported it. But the Tories persisted in regarding it
as a betrayal of Upper Canada. In the legislative
council Mr. Draper had already succeeded in passing
resolutions condemning the proposed change, on
the ground that the retention of the capital in
Upper Canada was a virtual condition of the union
of the two provinces. Sir Allan MacNab took even
higher ground : he regarded the journey to and
from Kingston and the sojourn in the British
atmosphere of Upper Canada as a necessary train
ing for the French- Canadian deputies, whereby
they might acquire, by infection as it were, some
thing of the spirit of the British constitution.*
In despite of the Conservative opposition, the
resolution favouring the transfer of the govern
ment was carried in the assembly by a vote of
fifty-one to twenty-seven (November 3rd, 1843).
In the legislative council the presence of the
newly-appointed members enabled the same
resolution to be adopted. An attempt was made
by the Tories to refuse to consider the question,
on the ground that Mr. Draper's recent resolution
had already dealt with it. This contention
was rejected by the Speaker, who insisted that
the resolution must be duly voted on ; where
upon an indignant councillor, Mr. Morris, said he
" must protest in the most solemn manner against
1 See speech of Robert Baldwin (La Minerve, November 16th, 1843)
in which he describes the French-Canadian members " sitting at the
feet of the honourable knight as a political Gamaliel."
183

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
this proceeding, took his hat, made his bow to
the Speaker and left the chamber foUowed by
twelve other members of the council for Upper
Canada." A measure ofthe session, the work of LaFontaine,
for which the Reform party are entitled to great
credit, was the Act for securing the independence of
the legislative assembly.* The aim of this statute
was to consolidate the system of cabinet govern
ment by removing placemen from the assembly.
It enacted that after the end of the present parlia
ment a large number of office-holders should be
disqualified for election. The list included judges,
officers of the courts, registrars, customs officers,
public accountants and many other minor officials.
The holders of the ministerial offices were of course
outside of the scope of the statute, which thus aimed
to place the relation of the legislature to the hold
ing of office on the same footing as in the mother
country. The reasonableness of this measure was
admitted even by opponents of the government,
but the question of its constitutionality having
been raised in the legislative council, it was reserved
by the governor for the assent of the Crown. This
assent was duly granted.
The recfrganization of the judicial system of
Lower Canada with a view to render the adminis
tration of justice more easy and less expensive was
carried forward by LaFontaine in a series of five
¦ 7 Vict. c. 66.
184

SECRET SOCIETIES BILL
statutes.* The district and division courts that had
been established under Mr. Draper's government
(September 18th, 1841 f were abolished in favour of
a simpler system of circuit courts : a new court of
appeal was organized and provision made for the
summary trial of small causes.
Among the bills laid before parliament, in whose
preparation Baldwin was chiefly concerned, a prom
inent place should be given to the bill for the
discouragement of secret societies. During the
summer and autumn of 1843 the province of Upper
Canada had been the scene of deplorable and riot
ous strife between the rival factions into which the
Irish settlers of the colony were divided. With the
large immigration from the British Isles during the
preceding years, a great number of Irish had come
into the country. Unfortunately these had seen fit
to carry with them into Canada the unhappy
quarrels of their native country, and nowhere was
the strife of Orangemen and Repealers, Protes
tants and Catholics, more ardent than in the little
Canadian capital. The events of the year 1843,
during which aU Ireland was in a frenzy of excite
ment over O'ConneU's agitation for repeal, natur
ally precipitated a similar agitation in Canada.
Here the situation was further aggravated by the
fact that the two parties of Irishmen were in a sort
1 7 Vict. oc. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. The statutes are very elaborate : it
is quite impossible in the present limited space to give any proper idea
of their purport.
2 4 and 6 Viot c. 20.
185

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of natural alliance with the rival political factions
of Canada. The Orangemen, with their ostentatious
attachment to the British Crown, found alhes in the
Tories, whUe their Cathohc opponents had much
in common with their co-rehgionists of French
Canada. Orange lodges had sprung into being
throughout Upper Canada: "Hibernian societies"
of Irish Catholics flaunted in defiance the colours
and insignia of their associations.*
In such a state of affairs, colhsions between the
rival parties were inevitable. At Kingston, on
the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne,
serious troubles occurred ; several persons were
wounded, and one killed ; the troops had to
be called out to maintain order. On a later
occasion the streets were placarded with biUs
announcing rival assemblages, one in aid of the
cause of repeal, the other for preventing the repeal
meeting, "peaceably if we can, forcibly if we
must." The unofficial action of the governor and
the cabinet prevented the holding of the meetings.
Sir Charles Metcalfe M^as obviously alarmed at
the prospect of a general conflagration. Rumours
had reached him that the Irish of New York were
busily engaged at drill under French officers, and
that an invasion of Canada was to be attempted.
" It is supposed," he wrote to Stanley,^ "that if any
collision were to occur in Ireland between the
^ See Kaye, Vol. II., pp. 602 et seq.
2 July 8th, 1843.
186

ORANGE DISTURBANCES
government and the disaffected, it would be follow
ed by the pouring of myriads of Roman Catholic
Irish into Canada from the United States." It is
just possible that this apprehension caused the
governor to look more than ever towards the Tories
as an ultimate support. In the course of the month
of July he had an interview with a Mr. Gowan
(then grand-master of the Grand Orange Lodge of
Canada and a man of the greatest influence), after
which the grand-master wrote a mysterious con
fidential letter to a friend, in which he told his
correspondent "not to be surprised if Baldwin,
Hincks and Harrison should walk." Mr. Gowan
said, furthermore, that he had given his views to
the governor maturely and in writing.^ It is quite
possible that the grand-master had recommended a
reconstruction of the government as the price of ob
taining the support of the Orange order. Meantime,
however, the tumults of the rival Irish factions con
tinued unabated. At Toronto, for example, during
the time when legislation in regard to secret societies
was being discussed, an Orange mob gathered in
the streets one November night, having amongst
them a cart with a gibbet and effigies of Baldwin
and Hincks placarded with the word "Traitors,"
which effigies were burnt during a scene of great
confusion before the residence of Dr. Baldwin.^
¦* Gowan's letter is quoted by N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada,
p. 492. 2 The Examiner, November 8th, 1843.
187

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
It was in order to discourage, as far as possible,
the manifestations of the Irish societies that Bald
win introduced (October 9th, 1843) his bill in
regard to secret societies. The provisions of the biU
declared all societies (with the exception of the
Freemasons) to be iUegal if their members were
bound together by secret oaths and signs : members
of such societies were to be incapable of holding
office or of serving on juries : aU persons holding
public office were to be caUed upon to declare that
they belonged to no such societies : innkeepers who
permitted society meetings on their premises were
to lose their licenses. Drastic as this measure ap
pears, it must be borne in mind that the secret
societies biU was introduced as a government
measure with the knowledge and consent of Sir
Charles Metcalfe. It passed the House by a large
majority, fifty- five votes being cast in favour of it
and only thirteen against it.* Nevertheless, Sir
Charles saw fit to reserve it for the royal sanction,
which in the sequel was refused. It is true that the
legislature had aheady adopted a law of a more
general nature in regard to demonstrations tending
to disturb the public peace, and that this additional
legislation was viewed by many as special legisla
tion against a particular class. But the ministry,
as wiU be seen later, considered that, under the
circumstances, Metcalfe had gone beyond his con
stitutional functions in withholding his assent.
'^ Journal of the Legislative Assembly, November 4th, 1843.
188

TARIFFS AND SCHOOLS
Two Acts of the session* which elicited a general
approval were Hincks's measures for the protection
of agriculture against the competition of the United
States. The latter country had recently adopted a
high tariff system whereby the Canadians found
themselves excluded from the American market.
The present statute did not profess to institute a
definite and permanent policy of protection, but
claimed to remedy the unequal conditions imposed
on the farming population under the existing
customs system, which put duties on merchandise
but aUowed foreign agricultural produce and live
stock to come in free. Under these Acts a duty
of £1 10s. was to be paid on imported horses,
£1 on cattle; and on aU grains other than
wheat, duties of from two to three shiUings per
quarter. In order to remedy the defective operation of
the existing school law two new statutes were
adopted.^ Fifty thousand pounds a year were now to
be given by the government to elementary schools.
The difficulties which had arisen under Mr. Draper's
Act in regard to the apportionment of the govern
ment grant were to be obviated by a division of
the money between Upper and Lower Canada in
the ratio of twenty to thirty thousand pounds until
a census should be taken, after which the division
was to be according to population. In the second of
t 7 Vict cc. 1 and 2.
» 7 Vict c. 9 and 7 Vict c. 29.
189

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the school Acts (which dealt only with Upper
Canada) it was provided that the government grant
should be distributed among the locahties accord
ing to population; that the townships (or towns or
cities as the case might be) should levy on their
inhabitants a sum at least equal to, but not more
than double, the government grant. Fees were still
to be charged for instruction in the common schools,
but a clause of the Act (section 49) enabled the
council of any town or city to establish free
schools by by-law. The Act continued to recog
nize the system of separate schools, which might
be estabhshed either by Protestants or Roman
Catholics on the application of ten or more free
holders or householders.
The school law was mainly in amplification and
in extension of the existing system. A measure in
regard to education of a much more distinctive
character, and which evoked a furious opposition
both within and without the House, was Robert
Baldwin's University of Toronto biU. Although
this measure was not finally adopted, the university
question remained for years in the forefront of the
political issues of the day, until the matter was
finally set at rest by the statute enacted under the
second LaFontaine-Baldwin administration.*
1 The administration of 1848 should more properly be called the
Baldwin-LaFontaine administration, since Robert Baldwin was its
senior member. But it has been customary to use the designation in
the text.
190

THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION
As the name Robert Baldwin wiU always be
associated with the successful removal of all
denominational character from the University of
Toronto, some explanation of the question at
issue is here in place. The present University of
Toronto originated in an antecedent institution
called King's College.* The first impetus towards
the creation of this coUege had been given by
Governor Simcoe, who called the attention of the
imperial government to the wisdom of making
provision for a provincial university and to the
possibility of eff'ecting this by an appropriation of
Crown lands. In 1797 the two Houses of the legis
lature of Upper Canada petitioned the Crown to
make an appropriation of a certain portion of the
waste lands of the colony as a fund for the estab
hshment and support of a respectable grammar
school in each district of the province, and also of a
coUege or university. In 1799 the land grant was
made. It consisted of five hundred and fifty
thousand, two hundred and seventy-four acres of
land. Beyond this nothing was done for many years.
Meantime a certain part of the land was set aside
for special educational objects ; one hundred and
ninety thousand, five hundred and seventy-three
acres were appropriated in 1823 for district grammar
schools, and in 1831, sixty -two thousand, nine hun
dred and ninety-six acres were given to Upper
1 See J. Loudon, History of the University of Toronto, printed in
Canada, an Encyclopcedia, 1898. 191

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Canada College.* At length in 1827 a royal charter
was issued for a university to be known as the
University of King's College. Under this document
the conduct of the university and of its teaching
was vested in a corporation consisting of the chancel
lor, the president and the professors. Certain clauses
of the charter gave to King's College a denomin
ational character : the bishop of the diocese was to
be, ex officio, its visitor, and the archdeacon of York
(at that time Dr. John Strachan) its ex officio presi
dent: the university was to have a faculty of
divinity, all students in which must subscribe to
the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of Eng
land : the same test was prescribed for all members
of the university council.
The issue of this charter had occasioned a violent
agitation. Vigorous protest was raised against the
peculiar privileges thus extended to the Church of
England. The opposition to the charter prevented
any further action being taken towards the actual
establishment of the college. FinaUy, in 1837, a
statute^ was passed by the legislature of Upper
Canada which revised the terms of the royal
charter. It provided that the judges of the court
of king's bench should be the visitors of the coUege,
that the president need not be the incumbent of
any particular ecclesiastical office, that no religious
1 In 1828 part of the original grant of land was exchanged for an
equal portion of land belonging to the Clergy Reserves.
2 Statutes of Upper Canada, 7 Will. IV. c. 16.
192

KING'S COLLEGE
tests should be required of students, and that no
professor, nor member of the council, need be a
member of the Church of England. The statute
stiU left the faculty of divinity as a part of the
university, and left it necessary for every professor
and member of the council to subscribe to a belief
in the Trinity and in the divine inspiration of the
Scripture. Even after the charter had been thus
modified, a further delay was occasioned by the
rebellion of 1837, and it was not until 1842 that
the building of King's CoUege actually commenced,
the corner-stone being laid by Sir Charles Bagot in
his capacity of chancellor of the university. In April
of 1843 actual teaching had begun, the old parlia
ment buildings on Front Street, Toronto, being
used as temporary premises. Meantime the long
delay which had beeii encountered in the creation
of the provincial university, and the somewhat
arrogant claims that had been put forward by Dr.
Strachan and the extreme Anglicans, had led the
members of the other sects to make efforts towards
the estabhshment of denominational coUeges of
their own. The Methodists incorporated in 1836 an
institution which opened its doors at Cobourg in
the following year under the name of the Upper
Canada Academy.* In 1841 an Act of the parha
ment of Canada^ conferred on the academy the
power to grant degrees, and gave it the name
1 See Egerton Ryerson, Story of My Life, Chap. xiv.
s 4 and 5 Vict c. 37.
193

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of Victoria CoUege. The Presbyterians, acting
under a royal charter, estabhshed Queen's College
at Kingston, which entered on the work of
teaching in 1842. The Roman Catholics had
founded in the same town a seminary known as
the College of Regiopolis.
To Robert Baldwin and those who were able to
take a broad-minded view of the question of higher
education in Canada and to consider the future as
well as the present, the separate foundation of these
denominational universities appeared a decided error.
It meant that, in the future, Canadian education
would run upon sectarian lines and that a narrow
scholasticism would usurp the place of a wider
culture. The theologian would be substituted for
the man of learning. More than this, the present
system was in violation of that doctrine of equal
rights which was the foundation of Robert Baldwin's
pohtical creed ; for the opulent land grant enjoyed
by King's CoUege gave to it a form of state support
which was denied to its sister institutions. The
measure which Baldwin presented to the parliament
in remedy ofthe situation was sweeping in character.
It proposed to create an institution to be known as
the University of Toronto, of which the existing
sectarian establishments should be the colleges.
The executive academic body of the university was
to consist of the governor-general as chancellor,
together with a vice-chancellor and council chosen
from the different coUeges, With this was to be a
194

V* / /ismm '"¦
i/ii/,  

o

o
U'c
a

BALDWIN'S UNIVERSITY BILL
board of control made up of dignitaries of the
respective churches together with various public
officials. The essential principle of Baldwin's bill
lay in the fact that all the denominational colleges
involved were put on an equal footing. Each retained
its own faculty of divinity, the university granting
a doctor's degree in divinity to graduates of all the
divinity faculties alike. The property that had been
granted by the state to King's CoUege was to be
come the property of the University of Toronto.
It proposed, in a word, a general federation of the
existing sectarian institutions into a single provin
cial estabhshment looking to the state for its sup
port, including denominational colleges as its
affiliated members but itself of an entirely unsec
tarian character. To those acquainted with the
recent history of educational development in
Ontario, the wisdom of the idea of federation
needs no commentary.
At the present day the general principle of the
biU — the secularization of state education — meets
with a ready support; but the proposal of the
measure aroused in Upper Canada a storm of
opposition. First and foremost the opposition came
from the Anglicans, to whom the measure seemed a
piece of godless iconoclasm directed at their dearest
privileges. Dr. John Strachan, whose intense con
victions and untiring energy made him the most
formidable champion of the Church of England,
led the attack on the bill. Strachan was by instinct
195

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
a fighting man who did not spare the weight of his
blows in a good cause. He forwarded to the parlia
ment a thunderous petition, presented by "John,
by Divine Permission First Bishop of Toronto,"
the intemperate language of which bespeaks the
character of the man. " The leading object of the
biU," so began the prayer, " is to place all forms of
error on an equality with truth, by patronizing
equally within the same institution an unlimited
number of sects, whose doctrines are absolutely
irreconcilable : a principle in its nature atheistical,
and so monstrous in its consequences that, if suc
cessfully carried out, it would utterly destroy aU
that is pure and holy in morals and religion, and
lead to greater corruption than anything adopted
during the madness of the French Revolution. . . ,
Such a fatal departure from all that is good is with
out a parallel in the history of the world,"*
A whirlwind of discussion followed the legislative
progress of the bill. It was argued that parliament
had no legal right to abrogate the royal charter of
King's College; that the proposed measure was
equivalent to a confiscation of the property of the
college ; more than that it was argued that the
provincial parliament was not empowered to create
a university at all. These were the arguments of the
lawyer, to which the churchmen added their cry of
horror at the desecration of the privileges of the
Church. The violence of " John, by Divine Per-
1 Journal of the Legislative Assembly, November 6th, 1843.
196

VIOLENT OPPOSITION
mission," etc., was imitated by lesser luminaries.
" Here we have," screamed "Testis," in a hysterical
contribution to a leading Anghcan paper,* "the
true atheistical character of the popular dogma
of responsible government. This is its fruit, its
bitter, poisonous fruit ; this is the broad road
to destruction into which its many votaries are
rushing headlong." Draper in the legislative
council (November 24th, 1843) opposed the bill
in a speech excellent in its masterly analysis, in
which the really weak points of the bill — its
interference with charter rights and its peculiar
degrees in assorted divinity— were exposed with
an unsparing hand. But in spite of opposition
from outside, the bill was making its way through
the legislature and had reached its second reading
when its further progress was stopped by an event
which threw the whole country into a turmoil of
excitement.
1 The Church, November 17th, 1843.

i97

CHAPTER VII
THE METCALFE CRISIS
THE newspapers of the early forties, adhering
to the decorous traditions of the older school,
knew nothing of the modern system of sensational
headings and exaggerated type. But the news
which, at the close of November, 1843, spread
rapidly through the country, startled many of them
into large capitals and abundant notes of exclama
tion. The LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry, with an
unbroken majority behind it, had gone suddenly
out of office ! "Dismissed I" triumphantly shouted
the Tories, and forthwith, without waiting for fur
ther details of what had happened, an exultant song
of praise flowed from the pens of Conservative
editors in laudation of the stout-hearted governor
who had vindicated British loyalty against the
treacheries of aliens and Radicals, "The news from
Canada," sang back in echo the New York Albion,
"is of a right cheering character : the Franco-Radical
cabinet has gone to the tomb of the Capulets amid
the shouts of every loyal man in the province. The
governor-general. Sir Charles Metcalfe, (and thrice
honoured be his name !) has thrown off the incubus
of a disloyal faction and the queen's representative
stands redeemed and disenthraUed," 199

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
But the ministry had not, as presently appeared,
been dismissed; they had, with one exception only,
handed in a collective resignation in protest against
what they regarded as the unconstitutional conduct
of the governor-general. This was at last the rupture
which Metcalfe five months before had told Lord
Stanley might "happen any day." The vexed ques
tion of the patronage and the governor's reservation
of the Secret Societies Bill had led the cabinet to
force the matter to an issue. It has been seen above
that Metcalfe had resolved that the exercise of the
right of appointment to office should not be removed
from his hands. To this policy he had adhered.
Several cases had already occurred in which the
governor-general had offered, and even conferred,
official positions without any consultation with his
ministry. Among these was the important post of
speaker of the legislative council,* which was offered
successively, though without finding acceptance, to
two members of the Conservative party. Finally to
ward the end of November, 1843, it reached the ears
of the cabinet that a certain Mr. Powell, the son of
Colonel Powell (also of the Conservative party) had
been appointed by Sir Charles Metcalfe to be clerk
ofthe peace for the Dalhousie district. The position,
in and of itself, was no great affair. But the ministry,
considering a principle of prime importance to be in
volved, decided to bring the matter to a final test,
' The holder of this office under the Act of Union was nominated
and removed by the governor-general (3 and 4 Vict. c. Section xxxv).
200

RESIGNATION OF THE CABINET
On November 24th Baldwin and LaFontaine
called upon the governor-general and held with him
a long colloquy which was renewed at a meeting
of the executive council the next day. The two
ministers, to use the words of Metcalfe's biographer,
"pressed their demands with energy and resolution:
but Metcalfe, in his own placid way, was equally
energetic and resolute," On the day following
(November 26th, 1843) the ministry resigned. As the
course of action thus adopted and the crisis which
followed constitute a turning point in the political
history of Canada, and form the most impor
tant episode in the public career of the united
leaders, it is well to follow in some detail the
threads of the vexed controversy to which their
resignation gave rise. At the instance of Sir Charles
Metcalfe, LaFontaine drew up an official statement
of the reasons of the resignation, which, together
with a rejoinder by the governor-general, was duly
laid before the Houses of parliament.* The minis
terial statement runs as follows : —
"Mr. LaFontaine, in compliance with the request
ofthe go vernor -general, and in behalf of himself and
his late colleagues, who have felt it to be their
duty to tender a resignation of office, states, for His
¦" These are to be found in the Journals of the Assembly and in all
the newspapers of the day : they also appear in the pamphlet printed by
H. W. Rowsell (Toronto, 1844) under the title Addresses presented to
His Excellency the Rt. Hon. Sir Chas. T. Metcalfe, Bart. G.C.B. This
document and other publications on the controversy appear in the
Baldwin Pamphlets, 1844, now in the Toronto Public Library.
201

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Excellency's information, the substance of the ex
planation which they purpose to offer in their
places in parliament. They avowedly took office
upon the principle of responsibility to the repre
sentatives of the people in parliament, and with a
full recognition on their parts of the following
resolutions introduced into the legislative assembly
with the knowledge and sanction of Her Majesty's
representative in this province, on September 3rd,
1841." (Here follows a citation of the resolutions
given in Chapter IV. above.)
" They have lately understood that His Excel
lency took a widely different view of the position,
duties, and responsibilities of the executive council,
from that under which they accepted office, and
through which they have been enabled to conduct
the parliamentary business of the government,
sustained by a large majority of the popular
branch of the legislature.
" Had the difference of opinion between His Excel
lency and themselves, and, as they have reason to
believe, between His Excellency and the parliament
and people of Canada generally, been merely
theoretical, the members of the late executive
council might, and would, have felt it to be their
duty to avoid any possibility of collision which
might have a tendency to disturb the tranquil and
amicable relations which apparently subsisted be
tween the executive government and the provincial
parliament. But the difference of opinion has led
202

STATEMENT OF LAFONTAINE
not merely to appointments to office against their
advice, but to appointments, and proposals to make
appointments, of which they were not informed in
any manner, until aU opportunity of offering advice
respecting them had passed by, and to a determi
nation on the part of His Excellency to reserve for
the expression of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon a
bill introduced into the provincial parliament with
His ExceUency's knowledge and consent as a govern
ment measure, without an opportunity being given
to the members of the executive council to state
the probabihty of such a reservation. They, there
fore, felt themselves in the anomalous position of
being, according to their own avowals and solemn
public pledges, responsible for all the acts of the
executive government and parhament, and at the
same time not only without the opportunity of
offering advice respecting these acts, but without
the knowledge of their existence, until informed of
them from private and unofficial sources.
" When the members of the late executive
council offered their humble remonstrances to His
Excellency on this condition of public affairs. His
ExceUency not only frankly explained the differ
ence of opinion existing between him and the
council, but stated that, from the time of his
arrival in the country, he had observed an antag
onism between him and them on the subject, and
notwithstanding that the members of the council
repeatedly and distinctly explained to His
203

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Excellency that they considered him free to act
contrary to their advice, and only claimed an
opportunity of giving such advice and of knowing,
before others. His Excellency's intentions. His
Excellency did not in any manner remove the
impression left upon their minds, by his avowal,
that there was an antagonism between him and
them, and a want of that cordiality and confidence
which would enable them, in their respective
stations, to carry on public business to the satis
faction of His Excellency or of the country.
" The want of this cordiality and confidence had
already become a matter of public rumour : and
public opinion not only extended it to acts, upon
which there were apparent grounds for difference of
opinion, but to all measures of government involv
ing political principles. His Excellency, on the one
hand, was supposed to be coerced by his council
into a course of policy which he did not approve
of, and the council were made liable to the
accusation of assuming the tone and position of
responsible advisers of the government, without,
in fact, asserting the right of being consulted
thereupon. "While His Excellency disavowed any intention
of altering the course of administration of public
affairs which he found on his arrival in Canada, he
did not disguise the opinion that these affairs would
be more satisfactorily managed by and through the
governor himself, without any necessity of concord
204

STATEMENT OF METCALFE
amongst the members of the executive council or
obligation on their part to defend or support in
parliament the acts of the governor. To this opinion
of His Excellency, as one of theory, the members of
the executive council might not have objected; but
when, on Saturday last, they discovered that it was
the real ground of all their differences with His
ExceUency, and of the want of confidence and
cordiality between His Excellency and the council
since his arrival, they felt it impossible to continue
to serve Her Majesty, as executive councillors for
the affairs of this province, consistently with their
duty to Her Majesty, or to His Excellency, or with
their public and often repeated pledges in the
provincial parliaments, if His Excellency would see
fit to act upon his opinion of their functions and
responsibilities. "
"The document written by Sir Charles Metcalfe
in answer to this on the foUowing day (November
28th, 1843) runs as follows : —
"The governor-general observes with regret in
the explanation which the gentlemen who have
resigned their seats in the executive council propose
to offer in their places in parliament, a total
omission of the circumstances which he regards as
forming the real grounds of their resignation ; and
as this omission may have proceeded from their
not considering themselves at liberty to disclose
the circumstances, it becomes necessary that he
should state them. 205

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
" On Friday, Mr. LaFontaine and Mr. Baldwin
came to the government house, and after some
other matters of business, and some preliminary
remarks as to the cause of their proceeding, de
manded of the governor-general that he should
agree to make no appointment, and no offer of an
appointment, without previously taking the advice
of the council ; that the lists of candidates should,
in every instance, be laid before the council; that
they should recommend any others at discretion,
and that the governor-general, in deciding after
taking their advice, should not make any appoint
ment prejudicial to their influence. In other words,
that the patronage of the Crown should be sur
rendered to the council for the purchase of par
liamentary support ; for, if the demand did not
mean that, it meant nothing, as it cannot be
imagined that the mere form of taking advice
without regarding it, was the process contemplated.
" The governor-general replied that he would
not make any such stipulation, and could not
degrade the character of his office, nor violate his
duty, by such a surrender of the prerogative of the
Crown. " He appealed to the number of appointments
made by him on the recommendation of the
council, or the members of it in their departmental
capacity, and to instances in which he had abstained
from conferring appointments on their opponents,
as furnishing proofs of the great consideration
206

METCALFE ON PATRONAGE
which he had evinced towards the council in the
distribution of the patronage of the Crown,
" He at the same time objected, as he had always
done, to the exclusive distribution of patronage
with party views, and maintained the principle that
office ought in every instance to be given to the
man best qualified to render efficient service to the
state ; and where there was no such preeminence,
he asserted the right to exercise his discretion.
" He understood from Messrs. LaFontaine and
Baldwin, that their continuance in office depended
upon his final decision with regard to their demand;
and it was agreed that at the council to be assembled
the next day, that subject should be fully discussed.
" He accordingly met the council on Saturday,
convinced that they would resign, as he would not
recede from the resolution which he had formed,
and the same subject became the principal topic of
discussion. Three or more distinct propositions
were made to him, over and over again, sometimes
in different terms, but always aiming at the same
purpose, which, in his opinion, if accomplished,
would have been a virtual surrender into the hands
of the council of the prerogative of the Crown :
and on his uniformly replying to these propositions
in the negative, his refusal was each time followed
by 'Then we must resign,' or words to that purport,
from one or more of his council. In the course of
the conversations which, both on Friday and Satur
day, foUowed the explicit demand made by the
207

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
council regarding the patronage of the Crown, that
demand being based on the construction put by
some of the gentlemen on the meaning of ' Respon
sible Government,' different opinions were elicited
on the abstract theory of that still undefined ques
tion as applicable to a colony — a subject on which
considerable difference of opinion is known every
where to prevail ; but the governor-general, during
those conversations, protested against its being sup
posed that he is practically adverse to the system of
responsible government, which has been here
established : which he has hitherto pursued without
deviation, and to which it is fully his intention to
adhere. ... If, indeed, by responsible government
the gentlemen of the late council mean that the
council is to be supreme, and the authority of the
governor-general a nullity, then he cannot agree
with them, and must declare his dissent from that
perversion of the acknowledged principle, . , . Al
lusion is made in the proposed explanation of the
gentlemen of the late council, to the governor-
general's having determined to reserve for the con
sideration of Her Majesty's government, one ofthe
bills passed by the two legislative Houses. That is
the Secret Societies Bill. If there is any part of the
functions of the governor in which he is more than
any other bound to exercise an independent judg
ment, it must be in giving the royal assent to Acts
of parliament. With regard to this duty he has
special instructions from Her Majesty to reserve
208

METCALFE AND STANLEY
every Act of an unusual or extraordinary character.
Undoubtedly the Secret Societies BiU answers that
description, being unexampled in British legislation.
The gentlemen of the late council heard his senti
ments on it expressed to them. He told them that
it was an arbitrary and unwise measure, and not
even calculated to effect the end it had in view. He
had given his consent to its being introduced into
parhament, because he had promised, soon after his
assumption of the government, that he would
sanction legislation on the subject as a substitute
for executive measures which he refused to adopt
on account of their proscriptive character : although
he deprecates the existence of societies which tend
to foment religious and civil discord. The gentle
men of the late council cannot fail to remember
with what pertinacity those measures were pressed
on him, and can hardly be unaware of what would
have followed at that time, if, in addition to reject
ing the proscriptive measures urged, he had refused
to permit any legislation on the subject."*
' About a fortnight afterwards (December 11th, 1843) Metcalfe
wrote to Lord Stanley as follows : " Late on the following day, Mr.
LaFontaine sent me a written statement of the explanation, which he
and his colleagues proposed to give in their places in parliament, of
the grounds of their resignation. A copy is enclosed. It is a most dis
ingenuous production, suppressing entirely the immediate matter upon
which their resignation took place, and trumping up a vague assertion
of differences on the theory of responsible government as applicable to
a colony, which had been expressed in the freedom of conversation as
matters of opinion but not as grounds of procedure, and were, therefore,
very unfairly used for the purpose to which this misrepresentation was
209

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
The two above documents, which were soon
scattered broadcast throughout Canada, represent
the official version of the opposing sides of the
political controversy which raged throughout the
next twelve months. The resignation of the La
Fontaine-Baldwin ministry was no ordinary event.
The whole principle of British colonial government
was staked upon the issue; and upon both sides of
the Atlantic events in Canada were followed with
an exceptional interest. Only during periods of
actual rebellion or war, has there ever been in this
country an era of more intense pohtical excite
ment. The question of responsible government and
of its proper meaning and application in Canada,
became the supreme issue of the day, and both in
and out of parhament, in the press, on the hustings,
and from the housetops, it was made the subject of
applied. Had the gentlemen openly avowed that their object was to
make the council supreme and to prostrate the British government and
to reduce the authority of the governor to a nullity, there would have
been truth in their statements of a difference between us, as I never
can admit that construction of responsible government in a colony.''
"Correspondence of Lord Metcalfe," Canadian Archives. A little later
(December 26th, 1843) Metcalfe wrote to Lord Stanley : " It is said
that they [the late council] were beginning to totter in parliament.
Some clauses in the judicature bills for Lower Canada, brought in by
Mr. LaFontaine, had been thrown out owing to Mr. Vigor's opposition
on principle to the arrangement therein proposed of judges sitting as a
part of the Court of Appeal on the hearing of appeals from their own
judgments. Mr. Baldwin's King's College University Bill was threat
ened with certain failure and would probably have been lost on the
day after their resignation, if the latter had not furnished a pretext for
withdrawing it without assigning the prospect of defeat as the cause.
210

THE RISING GALE
violent and virulent argumentation. The Reformers
had had no intention, in offering their resignation
to the governor, of surrendering their claim to the
political control of the country : the resignation was
not an act of submissive meekness but an act of de
fiance. It was intended as the prelude of an organ
ized campaign of resistance to Sir Charles Metcalfe,
which should either drive him from his office or
compel him to admit the ministerial principle in its
entirety. Metcalfe, on his part, bent not before the
storm, but with British resolution braced himself
squarely on his feet to face the rising gale of
opposition. Not an inch would he retreat : not a
syllable would he retract. Till the British govern
ment might summon him home, he was there to
govern Canada, with a ministry if he could, but
without a ministry if he must.
Their Assessment Bill likewise gave general dissatisfaction in Upper
Canada, and they had been compelled to modify it considerably. These
and some other occasional symptoms of defection, although not affect
ing their general majority in the House, were regarded as omens of
approaching weakness, and it is supposed that, in order to recover
waning popularity and power, they sought a rupture with the
governor, determined to make use of it for the purpose of raising a
popular cry in their favour. . . . This explanation has obtained some
currency; but I cannot say that I give full credence to it. ... A
more obvious motive may be found in other circumstances. There were
several bills before the parliament which, if passed into laws, would
have created several new appointments with considerable salaries. . . .
To secure the distribution of this patronage was, I conceive, the
immediate object of their demand, or one for the surrender of the
patronage into their hands." Selections from the Papers of Lord Met
calfe, London, 1866. [Ed., J. W. Kaye.] 211

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Mistaken as the views of the governor-general
undoubtedly were, there is much to admire in
the spirit of indomitable firmness with which he
was prepared to confront single-handed, if need
be, the whole population of the colony. As the
controversy waxed hot, the amenities of pohtical
discussion were thrown aside and the divinity
that hedges a governor-general was dissipated ii>
a storm of personal attack : the cry of despot,
tyrant and autocrat, was heard on all sides, while
the satirists of the time dubbed His Excellency
" Charles the Simple," and added the stiU more
crushing epithet of " Old Square Toes." But Met
calfe was not left to fight single-handed : Mr.
Draper's adherents were with him from the start.
To the Tories the aspect of a governor proposing
to actually govern was as welcome as sunshine
after storm, while needy politicians, office-seekers
and personal opponents of the late ministry rallied
eagerly to the cause. The people of Canada were
soon divided into two great factions, the sup
porters and the enemies of Metcalfe. Meetings,
banquets, speeches, addresses, pamphlets and fierce
editorial articles became the order of the day, and
the strife of the pohtical combatants waxed more
and more furious with the realization that it must
culminate in a general election which might mean
to either party a general and irretrievable disaster.
The first trial of strength in the momentous con
flict was on the floor of the parliament itself. Great
212

AN EXCITED PARLIAMENT
was the excitement in and around the legislature,
when the news of the ministerial resignation became
public. " The library of the assembly," wrote a
private correspondent from Kingston, "was crowded
with letter writers eager to circulate the news from
Sandwich to Gasp^, and no sound met the ear but
the harsh scratching of the pens as they rushed over
the paper. In the lobbies and on the landing-places
smaU groups were congregated discussing the news.
The politician as he walked the street was button-
held (sic) by many a curious and excited enquirer.
The stagnation which usuaUy characterizes the
metropolis has been converted into a bustling and
earnest animation."
On November 27th, LaFontaine briefly an
nounced to the House the fact that the ministry,
with the exception of Mr. Daly, had resigned
office. Two days later Baldwin presented to the
assembly the reasons for the resignation, and
an exciting debate followed, culminating in a
triumphant vote of confidence in the ministry.
It is unnecessary to repeat at length the argu
ments presented for and against the ministry,
which were practically identical with those con
tained in the official letters just quoted. Baldwin
in his opening speech declared that the min
istry' had accepted office on principles they had
publicly and privately avowed. These principles, he
said, had received the sanction of a large majority
of the representatives of the people. The ministry
213

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
stood pledged to maintain them. The head of the
government entertained views widely differing from
his ministers on the duties and responsibilities of
their office : this had left nothing for them but to
resign. Baldwin read to the House the resolutions
of 1841, in which he and his colleagues found the
justification of their present conduct. Hincks, Price,
Christie and others supported Baldwin in the
assembly, while Sullivan defended the conduct of
the late ministry before the legislative council in a
speech of exceptional briUiancy and power. Beside
the overwhelming arguments thus presented, the
defence of the governor-general, in the hands of
Mr. Daly, seemed tame and insignificant, and the
attempt of the latter to show that Metcalfe was
prepared to live up to the September resolutions
carried no conviction.
Nor was the fierce onslaught of Sir Allan Mac
Nab on the outgoing cabinet of any greater efficacy.
He made no attempt to reconcile the conduct
of the governor with the principles of responsible
government. He attacked the principles themselves.
To him the September resolutions were as chaff to
be driven before the wind. Responsible govern
ment, he said, should never have been conceded:
if persisted in, it could lead to nothing but the
ultimate separation of the colony from the mother
country. Mac Nab 's defence of Metcalfe was of a
character little likely to defend, and the governor,
despite his instinctive sympathy with the Tories,
214

ACTION OF VIGER
might have wished to be saved from his friends ;
for Metcalfe found himself in the painful position
of being defended by one set of adherents on the
ground that he had maintained responsible govern
ment, and by the other on the ground that respon
sible government was not worth maintaining.
Of far more consequence to the cause of the out
going cabinet was the defection of Mr. Viger. Denis
Benjamin Viger had long been one of the prominent
leaders of the popular party in Lower Canada and
had suffered imprisonment for the cause. The prin
ciple of responsible government and the claims of
the French- Canadians had had no more ardent
supporter than Mr. Viger, and at this time, with the
dignity of seventy winters upon him, he was still
viewed as one of the leaders of his people. It
was not without deep emotion* that Viger now
announced to the House that he could not endorse
the conduct of the leaders of his party. The prin
ciple of responsible government he was willing to
admit, but the present occasion, he said, offered no
adequate grounds for a step so momentous as that
which they had seen fit to take.^ The debate was
finally closed by the passage of a resolution, pre
sented by Mr, Price, to the effect that " an humble
address be presented to His Excellency, humbly
representing to His ExceUency the deep regret felt
1 La Minerve, December 11th, 1843.
* Mr. Viger afterwards published his views on the situation in full in
a pamphlet entitled. La Crise Ministerielle, (1844).
215

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
by this House at the retirement of certain members
of the provincial administration on the question of
their right to be consulted on what this House
unhesitatingly avows 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 the
House, being in strict accordance with the prin
ciples embraced in the resolutions adopted in the
House on September 3rd, 1841," The motion
was carried by forty-six votes against twenty-
three. On December 9th, 1843, the parliament
was prorogued.
Meantime the governor-general was without a
ministry. At the moment of prorogation, Mr.
Dominick Daly enjoyed the unique honour of
being sole adviser to the Crown. On the twelfth of
the month (Dec. 1843) Mr. Draper was sworn in
as executive councUlor, and Mr. Viger, with whom
negotiations had at once been opened by Sir
Charles Metcalfe, entered also into the service
of the government. It was announced in the
administration newspapers that these gentlemen
constituted a provisional government, and that the
governor-general would organize a regular cabinet
at the earhest possible moment. Meantime the
Reform journals loudly denounced this new form
of personal rule.
The prorogation of parliament was the signal for
the organization of a vigorous campaign of opposi-
216

HINCKS EDITS THE "J'lLOT"
tion on the part of the Reform party, whose leaders
threw themselves with great ardour into the work
of rousing the country in anticipation of a coming
election. Baldwin and LaFontaine, returning to the
practice of the law in their respective cities, headed
the agitation. Hincks, who had severed his con
nection with the Examiner on assuming office in
1842, now determined to return to newspaper work.
As Montreal was to be the future capital of the
province, he came to that city shortly after the
rising of the House and looked about him for the
purchase of a suitable journal. A paper called the
Times, — moderately liberal in its complexion, —
being at that time without an editor, Hincks acted
gratuitously in that capacity for some little while,
hoping ultimately to purchase the paper ; but find
ing difficulty in arranging matters with the pro
prietors, he estabhshed (March 5th, 1844) a journal
of his own under the name of the Pilot. Adopting
the same device as he had already used with success
in the case of the Examiner, Hincks printed at the
head of his first issue a quotation from Lord Dur
ham's report in favour of responsible government
and backed it up with an opening editorial in which
he plunged at once into the present controversy.
" If the representative of the sovereign," said the
Pilot, "is in practice to make appointments accord
ing to his own personal opinion, and to reject the
bills relating to our local affairs because he thinks
them unnecessary or inexpedient, it would be
217

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
infinitely better that the mockery of representative
institutions was abolished." The journalistic career
in those days was not without its dangers and
difficulties. Hincks and his newspaper were de
nounced on all sides by the Tory press : he was
likened to Marat, to Robespierre and to the
iconoclasts of the French revolution. An embit
tered Orangeman,* incensed at certain expressions
used by a correspondent of the Pilot, endeavoured
to force a duel upon the editor. But in spite of
all difficulties Hincks persevered, and remained
at his editorial work in Montreal throughout the
next four years.
In addition to his editorial work on the Pilot,
Hincks endeavoured to influence opinion in the
mother country by contributing a series of letters
to the London Morning Chronicle. These were
intended to offset the arguments that were being
laid before the British public by Gibbon Wakefield.
The latter, whom the Reformers now regarded as
¦^ The gentleman in question was Colonel Ogle R. Gowan> A corre
spondent of the Pilot, in discussing the well-known episode of the
queen's refusal to dismiss the ladies of the bedchamber and its relation
to the royal prerogative, had said : " His [Sir Robert Peel's] demand
was complied with, though Colonel Gowan falsely asserted the contrary
at Kingston." Gowan wrote to Hincks (March 12th, 1844) asking the
name and address of the correspondent. " Should you decline to accede
to my demand," he said, " I beg you will refer me to a friend ou
your behalf to meet Captain Weatherly of this city, who will arrange
a meeting between us." Hincks managed to appease the irate colonel
by explaining that the falseness of the argument and not the veracity
of the speaker was the matter in question.
218

HINCKS AND WAKEFIELD
a snake that they had unwittingly warmed in the
bosom of the party, had become the bitter enemy
of the late ministry. He had endeavoured to per
suade the assembly to adopt an amendment nuUify-
ing the vote of confidence. Failing in this, he had
pubhshed a pamphlet* in defence of the conduct
of Metcalfe, and was at this time busily con
tributing articles to the London press on the
Canadian question. Wakefield in these writings
undertook to make a double misrepresentation ; to
misrepresent Canadian affairs to the people of Great
Britain, and to misrepresent British opinion there
upon to the people of Canada. "The quantity of
sympathy with Messrs. Baldwin and LaFontaine
existing in the United Kingdom," he wrote, "is
very minute." The resignation of the ministry he
interpreted, not as arising out of the question of
responsible government, but simply as a political
trick : the difficulty encountered with the university
bill and other Upper Canadian legislation had made
the Reform party anxious to divert pubhc attention
from its iU success by the familiar device of drag
ging a herring across the scent. Responsible govern
ment was merely the herring in question. Hincks
easily exposes the faUacies of Wakefield's argu-
1 A View of Sir Charles Metcalfe's Government in Canada (London,
1844). See also an article. Sir Charles Metcalfe in Canada (Fisher's
Colonial Magazine, 1844) and letters in the Colonial Gazette ; see also
Edward Gibbon Wakefield by R. Gamett, London, 1898. Dr. Garnett
speaks of Wakefield as "exercising irresponsible government in Canada
as the secret counsellor of Sir Charles Metcalfe."
219

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ment ; for Wakefield's letters to the press before
and after the ministerial rupture were essentially
inconsistent. On October 27th, 1843, Wakefield
had written that he would have no objection to a
quarrel between Metcalfe and the ministers if he
" could be sure that the governor would pick weU
his ground of quarrel." Again on November 25th
he wrote to a correspondent : " The governor-
general has had, I think, the opportunity of break
ing with his ministers on tenable ground and has
let it slip. ... I am unwiUing to do him the bad
turn of shooting the bird which I suppose him to
be aiming at behind the hedge of reserve which
conceals him from vulgar eyes." In his letter to
the Colonial Gazette, after the rupture, and in his
pamphlet, Wakefield tries to put the quarrel in the
quite different light described above. In his letters
to the Chronicle Hincks not only shows the incon
sistency of his adversary's position, but makes a
pitiless exposure of the reasons underlying Wake
field's self-interested desertion of the Reform
party.* While Hincks was thus busily occupied at
Montreal, Baldwin, who had returned to Toronto
after the prorogation of the House, was heading the
agitation against Metcalfe in Upper Canada. A
public banquet was held in honour of the ex-
ministers (December 28th, 1843) at the North
American Hotel, Robert Baldwin being the guest
J See Hincks's letters to the Morning Chronicle, July 24th, 1844, etc.
220

REFORM ASSOCIATION BANQUET
of the evening. Mr. Ridout, of the Upper Canada
Bank, proposed the health of Messrs. LaFontaine,
Baldwin and the other members of the cabinet, the
"steadfast champions of responsible government,"
to which Baldwin replied in a long speech, sub
sequently printed in full in the Reform journals of
both Upper and Lower Canada. A Reform Asso
ciation was founded in Toronto whose branches
rapidly spread over the whole of the province.
Under the auspices of the new association there
was held in Toronto towards the end of March of
the new year,* the first of a series of great meetings
organized throughout the country. So great was
the enthusiasm attendant upon this gathering that
the hall of the association, situated in a building
on the corner of Front and Scott Streets, was
quite inadequate to accommodate the crowd that
clamoured for admission, and hundreds were turned
from the doors. Robert Baldwin, who occupied the
chair, was the central figure of the occasion, and
the address with which he opened the proceedings
of this first general meeting of the Reform Associa
tion, ranks among his most striking speeches.^ Loud
and continued cheering greeted him as he rose to
speak, and was renewed at intervals in the pauses
of his discourse.
" Our objects," said the speaker, in announcing
the formation of the association, " are open and
1 March 25th, 1844.
2 Baldwin Pamphlets (1844), Toronto Public Library.
221

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
avowed. We seek no concealment for we have
nothing to conceal. We demand the practical
application of the principles of the constitution
of our beloved mother country to the adminis
tration of aU our local affairs. Not one hair's
breadth farther do we go, or desire to go :
but not with one hair's breadth short of that wiU
we ever be satisfied. . , . Earnestly I recommend
to all who value the principles of the British con
stitution, and to whom the preservation of the
connection with the mother country is dear, to
lend their aid by joining this organization. Depend
upon it, the day will come when one of the
proudest boasts of our posterity wiU be, that they
can trace their descent to one who has his name
inscribed on this great roU of the contenders for
colonial rights,"
After fuUy developing the nature of golonial
self-government and quoting from Lord Durham's
report and the September resolutions in support
of his contention, Baldwin went on to show
the utter insufficiency of responsible govern
ment as conceived by Sir Charles Metcalfe. His
Excellency's system meant nothing more or less
than the old disastrous methods of personal govern
ment brought back again. " If we are to have the
old system," said Baldwin, "then let us have it
under its own name, the 'Irresponsible System,' the
' Compact System,' or any other name adapted to
its hideous deformities ; but let us not be imposed
222

BALDWIN'S SPEECH
upon by a mere name. We have been adjured,"
he continued, alluding to an answer recently
given by Metcalfe to a group of petitioners, " with
reference to this new-fangled responsible govern
ment, in a style and manner borrowed with no
small degree of care from that of the eccentric
baronet * who once represented the sovereign in
this part of Her Majesty's dominions, to ' keep it,'
to ' cling to it,' not to ' throw it away ' ! ! You aU,
no doubt, remember the story of little Red Riding-
hood, and the poor chUd's astonishment and alarm,
as she began to trace the features of the wolf
instead of those of her venerable grandmother : and
let the people of Canada beware lest, when they
begin to trace the real outlines of this new-fangled
responsible government, and are caUing out in the
simplicity of their hearts, ' Oh, grandmother, what
great big eyes you have I ' it may not, as in the case
of little Red Ridinghood, be too late, and the reply
to the exclamation, ' Oh, grandmother, what a
great big mouth you have I ' be ' That's to gobble
you up the better, my chUd.' "
Baldwin was ably followed by his cousin, Robert
Sulhvan, by Wilham Hume Blake, and a long hst
of other speakers. Notable among these was onq
whose name was subsequently to become famous
in the annals of Canadian Liberahsm, George
Brown, a young Scottish emigrant, had just estab
lished at Toronto (March 5th, 1844) a weekly
I Sir F. B. Head.
223

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
newspaper caUed the Globe, founded in the interest
of the Reform party. The Globe was a fighting
paper from the start, and the power of its opening
editorials with their unsparing onslaughts on the
governor-general was aheady spreading its name
from one end of the province to the other. In
reality there were strong points of disagreement
between the editor of the Globe and the leading
Reformers, who at this time aided and encouraged
his enterprise, and Brown was destined ultimately
to substitute for the moderate doctrines of the
Reformers of the union, the programme of the
thorough-going Radical. But agreement in opposi
tion is relatively easy. The day of the Radicals and
the Clear Grits* was not yet, and for the time
Brown was heart and soul with the cause of the
ex-ministers. In his speech on this occasion he drew
a satirical picture of the operation of responsible
government a la Metcalfe. " Imagine yourself, sir,"
he said to the chairman, " seated at the top of the
council table, and Mr. Draper at the bottom,— on
your right hand we will place the Episcopal Bishop
of Toronto (Dr. John Strachan) and on your left
the Reverend Egerton Ryerson, — on the right of
Mr. Draper sits Sir Allan MacNab, and on his left
Mr. Hincks. We wiU fill up the other chairs with
gentlemen admirably adapted for their situations
* The relation of George Brown to the Clear Grits to whom he
was at first opposed is traced by J. Lewis in his George Brown (Makers
of Canada Series).
224

CAMPAIGN AGAINST METCALFE
by the most extreme imaginable differences of
opinion — we will seat His ExceUency at the middle
of the table, on a chair raised above the warring
elements below, prepared to receive the advice of
his constitutional conscience-keepers. We will sup
pose you, sir, to rise and propose the opening of
King's College to aU Her Majesty's subjects, — and
then, sir, we wiU have the happiness of seeing the
discordant-producing-harmony-principle in the full
vigour of peaceful operation."
Resolutions were adopted at the meeting en
dorsing the principles and conduct of the late
administration and condemning in strong terms the
interim government of Sir Charles Metcalfe. " We
have commenced the campaign," said the Globe,
in commenting on the proceedings, "the baU has
received its first impulse in this city, — let it
be taken up in every viUage, and in every
hamlet of the country." At these meetings
Baldwin was a frequent speaker and addresses
from all parts of the country were forwarded
to him. Not the least interesting among them
was an address from his constituents of Rimouski
setting forth that " a public meeting of the citizens
of the different parishes of the county had been
held immediately after mass on Sunday, February
4th," and that resolutions had been adopted fully
approving the " conduct in parliament of the
Hon. Robert Baldwin." In the course of the
summer Baldwin not only spoke in various towns
225

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of Upper Canada but found time also, in July, to
visit the Lower Provinces. In his own con
stituency, the county of Rimouski, Baldwin's
tour became a triumphal procession. The in
habitants flocked to meet him and his visit
was made the occasion of universal gaiety and
merry-making. The viUage street of Kamouraska
was decorated with flags and a long cortege of
vehicles accompanied the Reform leader on his
entry : the river at Rimouski was crossed in a boat
gaily adorned with bunting for the occasion, while
repeated salvos of musketry attended the transit of
Baldwin and his party. At Rimouski village itself,
an assembly of some four hundred parishioners
with their curS at their head was marshalled
before the village church to present an address
of welcome. Everywhere the cordial hospitality
of the people was conjoined with the warmest
expressions of political approval.
A shower of addresses feU also upon Sir Charles
Metcalfe, addresses of advice, of hearty approval,
and of angry expostulation. The "inhabitants of
the town of London" begged to "approach His
Excellency with feelings of gratitude and admira
tion which they could not sufficiently express." The
townspeople of Orillia had been "particularly dis
gusted with the studied insult so continually
offered to all the faithful and loyal of the land, and
by the advancement to situations of honour and
employment of suspected and disloyal persons."
226

A SHOWER OF ADDRESSES
The Tories of Toronto, Belleville, and a host of
other places, sent up similar addresses. On the other
hand, " the magistracy, freeholders, and inhabitants
generaUy of the district of Talbot, observed with
painful regret the unhappy rupture between His
ExceUency and a council which possessed so
largely the confidence of the people. The principle
of responsible government, which has occasioned
this rupture, they had fondly hoped had been so
clearly defined and so fully recognized and estab
hshed as to obviate all difficulty and altercation for
the future."* The district council of Gore took
upon itself to go even further. They assured His
Excellency that "public opinion in this district and,
we believe, throughout the length and breadth of
Canada, wiU fully sustain the late executive council
in the stand they have taken, and in the views they
have expressed." Altogether some hundred ad
dresses were forwarded to the governor-general.
The greater part of them, as might be expected,
emanated from Conservative sources and chorus
ed a jubUant approbation of Metcalfe's conduct.
British loyalty, the old flag and the imperial
connection were put to their customary illogical
use, and did duty for better arguments against
responsible government. Even the "Mohawk
Indians of the Bay of Quintd " were pressed into
political service. On the subject of responsible
1 As against this address a rival faction of the people of Talbot sent
up expressions of hearty approval of Metcalfe's conduct.
227

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
government the ideas of the chiefs were doubtless
a little hazy and they discreetly avoided it, but
their prayer that the " Great Spirit would long
spare their gracious Mother to govern them " may
be taken as a rude paraphrase of the Tory argument
against the ministry. They regretted "the removal
of the great council fire from Cataraqui to some
hundred miles nearer the sun's rising," but lapsed
into language much less convincingly Indian by
saying that " the question is simply this, whether
this country is to remain under the protection and
government of the queen, or to become one of the
United States."
The Mohawk Indians were not the only ones
who insisted on saying that this latter was the
main question at issue. There was at Kingston a
rising young barrister and politician of the Tory
party, John A. Macdonald by name, who at this
juncture cooperated in founding a United Empire
Association. Meantime the condition of affairs in Canada, and
the fact that Metcalfe was conducting the govern
ment of the country with an executive council
which consisted of only three persons, were exciting
attention in the mother country and had become
the subject of debate in the imperial parliament.
Ever since the agitation and rebellion of 1837, there
had been in the House of Commons a group of
Radical members who were ready at any time to
espouse the cause of the colonists against the
228

BRITISH OPINION
governors. This was done, it must in fairness be
admitted, largely in ignorance of actual Canadian
affairs. The sympathy of the British Radicals pro
ceeded partly from the general philanthropy that
marked their thought, partly from their abstract
and doctrinaire conception of individual rights, and
partly also from their desire to use the colonial
agitation as a weapon of attack against the Tory
government. Hume and Roebuck, it will be
remembered, had been in correspondence with
Mackenzie and Papineau. They had been the
London agents of the Canadian Alliance Associa
tion founded by Mackenzie in 1834. Since that
period the cause of self-government in Canada had
found consistent supporters among the British
Radicals. But the bearing of this sympathetic con
nection must not be misinterpreted. Trained in the
narrow school of " little Englandism " the Radicals
regarded every colony as necessarily moving to
wards the manifest destiny of ultimate independ
ence, and the historic value of their sympathetic
connection with the Baldwin-LaFontaine party in
the present crisis cannot be very highly estimated.
Indeed a little examination shows that between the
ideas of the British Radicals and those of Robert
Baldwin and his party, a great gulf was fixed. To
the former, colonial self-government was justified as
a necessary prelude to colonial independence : to
the latter, it appeared as a bond — as the only stable
and permanent bond — which would maintain intact
229

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the connection with the mother country. This
latter point cannot be too strongly emphasized.
There is hardly a speech made by Robert Baldwin
at this period in which he does not assert his de
votion to the unity of the empire and his firm
belief that responsible government in the colonies
was the true means of its maintenance. With the
lapse of sixty years the narrow view of the British
Radicals has been discredited and lost from sight
in the larger prospect of an imperial future. But no
portion of that discredit should faU upon the
Reformers of Canada, to whom at this moment
they offered their support.
In answer to a question in the House of
Commons, Lord Stanley, the colonial secretary,
had (February 2nd, 1844) declared that the im
perial government fuUy approved of the conduct
of Sir Charles Metcalfe.* Although Sir Charies
^ There appears to be little doubt that Stanley's confidential letters
to Metcalfe supported the latter in his quarrel with the Reformers.
Hincks in his Reminiscences gives it as his opinion that Metcalfe, at the
time of his leaving England, had received instructions from the
colonial secretary to the effect that he was to make it his business to
prevent the establishment of responsible government in Canada. "Sir
Charles Metcalfe," he writes (p. 89), "was selected with the object of
overthrowing the new system of government." The formal instructions
to Metcalfe under date of February 24th, 1843, were identical with
those sent to Lord Sydenham under date of August 30th, 1840. (See
Canadian Archives Report, 1905, pp. 116-21.) But it is known that
Metcalfe had a confidential interview with Lord Stanley before leaving
England and that he received private communications from him in
regard to the ministerial crisis. The following passage occurs in a
MS. letter of LaFontaine to Baldwin under date of January 28th,
230

LORD STANLEY'S VIEWS
Metcalfe, he said, went out to carry out the views
of the government at home, yet he was equaUy
determined to resist any demands inconsistent with
the dignity of the Crown ; in pursuing this course
he would have the entire support of the home
government. A still more emphatic approval of
Metcalfe's conduct, together with a declaration of
the principles of colonial government, was given by
Lord Stanley some four months later (May 30th,
1844) in a debate which was presently known in
Canada as the "great debate." The statements
made by Lord Stanley on that occasion, and the
concurrence expressed by Lord John Russell, leave
no doubt that neither the British statesmen of the
Conservative party nor their Liberal opponents had
as yet accepted the principle of colonial autonomy
as we now know it. They were still haunted by the
lingering idea that a colony must of necessity be
subservient to its governor, and that complete self-
government meant independence of Great Britain.
Mr, Roebuck had caUed the attention of the
House of Commons to the condition of affairs in
Canada, and the colonial secretary made a lengthy
speech in reply, " The honourable member," he
said, " drew an analogy between the position of the
ministers in the colony and the position of the
1844 : "Holmes received this morning a letter from Dunn who states
that a person, upon whose word he can rely, had just informed him that
the governor had received despatches from Lord Stanley approving
his conduct. That is a matter of course." (Baldtmn Correspondence,
Toronto Public Library.)
231

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ministers of the Crown in the mother country. He
[Lord Stanley] denied the analogy. The con
stitution of Canada was so framed as to render it
impossible that it could possess aU the ingredients
of the British constitution." In Great Britain, he
said, the Crown " exercised great influence because
of the love, veneration, and attachment of the
people. The governor was entirely destitute of the
influence thus attached to royalty. . . . The House
of Lords exercised the power derived from rank,
station, wealth, territorial possession and hereditary
title. The council [legislative] in Canada had none
of these adventitious advantages." The reasoning
thus presented by the colonial secretary seems
to bear in the wrong direction.* But his remarks
which follow essentially reveal the attitude of
his mind on the question. " Place the governor
of Canada," he said, " in a state of absolute
dependence on his council and they at once would
make Canada an independent and republican
colony. . . . It was inconsistent with a monarchical
government that the governor should be nominaUy
responsible, and yet was to be stripped of all power
and authority, and to be reduced to that degree of
power which was vested in the sovereign of this
country: it was inconsistent with colonial depend
ence altogether and was overlooking altogether the
distinction which must subsist between an independ-
^ La Minerve (July 1st, 1844) contains an interesting discussion of
this debate.
232

STANLEY DEFENDS METCALFE
ent country and a colony subject to the domination
of the mother country. . . . The power for which
a minister is responsible in England is not his own
power but the power of the Crown, of which he is
for the time the organ. It is obvious that the
executive councillor of a colony is in a situation
totally different. The governor, under whom he
serves, receives his orders from the Crown of
England, But can the colonial council be the
advisers of the Crown of England ? Evidently not,
for the Crown has other advisers for the same
functions and with superior authority,"
In the latter part of his speech Lord Stanley
dealt more directly with the question of colonial
appointments : his remarks show all too plainly
that he too persisted in dividing the Canadians
into two groups of " rebels " and " honest men,"
and in viewing the present controversy as a strife
between the two. " Did not the honourable and
learned gentleman," he asked, referring to Mr.
Roebuck, "think that the minority in a colonial
society, be it Tory, Radical, Whig, French, or
English, had more chance of fair play if the
honours and rewards in the gift of the government
were distributed by the Crown than if they were
dispensed exclusively by political partisans." The
magnificent stupidity of this remark can be realized
if one imagines Lord Stanley being asked whether
it might not be advisable to allow the queen to
make personal appointments to all offices in order
233

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
to shelter the British minority from the rapacity of
the Conservative party. But what Stanley had in
his mind becomes clear when he goes on to say : —
" Would it be consistent with the dignity, the
honour, the metropolitan interests of the Crown
that its patronage should be used by the admin
istration [of Canada] to reward the very men who
had held back in the hour of danger ? and would it
be just or becoming to proscribe and drive from
the service of the country those who, in the hour
of peril, had come forward to manifest their loyalty
and to maintain the union of Canada with the
Crown of England ?" The union of Canada and
England had as little to do with the present argu
ment as the union of Sweden and Norway, but the
reference to it passed current in both countries for
nobility of sentiment. Lord Stanley concluded his
remarks by referring to the LaFontaine-Baldwin
ministry as " unprincipled demagogues " and " mis
chievous advisers."
Stanley's defense of Metcalfe and his A'iews on
colonial self-government read somewhat strangely
at the present day. What is still more strange is
that the Liberal leader, Lord John RusseU, who
spoke on the same occasion, was prepared to put
the same interpretation on the Canadian situation.
He would, he said, have condemned Sir Charles
Metcalfe if he had said that he would in no case
take the opinion of his executive council respecting
appointments ; but it would be impossible for the
234

IRRESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT
governor to say that he would in all cases follow
the will of the executive council. Sir Robert Peel
and Mr, Charles BuUer, one of the principal col
laborators of Lord Durham in the composition of
his report, spoke also to the same effect.
During all this time Sir Charles Metcalfe re
mained without a ministry. Even the two new coun
cillors in office. Draper and Viger, had merely
been sworn in as executive councillors without
being assigned to offices of emolument. As the
spring passed and the summer wore on, the
chances of being able to obtain a ministry on any
thing like a representative basis still appeared
remote. The Tories of the assembly had given to
Sir Charles Metcalfe from the outset a cordial
support, but in view of the overwhelming num
bers of the Reformers and French-Canadians, the
attempt to construct a ministry from the ranks
of the Tories would have been foredoomed to
failure. On the other hand, the governor-general
was weU aware that continued government with
out a ministry meant ruin to his cause and tended
of itself to prove the contention of his opponents.
No effort was spared, therefore, to obtain support
from the Reform party itself and to encourage
secession from the ranks of the French-Canadians
by tempting offers of office. It was hoped that the
example of Mr. Viger might induce others of his
nationality to desert the cause of the late admin
istration, Barthe, a fellow-prisoner of Viger in the
235

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
days of the rebellion, and since then editor of
L'Avenir du Canada and member for Yamaska,
had been offered a seat in the cabinet shortly after
the ministerial resignation and had refused. Four
French-Canadians in turn had rejected the offer
of the position of attorney-general for Lower
Canada, and the same position had been offered in
vain to two British residents. Viger found himself
with but small support among his fellow-country
men. It was in vain that he appealed to them in a
pamphlet* in which he sought to prove that
LaFontaine and Baldwin had acted without con
stitutional warrant. The subtleties of Mr. Viger's
argumerts availed nothing against the instinctive
sympathy of the French-Canadians with their
chosun leader. At the end of the month of June,
Mr. Draper, anxious to realize the situation at first
hand, visited the Lower Province and spent some
weeks in a vain attempt at obtaining organized
support for the government. As a result of his
investigations he wrote to Sir Charles Metcalfe
that " after diligently prosecuting his inquiries and
extending his observations in all possible quarters,
he could come to no other conclusion than that
the aid of the French-Canadian party was not to
be obtained on any other than the impossible terms
of the restoration of Baldwin and LaFontaine."^
¦> See La Crise Ministerielle et M. Denis Benjamin Viger, (Kingston,
1844,) published also in English (Baldwin Pamphlets, 1844, Toronto
Public Library).
^ Kaye, Life of Metcalfe, 1864, Vol. II, pp. 552, 553.
236

A DEADLOCK
"The difficulty, indeed," says Metcalfe's
biographer, "seemed to thicken. According to
Mr. Draper, it was one from which there was no
escape. After the lapse of seven months, during
which the country had been without an executive
government, Metcalfe was told by one of the
ablest, the most clear-headed and one of the most
experienced men in the country, that it was
impossible to form a ministry, according to the
recognized principle of responsible government,
without the aid of the French- Canadian party, and
that aid it was impossible to obtain. What was to
be done?" Well might the governor-general and
his private advisers ask themselves this question.
As Mr, Draper himself informed His ExceUency,
the want of an executive government was begin
ning to have a disastrous effect upon the commerce
and credit of the country. The revenue must
inevitably be soon affected, the administration of
justice was already hampered for want of a proper
officer to represent the Crown in the courts of law,
while the public mind was filled with disquieting
apprehensions for the future which were beginning
to paralyze the industrial life of the province.*
The whole summer of 1844 was one of in
tense political excitement. Agitation meetings, and
pohtical speeches became the order of the day,
and political demonstrations on a large scale were
organized by the rival parties. On May 12th a
1 See Kaye, op. cit. Vol. II, p. 663.
237

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
general meeting of the Reform Association had
been held at Toronto. At this Robert Baldwin
played a principal part, and in his speech on the
occasion reiterated his attachment to the British
connection and his belief that the policy of his
party was the only one that could lead to per
manent imperial stability. He presented to the
meeting an address which he had drafted for
presentation to the people of Canada, and which
was adopted with enthusiasm. Its concluding
sentences sounded a note of warning and appeal: —
" This is not a mere party struggle. It is Canada
against her oppressors. The people of Canada
claiming the British constitution against those who
withhold it : the might of public opinion against
faction and corruption."
The newspapers during these months contained
little else than fiery disputation on the all-absorb
ing topic of the hour. Pamphlets poured from
the colonial press in an abundant shower, and
editors, lawyers, assemblymen and divines hastened
to add each his contribution to the political con
troversy engendered by the situation. The Reform
Alliance started a series of " tracts for the people "
designed to elucidate the leading principles and
disputed points of the whole controversy. Hincks,
Buchanan, Ryerson, Sullivan and a swarm of
others hastened into the fray, iterating and reiter
ating the well-worn arguments for and against the
late ministry and soundly belabouring one another
238

THE PAMPHLETEERS
with political invective and personal abuse. The
great bulk of the literature of the Metcalfe con
troversy is of but little interest or novelty. It is
somewhat difficult to read through the forty pages
of print in which "Zeno" (of Quebec) undertakes to
show that the resistance of Metcalfe and his
satellites to responsible government was but the
" expiring howl of that mercenary class who, by
servility, venality and corruption, have marred the
prosperity of the colony." Equally difficult is it to
follow the tortuous argumentation of Isaac Buch
anan in his Five Letters Against the Baldwin
Faction. Buchanan, who was a moderate Re
former now turned against his late leaders, writes
with the bitterness of a renegade, and his letters
are of some interest as illustrating the wilful dis
tortion of Robert Baldwin's opinions and objects at
the hands of his opponents. "How many are
there," he asks, " who are out and out supporters
of Mr. Baldwin who do not conscientiously wish
that Canada was a state of the union to-morrow ?"
" Mr. Baldwin," he says, " was weakening the very
foundations of colonial society," and supports the
statement by an afflicting anecdote of a recent
experience in England.
"On the subject of Baldwin's past character,"
says Buchanan, "the question was again and
again put to me in England. Did he not prefer
his party to his country, at the late rebellion,
declining to fight against the former or to turn
239

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
out in defence of the latter ? I remember well the
feeling remark of one gentleman of the most
liberal British politics, and whose bosom beats
as high as any man's for the cause of freedom,
— ' Well, poor Mr. Baldwin may be a patriot, but
he is not a Briton.' "
There is, however, one episode of the Metcalfe
controversy — namely, the literary duel between the
Rev. Egerton Ryerson and the Hon. R. B. Sullivan,
late president of the council — which deserves
more than a passing notice. In both Upper and
Lower Canada, Metcalfe had spared no pains
to win men of prominence of all parties to his
cause by flattering offers of public office. Eger
ton Ryerson, already famous in the colony as a
leader of the Methodist Church, as president of
Victoria CoUege and as an opponent of the exclu
sive claim of the Church of England to the Clergy
Reserves, was one of those who were said by the
Reformers to have felt the " draw of vice-regal
blandishments."* The announcement early in 1844
that Ryerson had been interviewed by the gov
ernor-general, and that his appointment as super
intendent of education with a seat in the cabinet
was under consideration, was declared by the
Globe (March 8th, 1844) to be an "alarming
feeler." Subsequently, when Ryerson, in the ensuing
May, published his famous defence of Sir Charles
1 N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada, p. 604.
240

RYERSON DEFENDS METCALFE
Metcalfe* and was later in the year duly appointed
to be superintendent of education, his enemies did
not scruple to say that Mr. Ryerson had sold him
self to the Metcalfe government for a price, and
had become a traitor to the cause of public liberty.
But whatever may be thought of the correctness or
incorrectness of Ryerson's views on the ministerial
controversy, the contention that his literary ser
vices had been bought, cannot stand. His appoint
ment to office rests on a solid basis of merit and
had long been under consideration. No one in the
province had given more earnest thought to the
problem of public education than had Egerton
Ryerson, and the question of his appointment as
superintendent of common schools had already
been discussed by Lord Sydenham, It appears also,
on good authority, that Sir Charles Metcalfe had de
termined to appoint Ryerson to some such position
before the rupture with the LaFontaine-Baldwin
cabinet occurred,^ It must, therefore, in fairness be
admitted that the defence of Sir Charles Metcalfe
was inspired by no self-seeking motives, but pro
ceeded from a genuine conviction that the course
adopted by the late cabinet was unconstitutional
and dangerous to the pubhc welfare.
1 Sir Charles Metcalfe Defended Against the Attacks of his late
Councillors, Toronto, 1844.
2 See Egerton Ryerson, Story of My Life (Edited by J. G. Hodgins)
Chap, xliii : see also N. Burwash, Egerton Ryerson (Makers of
Canada Series) Chap. v.
241

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
From the literary point of view, Ryerson's de
fence is an extremely able document and is written,
not with the ponderous periods of the theologian,
but with a vigour of style and a freedom of phrase
which drew down upon the head of its author the
taunt of being a "political swashbuckler," The
central point of the argument of the pamphlet is
the attempt to prove that the conduct of the late
ministry was contrary to British precedent, " If
the ministry," argued Ryerson, " objected to the
governor's appointments, the proper course for
them consisted in immediate resignation, not in
attempting to bind the governor with a pledge in
regard to appointments of the future. It was,"
he said, " contrary to British usage for them to
remain in office twenty-four hours, much less
weeks or months, after the head of the executive
had performed acts or made appointments which
they did not choose to justify before parliament
and before the country. It was contrary to British
usage for them to complain of and condemn a
policy or acts to which they had become voluntary
parties by their continuing in office. It was con
trary to British usage for them to go to the
sovereign to discuss principles and debate policy,
instead of tendering their resignations for his past
acts," This line of reasoning, though rendered
plausible by an imposing show of precedent and
argument, need not be taken very seriously. The
ministry had, in fact, resigned on account of the
242

THE MINISTERS DEFENDED
past acts of the governor, not on the strength
of any single one, but rather by reason of the
accumulation of many. For the entire ministry to
have resigned the first time the governor under
took to make a minor appointment on his own
account would have been plainly impossible:
equally impossible was it to allow the governor to
continue indefinitely making such appointments.
The essence of the situation lay, therefore, in the
future rather than the past,
Ryerson's pamphlet called forth an answer from
an opponent of as good fighting mettle as himself.
The Thirteen Letters on Responsible Government,
pubhshed by Robert SuUivan, are certainly equal
to Ryerson's defence in point of logic and in the
presentation of the law, and easily surpass it in
facility of style, while the caustic wit, for which the
writer was distinguished, adds to the briUiance of
his work. SuUivan signed himself " Legion " to
indicate that his name was not one but many.
He prefaces his work with a mock-heroic "Argu
ment," or table of contents, in which he endeavours
at the outset to put his theological opponent in a
ludicrous light. Thus he announces as the subject of
Letter IV, the "doctor's [Ryerson's] discovery that
Cincinnatus was one of the Knights of the Round
Table, from which he infers that Mr. Baldwin stole
his ideas on responsible government from the days
of chivalry," I^ater we read that "'Legion' re
pudiates his relatives and absolves his godfathers243

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
on the ground of the doctor's monopoly of the
calendar of saints," while the letters conclude with
a "panoramic view of the doctor's iniquitous
career — his death struggle with 'Legion' and his
hideous writhings graphicaUy described," after
which " ' Legion ' carries off the doctor amidst
yells and imprecations." Apart from witticisms,
personalities, and stinging satire, Sulhvan's letters
are of great importance in the Metcalfe contro
versy from the fact that the writer takes issue with
Lord Stanley, whose views on colonial government
he considers entirely erroneous. As a rule the
writers on behalf of the Reform party endeavoured
to so interpret Stanley's expressions as to make
them appear favourable to the attitude taken by the
LaFontaine-Baldwin cabinet. In the light of what
has been quoted above, this wiU be seen to be a
hopeless task. Sullivan takes a bolder, and at the
same time a surer, stand. " Lord Stanley's argu
ment," he says, " if it proves anything, proves that
we should not have representative institutions at
all : that public opinion should not prevail in any
thing, because it wants the ingredient of aristocratic
influence. . . . There is not the slightest doubt, in
the mind of any one, but that the governor of this
province is bound to obey the orders of Her
Majesty's secretary of state for the colonies, how
ever opposed these orders may be to the advice
of the council, for the time being. But there is
as little doubt but that when a secretary of state
244

RYERSON ON BALDWIN
gives such orders with respect to the administra
tion of our local affairs, he violates the principle
of responsible government as explained in the
resolutions of 1841, to which Sir Charles Metcalfe
subscribed." That a good many of "Legion's" shafts had struck
home is seen in the furious rejoinder published by
Egerton Ryerson. In this the distinguished divine
almost forgets the dignity of his divinity. He com
pares his opponent to Bar^re and likens the
Reform Association to the Committee of Public
Safety of the French Revolution : — " Whether
'Legion' drank, fiddled and danced," he writes,
" when Sir F. Head was firing the country, or
when I^ount and Mathews were hanging on the
gallows, I have not the means of knowing : but a
man who can charge the humane and benevolent
Sir Charles Metcalfe with being an inhuman and
bloodthirsty Nero, can easily be conceived to sing
and shout at -scenes over which patriotism and
humanity weep." To Baldwin himself, the writer
is almost as unsparing. Baldwin had just delivered
an address to the electors of Middlesex in which
he exhorted the Tories " to forget all minor differ
ences and to act as if they remembered only that
they were Canadians, since as Canadians we have
a country and are a people." This patriotic utter
ance Ryerson sees fit to misinterpret. " In reading
this passage of Mr, Baldwin's address," he says,
"I could not keep from my thoughts two passages
245

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
in very different books, the one a parable in the
Book of Judges, in which ' the bramble said unto
the trees, if in truth ye annoint me king over you,
then come and put your trust in my shadow : and
if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour
the cedars of Lebanon,' The other passage which
Mr, Baldwin's address brought to my recoUection,
is one of iEsop's Fables, where the fox that had
lost its tail exhorted his brethren of all shades and
sizes to imitate his example as the best fashion of
promoting their comfort and elevation."
The party war of pamphlets, speeches and ad
dresses continued unabated throughout the summer.
As the autumn drew on the efforts of Metcalfe
and Draper to obtain at least the semblance of a
representative cabinet met with better success.
Towards the end of August a Mr, James Smith,
a Montreal lawyer of no particular prominence, and
never as yet a member of any legislative body,*
accepted the position of attorney-general for
Lower Canada, A recruit of more imposing name
was found in Denis B. Papineau, brother of the
French-Canadian leader of 1837, to whom was
given the office of commissioner of Crown lands.
Papineau, who had hitherto been an adherent of
the Lower Canadian Reform party, shared with
Viger the odium of being a renegade from his
party, and was subsequently accused by Robert
Baldwin on the floor of the House with having
¦* H. J. Morgan, Sketches of Celebrated Canadians, 1862.
246

A CABINET AT LAST
approved the resignation of the previous ministry
and then usurped the position they had seen fit to
abandon.* Papineau, whose character had stood
high with his compatriots, claimed in reply that his
acceptance of office did not rest on personal grounds,
but that he had seen fit, on mature reflection, to
modify his opinion of the present controversy. WiU
iam Morris of Brockville^ accepted at the same
time the post of receiver-general. Mr. Draper
being now definitely appointed to be attorney-
general for Upper Canada, Mr. Viger, president
of the council, and Mr. Daly being still provincial
secretary, Metcalfe found himself, at the opening
of September (1844), with something approaching
a complete ministry. It was thought wiser for
the present to place no Tories in the cabinet. Mr.
Henry Sherwood was, however, given the post of
sohcitor-general for Upper Canada without a seat
in the executive council, and towards the close of
the year W. B. Robinson, a brother of Chief-
justice Robinson and a Tory of the old school,
became inspector-general, Metcalfe was now ready
to try conclusions with his adversaries. He dissol
ved the parhament on September 23rd, and writs,
returnable on November 12th, were issued for a
new election,
1 Speech in answer to Address from the Throne, 1844.
» See above, p. 83.

247

CHAPTER VIII
IN OPPOSITION
THE elections of the autumn of 1844 were
carried on amid an unsurpassed political
excitement, and both sides threw themselves into
the struggle with an animosity that seriously
endangered the peace of the country. Whatever
may be thought of the constitutionality of Met
calfe's conduct during the recent session of parlia
ment, there can be no doubt that he went outside
of his proper sphere in the part he took in the
parliamentary election. His personal influence and
his personal efforts were used to the fuU in the
interests of the Draper government. Indeed, there
now existed, between the governor-general and the
leaders of the Reform party, a feeling of personal
antagonism that gave an added bitterness to the
contest. The governor-general had not scrupled to
denounce the Reformers publicly as enemies of
British sovereignty : in answer to an address sent
up to him from the county of Drummond in which
reference was made to the " measures and pro
ceedings of a party tending directly in our opinion
to the terrible result of separation from British
connection and rule," Metcalfe stated that he had
" abundant reason to know that you have accurately
described the designs ofthe late executive council"
249

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
This intemperate language brought about the
resignation of LaFontaine from his position as
queen's counsel, a step immediately foUowed by
a similar resignation on the part of Baldwin. The
resignations were accompanied by letters to the
provincial secretary in which the accusation of
hostility to British sovereignty was indignantly
denied. The same denial was repeated by the
Reform leaders in the public addresses to their
constituents, inserted in full length, according to
the custom of the day, in the party newspapers,
in spite of which Metcalfe and the Tories persisted
in viewing the contest as one between loyalty and
treason. " He felt," said Metcalfe's biographer,
"that he was fighting for his sovereign against a
rebellious people." For the rank and file of the
Tory following, excuse may be found in the exigen
cies of party warfare ; but for Metcalfe, as governor
of the country, no apology can be offered, save
perhaps the honesty of his conviction. " I regard
the approaching election," he wrote (September
26th, 1844), "as a very important crisis, the result
of which will demonstrate whether the majority of
Her Majesty's Canadian subjects are disposed to
have responsible government in union with British
connection and supremacy, or will struggle for a
sort of government that is impracticable consist
ently with either."
The result of the election gave a narrow majority
to Mr. Draper's administration, but the contest
250

METCALFE'S VICTORY
was accompanied by such violence and disorder at
the polls that the issue cannot be regarded as
indicating the real tenor of public opinion. In this
violence, it must be confessed, both parties par
ticipated. The Irish, mindful of their late contest
with the Orangemen and the fate of the Secret
Societies Bill, were solid for the Reform party, and
their sohdity assumed at many polling places its
customary national form. It was charged by the
enemies of Baldwin that gangs of Irishmen were
hired in Upper Canada to control the voters by the
power of the club.* Nor were the Tories behind
hand in the use of physical force, and on both
sides inflammatory handbills and placards incited
the voters to actual violence. " The British party,"
said Metcalfe himself, "were resolved to oppose
force by force and organized themselves for
resistance." As the issue of the elections became known, it
appeared that the Reformers had carried Lower
Canada by a sweeping majority, but that the ad
herents of the government had scored a still more
complete victory in the Upper Province. LaFon
taine, who had decided to present himself again to
the electors of Terrebonne rather than to continue
to represent an Upper Canadian constituency, was
elected almost unanimously. Out of fifteen hundred
voters who assembled in despite of bad roads and
bad weather, only about a score were prepared to
1 N. F. Davin, The Irishman in Canada, p. 613.
251

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
support a local attorney — a Mr. Papineau — who
had been nominated to oppose LaFontaine. A
mere show of hands was sufficient to settle the
election without further formalities. Morin was
elected for two constituencies. Aylwin was returned
for Quebec, and of the forty-two members for
Lower Canada, only sixteen could be counted as
supporters of the government, D. B. Papineau
was elected for Ottawa county, but his coUeague,
Viger, whose prestige among the French-Canadians
was permanently impaired,* was defeated by Wol-
fred Nelson, the former leader of the rebeUion. The
city of Montreal, henceforth to be the capital of
Canada, signalized itself by returning two sup
porters of the administration. But their success
was due solely to the arrangement of voting
districts made by the government; for the city
contained an overwhelming majority of French-
Canadian and Irish adherents of the Reform party .'^
In Upper Canada, of the forty-two members
elected, the government could count thirty as
its adherents. MacNab, Sherwood, W. B. Robinson,
John A. Macdonald of Kingston, and many other
Tories were elected. Baldwin, who had bidden fare-
weU to the constituency of Rimouski, was elected
for the fourth riding of York, but Hincks was
^ See Turcotte, Le Canada sous f Union, pp. 157 et seq.
'^ These facts are admitted by Metcalfe. See Kaye, Vol. II. See also
Hincks's Political History of Canada, pp. 36, 36.
252

A NARROW MAJORITY
beaten in Oxford * and remained out of parliament
until 1848- John Henry Dunn, also a member of
the late cabinet, was beaten in Toronto. The Tories
stuck at nothing to carry the elections in Upper
Canada. To their affrighted loyalty the end justi
fied the means. Returns were in some cases wilfuUy
falsified. Elsewhere the voters were driven from
the polls and violence carried to such an extent
that the troops were caUed out to queU the dis
order, while throughout the province the mihtia
were warned to be in readiness for possible
emergencies. Only seven decided Reformers,
among them Baldwin, SmaU and Price, were
returned to parhament from Upper Canada. Taking
the two sections of the province together and
making due allowance for doubtful members, it
appeared that the government might claim at the
very outside, forty-six supporters in a House of
eighty-four members. Even this narrow margin of
support could not be rehed upon. On the vote for
the speakership, for example. Sir AUan MacNab
was elected by only a majority of three.
On these terms, for want of any better, Mr.
Draper had now to undertake the government of
' Hincks presented a petition to the assembly protesting against the
election of his opponent, Mr. Robert Riddell. He claimed that the
deputy returning officers had refused to admit the votes of persons
who had come to the province previous to 1820, although, under an Act
of the parliament of Upper Canada, such persons, if willing to take
the oath of allegiance, were entitled to vote. The petition was not
granted.
253

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the country. It was a difficult task, and for one less
skilled in the arts of political management it would
have been impossible. The administration could
hardly rest upon a satisfactory footing unless an
adequate support could be obtained from the
French of Lower Canada : on the other hand, any
attempt to gain this support was apt to alienate
the Upper Canadian Tories, now definitely in
alliance with Mr. Draper and represented in his
cabinet by Robinson, the new inspector-general.
The leader of the government was therefore com
pelled to preserve, as best he might, a balance of
power in a chronic condition of unstable equil
ibrium. That Mr, Draper did continue to carry on
his government for nearly three years speaks
volumes for his political dexterity.
It is no part of the present narrative to foUow in
detail the legislative history of Mr, Draper's admin
istration. The seat of government had now been
transferred to Montreal, where the parliament was
given as its quarters a building that had formerly
been St. Anne's market. It was a capacious edifice
some three hundred and fifty feet in length by fifty
in breadth, with two large halls on the ground floor
which served for the House of Assembly and the
legislative council, the haU of the assembly con
taining ample galleries with seats for five hundred
spectators.* The parliament came together on
^ A. Leblond de Brumath, Histoire Populaire de Montreal (1890) pp.
379, 380.
254

ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION
November 28th, 1844, and remained in session until
the end of March of the ensuing year. During Mr.
Draper's administration under Lord Sydenham, he
had maintained himself in office, as has been seen,
by adopting the measures desired by the Opposition
as his own policy. This method of stealing his op
ponent's thunder was a favourite artifice ofthe leader
of the government, and during the present session
he made a liberal use of it. Acts in reference to the
schools and municipahties of Lower Canada were
passed, which carried forward the educational
reforms aheady commenced. In order to concUiate,
if possible, the Reformers of Lower Canada, steps
were taken towards restoring the French language
to its official position. It was known to the govern
ment that LaFontaine had it under consideration
to put before the assembly a resolution urging
upon the imperial government the claims of the
people of Lower Canada to have their language
placed upon an equal footing with English in the
proceedings of the legislature. LaFontaine's inten
tion was accordingly forestaUed, and Denis Papin^
eau, the commissioner of Crown lands, proposed
to the assembly to vote an address to the imperial
government asking for a repeal of the clause of
the Act of Union* which made English the sole
'' Act of Union, Section ili. " All journals, entries, and all written
or printed proceedings of what nature soever of the said legislative
council and legislative assembly . . . shall be in the English
language only." Speaking in French was not, of course, contrary to
the law.
255

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
official language. The motion was voted by accla
mation amid general enthusiasm and the home
government, after some delay, saw fit to act upon
it.* The adminstration was less happy in its attempt
to deal with the stiU outstanding university ques
tion. Mr. Draper presented a University Bill,
closely analogous to that of Robert Baldwin; but
finding the opposition of the Tories was at once
aroused against such a proposed spoliation of
the Church, the bill was dropped without coming
to a vote. With these and other minor measures,
and with much wrangling over the crop of con
tested elections that remained as a legacy from the
late conflict, the time of the assembly was occupied
until the end of the month of March.
Before the session had yet come to an end, the
news was received that the home government
intended raising Sir Charles Metcalfe to the peer
age. In view of Metcalfe's long and useful career
in other parts of the empire, such a step was not
necessarily to be regarded as a special official
approval of his conduct in Canada ; but among
the Reformers the announcement occasioned great
indignation. The violence of party antagonism had
by no means subsided : at the very opening of the
session Baldwin had endeavoured to carry through
the assembly a vote of censure against the gov
ernor-general for having violated the principles of
the constitution by governing without a ministry.
^ See below, page 287.
256

METCALFE MADE A PEER
The news that Metcalfe, instead of censure, was
now to obtain an elevation to the peerage, drew
forth from the members of the Opposition expres
sions of protest in language which the passions of
the hour rendered unduly intemperate. Aylwin
declared to the assembly that it would be more
fitting that Metcalfe should be recalled and put on
trial, rather than that he should receive the dignity
of a peer. Even Robert Baldwin made use of
somewhat immoderate expressions of disapproval.
Utterances of this kind might perhaps have been
spared, for the untoward fate that had fallen upon
the two preceding governors of Canada now cast
its shadow plainly on the governor-general, and it
was becoming evident that Baron Metcalfe of Fern
Hill was not long destined to enjoy earthly
honours. Before coming to Canada he had suffered
severely, as has been said above, from a cancerous
growth upon the cheek : an operation had for the
time arrested the progress of the disease, but aU
efforts towards a radical cure had proved unavail
ing. The sufferings of the distinguished patient
had now become constant and his sight seriously
affected. The rapid decline of his health made it
apparent that he was no longer fit for the arduous
duties of his position, and his friends began to urge
him to ask for his recall. But Lord Metcalfe, with
the indomitable courage that was his leading virtue,
StiU held heroically to what he considered to be the
post of duty, 257

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Meantime, having got through one parliamentary
session, Mr. Draper was anxious to avoid, if pos
sible, encountering another upon the same terms.
Draper appears to have realized that the great
error of his past policy had been his failure to
reckon with the strength of the united French-
Canadian vote. This had upset his former ministry
under Lord Sydenham, and the experience of the
Metcalfe crisis had shown him that, even with the
full support of a governor-general, the government
could not be satisfactorily carried on without
French- Canadian support, Mr, Draper now de
termined to obtain this support, and to retrieve
his past errors by the formation of a new variety
of pohtical coalition. Of the Reform party of
Upper Canada he had but little fear. Their repre
sentation in parliament was now seriously depleted,
and even among their remaining members of the
assembly, divisions had existed during the past
session; on the other hand, the star of the Tories
was in the ascendant and that party might always
be counted upon to offset in Upper Canada the
political influence of the Reformers. If then,
Mr. Draper argued, the French-Canadian party
under LaFontaine could be induced to break loose
from Baldwin and his adherents and to join
forces with the Ministeriahsts of Upper Canada, a
combination could be formed that would hold a
strong majority in both of the ancient provinces.
We have here the beginnings of that system of a
258

NEGOTIATIONS WITH LAFONTAINE
"double majority," — a majority, that is, in both Up
per and Lower Canada, — which became the will o'
the wisp of the rival politicians, and which many
persons were presently inclined to invest with a
constitutional sanctity, as forming part of the
necessary machinery of Canadian government.* It
was characteristic of the ways and means of Mr.
Draper, to whom the term "artful dodger" has
often been applied, that he was prepared to
throw overboard his French-Canadian men of
straw (Viger and Papineau) to make way for
LaFontaine, Morin, and their friends.
In order to attain his purpose, Mr. Draper in the
autumn of 1845 entered into indirect negotiations
with LaFontaine, Mr. Caron, the speaker of the
legislative council, acting as a go-between. In the
three-cornered correspondence that ensued the
question of a ministerial reconstruction along the
lines of the new alliance was fully discussed.
Draper at first had interviews with Caron in which
he suggested that the ministry might be strength
ened by the addition of leading French- Canadian
Reformers. Caron conveyed this suggestion to
LaFontaine in a letter of September 7th, 1845.
1 On the principle of the "double majority" see Dent, The Past
Forty Years, Vol. II. pp. 20 et seq. Hincks's Political History (p. 28)
contains interesting matter in this connection. " Up to the time of my
leaving Canada in 1866," writes Hincks, "no political alliance was
formed on the principle of securing majorities from the two provinces."
The Draper-Caron-LaFontaine correspondence here referred to is given
in Hincks's Reminiscences.
259

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Mr. Draper's ideas, gathered thus at one remove
and intentionally expressed with vagueness, may
be seen in the following passage from Mr. Caron's
letter. " He [Mr. Draper] told me that Mr. Viger
could be easily prevailed upon to retire, and that
Mr. Papineau desired nothing better : that both
these situations should be filled up by French-
Canadians : he seemed desirous that Morin should
be president of the council ... he spoke of
the office of solicitor-general, which, he said,
ought to be fiUed by one of our origin . . .
he also spoke of an assistant secretaryship,
the incumbent of which ought to receive hand
some emoluments . . . This was about aU he
could for the present offer to our friends, who,
when in power, might themselves strive after
wards to make their share more considerable. As
regarded you [LaFontaine], he said that nothing
would afford him greater pleasure than to have you
as his coUeague, but that, as the governor and
yourself could not meet, the idea of having you
form part of the administration must be given up
so long as Lord Metcalfe remained in power : that
it would be unjust to sacrifice a man of your
influence and merit . . . but that this difficulty
could easily be made to disappear by gi\ang you
an appointment with which you would be satisfied.
. . . As to Mr. Baldwin, he said little about; but
I understood, as I did in my first conversation,
that he thought he would retire of himself."
260

FAILURE OF DRAPER'S PLAN
Such was Mr. Draper's plan. LaFontaine's
attitude in the dealings which •followed is entirely
above reproach. Mr. Draper's method of approach
he considered to be irregular and unconstitutional ;
nor did the glittering bribe of " handsome emolu
ments" and " an appointment with which he would
be satisfied," conceal from him the real meagreness
of Mr. Draper's offer. The artful attorney-general
was indeed merely offering to buy off a number of
leading French-Canadians with offers of office and
salary. It appears, however, that if Mr, Draper had
been wiUing to go further and entirely reconstruct
the Lower Canadian part of his cabinet so as to
place it in the hands of the Reformers, LaFontaine
would have been wiUing to make terms with him.
This statement must not, however, be misunder
stood. The arrangement contemplated was viewed
by LaFontaine, not as the purchase of the Lower
Canadian party by Mr, Draper, but as the purchase
of Mr, Draper by the Lower Canadian party. The
plan was fully discussed between LaFontaine and
Hincks in Montreal, Nor did LaFontaine conceal
anything of the negotiations in question from
Robert Baldwin. The plan contemplated by La
Fontaine and Hincks would merely have amounted
to a further consolidation of the united French and
English Reform party by adding to its ranks Mr.
Draper and his immediate adherents. The danger
of further secession, in pursuance of the example
of Denis, Papineau and Viger, would thus be
261

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
minimized. The undoubted parhamentary talents
of Mr. Draper would lend a valuable support to
the cause, and the Tories of Upper Canada would
remain in hopeless isolation. In a letter of Septem
ber 23rd, 1845,* LaFontaine wrote very freely to
Baldwin of the whole matter, and enclosed a trans
lation of his letter to Caron. "Mr. Hincks," he
said, "whom I saw this morning, seemed to be
favourable to the plan, if it was effected, admitting
that it would immediately crush the reaction in
Quebec, and would strengthen you in Upper
Canada. For my part I think Mr. Draper would
be very glad to have an opportunity to act with
the Liberal party : he knows he is not liked by the
Tory party and that they wish to get rid of him.
However, that is his own business."
If so powerful a combination of parties, and one
so obviously advantageous to the interests of his
race could have been formed, LaFontaine was
perfectly willing, if need be, to retire from his
leadership of the party in order to facilitate the
new arrangement. "What French-Canadians should
do above everything," he wrote, "is to remain
united and to make themselves respected. I wiU
not serve as a means of dividing my compatriots.
If an administration is formed which merits my
confidence, I will support it with all my heart. If
it has not my confidence but possesses that of the
'^ MS. Letters of LaFontaine to Baldvnn. Baldwin Correspondence,
(Toronto Public Library.)
262

THE DOUBLE MAJORITY
majority of my compatriots, not being able to
support it, I will wiUingly resign my seat, rather
than cast division in our ranks." But to meet
LaFontaine's views, Mr. Draper would have been
called upon to go further than he had intended.
To break entirely with the Canadian Tories and to
throw overboard Mr. Dominick Daly, — the "per
manent secretary," as he was now facetiously
entitled, — was more than Mr. Draper had bargained
for. These difficulties caused the negotiations to
hang fire until the recaU of Lord Metcalfe changed
the position of affairs. " The whole affair," says a
Canadian historian, "suddenly collapsed, and the
only result was to intensify the pohtical atmosphere,
and aggravate the quarrel between a weak govern
ment and a powerful opposition,"*
Among the correspondence of Robert Baldwin
in reference to the proposed reconstruction of
parties, appears a letter of considerable interest
addressed to LaFontaine which bears no date, but
which was probably written in the autumn of 1845,
after the failure of Mr, Caron's negotiations, Bald
win expresses an emphatic disapproval of any at
tempt to set up the principle of a "double majority,"
Such a system of government would be calculated,
in his opinion, rather to intensify than to obliterate
the racial animosity and end in precipitating a
desperate struggle for supremacy. "You already
know," he wrote, "my opinion of the 'double
1 Fennings Taylor, Portraits of British Americans, Vol. I. p. 322.
263

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
majority ' as respects the interests of the province
at large. When I gave you that opinion I hesitated
to dwell on what appears to me to be its extreme
danger to our Lower Canadian friends of French
origin themselves. . , , I speak not of the present
public men of the province, or of the course which
they or any of them may take. Some may be swept
away from the arena altogether ; others may retire ;
but in the event of such an arrangement being
carried out, aU who remain upon the pohtical sea
will, I am satisfied, have to go with the stream.
The arrangement will be viewed as one based
essentially upon a natural, original distinction and
equaUy uninfluenced by the pohtical principles,
British and French will then become in reality, what
our opponents have so long wished to make them,
the essential distinctions of party, and the final
result will scarcely admit of doubt. The schemes of
those who looked forward to the union as a means
of crushing the French- Canadians, and who ad
vocated it with no other views, wiU then be
crowned with success, and the latter wiU them
selves have become the instruments to accomphsh
it. That this will be the final result of any success
ful attempt to reorganize the ministry upon such a
foundation, I have no doubt whatever. It will not,
however, be injurious to the French-Canadian
portion of our population alone. It appears to me
equally clear that it will be most calamitous to the
country in general. It wiU perpetuate distinctions,
264

METCALFE RECALLED
initiate animosities, sever the bonds of political
sympathy and sap the foundation of political
morality."* In the autumn of 1845 the progress of Lord
Metcalfe's malady was such as rapidly to render
him unfit for further exertions. His disease had
almost destroyed his sight and his constant suffer
ings rendered the transaction of official business a
matter of extreme difficulty. At the end of October
he asked for his recall. But the imperial govern
ment, aware of his distressing condition, had
anticipated his request, and Stanley had already
forwarded to him the official acceptance of a
resignation which he might use at any time that
seemed proper to him, " You wiU retire, whenever
you retire," wrote the colonial secretary, " with the
entire approval and admiration of Her Majesty's
government," Lord Metcalfe left Montreal at the
end of November, 1845, and returned to England,
AU attempts to stay the ravages of his dreadful
malady proved unavailing and after months of
suffering, borne with admirable constancy, he died
on September 5th, 1846, Not even the melancholy
circumstances of Lord Metcalfe's departure from
Canada could still the animosity of his opponents,
and a section of the Reform press greeted the news
of his retirement with untimely exultation.
On Metcalfe's departure the government was
entrusted to Lord Cathcart, commander of the
1 Baldwin Correspondence, (Toronto Public Library.)
265

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
forces, at first as administrator and afterwards as
governor-general, Cathcart was a soldier, a veteran
of the Peninsula and Waterloo, whose main inter
est in the Canadian situation lay in the question
whether the dispute then pending in regard to the
Oregon territory would end in war with the United
States, Indeed it was on account of the threatening
aspect of the boundary question that the imperial
government had elevated Cathcart to the governor
ship. The matter of responsible government con
cerned him not, and during his administration he
left the civil government of the country to his
ministers to conduct as best they might. Their
best was indeed but poor. In the session of
parliament that ran from March 20th until
June 9th, 1846, the government was quite un
able to maintain itself. Mr. Draper tried in
vain to repeat his thunder-stealing policy and
although he carried through parliament an Act
to provide for a civil list, which was intended
(with imperial consent) to take the place of the
existing imperial arrangement,* his government on
other measures was repeatedly defeated. In the
summer and autumn of the year, difficulties
crowded upon Mr, Draper. The Draper- Caron
correspondence was made public,^ whereat many
Tories took offence and Sherwood, the solicitor-
general, dropped out of Mr. Draper's cabinet.
1 See above, p. 68.
2 See La Minerve, April 9th, 1846, and following issues.
266

A NEW BRITISH CABINET
The leader of the government had failed in
his attempted aUiance with the Liberals of Lower
Canada, and had excited resentment and distrust
in the minds of his Tory following. It was indeed
becoming very evident that the only method of
salvation for the Draper government was to make
it a government without Mr, Draper,
Meantime events had happened in England
calculated to exercise an immediate effect upon
the course of Canadian policy. With the disruption
of the Tories over the passage of the Corn Law
Repeal (in the summer of 1846), Sir Robert Peel's
government had come to an end, and the I^iberals
under Lord John RusseU had come into power.
With Lord John was associated as colonial secre
tary. Earl Grey, the son of the great Whig prime
minister of the Reform BiU. The name of the
second Earl Grey wiU always be associated with
the establishment of actual democratic government
in the mother country by means of parhamentary
reform : that of the third wiU be forever connected
with the final and definite adoption of the principle
of colonial self-government. The moment was a
critical one. The abandonment of the older system
of commercial restrictions had destroyed the
doctrine that the value of the colonies lay in
the monopoly of their trade by the mother
country.* To the Radical wing of the British party
^ See in this connection Earl Grey's Colonial Policy (1853) Vol, I,
p, 13.
267

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
this seemed to mean that the time had come to
permit the colonies to depart in peace. But to
Lord Grey, himself a former under - secretary of
state for the colonies, and enlightened by the
study of recent events in Canada, and by the simUar
struggle that had been in progress in Nova Scotia,*
it appeared that the time was opportune for estab-
hshing the colonial system upon another and more
durable basis, and for the creation of such a system
of government as might combine colonial liberty
with imperial stability. He repudiated the idea of
abandoning the dependencies of the empire to
a separate destiny, " The nation," he said, " has
incurred a responsibility of the highest kind which
it is not at liberty to throw off,"
The advent to power of the British Liberal
ministry was viewed by the Reform party in
Canada as most auspicious for their cause, " I can
not help regarding it as a circumstance fuU of
promise," said Robert Baldwin at a pubhc dinner
(November 11th, 1846) given to him by the
Reform electors of the east riding of Halton,
"that the imperial councils should at the present
time be presided over by the statesman who, as
colonial secretary, has given the imperial imprim
atur to the doctrines of Lord Durham's Report,
and the colonial department directed by one so
nearly connected with the great statesman to
whom England and the colonies were both so
1 See Longley's Joseph Howe (Makers of Canada Series), Chap. iii.
268

POLICY OF LORD GREY
much indebted for that invaluable state document."*
The new British cabinet could not, of course,
put forth an official repudiation of the conduct
of its predecessors towards the colonies. This
would have been contrary to the most obvious
considerations of imperial policy, and would also
have been unadvisable owing to the attitude taken
in earher years by Lord John RusseU himself.
But the cabinet were fully aware, none the less,
that the situation in British North America
could only be met by a frank recognition of
the right of the colonists of Nova Scotia and
Canada to manage their own affairs. The sphere
of action which Lord Grey considered proper
for a governor to assume may be best under
stood by a despatch addressed by him to Sir
John Harvey, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia,
(November 3rd, 1846). "This," says Lord Grey
himself, " contains the best explanation I can give
of the . , . means to be adopted for the purpose
of bringing into full and successful operation the
system of constitutional government which it seemed
to be the desire of the inhabitants of British North
America to have established among them." Harvey,
1 The speech to the electors of Halton was one of a series of
addresses delivered by Baldwin on a tour of Western Canada
in the autumn of 1846. The Tory journals affected to sneer
at the " quacksalving tour of agitation " (Toronto Patriot, Novem
ber, 1846) undertaken by the Reform leader ; but the enthusiasm
excited by Baldwin's speeches made it manifest that the Tories
could not again look for a repetition of their victory of two years
past.
269

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
whose executive council was incomplete and
unable to carry on the government, had found
himself in a situation analogous to that in Canada.
" I am of opinion," runs Lord Grey's despatch,*
" that, under aU the circumstances of the case, the
best course for you to adopt is to call upon the
members of your present executive council to
propose to you the names of the gentlemen whom
they would recommend to supply the vacancies
which I understand to exist in the present board.
If they should be successful in submitting to you
an arrangement to which no valid objection arises,
you will of course continue to carry on the govern
ment through them, so long as it may be possible
to do so satisfactorily, and as they possess the
necessary support from the legislature. Should the
present council fail in proposing to you an arrange
ment which it would be proper for you to accept,
it would then be your natural course, in conformity
with the practice in analogous cases in this country,
to apply to the opposite party : and should you be
able through their assistance to form a satisfactory
council, there will be no impropriety in dissolving
the assembly upon their advice : such a measure,
under those circumstances, being the only mode of
escaping from the difficulty which would otherwise
exist of carrying on the government of the province
upon the principles of the constitution. The object
with which I recommend to you this course, is
^ See House of Commons Sessional Papers, No. 621 of 1848, p. 8.
270

LORD GREY'S DESPATCHES
that of making it apparent that any transfer which
may take place of political power from the hands
of one party in the province to those of another,
is the result, not of an act of yours, but of the
wishes of the people themselves, ... In giving,
therefore, all fair and proper support to your
councU for the time being, you wiU carefully avoid
any acts which can possibly be supposed to imply
the slightest personal objection to their opponents,
and also refuse to assent to any measures which
may be proposed to you by your council which
may appear to you to involve an improper exercise
of the authority of the Crown for party rather than
for public objects. In exercising, however, this
power of refusing to sanction measures which may
be submitted to you by your council, you must
recollect that this power of opposing a check upon
extreme measures proposed by the party for the
time in the government, depends entirely for its
efficacy upon its being used sparingly and with the
greatest possible discretion. A refusal to accept
advice tendered to you by your council is a legitimate
ground for its members to tender to you their
resignation, — a course which they would doubtless
adopt, should they feel that the subject on which
a difference had arisen between you and themselves
was one upon which public opinion would be in
their favour. Should it prove to be so, concession to
their xnews must sooner or later become inevitable,
since it cannot be too distinctly acknowledged 271

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
that it is neither possible nor desirable to carry on
the government of any of the British provinces
in North America in opposition to the opinion of
the inhabitants."
In order to carry into effect in the province of
Canada the views thus indicated, the new British
government determined to send out to the colony
a governor-general whose especial task it should
be to set right the unfortunate situation created
by the mistaken policy of Lord Metcalfe. The
conclusion of the Oregon treaty had by this time
removed any immediate prospect of rupture with
the United States, and it was no longer necessary
to retain a mihtary man at the head of Canadian
affairs. The choice of the Liberal government feU
upon Lord Elgin. Elgin presented, in many re
spects, a marked contrast to the governors who
had preceded him. He was stiU a young man, and
his vigorous health and ardent spirits gave reason to
hope that he was destined to break the speU that
seemed to hang over the Canadian governors, and
that there was little likelihood of his dying in office.
His proficiency in the French language, his gen
iality and the charm of his address, prepared for
him, from the moment of his landing, a social and
personal success. But these advantages were the
least of Lord Elgin's qualifications for his new
position. His chief claim to distinction, and the
fact which gives his name a high and enduring
place in the record of Canadian history, was his
272

VIEWS OF GREY AND RUSSELL
masterly grasp of the colonial situation, and the
course he was prepared to take in instituting a
real system of colonial self-government.
Lord Durham recommended responsible govern
ment: Baldwin and LaFontaine contended for it:
Lord Grey sanctioned it, and Lord Elgin, as gover
nor-general, first successfully apphed it. For this
full credit should be given to him. There seems to
have been in the minds of Lord Grey and Lord
John Russell some lingering of the old leaven, —
a certain reservation in the grant of colonial
autonomy they were prepared to make. The fact
appears in certain passages of the despatch quoted
above, and it is not difficult to find in Ijord Grey's
other writings expressions of opinion which imply
a hesitancy to accept the doctrine of colonial self-
government in its entire sense.* Lord John RusseU
in earlier years (1836) had told the House of
Commons that the demands of the Canadian
Reformers were incompatible with British sover
eignty.^ Prior to his departure for the colony Lord
Elgin had, indeed, been given by the colonial
^ See in this connection B. Holland, Imperium et Libertas (1901),
Part II., Chap. iv. and Lord Grey's Colonial Policy, Vol. II., Letter v.
' "The House of Assembly of Lower Canada have asked for an
elective legislative council and an executive council, which shall be
responsible to them and not to the government and Crown of Great
Britain. We consider that these demands are inconsistent with the
relations between a colony and the mother country, and that it
would be better to say at once, 'Let the two countries separate,'
than for us to pretend to govern the colony afterwards." — Speech of
May 16th, 1836.
273

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
secretary the most liberal instructions in regard
to the conduct of the Canadian government.
Had he been of the temper of Lord Metcalfe or
Lord Sydenham, he could easily have assumed
a certain latitude in his apphcation of the con
stitutional system. But Lord Elgin was not so
minded. He was inclined, if anything, to improve
on his instructions, and having grasped the funda
mental idea of colonial self-government, was de
termined to bring it fuUy into play.
Lord Elgin was a thorough believer in the doc
trines enunciated in Lord Durham's Report. More
over, his marriage with Durham's daughter gave
him an especial and sympathetic interest in prov
ing the truth of Lord Durham's views. "I still
adhere," he wrote to his wife, "to my opinion
that the real and effectual vindication of Lord
Durham's memory and proceedings will be the
success of a governor-general of Canada who
works out his views of government fairly."
Where Lord Elgin showed a political saga
city far in advance of the governors who had
preceded him was in his perception of the fact
that a governor, in frankly accepting his purely
constitutional position, did not thereby abandon
his prestige and influence in the province, nor
cease to be truly representative of the British
Crown. Sydenham's pride had revolted at the
prospect of nonentity : Metcalfe's loyalty had
taken fright at the spectre of colonial independ-
274

ARRIVAL OF LORD ELGIN
ence ; but Elgin had the insight to perceive and
to demonstrate the real nature of the governor's
position. He was once asked, later on, "whether
the theory of the responsibility of provincial min
isters to the provincial parliament, and of the
consequent duty of the governor to remain abso
lutely neutral in the strife of political parties, had
not a necessary tendency to degrade his office
into that of a mere roi faineant." This Elgin
emphaticaUy denied. "I have tried," he said, "both
systems. In Jamaica, there was no responsible
government ; but I had not half the power I have
here, with my constitutional and changing cab
inet."* Lord Elgin left England at the beginning of
.lanuary, 1847, and entered Montreal on the twenty-
ninth ofthe month. The people of the city, irrespec
tive of pohtical leanings, united in an address of
welcome, and, in the perplexed state of Canadian
politics, aU parties were inclined to look to the
new governor to give a definite lead to the current
of affairs. It was strongly in Elgin's favour that
neither party associated his past career with the
cause of their opponents. In British politics a
Tory, he came to Canada as the appointee of a
British Liberal government. "Lord Elgin," said
Hincks in the L^lot, "is said to be a Tory and
1 Elgin had been governor of Jamaica. See Walrond's Letters of
Lord Elgin, and citations by A. Todd, Parliamentary Government in the
British Colonies (1880), p. 69.
275

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
there is no doubt that he is of a Tory family.
We look upon his bias as an English politician
with the most perfect indifference. We do not
think it matters one straw to us Canadians whether
our governor is a Tory or a Whig, more especially
a Tory of the Peel school. We have to rely on
ourselves not the governor; and if we are true
to ourselves, the private opinions of the governor
will be of very little importance."
At the time of Lord Elgin's arrival, the Draper
government was reaching its last stage of decrepi
tude. "The ministry," in the words of a Canadian
writer, "were as weak as a lot of shelled pease."
In the spring of the year (April and May, 1847) a
partial reconstruction of the ministry was made
with a view of rallying the support of the mal
content Tories. Mr. Draper himself abandoned his
place, his fall being broken by his appointment as
puisne judge of the court of queen's bench. John
A. Macdonald, destined from now on to figure in
the forefront of Canadian politics, entered the
ministry as receiver-general ; Sherwood became
attorney-general of Upper Canada, and other
changes were made. But inasmuch as the recon
structed cabinet — the Sherwood-Daly ministry,
as it is called — contained no other French-Cana
dian than Mr. Papineau, it was plainly but a make
shift and could not hope to conduct with success
the administration of the country. As soon as
parliament was summoned (June 2nd, 1847) the
276

A FEEBLE MINISTRY
Reformers commenced a vigorous and united on
slaught. Baldwin, seconded by LaFontaine, moved
an amendment to the address in which, while con
gratulating Lord Elgin upon his recent marriage
with Lord Durham's daughter, he declared that
it was to Lord Durham that the country owed
the recognition of the principle of responsible
government, and to Lord Elgin that the parliament
looked for the application of it. LaFontaine fol
lowed with an eloquent denunciation of those of
his compatriots who had lent their support in par
liament to a ministry whose cardinal principle was
hostility to their race. " You have," he said,
"sacrificed honour to love of office: you have let
yourselves become passive instruments in the
hands of your coUeagues : you have sacrificed
your country and ere long you wiU reap your
reward." After a heated debate of three days the
government was able to carry the address by a
majority of only two votes. Nor had it any better
fortune during the session of two months which
ensued. The ministry was not in a position to
introduce any measures of prime importance, and
even upon minor matters sustained repeated de
feats. The only legislation possible under the
circumstances were measures of evident and
urgent pubhc utility into which party considera
tions did not enter. The incorporation of com
panies to operate the new "magnetic telegraph," 277

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
as the newspapers of the day caUed it, are notice
able among these. Still more necessary was the
legislation for the relief of the vast crowds of
indigent Irish immigrants, driven from their own
country by the terrible famine of 1846-7, and to
whose other sufferings were added the ravages of
ship-fever and other contagious diseases. In the
public consideration of this question Robert Bald
win took a prominent place and aided in the
foundation of the Emigration Association of To
ronto. The ill-success of the reconstructed government,
and the universal desire for a strong and stable
administration which could adequately cope with
the many difficulties of the hour, clearly neces
sitated a dissolution of parliament. Lord Elgin,
though without personal bias against the existing
cabinet, felt that it was no longer representative
of the feelings of the people, among whom the
current of public opinion had now set strongly
in favour of the Reform party. Elgin dissolved the
parliament on December 6th, 1847, the writs for
the new election being returnable on the twenty-
fourth ofthe following January. The general election
which ensued was an unbroken triumph for the Re
formers. In Upper Canada twenty-six of the forty-
two members returned belonged to the Liberal
party, while in the lower part of the province only
half a dozen of those elected were partisans of the
expiring government. Baldwin was again elected
278

NEW ELECTIONS
in the fourth riding of York, the same county
returning also, in Blake and Price, two of his
strongest supporters. Francis Hincks, who was
absent from Canada, being at this time on a five
months' tour to his native land, was elected for
Oxford in his absence. Sir Allan MacNab and John
A. Macdonald were among the Conservatives reelec
ted; Sherwood narrowly escaped defeat, while John
Cameron, the sohcitor-general. Ogle R. Gowan,
the Orange leader, and many others of the party
lost their seats. In Lower Canada the Reformers
were irresistible: even the city of Montreal re
pented of its sins by returning LaFontaine and a
fellow-Reformer as its members. LaFontaine was
also returned for Terrebonne, but elected to sit
for Montreal. The result of the election left
nothing for the Conservatives but to retire as
gracefully as might be to the shades of Opposition
and wait for happier times.

279

CHAPTER IX
THE SECOND LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN MINISTRY
THE second LaFontaine-Baldwin administra
tion,* which extended from the beginning of
1848 until the retirement of the two Reform
leaders in the summer of 1851, has earned in i
Canadian history the honourable appellation of the
"great ministry." Its history marks the culmina
tion of the lifework of Robert Baldwin and liOuis
LaFontaine and the justification of their political
system. It is a commonplace of history that every
great advance in the structure of political institu
tions brings with it an acceleration of national
progress. This is undoubtedly true of the LaFon
taine-Baldwin ministry, whose inception signalizes
the final acceptance of the principle of responsible
government. This fact lent to it a vigour and
activity which enabled it to achieve a legislative
record with which the work of no other ministry
during the period of the union can compare.
The settlement of the school system, the definite
foundation of the University of Toronto on the
basis to which it owes its present eminence, the
organization of municipal government, the opening
of the railroad system of Canada, — these are
among the political achievements of the "great
^ See note on page 190.
281

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ministry," More than all this is the fact that the
LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry indicates the first
real pacification of French Canada, the passing
of the " strife of two nations warring within the
bosom of a single state " and the beginning of that
joint and harmonious citizenship of the two races
which has become the corner-stone of the structure
of Canadian government. The ministry stands thus
at the turning-point of an era. The forces of racial
antipathy, separation and rebellion, scarce checked
by the union of 1840, here pass into that broader
movement which slowly makes towards Canadian
confederation and the creation of a continental
Dominion, Towards the change of national hfe thus in
dicated other and more material forces were also
tending. The era of the "great ministry" belongs
to the time when the advent of the railroad and
the telegraph was unifying and consolidating the
industrial and social life of the country. Sandwich
and Gaspd no longer appeared the opposite ends
of the earth. The toilsome journey that separated
the chief cities of Upper from those of Lower Can
ada was soon to become a thing of the past, and a
more active intercourse and more real sympathy
between the eastern and western sections of the
country to take the place of their former political
and social isolation. Lord Elgin once said that the
true solution of the Canadian question would be
found when both the French and the English in-
282

THE MINISTRY RESIGNS
habitants should be divided into Conservative and
Liberal parties whose formation should rest upon
grounds of kindred sentiments and kindred in
terests. For this the changes now operative
in the country were preparing the way : the old
era was passing away and a new phase of national
life was destined to take its place. Looking back
upon the period we can see that the LaFontaine-
Baldwin administration marks the time of transi
tion, the essential point of change from the
Canada of the rebelhon epoch to the Canada of
the confederation.
The result of the election of 1847-8 had made
it a foregone conclusion that the Conservative
government must retire from office. Lord Elgin
caUed the parliament together at Montreal on
February 25th, 1848, and the vote on the election
of the speaker showed at once the relative strength
of the parties in the assembly. It having been
proposed that Sir Allan MacNab, the late speaker
of the House, be again elected, Baldwin proposed
the name of Morin in his stead : while paying
tribute to the qualifications of Sir Allan in other
respects, he held it fitting that the speaker should
be able to command both the French and English
languages, A vote of fifty-four to nineteen proved
the overwhelming strength of the Reformers. The
answer to the speech from the throne, as was of
course to be expected, was met by an amendment,
proposed by Robert Baldwin, to the effect that
283

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the present ministry did not enjoy the confidence
of the country. The amendment being carried by
a vote of fifty-four to twenty (March 3rd, 1848),
the Conservative ministers tendered their resigna
tion. Lord Elgin at once sent for LaFontaine and
the latter, in consultation with Baldwin, proceeded
to form the ministry which bears their names. The
ministry as thus constituted (March 11th, 1848)
was as follows : —
For Lower Canada: L. H. LaFontaine, attorney-
general; James Leslie, president of the executive
council; R. E. Caron, president of the legislative
council; E. P. Tach^, chief commissioner of pub
hc works ; T. C. Aylwin, solicitor-general ; L. M.
Viger, receiver-general.
For Upper Canada: Robert Baldwin, attorney-
general ; R. B. Sullivan, provincial secretary ; F.
Hincks, inspector-general; J. H. Price, commis
sioner of Crown lands ; Malcolm Cameron, assist
ant commissioner of public works ; W. H. Blake,*
solicitor-general. Frequent mention has aheady been made of
most of the above. Leslie, who had for many years
represented the county of Vercheres, and Malcolm
Cameron, who had been a bitter opponent of Sir
F. B. Head and had held a minor office under
Bagot, represented the more Radical wing of the
Reform party. The name of (Sir) Etienne Tach^,
^ Mr. Blake, who was absent in Europe, did not enter on office until
April, 1849.
284

THE NEW CABINET
twice subsequently prime minister, is of course
well known, Tachd had formerly been in the as
sembly for six years (1841-6), had since held the
office of deputy adjutant-general, and was now,
along with James Leslie, given a seat in the
legislative council. Various other additions were
presently made to the Upper House in order to
redress the balance of parties therein and more
adequately to represent the French-Canadian pop
ulation. Lord Elgin, although determined not to identify
himself in sympathy with either of the Canadian
parties, seems, none the less, to have entertained
a high idea of the ability and integrity of his new
ministers. " My present council," he wrote to Lord
Grey, " unquestionably contains more talent, and
has a firmer holder on the confidence of parliament
and of the people than the last. There is, I think,
moreover, on their part, a desire to prove, by
proper deference for the authority of the governor-
general (which they all admit has in my case never
been abused), that they were libelled when they
were accused of impracticability and anti-mon
archical tendencies." The governor was deter
mined to let the leaders of the ministry feel that
they need fear no repetition of their difficul
ties with Sir Charles Metcalfe. In an initial
interview with Baldwin and LaFontaine he took
pains to assure them of the course he intended
to pursue, "I spoke to them," he wrote after-
285

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
wards,* " in a candid and friendly tone ; told them
I thought there was a fair prospect, if they were
moderate and firm, of forming an administration
deserving and enjoying the confidence of parlia
ment: that they might count on all proper support
and assistance from me,"
It was not possible for the ministry to undertake
a serious programme of legislation during the
session of 1848, Those of the ministers who be
longed to the assembly — including LaFontaine
and Baldwin — had of course to present them
selves to their constituents for reelection. This
proved an easy matter, the elections being either
carried by acclamation or by large majorities. But
Lord Elgin and his ministers both preferred to
bring the session to a close, in order to leave time
for the mature consideration of the measures to
be adopted on the re-assembling of parliament. The
legislature was accordingly postponed from March
23rd, 1848, until the opening of the foUowing
year. The parhamentary session which then ensued
(dating from January 18th untU May 30th, 1849)
was unprecedented in the importance of its legis
lation and the excitement occasioned by its meas
ures. The speech from the throne announced a
vigorous programme of reform. Electoral reform,
the revision of the judicature system of both
provinces, the constitution of the university of
King's College, the completion of the St. Lawrence
'' Walrond, Letters of Lord Elgin, p. 62.
286

THE FRENCH LANGUAGE
canals, and the regulation of the municipal system
were among the subjects on which the parliament
would be asked to legislate. The question of an
interprovincial railroad from Quebec to Halifax
and the transfer of the postal department from the
imperial to the Canadian authorities, were also to
be brought under consideration.
Two important announcements were also made
by Lord Elgin on behalf of the imperial govern
ment. The legislature was informed that the
imperial parliament had passed an Act in repeal
of the clause of the Act of Union which had de
clared Enghsh to be the sole official language of
the legislature. With instinctive tact and courtesy
the governor-general demonstrated the reality ofthe
change thus effected, by himself reading his speech
in French as well as English, a proceeding which
drew forth enthusiastic praise from the press of
Lower Canada. The other announcement was no
less calculated to enlist the sympathies of French
Canada. " I am authorized to inform you," said
Lord Elgin, "that it is Her Majesty's purpose to
exercise the prerogative of mercy in favour of all
persons who are still liable to penal consequences
for political offences arising out of the unfortunate
occurrences of 1837 and 1838, and I have the
queen's commands to invite you to confer with
me in passing an Act to give fuU effect to Her
Majesty's most gracious intentions."*
* Jmimals of the Legislative Assembly, January 18th, 1849.
287

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
The debate which followed on the address is
notable for the trial of strength that occurred
between LaFontaine and Louis-Joseph Papineau,
the former leader of the popular party in the days
of the rebellion. When the agitation in I^ower
Canada had broken into actual insurrection, Papi
neau had fled the country with a price upon his
head. For two years he had lived in the United
States ; thence he passed to France where he spent
some eight years, his time being chiefly passed in
the cultured society of the capital. As yet no
general law of amnesty had been passed to permit
the return of the "rebels" of 1837, But in many
individual instances the government had seen fit to
grant a pardon. IjaFontaine, during his first min
istry, had urged upon Sir Charles Metcalfe the
wisdom of a general amnesty. Unable to obtain
this he had secured from the governor-general the
authorization of a nolle prosequi in the case of
Papineau, This was in 1843. The ex-leader did not,
however, see fit to avail himself of his hberty to
return to Canada until the year 1847. On his re
turn in that year he had presented himself in the
ensuing general election to the constituency of St.
Maurice, and the prestige of his bygone career
sufficed for his election. He once again found
himself a member of a Canadian assembly.
For Papineau's historic reputation among his
compatriots, it would have been better had he never
returned to Canada. True, he had been absent
288

LOUIS-JOSEPH PAPINEAU
from the country but ten years, yet he came back
to a Canada that knew him not. The charm of his
personal address, the magniloquence of his oratory
were still there, but the leadership of Louis-Joseph
Papineau was gone forever. There were some in
the province who could not forget that Papineau
had fled from his misguided followers at the dark
est hour of their fortunes. There were others — and
these the bulk of his compatriots — who felt that
the lapse of time and the march of events had
rendered Papineau and his bygone agitation an
issue of the past, an issue that could not serve as
a rallying-point for French Canada in the altered
circumstances of the hour. Of this great change
Papineau himself realized nothing. He was stiU
preaching the old doctrine of 1837, the uncom
promising hostility to British rule and the veiled
republicanism of his former days. In the brief ses
sion of 1848 he had angrily inveighed against the
prorogation of parhament and had urged, to pre
vent it, a stoppage of supplies 1 Now, at the opening
of the session of 1849, he rose to utter an im
passioned but meaningless attack against the
pohcy of LaFontaine. The great upheaval of
European democracy of 1848, of which he had
witnessed the approaching signals, had appealed
to Papineau's imagination. It ill sufficed him to
live in a country in which there was no ruthless
despotism to denounce, no grinding tyranny to
oppose, no political martyrdom to attain. In de-
289

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
fault of a real tyranny he must invent one. He
denounced the union of the Canadas, he de
nounced the legislative council, he denounced
responsible government. "The constitution of the
country," he cried, "is false, tyrannical and cal
culated to demoralize its people. Conceived by
statesmen of a narrow and malevolent genius, it
has had up tUl the present, and can only have in
the future, effects that are dangerous, results that
are ruinous and disastrous." Most bitterly of all
did he denounce those of his race who had
accepted and aided to establish the present system
and who, for the sake of office and power, had
bartered the proud independence of an uncon-
quered race.
The reply of LaFontaine to Papineau ranks
among his finest speeches. Inferior perhaps to
his former leader in the arts of eloquence, he far
exceUed him in the balance and vigour of his
inteUect. The utter futility of Papineau's adher
ence to the old uncompromising doctrines of the
past, he easily exposed. " What," he asked, "would
have been the consequences of the adoption of this
conflict to the bitter end, that we are reproached
with not having adopted ? If, instead of accepting
the offers made to them . . , the representatives
of Lower Canada had persistently held aloof, the
French-Canadians would have never shared in the
government of the country. They would have
been crushed. WoiUd you with your system of
290

LAFONTAINE DENOUNCES PAPINEAU
unending conflict have ever obtained the repeal
of the clause of the Act of Union that proscribes
our language? . , , If, in 1842, we had adopted
that system should we now be in a position to
solicit, to urge, as we have been doing, the return
of our exiled compatriots ? "
It might, perhaps, have been more magnanimous
on the part of LaFontaine had he omitted to give
his arguments a personal allusion. But the ingrati
tude of Papineau, who owed it to LaFontaine's
efforts and to the system of conciliation which he
denounced, that he was able again to tread the soil
of his native country, stung I^aFontaine to the
quick. He continued: "If we had not accepted
office in the ministry of 1842, should we have been
in a position to obtain for the honourable member
himself, permission to return to his country, to
obtain which I did not hesitate, in order to over
come the repeated refusals of Sir Charles Metcalfe,
to offer my resignation of lucrative offices I then
enjoyed ? Yet, behold now this man obeying his
old-time instinct of pouring forth insult and out
rage, and daring in the presence of these facts to
accuse me, and with me my colleagues, of venality,
of a sordid love of office and of servility to those in
power 1 To hear him, he alone is virtuous, he alone
loves our country, he alone is devoted to the
fatherland. , . . But since he bespeaks such virtue,
I ask him at least to be just. Where would the
honourable member be to-day, if I had adopted
291

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
this system of a conflict to the bitter end ? He
would be at Paris, fraternizing, I suppose, with
the red republicans, the white republicans, or the
black republicans, and approving, one after the
other, the fluctuating constitutions of France !"*
But though routed in debate by LaFontaine and
unable any longer to lead the assembly, Papineau
was not without a certain foUowing, Some of the
more ardent of the younger spirits among the
French-Canadians were still attracted by the
prestige of his name and by the violence of his
democratic principles, and espoused his cause.
There began to appear a Radical wing of the
French-Canadian Reformers, pressing upon the
government a still greater acceleration of demo
cratic progress and a still more complete recog
nition of the claims of their nationality. The
Radical movement was as yet, however, but a
more rapid eddy in the broad stream of reform
that in the meantime was moving fast enough.
One hundred and ninety acts of parliament were
passed during the session of 1849 and received the
governor's assent. Many of these — the Tariff Act,^
the Amnesty Act,^ the Railroad Acts,* the Judi
cature Acts,* the Rebellion Losses Act,^ the Muni
cipal Corporations Act,' and the Act to amend the
charter of the university established at Toronto* — ¦
1 Speech of January 23rd, 1849. (Translated from La Minerve. )
2 12 Vict. c. 1. 8 12 Vict. c. 13. * 12 Vict. cc. 28, 29.
6 12 Vict. cc. 38, 41, 63, 64. « 12 Vict. c. 58.
7 12 Vict. c. 81. 8 12 Vict. c. 82.
292

THE UNIVERSITY ACT
are measures of first-rate importance. With the
two last mentioned the name of Robert Baldwin
will always be associated. It will be remembered
that during his previous ministry Baldwin had
brought in a bill for the revision of the charter of
King's CoUege and for the consohdation of the
denominational colleges of the country into a
single provincial institution. Against this measure
a loud outcry had been raised by the Tories, on
the ground that it effected a spoliation of the
Anghcan Church which had hitherto exercised a
dominant influence over King's CoUege, and whose
doctrines were taught in the faculty of divinity
of that institution. The rupture with Sir Charles
Metcalfe had prevented the passage of the bill.
Mr. Draper had introduced a measure of similar
character, but had seen fit to abandon it on
account of the opposition excited among his own
adherents. The measure, which Baldwin carried
through parliament in 1849, creating the Univer
sity of Toronto in place of King's College, has
been said by Sir John Bourinot to have "placed
the university upon that broad basis on which
it still rests." A former president of the University
of Toronto, in a recent history of the institution,*
has seen fit to disparage Robert Baldwin's Act,
drawing attention to the needless complexity of
its clauses, the failure of its attempt to affiliate
^ See J. Loudon, History of the University of Toronto. Canada : an
Encyclopadia, Vol. IV.
293

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the sectarian coUeges, and to the fact that a revision
of its provisions became necessary a few years later
(1853). But the great merit of Baldwin's University
Act lay, not in its treatment of the details of organ
ization but in the cardinal point of establishing
a system of higher education, non-sectarian in
its character, in whose benefits the adherents of
all creeds might equally participate.
The faculty of divinity and the degree in divinity
were now abolished, and the control of the univer
sity entirely withdrawn from the Church, except for
the fact that the different denominational coUeges
were each entitled to a representative on the senate
of the university. The system of government insti
tuted was, indeed, cumbrous. Academic powers and
the nominations to the professoriate were placed in
the hands of a senate, consisting of a chanceUor,
vice-chanceUor, the professors and twelve nom
inated members, — six chosen by the government,
six by the denominational colleges. A further body
called the caput, or council, made up of the presi
dent and deans of faculties, and certain others, exer
cised disciphnary powers. An endowment board, ap
pointed jointly by the government, the senate, the
caput, etc., managed the property of the university.
Various other powers were vested in the faculties,
the deans of faculties and in subordinate authorities.
The elaborate regulation of the whole structure and
the lack of elasticity in its organization were in
marked contrast to the more simple provisions of
294

OPPOSITION OF BISHOP STRACHAN
the charter of King's College, No religious tests for
professoriate and students were to be imposed. It
was further enacted that neither the chanceUor nor
any government representative on the senate
should be a "minister, ecclesiastic or teacher,
under or according to any form or profession of
religious faith or worship,"
Provision was made under the Act for the
incorporation in the University of Toronto of
the denominational colleges. To obtain incorpora
tion they were to forego their existing power
of conferring degrees. As the coUeges were un
wiUing to do this unless they were granted a
share of the provincial endowment for their own
teaching purposes, the scheme of consolidation
failed. Victoria and Queen's Universities remain
ed upon their separate and sectarian bases, and
thus one of the purposes of Baldwin's Act was
defeated. Moreover, a section of the adherents of
the Anghcan Church refused to countenance the
new establishment. Bishop Strachan, who had de
nounced the godless iconoclasm of Baldwin's pre
vious University Bill, again headed the agitation
against a secular university. Furious at the passage
of the measure, he called upon the members of
his Church to raise funds for a university of their
own, headed the subscription himself with a con
tribution of five thousand doUars, and, undeterred
by his advancing years, betook himself to England
to obtain sympathy and help towards the founda-
295

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
tion of an Anglican College, The result of his
endeavours was the foundation of Trinity CoUege
in 1851,
The Municipal Corporations Act of 1849, com
monly known as the Baldwin Act, constitutes
another of the permanent political achievements of
Robert Baldwin, Many years ago the Upper Can
ada Law Journal remarked of this Act and of
the revision of the judicial system, "Had Mr.
Baldwin never done more than enact our munici
pal and jury laws, he would have done enough
to entitle his memory to the lasting respect of the
inhabitants of this province. Neighbouring prov
inces are adopting the one and the other almost
intact, as an embodiment of wisdom united with
practical usefulness, equaUy noted for simphcity
and for completeness of detail not to be found
elsewhere." Quite recently Professor Shortt has
said,* "Looking at the Baldwin Act in its his
toric significance, we must admit it to have been
a most comprehensive and important measure,
whose beneficial influence has been felt, not merely
in Ontario, but more or less throughout the Do
minion, , , , In aU essential principles its spirit
and purpose are embodied in our present municipal
system,"
'^ University of Toronto Studies : History and Economics, Vol. II.
No. 2. Municipal Government in Ontario. The following account of the
steps leading to the Baldwin Act is largely based on Professor Shortt's
admirable monograph.
296

LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The Baldwin Act represents the culmination
and final triumph of the agitation for local self-
government that had, for over fifty years, run
a parallel course with the movement for respon
sible government. In the earher years of Upper
Canadian settlement, the government had been
very chary of investing the settlers with rights
of local management. Townships indeed existed,
but these were merely areas plotted out by the
surveyor for convenience in the allotment of land,
and were not incorporated units of government.
Nor was incorporation given to the districts or
larger areas into which the province was sub
divided. Even the villages and towns had at first
no rights of self-government. The management
of local affairs and the assessment of local taxes
were left to the justices of the peace, sitting in
quarter sessions, these being officers appointed by
the governor and representing, of course, the solid
cohesion of the governing class. The settlers, many
of whom had been used to better things in their
New England homes, constantly protested. At
times they organized themselves in their townships
on a voluntary basis. Various biUs for giving
power to the people of the townships, as such, were
brought before the legislature, but met with a dis
trustful rejection at the hands of the governing
oligarchy. Only a few unimportant matters — the
election of petty officers, such as fence- viewers and
pound-keepers — were handed over to the people.
297

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
The system thus established proved increas
ingly unjust and inconvenient : unjust, since it
contributed to the privileges of the colonial
aristocracy : inconvenient, especiaUy in the grow
ing towns where matters such as markets, fire
protection, street-paving, etc., urgently demanded
an organized municipal control. The pressure of
the situation presently forced the governinent
to grant some rights of self-government to the
towns. A severe fire at Kingston in 1812 proved
an object-lesson to a population that dwelt
in wooden houses. An Act of parliament* gave
special powers to the magistrates in regard to
Kingston, and an Act of a year later put York,
Sandwich and Amhertsburg upon the same foot
ing. BelleviUe was presently granted the right to
elect a police board, the first actual use of the demo
cratic principle in town government. BrockviUe,
after a long fight against the government, obtained
an Act of parliament which set up the BrockviUe
town board as a body corporate.^ The powers
granted were limited, but the Act was a step in
advance. A similar limited incorporation was ex
tended to Hamilton, York and other towns
(1832-4). Meantime the Reform party had vigor
ously taken up the cry for local self-government.
Durham recommended in his Report "the establish
ment of a good system of municipal institutions
1 66 Geo. III. c. 33.
=1 2 WUl. IV. c. 17.
298

THE BALDWIN ACT
throughout this province." The Draper govern
ment, under Lord Sydenham, as has been seen,
had endeavoured to enlist popular support by
passing a Local Government Act (1841). But the
fear of Tory opposition prevented Mr. Draper
from doing more than incorporating the districts
of Upper Canada with a partiaUy elective govern
ment.* It remained for Baldwin, in one compre
hensive statute, to estabhsh the entire system of
local government in Upper Canada upon the
democratic basis of popular election.
The text of the Baldwin Act fills some fifty
pages of the statute-book; but its ground plan is
exceUent in its logic and simplicity, and can be
explained in a few words. The districts are abol
ished as areas of government in favour of counties '
with townships as their subdivisions. The town
ship now became an incorporated body with power
to construct highways, school buildings, etc. Its
inhabitants elected five councillors, who appointed
one of their number to be "reeve" of the township,
and, in townships having a population of more
than five hundred, another to be deputy-reeve.
The reeves and deputy-reeves of the townships
constituted the county council and elected from
among themselves the "warden" of the county.
The county council thus incorporated had author
ity over county roads, bridges and grammar
schools, with other usual municipal powers. Within
1 See pp. 100, 101, above.
299

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the area of the county the Act recognized also
police villages, incorporated villages, towns and
cities, representing an ascending series of corporate
powers and a correspondingly increasing indepen
dence from the control of the county council. The
police village was merely a hamlet to whose inhabi
tants the county committed the election of police
trustees who should take steps to prevent fires, etc.
An incorporate viUage was a body corporate with
an elected council and a reeve, and practicaUy on
the same footing as a township. Still further powers
were given to the town, with an elected council and
a mayor and reeve chosen thereby. At the apex
of urban government were placed the cities, To
ronto, Hamilton and Kingston, and any others
whose population should reach fifteen thousand.
The city, with a mayor, aldermen and common
councillors, constituted a county in itself, special
powers being also delegated to it. Taken as a whole
the Act is uniform in plan, excellent both in its
fundamental principle and in the consistency of its
detail; though frequently amended, it remains as
the basis of local self-government in Ontario at
the present day.
In addition to the University and Municipal
Acts, Baldwin was also largely responsible for the
Acts revising the judicial system of Upper Canada,
creating a court of common pleas and a court of
error and appeal, and freeing the court of chancery
from the delays which had hitherto impaired its
300

HINCKS AND THE RAILROADS
utility, by altering its procedure and increasing the
number of its judges from one to three.
The aUotment of legislative business among the
leaders of the Reform party proceeded on the same
hnes as during the former ministry. While the
political legislation was entrusted to Baldwin and
LaFontaine, Hincks undertook the preparation
of commercial and economic measures. These at
the moment were of especial importance. The
adoption of free trade by England had involved
the loss of the preference enjoyed under earlier
statutes by Canadian agricultural exports to the
mother country. This had precipitated in Canada
a severe commercial depression : the winter of
1848-9 had been a winter of discontent, and Lord
Elgin had written home of the "downward pro
gress of events," A vigorous policy was needed in
order to revive the industries of the country, and
to this Hincks addressed himself with characteristic
energy. Already various charters had been granted
for the construction of railways in Canada : the
road from LaPrairie to St. Johns* (Quebec) had
been built as early as 1837, and by the year 1848 a
part of what afterwards became the Grand Trunk
line from Montreal to Portland was already con
structed, while work had been begun upon the
Great Western and Northern Railways. Hincks,
^ The importance of this line lay in the fact that it connected the
St. Lawrence navigation (through the Richelieu River) with that of
Lake Champlain and the Hudson.
801

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
realizing the importance of the development of the
Canadian transportation system, now inaugurated
a policy of active governmental aid to railway con
struction. An Act of parliament guaranteed, for any
railway of more than seventy-five miles in length,
the payment of six per cent, interest on half the
cost of its construction. Anxious at the same time
to stimulate trade with the United States in order
to compensate the country for the loss of its com
mercial privileges with Great Britain, Hincks
endeavoured to bring about a system of reciprocal
free trade in natural products between Canada and
the republic. An Act of the legislature accordingly
declared all duties on this class of imports to be
removed as soon as the congress of the United
States should take similar action. Unfortunately
the opposition of the American senate interposed
a long delay, and it was not until five years later
that an international treaty at last brought the
system of reciprocity into effect. Meantime the
Customs Act of 1849 revised existing duties,
altering many of them to an ad valorem basis and
placing the average duty at about thirteen and
one-quarter per cent.
The legislative measures that fell to the share
of LaFontaine were the political biUs relating to
Lower Canada. Here also the judicial system was
amended, a court of queen's bench being estab
lished with four judges of its own, and the
superior court also undergoing a revision. A
302

REPRESENTATION AND POPULATION
general law of amnesty gave effect to the intention
of the Crown. An attempt to carry a bill for
redistributing the seats in the legislature faded
of its purpose. It was LaFontaine's object to give
to each province seventy-five instead of forty-two
members, in order to permit a subdivision of the
larger constituencies : the equality of representa
tion between the two provinces was to be retained,
although it was now evident that Upper Canada
would soon surpass in population the lower sec
tion of the province. For a measure of this kind
a majority of two-thirds was necessitated by the
Act of Union. The opposition to the biU came
from the Upper Canadian Tories and from Pap
ineau and certain other French-Canadian Rad
icals, who insisted on carrying the democratic
principle of equal representation to its full extent,
even against the interests of their own nationality.
LaFontaine's measure fell short of the required
two-thirds by one vote. Of far more importance
was a measure now before parliament for whose
introduction LaFontaine was responsible, and
whose passage almost threatened to bring the
country to a civil war. The RebeUion Losses Bill
is, however, of such importance as to require a
chapter to itself.

303

CHAPTER X
THE REBELLION LOSSES BILL
THE Act of Indemnification of 1849, or — to
give it the name by which it was known
during its passage through parliament and by
which it is stUl remembered — the RebeUion
Ijosses Bill, is of unparalleled importance in the
history of Canada. The bill was a measure for the
compensation of persons in Lower Canada whose
property had suffered in the suppression of the
rebeUion of 1837 and 1838. It excited throughout
Canada a furious opposition. It was denounced
both in Canada and in England as a scheme for
rewarding rebels. Its passage led to open riots in
Montreal, to the invasion of the legislature by a
crowd of malcontents, to the burning of the
houses of parliament and to the mobbing of Lord
Elgin in the streets of the city. These facts alone
would have made it an episode of great prominence
in the narrative of our history; but the biU is of stiU
greater importance in the development of the con
stitution of Canada. The fact that in despite of the
opposition of the Loyalists, in despite of the
flood of counter-petitions and addresses, in despite
of the imminent prospect of civil strife, Lord
Elgin fulfiUed his constitutional duty, refused to
305

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
dissolve the parliament or to reserve the bill for
the royal sanction, and that the home government
accepted the situation and refused to interfere,
shows that we have here arrived at the complete
realization of colonial self-government. The pas
sage of the Rebellion Losses Bill gives to the doc
trine of the right of the people of the colony to
manage their own affairs, the final seal of a general
acceptance. The circumstances leading to the introduction
of the measure were as foUows. The outbreak of
1837-8 had occasioned throughout the two prov
inces a very considerable destruction of private
property. Some of this had been caused by the
overt acts of the rebels ; but there had also been a
good deal of property destroyed, injured or con
fiscated by the troops and the Loyalists in the
suppression of the rebeUion.
It was, from the beginning, the intention of the
government to make reparation to persons who had
suffered damage from the acts of rebels. The parlia
ment of Upper Canada had passed an Act (1 Vict,
c, 13) appointing commissioners to estimate the
damages, and had presently voted (2 Vict. c. 48) the
issue of some four thousand pounds in debentures in
payment of the claims. The special council of Lower
Canada had taken similar action. But the question
of damage done in suppressing the outbreak was
of a somewhat different complexion, A part of the
property destroyed was the property of persons
306

COMPENSATION IN UPPER CANADA
actuaUy in arms against the government. To these,
plainly enough, no compensation was owing. In
other cases the owners of injured property were
adherents of the government, whose losses were
occasioned either fortuitously or by the necessities
of war. To these, equaUy clearly, a compensation
ought to be paid. But between these two classes
was a large number of persons whose property
had suffered, who were not openly and provably
rebels but who had belonged to the disaffected
class, or who at any rate were identified in race and
sympathy with the disaffected part of the popu
lation. This element gave to the equities of the
question a very perplexed appearance.
In the last session of its existence the parlia
ment of Upper Canada had adopted an Act
(October 22nd, 1840)* voting compensation on a
large scale for damage done by the troops and
otherwise. The sum of forty thousand pounds was
to be apphed to claims preferred under the Act. As
no means were laid down for raising the necessary
funds, this Act remained inoperative. Then fol
lowed the union of the Canadas and the election
of a joint parhament. In despite of repeated peti
tions and individual representations to the govern
ment nothing more was done in regard to Rebel
lion Losses Claims until the year 1845 when the
Draper government passed an Act to render
operative the Upper Canadian statute of 1840.
1 3 Vict, c, 76.
807

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
The funds for the measure were to be supphed
out of the receipts from tavern licenses for Upper
Canada, which were set aside for that purpose. The
sums collected under this Act of parliament be
tween April 5th, 1845 and January 24fh, 1849,
amounted to £38,658.
At the time when Mr. Draper's Act of 1845
was before parliament, the Reformers of Lower
Canada protested against the inequity of extend
ing to one section of the country a privilege
not enjoyed by the other, and demanded similar
legislation for Lower Canada. The government,
presumably in order to obtain their support for
its own measure, indicated its readiness to act
upon this demand, and a unanimous address was
presented to Lord Metcalfe (February 28th, 1845)
asking him to institute an enquiry into the losses
sustained in Lower Canada during the period of
the insurrection. A commission consisting of five
persons was accordingly appointed (November
24th, 1845). The commissioners were asked to
distinguish between participants in the rebeUion
and persons innocent of complicity, but they were
also informed that "the object of the executive
government was merely to obtain a general esti
mate of the rebellion losses, the particulars of
which should form the subject of more minute
investigation thereafter under legislative author
ity." The result was that the commission found
themselves compeUed to report that "the want of
308

TORY OPPOSITION
power to proceed to a strict and regular investiga
tion of the losses in question left the commissioners
no other resource than to trust to the allegation
of the claimants as to the amount and nature of
their losses." Needless to say that, under the cir
cumstances, many of the aUegations in question
were very wide of the truth : the total sum claimed
amounted to over two hundred and forty thousand
pounds, and of this it is said that about twenty-
five thousand pounds represented claims of persons
who had been convicted by court-martial of com
plicity in the rebeUion, It will easily be understood
that under these circumstances the cry arose from
the Canadian Tories and their British sympathizers
that the whole scheme amounted to nothing more
than plundering the public treasury in favour of the
disloyal. It was impossible for the government to
take action upon a report of so unreliable a charac
ter. Indeed it is likely that the government was
anxious merely to tide the matter over as best it
might. It voted some ten thousand pounds in
payment of claims that had been certified in Lower
Canada before the union, and with that it let the
matter rest.
As the question stood at the opening of the
LaFontaine-Baldwin administration, it is plain that
a grave injustice rested upon many injured persons
in Lower Canada as compared with their feUow-
citizens of Upper Canada who had received com
pensation for their losses: granted that there were
309

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
black sheep among the claimants, this did not
affect the validity of the other claims. It was this
injustice that LaFontaine, whose constant policy it
was to safeguard the rights of his nationality, now
determined to rectify. Early in the session he
moved, seconded by Robert Baldwin, a series of
seven resolutions, reciting the failure of the
previous commission and demanding the appoint
ment of a new body with proper powers, and the
payment of claims. The resolutions, carried by
large majorities (the vote on the first one, for
example, was fifty-two to twenty) were followed
(February 27th) by the introduction of a bill to
bring them into effect. The measure was entitled,
"An Act to provide for the indemnification of par
ties in Lower Canada whose property was destroyed
during the rebellion of the years 1837 and 1838,"*
There was no difficulty, as far as voting power
went in carrying the bill through parliament. It
was passed by the House of Assembly (March 9th,
1849) by a vote of forty-seven to eighteen, and
accepted without amendment by the legislative
council by twenty against fourteen votes. The
fact that the measure received overwhelming sup
port in a legislature only recently elected, must be
carefuUy noted in considering the constitutional
aspect of the question involved.
Under the provisions of the Act the governor-
general was empowered to appoint five com-
1 The Act is 12 Vict. c. 68.
310

PROVISIONS OF THE ACT
missioners whose duty it should be "faithfully and
without partiality to enquire into and to ascertain
the amount of the losses sustained during the
rebellion," The commissioners were given authority
to summon witnesses and examine them under
oath. For the payment of the claims the governor
was empowered to issue debentures, payable out of
the consolidated revenue of the province at or
within twenty years after the date of issue and
bearing interest at six per cent. The maximum
amount to be expended on the claims (including
the expenses incurred under the Act and the sum
of £9,986 issued in debentures under the Act of
June 9th, 1846*) was not to exceed £100,000; if
the claims aUowed amounted to a higher total, a
proportionate distribution was to be effected. The
Act also provided that no claim should be recog
nized on the part of any persons "who had been
convicted of treason during the rebeUion, or who,
having been taken into custody, had submitted
to Her Majesty's wiU and been transported to
Bermuda." The introduction and explanation of the biU
before parliament naturally fell to the task of
LaFontaine, who made a number of speeches in
its support, traversing the whole question of in
demnity from 1837 onwards and affording an
admirable history of the measure. Baldwin took
but little part in the debates on the RebeUion
1 9 Vict. c. 65. 811

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Losses Bill. It has often been said that this was
from lack of sympathy with the measure, and
insinuations of this kind were made in the
House of Assembly. But a speech made by Bald
win during the debate on the introduction of the
preliminary resolutions (February 27th, 1849) em
phatically affirms his concurrence in LaFontaine's
proposed measure. He had been accused, he said,
of wilfuUy abstaining from speaking on the meas
ure, but this was an error, for he had merely
refrained from speaking because there was no
necessity to do so. The whole matter had been set
in such a clear light by his friends that it would
be impossible to elucidate it stiU further. In the
brief speech which foUowed, Baldwin went on to
show that the measure contemplated by the reso
lutions would merely do for Lower Canada what
had already been done for the upper part of the
province. If the resolutions failed to indicate how
to avoid indemnifying any who had taken up arms,
so too had the Act of 1841.*
The passage of the bill was, of course, an easy
matter as far as obtaining a majority went. But
nothing could exceed the furious opposition ex
cited both within and without the parliament by
the introduction of the biU. The old battle of the
rebeUion was fought over again. With Papineau
back in the assembly, Mackenzie now revisiting
the country under the Amnesty Act, the legis-
1 3 Vict. c. 76.
312

NO PAY FOR REBELS
lature in session at Montreal and a French-Can
adian at the head of the administration, it seemed
to the excited Tories as if the days of 1837 had
come back, and that they must rally again to
fight the cause of British loyalty against the
encroachments of an alien race. The bill for pay
ment of the losses seemed like the crowning
triumph of their foes, and the cry, "No pay for
rebels," resounded throughout the province. Many
Canadian writers, as for example, the late Sir John
Bourinot in his Lord Elgin, have seen in the
opposition of the Tories nothing more than a party
contest, the familiar game in which a likely issue
is seized upon in the hope of a sudden overthrow
of the government. " The issue," he says, " was
not one of pubhc principle or of devotion to the
Crown, it was simply a question of obtaining a
party victory per fas aut nefas."^
The issue was not, indeed, in the real truth of the
matter, a question of devotion to the Crown and the
retention of the British connection. But the Tories,
many of them, in aU honesty saw it so. One has
but to read the newspapers of the day to realize
that something more than a mere party question
was at issue. It was a contest in which right and
justice were fighting hand to hand against a blind
but honest fanaticism to whose distorted vision the
RebeUion Losses Bill undid the work of the Loyal
ists of 1837, The rabble of the Montreal streets
1 Lord Elgin (Makers of Canada Series), p. 68.
313

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
that burned the houses of parliament were doubt
less inspired by no higher motive than the fierce lust
of destruction that animates an inflamed and un
principled mob. But the opposition of Sir AUan
MacNab and the reputable leaders of Conservatism
was based on a genuine conviction that the safety
of the country was at stake. In the blindness of
their rage the Tories lost from sight entirely that
they themselves had sanctioned the payment of
compensation for losses in Upper Canada, that the
Draper government had itself originated the pres
ent movement, and that the bill expressly stipu
lated that nothing shoiUd be paid to "rebels" in
the true sense of the term. The reasoned logic of
I.,aFontaine's presentation of the biU feU upon ears
which the passion of the hour made deaf to
argument: the fiery invective of Sohcitor-general
Blake, who answered the Tory accusation of dis
loyalty with a counter-accusation of the same
character, only maddened them to fury. In the
debate on the second reading of the biU the parlia
ment became a scene of wild confusion. MacNab
had caUed the French-Canadians "aliens and
rebels," Blake in return taunted him with the
disloyalty that prompts a meaningless and des
tructive opposition.
"I am not come here," said Blake,* "to learn
lessons of loyalty from honourable gentlemen
* An excellent account of the debate is given by Dent, Canada Since
the Union, Vol. II. pp. 151 et seq.
314

BLAKE AND MACNAB
opposite, , . . I have no sympathy with the
would-be loyalty of honourable gentlemen oppo
site, which, while it at aU times affects peculiar
zeal for the prerogative of the Crown, is ever ready
to sacrifice the hberty of the subject. This is not
British loyalty : it is the spurious loyalty which at
aU periods of the world's history has lashed human
ity into rebeUion. . . . The expression ' rebel ' has
been apphed by the gaUant knight opposite to
some gentlemen on this side of the House, but I
teU gentlemen on the other side that their pubhc
conduct has proved that they are the rebels to their
constitution and country." For a man of MacNab's
fighting temper, this was too much, "If the hon
ourable member means to apply the word 'rebel'
to me," he shouted, " I must tell him that it is
nothing else than a lie," In a moment the House
was in an uproar : Blake and MacNab were only
prevented from coming to blows by the interven
tion of the sergeant-at-arms, whUe a storm of
shouts and hisses from the crowded gaUeries added
to the confusion of the House, Blake and MacNab
were taken into custody by the sergeant-at-arms,
several of the wilder spirits of the galleries were
arrested, and the debate ended for the day.
Of the various arguments advanced against the
bUl in the Canadian parliament and elsewhere, two
only are worth considering. It was said in the first
place that under the terms of the bill a certain
number of persons who, in heart if not in act, had
315

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
been rebels would receive compensation. This was
undoubtedly true, but was also unavoidable.
Unless one were to have given to the commission
ers inquisitorial and discretionary powers, unless,
that is to say, they had been aUowed to declare
any one in retrospect a rebel simply on their
general opinion of his conduct, — a remedy that
would have been worse than the evil it strove to
cure, — it is undoubtedly true that many of the dis
affected inhabitants of the Lower Canada of 1837
could claim compensation. But it must be borne in
mind that they could not claim compensation ybr
being disaffected, but simply for having lost their
property. The Act did the best that could be done.
It accepted the only legal definition of "rebel" that
was possible; namely, persons previously convicted
as such. These it excluded. To aU others who could
prove damages compensation was to be given.
The other objection was perhaps more serious.
It was urged against the biU that the Upper
Canadian losses had been paid out of a special
fund raised in Upper Canada; namely, the proceeds
of the tavern licenses paid in that part of the
province. The biU of 1849 proposed to pay the
Lower Canadian losses out of the general fund of
(united) Canada. By this method, it was argued,
the people of Upper Canada were called upon to
pay all of their own damages and a share of those
of their neighbours. The answer made by the ad
ministration to this argument may be found in the
316

HINCKS DEFENDS THE ACT
speeches dehvered by LaFontaine in March, 1849,
and in a circular drawn up in Montreal, pre
sumably by Hincks, in defence of the government,
and subsequently printed in the London Times. ^ It
ran as foUows: —
The proceeds of tavern licenses, in both prov
inces, had previously formed part of the general
fund. When Mr. Draper's Act of 1845 was passed,
these proceeds were removed from the general
fund and alienated to special uses in each section
of the province. In Lower Canada they were
given to the municipalities : in Upper Canada
they were applied to the payment of the rebeUion
losses. Now in Upper Canada the sums in question
were considerably greater than in Lower Canada:
the license taxes in the one case amounted (taking
an average of the last four years) to £9,664 ; in the
other case to only £5,557. Hence, argued LaFon
taine, the effect of the proceeding was to give to
Upper Canada an overplus of £4,107 a year, which
was equivalent to a capital sum of £68,454. The
same kind of segregation had also (in 1846) been
made of the marriage license proceeds, in which
case the surplus accruing amounted to £1,785 and
represented a capital of £29,764. Putting the two
together it appears, according to LaFontaine's
view of it, that Upper Canada thus received the
equivalent of a capital sum of £98,000. Since the
present bill only asked for £90,000 (the other
1 March 23rd, 1849. 317

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
£10,000 of the £100,000 representing claims
already certified), Lower Canada was only asking
what was well within its rights. This argument of
LaFontaine may, or may not, appear convincing.
Since the Upper Canadian license tax was paid
by the people of Upper Canada, it is hard to see
that the surplus of its proceeds over the tax in
Lower Canada had anything to do with the case.
It must be remembered also that the Lower
Canadian tax was used in Lower Canada. But
the argument is part of the history of the time and
is here given for what it is worth.
Intense excitement prevailed throughout Canada
during the parliamentary discussion of the bill.
Public meetings of protest were held by the Tories
throughout the country. Petitions poured in against
the measure, many of them directed to Lord Elgin
himself, in order, if possible, to force him from
his ground of constitutional neutrality. Resolutions
were drawn up at a meeting in Toronto praying
the queen to disaUow the biU if it should pass. In
many places the excitement thus occasioned led
to violent demonstrations, in some cases, as at
BeUeviUe, to open riots. The inflamed state of
public feeling at this period and the exasperation
of the Tories are evidenced by the disturbances
which occurred at Toronto on the reappearance of
WiUiam Lyon Mackenzie. On this occasion Bald
win, Blake and the ex-leader of the rebels were
burned in effigy in the streets of the town. The

BURNING OF THE EFFIGIES
following is the exultant account given of the
burning by the Toronto Patriot, the most
thorough-going organ of Toryism.
"On Thursday evening [March 22nd, 1849],
the inhabitants of Toronto witnessed a very un
common spectacle — more uncommon than surpris
ing at this time. The attorney-general, the proud
solicitor-general and the hero of GaUows HiU
were associated in one common fate, amid the
cheers and exultations of the largest concourse of
people beheld in Toronto since the election of
Dunn and Buchanan. The three dolls, — ^would
that their originals had been as harmless ! — ^were
elevated on long poles and paraded round the
town, visiting the residences of the three noble
individuals, and subsequently two of them were
burned near Mr. Baldwin's residence and the
third opposite Mr. Mcintosh's, in Yonge Street,
the house in which the humane and gaUant Mac
kenzie had taken up his abode. It woiUd be im
possible to describe the expressions of indignation
and disgust on the part of the people towards the
triumvirate." The scene was concluded by smashing in the
front windows of the Mcintosh house with a
voUey of stones. The partisan press spared no
efforts to arouse a desperate opposition to the
biU. "Men of Canada of British origin," pleaded
the Church,^ a forceful pubhcation devoted to
1 March 29th, 1849.
819

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Anglican Toryism and the doctrines of Dr.
Strachan, "no sleep to the eyes, no slumber
to the eyelids, until you have avenged this
most atrocious, this most unparalleled insult!"
In the same month the New York Herald de
clared that the " fate of Canada was near at hand."
"This may be the commencement," it said, "of a
struggle which wiU end in the consummation so
devoutly wished by the majority of the people, —
a complete and perfect separation of those prov
inces from the rule of England."
In the mother country, both in and out of par
hament, loud protests were raised against the
measure. The London Times interpreted it as the
selfish machination of a rebel faction. " As things
have been turned upside down since 1838," said
a Times editorial on the Canadian situation, "and
what was then the rebel camp is now the govern
ment of Canada, it is obvious that no measure of
compensation is likely to pass which does not
include some of the offending gentlemen them
selves in the biU of damages made out. The
alternative is either no compensation to anybody,
or to aU ahke. This must be very annoying to the
Royalists (sic), who marched to and fro, and who
incurred expense, wounds, and loss of health by
their prompt succour of the state. . . . If we would
judge of the feelings excited in the breast of such
ardent Royalists as Sir Allan MacNab, we must
suppose a parhament of Chartists and Repealers,
acnn

ACT OF INDEMNIFICATION
not only dividing among themselves aU the offices
of the State, but also compensating one another for
their past sufferings with magnificent grants from
the treasury." It is to be noted that the usual Tory
designation of their party as Loyalists is not strong
enough for the Times in this issue, which implies a
stUl more chivalrous degree of devotion to the
throne by using the term Royalists. The same
article speaks of the " loyal population of Canada
being considerably excited," talks of their settled
"impression that rebellion has been rewarded and
loyalty insulted by the British Crown," and de
scribes Canada as a "colony that hangs by a
thread,"* The crowning event in the agitation against the
Act of Indemnification was the riot at Montreal,
which broke out on the news that Lord Elgin had
given his assent to the bill. This was on April
25th, 1849. Lord Elgin's consent to the measure
was, of course, the result of due deliberation, but
the immediate circumstances of giving assent were
of a somewhat hurried character. Among other
bills awaiting his sanction was the new tariff biU.
Navigation was just opening at Montreal and the
sudden news that an incoming vessel was sighted
in the river induced Lord Elgin, at the request
of the ministry,^ to proceed in haste to the houses
1 London Times, March 21st, 1849.
' Hincks went out to "Monklands" to request the governor-general
to assent at once to the tariff bill. Reminiscences, p. 194.
321

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of parliament. It seemed to Lord Elgin that he
might as well take advantage of the occasion to
assent to the other bills that were also waiting his
approval. The news that the bill had become law
spread rapidly through the to\\Ti, and the haste
of Lord Elgin's proceedings gave an entirely false
colour to what had happened. As the governor-
general left the houses of parliament "after the
consummation of his nefarious act," (to use the
words of a Tory journalist),* he was greeted with
the " groans and curses " of a crowd that had
assembled about the building. As he drove
through the city on his way to his official residence
of "Monklands," the groans and curses were accom
panied with a shower of random missiles. Stones
crashed against the sides of the governor's carriage
and rotten eggs bespattered it with filth, but no
serious harm was done to its occupants. As the
evening drew on the excitement throughout the
city increased apace. The fire bells of the town
were rung to call the people into the streets, and
a printed announcement was passed through the
crowd that a mass meeting would be held at eight
o'clock in the Champ de Mars.
All this time the House was in session. MacNab
warned the ministry that a riot was brewing, but
the government were reluctant to make a pre
cipitate call for military help. At eight o'clock the
wide expanse of the Champ de Mars was fiUed
^ Montreal Courier.

RIOT AT MONTREAL
with a surging and excited mob, howling with
applause as it listened to speeches in denunciation
of the tyranny that had been perpetrated. Pres
ently from among the crowd the cry arose, " To
the parliament house," and the rioters, ready for
any violence, hurried through the narrow streets
of the lower town to the legislative building. On
their way they wrecked the offices of the Pilot
with a shower of stones. A few minutes later a
simUar voUey burst in the windows of the house
of parliament. The members fled from the haU
in confusion, while the rioters invaded the building
and fiUed the hall of the assembly itself. The
furniture, chandeliers and fittings of the hall were
smashed to pieces in the wild rage of destruction,
A member of the crowd took his seat in the
speaker's chair and shouted, " I dissolve this
House." While the tumult and destruction were still
in progress, the cry was raised, " The parlia
ment house is on fire," The west end of the build
ing, doubtless dehberately fired by the rioters, was
soon a sheet of flames. The fire spread fiercely
from room to room and from wing to wing of the
building, " The fury and rapidity with which the
flames spread," said an eye-witness, "can hardly be
imagined : in less than fifteen minutes the whole
of the wing occupied by the House of Assembly
was in flames, and, owing to the close connection
between the two haUs of the legislature, the
323

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
chamber of the legislative council was involved
in the same destruction." The fierce hght of the
flames iUuminated the city from the mountain to
the river, and spread fear in the hearts of its in
habitants. The firemen who arrived on the scene
were forcibly held back from staying the progress
of the fire, and the houses of the parliament of
Canada burned fiercely to ruin. The assembly
library of twenty thousand volumes perished in the
flames. MacNab, with characteristic loyalty, rescued
from the burning buUding the portrait of his be
loved queen. The military, at length arrived on
the ground, stayed the progress of further violence,
but the wild excitement that pervaded the popu
lace of the city boded further trouble. Next even
ing the riots broke out again. Attacks were made
on the houses of Hincks and Wolfred Nelson.
The boarding house on St. Antoine Street, occu
pied by Baldwin and Price, was assaulted with a
shower of stones : LaFontaine's residence — a new
house which he had just purchased, but where he
was fortunately not at that moment in residence
— was attacked, the furniture demolished, and the
stables given to the flames. Not until the evening
of the twenty-seventh did the troops, aided by
a thousand special constables armed with cutlasses
and pistols, succeed in restoring order to the
streets. Three days later the governor-general, attempt
ing to drive into the city from his residence,
324

LORD ELGIN MOBBED
where he had remained since the twenty-fifth, was
again attacked. As he passed through the streets
on his way to the government offices in the
Chateau de Ramezay on Notre Dame Street,
volleys of stones and other missiles greeted the
progress of his carriage. Before reaching his
destination Lord Elgin found his way blocked
with a howling, furious crowd, while shouts of
"Down with the governor-general" urged the
mob to violence. The governor's escort of troops
succeeded in forcing back the crowd and effecting
his entrance into the building, but his return
journey was converted into a precipitate flight, the
crowd pursuing the vice-regal carriage in " cabs,
caliches and everything that would run." Fortu
nately Lord Elgin escaped unhurt, but his brother
was severely injured by a stone hurled after the
carriage and several of his escort were hurt. Such
were the disgraceful scenes which lost for Montreal
the dignity of being the seat of government.
It was but natural that the progress of events in
Canada should excite great attention in the
mother country. In the British parhament, the
government of Lord John Russell was prepared
to defend the right of the Canadians to legislate as
they pleased in regard to the matter at issue, Mr,
Roebuck and the Radicals went even further and
defended the equity of the biU itself. The Peelites,
or at any rate the greater part of them, voted with
the government against interference. But the
325

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
thorough-going Tories insisted on viewing the issue
as one between loyalty and treason, and demanded
that the imperial government should either dis
aUow the Act or contravene its operation by an Act
of the British parliament. In the middle of the
month of June the Canadian question was debated
both in the House of Commons and in the House
of Lords. Not the least important of those who
appeared as the champions of the Canadian Tories
was Mr. Gladstone. His rising reputation, the
especial attention he had devoted to colonial ques
tions, and the fact that he had been Lord Stanley's
successor as colonial secretary in the cabinet of Sir
Robert Peel, combined to render him a formidable
adversary to the Canadian ministry. His speech on
the Rebellion Losses Act shows his usual marvel
lous command of detail and powers of presentation.
Mr. Gladstone's great objection to the Canadian
statute was that, in his opinion, a large number of
virtual rebels would receive compensation under
its operation: he begged that Lord .lohn RusseU's
government would either disallow the Act or
obtain from the Canadian parliament an amend
ment of its provisions which should place the com
pensation on a basis more strictly defined. But
what is still more noticeable in Mr. Gladstone's
speech is his opinion that the government had
allowed Lord Elgin too great latitude in the mat
ter, and that the scope of the Act exceeded the
proper limits of colonial power. "It might not be
326

GLADSTONE ON CANADIAN AFFAIRS
politic for the colonial secretary," he said, "to
interpose his advice in respect to merely local mat
ters, but it was his first duty to tender his advice
regarding measures which involved not only im
perial rights but the honour of the Crown. That
advice ought not to be delayed until a measure
assumed the form of a statute, but should be given
at the first possible moment, and before pubhc
opinion was appealed to in the country."
Roebuck, Disraeli and others participated in
the debate and a certain Mr. Cochrane, repre
senting the outraged patriotism of the extreme
Tories, referred in scathing terms to Baldwin
and LaFontaine, speaking of them as fugitives
from justice in the days of the rebellion.
The speech of Mr. Gladstone on the Canadian
question is of especial importance in the present
narrative in that it called forth an answer from the
pen of Francis Hincks, in the form of a letter to
the London Times.^ Shortly after the passage of
the indemnification bill Hincks had left Montreal
(May 14th, 1849) for England. The object of his
visit was, in the first place, of a financial character,
the Canadian government being anxious to negoti
ate its securities in the London market. But the
inspector-general acted also as a special envoy to
the imperial cabinet in regard to the great question
of the day and discussed the RebeUion Losses
question with Lord John Russell and Earl Grey.
1 London Times, June 20th, 1849.
827

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Hincks also conversed on the subject in detaU
with Mr. Gladstone who found himself unable to
adopt the views of the Canadian minister.
In his letter to the Times, Hincks deals at some
length with Mr. Gladstone's arguments in regard
to the "payment of rebels," In the debates in the
recent session ofthe Canadian parliament, Hincks
had said that certain persons convicted of high
treason in Upper Canada had received compen
sation under the Upper Canada Rebellion Losses
Act, which was carried into effect by Tory com
missioners under instructions from a Tory govern
ment. Both Disraeli and Gladstone had dissented
from this. Disraeli had broadly asserted that there
had been no rebels in Upper Canada, and that con
sequently no restrictive clauses were necessary in
the Act for that section of the province. Gladstone
had said that "there was no ground to suppose that
any rebel had received any sum by way of com
pensation." Hincks, by a very accurate citation of
individual cases, shows that there were rebels in
Upper Canada and that some of them, at any rate,
had received compensation under the Act. Hincks
does not mean to imply that, as a consequence of
this, the government should expressly seek to re
ward the rebels of the Lower Province, "I do not
of course mean to contend that, if it be wrong re
bels should be compensated for their losses, the fact
that they were so compensated in Upper Canada is
any excuse for the Lower Canada Act, But I do
328

HINCKS'S LETTER TO THE "TIMES"
contend that it is highly discreditable to a party
which, when in power, admitted claims of this
description without the slightest complaint, to
agitate the entire province, to get up an excite
ment which they themselves are unable to control,
because their opponents have introduced a measure
much more stringent in its details, but under
which it is possible that some parties suspected
or accused of treason, but never convicted, may
be paid,"
The letter concludes with some interesting
paragraphs in which the writer discusses the
strictures that had been passed in the course
of the debate in the House of Commons* upon
the leaders of the Canadian ministry. " Nothing
can be more untrue," writes Hincks, " than the
aUegation that any member of the present ad
ministration was implicated in the rebeUion. No
reward was ever offered for the apprehension of
any one of them. Mr. Baldwin never was a fugitive
from justice. Such absurd statements as I have
heard regarding occurrences in Canada, only prove
that it is very unsafe for parties at a distance of
three thousand miles to interfere in our affairs.
I confess, however, that I was not very sorry that
the members of the House of Commons had
an opportunity afforded them of hearing at least
i See especiaUy the speech of Mr. B. Cochrane (London Times,
June 15th, 1849) and his reference to Baldwin, LaFontaine, Papineau,
and the "arch-traitor Mackenzie." 329

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
one speech in the true Canadian Tory spirit, as
they are enabled to judge of the manner in which
the passions of the mob of Montreal were in
flamed. "Let me, in conclusion," wrote Hincks, "say a
word or two regarding ' French domination.' I
should imagine that the author of Coningsby [Mr.
Disraeli] understands the meaning of getting up a
'good cry' to serve party purposes. The cry of the
Canadian Tory party is ' French domination,' and
it is especiaUy intended to excite the sympathy
of people in England who understand httle about
our politics, but who are naturaUy inclined to
sympathize with a British party governed by
French influence. A little reflection would con
vince them that ' French domination ' cannot
exist in the united province. I need scarcely say
that it is whoUy untrue that it does exist. The
administration consists of five members from
Upper Canada and five from Lower Canada, The
former represent some of the most important con
stituencies in Upper Canada, If the administration
of the government or of the legislature were made
subservient to French influence, is it probable, I
would ask, that the government woiUd be sup
ported by the British people of Upper Canada?
AU I shaU say in conclusion is, that I claim for
myself and my coUeagues from Upper Canada —
and in truth and justice I should say for my
Lower Canadian colleagues also — that we have as
330

THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK
much true British feeling as any member of that
party which seems to wish to monopolize it."
The financial purpose of Hincks's visit to Eng
land — the strengthening of the credit of the colony
in the London market — -was accomplished with
marked success. The inspector-general realized that
the agitation occasioned by recent events, and the
pervading ignorance in reference to the economic
position and prospects of Canada, seriously pre
judiced the securities of the province in the eyes
of the British investors. To meet this situation,
Hincks prepared and published in London a
pamphlet entitled, Canada and its Financial Re
sources. In this publication he shows that the
money hitherto borrowed by the Canadian govern
ment had been employed in public works of a
sound and reproductive character. The imperial
guarantee loan of £1,500,000 and the issue of
provincial debentures of a somewhat larger sum
make a gross total of £3,223,839, and represent
the larger part of the cost of the public works
of the province, the total cost being estimated
by Hincks at £3,703,781 sterling. In order to
show the utility and profitableness of the ex
penditure thus made, Hincks composed a series
of tables showing the growth and progress of the
colony for the last twenty-five years. The popu
lation of Upper Canada had risen, between 1824
and 1848, from 151,097 to 723,000 inhabitants:
Lower Canada, whose population in 1825 had
331

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
stood at 423,630, now contained 766,000 souls.
The land under cultivation in Upper Canada had
increased during the same period from 535,212
to 2,673,820 acres : the yield of local taxation in
Upper Canada had increased from £10,235 to
£86,058 ; while the estimated revenue for the
united province in the current year stood at
£574,640, a sum whose proportion to the public
debt showed the stable condition of the provincial
finances. Although financial and fiscal discussion
forms the major part of Hincks's pamphlet, he
deals also with the political situation, reasserts the
essential loyalty of the Reform party, urges the
necessity for the further development of the
province and calls for imperial aid in the building
of an intercolonial raUway. The effect of this
pamphlet and of the series of letters of a similar
character which Hincks contributed to the Daily
Mail in the following August, was most happy. An
increasing confidence on the part of the British
public in the financial soundness of the Canadian
government, tended to offset the unfortunate effect
produced by the agitation over the Act of In
demnification. The attitude of Lord Elgin in regard to the
Rebellion Losses Bill has been much discussed.
At the time of the adoption of the measure his
conduct was made the subject of mistaken censure
from various quarters. He was blamed for not
having refused his assent to the bill : he was
332

LORD ELGIN JUSTIFIED
blamed for not having dissolved the parliament:
he was blamed for having afterwards remained for
weeks at "Monklands" without having insisted on
forcing his way into the city under military pro
tection. But time has justified his conduct in
every respect. One must read the journals of the
time to appreciate how much the governor-general
was called upon to bear, and with what grave
responsibility the offiqp of constitutional head of
the country becomes invested in moments of
danger. The Tory press was fiUed with bitter
personal attacks. "This man's father," said the
Montreal Courier, "was denounced by the noblest
bard, but one, that England ever produced, as the
Robber of the Greek Temples;* his son wiU be
heard of in future times as the man who lost for
England the noble colony won by the blood of
Wolfe." Compare with this the utterance of Lord
Elgin made at the same time. "I am prepared
to bear any amount of obloquy that may be cast
upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent it, no
stain of blood shall rest upon my name."
In his treatment of the Rebellion liOsses Bill and
his firm conviction that it was his duty to give his
assent. Lord Elgin achieved for Canada one of
the greatest victories of its constitutional progress.
" By reserving the biU," wrote Lord Elgin after
wards, " I should only throw on Her Majesty's
1 The reference is, of course, to the collection of the £lgin
marbles, 383

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
government a responsibility which rests, and I
think, ought to rest, on me. ... If I had dis
solved parliament, I might have produced a re
bellion, but assuredly I should not have procured
a change of ministry." As the sight of flame and
the sound of riot drifts into the past, a momentous
achievement appears written large on the surface
of our history by I^ord Elgin's acceptance of the
Act of Indemnification. It signified that, from now
on, the government of Canada, whether conducted
iU or weU, was at least to be conducted by the
people — the majority of the people — of Canada
itself. The history of responsible government in
our country reaches here its culmination.

334

CHAPTER XI
THE END OF THE MINISTRY
rMHE story of responsible government, with
-L which the present volume is mainly con
cerned, practically ends, as has just been said,
with the passage of the Rebelhon Losses Bill. The
history of the concluding sessions of the I^aFon-
taine-Baldwin administration, of the disintegration
of the ministry and of the reconstruction of the
Reform government under Hincks and Morin,
belongs elsewhere. It has, moreover, already re
ceived ample treatment in other volumes of the
present series.* We are here approaching the days
of the Clear Grits, of Radicals breaking from Re
formers, of a Parti Rouge, of recrudescent Tory
ism and the political match-making of the coalition
era. But some brief account of the decline and
end of the LaFontaine-Baldwin administration
may here be appended.
Union in opposition is notoriously easier than
union in office. Opposition is a negative function,
the work of government is positive. It was but
natural, therefore, that with the accession of the
Reform party to power and the definite acceptance
of the great principle which had held them to-
* See Sir J. Bourinot, Lord Elgin, and John Lewis, George Brown.
335

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
gether, differences of opinion which had been held
in abeyance during the struggle for power, now
began to make themselves felt. The Reformers
were by profession a party of progress, and it was
natural that some among them should aim at a
more rapid rate of advance than others. "It cannot
be expected," wrote Hincks, reviewing in later
days the period before us, "that there will be the
same unanimity among the members of a party
of progress as in one formed to resist organic
changes : in the former there will always be a
section dissatisfied with what they think the inert
ness of their leaders."*
Moreover, the great upheaval of the Rebelhon
Losses agitation tended to throw into a strong
light all existing differences of opinion and to in
tensify political feeling. The movement towards
annexation with the United States in the summer
of 1849, which led a number of the British resi
dents of Montreal to sign a manifesto in its
favour, was doubtless dictated as much by political
spite as by serious conviction.^ But it is character
istic, none the less, of the precipitating influence
exercised upon the formation of parties by the
great agitation. In addition to this, the recent
events in Europe — chartism and the repeal move-
^ Political History, p. 39.
" Sir John Abbott speaking in the senate in 1889 said that tho
" annexation manifesto was the outburst of a movement of petulance."
See also J. Pope, Life of Sir John A. Macdonald, Vol. L, p. 70.
336

A SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION
ment in the British Isles, and the democratic
revolutions on the continent — gave a strong im
pulse to the doctrines of Radicalism, and at the
same time repeUed many people from the party
of progress and directed them towards the party
of order and stability. The years of the mid-
century were consequently an era in which the
formation and movements of parties were modified
under new and powerful impulses.
In despite of this, the liaFontaine-Baldwin ad
ministration throughout the years 1849 and 1850
remained in a position of exceptional power. It
suffered indeed to some extent from the desertion
of Malcolm Cameron who resigned his place in a
ministry that moved too slowly for his liking
(December, 1849), and from the elevation of so
strong a combatant as Mr. Blake to the calmer
atmosphere of the bench. But it gained something
also from the propitious circumstances of the time.
The cloud of commercial depression that had hung
over Canada was passing away. The removal of the
last of the British Navigation Acts in 1849 — for
which Baldwin, a convinced free trader, and his
fellow-Reformers had long since petitioned the
imperial government — brought to the ports of the
St. Lawrence in the ensuing year an entry of
nearly one hundred foreign vessels: the completion
of the works on the WeUand Canal, on which in all
some $6,269,000 had been expended, seemed to
inaugurate a new era for the shipping trade of the
337

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
Great Lakes, while the prospect of an early
reciprocity with the United States and the Mari
time Provinces, and the extension of the railroad
system, were rapidly reviving the agriculture and
commerce of the united provinces. The bountiful
harvest of 1850 came presently to add the chmax
to the national prosperity.
The ministry, therefore, in despite of the progress
of Radicalism, which was soon to threaten its exist
ence, was able in the session of 1850 to carry out
several reform measures of great importance. The
seat of government had meantime, in accordance
with an address from the legislature, been trans
ferred to the city of Toronto, which was henceforth
to alternate with Quebec, in four year periods, in
the honour of being the provincial capital. The
appearance of Lord Elgin at the old parliament
buildings on Front Street was greeted with loud
acclamations from a loyal population, and the Tory
party, after one or two unsuccessful attempts to
undo the Act of Indemnification by further legisla
tion, found themselves compeUed to accept the
inevitable. The reorganization of the postal system,
now transferred to the control of Canada, with the
lowering of postal rates, was one of the leading
reforms effected in the session. A new school law
for Upper Canada carried out more completely the
system inaugurated under Mr. Draper's Act,* and
confirmed the principle of granting separate schools
1 See above p. 256.
338

TWIN RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX
to Roman Catholics. An improved jury system, a
reorganization of the division courts and certain
amendments in the election law, were also among
the results of the session's work. It was noted with
congratulation by the friends of the ministry that
not a single bill adopted by the legislature was
reserved by the governor-general. The Globe in
calling attention to the fact, "unprecedented in
Canadian history," declared that it proved "the
practical existence of responsible government."
The legislative success of the session of 1850
was perhaps more apparent than real. Some great »
questions of practical reform — notably those of the
Clergy Reserves and of Seigniorial Tenure — were
still pressing for solution. In these two vexed prob
lems, which had stood before the politicians of the
two Canadas for a generation past like twin riddles
of the sphinx, were contained the eternal problem
of the Church and the State, and the like problem
of landed aristocracy against unlanded democracy.
On these the party of the Reformers could find no
common ground of agreement. These two issues
and the natural drift of political thought of the time
were bringing out more clearly each day the differ
ence between Radicals and Reformers. Neither
Baldwin nor LaFontaine had anything of the com
plexion of a Radical. The former, indeed, showed
in his private walk of life much of that reverence
for the things and ideas of the past, which is
often a part of the inconsistent equipment of
339

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
the Liberal politician. In his Municipal Act his
resuscitation of the Saxon term "reeve" had
excited the kindly ridicule of his contemporaries.
LaFontaine too had much that was conserva
tive in his temperament, and though in his
younger years no over zealous practitioner cf
religion, he set his face strongly against anything
that savoured of spoliation of the rightful claims of
the Church. As against the moderation and tem
pered zeal of the chiefs, the intemperate haste and
unqualified doctrines of some of their followers
now began to stand in rude contrast. The latter
urged the full measure of the Democratic pro
gramme. " Take from the churches," they said,
"their reserved lands that are merely a relic of old
time ecclesiastical privilege, change this mediseval
seignior of Lower Canada and his tenants into
ordinary property-holders, and give us in our con
stitutions a full and untrammelled application of
the principles of popular election, — an elected as
sembly, an elected Upper House and an elected
governor at the head."
Many of the leaders of the new Radicalism were
men not without influence in the community.
There was, in Upper Canada, William Lyon Mac
kenzie, now returned from his ungrateful exile to
fish in the troubled waters as an Independent,
and aspiring again to popular leadership; Dr. John
Rolph, the agitator of the pre-rebelhon days, who
had ridden out with Baldwin to interview the
340

THE CLEAR GRITS' PLATFORM
rebels at Montgomery's tavern, and who, hke
Mackenzie, had known the bitterness of exile;
Macdougall, a lawyer by title but by predilection a
politician and journalist, once a contributor to the
Examiner but now the editor of a Radical publica
tion called the North American. With these was
Malcolm Cameron, the recently resigned commis
sioner of public works. Out of this material was
being formed the new party of the Radicals, a
party that boasted that it wanted only men of
" clear grit," and whose members presently became
known as the Clear Grits.* Their platform, which
shows the infection of European democratic move
ments, consisted of the following demands: The
application of the elective principle to all the
officials and institutions of the country, from the
head of the government downwards ; universal
suffrage ; vote by baUot ; biennial parliaments ;
abolition of the property qualification for members
of parliament; a fixed term for the holding of
general elections and for the meeting of the legis
lature ; retrenchment ; abolition of pensions to
judges; abolition of the courts of common pleas
and chancery and the enlargement of the juris
diction of the court of queen's bench ; reduction
of lawyers' fees ; free trade ; direct taxation ; an
amended jury law ; abolition or modification of
the usury laws; abolition of primogeniture; secular-
1 Mackenzie called himself Independent, but naturally feU into
alliance with the Grits.
341

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ization of the Clergy Reserves and the abolition
of the rectories that had been created out of
that endowment.*
Such was the original group of the Clear Grits.
In later times their designation — or at least the
term " Grit" — was applied to the Reformers gener
ally and especially to the adherents of George
Brown.^ But in the beginning Brown had little
sympathy with the new party and remained, in
spite of certain Radical leanings, an adherent of
LaFontaine and Baldwin till the last. His paper,
the Globe, at first denounced the Grits as "a
miserable clique of office- seeking, bunkum- talking
cormorants, that met in a certain lawyer's office on
King Street [Macdougall's] and announced their
intention to form a new party on Clear Grit
principles." At the same time in I^ower Canada a Radical
party, foUowing the lead of Papineau, was being
formed in opposition to the policy of LaFontaine.
The career of Papineau has been the subject of so
many conflicting opinions, has met with such ex
tremes of approbation and censure, that it is
difficult to hazard an opinion on the merit of his
political conduct at this time. With LaFontaine
and the ministry he was entirely out of sympathy.
Lord Elgin, who spoke of him as " Guy Fawkes,
^ Platform adopted at a meeting of the party at Markham, March
23rd, 1860,
2 John Lewis, George Brown (Makers of Canada Series), pp. 40, 41.
342

THE PARTI ROUGE
viewed him with dislike. But among his com
patriots a group of the younger men, now called
the Parti Rouge and including A. A, Dorion,
Doutre, Dessaules and others, followed the lead
of Papineau and advocated a programme of an
equally Radical character to that of the Clear Grits.
In their party organ, L'Avenir, they demanded
universal suffrage, the repeal of the union with
Upper Canada, the abohtion of the church tithes
and election of the Upper House, while many of
them openly advocated republicanism and annexa
tion to the United States. In the legislature of
1850 Papineau maintained against the measures
of LaFontaine an unremitting opposition, and
made common cause with MacNab and his party
in voting against the government. To add to the
difficulties that were gathering about the admin
istration. Brown, of the Globe (hitherto their firm
supporter), incited by the agitation in England
over the Ecclesiastical Titles controversy, com
menced an outcry against Roman Catholicism and
all its works.
By far the worst difficulties of the ministry lay,
however, in the Clergy Reserves question,* The
history of this long-standing controversy may be
epitomized thus: the Constitutional Act of 1791^
empowered the Crown to set apart in each prov-
^ See Charles Lindsey, The Clergy Reserves.
2 31 Geo. III. c. 31. See W. Houston, Documents Illustrative of
the Canadian Constitution, for text of the Act with comments.
343

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
ince for the maintenance and support of a
Protestant clergy one-eighth of the public lands
as yet unallotted : the Crown also had power to
erect and endow rectories out of the reserve, whose
incumbents should be "presented" by the governor,
after the practice of presentation in England, In
other words, the aim of the Act Mas to create in
the two provinces an endowed State Church, The
same statute gave to the parliament of each prov
ince power to alter or repeal these arrangements
as it might see fit, provided always that such
action was sanctioned by the imperial parliament.
The Reserves had been at first exclusively claimed
and enjoyed by the Church of England, Grave
dissatisfaction arose. The other Protestant Churches
claimed that the terms of the Act permitted of
their participation in the reserve. The settlers also
complained that the arrangement impeded settle
ment, hindered the making of roads and tended
to interpose waste spaces among the farms of the
colonies. In 1819 an opinion, delivered by the law
officers of the Crown, declared that the ministers
of the Church of Scotland were entitled to a share
in the Reserves, The old Reform party in Upper
Canada of the days before the rebellion, protested
against this form of State aid to the two Churches.
Some Reformers wanted all sects to participate,
others wished the whole system abohshed. In 1831
the imperial government had invited the legislature
344

DIVISION OF THE CLERGY RESERVES
of Upper Canada to adopt a measure for the settle
ment of the question. Nothing, however, was
agreed upon. No special endowments of rectories
were made untU 1836, when Sir John Colborne
signed patents creating forty-four of them. This
occasioned stiU louder protest. In Lower Canada,
already settled and less subject to the allotment of
new lands, the matter of the Clergy Reserves never
became an acute question. It was the policy of the
Roman Catholic Church not to oppose ecclesiastical
endowment by the State.*
In 1840 the parliament of Upper Canada passed
an Act distributing the lands among the various
Protestant sects. This Act was disaUowed, but an
imperial Act^ of 1840 made a new disposition of
the Reserves. Certain parts of the Church land
had already^ been sold. The funds arising from
these sales were to be distributed, in the pro
portion of two to one, between the Churches
of England and Scotland. The rest of the Re
serves were now to be sold. Of the proceeds
arising, one-third was to go to the Church of
England, one-sixth to the Church of Scotland, and
the remainder, at the discretion of the governor
in council, was to be applied to "purposes of
public worship and religious instruction in Canada."
^ In Upper Canada 2,395,687 acres were reserved ; in Lower Canada
934,050 acres.
2 3 and 4 Vict. c. 78.
3 In virtue of 7 and 8 Geo. IV. c, 62.
345

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
In accordance with this, distribution was rnade of
these funds among the Dissenting denominations.
Such was the position of the Reserves question
in the year 1850 : the Church lands, while no
longer blocking settlement,* since they were offered
for sale when aUotted, constituted a fund of which
the Anglican Church received the lion's share, but
in which aU Protestant denominations participated.
Many of the Reform party were anxious to leave
the matter where it was, but the Radicals were
determined to have done with all connection be
tween Church and State and to force the question
to an issue. Price, the commissioner of Crown
lands, in the session of 1850, brought in a series
of resolutions declaring the reservation of the
public domain for religious purposes to have long
been a source of intense discontent, and asking the
imperial parliament to grant to the Canadian legis
lature plenary powers to deal with the lands as it
should see fit. One of these resolutions (June 21st,
1850) read: "No religious denomination can be
held to have such vested interest in the revenue
derived from the proceeds of the said Clergy Re
serves as should prevent further legislation with
respect to the disposal of them," On Price's resolu
tions, which were finaUy carried, the ministry was
divided, Hincks, who had seconded the resolutions,
^ Previous to 1827 the lands reserved could not be sold for the
beneiit of the Church. They could only be leased. In 1827 power was
given to sell one-quarter of the land. The amount which could be sold
in any one year was limited to one hundred thousand acres.
346

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION
was in favour of the secularization of the Re
serves. Of this policy he had been a consistent
advocate for many years past.*
Secularization, however, could only be accom
plished by first inducing the imperial parliament to
repeal the Act of 1840 and to refer the whole ques
tion to the Canadian legislature, Hincks's practical
political experience told him that this end could be
best accomplished by avoiding any action which
might antagonize the British parliament, and in es
pecial the House of Lords, by seeming to make Can
adian jurisdiction a menace to the privileges of the
Church. "It was clearly our policy," he wrote sub
sequently, " to ask for a repeal of the imperial Act
on the ground of our constitutional right to settle
the question according to Canadian opinion, and
not to declare to a body sufficiently prejudiced
and containing a bench of bishops, that our object
was secularization," Hincks was, therefore, of
opinion that the existing ministry should content
itself with asking for the repeal. The policy to be
afterwards adopted could be agreed upon in its
own time. Though aware of the difference of
opinion between himself and certain of his col
leagues, he saw nothing in that difference to
demand a reconstruction of the administration.
Whatever the individual opinions of the ministers
^ Reminiscences, pp. 278 et seq. Hincks published a series of letters
on the Clergy Reserves question in the Montreal Herald, December,
1882.
347

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
might be on the subject, there were no immediate
measures, he argued, which the Canadian govern
ment could take towards secularization. " To have
broken up the LaFontaine government," he wrote,
" because its leader would not pledge himself to
support secularization, when it was uncertain
whether we could obtain the repeal of the imperial
Act of 1840, would have been an act of consum
mate folly, indeed hardly short of madness."
Nevertheless, the divergence of opinion in the
cabinet was a palpable fact, LaFontaine believed in
Canadian control: he desired the repeal ofthe Act
of 1840: but he did not believe in the policy of
secularization. Rightly conceiving that the aliena
tion of the Reserves to other than religious pur
poses was the intent of Price's resolution quoted
above, he gave his vote against it. Baldwin, to his
deep regret, found himself compelled to vote
against LaFontaine on this resolution. His attitude,
as expressed in his speech on this occasion, honest
though it was, was hardly calculated to hold politi
cal support. He admitted that previous to the im
perial Act of 1840, he had, along with his fellow-
Reformers, believed in the secularization of the
Reserves and their application to provincial educa
tion: the passage ofthe Act had altered his opinion
and he believed they ought to adhere as far as pos
sible to the purpose it indicated. He did not regard
the reserved lands as being entirely the property of
the people, but recognized the vested interest created
348

TWO UNSOLVED PROBLEMS
by imperial legislation. At the same time he ex
pressed himself as opposed to any union between
Church and State, and declared that he did not
regard the Act of 1840 as necessarily a final settle
ment. With this rather vague statement of his
position, Baldwin voted in favour of the resolution
condemned by LaFontaine. The opportunity offered
by the evident lack of union on the part of the
ministry was not lost on the Opposition. Even before
the vote referred to, Boulton of the Conservative
party tried to amend one of the resolutions by sub
stituting a motion, "that, in the language of the
Hon. Robert Baldwin in his address to the electors
of the fourth riding of the county of York on De
cember 8th, 1847, preparatory to the last election,
when an adviser of the Crown on a great public
question avows a scheme which his colleagues dare
not approve, public safety and pubhc morals require
that they should separate."
The difference of opinion thus evinced among
the members of the ministry was not calculated to
strengthen their hold on their majority. At the
same time the parallel question of seigniorial
tenure* was weakening their support in Lower
Canada. This was a legacy of the old French
regime under which about eight million arpents of
land had been granted to the seigniors on a feudal
1 An admirable account of the system is to be found in the recent
work of Professor W. H. Munro of Harvard University, The Seignior
ial ^stem in Canada. (Longmans, Green, & Co., N. Y., 1907.)
349

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
basis. The holders of land (censitaires) under the seig
niors had a permanent right of occupancy but were
compelled to pay fixed yearly dues in money and
in kind, and in the event of their selling out their
tenancy must pay one-twelfth of the purchase price
to their lord. The latter had also various vexatious
privileges, such as the droit de banalite, or sole
right of grinding corn. Whatever may have been
the merits of the system in aiding the first estab
lishment of the colony, it had long since become an
anachronism. Agitation against the tenure had gone
on for years, but with the exception of a law of
1825 which permitted the seignior and censitaire by
joint consent to terminate the tenure, nothing had
been done. Granted that the system was to be
abolished, the difficult question remained, how to
abolish it. Was the land to be handed over to the
censitaire as his property in fee simple, or was it to
be given to the seignior as his absolute property, or
was some adjustment, involving proper compensa
tion, possible? The Reformers of Lower Canada
were much divided; some of them wished to see
the seigniors expropriated without compensation;
others to expropriate them with compensation;
others to leave the matter to voluntary arrange
ment aided by legislation, but not compulsory; and
others, finally, such as Papineau (himself a seignior)
wished to leave the matter where it was, LaFon
taine, while believing in the historic value of
the system, considered it injurious at the present
350

END OF THE GREAT MINISTRY
time to the interests of agriculture; he wished to
see it abohshed, but wished to find means to respect
the interests of the seigniors by a proper compensa
tion. The reference of the matter to a committee,
and the presentation of various tentative biUs,
afforded no solution, and the matter dragged for
ward from the session of 1850 to that of 1851, while
the prolonged delay led several of the Reformers to
accuse LaFontaine of dehberately temporizing for
fear of losing parliamentary support.
The end of the great ministry came in the suc
ceeding session, that of 1851, The opposition of the
Clear Grits to the government was growing more
and more pronounced and the two unsolved ques
tions proved a standing hindrance to the reunion of
the Reform party. A Canadian writer* has said
that the Reform party had become too ponderous
to be held together and that it broke of its own
weight. Indeed the united strength of the Reform
ers, Radicals, Clear Grits, Independents and the
Parti Rouge, so completely outnumbered the Con
servatives, that it was vain to expect to find
aU sections of the party disregarding their own
special views for the sake of continuing to outvote
so smaU a minority. The temptation was rather for
the leaders of the separate groups to court new alli
ances, which might convert their subordinate posi
tion in the Reform party into a dominant posi
tion in a new combination. In this way we can
* F. Taylor, Portraits of British Americans, Vol. Ill, p. 84,
351

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
understand the vote which, midway in the ses
sion of 1851, led to the resignation of Robert
Baldwin. Mackenzie, who was aiding the Clear Grits in
their persistent opposition to the cabinet, brought
in a motion (June 26th, 1851) in favour of abohshing
the court of chancery — one of the reforms recom
mended in the platforms of the Clear Grits. This
court, formerly a valid s\ibject of grievance, had
been reorganized by Baldwin in his Act of 1849,
and he had seen no reason to regard its present
operation as unsatisfactory. Mackenzie's motion was
rejected, but its rejection was only effected by the
votes of LaFontaine and his French-Canadian sup
porters : twenty-seven of the Upper Canadian votes
were given against Baldwin, many of them repre
senting the opinion of Upper Canadian lawyers.
Under happier auspices Baldwin might not have
regarded this vote as a matter of vital importance,
for he had never professed himself a believer in the
doctrine of the "double majority,"* the need, that is
to say, of a majority support in each section of the
province at the same time. But the mortification
arising in this instance was coupled with a realiza
tion of the difficulties that were thickening about
the government, and with a knowledge that the
^ Turcotte (Canada sous T Union, p. 173^ says that Baldwin by his
resignation sanctioned the principle ofthe "double majority." But com
pare Hincks, Political History, p. 28. See also letter of Baldwin to La
Fontaine, cited above, pp. 263-6.
352

BALDWIN RESIGNS
Reform party was passing under other guidance
than that of its early leaders. The vote on the
chancery question was merely made the occasion
for a resignation which could henceforth only be a
question of time.
Baldwin's resignation was tendered on June
30th, 1851. All parties united in courteous expres
sions of appreciation of his great services to the
country, and the chivalrous MacNab expressed his
regret at the determination of his old-time ad
versary. Almost immediately after the resignation
of Baldwin, LaFontaine expressed his intention
of retiring from public life after the close of the
session. He, too, had wearied of the struggle to
maintain union where none was. The committee
on seigniorial tenure, moreover, reported a pro
posal for a biU which LaFontaine found himself
compelled to consider a measure of confiscation.
The consciousness that his views on this all import
ant subject could no longer command a united sup
port confirmed him in his intention to abandon
political life. Indeed, for some years, LaFontaine
had suffered keenly from the disillusionment that
attends political life. As far back as September
23rd, 1845, he had expressed his weariness of office
in a confidential letter to Baldwin. "As to myself,"
he wrote, "I sincerely hope I will never be placed
in a situation to be obliged to take office again.
The more I see, the more I feel disgusted. It seems
as if duphcity, deceit, want of sincerity, selfishness,
353

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
were virtues. It gives me a poor idea of human
nature."* The parliamentary session terminated on August
30th, 1851. It was generally known throughout
tlie country that LaFontaine would carry into
effect, in the ensuing autumn, the intention of
resignation which he had expressed. His approach
ing retirement from public hfe was made the occa
sion of a great banquet in his honour held at the
St. Lawrence Hotel, Montreal, (October 1st, 1851.)
Morin, the life-long associate in the political career
of the leader of French Canada, occupied the chair,
while Leslie, Holmes, Nelson and other prominent
Reformers were among those present. The speech
of LaFontaine on this occasion, on which he bid
farewell to public life, is of great interest. In it he
passes in review the pohtical evolution of French
Canada during his public career.
"Twenty-one years ago," said LaFontaine,^
"when first I entered upon political life, we were
under a very different government. I refer to the
method of its administration. We had a govern
ment in which the parhament had no influence, —
the government of aU British colonies. Under this
government the people had no power, save only
the power of refusing subsidies. This was the sole
resource of the House of Assembly, and we can
^ MS. Letters of LaFontaine and Baldwin. Toronto Public Library,
2 The speech is translated from La Minerve, October 4th, 1861.

LAFONTAINE'S FAREWELL SPEECH
readily conceive with what danger such a resource
was fraught. It was but natural that this system
should give occasion to many abuses.
" We commenced, therefore, our struggle to
extirpate these abuses, to establish that form of
government that it was our right to have and
which we have to-day, — true representative English
government. Let it be borne in mind that under
our former system of government all our struggles
were vain and produced only that racial hate and
animosity which is happily passing from us to-day,
and which, I venture to hope, this banquet may
tend still further to dissipate.
"I hope that I give offence to none if, in speak
ing of the union of the provinces, I say that his
tory wiU record the fact that the union was a
project, which, in the mind of its author, aimed
at the annihUation (aneantissement) of the French-
Canadians. It was in this light that I regarded it.
But after having subsequently examined with care
this rod of chastisement that had been prepared
against my compatriots, I besought some of the
most influential among them to let me make use
of this very instrument to save those whom it was
designed to ruin, to place my fellow-countrymen in
a better position than any they had ever occupied,
I saw that this measure contained in itself the
means of giving to the people the control which
they ought to have over the government, of estab-
hshing a real government in Canada, It was under
355

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
these circumstances that I entered parliament. The
rest you know. From this moment we began to
understand responsible government, the favourite
watchword of to-day ; it was then that it was
understood that the governor must have as his
executive advisers men who possessed the con
fidence of the public, and it was thus that I came
to take part in the administration,
"For fifteen months things went fairly weU.
Then came the struggle between the ministry, of
Avhich I formed part, and Governor Metcalfe. The
result of this struggle has been that you have in
force in this country, the true principles of the
English constitution. Power to-day is in the hands
of the people. . . .
" I have said that the union was intended to
annihilate the French-Canadians. But the matter
has resulted very differently. The author of the
union was mistaken. He wished to degrade one
race among our citizens, but the facts have shown
that both races among us stand upon the same
footing. The very race that had been trodden
under foot (dans Vabaissement) now finds itself, in
some sort by this union, in a position of command
to-day. Such is the position in which I leave the
people of my race. I can only deprecate the efforts
now made to divide the population of French
Canada, but I have had a long enough experience
to assure you that such efforts cannot succeed : my
compatriots have too much common sense to for-
356

CLOSE OF BALDWIN'S CAREER
get that, if divided, they would be powerless and
we be, to use the expression of a Tory of some
years ago, ' destined to be dominated and led by
the people of another race.' For myself, I spurn the
efforts that are made to sunder the people of
French Canada. Never will they succeed."
LaFontaine resigned in October, 1851. The
break-up of the ministry was, of course, fol
lowed by a general election in which he played
no part. Baldwin presented himself to the elec
tors of the fourth riding of York and was de
feated by Hartman, a Clear Grit. In his speech
to the electors, after the announcement of his
defeat, he declared that he had felt it his duty
once more to place himself before them and "not
to take upon himself the responsibility of origin
ating the disruption of a bond which had been
formed and repeatedly renewed between him and
the electors of the north riding." With the election
of 1851, Robert Baldwin's public career entirely
terminates. From that time until his death, seven
years later, he lived in complete retirement at
"Spadina." Though but forty-seven years of age at
the time of his resignation, his health had suffered
much from the assiduity of his parliamentary
labours. In 1854 he was created a Companion of
the Bath, and in the following year the govern
ment of John A. Macdonald offered him the
position of chief-justice of the common pleas.
This offer, and the later invitation (1858) to accept
357

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
a nomination for the legislative council (then be
come elective), Baldwin's failing health compelled
him to decline. He died on December 9th, 1858,
and was buried in the family sepulchre, called St.
Martin's Rood, on the Spadina estate, whence his
remains were subsequently removed to St. James
Cemetery, Toronto.
LaFontaine, in retiring from political life at the
age of forty-four, had yet a distinguished career
before him on the bench. Returning, after his
resignation, to legal occupations, he was appointed
in 1853 chief-justice of Lower Canada, and in
the year foUowing was created a baronet in
recognition of his distinguished career. As chief-
justice. Sir Louis LaFontaine presided over the
sittings of the seigniorial tenure court established
for the adjustment of claims under the Act of
1854, and attained a distinction as a jurist which
rivalled his eminence as a political leader. In 1860
LaFontaine, whose first wife, as has been seen,* had
died many years before, married a Madame Kinton,
widow of an English officer.^ Of this marriage were
born two sons, both of whom died young. Sir
Louis LaFontaine died at Montreal, February
26th, 1864.
It is beyond the scope of the present volume
to follow the subsequent political career of Francis
'' See page 47.
^ See L. O. David, Biographies Canadiennes (Montreal, 1870) : Sir
Louis H. LaFontaine.
358

HINCKS'S CLOSING YEARS
Hincks. His reconstruction of the Reform party,
his joint premiership with Morin, and the " sleep
less vigilance" of his policy of railroad develop
ment and public improvement, form an important
chapter in the history of Canada to which Sir John
Bourinot and other authors of the present series
have done ample justice. Hincks's career as a
colonial governor in Barbadoes and Guiana, his
subsequent return to Canada as Sir Francis
Hincks, and the story of his services as minister
of finance (1869-73) under Sir John A. Mac
donald, lie altogether apart from the subject-
matter of this book; Sir Francis Hincks died
August 18th, 1885, after a long, active and use
ful hfe. His Reminiscences of his Public Life, pub
hshed in 1884, is pi*ecisely one of those books which
it is greatly to be desired that men who have taken
a large part in public affairs would more frequently
give to the world. For Canadian political history
from 1840 to 1854, it will always remain an author
ity of the first importance.
It may, at first sight, appear strange that the two
great Reformers, whose joint career has been
chronicled in the foregoing pages, should have
abandoned pohtical life at an age when most
statesmen are but on the threshold of their
achievements. But the resignation of Baldwin and
LaFontaine meant that their work was done. To
find a real basis of political union between French ^
and British Canada, to substitute for the strife
359

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS
of unreconciled races the fellow-citizenship of two
great peoples, and set up in the foremost of British
colonies an ensample of self-government that
should prove the lasting basis of empire, — this was
the completed work by which they had amply
earned the rest of eventide after the day of toU.

860

INDEX

INDEX

A
Act op Union, see Union, Act of
Alywin, Mr., 79, 87, 130, 134, 262,
284
Amnesty Act, 292
Ashburton, Lord, 118
Aurore (newspaper), 142
Aylmer, Lord, 21 B
Bagot, Lady Mary, 148
Bagot, Sir Charles, 49 (note) ; 113,
114, 120, 140-2, 151, 162, 163,
171, 193
Baldwin Act, 106
Baldwin, Dr. William, 23, 24,
25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 42, 170, 177,
187
Baldwin, Robert, birth and parent
age, 25 ; school days, 25 ; studies
law, 25 ; political views, 27 ;
enters public life, 28 ; drafts
petition in Willis affair, 29 ;
enters assembly, 31 ; marriage,
32 ; views on situation in 1836, 35;
appointed to office by Sir F. Head,
38 ; letter to Peter Perry on his
resignation in 1836, 39 ; visit to
England, 42 ; his relations to the
rebellion, 44 ; interview with
rebels, 45 ; demands responsible
government, 62 ; in executive
council, 63 ; resigns, 64 ; solici
tor-general, 76 ; letter to Syden
ham, 78 ; recommends recon

struction of ministry, 79 ; resigns
office, 80 ; the vote on public
works, 98, 99 ; opposes local gov
ernment bill, 102 ; speech in
assembly against Hincks, 103 ;
elected in Hastings, 116 ; pro
poses LaFontaine as candidate
for fourth riding of York, 116;
overtures from Bagot, 121-6 ;
speech in assembly on imperial
connection, 128; enters cabinet
with LaFontaine, 133 ; stands for
Hastings, 136 ; election declared
void, 136 ; denounced by the
Patriot, 146; personal descrip
tion, 147 ; relations to Metcalfe,
166; dismissal recommended, 167;
opinions of Kaye, 169 ; speech in
assembly, 178 ; moves resolution
concerning seat of government,
182 ; prepares Secret Societies
Bill, 186 ; burnt in effigy, 187 ;
introduces University Bill, 190,
191 ; resigns office (3843), 199 et
seq. ; his interview with Metcalfe,
201 ; speaks in assembly on resig
nation, 213 ; guest at banquet at
North American Hotel, 220 ;
campaign against Metcalfe, 226,
226 ; tour in Lower Canada, 226;
contrasted with British Radicals,
229 ; views on British connec
tion, 230 ; denounced by Lord
Stanley, 234 ; opposed by Viger,
236 ; speech before Reform Asso-
363

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS

ciation, 238 ; attacked by Buch
anan, 239 ; attacked by Ryerson,
245, 246 ; resigns office of queen's
counsel, 250 ; elected in York
(1844), 252; attacks Metcalfe's
elevation to the peerage, 257 ;
correspondence with LaFontaine,
262, 263 ; views on " double
majority," 263 ; speech of No
vember 11th, 1846, 268 ; elected
in York (1847), 278 ; second ad
ministration, 281 ; moves an
amendment, 283 ; attorney-gen
eral, 284 ; interview with Lord
Elgin, 285 ; prepares Municipal
Corporations Act, 296 ; Baldwin
Act, 297 ; seconds resolutions on
Rebellion Losses, 310 ; speech
on Rebellion Losses (February
27th, 1849), 312; burned in
effigy, 318, 319 ; votes in favour
ofthe secularization ofthe Clergy
Reserves, 348, 349 ; decides to
resign, owing to the vote on the
chancery question and difficulties
surrounding the government, 352,
353 ; defeated in the election for
the fourth riding of York, 357 ;
closing years, 357 ; made a Com
panion of the Bath, 357 ; his
death and burial, 358
Barthe, Mr., of Yamaska, 130
Barthele'my, Mr., 83
Berthelot, Adele, 47
Blake, W. H., 223, 279, 284, 314,
316, 318, 337
Borne, Mr., member for Rimouski,
137
Boulton, J., 15
Bourinot, Sir J., 293, 313
364

Brown, George, 223, 224 ; an ad
herent of LaFontaine and Bald
win, 342 ; commences an outcry
against Roman Catholicism, 343
Buchanan, Isaac, 90, 239
BuUer, Charles, 235

Cameron, Malcolm, 90, 286, 337,
341
Canadian Alliance Association, 16,
292
Canal system of Canada, 98
Capital city of Canada, see Seat
of government
Carleton, Major-General, 3
Caroline episode, 82
Caron correspondence, 266 ; see
also Caron, Rene
Caron, Rene', 83, 259, 284
Cathcart, Lord, 265
Cartwright, Mr., declines the post
of solicitor-general, 120, 121
Christie, D. , 214
Clear Grits, their platform, 341,
342
Clergy Reserves, 7, 10, 41, 42, 83 ;
a summary of the question to
the year 1850, 343-6; Price's reso
lution in respect to, 346 ; secular
ization of, 347-9
Colborne, Sir John, lieutenant-
governor, 14, 38, 42, 48, 59, 115
Colonial Advocate, 13
Commissioners, for Rebellion Loss
es, 308
Constitutional Act, 6
Constitutional Reform Society, 42
Constitutional Societies, 150
Craig, Sir James, 17

INDEX

Customs, see Tariff
Cuvillier, Mr., his stormy election
to the speakership, 86-8
D
Dalhousie, Lord, 19
Daly, D., 76, 134, 214, 247, 263,
276
Davidson, commissioner of Crown
lands, 124, 133
Day, C. D., 76, 80, 107
Districts, see Local government
"Double Majority," discussion of
the principle of, 263
Draper, W. H., 76, 77, 80, 81, 91,
92, 122, 126, 127, 132, 177, 183,
197, 216, 224, 236, 236, 237, 250,
264, 265, 268, 262, 299, 307, 317.
338
Drummond county, address from,
249
Dunlop, Dr., 132
Dunn, J. H.,78, 134, 263
Durham, Lord, high commissioner
and governor-general of Canada,
17, 53 et seq., 149, 161, 163, 274
E
Election Laws, 144
Elgin, Lord, as governor-general of
Canada, 272 et seq. ; his idea of
the true solution of the Canadian
question, 282, 283 ; pleased with
his new ministry, 285; announces
the repeal of the clause of the
Act of Union which had declared
English as the sole official langu
age of the legislature, 287 ; and
the queen's intention to pardon
all political offences occasioned
by the rebellion of 1837, 287 ;

gives his assent to the passage of
the Act of Indemnification, 321 ;
mobbed in Montreal, 322, 324;
his attitude in regard to the Re
bellion Losses Bili, 332-4
Examiner, the, 58, 104, 217
Executive Council (Lower Canada),
9
Executive Council (Upper Canada),
9 F
Family Compact, 11, 12, 15, 24, 27,
28, 61, 170, 180
Famine of 1846-7, 278
French language, use of, 255, 287
G
Gladstone, Hon. W. E , his speech
on the Rebellion Losses Act, 326,
327
Glenelg, Lord, 36, 42
Girouard, M., 124, 134
Goderich, Lord, 15, 30
Gore, district council of, 227
Gosford, Lord, governor-general, 46
Gowan, Ogle R., 187, 218, 279
Grand Trunk Railroad, 301
" Great debate," the, 231
"Great ministry," the, (second La
Fontaine-Baldwin administration)
281 et seq.
Great Western Railroad, 301
Grenville, Lord, 7
Grey, Earl (first), ministry of, 53,
59, 267
Grey, Earl (second), colonial secre
tary, 267, 273, 286
H
Habeas Corpus Act, 48
Hagerman, solicitor-general, 15, 77
365

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS

Harrison, S. B., 76, 78, 134
Head, Sir Edmund, 36
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 16, 32,
35-9, 41, 42, 44, 62, 77, 246, 284
Higginson, Captain, 172 et seq.
Hinck.s, Francis (later Sir Francis),
birth and parentage, 32 ; early
life, 32 ; visits West Indies, 33 ;
comes to Canada, 33 ; settles at
York, 83 ; marriage, 34 ; busi
ness enterprises, 34 ; friendship
with Baldwin, 34 ; views on situ
ation in 1830, 36 ; opinions on Sir
F Head, 36 ; his relation to the
rebellion, 44 ; founds the Exam
iner, 58 ; meets LaFontaine and
Morin, 63 ; elected for Oxford,
69 ; his opinions, 85 ; letter to
the Examiner, 87 ; speaks in as
sembly, 91 ; speech on the union,
96 ; policy of public works, 98 ;
local government bill, 102, 103 ;
defends him&cM in \h& Examiner,
104 ; in executive council, 118 ;
address to Oxford constituents,
119 ; acceptance of office criti
cized, 120 ; accused of sympathy
with rebellion, 121 ; defends
himself in assembly, 130 ; speech
in assembly, 131 ; opinion of
LaFontaine, 170; personal de
scription of, 179; speech in assem
bly, 179 ; burnt in effigy, 187 ;
amends the tariff, 189 ; speaks in
debate on resignation, 214 ; re
turns to journalism, 217 ; attacks
on, 218 ; controversy with Wake-
iield, 219; in Metcalfe contro
versy, 238 ; petitions parlia
ment regarding election of
866

1844, 253 (note); defeated in
Oxford, 252 ; views on party
reconstruction, 261 ; views on
Lord Elgin, 275 ; elected for
Oxford, 279 ; inspector-general,
284 ; prepares tariff and railroad
legislation of 1849, 301 ; goes to
London as a special envoy to the
imperial cabinet in regard to the
Rebellion Losses question (1849),
327 ; his letter to the Times in
response to Gladstone's speech
on the Rebellion Losses Act,
327-31 ; the financial purpose of
his visit to England, 331, 332;
favours the secularization of the
Clergy Reserves, 346, 347 ; hia
last years and death, 359
Hincks, Rev. T. D., 32
Hume, Joseph, 229 I
Indemnification Act, see Rebellion
Losses
Irving, .ffimilius, 177
J
Jackson, Sir Richard, 113
Joliette, 83
Judicature Acts, 292
Judicial system, 300, 302
K
Kaye, W., author of Life of Lord
Metcalfe, 169
Kempt, Sir J , 20
KiUaly, H. H., 76, 133, 134
King's CoUege, 191, 286, 293
Kingston, description of, 73, 74
Kinton, Madame, LaFontaine's
second wife, 358

INDEX

Lambton, John, see Durham, Lord
LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry
(first), 113 et seq. ; the first
Canadian cabinet in which
the principle of colonial self-
government was embodied,
1 37, 138 ; goes out of office,
199 et seq. ; second administration,
281 et seq., 309; holds a position
of exceptional power throughout
1849-60, 337 ; carries out reform
measures of importance, 338, 3.39;
its difficulty with the Clergy Re
serve question, 343-9 ; in relation
to seigniorial tenure, 349-51 ; end
of the great ministry, 351, 354
LaFontaine, Louis H., early life,
47 ; sails to England, 48 ; ar
rested in 1838, 49 ; views on re
lation of responsible government
to the union, 67 ; receives ad
vances from Sydenham, 61; meets
Hincks, 63 ; defeated at Terre
bonne, 70, 79, 82 ; LaFontaine-
Baldwinministry(first), llSetseq.,
137, 138, 199, 210, 234; elected
for fourth riding of York, 116,
117 ; overtures from Bagot, 121-
6 ; addresses the assembly in
French, 128 ; enters cabinet,
133 ; reelected in fourth riding
of York, 134 ; contests fourth
riding, 136 ; denounced by the
Patriot, 146 ; criticized by Met
calfe, 164 ; his relation to Met
calfe, 166 ; dismissal recom
mended, 167 ; opinions of Kaye,
169 ; conversation with Captain
Higginson, 173; speech in assem

bly, 178 ; seconds resolution for
moving the seat of government,
182; prepares bill to remove
office-holders from parliament,
184 ; reorganizes judicial system
of Lower Canada, 184 ; LaFon
taine-Baldwin administration,
propriety ofthe name, 190 (note) ;
resigns office (1843), 199 et seq. ;
interview with Metcalfe, 201 ;
official statement on resignation,
201 ; announces resignation, 213;
denounced by Lord Stanley, 234;
opposed by Viger, 236 ; resigns
position of queen's counsel, 260 ;
elected in Terrebonne(1844), 251;
correspondence with Caron, 269
et seq. ; writes to Baldwin regard
ing Caron affair, 262 ; attacks
adherents of Denis Papineau,
277 ; elected in Montreal, 279 ;
LaFontaine-Baldwin administra
tion (second), 281 et seq., 309;
attorney-general, 284 ; interview
with Lord Elgin, 286 ; urges an
amnesty, 288 ; attacked by Louis-
Joseph Papineau, 289 ; speech
against Louis-Joseph Papineau,
290-2 ; reorganizes judicial sys
tem of Lower Canada, 303; moves
resolution on Rebellion Losses,
310 ; speeches on Rebellion
Losses, 311, 312 ; argument on
Rebellion Losses question, 317 ;
his residence mobbed, 324; not
in favour of the secularization of
the Clergy Reserves, 348 ; de
termines to retire from political
life, 353 ; tendered a banquet on
his approaching retirement, 354 ;
867

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS

h's farewell speech, 354-7 ; re
signs (October, 1851), 357 ; his
distinguished career on the bench,
368 ; created a baronet, 858 ; his
second marriage, 358 ; his death,
358
La Minerve, newspaper, 142
"Legion" (Sullivan, R. B.), 240
Le Jeune Canada, 47
Leslie, James, 116, 284, 354
Letters on responsible government,
see Sullivan, Robert Baldwin
Local government of Upper Canada,
10, 101, 296 et seq.
Lount, Samuel, 44, 45, 245
Lower Canada, population of, 62 ;
schools in, 107
Loyalists, 4, 5, 17 M
Macauley, Hon. John, 119
McCuUoch, Dr., 82
Macdonald, John A., 228, 262, 276,
279
McGill, Peter, 83
Mackenzie, William Lyon, 12-16,
27, 31, 33, 38, 43, 46, 292, 312,
318, 840, 352
MacNab, Sir Allan, 44, 45, 82, 87,
88, 100, 178, 188, 214, 224, 252,
253, 279, 288, 314, 815, 322, 324
'Magnetic telegraph," 277
Maitland, Sir Peregrine, 28
Mathews, hanged as a rebel, 246
Meilleur, Dr., 115
Mercury (Quebec), newspaper, 20
Metcalfe, Sir Charles, replaces Sir
Charles Bagot as governor-gen
eral, 152, 166 et seq.; his view of
responsible government, 161-6 ;
368

his attitude in relation to the
question of colonial appointments,
172-6 ; reserves the Secret So
cieties Bill for the royal sanction,
188 ; the resignation of his min
istry, 199-216; overwhelmed with
addresses of advice, approval,
etc., 226-8 ; conducts the govern
ment with an executive council
of three members, 228 ; the home
government approves his con
duct, 230-5 ; attempts to form a
ministry, 235-7 ; the literary
duel in relation to the Metcalfe
controversy, 240 et seq ; more
successful efforts to obtain a cab
inet, 246, 247 ; favours the
Draper government, 249 ; the
election, 260-3 ; the news of his
having been raised to the peer
age is ungraciously received by
members of the Opposition, 256,
257 ; failing health, 257 ; retire
ment, 266
Moderate Reformers, as a party, 82
Mohawk Indians, 227
Montreal, description of, 181 ; riot
at, 321-6 ; burning of the houses
of parliament, 323, 324
Moodie, Sheriff, 136
Morin, A. N., 68, 87, 134, 252,
259, 283, 354
Morris, W., 83, 183, 247
Municipal Corporations Act, 292
Municipal government, see Local
government
Murney, Mr., 136 N
Narrative, A, by Sir Francis B.
Head, 37

INDEX

Nationalists, as a party, 82
Neilson, of Quebec, 96
Nelson, Wolfred, 49, 262, 354
Northern Railroad, 301
O
O'Callaghan, Dr., 49
Ogden, C. R., 76, 80, 126
Orange party, 186, 186
P
Papineau, D. B., 116, 246, 262,
255, 259, 260, 276
Papineau, Louis-Joseph, 19, 20,
46-9, 229, 288, 292, 312, 318
Parliament, first meeting of imited,
85
Patriot (newspaper), 145 ; its ac
count of the burning of the three
effigies, 319
Parti Rouge, the, its platform, 343
Peel, Sir Robert, 113, 161, 235,
267
Perry, Peter, 13, 39
Pilot, founded by Hincks, 217 ; its
offices wrecked by the mob, 323
Pitt, WiUiam, 6
Population of the Canadas, 62
Powell, clerk of the peace, 200
PoweU, Colonel, 200
Price, commissioner of Crown lands,
supports Baldwin on the question
ofthe resignation of the ministry,
214 ; his resolution in relation
to, 216, 216 ; elected for the
county of York, 279 ; his reso
lution re the Clergy Reserves,
346 Q
Quebec Act, 2-4
Queen's CoUege, 194, 296

R
Railroad Acts, 292
Railroad policy, 301
Rebellion Losses, 303 et seq.
Rebellion Losses Act, provisions of,
310, 311 ; opposition to the pas
sage of the bill, 312-18 ; riot at
Montreal caused by passage of,
321-5 ; discussed in the British
parliament, 325
Reciprocity, 302
Report of Lord Durham, 56 et seq.,
274
Reserves, see Clergy Reserves
Resolutions, see September Resolu
tions
Responsible government, the alpha
and omega of reform, 27 ; de
nounced by Sir F. Head, 38 ;
Baldwin's views on, 39, 40 ; lead
ing demand of Reformers, 52
debated in the assembly, 91-6
September resolutions on, 108-11
under first LaFontaine-Baldwin
ministry, 141-3 ; divergent views
of Metcalfe and his cabinet, 200
et seq.; agitation of 1844, 222 et
seq.; relation to imperial connec
tion, 230 ; pamphlet war regard
ing, 240-6 ; letters on, by Sulli
van, 243 ; views of Lord John
RusseU, 269-73 ; views oi Earl
Grey, 269 et seq.; views of Lord
Elgin, 273 ; final achievement of,
281 ; in relation to Rebellion
Losses BiU, 305, 306, 334, 336
Rideau Canal, 74
Robinson, J. B., (later chief-justice)
12, 24, 31, 61
Robinson, W. B., 247, 252, 264
369

BALDWIN LAFONTAINE HINCKS

Roe, W., 135
Roebuck, Mr., 36, 229, 230,231
Reform Association, 221, 288
Regiopolis, College of, 194
Rolph, Dr. John, 13, 38, 43, 44
Ross, George, 33
Royal Belfast Institution, 32
RusseU, Elizabeth, 26
Russell, Lord John, 46, 60, 66, 231,
234, 267, 269, 273
Ryerson, Rev. Egerton, 224, 238 ;
his literary duel with R. B. Sulli
van on responsible government,
240-6 S
Salaberry, Colonel de, 172
School system of Canada, 105-8,
189, 190
Seat of government, 181-4, 264, 338
Secret Societies BiU, 185 et seq., 209
Seigniorial Tenure, 349-61
September resolutions on respon
sible government, 108, 174, 202,
216, 222
Sherwood-Daly administration, 276
Sherwood, H., 118, 121, 166, 176
Seventh report on grievances, 11,
37
Shortt, Professor, 296
Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor, 7,
68, 106
SmaU, J. E., 184, 263
Smith, of Frontenac, 88, 246
"Spadina,"Baldwin'scountryplace, 26, 357
Special Council (Lower Canada),
306
Stanley, Lord, 16, 20, 30, 164, 168,
176, 186, 200, 209, 230, 231,
234, 244
870

strachan, Dr. John (later Bishop),
26, 106, 192, 196, 196, 224, 296
SuUivan, Augusta Elizabeth, 32
Sullivan, Hon. Robert Baldwin, 32,
76, 77, 80, 180, 133, 134, 223,
288 ; his literary duel with Ryer
son on responsible government,
240-5
Sydenham, Lord, 59, 60, 64-6, 76,
86, 88, 90, 97, 100, 111, 128,
141, 146, 155, 168, 189

Tach^, E. p., 284
Talbot, district of, 227
Talleyrand, 63
Tariff system, 99, 189, 292, 801,
302
Thirteen Letters on Responsible Gov
ernment, 248
Thomson, Charles Poulett, see
Sydenham, Lord
Toronto, University of, see Univer
sity of Toronto U
Ultra-Reformers, as a party, 82
Union, Act of, 68, 78, 128, 146,
266, 287
Union Bill, 61
Union of the Canadas, 61-5, 67-9
United Empire Association, 228
United Empire Loyalists, see Loyal
ists
University Bill (Mr. Draper's), 255
University Bill of 1849, 293
University of Toronto, 190-7, 281,
292 et seq.
Upper Canada Academy, 193
Upper Canada, population, 62

INDEX

VALLifeREs, Judge, 115
Van Egmond, Colonel, 43
Vaudreuil, Marquis de, 1
Victoria University, 295
Viger, D., 79, 102, 130, 215, 216,
235, 247, 269
Viger, L. M., 284 W
Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, a
notable defender of Metcalfe, 160,
166, 177, 219

WeUand Canal, 98
Wellington, Duke of, 161
Wilcocks, Mr., 23
Waiis, Judge, 28, 29

York, incorporated as Toronto, 16
Z
"Zeno," author of pamphlet on
Metcalfe controversy, 239

mi

LORD ELGIN

-...iCir^:^

THE MAKERS OF CANADA

LORD ELGIN

BY
SIR JOHN GEORGE BOURINOT

TORONTO
MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1912

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada
in the. year 1905, by Moi'ang & Co., Limited, in the De
partment of Agriculture

EDITORS' NOTE
THE late Sir John Bourinot had completed and
revised the following pages some months be
fore his lamented death. The book represents more
satisfactorily, perhaps, than anything else that he has
written the author's breadth of political vision and
his concrete mastery of historical fact. The life of
Lord Elgin required to be written by one possessed
of more than ordinary insight into the interesting
aspects of constitutional law. That it has been
singularly well presented must be the conclusion
of all who may read this present narrative.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I Page
EARLY CAREER ..... 1
CHAPTER II
POLI-nCAL CONDITION IN CANADA . 17
CHAPTER HI
POLITICAL DIFFICULTIES , . . ,41
CHAPTER IV
THE INDEMNIFICATION ACT ... 61
CHAPTER r
THE END OF THE LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN MINISTRY, 1861 85
CHAPTER VJ
THE HINCKS-MORIN MINISTRY , 107
CHAPTER rn
THE HISTORY OF THE CLERGY RESERVES (1791-1854) 143

CONTENTS
CHAPTER nil
SEIGNIORIAL TENURE .... 171
CHAPTER IX
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES . . 189
CHAPTER X
FAREWELL TO CANADA . , ,203
CHAPTER XI
POLITICAL PROGRESS . . . =227
CHAPTER XII
A COMPARISON OF SYSTEMS . . . 239

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE . . . .269

INDEX . . -271

CHAPTER I
EARLY CAREER
THE Canadian people have had a varied experi"
ence in governors appointed by the imperial
state. At the very commencement of British rule
they were so fortunate as to find at the head of
affairs Sir Guy Carleton — afterwards Lord Dor
chester — ^who saved the country during the Ameri
can revolution by his military genius, and also
proved himself an able civil governor in his relations
with the French Canadians, then called "the new
subjects," whom he treated in a fair and generous
spirit that did much to make them friendly to
British institutions. On the other hand they have
had mditary men hke Sir James Craig, hospit
able, generous, and kind, but at the same time
incapable of understanding colonial conditions and
aspirations, ignorant of the principles and working
of representative institutions, and too ready to apply
arbitrary methods to the administration of civil af
fairs. Then they have had men who were suddenly
drawn from some inconspicuous position in the
parent state, like Sir Francis Bond Head, and
allowed by an apathetic or ignorant colonial office
to prove their want of discretion, tact, and even
common sense at a very critical stage of Canadian 1

LORD ELGIN
affairs. Again there have been governors of the high
est rank in the peerage of England, like the Duke
of Richmond, whose administration was chiefly
remarkable for his success in aggravating national
animosities in French Canada, and whose name
would now be quite forgotten were it not for the
unhappy circumstances of his death.^ Then Cana
dians have had the good fortune of the presence of
Lord Durham at a time when a most serious state
of affairs imperatively demanded that ripe political
knowledge, that cool judgment, and that capacity
to comprehend political grievances which were con
fessedly the characteristics of this eminent British
statesman. Happily for Canada he was foUowed by
a keen politician and an astute economist who,
despite his overweening vanity and his tendency
to underrate the abihty of "those fellows in the
colonies" — ^his own words in a letter to England —
was well able to gauge public sentiment accur
ately and to govern himself accordingly during
his short term of office. Since the confederation
of the provinces there has been a succession of
distinguished governors, some bearing names fam
ous in the history of Great Britain and Ireland,
some bringing to the discharge of their duties a
large knowledge of pubhc business gained in the
government of the parent state and her wide em
pire, some gifted with a happy faculty of expressing
'^ He was bitten by a tame fox and died of hydrophobia at Richmond,
in the present county of Carleton, Ontario.
2

HIS GREAT QUALITIES
themselves with ease and elegance, and all equaUy
influenced by an earnest desire to fiU their im
portant position with dignity, impartiahty, and
affabUity. But eminent as have been the services of many
of the governors whose memories are stiU cherished
by the people of Canada, no one among them
stands on a higher plane than James, eighth earl of
Elgin and twelfth earl of Kincardine, whose pubUc
career in Canada I propose to recaU in the foUowing
narrative. He possessed to a remarkable degree
those quaUties of mind and heart which enabled
him to cope most successfuUy with the racial and
poUtical difficulties which met him at the outset
of his administration, during a very critical period
of Canadian history. Animated by the loftiest
motives, imbued with a deep sense of the responsi
bilities of his office, gifted with a rare power
of eloquent expression, possessed of sound judg
ment and infinite discretion, never yielding to
dictates of passion but always determined to be
patient and calm at moments of violent pubhc
excitement, conscious of the advantages of com
promise and concUiation in a country peopled like
Canada, entering fuUy into the aspirations of a
young people for self-government, ready to concede
to French Canadians their fuU share in the pubhc
councUs, anxious to buUd up a Canadian nation
without reference to creed or race — ^this disting
uished nobleman must be always placed by a
8

LORD ELGIN
Canadian historian in the very front rank of the
great administrators happily chosen from time to
time by the imperial state for the government of
her dominions beyond the sea. No governor-general,
it is safe to say, has come nearer to that ideal,
described by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, when
secretary of state for the colonies, in a letter to Sir
George Bowen, himself distinguished for the abUity
with which he presided over the affairs of several
colonial dependencies. "Remember," said Lord
Lytton, to give that eminent author and statesman
his later title, "that the first care of a governor in a
free colony is to shun the reproach of being a party
man. Give all parties, and all the ministries formed,
the fairest play  After aU, men are governed
as much by the heart as by the head. Evident
sympathy in the progress of the colony; traits
of kindness, generosity, devoted energy, where
required for the pubhc weal; a pure exercise of
patronage; an utter absence of vindictiveness or
spite; the fairness that belongs to magnanimity:
these are the qualities that make governors power
ful, while men merely sharp and clever may be
weak and detested."
In the following chapters it wiU be seen that
Lord Elgin fulfiUed this ideal, and was able to
leave the country in the fuU confidence that he
had won the respect, admiration, and even affection
of aU classes of the Canadian people. He came to
the country when there existed on all sides doubts
4

RESULTS OF HIS REGIME
as to the satisfactory working ofthe union of 1840,
suspicions as to the sincerity of the imperial au
thorities with respect to the concession of respon
sible government, a growing antagonism between
the two nationalities which then, as always, divided
the province. A very serious economic disturbance
was crippUng the whole trade of the country,
and made some persons — ^happUy very few in num
ber — ^beheve for a short time that independence,
or annexation to the neighbouring repubhc, was
preferable to continued connection with a country
which so grudgingly conceded poUtical rights to
the colony, and so ruthlessly overturned the com
mercial system on which the province had been
so long dependent. When he left Canada, Lord
Elgin knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the
two nationahties were working harmoniously for
the common advantage of the province, that the
principles of responsible government were firmly
established, and that the commercial and industrial
progress of the country was fuUy on an equahty
with its poUtical development.
The man who achieved these magnificent results
could claim an ancestry to which a Scotsman
would point with national pride. He could trace
his Hneage to the ancient Norman house of which
"Robert the Bruce" — a name ever dear to the
Scottish nation — was the most distinguished mem
ber. He was bom in London on July 20th, 1811.
His father was a general in the British army,
5

LORD ELGIN
a representative peer in the British parliament from
1790-1840, and an ambassador to several European
courts ; but he is best known to history by the fact
that he seriously crippled his private fortunes by
his purchase, whUe in the East, of that magnificent
coUection of Athenian art which was afterwards
bought at half its value by the British government
and placed in the British Museum, where it is stiU
known as the "Elgin Marbles." From his father,
we are told by his biographer,^ he inherited "the
genial and playful spirit which gave such a charm
to his social and parental relations, and which
helped him to eUcit from others the knowledge of
which he made so much use in the many diverse
situations of his after hfe." The deep piety and the
varied culture of his mother "made her admirably
quahfied to be the depository of the ardent thoughts
and aspirations of his boyhood." At Oxford, where
he completed his education after leaving Eton, he
showed that unselfish spirit and consideration for the
feeUngs of others which were the recognized traits
of his character in afterlife. Conscious ofthe unsatis
factory state of the family's fortunes, he laboured
strenuously even in college to relieve his father as
much as possible of the expenses of his education.
WhUe Uving very much to himself, he never failed to
' " Letters and Journals of James, eighth Earl of Elgin, etc.'' Edited
by Theodore Walrond, C.B. For fuller references to works consulted
in the writing of this short history, see Bibliographical Note at the
end of this book.

AT OXFORD
win the confidence and respect even at this youthful
age of aU those who had an opportunity of knowing
his independence of thought and judgment. Among
his contemporaries were Mr. Gladstone, afterwards
prime minister ; the Duke of Newcastle, who be
came secretary of state for the colonies and was
chief adviser of the Prince of Wales — now Edward
VII — during his visit to Canada in 1860; and Lord
Dalhousie and Lord Canning, both of whom pre
ceded him in the governor-generalship of India.
In the coUege debating club he won at once a very
distinguished place. "I weU remember," wrote Mr.
Gladstone, many years later, "placing him as to the
natural gift of eloquence at the head of all those I
knew either at Eton or at the University." He took
a deep interest in the study of philosophy. In him
— ^to quote the opinion of his own brother. Sir
Frederick Bruce, "the Reason and Understanding,
to use the distinctions of Coleridge, were both
largely developed, and both admirably balanced.
.... He set himself to work to form in his own
mind a clear idea of each of the constituent parts of
the problem with which he had to deal. This he
effected partly by reading, but stiU more by con
versation with special men, and by that extra
ordinary logical power of mind and penetration
which not only enabled him to get out of every
man aU he had in him, but which revealed to these
men themselves a knowledge of their own imperfect
and crude conceptions, and made them constantly 7

LORD ELGIN
unwUling witnesses or reluctant adherents to views
which originaUy they were prepared to oppose. . . ."
The result was that, "in an incredibly short time he
attained an accurate and clear conception of the
essential facts before him, and was thus enabled to
strike out a course which he could consistently pur
sue amid aU difficulties, because it was in harmony
with the actual facts and the permanent conditions
of the problem he had to solve." Here we have the
secret of his success in grappUng with the serious
and compUcated questions which constantly engaged
his attention in the administration of Canadian
affairs. After leaving the university with honour, he
passed several years on the famUy estate, which
he endeavoured to reUeve as far as possible from
the financial embarrassment into which it had faUen
ever since his father's extravagant purchase in
Greece. In 1840, by the death of his eldest brother,
George, who died unmarried, James became heir
to the earldom, and soon afterwards entered parUa-
ment as member for the borough of Southampton.
He claimed then, as always, to be a Liberal-Con
servative, because he beheved that "the institutions
of our country, religious as weU as civU, are wisely
adapted, when duly and faithfuUy administered, to
promote, not the interest of any class or classes
exclusively, but the happiness and welfare of the
great body of the people"; and because he felt
that, "on the maintenance of these institutions, not
8

THE GOVERNORSHIP OF JAMAICA
only the economical prosperity of England, but,
what is yet more important, the virtues that dis
tinguish and adorn the English character, under
God, mainly depend."
During the two years Lord Elgin remained in
the House of Commons he gave evidence to satisfy
his friends that he possessed to an eminent degree
the quaUties which promised him a briUiant career
in British politics. Happily for the administration
of the affairs of Britain's colonial empire, he was
induced by Lord Stanley, then secretary of state
for the colonies, to surrender his prospects in par-
Uament and accept the governorship of Jamaica.
No doubt he was largely influenced to take this
position by the conviction that he would be able to
reUeve his father's property from the pressure neces
sarily entaUed upon it while he remained in the
expensive field of national pohtics. On his way
to Jamaica he was shipwrecked, and his wife, a
daughter of Mr. Charles Cumming Bruce, M.P.,
of Dunphail, Stirling, suffered a shock which so
seriously impaired her health that she died a few
months after her arrival in the island when she had
given birth to a daughter.^ His administration of
the government of Jamaica was distinguished by a
strong desire to act discreetly and justly at a time
^ Lady Elma, who married, in 1864, Thomas John HoweU-Thurlow-
Cumming Bruce, who was attached to the staff of Lord Elgin in his
later career in China and India, etc., and became Baron Thurlow
on the death of his brother in 1874. See "Debrett's Peerage." 9

LORD ELGIN
when the economic conditions of the island were
stiU seriously disturbed by the emancipation of the
negroes. Planter and black alike found in him a true
friend and sympathizer. He recognized the necessity
of improving the methods of agriculture, and did
much by the estabhshment of agricultural societies
to spread knowledge among the ignorant blacks, as
weU as to create a spirit of emulation among the
landlords, who were stiU suUen and apathetic, re
quiring much persuasion to adapt themselves to
the new order of things, and make efforts to stimu
late skilled labour among the coloured population
whom they stiU despised. Then, as always in his
career, he was animated by the noble impulse to
administer public affairs with a sole regard to
the public interests, irrespective of class or creed,
to elevate men to a higher conception of their
public duties. "To reconcUe the planter" — I quote
from one of his letters to Lord Stanley — "to the
heavy burdens which he was caUed to bear for the
improvement of our estabUshments and the benefit
of the mass of the population, it was necessary to
persuade him that he had an interest in raising the
standard of education and morals among the peas
antry; and this belief could be imparted only by
inspiring a taste for a more artificial system of
husbandry." "By the silent operation of such salu
tary convictions," he added, "prejudices of old
standing are removed; the friends of the negro and
of the proprietary classes find themselves almost
10

THE CONDITION OF JAMAICA
unconsciously acting in concert, and conspiring to
complete that great and holy work of which the
emancipation of the slave was but the commence
ment." At this time the relations between the island
and the home governments were always in a very
strained condition on account of the difficulty of
making the colonial office fuUy sensible of the
financial embarrassment caused by the upheaval of
the labour and social systems, and of the wisest
methods of assisting the colony in its straits. As it
too often happened in those old times of colonial
rule, the home government could with difficulty be
brought to understand that the economic principles
which might satisfy the state of affairs in Great
Britain could not be hastily and arbitrarUy appUed
to a country suffering under pecuUar difficulties.
The same uninteUigent spirit which forced taxation
on the thirteen colonies, which complicated diffi
culties in the Canadas before the rebeUion of 1837,
seemed for the moment hkely to prevail, as soon as
the legislature of Jamaica passed a tariff framed
naturally with regard to conditions existing when
the receipts and expenditures could not be equal
ized, and the financial situation could not be
relieved from its extreme tension in any other
way than by the imposition of duties which hap
pened to be in antagonism with the principles then
favoured by the imperial government. At this criti
cal juncture Lord Elgin successfuUy interposed 11

LORD ELGIN
between the colonial office and the island legis
lature, and obtained permission for the latter to
manage this affair in its own way. He recognized
the fact, obvious enough to any one conversant with
the affairs of the island, that the tariff in question
was absolutely necessary to relieve it from financial
ruin, and that any strenuous interference with the
right of the assembly to control its own taxes and
expenses would only tend to create complications
in the government and the relations with the parent
state. He was convinced, as he wrote to the colonial
office, that an indispensable condition of his useftd-
ness as a governor was "a just appreciation of the
difficulties with which the legislature of the island
had yet to contend, and of the sacrifices and exer
tions already made under the pressure of no ordinary
embarrassments. "
Here we see Lord Elgin, at the very commence
ment of his career as a colonial governor, fully alive
to the economic, social, and political conditions of
the country, and anxious to give its people every
legitimate opportunity to carry out those measures
which they believed, with a fuU knowledge and
experience of their own affairs, were best calculated
to promote their own interests. We shall see later
that it was in exactly the same spirit that he
administered Canadian questions of much more
serious import.
Though his government in Jamaica was in every
sense a success, he decided not to remain any
12

IS OFFERED CANADA
longer than three years, and so wrote in 1845 to
Lord Stanley. Despite his earnest efforts to identify
himself with the island's interests, he had led on
the whole a retired and sad Ufe after the death of
his wife. He naturaUy felt a desire to seek the con
genial and sympathetic society of friends across the
sea, and perhaps return to the active public Ufe for
which he was in so many respects weU qualified. In
offering his resignation to the colonial secretary he
was able to say that the period of his administration
had been "one of considerable social progress"; that
"uninterrupted harmony" had "prevailed between
the colonists and the local government"; that "the
spirit of enterprise" which had proceeded from
Jamaica for two years had "enabled the British
West Indian colonies to endure with comparative
fortitude, apprehensions and difficulties which other
wise might have depressed them beyond measure."
It was not, however, until the spring of 1846
that Lord Elgin was able to return on leave of
absence to England, where the seals of office were
now held by a Liberal administration, in which
Lord Grey was colonial secretary. Although his
poUtical opinions differed from those of the party
in power, he was offered the governor-generalship
of Canada when he dechned to go back to Ja
maica. No doubt at this juncture the British
ministry recognized the absolute necessity that
existed for removing aU poUtical grievances that
arose from the tardy concession of responsible 13

LORD ELGIN
government since the death of Lord Sydenham,
and for allaying as far as possible the discontent
that generaUy prevailed against the new fiscal poUcy
of the parent state, which had so seriously paralyzed
Canadian industries. It was a happy day for Canada
when Lord Elgin accepted this gracious offer of
his pohtical opponents, who undoubtedly recognized
in him the possession of qualities which would en
able him successfuUy, in all probability, to grapple
with the perplexing problems which embarrassed
public affairs in the province. He felt (to quote his
own language at a public dinner given to him just
before his departure for Canada) that he undertook
no slight responsibilities when he promised "to
watch over the interests of those great offshoots
of the British race which plant themselves in dis
tant lands, to aid them in their efforts to extend
the domain of civilization, and to fulfU the first
behest of a benevolent Creator to His inteUigent
creatures — 'subdue the earth'; to abet the generous
endeavour to impart to these rising communities
the fuU advantages of British laws, British institu
tions, and British freedom; to assist them in main
taining unimpaired — it may be in strengthening
and confirming — ^those bonds of mutual affection
which unite the parent and dependent states."
Before his departure for the scene of his labours
in America, he married Lady Mary Louisa I^amb-
ton, daughter of the Earl of Durham, whose short
career in Canada as governor-general and high
14

HARMONIOUS OPINIONS
commissioner after the rebeUion of 1887 had such
a remarkable influence on the poUtical conditions
of the country. WhUst we cannot attach too much
importance to the sage advice embodied in that great
state paper on Canadian affairs which was the result
of his mission to Canada, we cannot fail at the same
time to see that the fuU vindication of the sound
principles laid down in that admirable report is to be
found in the complete success of their application by
Lord Elgin. The minds of both these statesmen ran
in the same direction. They desired to give ade
quate play to the legitimate aspirations of the Cana
dian people for that measure of self-government
which must stimulate an independence of thought
and action among colonial public men, and at
the same time strengthen the ties between the
parent state and the dependency by creating that
harmony and confidence which otherwise could not
exist in the relations between them. But while
there is Uttle doubt that Lord Elgin would under
any circumstances have been animated by a deep
desire to estabhsh the principles of responsible
government in Canada, this desire must have been
more or less stimulated by the tender ties which
bound him to the daughter of a statesman whose
opinions where so entirely in harmony with his own.
In Lord Elgin's temperament there was always a
mingling of sentiment and reason, as may be seen
by reference to his finest exhibitions of eloquence.
We can weU believe that a deep reverence for the
15

LORD ELGIN
memory of a great man, too soon removed from
the pubhc life of Great Britain, combined with the
natural desire to please his daughter when he wrote
these words to her: — "I stiU adhere to my opinion
that the real and effectual vindication of Lord
Durham's memory and proceedings wiU be the
success of a governor-general of Canada who works
out his views of government fairly. Depend upon
it, if this country is governed for a few years satis
factorily, Lord Durham's reputation as a statesman
wiU be raised beyond the reach of cavil." Now,
more than half a century after he penned these
words and expressed this hope, we all perceive that
Lord Elgin was the instrument to carry out this
work. Here it is necessary to close this very brief sketch
of Lord Elgin's early career, that I may give an
account of the pohtical and economic conditions of
the dependency at the end of January, 1847, when
he arrived in the city of Montreal to assume the
responsibilities of his office. This review will show
the difficulties of the political situation with which
he was called upon to cope, and wiU enable us to
obtain an insight into the high qualifications which
he brought to the conduct of pubUc affairs in the
Canadas.

16

CHAPTER II
POLITICAL CONDITION IN CANADA
TO understand clearly the political state of Can
ada at the time Lord Elgin was appointed
governor-general, it is necessary to go back for
a number of years. The unfortunate rebeUions
which were precipitated by Louis- Joseph Papineau
and WUliam Lyon Mackenzie during 1837 in the
two Canadas were the results of racial and poUtical
difficulties which had graduaUy arisen since the
organization of the two provinces of Upper and
Lower Canada under the Constitutional Act of
1791. In the French section, the French and Eng
hsh Canadians — the latter always an insignificant
minority as respects number — ^had in the course of
time formed distinct parties. As in the courts of
law and in the legislature, so it was in social
and everyday life, the French Canadian was in
direct antagonism to the English Canadian. Many
members of the official and governing class, com
posed almost exclusively of English, were stiU
too ready to consider French Canadians as inferior
beings, and not entitled to the same rights and
privileges in the government of the country. It was
a time of passion and declamation, when men
of fervent eloquence, like Papineau, might have
17

LORD ELGIN
aroused the French as one man, and brought about
a general rebeUion had they not been ultimately
thwarted by the efforts of the moderate leaders of
public opinion, especially of the priests who, in aU
national crises in Canada, have happily intervened
on the side of reason and moderation, and in the
interests of British connection, which they have
always felt to be favourable to the continuance
and security of their rehgious institutions. Lord
Durham, in his memorable report on the condition
of Canada, has sumined up very expressively the
nature of the conflict in the French province.
" I expected," he said, " to find a contest between a
government and a people ; I found two nations
warring in the bosom of a single state ; I found
a struggle, not of principles, but of races."
While racial antagonisms intensified the difficul
ties in French Canada, there existed in aU the
provinces political conditions which arose from the
imperfect nature of the constitutional system con
ceded by England in 1791, and which kept the
country in a constant ferment. It was a mockery to
teU British subjects conversant with British insti
tutions, as Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe told the
Upper Canadians in 1792, that their new system of
government was "an image and transcript of the
British constitution." WhUe it gave to the people
representative institutions, it left out the very
principle which was necessary to make them work
harmoniously — a government responsible to the

AN IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT
legislature, and to the people in the last resort, for
the conduct of legislation and the administration of
affairs. In consequence of the absence of this vital
principle, the machinery of government became
clogged, and political strife convulsed the country
from one end to the other. An "irrepressible
confUct" arose between the government and the
governed classes, especiaUy in Lower Canada. The
people who in the days of the French regime were
without influence and power, had gained under
their new system, defective as it was in essential
respects, an insight into the operation of representa
tive government, as understood in England. They
found they were governed, not by men responsible
to the legislature and the people, but by governors
and officials who controUed both the executive and
legislative councUs. If there had always been wise
and patient governors at the head of affairs, or if
the imperial authorities could always have been
made aware of the importance of the grievances
laid before them, or had understood their exact
character, the differences between the government
and the majority of the people's representatives
might have been arranged satisfactorily. But, un
happily, miUtary governors like Sir James Craig
only aggravated the dangers of the situation, and
gave demagogues new opportunities for exciting the
people. The imperial authorities, as a riUe, were sin
cerely desirous of meeting the wishes of the people
in a reasonable and fair spirit, but unfortunately for
19

LORD ELGIN
the country, they were too often iU-advised and
iU-informed in those days of slow communication,
and the fire of public discontent was aUowed to
smoulder until it burst forth in a dangerous form.
In aU the provinces, but especially in Lower
Canada, the people saw their representatives prac
tically ignored by the governing body, their money
expended without the authority of the legislature,
and the country governed by irresponsible officials,
A system which gave Uttle or no weight to pubUc
opinion as represented in the House of Assem
bly, was necessarily imperfect and imstable, and
the natural result was a deadlock between the
legislative council, controlled by the official and
governing class, and the House elected by the
people. The governors necessarily took the side
of the men whom they had themselves appointed,
and with whom they were acting. In the maritime
provinces in the course of time, the governors made
an attempt now and then to conciliate the popular
element by bringing in men who had influence
in the assembly, but this was a matter entirely
within their own discretion. The system of govern
ment as a whole was worked in direct contravention
of the principle of responsibility to the majority in
the popular House. Political agitators had abundant
opportunities for exciting popular passion. In Lower
Canada, Papineau, an eloquent but impulsive man,
having rather the qualities of an agitator than those
of a statesman, led the majority of his compatriots.

LOYALTY TO ENGLAND
For years he contended for a legislative council
elected by the people: and it is curious to note that
none of the men who were at the head of the
popular party in Lower Canada ever recognized the
fact, as did their contemporaries in Upper Canada,
that the difficulty would be best solved, not by
electing an Upper House, but by obtaining an
executive which would only hold office whUe sup
ported by a majority of the representatives in the
people's House. In Upper Canada the radical section
of the Liberal party was led by Mr. William Lyon
Mackenzie, who fought vigorously against what
was generaUy known as the "Family Compact,"
which occupied all the public offices and controlled
the government.
In the two provinces these two men at last
precipitated a rebeUion in which blood was shed
and much property destroyed, but which never
reached any very extensive proportions. In the
maritime provinces, however, where the pubhc
grievances were of less magnitude, the people
showed no sympathy whatever with the rebeUious
elements of the upper provinces.
Amid the gloom that overhung Canada in those
times there was one gleam of sunshine for England.
Although discontent and dissatisfaction prevailed
among the people on account of the manner in
which the government was administered, and of
the attempts of the minority to engross aU power
and influence, there was still a sentiment in favour
21

LORD ELGIN
of British connection, and the annexationists were
relatively few in number. Even Sir Francis Bond
Head — in no respect a man of sagacity — understood
this weU when he depended on the militia to crush
the outbreak in the upper province; and Joseph
Howe, the eminent leader of the popular party,
uniformly asserted that the people of Nova Scotia
were determined to preserve the integrity of the
empire at aU hazards. As a matter of fact, the
majority of leading men, outside of the minority
led by Papineau, Nelson and Mackenzie, had a
conviction that England was animated by a desire
to act considerately with the provinces and that
Uttle good would come from precipitating a conflict
which could only add to the pubUc misfortunes,
and that the true remedy was to be found in con
stitutional methods of redress for the poUtical
grievances which undoubtedly existed throughout
British North America.
The most important clauses of the Union Act,
which was passed by the imperial parliament in
1840 but did not come into effect until February
of the foUowing year, made provision for a legisla
tive assembly in which each section of the united
provinces was represented by an equal number
of members — forty-two for each and eighty-four
for both; for the use of the English language
alone in the written or printed proceedings of the
legislature ; for the placing of the public indebted
ness of the two provinces at the union as a first

LOWER CANADA DISSATISFIED
charge on the revenues of the united provinces ; for
a two-thirds vote of the members of each House
before any change could be made in the representa
tion. These enactments, excepting the last which
proved eventually to be in their interest, were
resented by the French Canadians as clearly in
tended to place them in a position of inferiority
to the English Canadians. Indeed it was with
natural indignation they read that portion of Lord
Durham's report which expressed the opinion that
it was necessary to unite the two races on terms
which would give the domination to the English.
"Without effecting the change so rapidly or so
roughly," he wrote, "as to shock the feelings or to
trample on the welfare of the existing generation,
it must henceforth be the first and steady purpose
of the British government to estabhsh an English
population, with EngUsh laws and language, in this
province, and to trust its government to none but a
decidedly EngUsh legislature."
French Canadians dwelt with emphasis on the
fact that their province had a population of 630,000
souls, or 160,000 more than Upper Canada, and
nevertheless received only the same number of
representatives. French Canada had been quite free
from the financial embarrassment which had brought
Upper Canada to the verge of bankruptcy before
the union ; in fact the former had actually a con
siderable surplus when its old constitution was
revoked on the outbreak of the rebeUion. It was,
23

LORD ELGIN
consequently, with some reason, considered an act
of injustice to make the people of French Canada
pay the debts of a province whose revenue had not
for years met its liabilities. Then, to add to these
decided grievances, there was a proscription of the
French language, which was naturaUy resented
as a flagrant insult to the race which first settled
the valley of the St. Lawrence, and as the first
blow leveUed against the special institutions so dear
to French Canadians and guaranteed by the Treaty
of Paris and the Quebec Act. Mr. LaFontaine,
whose name wiU frequently occur in the foUoAving
chapters of this book, declared, when he presented
himself at the first election under the Union Act,
that "it was an act of injustice and despotism"; but,
as we shaU soon see, he became a prime minister
under the very act he first condemned. Like the ma
jority of his compatriots, he eventuaUy found in its
provisions protection for the rights of the people,
and became perfectly satisfied with a system of
government which enabled them to obtain their
proper position in the public councils and restore
their language to its legitimate place in the legis
lature. But without the complete grant of responsible
government it would never have been possible to
give to French Canadians their legitimate influence
in the administration and legislation of the country,
or to reconcile the differences which had grown up
between the two nationalities before the union and
24.

LORD DURHAM'S OPINION
seemed hkely to be perpetuated by the conditions
of the Union Act just stated. Lord Durham
touched the weakest spot in the old constitutional
system of the Canadian provinces when he said
that it was not " possible to secure harmony in any
other way than by administering the government
on those principles which have been found per
fectly efficacious in Great Britain." He would not
"impair a single prerogative of the crown"; on the
contrary he believed "that the interests of the
people of these provinces require the protection of
prerogatives which have not hitherto been exer
cised." But he recognized the fact as a constitu
tional statesman that "the crown must, on the
other hand, submit to the necessary consequences
of representative institutions ; and if it has to carry
on the government in unison with a representative
body, it must consent to carry it on by means of
those in whom that representative body has con
fidence." He found it impossible "to understand
how any English statesman could have ever imag
ined that representative and irresponsible govern
ment could be successfuUy combined." To suppose
that such a system would work well there "implied
a belief that French Canadians have enjoyed repre
sentative institutions for half a century without
acquiring any of the characteristics of a free people;
that Englishmen renounce every political opinion
and feeling when they enter a colony, or that the
spirit of Anglo-Saxon freedom is utterly changed
25

LORD ELGIN
and weakened among those who are transplanted
across the Atlantic."
No one who studies carefully the history of
responsible government from the appearance of
Lord Durham's report and Lord John RusseU's
despatches of 1839 until the coming of Lord Elgin
to Canada in 1847, can fail to see that there
was always a doubt in the minds of the im
perial authorities — a doubt more than once actually
expressed in the instructions to the governors —
whether it was possible to work the new system on
the basis of a governor directly responsible to the
parent state and at the same time acting under the
advice of ministers directly responsible to the col
onial parliament. Lord John Russell had been com
peUed to recognize the fact that it was not possible
to govern Canada by the old methods of adminis
tration — ^that it was necessary to adopt a new colo
nial poUcy which would give a larger measure of
political freedom to the people and ensure greater
harmony between the executive government and
the popular assemblies. Mr. Poulett Thomson, af
terwards Lord Sydenham, was appointed governor-
general with the definite objects of completing the
union of the Canadas and inaugurating a more
liberal system of colonial administration. As he
informed the legislature of Upper Canada immedi
ately after his arrival, in his anxiety to obtain its
consent to the union, he had received "Her Ma
jesty's commands to administer the government of
26

UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION
these provinces in accordance with the well under
stood wishes and interests of the people." When
the legislature of the united provinces met for the
first time, he communicated two despatches in
which the colonial secretary stated emphatically
that, "Her Majesty had no desire to maintain any
system or policy among her North American sub
jects which opinion condemns," and that there was
"no surer way of gaining the approbation of the
Queen than by maintaining the harmony of the
executive with the legislative authorities." The
governor-general was instructed, in order "to main
tain the utmost possible harmony," to caU to his
councils and to employ in the pubUc service "those
persons who, by their position and character, have
obtained the general confidence and esteem of the
inhabitants of the province." He wished it to be
generally made known by the governor-general
that thereafter certain heads of departments would
be caUed upon "to retire from the pubhc service as
often as any sufficient motives of pubUc pohcy
might suggest the expediency of that measure." It
appears, however, that there was always a reserva
tion in the minds of the colonial secretary and of
governors who preceded Lord Elgin as to the mean
ing of responsible government and the methods of
carrying it out in a colony dependent on the Crown.
Lord Sydenham himself believed that the councU
should be one "for the governor to consult and no
more"; that the governor could "not be responsible 27

LORD ELGIN
to the government at home and also to the legisla
ture of the province," for if it were so "then aU
colonial government becomes impossible." The gov
ernor, in his opinion, "must therefore be the minis
ter [i.e., the colonial secretary], in which case he
cannot be under control of men in the colony."
But it was soon made clear to so astute a pohtician
as Lord Sydenham that, whatever were his own
views as to the meaning that should be attached to
responsible government, he must yield as far as
possible to the strong sentiment which prevailed
in the country in favour of making the ministry
dependent on the legislature for its continuance in
office. The resolutions passed by the legislature in
support of responsible government were understood
to have his approval. They differed very httle in
words — in essential principle not at all — ^from those
first introduced by Mr. Baldwin. The inference to
be drawn from the pohtical situation of that time
is that the governor's friends in the councU thought
it advisable to gain all possible credit with the
public in connection with the all-absorbing question
of the day, and accordingly brought in the foUow
ing resolutions in amendment to those presented
by the liiberal chief: —
"1. That the head of the executive government
of the province, being within the limits of his
government the representative of the sovereign, is
responsible to the imperial authority alone, but that
nevertheless the management of our local affairs
28

RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE
can only be conducted by him with the assistance,
counsel, and information of subordinate officers in
the province.
"2. That in order to preserve between the dif
ferent branches of the provincial parhament that
harmony which is essential to the peace, welfare,
and good government of the province, the chief
advisers of the representative of the sovereign, con
stituting a provincial administration under him,
ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the
representatives of the people; thus affording a
guarantee that the weU-understood wishes and
interests of the people — which our gracious sove
reign has declared shaU be the rule of the provin
cial government — ^wiU on all occasions be faithftiUy
represented and advocated.
"3. That the people of this province have, more
over, the right to expect from such provincial ad
ministration the exercise of their best endeavours
that the imperial authority, within its constitutional
Umits, shaU be exercised in the manner most consist
ent with their well-understood wishes and interests."
It is quite possible that had Lord Sydenham
lived to complete his term of office, the serious
difficulties that afterwards arose in the practice of
responsible government would not have occurred.
Gifted with a clear insight into political conditions
and a thorough knowledge of the working of
representative institutions, he would have under
stood that if parliamentary government was ever to
29

LORD ELGIN
be introduced into the colony it must be not in a
half-hearted way, or with such reservations as he
had had in his mind when he first came to the pro
vince. Amid the regret of aU parties he died from
the effects of a faU from his horse a few months
after the inauguration of the union, and was suc
ceeded by Sir Charles Bagot, who distinguished
himself in a short administration of two years by
the concihatory spirit which he showed to the
French Canadians, even at the risk of offending the
ultra loyahsts who seemed to think, for some years
after the union, that they alone were entitled to
govern the dependency.
The first ministry after that change was com
posed of Conservatives and moderate Liberals, but
it was soon entirely controlled by the former, and
never had the confidence of Mr. Baldwin. That
eminent statesman had been a member of this
administration at the time of the union, but he
resigned on the ground that it ought to be re
constructed if it was to represent the true senti
ment of the country at large. When Sir Charles
Bagot became governor the Conservatives were
very sanguine that they would soon obtain exclus
ive control of the government, as he was known
to be a supporter of the Conservative party in
England, It was not long, however, before it was
evident that his administration would be conducted,
not in the interests of any set of politicians, but on
principles of compromise and justice to aU political
80

SIR CHARLES BAGOT'S POLICY
parties, and, above aU, with the hope of conciliating
the French Canadians and bringing them into har
mony with the new conditions. One of his first acts
was the appointment of an eminent French Cana
dian, M. VaUiferes de Saint-Rdal, to the chief-
justiceship of Montreal. Other appointments of
able French Canadians to prominent public posi
tions evoked the ire of the Tories, then led by the
Sherwoods and Sir AUan MacNab, who had taken
a conspicuous part in putting down the rebellion of
1837-8. Sir Charles Bagot, however, persevered in
his policy of attempting to stifle racial prejudices
and to work out the principles of responsible gov
ernment on broad national lines. He appointed an
able Liberal and master of finance, Mr. Francis
Hincks, to the position of inspector-general with a
seat in the cabinet. The influence of the French
Canadians in parhament was now steadily increas
ing, and even strong Conservatives Uke Mr. Draper
were forced to acknowledge that it was not possible
to govern the province on the principle that they
were an inferior and subject people, whose repre
sentatives could not be safely entrusted with any re
sponsibilities as ministers ofthe Crown. Negotiations
for the entrance of prominent French Canadians in
opposition to the government went on without
result for some time, but they were at last success
ful, and the first LaFontaine-Baldwin cabinet came
into existence in 1842, largely through the instru-
mentaUty of Sir Charles Bagot. Mr. Baldwin was a
81

LORD ELGIN
statesman whose greatest desire was the success
of responsible government without a single reserva
tion. Mr. LaFontaine was a French Canadian who
had wisely recognized the necessity of accepting
the union he had at first opposed, and of making
responsible government an instrument for the ad
vancement of the interests of his compatriots and
of bringing them into unison with aU nationaUties
for the promotion of the common good. The other
prominent French Canadian in the ministry was
Mr. A. N. Morin, who possessed the confidence
and respect of his people, but was wanting in the
energy and abihty to initiate and press pubUc
measures which his leader possessed.
The new administration had not been long in
office when the governor-general feU a victim to
an attack of dropsy, complicated by heart disease,
and was succeeded by Sir Charles Metcalfe, who
had held prominent official positions in India,
and was governor of Jamaica previous to Lord
Elgin's appointment. No one who has studied
his character can doubt the honesty of his mo
tives or his amiable quaUties, but his political edu
cation in India and Jamaica rendered him in
many ways incapable of understanding the political
conditions of a country Uke Canada, where the
people were determined to work out the system of
parhamentary government on strictly British prin
ciples. He could have obtained Uttle assistance from
British statesmen had he been desirous of mastering
32

COLONIAL OFFICE OPINIONS
and applying the principles of responsible govern
ment to the dependency. Their opinions and in
structions were still distinguished by a perplexing
vagueness. They would not believe that a governor
of a dependency could occupy exactly the same rela
tion with respect to his responsible advisers and to
political parties as is occupied with such admirable
results by the sovereign of England. It was consid
ered necessary that a governor should make himself
as powerful a factor as possible in the administra
tion of public affairs — ^that he should be practicaUy
the prime minister, responsible, not directly to the
colonial legislature, but to the imperial government,
whose servant he was and to whom he should con
stantly refer for advice and assistance whenever in
his opinion the occasion arose. In other words it was
almost impossible to remove from the mind of any
British statesman, certainly not from the colonial
office of those days, the idea that parliamentary gov
ernment meant one thing in England and the reverse
in the colonies, that Englishmen at home could be
entrusted with a responsibility which it was inex
pedient to allow to Englishmen or Frenchmen across
the sea. The colonial office was still reluctant to give
up complete control of the local administration of
the province, and wished to retain a veto by means
of the governor, who considered official favour more
desirable than the approval of any colonial legis
lature. More or less imbued with such views. Sir
Charles Metcalfe was bound to come into conflict
33

LORD ELGIN
with LaFontaine and Baldwin, who had studied
deeply the principles and practice of parhamentary
government, and knew perfectly well that they
could be carried out only by following the prece
dents established in the parent state.
It was not long befc^re the rupture came between
men holding views so diametrically opposed to each
other with respect to the conduct of government.
The governor-general decided not to distribute the
patronage of the Crown under the advice of his re
sponsible ministry, as was, of necessity, the constitu
tional practice in England, but to ignore the latter,
as he boldly declared, whenever he deemed it expedi
ent. "I wish," he wrote to the colonial secretary, "to
make the patronage of the government conducive
to the conciliation of aU parties by bringing into
the pubhc service men of the greatest merit and
efficiency without any party distinction." These
were noble sentiments, sound in theory, but en
tirely incompatible with the operation of responsible
government. If patronage is to be properly exer
cised in the interests of the people at large, it must
be done by men who are directly responsible to the
representatives of the people. If a governor-general
is to make appointments without reference to his
advisers, he must be more or less subject to party
criticism, without having the advantage of defend
ing himself in the legislature, or of having men
duly authorized by constitutional usage to do so.
The revival of that personal government which had

THE DRAPER- VIGER MINISTRY
evoked so much political rancour, and brought
governors into the arena of party strife before the
rebeUion, was the natural result of the obstinate
and unconstitutional attitude assumed by Lord
Metcalfe with respect to appointments to office
and other matters of administration.
AU the members of the LaFontaine-Baldwin
government, with the exception of Mr. Dominick
Daly, resigned in consequence of the governor's
action. Mr. Daly had no special party proclivities,
and found it to his personal interests to remain his
ExceUency's sole adviser. Practically the province
was without an administration for many months,
and when, at last, the governor-general was forced
by public opinion to show a measure of respect for
constitutional methods of government, he succeeded
after most strenuous efforts in forming a Conserva
tive cabinet, in which Mr. Draper was the only
man of conspicuous ability. The French Canadians
were represented by Mr. Viger and Mr. Denis B.
Papineau, a brother of the famous rebel, neither of
whom had any real influence or strength in Lower
Canada, where the people recognized LaFontaine
as their true leader and ablest pubhc man. In
the general election which soon foUowed the recon
struction of the government, it was sustained by a
smaU majority, won only by the most unblushing
bribery, by bitter appeals to national passion, and
by the personal influence of the governor-general,
as was the election which immediately preceded the
35

LORD ELGIN
rising in Upper Canada. In later years. Lord Grey*
remarked that this success was "dearly purchased,
by the circumstance that the parliamentary opposi
tion was no longer directed against the advisers of
the governor but against the governor himself, and
the British government, of which he was the organ."
The majority of the government was obtained from
Upper Canada, where a large body of people were
misled by appeals made to their loyalty and at
tachment to the Crown, and where a large number
of Methodists were influenced by the extraordinary
action of the Rev. Egerton Ryerson, a son of a
United Empire Loyalist, who defended the position
of the governor-general, and showed how imper
fectly he understood the principles and practice of
responsible government. In a life of Sir Charles
Metcalfe,^ which appeared shortly after his death,
it is stated that the governor-general "coiUd not
disguise from himself that the government was not
strong, that it was continuaUy on the brink of
defeat, and that it was only enabled to hold its
position by resorting to shifts and expedients, or
what are called tactics, which in his inmost soul
Lord Metcalfe abhorred."
The action of the British ministry during this
crisis in Canadian affairs proved quite conclusively
^ "The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Administration," by
Earl Grey, London, 1867. See Vol. I, p. 205.
2 The ^'Life and Correspondence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe," by John
W. Kaye, London, 1868.

METCALFE RETURNS TO ENGLAND
that it was not yet prepared to concede respon
sible government in its fuUest sense. Both Lord
Stanley, then secretary of state for the colonies,
and Lord John RusseU, who had held the same
office in a Whig administration, endorsed the action
of the governor-general, who was raised to the
peerage under the title of Baron Metcalfe of Fern-
hill, in the county of Berks. Earthly honours were
now of Uttle avail to the new peer. He had been a
martyr for years to a cancer in the face, and when
it assumed a most dangerous form he went back to
England and died soon after his return. So strong
was the feehng against him among a large body of
the people, especiaUy in French Canada, that he was
bitterly assaUed until the hour when he left, a dying
man. PersonaUy he was generous and charitable to
a fault, but he should never have been sent to a
colony at a crisis when the call was for a man
versed in the practice of parliamentary government,
and able to sympathize with the aspirations of a
people determined to enjoy political freedom in
accordance with the principles of the parliamentary
institutions of England. With a remarkable ignor
ance of the political conditions of the province —
too often shown by British statesmen in those days
— so great a historian and parliamentarian as Lord
Macaulay actuaUy wrote on a tablet to Lord Met
calfe's memory: — "In Canada, not yet recovered
from the calamities of civil war, he reconciled con
tending factions to each other and to the mother
37

LORD ELGIN
country." The truth is, as written by Sir Francis
Hincks* fifty years later, "he embittered the party
feeling that had been considerably assuaged by Sir
Charles Bagot."
Lord Metcalfe was succeeded by Lord Cathcart,
a military man, who was chosen because of the
threatening aspect of the relations between Eng
land and the United States on the question of the
Oregon boundary. During his short term of office
he did not directly interfere in politics, but care
fuUy studied the defence of the country and quietly
made preparations for a rupture with the neigh
bouring repubUc. The result of his judicious action
was the disappearance of much of the political
bitterness which had existed during Lord Met
calfe's administration. The country, indeed, had
to face issues of vital importance to its material
progress. Industry and commerce were seriously
affected by the adoption of free trade in Eng
land, and the consequent removal of duties which
had given a preference in the British markets
to Canadian wheat, flour, and other commodi
ties. The effect upon the trade of the province
would not have been so serious had England at
this time repealed the old navigation laws which
closed the St. Lawrence to foreign shipping and pre
vented the extension of commerce to other markets.
Such a course might have immediately compensated
^ "Reminiscences of his public life,'' by Sir Francis Hincks,
K.C.M.G., C.B., Montreal, 1884.
ae

CONDITIONS OF TRADE
Canadians for the loss of those of the mother
land. The anxiety that was generally felt by Cana
dians on the reversal of the British commercial
poUcy under which they had been able to build up
a very profitable trade, was shown in the language
of a very largely signed address from the assembly
to the Queen. "We cannot but fear," it was stated
in this document, "that the abandonment of the
protective principle, the very basis of the colonial
commercial system, is not only calculated to retard
the agricultural improvement of the country and
check its hitherto rising prosperity, but seriously to
impair our ability to purchase the manufactured
goods of Great Britain — a result alike prejudicial
to this country and the parent state." But this
appeal to the selfishness of British manufacturers
had no influence on British statesmen so far as their
fiscal pohcy was concerned. But while they were
not prepared to depart in any measure from the
principles of free trade and give the colonies a
preference in British markets over foreign coun
tries, they became conscious that the time had
come for removing, as far as possible, all causes of
pubUc discontent in the provinces, at this critical
period of commercial depression. British statesmen
had suddenly awakened to the mistakes of I.,ord
Metcalfe's administration of Canadian affairs, and
decided to pursue a policy towards Canada which
would restore confidence in the good faith and
justice of the imperial government. "The Queen's
39

LORD ELGIN
representative" — this is a citation from a Lon
don paper* supporting the Whig government —
"should not assume that he degrades the Crown by
foUowing in a colony with a constitutional govern
ment the example of the Crown at home. Respon
sible government has been conceded to Canada,
and should be attended in its workings with aU
the consequences of responsible government in the
mother country. What the Queen cannot do in
England the governor-general should not be per
mitted to do in Canada. In making imperial ap
pointments she is bound to consult her cabinet; in
making provincial appointments the governor-gen
eral should be bound to do the same."
The Oregon dispute had been settled, hke the
question of the Maine boundary, without any re
gard to British interests in America, and it was
now deemed expedient to replace Lord Cathcart
by a civil governor, who woiUd be able to carry out,
in the vaUey of the St. Lawrence, the new policy of
the colonial office, and strengthen the ties between
the province and the parent state.
As I have previously stated. Lord John RusseU's
ministry made a wise choice in the person of Lord
Elgin. In the following pages I shall endeavour to
show how fully were realized the high expectations
of those British statesmen who sent him across the
Atlantic at this critical epoch in the political and
industrial conditions of the Canadian dependency.
^See "McMuUen's History of Canada," Vol. II (2nd Ed.), p. 201.
4,0

CHAPTER III
POLITICAL DIFFICULTIES
LORD ELGIN made a most favourable im
pression on the public opinion of Canada from
the first hour he arrived in Montreal, and had
opportunities of meeting and addressing the people.
His genial manner, his ready speech, his knowledge
of the two languages, his obvious desire to under
stand thoroughly the condition of the country and
to pursue British methods of constitutional govern
ment, were aU calculated to attract the confidence
of aU nationalities, classes, and creeds. The sup
porters of responsible government heard with in
finite pleasure the enunciation of the principles
which would guide him in the discharge of his
public duties. "I am sensible," he said in answer
to a Montreal address, "that I shaU but maintain
the prerogative of the Crown, and most effectually
carry out the instructions with which Her Majesty
has honoured me, by manifesting a due regard for
the wishes and feelings of the people and by seek
ing the advice and assistance of those who enjoy
their confidence."
At this time the Draper Conservative ministry,
formed under such peculiar circumstances by Lord
Metcalfe, was stiU in office, and Lord Elgin, as in
41

LORD ELGIN
duty bound, gave it his support, although it was
clear to him and to all other persons at aU con
versant with public opinion that it did not enjoy
the confidence of the country at large, and must
soon give place to an administration more worthy
of popular favour. He recognized the fact that the'
crucial weakness in the poUtical situation was "that
a Conservative government meant a government
of Upper Canadians, which is intolerable to the
French, and a Radical government meant a govern
ment of French, which is no less hateful to the
British." He believed that the pohtical problem of
"how to govern united Canada" — and the changes
which took place later showed he was right — ^would
be best solved "if the French would split into a
Liberal and Conservative party, and join the Upper
Canada parties which bear corresponding names."
Holding these views, he decided at the outset to
give the French Canadians fuU recognition in the
reconstruction or formation of ministries during his
term of office. And under aU circumstances he was
resolved to give "to his ministers aU constitutional
support, frankly and without reserve, and the bene
fit of the best advice" that he could afford them in
their difficulties. In return for this he expected that
they would, "in so far as it is possible for them to
do so, carry out his views for the maintenance of
the connection with Great Britain and the advance
ment of the interests of the province." On this tacit
understanding, they — ^the governor-general and the
42

CHANGES IN THE CABINET
Draper- Viger cabinet — had "acted together har
moniously," although he had "never concealed from
them that he intended to do nothing" which would
"prevent him from working cordiaUy with their
opponents." It was indispensable that "the head of
the government should show that he has confidence
in the loyalty of all the influential parties with
which he has to deal, and that he should have
no personal antipathies to prevent him from acting
with leading men."
Despite the wishes of Lord Elgin, it was im
possible to reconstruct the government with a due
regard to French Canadian interests. Mr. Caron
and Mr. Morin, both strong men, could not be
induced to become ministers. The government con
tinued to show signs of disintegration. Several
members resigned and took judgeships in Lower
Canada, Even Mr. Draper retired with the under
standing that he should also go on the bench at
the earliest opportunity in Upper Canada. Another
effort was made to keep the ministry together, and
Mr. Henry Sherwood became its head; but the most
notable acquisition was Mr. John Alexander Mac
donald as receiver-general. From that time this
able man took a conspicuous place in the councils
of the country, and eventuaUy became prime minis
ter of the old province of Canada, as weU as of the
federal dominion which was formed many years
later in British North America, largely through his
instrumentality. From his first entrance into pohtics
43

LORD ELGIN
he showed that versatiUty of inteUect, that readi
ness to adapt himself to dominant political condi
tions and make them subservient to the interests of
his party, that happy faculty of making and keeping
personal friends, which were the most striking traits
of his character. His mind enlarged as he had
greater experience and opportunities of studying
public life, and the man who entered parliament as
a Tory became one of the most Liberal -Conserva
tives who ever administered the affairs of a colonial
dependency, and, at the same time, a statesman of a
comprehensive intellect who recognized the strength
of British institutions and the advantage of British
connection. The obvious weakness of the reconstructed min
istry was the absence of any strong men from
French Canada. Mr. Denis B. Papineau was in no
sense a recognized representative of the French
Canadians, and did not even possess those powers
of eloquence — that ability to give forth "rhetorical
flashes" — which were characteristic of his reckless
but highly gifted brother. In fact the ministry as
then organized was a mere makeshift until the
time came for obtaining an expression of opinion
from the people at the polls. When parliament met
in June, 1847, it was quite clear that the ministry
was on the eve of its downfaU. It was sustained
only by a feeble majority of two votes on the
motion for the adoption of the address to the
governor-general. The opposition, in which LaFon-
44

IMPORTANT LEGISLATION
taine, Baldwin, Aylwin, and Chauveau were the
most prominent figures, had clearly the best of the
argument in the pohtical controversies with the
tottering ministry. Even in the legislative council
resolutions, condemning it chiefly on the ground
that the French province was inadequately repre
sented in the cabinet, were only negatived by the
vote of the president, Mr. McGill, a wealthy mer
chant of Montreal, who was also a member of the
administration. Despite the weakness of the government, the
legislature was called upon to deal with several ques
tions which pressed for immediate action. Among
the important measures which were passed was one
providing for the amendment of the law relating to
forgery, which was no longer punishable by death.
Another amended the law with respect to munici
pahties in Lower Canada, which, however, failed to
satisfy the local requirements of the people, though
it remained in force for eight years, when it was
replaced by one better adapted to the conditions
of the French province. The legislature also dis
cussed the serious effects of free trade upon Cana
dian industry, and passed an address to the Crown
praying for the repeal of the laws which prevented
the free use of the St. Lawrence by ships of all
nations. But the most important subject with which
the government was caUed upon to deal was one
which stifled all poUtical rivalry and national pre
judices, and demanded the earnest consideration of
45

LORD ELGIN
aU parties. Canada, like the rest of the world, had
heard of an unhappy land smitten with a hideous
plague, of its crops lying in pestilential heaps and
of its peasantry dying above them, of fathers,
mothers, and children ghastly in their rags or na
kedness, of dead unburied, and the living flying in
terror, as it were, from a stricken battlefield. This
dreadful Irish famine forced to Canada upwards of
100,000 persons, the greater number of whom were
totaUy destitute and must have starved to death
had they not received public or private charity. The
miseries of these unhappy immigrants were aggra
vated to an inconceivable degree by the outbreak of
disease of a most malignant character, stimiUated
by the wretched physical condition and by the dis
graceful state of the pest ships in which they were
brought across the ocean. In those days there was
no effective inspection or other means taken to
protect from infection the unhappy famiUes who
were driven from their old homes by poverty and
misery. From Grosse Isle, the quarantine station
on the Lower St. Lawrence, to the most distant
towns in the western province, many thousands
died in awful suffering, and left helpless orphans
to evoke the aid and sympathy of pitying Canadians
everywhere. Canada was in no sense responsible for
this unfortunate state of things. The imperial gov
ernment had allowed this Irish immigration to
go on without making any effort whatever to pre-
x^ent the evils that foUowed it from Ireland to the

THE SHIP FEVER
banks of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. It
was a heavy burden which Canada should never
have been called upon to bear at a time when
money was scarce and trade was paralyzed by
the action of the imperial parliament itself. Lord
Elgin was fuUy alive to the weighty responsibility
which the situation entailed upon the British gov
ernment, and at the same time did full justice to the
exertions ofthe Canadian people to cope with this sad
crisis. The legislature voted a sum of money to relieve
the distress among the immigrants, but it was soon
found entirely inadequate to meet the emergency.
Lord Elgin did not fail to point out to the
colonial secretary " the severe strain " that this
sad state of things made, not only upon charity, but
upon the very loyalty of the people to a govern
ment which had shown such culpable negUgence
since the outbreak of the famine and the exodus
from the plague-stricken island. He expressed the
emphatic opinion that "all things considered, a
great deal of forbearance and good feeUng had been
shown by the colonists under this trial," He gave
fuU expression to the general feeUng of the country
that " Great Britain must make good to the pro
vince the expenses entaUed on it by this visitation,"
He did fuU justice to the men and women who
showed an extraordinary spirit of self-sacrifice, a
positive heroism, during this national crisis, "No
thing," he wrote, " can exceed the devotion of the
nuns and Roman CathoUc priests, and the conduct
47

LORD ELGIN
of the clergy and of many of the laity of other
denominations has been most exemplary. Many
lives have been sacrificed in attendance on the sick,
and administering to their temporal and spiritual
need. , . This day the Mayor of Montreal, Mr,
MiUs, died, a very estimable man, who did much for
the immigrants, and to whose firmness and philan
thropy we chiefly owe it, that the immigrant sheds
here were not tossed into the river by the people of
the town during the summer. He has faUen a victim
to his zeal on behalf of the poor plague-stricken
strangers, having died of ship fever caught at the
sheds." Among other prominent victims were Dr.
Power, Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto, Vicar-
General Hudon of the same church, Mr. Roy, curd
of Charlesbourg, and Mr. Chaderton, a Protestant
clergyman. Thirteen Roman Catholic priests, if not
more, died from their devotion to the unhappy
people thus suddenly thrown upon their Christian
charity. When the season of navigation was nearly
closed, a ship arrived with a large number of people
from the Irish estates of one of Her Majesty's
ministers, Lord Palmerston. The natural result of
this incident was to increase the feeUng of indig
nation aheady aroused by the apathy of the British
government during this national calamity. HappUy
Lord Elgin's appeals to the colonial secretary had
effect, and the province was reimbursed eventuaUy
for the heavy expenses incurred by it in its efforts
to fight disease, misery and death. English states-

A VISIT TO UPPER CANADA
men, after these painful experiences, recognized the
necessity of enforcing strict regulations for the
protection of emigrants crossing the ocean, against
the greed of ship-owners. The sad story of 1847-8
cannot now be repeated in times when nations have
awakened to their responsibilities towards the poor
and distressed who are forced to leave their old
homes for that new world which offers them well-
paid work, political freedom, plenty of food and
countless comforts.
In the autumn of 1847, Lord Elgin was able to
seek some rehef from his many cares and perplex
ities of government in a tour of the western
province, where, to quote his own words, he met
" a most gratifying and encouraging reception." He
was much impressed with the many signs of pros
perity which he saw on aU sides. "It is indeed a
glorious country," he wrote enthusiastically to Lord
Grey, "and after passing, as I have done within
the last fortnight, from the citadel of Quebec to the
faUs of Niagara, rubbing shoulders the while with
its free and perfectly independent inhabitants, one
begins to doubt whether it be possible to acquire a
sufficient knowledge of man or nature, or to obtain
an insight into the future of nations, without
visiting America." During this interesting visit to
Upper Canada, he seized the opportunity of giving
his views on a subject which maybe considered one
of his hobbies, one to which he devoted much
attention while in Jamaica, and this was the forma-

LORD ELGIN
tion of agricultural associations for the purpose of
stimxUating scientific methods of husbandry.
Before the close of the first year of his adminis
tration Lord Elgin felt that the time had come for
making an effort to obtain a stronger ministry by
an appeal to the people. Accordingly he dissolved
parliament in December, and the elections, which
were hotly contested, resulted in the unequivocal
condemnation of the Sherwood cabinet, and the
complete success of the Liberal party led by LaFon
taine and Baldwin. Among the prominent Liberals
returned by the people of Upper Canada were
Baldwin, Hincks, Blake, Price, Malcolm Cameron,
Richards, Merritt and John Sandfield Macdonald.
Among the leaders of the same party in Lower
Canada were LaFontaine, Morin, Aylwin, Chauveau
and Holmes. Several able Conservatives lost their
seats, but Sir AUan MacNab, John A. Macdonald,
Mr. Sherwood and John Hillyard Cameron suc
ceeded in obtaining seats in the new parhament,
which was, in fact, more notable than any other
since the union for the ability of its members. Not
the least noteworthy feature of the elections was
the return of Mr. Louis J. Papineau, and Mr.
Wolfred Nelson, rebels of 1837-8, both of whom
had been aUowed to return some time previously to
the country. Mr. Papineau's career in parliament
was not calculated to strengthen his position in
impartial history. He proved beyond a doubt that
he was only a demagogue, incapable of learning
no

THE INFLUENCE OF PAPINEAU
lessons of wise statesmanship during the years of
reflection that were given him in exile. He con
tinued to show his ignorance of the principles and
workings of responsible government. Before the
rebeUion which he so rashly and vehemently forced
on his credulous, impulsive countrymen, so apt to
be deceived by flashy rhetoric and glittering general
ities, he never made a speech or proposed a measure
in support of the system of parliamentary govern
ment as explained by Baldwin and Howe, and even
W. Lyon Mackenzie. His energy and eloquence
were directed towards the estabhshment of an elec
tive legislative council in which his compatriots
would have necessarily the great majority, a su
premacy that woiUd enable him and his foUowing to
control the whole legislation and government, and
promote his dominant idea of a Nation Canadienne
in the vaUey of the St. Lawrence. After the union
he made it the object of his political life to thwart
in every way possible the sagacious, patriotic plans
of LaFontaine, Morin, and other broad-minded
statesmen of his own nationaUty, and to destroy
that system of responsible government under which
French Canada had become a progressive and
influential section of the province.
As soon as parhament assembled at the end
of February, the government was defeated on the
vote for the speakership. Its nominee. Sir AUan
MacNab, received only nineteen votes out of fifty-
four, and Morin, the Liberal candidate, was then
51

LORD ELGIN
unanimously chosen. When the address in reply to
the governor-general's speech came up for consider
ation, Baldwin moved an amendment, expressing a
want of confidence in the ministry, which was carried
by a majority of thirty votes in a house of seventy-
four members, exclusive of the speaker, who votes
only in case of a tie. Lord Elgin received and an
swered the address as soon as it was ready for pres
entation, and then sent for LaFontaine and Baldwin.
He spoke to them, as he tells us himself, "in
a candid and friendly tone," and expressed the
opinion that "there was a fair prospect, if they
were moderate and firm, of forming an adminis
tration deserving and enjoying the confidence of
parliament." He added that "they might count
on aU proper support and assistance from him."
When they "dwelt on difficulties arising out of
pretensions advanced in various quarters," he ad
vised them "not to attach too much importance
to such considerations, but to bring together a
council strong in administrative talent, and to take
their stand on the wisdom of their measures and
policy." The result was the construction of a power
ful government by LaFontaine with the aid of
Baldwin. " My present council," Lord Elgin wrote
to the colonial secretary, " unquestionably contains
more talent, and has a firmer hold on the confidence
of parliament and of the people than the last. There
is, I think, moreover, on their part, a desire to
prove, by proper deference for the authority of the
52

THE LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN CABINET
governor-general (which they aU admit has in my
case never been abused), that they were libeUed
when they were accused of impracticabihty and
anti-monarchical tendencies." These closing words
go to show that the governor-general felt it was
necessary to disabuse the minds of the colonial
secretary and his colleagues of the false impression
which the British government and people seemed
to entertain, that the Tories and Conservatives
were alone to be trusted in the conduct of pubhc
affairs. He saw at once that the best way of
strengthening the connection with Great Britain
was to give to the strongest political party in
the country its true constitutional position in the
administration of public affairs, and identify it
thoroughly with the pubhc interests.
The new government was constituted as foUows:
Lower Canada. ^Hon, Ij. H. LaFontaine, attor
ney-general of Lower Canada ; Hon. James LesUe,
president of the executive council; Hon. R. E.
Caron, president ofthe legislative council; Hon. E,
P. Tachd, chief commissioner of pubhc works ;
Hon. I. C. Aylwin, sohcitor-general for Lower
Canada ; Hon. L, M, Viger, receiver-general.
Upper Canada, — Hon. Robert Baldwin, attorney-
general of Upper Canada; Hon. R. B. Sullivan, pro
vincial secretary; Hon. F. Hincks, inspector-general;
Hon. J, H, Price, commissioner of crown lands ;
Hon, Malcolm Cameron, assistant commissioner of
pubUc works; Hon, W. H, Blake, soUcitor-generaL 53

LORD ELGIN
The LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry must always
occupy a distinguished place in the poUtical history
of the Canadian people. It was the first to be
formed strictly in accordance with the principles of
responsible government, and from its entrance into
public life must be dated a new era in which
the relations between the governor and his advisers
were at last placed on a sound constitutional basis,
in which the constant appeals to the imperial gov
ernment on matters of purely provincial significance
came to an end, in which local self-government was
estabhshed in the fullest sense compatible with the
continuance of the connection with the empire.
It was a ministry notable not only for the ability of
its members, but for the many great measures
which it was able to pass during its term of office —
measures calculated to promote the material ad
vancement of the province, and above aU to dispel
racial prejudices and aUay sectional antagonisms by
the adoption of wise methods of compromise, con-
ciUation and justice to all classes and creeds.
In Lord Elgin's letters of 1848 to Earl Grey, we
can clearly see how many difficulties surrounded
the discharge of his administrative functions at this
time, and how fortunate it was for Canada, as weU
as for Great Britain, that he should have been able
to form a government which possessed so fiiUy the
confidence of both sections of the province, irre
spective of nationaUty. The revolution of February
in Paris, and the efforts of a large body of Irish in
54

THE PROBLEM OF FRENCH LOYALTY
the United States to evoke sympathy in Canada on
behalf of repubUcanism were matters of deep anxiety
to the governor-general and other friends of the
imperial state. " It is just as weU," he wrote at this
time to Lord Grey, " that I should have arranged
my ministry, and committed the flag of Great Britain
to the custody of those who are supported by
the large majority of the representatives and con
stituencies of the province, before the arrival of the
astounding news from Europe which reached us by
the last mail. There are not wanting here persons
who might, under different circumstances, have
attempted by seditious harangues, if not by overt
acts, to turn the example of France, and the
sympathies ofthe United States to account,"
Under the circumstances he pressed upon the
imperial authorities the wisdom of repealing that
clause of the Union Act which restricted the use
of the French language. "I am for one deeply
convinced," and here he showed he differed from
Lord Durham, " of the impoUcy of aU such at
tempts to denationaUze the French. GeneraUy
speaking, they produce the opposite effect from
that intended, causing the flame of national pre
judice and animosity to burn more fiercely," But he
went on to say, even were such attempts successful,
what would be the inevitable result: "You may
perhaps Americanize, but, depend upon it, by
methods of this description you will never Anglicize
the French inhabitants of the province. I^et them
55

LORD ELGIN
feel, on the other hand, that their rehgion, then*
habits, their prepossessions, their prejudices, if you
will, are more considered and respected here than
in other portions of this vast continent, who will
venture to say that the last hand which waves
the British flag on American ground may not
be that of a French Canadian?"*
Lord Elgin had a strong antipathy to Papi
neau — " Guy Fawkes Papineau," as he caUed him
in one of his letters — who was, he considered,
" actuated by the most mahgnant passions, irritated
vanity, disappointed ambition and national hatred,"
always ready to wave " a Ughted torch among
combustibles." Holding such opinions, he seized
every practical opportunity of thwarting Papineau's
persistent efforts to create a dangerous agitation
among his impulsive countrymen. He shared fuUy
the great desire of the bishops and clergy to
stem the immigration of large numbers of French
Canadians into the United States by the estabhsh
ment of an association for colonization purposes,
Papineau endeavoured to attribute this exodus to
the effects of the pohcy of the imperial government,
and to gain control of this association with the
object of using it as a means of stimulating a
feeUng against England, and strengthening himself
^ These concluding words of Lord Elgin recall a similar expression
of feeling by Sir Etienne Pascal Tache, " That the last gun that would
be fired for British supremacy in America would be fired by a French
Canadian."

THE TRADE QUESTION
in French Canada by such insidious methods. Lord
Elgin, with that intuitive sagacity which he applied
to practical politics, recognized the importance of
identifying himself with the movement initiated by
the bishops and their friends, of putting himself
" in so far as he could at its head," of imparting
to it " as salutary a direction as possible, and
thus wresting from Papineau's hands a potent in
strument of agitation." This policy of concihating
the French population, and anticipating the great
agitator in his design, was quite successful. To use
Lord Elgin's own language, " Papineau retired to
solitude and reflection at his seigniory, ' La Petite
Nation,'" and the governor-general was able at the
same time to call the attention of the colonial
secretary to a presentment of the grand jury of
Montreal, " in which that body adverts to the
singularly tranquil, contented state of the pro
vince." It was at this time that Lord Elgin commenced
to give utterance to the views that he had formed
with respect to the best method of giving a stimu
lus to the commercial and industrial interests that
were so seriously crippled by the free trade policy
of the British government. So serious had been its
effects upon the economic conditions of the province
that miU-owners, forwarders and merchants had
been ruined " at one fell swoop," that the revenue
had been reduced by the loss of the canal dues paid
previously by the shipping engaged in the trade
57

LORD ELGIN
promoted by the old colonial pohcy of England,
that private property had become unsaleable, that
not a shiUing could be raised on the credit of
the province, that public officers of aU grades, in
cluding the governor-general, had to be paid in
debentures which were not exchangeable at par.
Under such circumstances it was not strange, said
the governor-general, that Canadians were too
ready to make unfavourable comparisons between
themselves and their republican neighbours. " What
makes it more serious," he said, "is that aU the
prosperity of which Canada is thus robbed is trans
planted to the other side of the Une, as if to make
Canadians feel more bitterly how much kinder
England is to the children who desert her, than to
those who remain faithful. It is the inconsistency of
imperial legislation, and not the adoption of one
pohcy rather than another, which is the bane of
the colonies."
He beheved that "the conviction that they
would be better off if they were annexed," was
almost universal among the commercial classes at
that time, and the peaceful condition of the pro
vince under all the circumstances was often a
matter of great astonishment even to himself. In
his letters urging the imperial government to find
an immediate remedy for this unfortunate condition
of things, he acknowledged that there was "some
thing captivating in the project of forming this vast
British Empire into one huge Zollverein, with free

HIS TRADE POLICY
interchange of commodities, and uniform duties
against the world without ; though perhaps without
some federal legislation it might have been im
possible to carry it out."* Undoubtedly, under such
a system "the component parts of the empire
would have been united by bonds which cannot
be suppUed under that on which we are now
entering," but he felt that, whatever were his own
views on the subject, it was then impossible to
disturb the poUcy fixed by the imperial government,
and that the only course open to them, if they
hoped "to keep the colonies," was to repeal the
navigation laws, and to aUow them " to turn to the
best possible account their contiguity to the States,
that they might not have cause for dissatisfaction
when they contrasted their own condition with
that of their neighbours."
Some years, however, passed before the governor-
general saw his views fuUy carried out. The imperial
authorities, with that extraordinary indifference to
colonial conditions which too often distinguished
them in those times, hesitated until weU into 1849
to follow his advice with respect to the navigation
^ Fifty years after these words were written, debates have taken
place in the House of Commons of the Canadian federation in favour of
an imperial Zollverein, which would give preferential treatment to
Canada's products in British markets. The Conservative party, when
led by Sir Charles Tupper, emphatically declared that "no measure of
preference, which falls short of the complete realization of such a policy,
should be considered final or satisfactory." England, however, stiU
clings to free trade.
59

LORD ELGIN
laws, and the Reciprocity Treaty was not success
fuUy negotiated until a much later time. He had
the gratification, however, before he left Canada of
seeing the beneficial effects of the measures which
he so earnestly laboured to promote in the interests
of the country.

an

CHAPTER IV
THE INDEMNIFICATION ACT
THE legislature opened on January 18th, 1849,
when Lord Elgin had the gratification of
informing French Canadians that the restrictions
imposed by the Union Act on the use of their
language in the pubUc records had been removed
by a statute of the imperial parhament. For the
first time in Canadian history the governor-general
read the speech in the two languages ; for in the
past it had been the practice of the president of the
legislative council to give it in French after it had
been read in EngUsh from the throne. The session
\iras memorable in poUtical annals for the number of
useful measures that were adopted. In later pages
of this book I shall give a short review of these and
other measures which show the importance of the
legislation passed by the LaFontaine-Baldwin min
istry. For the present I shaU confine myself to
the consideration of a question which created an
extraordinary amount of pubUc excitement, cul
minated in the destruction of valuable public pro
perty, and even threatened the Ufe of the governor-
general, who during one of the most trying crises
in Canadian history, displayed a coolness and
patience, an indifference to aU personal considera- 61

LORD ELGIN
tions, a poUtical sagacity and a strict adherence
to sound methods of constitutional government,
which entitle him to the gratitude of Canadians,
who might have seen their country torn asunder by
internecine strife, had there been then a weak and
passionate man at the head of the executive. As it
wiU be seen later, he, like the younger Pitt in
England, was " the pilot who weathered the storm."
In Canada, the storm, in which the elements of
racial antagonism, of poUtical rivalry and disap
pointment, of spoiled fortunes and commercial ruin
raged tumultuously for a while, threatened not
only to drive Canada back for years in its political
and material development, but even to disturb
the relations between the dependency and the im
perial state.
The legislation which gave rise to this serious
convulsion in the country was, in a measure, an
aftermath ofthe rebeUious risings of 1837 and 1838
in Upper and Lower Canada. Many poUtical griev
ances had been redressed since the union, and the
French Canadians had begun to feel that their inter
ests were completely safe under a system of govern
ment which gave them an influential position in the
public councils. The restoration of their language
to its proper place in a country composed of two
nationaUties standing on a sure footing of equal
political and civil rights, was a great consolation to
the French people of the east. The pardon extended
to the rash men who were directly concerned in
62

REBELLION LOSSES
the events of 1837 and 1838, was also well calcu
lated to heal the wounds inflicted on the province
during that troublous period. It needed only the
passage of another measure to conceal the scars
of those unhappy days, and to bury the past in
that oblivion in which all Canadians, anxious for
the unity and harmony of the two races and the
satisfactory operation of political institutions, were
sincerely desirous of hiding it forever. This measure
was pecuniary compensation from the state for
certain losses incurred by people in French Canada
in consequence of the wanton destruction of pro
perty during the revolt. The obhgation of the
state to give such compensation had been fuUy
recognized before and after the union.
The special council of Lower Canada and the
legislature of Upper Canada had authorized the
payment of an indemnity to those loyal inhabitants
in their respective provinces who had sustained losses
during the insurrections. It was not possible, how
ever, before the union, to make payments out of the
pubhc treasury in accordance with the ordinance of
the special council of Lower Canada and the statute
of the legislature of Upper Canada. In the case of
both provinces these measures were enacted to
satisfy the demands that were made for compen
sation by a large number of people who claimed to
have suffered losses at the outbreak ofthe rebeUions,
or during the raids from the United States which
foUowed these risings and which kept the country
63

LORD ELGIN
in a state of ferment for months. The legislature
of the united provinces passed an act during its
first session to extend compensation to losses oc
casioned in Upper Canada by violence on the part
of persons " acting or assuming to act " on Her
Majesty's behalf "for the suppression of the said re
beUion or for the prevention of further disturbances,"
Funds were also voted out of the public revenues
for the payment of indemnities to those who had
met with the losses set forth in this legislation af
fecting Upper Canada, It was, on the whole, a fair
settlement of just claims in the western province.
The French Canadians in the legislature sup
ported the measure, and urged with obvious rea
son that the same consideration should be shown
to the same class of persons in Lower Canada,
It was not, however, untU the session of 1845,
when the Draper- Viger ministry was in office, that
an address was passed to the governor-general.
Lord Metcalfe, praying him to take such steps
as were necessary "to insure to the inhabitants
of that portion of this province, formerly Lower
Canada, an indemnity for just losses suffered during
the rebeUions of 1837 and 1838." The immediate
result was the appointment of comniissioners to
make inquiry into the losses sustained by " Her
Majesty's loyal subjects" in Lower Canada "during
the late unfortunate rebelhon." The commissioners
found some difficulty in acting upon their instruc
tions, which caUed upon them to distinguish the

THE REBELLION LOSSES COMMISSION
cases of those " who had joined, aided or abetted
the said rebeUion, from the cases of those who had
not done so," and they accordingly applied for
definite advice from Lord Cathcart, whose advisers
were stiU the Draper- Viger ministry. The com
missioners were officially informed that " it was his
ExceUency's intention that they should be guided
by no other description of evidence than that
furnished by the sentences of the courts of law,"
They were further informed that it was only in
tended that they should form a general estimate
of the rebeUion losses, " the particulars of which
must form the subject of more minute inquiry
hereafter, under legislative authority,"
During the session of 1846 the commissioners
made a report which gave a list of 2,176 persons
who made claims amounting in the aggregate to
£241,965. At the same time the commissioners
expressed the opinion that £100,000 would be ade
quate to satisfy aU just demands, and directed
attention to the fact that upwards of £25,503 were
actuaUy claimed by persons who had been con
demned by a court-martial for their participation
in the rebeUion. The report also set forth that the
inquiry conducted by the commissioners had been
necessarily imperfect in the absence of legal power
to make a minute investigation, and that they had
been compeUed largely to trust to the aUegations
of the claimants who had laid their cases before
them, and that it was only from data coUected in

LORD ELGIN
this way that they had been able to come to con
clusions as to the amount of losses.
When the Draper- Viger ministry first showed a
readiness to take up the claims of Lower Canada
for the same compensation that had been granted
to Upper Canada, they had been doubtless in
fluenced, not solely by the conviction that they
were caUed upon to perform an act of justice, but
mainly by a desire to strengthen themselves in the
French province. We have already read that their
efforts in this direction entirely faUed, and that they
never obtained in that section any support from the
recognized leaders of public opinion, but were
obliged to depend upon Denis B. Papineau and
Viger to keep up a pretence of French Canadian
representation in the cabinet. It is, then, easy to
believe that, when the report of the commissioners
came before them, they were not very enthusiastic
on the subject, or prepared to adopt vigorous
measures to settle the question on some equitable
basis, and remove it .entirely from the field of
political and national conflict.
They did nothing more than make provision for
the payment of £9,986, which represented claims
fuUy investigated and recognized as justifiable before
the union, and left the general question of indemnity
for future consideration. Indeed, it is doubtful if the
Conservative ministry of that day, the mere creation
of Lord Metcalfe, kept in power by a combination of
Tories and other factions in Upper Canada, could

LAFONTAINE'S RESOLUTION
have satisfactorily dealt with a question which re
quired the interposition of a government having the
confidence of both sections of the province. One
thing is quite certain. This ministry, weak as it was,
Tory and ultra-loyalist as it claimed to be, had recog
nized by the appointment of a commission, the jus
tice of giving compensation to French Canada on
the principles which had governed the settlement of
claims from Upper Canada. Had the party which
supported that ministry been influenced by any
regard for consistency or principle, it was bound
in 1849 to give fuU consideration to the question,
and treat it entirely on its merits with the view
of preventing its being made a pohtical issue and
a means of arousing racial and sectional animosities.
As we shaU now see, however, party passion,
pohtical demagogism, and racial hatred prevailed
above aU high considerations of the public peace
and welfare, when parhament was asked by the
LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry to deal seriously and
practicaUy with the question of indemnity to Lower
Canada. The session was not far advanced when La
Fontaine brought forward a series of resolutions,
on which were subsequently based a biU, which set
forth in the preamble that " in order to redeem the
pledge given to the sufferers of such losses ... it
is necessary and just that the particulars of such
losses, not yet paid and satisfied, should form
the subject of more minute inquiry under legislative 67

LORD ELGIN
authority (see p. 65 ante) and that the same, so far
only as they may have arisen from the total or
partial, unjust, unnecessary or wanton destruction
of dweUings, buildings, property and effects . . .
should be paid and satisfied." The act provided that
no indemnity should be paid to persons " who had
been convicted of treason during the rebeUion,
or who, having been taken into custody, had
submitted to Her Majesty's wiU, and been trans
ported to Bermuda." Five commissioners were to
be appointed to carry out the provisions of the act,
which also provided £400,000 for the payment
of legal claims.
Then all the forces hostile to the government
gathered their full strength for an onslaught on
a measure which such Tories as Sir AUan Mac
Nab and Henry Sherwood believed gave them an
exceUent opportunity of arousing a strong pubUc
sentiment which might awe the governor-general
and bring about a ministeral crisis. The issue was
not one of pubhc principle or of devotion to the
Crown, it was simply a question of obtaining a
party Yictory per fas aut nefas. The debate on the
second reading of the bill was full of bitterness,
intensified even to virulence. Mr. Sherwood de
clared that the proposal of the government meant
nothing else than the giving of a reward to the very
persons who had been the cause of the shedding of
blood and the destruction of property throughout
the country. Sir Allan MacNab went so far in a

A STORMY DEBATE
moment of passion as to insult the French Canadian
people by caUing them "aUens and rebels." The
sohcitor-general, Mr. Hume Blake,* who was Irish
by birth, and possessed a great power of invec
tive, inveighed in severe terms against " the family
compact" as responsible for the rebeUion, and de
clared that the stigma of "rebels" applied with
complete force to the men who were then endeav
ouring to prevent the passage of a biU which was
a simple act of justice to a large body of loyal
people. Sir Allan MacNab instantly became furious
and said that if Mr. Blake called him a rebel it was
simply a Ue.
Then foUowed a scene of tumult, in which the
authority of the chair was disregarded, members
indulged in the most disorderly cries, and the
people in the gaUeries added to the excitement on
the floor by their hisses and shouts. The gaUeries
were cleared with the greatest difficulty, and a
hostile encounter between Sir AUan and Mr. Blake
was only prevented by the intervention of the
sergeant-at-arms, who took them into custody by
order of the House until they gave assurances that
they would proceed no further in the unseemly
dispute. When the debate was resumed on the
foUowing day, LaFontaine brought it again to
the proper level of argument and reason, and
J- The father of the Hon. Edward Blake, the eminent constitutional
lawyer, who occupied for many years a notable place in Canadian
politics, and is now (1902) a member of the British House of Commons.
69

LORD ELGIN
showed that both parties were equaUy pledged to
a measure based on considerations of justice, and
declared positively that the government would
take every possible care in its instructions to the
commissioners that no rebel should receive any
portion of the indemnity, which was intended only
as a compensation to those who had just claims
upon the country for the losses that they actuaUy
sustained in the course of the unfortunate rebeUion.
At this time the Conservative and ultra-loyal press
was making frantic appeals to party passions and
racial prejudices, and caUing upon the governor-
general to intervene and prevent the passage of a
measure which, in the opinion of loyal Canadians,
was an insult to the Crown and its adherents.
Public meetings were also held and efforts made to
arouse a violent feeling against the bill. The gov
ernor-general understood his duty too weU as the
head of the executive to interfere with the biU
while passing through the two Houses, and paid no
heed to these passionate appeals dictated by parti
san rancour, while the ministry pressed the question
to the test of a division as soon as possible. The
resolutions and the several readings of the bill
passed both Houses by large majorities. The biU
was carried in the assembly on March 9th by forty-
seven votes against eighteen, and in the legislative
council on the 15th, by fifteen against fourteen.
By an analysis of the division in the popular
chamber, it wiU be seen that out of thirty-one
70

THE INDEMNIFICATION ACT
members from Upper Canada seventeen supported
and fourteen opposed the bill, while out of ten
Lower Canadian members of British descent there
were six who voted yea and four nay. The repre
sentatives of French Canada as a matter of course
were arrayed as one in favour of an act of justice to
their compatriots. During the passage of the bill
its opponents deluged the governor-general with
petitions asking him either to dissolve the legisla
ture or to reserve the bill for the consideration
of the imperial government. Such appeals had no
effect whatever upon Lord Elgin, who was deter
mined to adhere to the well understood rules of
parUamentary government in aU cases of poUtical
controversy. When the bill had passed all its stages in the two
Houses by large majorities of both French and
EngUsh Canadians, the govenor-general came to the
legislative council and gave the royal assent to the
measure, which was entitled "An Act to provide
for the indemnification of parties in Lower Canada
whose property was destroyed during the rebeUion
in the years 1837 and 1838." No other constitu
tional course could have been followed by him under
aU the circumstances. In his letters to the colonial
secretary he did not hesitate to express his regret
"that this agitation should have been stirred, and
that any portion of the funds of the province
should be diverted now from much more useful
purposes to make good losses sustained by indi-
71

LORD ELGIN
viduals in the rebellion," but he believed that "a
great deal of property was cruelly and wantonly
destroyed" in Lower Canada, and that "this gov
ernment, after what their predecessors had done,
and with Papineau in the rear, could not have
helped taking up this question," He saw clearly
that it was impossible to dissolve a parUament just
elected by the people, and in which the government
had a large majority, "If I had dissolved parlia
ment," to quote his own words, "I might have
produced a rebeUion, but assuredly I should not
have procured a change of ministry. The leaders of
the party know that as well as I do, and were it
possible to play tricks in such grave concerns, it
would have been easy to throw them into utter
confusion by merely caUing upon them to form
a government. They were aware, however, that I
could not for the sake of discomfiting them hazard
so desperate a policy ; so they have played out their
game of faction and violence without fear of conse
quences." His reasons for not reserving the biU for the
consideration of the British government must be
regarded as equally cogent by every student of our
system of government, especiaUy by those persons
who beUeve in home rule in aU matters involving
purely Canadian interests. In the first place, the
biU for the relief of a corresponding class of persons
in Upper Canada, "which was couched in terms
very nearly similar, was not reserved," and it was
79!

TUMULT AND INCENDIARISM
"difficult to discover a sufficient reason, so far as
the representative of the Crown was concerned, for
deahng with the one measure differently from the
other." And in the second place, "by reserving the
biU he should only throw upon Her Majesty's
government or (as it would appear to the popular
eye in Canada) on Her Majesty herself, a responsi
bihty which rests and ought to rest" upon the
governor-general of Canada. If he passed the bill,
"whatever mischief ensues may probably be re
paired," if the worst came to the worst, "by the
sacrifice" of himself. If the case were referred to
England, on the other hand, it was not impossible
that Her Majesty might "only have before her the
alternative of provoking? a rebellion in Lower Can
ada, by refusing her assent to a measure chiefly
affecting the interests of the habitants and thus
throwing the whole population into Papineau's
hands, or of wounding the susceptibilities of some
ofthe best subjects she has in the province."
A Canadian writer at the present time can refer
only with a feehng of indignation and humiliation
to the scenes of tumult, rioting and incendiarism,
which followed the royal assent to the bill of in
demnity. When Lord Elgin left Parliament House
— formerly the Ste. Anne market — a large crowd
insulted him with opprobrious epithets. In his
own words he was "received with ironical cheers
and hootings, and a small knot of individuals,
consisting, it has since been ascertained, of persons
73

LORD ELGIN
of a respectable class in society, pelted the carriage
with missiles which must have been brought for
that purpose." A meeting was held in the open air,
and after several speeches of a very inflammatory
character had been made, the mob rushed to the
parliament building, which was soon in flames. By
this disgraceful act of incendiarism most valuable
coUections of books and documents were destroyed,
which, in some cases, could not be replaced. Sup
porters of the biU were everywhere insulted and
maltreated while the excitement was at its height.
LaFontaine's residence was attacked and injured.
His valuable library of books and manuscripts,
some of them very rare, was destroyed by fire
— a deplorable incident which recalls the burning
and mutilation of the rich historical collections of
Hutchinson, the last loyalist governor of Mas
sachusetts, at the commencement of the American
revolution in Boston.
A few days later Lord Elgin's Ufe was in actual
danger at the hands of the unruly mob, as he was
proceeding to Government House — ^then the old
Chateau de Ramezay on Notre Dame Street — ^to
receive an address from the assembly. On his
return to Monklands he was obliged to take a
circuitous route to evade the same mob who were
waiting with the object of further insulting him
and otherwise giving vent to their feelings.
The government appears to have been quite un
conscious that the public excitement was likely to
74

THE POSITION OF THE OPPOSITION
assume so dangerous a phase, and had accordingly
taken none of those precautions which might have
prevented the destruction of the Parliament House
and its valuable contents. Indeed it would seem
that the leaders of the movement against the bill
had themselves no idea that the political storm
which they had raised by their inflammatory har
angues would become a whirlwind so entirely be
yond their control. Their main object was to bring
about a ministerial crisis. Sir Allan MacNab, the
leader of the opposition, himself declared that he
was amazed at the dangerous form which the public
indignation had at last assumed. He had always
been a devoted subject of the sovereign, and it
is only just to say that he could under no circum
stances become a rebel, but he had been carried
away by his feelings and had made rash observations
more than once under the belief that the biU would
reward the same class of men whom he and other
loyalists had fought against in Upper Canada.
Whatever he felt in his heart, he and his foUowers
must always be held as much responsible for the
disturbances of 1849 as were Mackenzie and Papi
neau for those of 1837, Indeed there was this
difference between them: the former were reckless,
but at least they had, in the opinion of many per
sons, certain political grievances to redress, while
the latter were simply opposing the settlement of a
question which they were bound to consider fairly
and impartially, if they had any respect for former
75

LORD ELGIN
pledges. Papineau, Mackenzie and Nelson may weU
have found a measure of justification for their past
madness when they found the friends of the old
"family compact" and the extreme loyahsts of
1837 and 1838 incited to insult the sovereign in
the person of her representative, to create racial
passion and to excite an agitation which might
at any moment develop into a movement most
fatal to Canada and her connection with England.
Happily for the peace of the country, Lord
Elgin and his counciUors showed a forbearance and
a patience which could hardly have been expected
from them during the very serious crisis in which
they lived for some weeks. "I am prepared," said
Lord Elgin at the very moment his hfe was in
danger, "to bear any amount of obloquy that may
be cast upon me, but, if I can possibly prevent it,
no stain of blood shaU rest upon my name." When
he remained quiet at Monklands and decided not
to give his enemies further opportunities for out
bursts of passion by paying visits to the city, even
if protected by, a military force, he was taunted by
the papers of the opposition with cowardice for
pursuing a course which, we can aU now clearly
see, was in the interests of peace and order. When
at a later time LaFontaine's house was again
attacked after the arrest of certain persons imph
cated in the destruction ofthe Parliament House,
and one of the assailants was killed by a shot fired
from inside, he positively refused to consent to
76

HIS COURSE APPROVED
martial law or any measures of increased rigour
until a further appeal had been made to the mayor
and corporation of the city. The issue proved that
he was clearly right in his opinion of the measures
that should be taken to restore order at this time.
The law-abiding citizens of Montreal at once res
ponded to a proclamation of the mayor to assist
him in the maintenance of peace, and the coroner's
jury — one member being an Orangeman who had
taken part in the funeral of the deceased — brought
in a unanimous verdict, acquitting LaFontaine of
aU blame for the unfortunate incident that had
occurred during the unlawful attack on his residence.
The Montreal disturbances soon evoked the in
dignation of the truly loyal inhabitants of the
province. Addresses came to the governor-general
from all parts to show him that the riots were
largely due to local causes, "especiaUy to commer
cial distress acting on religious bigotry and national
hatred." He had also the gratification of learning
that his constitutional action was fully justified by
the imperial government, as weU as supported in
parUament where it was fully discussed. When he
offered to resign his office, he was assured by Lord
Grey that "his rehnquishment of that office, which,
under any circumstances, would be a most serious
blow to Her Majesty's service and to the province,
could not fail, in the present state of affairs, to be
most injurious to the public welfare, from the
encouragement which it would give to those who
77

LORD ELGIN
have been concerned in the violent and iUegal
opposition which has been offered to your govern
ment." In parliament, Mr. Gladstone, who seems
never to have been well-informed on the subject,
went so far as to characterize the Rebellion Losses
BiU as a measure for rewarding rebels, but both
Lord John Russell, then leader of the government,
and his great opponent. Sir Robert Peel, gave their
unquahfied support to the measure. The result was
that an amendment proposed by Mr, Herries in
favour of the disallowance of the act was defeated
by a majority of 141,
This action of the imperial authorities had the
effect of strengthening the pubhc sentiment in
Canada in support of Lord Elgin and his advisers.
The government set to work vigorously to carry
out the provisions of the law, appointing the same
commissioners as had acted under the previous
ministry, and was able in a very short time to settle
definitely this very disturbing question. It was
deemed inexpedient, however, to keep the seat of
government at Montreal, After a very fuU and
anxious consideration of the question, it was decided
to act on the recommendation of the legislature that
it should thereafter meet alternately at Toronto and
Quebec, and that the next session should be held at
Toronto in accordance with this arrangement. This
"perambulating system" was tried for several years,
but it proved so inconvenient and expensive that
the legislature in 1858 passed an address to Her
78

HIS VISIT TO UPPER CANADA
Majesty praying her to choose a permanent capital
The place selected was the city of Ottawa, on
account of its situation on the frontier of the two
provinces, the almost equal division of its popula
tion into French and EngUsh, its remoteness from
the American borders, and consequently its com
parative security in time of war. Some years later
it became the capital of the Dominion of Canada—
the confederation of provinces and territories ex
tending across the continent.
In the autumn of 1849 Lord Elgin made a tour
of the western part of the province of Upper
Canada for the purpose of obtaining some ex
pression of opinion from the people in the very
section where the British feehng was the strongest.
On this occasion he was attended only by an
aide-de-camp and a servant, as an answer to those
who were constantly assaihng him for want of
courage. Here and there, as he proceeded west,
after leaving French Canada, he was insulted by
a few Orangemen, notably by Mr. Ogle R. Gowan,
who appeared on the wharf at BrockviUe with a
black flag, but apart from such feeble exhibitions
of pohtical spite he met with a reception, especially
west of Toronto, which proved beyond cavU that
the heart and reason of the country, as a whole,
were undoubtedly in his favour, and that nowhere
was there any actual sympathy with the unhappy
disturbances in Montreal. He had also the grati
fication soon after his return from this pleasant
79

LORD ELGIN
tour to receive from the British government an
official notification that he had been raised to the
British peerage under the title of Baron Elgin of
Elgin in recognition of his distinguished services to
the Crown and empire in America.
But it was a long time before Lord Elgin was
forgiven by a smaU clique of politicians for the
part he had taken in troubles which ended in their
signal discomfiture. The pohtical situation con
tinued for a while to be aggravated by the serious
commercial embarrassment which existed through
out the country, and led to the circulation of a
manifesto, signed by leading merchants and citizens
of Montreal, urging as remedies for the prevalent
depression a revival of colonial protection by Eng
land, reciprocal free trade with the United States, a
federal union or republic of British North America,
and even annexation to the neighbouring states as a
last resort. This document did not suggest rebeUion
or a forceable separation from England. It even pro
fessed affection for the home land; but it encouraged
the idea that the British government would doubtless
yield to any colonial pressure in this direction when
it was convinced that the step was beyond per-
adventure in the interest of the dependency. The
manifesto represented only a temporary phase of
sentiment and is explained by the fact that some
men were dissatisfied with the existing condition of
things and ready for any change whatever. The
movement found no active or general response
80

THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL'S CENSURE
among the great mass of thinking people; and it
was impossible for the Radicals of I^ower Canada to
persuade their compatriots that their special insti
tutions, so dear to their hearts, could be safely
entrusted to their American republican neighbours,
AU the men who, in the thoughtlessness of youth
or in a moment of great excitement, signed the
-manifesto — notably the Molsons, the Redpaths,
Luther H, Holton, John Rose, David Lewis Mac-
Pherson, A. A. Dorion, E, Goff Penny — became
prominent in the later public and commercial life
of British North America, as ministers of the
Crown, judges, senators, milUonaires, and all de
voted subjects of the British sovereign.
When Lord Elgin found that the manifesto con
tained the signatures of several persons holding
office by commission from the Queen, he made an
immediate inquiry into the matter, and gave ex
pression to the displeasure of the Crown by remov
ing from office those who confessed that they had
signed the objectionable document, or declined to
give any answer to the queries he had addressed to
them. His action on this occasion was fuUy justified
by the imperial government, which instructed him
"to resist to the utmost any attempt that might be
made to bring about a separation of Canada from
the British dominions." But while Lord Elgin, as
the representative of the Queen, was compelled by
a stern sense of duty to condemn such acts of
infideUty to the empire, he did not conceal from
81

LORD ELGIN
himself that there was a great deal in the economic
conditions of the provinces which demanded an
immediate remedy before aU reason for discontent
could disappear. He did not fail to point out to
Lord Grey that it was necessary to remove the
causes of the pubhc irritation and uneasiness by the
adoption of measures calculated to give a stimulus
to Canadian industry and commerce. "Let me then
assure your Lordship," he wrote in November 1849,
"and I speak advisedly in offering this assurance,
that the dissatisfaction now existing in Canada,
whatever may be the forms with which it may
clothe itself, is due mainly to commercial causes.
I do not say that there is no discontent on political
grounds. Powerful individuals and even classes of
men are, I am well aware, dissatisfied with the
conduct of affairs. But I make bold to affirm that
so general is the belief that, under the present
circumstances of our commercial condition, the
colonists pay a heavy pecuniary fine for their fidehty
to Great Britain, that nothing but the existence of
an unwonted degree of political contentment among
the masses has prevented the cry for annexation
from spreading Uke wildfire through the province."
He then proceeded again to press upon the con
sideration of the government the necessity of fol
lowing the removal of the imperial restrictions
upon navigation and shipping in the colony, by the
establishment of a reciprocity of trade between the
United States and the British North American
82

A SUCCESSFUL POLICY
Provinces. The change in the navigation laws took
place in 1849, but it was not possible to obtain
larger trade with the United States until several
years later, as we shall see in a future chapter when
we come to review the relations between that
countiy and Canada.
Posterity has fully justified the humane, patient
and discreet constitutional course pursued by Lord
Elgin during one of the most trying ordeals through
which a colonial governor ever passed. He had the
supreme gratification, however, before he left the
province, of finding that his policy had met with
that success which is its best eulogy and justifi
cation. Two years after the events of 1849, he was
able to write to England that he did not beUeve
that "the function of the governor-general under
constitutional government as the moderator be
tween parties, the representative of interests which
are common to all the inhabitants of the country,
as distinct from those that divide them into parties,
was ever so fully and so frankly recognized." He was
sure that he could not have achieved such results
if he had had blood upon his hands. His business
was "to humanize, not to harden." One of Canada's
ablest men — not then in pohtics — had said to him :
"Yes, I see it aU now, you were right, a thousand
times right, though I thought otherwise then. I
own that I would have reduced Montreal to ashes
before I would have endured half of what you did,"
and he added, "I should have been justified, too."
83

LORD ELGIN
"Yes," answered Lord Elgin, "you would have
been justified because your course would have been
perfectly defensible ; but it would not have been
the best course. Mine was a better one." And the
result was this, in his own words : "700,000 French
reconciled to England, not because they are getting
rebel money; I believe, indeed that no rebels will
get a farthing ; but because they beUeve that the
British governor is just. 'Yes,' but you may say,
'this is purchased by the alienation of the British.'
Far from it, I took the whole blame upon myself;
and I wiU venture to affirm that the Canadian
British were never so loyal as they are at this hour;
[this was, remember, two years after the burning
of Parliament House] and, what is more remarkable
still, and more directly traceable to this policy of
forbearance, never, since Canada existed, has party
spirit been more moderate, and the British and
French races on better terms than they are now;
and this in spite of the withdrawal of protection,
and of the proposal to throw on the colony many
charges which the imperial government has hitherto
borne." Canadians at the beginning of the twentieth
century may also say as Lord Elgin said at the
close of this letter. Magna est Veritas.

84

CHAPTER V
THE END OF THE LAFONTAINE-BALDWIN
MINISTRY, 1851
THE LaFontaine-Baldwin government remained
in office until October, 1851, when it was con-
stitutionaUy dissolved by the retirement of the
prime minister soon after the resignation of his
colleague from Upper Canada, whose abihty as a
statesman and integrity as a man had given such
popularity to the cabinet throughout the country.
It has been weU described by historians as " The
Great Ministry." During its existence Canada ob
tained a fuU measure of self-government in all
provincial affairs. Trade was left perfectly untram-
meled by the repeal in June, 1849, of the navigation
laws, in accordance with the urgent appeals of the
governor-general to the colonial secretary. The
immediate results were a stimulus to the whole
commerce of the province, and an influx of shipping
to the ports of the St. Lawrence. The full control
of the post-office was handed over to the Canadian
government. This was one of the most popular
concessions made to the Canadian people, since
it gave them opportunities for cheaper circulation
of letters and newspapers, so necessary in a new and
sparsely settled country, where the people were
85

LORD ELGIN
separated from each other in many districts by long
distances. One of the grievances of the Canadians
before the union had been the high postage im
posed on letters throughout British North America.
The poor settlers were not able to pay the three
or four shillings, and even more, demanded for
letters mailed from their old homes across the sea,
and it was not unusual to find in country post-
offices a large accumulation of dead letters, refused
on account of the expense. The management of the
postal service by imperial officers was in every way
most unsatisfactory ; it was chiefly carried on for
the benefit of a few persons, and not for the con
venience or consolation of the many who were
always anxious for news of their kin in the "old
country." After the union there was a little im
provement in the system, but it was not reaUy
administered in the interests of the Canadian people
until it was finaUy transferred to the colonial
authorities. When this desirable change took place,
an impulse was soon given to the dissemination of
letters and newspapers. The government organized
a post-office department, of which the head was
a postmaster-general with a seat in the cabinet.
Other important measures made provision for the
introduction of the decimal system into the pro
vincial currency, the taking of a census every ten
years, the more satisfactory conduct of parliamen
tary elections and the prevention of corruption,
better facilities for the administration of justice in
86

EDUCATION
the two provinces, the abolition of primogeniture
with respect to real estate in Upper Canada, and
the more equitable division of property among the
children of an intestate, based on the civil law of
French Canada and old France.
Education also continued to show marked im
provement in accordance with the wise policy
adopted since 1841. Previous to the union popular
education had been at a very low ebb, although
there were a number of efficient private schools
in aU the provinces where the children of the
well-to-do classes could be taught classics and
many branches of knowledge. In Lower Canada
not one-tenth of the children of the habitants
could write, and only one-fifth could read. In
Upper Canada the schoolmasters as a rule, according
to Mrs. Anna Jameson,* were "iU-fed, iU-clothed, iU-
paid, or not paid at all." In the generality of cases
they were either Scotsmen or Americans, totaUy
unfit for the positions they fiUed. As late as 1833
Americans or anti-British adventurers taught in the
greater proportion of the schools, where the pupils
used United States text-books replete with sen
timents hostile to England — a wretched state of
things stopped by legislation only in 1846. Year by
year after the union improvements were made in
the school system, with the object of giving every
possible educational facility to rich and poor alike.
iSee her "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada."
London, 1838.
87

LORD ELGIN
In the course of time elementary education became
practicaUy free. The success of the system in the
progressive province of Upper Canada largely rested
on the pubhc spirit of the municipahties. It was
engrafted on the municipal institutions of each
county, to which provincial aid was given in pro
portion to the amount raised by local assessment.
The establishment of normal schools and pubhc
libraries was one of the useful features of school
legislation in those days. The merits of the system
naturaUy evoked the sympathy and praise of the
governor-general, who was deeply interested in the
intellectual progress of the country. The develop
ment of "individual self-reliance and local exertion
under the superintendence of a central authority
exercising an influence almost exclusively moral is
the ruhng principle of the system."
Provision was also made for the imparting of
religious instruction by clergymen of the several
religious denominations recognized by law, and for
the establishment of separate schools for Protestants
or Roman Catholics whenever there was a necessity
for them in any local division. On the question
of religious instruction Lord Elgin always enter
tained strong opinions. After expressing on one
occasion his deep gratification at the adoption of
legislation which had "enabled Upper Canada to
place itself in the van among the nations in the
important work of providing an efficient system
of education for the whole community," he pre
ss

EGERTON RYERSON
ceeded to commend the fact that " its foundation
was laid deep in the framework of our common
Christianity." He showed then how strong was
the influence of the moral sense in his character:
"While the varying opinions of a mixed religious
society are scrupulously respected .... it is con
fidently expected that every child who attends
our common schools shall learn there that he is
a being who has an interest in eternity as well
as in time; that he has a Father towards whom
he stands in a closer and more affecting and
more endearing relationship than to any earthly
father, and that that Father is in heaven." But
since the expression of these emphatic opinions
the tendency of legislation in the majority of
the provinces — but not in French Canada, where
the Roman Catholic clergy still largely control
their own schools — has been to encourage secular
and not rehgious education. It would be instruc
tive to learn whether either morality or Christianity
has been the gainer.
It is only justice to the memory of a man who
died many years after he saw the full fruition of
his labours to say that Upper Canada owes a debt
of gratitude to the Rev. Egerton Ryerson for his
services in connection with its public school system.
He was far from being a man of deep knowledge or
having a capacity for expressing his views with terse
ness or clearness. He had also a large fund of personal
vanity which made him sometimes a busybody when
89

LORD ELGIN
inaction or silence would have been wiser for
himself. We can only explain his conduct in re
lation to the constitutional controversy between
Lord Metcalfe and the Liberal party by the
supposition that he could not resist the blandish
ments of that eminent nobleman, when consulted
by him, but allowed his reason to be captured and
then gave expression to opinions and arguments
which showed that he had entirely misunderstood
the seriousness of the political crisis or the sound
practice of the parliamentary system which Bald
win, LaFontaine and Howe had so long laboured
to establish in British North America. The books
he wrote can never be read with profit or interest.
His "History of the United Empire Loyalists" is
probably the dullest book ever compiled by a
Canadian, and makes us thankful that he was
never able to carry out the intention he expressed
in a letter to Sir Francis Hincks of writing a con
stitutional history of Canada. But though he made
no figure in Canadian letters, and was not always
correct in his estimate of political issues, he suc
ceeded in making for himself a reputation for
public usefulness in connection with the educa
tional system of Upper Canada far beyond that of
the majority of his Canadian contemporaries.
The desire of the imperial and Canadian govern
ments to bury in oblivion the unhappy events of
1837 and 1838 was very emphatically impressed
by the concession of an amnesty in 1849 to aU
90

WILLIAM LYON MACKENZIE
the persons who had been engaged in the rebel
lions. In the time of Lord Metcalfe, Papineau,
Nelson, and other rebels long in exile, had been
aUowed to return to Canada either by virtue of
special pardons granted by the Crown under the
great seal, or by the issue of writs of nolle prosequi.
The signal result of the Amnesty Act passed in
1849 by the Canadian legislature, in accordance
with the recommendation in the speech from the
throne, was the return of WiUiam Lyon Mac
kenzie, who had led an obscure and wretched life
in the United States ever since his flight from
Upper Canada in 1837, and had gained an experi
ence which enabled him to value British institu
tions more highly than those of the repubhc.
An impartial historian must always acknowledge
the fact that Mackenzie was Ul-used by the family
compact and English governors during his political
career before the rebeUion, and that he had sound
views of constitutional government which were
weU worthy of the serious consideration of English
statesmen. In this respect he showed more in
telhgence than Papineau, who never understood
the true principles of parUamentary government,
and whose superiority, compared with the little,
pugnacious Upper Canadian, was the possession of
a stately presence and a gift of fervid eloquence
which was well adapted to impress and carry away
his impulsive and too easily deceived countrymen.
If Mackenzie had shown more control of his
91

LORD ELGIN
temper and confined himself to such legitimate
constitutional agitation as was stirred up by a far
abler man, Joseph Howe, the father of responsible
government in the maritime provinces, he would
have won a far higher place in Canadian history.
He was never a statesman; only an agitator who
failed entirely throughout his passionate career to
understand the temper of the great body of Lib
erals — that they were in favour not of rebellion but
of such a continuous and earnest enunciation of
their constitutional principles as would win the
whole province to their opinions and force the
imperial government itself to make the reforms
imperatively demanded in the pubhc interests.*
But, while we cannot recognize in him the quaUties
of a safe political leader, we shoxUd do justice to
that honesty of purpose and that spirit of unselfish
ness which placed him on a far higher plane than
many of those men who belonged to the combina
tion derisively called the "family compact," and
who never showed a wilUngness to consider other
interests than their own. Like Papineau, Mac
kenzie became a member of the provincial legisla
ture, but only to give additional evidence that he
1 "I am inclined," wrote Lord Durham, "to view the insurrection
ary movements which did take place as indicative of no deep-rooted
disaffection, and to believe that almost the entire body of the reformers
of this province sought only by constitutional means to attain those
objects for which they had so long peaceably struggled before the
unhappy troubles occasioned by the violence of a few unprincipled
adventurers and heated enthusiasts."
92

KING'S COLLEGE
did not possess the capacity for discreet, practical
statesmanship possessed by Hincks and Baldwin
and other able Upper Canadians who could in
those days devote themselves to the public in
terests with such satisfactory results to the province
at large.
It was Baldwin who, while a member of the
ministry, succeeded in carrying the measure which
created the University of Toronto, and placed it
on the broad basis on which it has rested ever
since. His measure was the result of an agi
tation which had commenced before the union.
Largely through the influence of Dr. Strachan, the
first Anglican bishop of Upper Canada, Sir Pere
grine Maitland, when lieutenant-governor, had been
induced to grant a charter establishing King's Col
lege "at or near York" (Toronto), with university
privileges. Like old King's in Nova Scotia, estab
lished before the beginning of the century, it was
directly under the control of the Church of Eng
land, since its governing body and its professors had
to subscribe to its thirty-nine articles. It received
an endowment of the public lands available for
educational purposes in the province, and every
effort was made to give it a provincial character
though conducted entirely on sectarian principles.
The agitation which eventually followed its estab
lishment led to some modifications in its character,
but, for all that, it remained practically under
the direction of the Anglican bishop and clergy,
93

LORD ELGIN
and did not obtain the support or approval of any
dissenters. After the union a large edifice was
commenced in the city of Toronto, on the site
where the legislative and government buildings now
stand, and an energetic movement was made to
equip it fully as a university.
When the Draper- Viger ministry was in office,
it was proposed to meet the growing opposition
to the institution by establishing a university which
should embrace three denominational colleges —
King's College, Toronto, for the Church of England,
Queen's College, Kingston, for the Presbjrterians,
and Victoria CoUege, Cobourg, for the Methodists —
but the bishop and adherents of the Anglican body
strenuously opposed the measure, which failed to pass
in a House where the Tories were in the ascendant.
Baldwin had himself previously introduced a biU
of a similar character as a compromise, but it
had failed to meet with any support, and when
he came into office he saw that he must go much
further and establish a non-sectarian university if
he expected to carry any measure on the subject in
the legislature. The result was the establishment
of the University of Toronto, on a strictly un
denominational foundation. Bishop Strachan was
deeply incensed at what he regarded as a violation
of vested rights of the Church of England in the
University of King's CoUege, and never failed for
years to style the provincial institution " the God
less university." In this as in other matters he
94

TRINITY COLLEGE ESTABLISHED
failed to see that the dominant sentiment of the
country would not sustain any attempt on the part
of a single denomination to control a college which
obtained its chief support from public aid. Whilst
every tribute must be paid to the zeal, energy, and
courage of the bishop, we must at the same time
recognize the fact that his former connection with
the famUy compact and his inability to understand
the necessity of compromise in educational and other
matters did much injury to a great church.
He succeeded unfortunately in identifying it
with the unpopular and aristocratic party, opposed
to the extension of popular government and the
diffusion of cheap education among all classes of
people. With that indomitable courage which never
failed him at a crisis he set to work to advance the
denomination whose interests he had always at
heart, and succeeded by appeals to English aid in
estabUshing Trinity College, which has always oc
cupied a high position among Canadian universities,
although for a while it failed to arouse sympathy
in the pubhc mind, until the feelings which had
been evoked in connection with the establishment
of King's had passed away. An effort is now (1901)
being made to affihate it with the same university
which the bishop had so obstinately and bitterly
opposed, in the hope of giving it larger opportuni
ties for usefulness. Its complete success of late has
been impeded by the want of adequate funds to
maintain those departments of scientific instruction 95

LORD ELGIN
now imperatively demanded in modern education.
When this affiliation takes place, the friends of
Trinity, conversant with its history from its begin
ning, believe that the portrait of the old bishop,
now hanging on the walls of Convocation HaU,
should be covered with a dark veil, emblematic of
the sorrow which he would feel were he to return
to earth and see what to him would be the desecra
tion of an institution which he built as a great
remonstrance against the spoliation of the church
in 1849.
The La Fontaine-Baldwin ministry also proved
itself fully equal to the demands of public opinion
by its vigorous policy with respect to the coloniza
tion of the wild lands of the province, the improve
ment of the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and
the construction of railways. Measures were passed
which had the effect of opening up and setthng
large districts by the offer of grants of public land
at a nominal price and very easy terms of payment.
In this way the government succeeded in keeping in
the country a large number of French Canadians who
otherwise would have gone to the United States,
where the varied industries of a very enterprising
people have always attracted a large number of
Canadians of all classes and races.
The canals were at last completed in accordance
with the wise policy inaugurated after the union
by Lord Sydenham, whose commercial instincts at
once recognized the necessity of giving western
96

THE FIRST CANALS
trade easy access to the ocean by the improvement
of the great waterways of Canada. It had always
been the ambition of the people of Upper Canada
before the union to obtain a continuous and secure
system of navigation from the lakes to Montreal.
The WeUand Canal between Lakes Erie and On
tario was commenced as early as 1824 through the
enterprise of Mr. William Hamilton Merritt —
afterwards a member of the LaFontaine-Baldwin
ministry — and the first vessel passed its locks in
1829; but it was very badly managed, and the
legislature, after having aided it from time to time,
was eventuaUy obliged to take control of it as a
provincial work. The Cornwall Canal was also
undertaken at an early day, but work had to be
stopped when it became certain that the legisla
ture of Lower Canada, then controUed by Papi
neau, would not respond to the aspirations of the
west and improve that portion of the St. Lawrence
within its provincial jurisdiction.
Governor Haldimand had, from 1779-1782, con
structed a very simple temporary system of canals to
overcome the rapids caUed the Cascades, Cedars and
Cdteau, and some slight improvements were made in
these primitive works from year to year until the
completion of the Beauhamois Canal in 1845. The
Lachine Canal was completed, after a fashion, in
1828, but nothing was done to give a continuous
river navigation between Montreal and the west
until 1845, when the Beauharnois Canal was first
97

LORD ELGIN
opened. The Rideau Canal originated in the ex
periences of the war of 1812-14, which showed the
necessity of a secure inland communication between
Montreal and the country on Lake Ontario; but
though first constructed for defensive purposes, it
had for years decided commercial advantages for
the people of Upper Canada, especially of the
Kingston district. The Grenville Canal on the Ot
tawa was the natural continuation of this canal, as
it ensured uninterrupted water communication be
tween Bytown — now the city of Ottawa — and
Montreal. The heavy public debt contracted by Upper
Canada prior to 1840 had been largely accum
ulated by the efforts of its people to obtain the
active sympathy and cooperation of the legisla
ture of French Canada, where Papineau and his
foUowers seemed averse to the development of
British interests in the vaUey of the St. Lawrence.
After the union, happily for Canada, public men of
aU parties and races awoke to the necessity of a
vigorous canal pohcy, and large sums of money
were annually expended to give the shipping of
the lakes safe and continuous navigation to Mont
real. At the same time the channel of Lake St.
Peter between Montreal and Quebec was improved
by the harbour commissioners of the former city,
aided by the government. Before the LaFontaine-
Baldwin cabinet left office, it was able to see
the complete success of this thoroughly Canadian
98

THE FIRST RAILWAYS
or national pohcy. The improvement of this canal
system — now the most magnificent in the world —
has kept pace with the development of the country
down to the present time.
It was mainly, if not entirely, through the
influence of Hincks, finance minister in the gov
ernment, that a vigorous impulse was given to
railway construction in the province. The first rail
road in British North America was built in 1837
by the enterprise of Montreal capitahsts, from La
Prairie on the south side of the St. Lawrence as
far as St. Johns on the Richelieu, a distance of
only sixteen mUes. The only railroad in Upper
Canada for many years was a horse tramway,
opened in 1839 between Queenston and Chippewa
by the old portage road round the falls of Niagara.
In 1845 the St, Lawrence and Atlantic Railway
Company — afterwards a portion of the Grand
Trunk Railway — obtained a charter for a line to
connect with the Atlantic and St, Lawrence Rail
way Company of Portland, in the State of Maine,
The year 1846 saw the commencement of the
Lachine Railway. In 1849 the Great Western, the
Northern, and the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Rail
ways were • stimulated by legislation which gave
a provincial guarantee for the construction of lines
not less than seventy-five miles in length. In 1851
Hincks succeeded in passing a measure which
provided for the building of a great trunk line
connecting Quebec with the western limits of
99

LORD ELGIN
Upper Canada. It was hoped at first that this road
would join the great mihtary railway contemplated
between Quebec and Halifax, and then earnestly
advocated by Howe and other pubhc men of the
maritime provinces with the prospect of receiving
aid from the imperial government. If these railway
interests could be combined, an intercolonial rail
road would be constructed from the Atlantic sea
board to the lakes, and a great stimulus given not
merely to the commerce but to the national unity
of British North America. In case, however, this
great idea could not be realized, it was the inten
tion of the Canadian government to make every
possible exertion to induce British capitalists to
invest their money in the great trunk line by a
liberal offer of assistance from the provincial ex
chequer, and the municipalities directly interested
in its construction.
The practical result of Hincks's policy was the
construction of the Grand Trunk Railway of
Canada, not by public aid as originally proposed,
but by British capitalists. The greater intercolonial
scheme failed in consequence of the conflict of rival
routes in the maritime provinces, and the deter
mination of the British government to give its
assistance only to a road that would be constructed
at a long distance from the United States frontier,
and consequently available for military and defen
sive purposes — in fact such a road as was actuaUy
built after the confederation of the provinces with
100

RECIPROCITY IN TRADE
the aid of an imperial guarantee. The history of the
negotiations between the Canadian government and
the maritime provinces with respect to the inter
colonial scheme is exceedingly complicated. An
angry controversy arose between Hincks and Howe ;
the latter always accused the former of a breach of
faith, and of having been influenced by a desire
to promote the interests of the capitalists concerned
in the Grand Trunk without reference to those of
the maritime provinces. Be that as it may, we know
that Hincks left the wordy politicians of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick to quarrel over rival
routes, and, as we shaU see later, went ahead with
the Grand Trunk, and had it successfully completed
many years before the first sod on the Intercolonial
route was turned.
In addition to these claims of the LaFontaine-
Baldwin government to be considered "a great
ministry," there is the fact that, through the finan
cial abUity of Hincks, the credit of the province
steadily advanced, and it was at last possible to
borrow money in the London market on very
favourable terms. The government entered heartily
into the policy of Lord Elgin with respect to reci
procity with the United States, and the encour
agement of trade between the different provinces
of British North America. It was, however, un
able to dispose of two great questions which had
long agitated the province — ^the abolition of the
seigniorial tenure, which was antagonistic to settle-
101

LORD ELGIN
ment and colonization, and the secularization of the
clergy reserves, granted to the Protestant clergy
by the Constitutional Act of 1791. These ques
tions will be reviewed at some length in later
chapters, and aU that it is necessary to say here is
that, while the LaFontaine-Baldwin cabinet sup
ported preliminary steps that were taken in the
legislature for the purpose of bringing about a
settlement of these vexatious subjects, it never
showed any earnest desire to take them up as
parts of its ministerial pohcy, and remove them
from political controversy.
Indeed it is clear that LaFontaine's conservative
instincts, which became stronger with age and ex
perience of political conditions, forced him to proceed
very slowly and cautiously with respect to a move
ment that would interfere with a tenure so deeply
engrafted in the social and economic structure of his
own province, while as a Roman CathoUc he was at
heart always doubtful of the justice of diverting to
secular purposes those lands which had been granted
by Great Britain for the support of a Protestant
clergy. Baldwin was also slow to make up his mind
as to the proper disposition of the reserves, and
certainly weakened himself in his own province by
his reluctance to express himself distinctly with
respect to a land question which had been so long a
grievance and a subject of earnest agitation among
the men who supported him in and out of the
legislature. Indeed when he presented himself for
102

BALDWIN'S RESIGNATION
the last time before his constituents in 1857, he
was emphatically attacked on the hustings as an
opponent of the secularization of the reserves for
refusing to give a distinct pledge as to the course
he would take on the question. This fact, taken
in connection with his previous utterances in the
legislature, certainly gives force to the opinion
which has been more than once expressed by
Canadian historians that he was not prepared,
any more than LaFontaine himself, to divert funds
given for an express purpose to one of an entirely
different character. Under these circumstances it
is easy to come to the conclusion that the LaFon
taine-Baldwin ministry was not willing at any time
to make these two questions parts of its policy —
questions on which it was ready to stand or fall as
a government. The first step towards the breaking up of the
ministry was the resignation of Baldwin foUow
ing upon the support given by a majority of the
Reformers in Upper Canada to a motion presented
by Wilham Lyon Mackenzie for the abolition
of the court of chancery and the transfer of its
functions to the courts of common law. The mo
tion was voted down in the House, but Baldwin
was a believer in the doctrine that a minister from
a particular province should receive the confidence
and support ofthe majority of its representatives in
cases where a measure affected its interests exclus
ively. He had taken some pride in the passage of
103

LORD ELGIN
the act which reorganized the court, reformed old
abuses in its practice, and made it, as he was con
vinced, useful in litigation ; but when he found that
his efforts in this direction were condemned by the
votes of the very men who should have supported
him in the province affected by the measure, he
promptly offered his resignation, which was ac
cepted with great reluctance not only by La
Fontaine but by Lord Elgin, who had learned to
admire and respect this upright, unselfish Canadian
statesman. A few months later he was defeated at
an election in one of the ridings of York by an
unknown man, largely on account of his attitude
on the question of the clergy reserves. He never
again offered himself for parliament, but hved in
complete retirement in Toronto, where he died in
1858. Then the people whom he had so long faith
fully served, after years of neglect, became con
scious that a true patriot had passed away.
LaFontaine placed his resignation in the hands
of the governor-general, who accepted it with re
gret. No doubt the former had deeply felt the
loss of his able colleague, and was aUve to the
growing belief among the Liberal politicians of
Upper Canada that the government was not pro
ceeding fast enough in carrying out the reforms
which they considered necessary. LaFontaine had
become a Conservative as is usual with men after
some experience of the responsibilities of public
administration, and probably felt that he had
104

AN HONOURABLE CAREER
better retire before he lost his influence with his
party, and before the elements of disintegration
that were forming within it had fully developed.
After his retirement he returned to the practice
of law, and in 1853 he became chief justice of the
court of appeal of Lower Canada on the death
of Sir James Stuart. At the same time he received
from the Crown the honour of a baronetcy, which
was also conferred on the chief justice of Upper
Canada, Sir John Beverley Robinson.
PoUtical historians justly place LaFontaine in the
first rank of Canadian statesmen on account of
his extensive knowledge, his sound judgment, his
breadth of view, his firmness in political crises, and
above aU his desire to promote the best interests of
his countrymen on those principles of compromise
and conciUation which alone can bind together the
distinct nationalities and creeds of a country peo
pled Uke Canada. As a judge he was dignified,
learned and impartial. His judicial decisions were
distinguished by the same lucidity which was con
spicuous in his parliamentary addresses. He died
ten years later than the great Upper Canadian,
whose honoured name must be always associated
with his own in the annals of a memorable epoch,
when the principles of responsible government were
at last, after years of perplexity and trouble, carried
out in their entirety, and when the French Cana
dians had come to recognize as a truth that under no
other system would it have been possible for them
105

LORD ELGIN
to obtain that influence in the pubhc councils to
which they were fully entitled, or to reconcile and
unite the diverse interests of a great province,
divided by the Ottawa river into two sections,
the one French and Roman Catholic, and the other
English and Protestant.

106

CHAPTER VI
THE HINCKS-MORIN MINISTRY
WHEN LaFontaine resigned the premiership
the ministry was dissolved and it was neces
sary for the governor-general to choose his suc
cessor. After the retirement of Baldwin, Hincks
and his colleagues from Upper Canada were in
duced to remain in the cabinet and the latter
became the leader in that province. He was en
dowed with great natural shrewdness, was deeply
versed in financial and commercial matters, had a
complete comprehension of the material conditions
of the province, and recognized the necessity of
rapid railway construction if the people were to
hold their own against the competition of their
very energetic neighbours to the south. His ideas
of trade, we can well believe, recommended them
selves to Lord Elgin, who saw in him the very-
man he needed to help him in his favourite scheme
of bringing about reciprocity with the United
States. At the same time he was now the most
prominent man in the Liberal party so long led by
Baldwin and LaFontaine, and the governor-general
very properly caUed upon him to reconstruct the
ministry. He assumed the responsibility and formed
the government known in the poUtical history of
107

LORD ELGIN
Canada as the Hincks-Morin ministry ; but before
we consider its personnel and review its measures,
it is necessary to recall the condition of poUtical
parties at the time it came into power.
During the years Baldwin and LaFontaine were
in office, the pohtics of the province were in the
process of changes which eventually led to im
portant results in the state of parties. The Parti
Rouge was formed in Lower Canada out of the
extreme democratic element of the people by Papi
neau, who, throughout his parliamentary career
since his return from exile, showed the most de
termined opposition to LaFontaine, whose mea
sures were always distinguished by a spirit of
conservatism, decidedly congenial to the dominant
classes in French Canada where the civil and re
hgious institutions of the country had much to fear
from the promulgation of republican principles.
The new party was composed chiefly of young
Frenchmen, then in the first stage of their poUti
cal growth — notably A. A. Dorion, J. B. E. Dorion
(Venfant terrible), R. Doutre, Dessaules, Labr^che,
Viger, and Laflamme; L. H. Holton, and a very
few men of British descent were also associated
with the party from its commencement. Its organ
was L'Avenir of Montreal, in which were con
stantly appearing violent diatribes and fervid appeals
to national prejudice, always pecuUar to French
Canadian journalism. It commenced with a pro
gramme in which it advocated universal suffrage,
108

THE LOWER CANADIAN LIBERALS
the abolition of property qualification for members
of the legislature, the repeal of the union, the
abolition of tithes, a republican form of govern
ment, and even, in a moment of extreme political
aberration, annexation to the United States. It was a
feeble imitation of the red republicanism of the
French revolution, and gave positive evidences of
the inspiration of the hero of the fight at St. Denis
in 1837. Its platform was pervaded not only by
hatred of British institutions, but with contempt
for the clergy and religion generaUy. Its revolution
ary principles were at once repudiated by the great
mass of French Canadians and for years it had but
a feeble existence. It was only when its leading
spirits reconstructed their platform and struck out
its most objectionable planks, that it became some
thing of a factor in practical Canadian politics.
In 1851 it was stiU insignificant numerically in the
Icffislature, and could not affect the fortunes of the
Liberal party in Lower Canada then distinguished
by the abihty of A. N. Morin, P. J. O. Chauveau,
R. E. Caron, E. P. Tachd, and L. P. Drummond.
The recognized leader of this dominant party was
Morin, whose versatile knowledge, lucidity of style,
and charm of manner gave him much strength
in parliament. His influence, however, as I have
already said, was too often weakened by an absence
of energy and of the power. to lead at national or
poUtical crises.
Parties in Upper Canada also showed the signs
109

LORD ELGIN
of change. The old Tory party had been graduaUy
modifying its opinions under the influence of re
sponsible government, which showed its wisest
members that ideas that prevailed before the union
had no place under the new, progressive order of
things. This party, nominally led by Sir AUan
MacNab, that staunch old loyalist, now called itself
Conservative, and was quite ready, in fact anxious,
to forget the part it took in connection with the
rebellion losses legislation, and to win that support
in French Canada without which it could not
expect to obtain office. The ablest man in its
councils was already John Alexander Macdon
ald, whose poUtical sagacity and keenness to seize
political advantages for the advancement of his
party, were giving him the lead among the Con
servatives. The Liberals had shown signs of dis
integration ever since the formation of the "Clear
Grits," whose most conspicuous members were
Peter Perry, the founder of the Liberal party
in Upper Canada before the union; WiUiam Mc-
Dougall, an eloquent young lawyer and journal
ist; Malcolm Cameron, who had been assistant
commissioner of public works in the LaFontaine-
Baldwin government; Dr. John Rolph, one of the
leaders of the movement that ended in the rebel
lion of 1837; Caleb Hopkins, a western farmer of
considerable energy and natural abiUty; David
Christie, a weU-known agriculturist; and John
Leslie, the proprietor of the Toronto Examiner,
110

THE CLEAR GRIT PARTY
the chief organ of the new party. It was organ
ized as a remonstrance against what many men
in the old Liberal party regarded as the inertness
of their leaders to carry out changes considered
necessary in the pohtical interests of the country.
Its very name was a proof that its leaders beheved
there should be no reservation in the opinion held
by their party — ^that there must be no alloy or
foreign metal in their political coinage, but it must
be clear Grit. Its platform embraced many of the
cardmal principles of the original Reform or Liberal
party, but it also advocated such radical changes as
the apphcation of the elective principle to all classes
of officials (including the governor-general), uni
versal suffrage, vote by ballot, biennial parliaments,
the abolition of the courts of chancery and common
pleas, free trade and direct taxation.
The Toronto Globe, which was for a short time
the principal exponent of ministerial views, declared
that many of the doctrines enunciated by the Clear
Grits "embody the whole difference between a re
publican form of government and the limited mon
archy of Great Britain." The Globe was edited by
George Brown, a Scotsman by birth, who came
with his father in his youth to the western pro
vince and entered into journalism, in which he
attained eventually signal success by his great
inteUectual force and tenacity of purpose. His sup
port of the LaFontaine-Baldwin ministry graduaUy
dropped from a moderate enthusiasm to a positive
111

LORD ELGIN
coolness, from its failure to carry out the prin
ciples urged by The Globe — especially the sec
ularization of the clergy reserves. Then he com
menced to raise the cry of French domination and
to attack the religion and special institutions of
French Canada with such virulence that at last
he became "a governmental impossibility," so far
as the influence of that province was concerned.
He supported the Clear Grits in the end, and
became their recognized leader when they gathered
to themselves all the discontented and radical
elements of the Liberal party which had for some
years been gradually splitting into fragments. The
power of the Clear Grits was first shown in
1851, when William Lyon Mackenzie succeeded
in obtaining a majority of Reformers in support
of his motion for the abolition of the court of
chancery, and forced the retirement of Baldwin,
whose conservatism had gradually brought him into
antagonism with the extremists of his old party.
Although relatively small in numbers in 1851,
the Clear Grits had the ability to do much mis
chief, and Hincks at once recognized the ex
pediency of making concessions to their leaders
before they demorahzed or ruined the Liberal party
in the west. Accordingly, he invited Dr. Rolph
and Malcolm Cameron to take positions in the
new ministry. They consented on condition that
the secularization of the clergy reserves would
be a part of the ministerial policy. Hincks then
112

THE HINCKS-MORIN MINISTRY
presented the following names to the governor-
general: Upper Canada. — Hon. F. Hincks, inspector-gen
eral; Hon, W. B, Richards, attorney-general of
Upper Canada; Hon, Malcolm Cameron, president
of the executive council; Hon, John Rolph, com
missioner of crown lands; Hon, James Morris,
postmaster-general. Lower Canada. — Hon. A. N. Morin, provincial
secretary; Hon. L. P. Drummond, attorney -general
of Lower Canada; Hon. John Young, commissioner
of public works; Hon. R. E. Caron, president of
legislative council; Hon. E. P. Tachd, receiver-
general. Later, Mr. Chauveau and Mr. John Ross were
appointed solicitors-general for Lower and Upper
Canada, without seats in the cabinet.
ParUament was dissolved in November, when it
had completed its constitutional term of four years,
and the result of the elections was the triumph ofthe
new ministry. It obtained a large majority in Lower
Canada, and only a feeble support in Upper Can
ada. The most notable acquisition to parliament w^as
George Brown, who had been defeated previously in
a bye-election of the same year by William Lyon
Mackenzie, chiefly on account of his being most
obnoxious to the Roman Catholic voters. He was
assuming to be the Protestant champion in journal
ism, and had made a violent attack on the Roman
Catholic faith on the occasion of the appointment 113

LORD ELGIN
of Cardinal Wiseman as Archbishop of Westmin
ster, an act denounced by extreme Protestants
throughout the British empire as an unconstitu
tional and dangerous interference by the Pope with
the dearest rights of Protestant England. As soon
as Brown entered the legislature he defined his
pohtical position by declaring that, whUe he saw
much to condemn in the formation of the ministry
and was dissatisfied with Hincks's explanations,
he preferred giving it for the time being his sup
port rather than seeing the government handed
over to the Conservatives. As a matter of fact, he
soon became the most dangerous adversary that
the government had to meet. His style of speaking
— ^fuU of facts and bitterness — and his control of an
ably conducted and widely circulated newspaper
made him a force in and out of parhament. His
aim was obviously to break up the new ministry,
and possibly to ensure the formation of some new
combination in which his own ambition might be
satisfied. As we shaU shortly see, his schemes faUed
chiefly through the more skilful strategy of the
man who was always his rival — his successful rival
— John A, Macdonald,
During its existence the Hincks-Morin ministry
was distinguished by its energetic pohcy for the
promotion of railway, maritime and commercial
enterprises. It took the first steps to stimulate the
estabhshment of a hne of Atlantic steamers by the
offer of a considerable subsidy for the carriage of
114

THE GRAND TRUNK RAILWAY
mails between Canada and Great Britain. The first
contract was made with a Liverpool firm, McKean,
McLarty & Co., but the service was not satis
factorily performed, owing, probably — according
to Hincks — ^to the war with Russia, and it was
necessary to make a new arrangement with the
Messrs. AUan, which has continued, with some
modification, until the present time.
The negotiations for the construction of an inter
colonial railway having faded for the reasons pre
viously stated, (p. 100), Hincks made successful
appUcations to Enghsh capitahsts for the construc
tion of the great road always known as the Grand
Trunk Railway of Canada. It obtained a charter
authorizing it to consolidate the lines from Quebec
to Richmond, from Quebec to Riviere du Loup,
and from Toronto to Montreal, which had received
a guarantee of $3,000 a mile in accordance with
the law passed in 1851. It also had power to build
the Victoria bridge across the St. Lawrence at
Montreal, and lease the American line to Portland.
By 1860, this great national highway was com
pleted from Riviere du Loup on the lower St,
Lawrence as far as Samia and Windsor on the
western lakes. Its early history was notorious for
much jobbery, and the English shareholders lost
the greater part of the money which they invested
in this Canadian undertaking.* It cost the province
1 For a succinct history of this road see "Eighty Years' Progress ot
British North America," Toronto, 1863. 115

LORD ELGIN
from first to last upwards of $16,000,000 but it
was, on the whole, money expended in the interests
of the country, whose internal development would
have been very greatly retarded in the absence
of rapid means of transit between east and west.
The government also gave liberal aid to the Great
Western Railway, which extended from the Niagara
river to Hamilton, London and Windsor, and to
the Northern road, which extended north from
Toronto, both of which, many years later, became
parts of the Grand Trunk system.
In accordance with its general progressive policy,
the Hincks-Morin ministry passed through the legis
lature an act empowering municipalities in Upper
Canada, after the observance of certain formahties,
to borrow money for the building of railways by
the issue of municipal debentures guaranteed by the
provincial government. Under this law a number
of municipalities borrowed large sums to assist raU-
ways and involved themselves so heavily in debt
that the province was ultimately obliged to come
to their assistance and assume their obhgations.
For years after the passage of this measure. Lower
Canada received the same privileges, but the peo
ple of that province were never carried away by
the enthusiasm of the west and never burdened
themselves with debts which they were unable
to pay. The law, however, gave a decided im
pulse at the outset to railway enterprise in Upper
Canada, and would have been a positive pubhc
116

INCREASED REPRESENTATION
advantage had it been carried out with some de
gree of caution.
The government established a department of
agriculture to which were given control of the
taking of a decennial census, the encouragement
of immigration, the coUection of agricultural and
other statistics, the establishment of model farms
and agricultural schools, the holding of annual
exhibitions and fairs, and other matters calculated
to encourage the cultivation of the soil in both
sections of the province. Malcolm Cameron be
came its first minister in connection with his nomi
nal duties as president of the executive council
— a position which he had accepted only on condi
tion that it was accompanied by some more active
connection with the administration of pubhc affairs.
For three sessions the LaFontaine-Baldwin min
istry had made vain efforts to pass a law increasing
the representation of the two provinces to one hun
dred and thirty or sixty-five members for each sec
tion. As already stated the Union Act required that
such a measure should receive a majority of two-
thirds in each branch of the legisl§.ture. It would
have become law on two occasions had it not been
for the factious opposition of Papineau, whose one
vote would have given the majority constitution-
aUy necessary. When it was again presented in
1853 by Mr. Morin, it received the bitter opposition
of Mr. Brown, who was now formulating the doc
trine of representation by population which after -
117

LORD ELGIN
wards became so important a factor in provincial
pohtics that it divided west from east, and made
government practicaUy impossible until a federal
union of the British North American provinces
was brought about as the only feasible solution
of the serious political and sectional difficulties
under which Canada was suffering. A number of
prominent Conservatives, including Mr. John A.
Macdonald, were also unfavourable to the measure
on the ground that the population of Upper Canada,
which was steadily increasing over that of Lower
Canada, should be equitably considered in any
readjustment of the provincial representation. The
French Canadians, who had been forced to come
into the union in 1841 with the same representa
tion as Upper Canada with its much smaller
population, were now unwiUing to disturb the
equality originally fixed while agreeing to an in
crease in the number of representatives from each
section. The biU, which became law in 1853, was
entirely in harmony with the views entertained by
Lord Elgin when he first took office as governor-
general of Canada. In 1847 he gave his opinion to
the colonial secretary that "the comparatively smaU
number of members of which the popular bodies
who determine the fate of provincial administra
tions" consisted was "unfavourable to the existence
of a high order of principle and feeUng among
official personages." When a defection of two or
three individuals from a majority of ten or so put
118

TWO IMPORTANT QUESTIONS
an administration in peril, "the perpetual patch
work and trafficking to secure this vote and that
(not to mention other evils) so engrosses the time
and thoughts of ministers that they have not
leisure for matters of greater moment." He clearly
saw into the methods by which his first unstable
ministry, which had its origin in Lord Metcalfe's
time, was alone able to keep its feeble majority.
" It must be remembered," he wrote in 1847, "that
it is only of late that the popular assemblies in this
part of the world have acquired the right of deter
mining who shaU govern them — of insisting, as we
phrase it, that the administration of affairs shall be
conducted by persons enjoying their confidence.
It is not wonderful that a privilege of this kind
should be exercised at first with some degree of
recklessness, and that while no great principles of
pohcy are at stake, methods of a more questionable
character for winning and retaining the confidence
of these arbiters of destiny should be resorted to."
While the Hincks government was in office,
the Canadian legislature received power from the
imperial authorities — as I shaU show later — ^to settle
the question of the clergy reserves on condition that
protection should be given to those members of the
clergy who had been beneficiaries under the Consti
tutional Act of 1791. A measure was passed for the
settlement of the seigniorial tenure question on an
equitable basis, but it was defeated in the legislative
council by a large majority amongst which we see the
119

LORD ELGIN
names of several seigneurs directly interested in the
measure. It was not fuUy discussed in that chamber
on the ground that members from Upper Canada
had not had a sufficient opportunity of studying the
details of the proposed settlement and of coming to
a just conclusion as to its merits. The action of the
council under these circumstances was severely
criticized, and gave a stimulus to the movement
that had been steadily going on for years among
radical reformers of both provinces in favour of an
elective body.
The result was that in 1854 the British parlia
ment repealed the clauses of the Union Act of
1840 with respect to the upper House, and gave
full power to the Canadian legislature to make
such changes as it might deem expedient — another
concession to the principle of local self-government.
It was not, however, until 1856, that the legislature
passed a bill giving effect to the intentions of the
imperial law, and the first elections were held for
the council. Lord Elgin was always favourable to
this constitutional change. "The position of the
second chamber of our body politic" — I quote from
a despatch of March, 1853 — "is at present whoUy
unsatisfactory. The principle of election must be in
troduced in order to give to it the influence which
it ought to possess, and that principle must be so
applied as to admit of the working of parUamentary
government (which I for one am certainly not pre
pared to abandon for the American system) with two
120

LORD DERBY'S OPINION
elective chambers  When our two legislative
bodies shaU have been placed on this improved
footing, a greater stability wiU have been imparted
to our constitution, and a greater strength." Lord
Elgin's Adew was adopted and the change was made.
It is interesting to note that so distinguished
a statesman as Lord Derby, who had been co
lonial secretary in a previous administration, had
only gloomy forebodings of the effects of this
elective system applied to the Upper House. He
believed that the dream that he had of seeing the
colonies form eventuaUy "a monarchical govern
ment, presided over by one nearly and closely aUied
to the present royal family," would be proved
quite iUusory by the legislation in question. "Noth
ing," he added, "like a free and regulated monarchy
could exist for a single moment under such a
constitution as that which is now proposed for
Canada. From the moment that you pass this
constitution, the progress must be rapidly towards
repubUcanism, if anything could be more reaUy re-
pubUcan than this biU." As a matter of fact a very
few years later than the utterance of these gloomy
words, Canada and the other provinces of British
North America entered into a confederation "with
a constitution similar in principle to that of the
United Kingdom" — to quote words in the preamble
of the Act of Union — and with a parliament of
which the House of Commons is alone elective.
More than that. Lord Derby's dream has been in a
121

LORD ELGIN
measure realized and Canada has seen at the head
of her executive a governor-general — the present
Duke of Argyle — " nearly and closely aUied to the
present royal family" of England, by his marriage to
the Princess Louise, the fourth daughter of Queen
Victoria, who accompanied her husband to Ottawa.
One remarkable feature of the Imperial Act
dealing with this question of the council, was the
introduction of a clause which gave authority to a
mere majority of the members of the two Houses of
the legislature to increase the representation, and
consequently removed that safeguard to French
Canada which required a two-thirds vote in each
branch. As the legislature had never passed an
address or otherwise expressed itself in favour of
such an amendment of the Union Act, there was
always a mystery as to the way it was brought
about. Georges Etienne Cartier always declared
that Papineau was indirectly responsible for this
imperial legislation. As already stated, the leader
of the Rouges had voted against the biU increas
ing the representation, and had declaimed hke
others against the injustice which the clause in
the Union Act had originally done to French
Canada. "This fact," said Cartier, "was known
in England, and when leave was given to elect
legislative counciUors, the amendment complained
of was made at the same time. It may be said
then, that if Papineau had not systematicaUy op
posed the increase of representation, the change in
122

A VISIT TO ENGLAND
question would have never been thought of in
England." Hincks, however, was attacked by the
French Canadian historian, Garneau, for having
suggested the amendment while in England in
1854. This, however, he denied most emphatically
in a pamphlet which he wrote at a later time when
he was no longer in pubhc life. He placed the re
sponsibility on John Boulton, who caUed himself an
independent Liberal and who was in England at
the same time as Hincks, and probably got the ear
of the colonial secretary or one of his subordinates
in the colonial office, and induced him to intro
duce the amendment which passed without notice
in a House where very little attention was given, as
a rule, to purely colonial questions.
In 1853 Lord Elgin visited England, where he
received unqualified praise for his able administra
tion of Canadian affairs. It was on this occasion
that Mr. Buchanan, then minister of the United
States in London, and afterwards a president of the
Repubhc, paid this tribute to the governor-general
at a public dinner given in his honour.
"Lord Elgin," he said, "has solved one of the
most difficult problems of statesmanship. He has
been able, successfuUy and satisfactorily, to ad
minister, amidst many difficulties, a colonial gov
ernment over a free people. This is an easy task
where the commands of a despot are law to his
obedient servants, but not so in a colony where the
people feel that they possess the rights and privi-
123

LORD ELGIN
leges of native-born Britons. Under his enhghtened
government, Her Majesty's North American pro
vinces have reahzed the blessings of a wise, prudent
and prosperous administration, and we of the neigh
bouring nation, though jealous of our rights, have
reason to be abundantly satisfied with his just and
friendly conduct towards ourselves. He has known
how to reconcile his devotion to Her Majesty's
service with a proper regard to the rights and
interests of a kindred and neighbouring people.
Would to heaven we had such governors-general
in aU the European colonies in the vicinity of the
United States 1"
On his return from England Lord Elgin made a
visit to Washington and succeeded in negotiating
the reciprocity treaty which he had always at heart.
It was not, however, until a change of government
occurred in Canada, that the legislature was able to
give its ratification to this important measure. This
subject is of such importance that it will be fuUy
considered in a separate chapter on the relations
between Canada and the United States during
Lord Elgin's term of office.
In 1854 the Roman CathoUc inhabitants of
Quebec and Montreal were deeply excited by the
lectures of a former monk. Father Gavazzi, who
had become a Protestant and professed to expose
the errors of the faith to which he once belonged.
Much rioting took place in both cities, and blood
was shed in Montreal, where the troops, which had
124

THE GAVAZZI RIOTS
been called out, suddenly fired on the mob. Mr.
Wilson, the mayor, who was a Roman Catholic, was
accused of having given the order to fire, but he
always denied the charge, and Hincks, in his "Re
miniscences," expresses his conviction that he was
not responsible. He was persuaded that " the firing
was quite accidental, one man having discharged
his piece from misapprehension, and others having
foUowed his example untU the officers threw them
selves in front, and struck up the firelocks." Be this
as it may, the Clear Grits in the West promptly
made use of this incident to attack the government
on the ground that it had failed to make a fuU
investigation into the circumstances of the riot.
As a matter of fact, according to Hincks, the
government did take immediate steps to caU the
attention of the military commandant to the mat
ter, and the result was a court of inquiry which
ended in the removal of the regiment — then only a
few days in Canada — to Bermuda for having
shown "a want of discipline," Brown inveighed
very bitterly against Hincks and his coUeagues,
as subject to Roman CathoUc domination in French
Canada, and found this unfortunate affair extremely
useful in his systematic efforts to destroy the gov
ernment, to which at no time had he been at aU
favourable. Several changes took place during 1853 in the
personnel of the ministry, which met parliament
on June 13th, with the foUowing members hold-
125

LORD ELGIN
ing portfohos : Hon. Messrs. Hincks, premier and
inspector-general ; John Ross, formerly sohcitor-
general west in place of Richards, elevated to
the bench, attorney -general for Upper Canada ;
James Morris, president of the legislative council,
in place of Mr. Caron, now a judge ; John Rolph,
president of the executive council ; Malcolm Cam
eron, postmaster-general ; A. N. Morin, com
missioner of crown lands; L. P. Drummond,
attorney-general for I^ower Canada; Mr. Chau
veau, formerly solicitor east, provincial secretary;
J. Chabot, commissioner of pubhc works in place
of John Young, resigned on account of differ
ences on commercial questions; and E. P. Tache,
receiver-general. Dunbar Ross became solicitor-
general east, and Joseph C. Morrison, sohcitor-
general west.
The government had decided to have a short
session, pass a few necessary measures and then
appeal to the country. The secularization of the
reserves, and the question of the seigniorial tenure
were not to be taken up until the people had
given an expression of opinion as to the ministerial
policy generally. As soon as the legislature met,
Cauchon, already prominent in pubhc hfe, proposed
an amendment to the address, expressing regret
that the government had no intention " to submit
immediately a measure to settle the question of the
seigniorial tenure." Then Sicotte, who had not
long before declined to enter the ministry, moved to
126

A DISSOLUTION
add the words "and one for the secularization of
the clergy reserves." These two amendments were
carried by a majority of thirteen in a total division
of seventy-one votes. While the French Liberals
continued to support Morin, aU the Upper Can
adian opponents of the government. Conserva
tives and Clear Grits, united with a number of
Hincks's former supporters and Rouges in Lower
Canada to bring about this ministerial defeat. The
government accordingly was obhged either to
resign or ask the governor-general for a dissolution.
It concluded to adhere to its original deter
mination, and go at once to the country. The
governor-general consented to prorogue the legis
lature with a view to an immediate appeal to
the electors. When the Usher of the Black Rod
appeared at the door of the assembly chamber,
to ask the attendance of the Commons in the
legislative councU, a scene of great excitement
occurred. WiUiam Lyon Mackenzie made one
of his vituperative attacks on the government,
and was followed by John A. Macdonald, who
declared its course to be most unconstitutional.
When at last the messenger from the governor-
general was admitted by order of the speaker, the
House proceeded to the council chamber, where
members were electrified by another extraordin
ary incident. The speaker of the assembly was
John Sandfield Macdonald, an able Scotch Cana
dian, in whose character there was a spirit of
127

LORD ELGIN
vindictiveness, which always asserted itself when he
received a positive or fancied injury. He had been a
solicitor-general of Upper Canada in the I^aFon-
taine-Baldwin government, and had never forgiven
Hincks for not having promoted him to the at
torney-generalship, instead of W. B. Richards,
afterwards an eminent judge of the old province of
Canada, and first chief justice of the Supreme
Court of the Dominion. Hincks had offered him
the commissionership of crown lands in the minis
try, but he refused to accept any office except
the one on which his ambition was fixed. Subsc'
quently, however, he was induced by his friends to
take the speakership of the legislative assembly, but
he had never forgiven what he considered a shght
at the hands of the prime minister in 1851. Accord
ingly, when he appeared at the Bar of the CouncU
in 1853, he made an attempt to pay off this old
score. As soon as he had made his bow to the
governor-general seated on the throne, Macdonald
proceeded to read the foUowing speech, which had
been carefully prepared for the occasion in the two
languages :
"May it please your ExceUency: It has been
the immemorial custom of the speaker of the Com
mons' House of Parliament to communicate to the
throne the general result of the dehberations of the
assembly upon the principal objects which have
employed the attention of parliament during the
period of their labours. It is not now part of my
128

AN UNUSUAL PROCEDURE
duty thus to address your Excellency, inasmuch as
there has been no act passed or judgment of parlia
ment obtained since we were honoured by your
Excellency's announcement of the cause of sum
moning of parliament by your gracious speech from
the throne. The passing of an act through its
several stages, according to the law and custom of
parliament (solemnly declared applicable to the par
Uamentary proceedings of this province, by a decision
of the legislative assembly of 1841), is held to be
necessary to constitute a session of parliament.
This we have been unable to accomplish, owing to
the command which your Excellency has laid upon
us to meet you this day for the purpose of pro
rogation. At the same time I feel caUed upon to
assure your Excellency, on the part of Her Majesty's
faithful Commons, that it is not from any want of
respect to yourself, or to the august personage
whom you represent in these provinces, that no
answer has been returned by the legislative assembly
to your gracious speech from the throne."
It is said by those who were present on this
interesting occasion that His ExceUency was the
most astonished person in the council chamber.
Mr. Fennings Taylor, the deputy clerk with a seat
at the table, tells us in a sketch of Macdonald
that Lord Elgin's face clearly marked "deep dis
pleasure and annoyance when listening to the
speaker's address," and that he gave " a motion of
angry impatience when he found himself obUged to
129

LORD ELGIN
listen to the repetition in French of the reproof
which had evidently gaUed him in English." This
incident was in some respects without parallel
in Canadian parliamentary history. There was a
practice, now obsolete in Canada as in England,
for the speaker, on presenting the supply or appro
priation biU to the governor-general for the royal
assent, to deliver a short address directing attention
to the principal measures passed during the session
about to be closed.* This practice grew up in days
when there were no responsible ministers who
would be the only constitutional channel of com
munication between the Crown and the assembly.
The speaker was privileged, and could be instructed
as " the mouth-piece " of the House, to lay before
the representative of the Sovereign an expression
of opinion on urgent questions of the day. On
this occasion Mr. Macdonald was influenced entirely
by personal spite, and made an unwarrantable use
of an old custom which was never intended, and
could not be constitutionally used, to insult the
representative of the Crown, even by inference. Mr.
Macdonald was not even correct in his interpre
tation of the constitution, when he positively de
clared that an act was necessary to constitute a
session. The Crown makes a session by summoning
1 "Portraits of British Americans," Montreal, 1865, vol. I., pp.
99-100. See Bourinot's "Parliamentary Procedure," p. 573n. The last
occasion on which a Canadian speaker exercised this old privilege was
in 1869, and then Mr. Cockburn made only a very brief reference to
the measures of the session.
130

AN APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY
and opening parliament, and it is always a royal
prerogative to prorogue or dissolve it at its pleasure
even before a single act has passed the two Houses.
Such a scene could never have occurred with the
better understanding of the duties of the speaker
and of the responsibihties of ministers advising the
Crown that has grown up under a more thorough
study of the practice and usages of parliament, and
of the principles of responsible government. This
httle political episode is now chiefly interesting as
giving an insight into one phase of the character of a
pubhc man, who afterwards won a high position in
the parhamentary and political life of Canada before
and after the confederation of 1867, not by the
display of a high order of statesmanship, but by the
exercise of his tenacity of purpose, and by reason
of his reputation for a spiteful disposition which
made him feared by friend and foe.
Immediately after the prorogation, parliament
was dissolved and the Hincks-Morin ministry pre
sented itself to the people, who were now called
upon to elect a larger number of representatives
under the act passed in 1853. Of the constitution-
ahty of the course pursued by the government in
this political crisis, there can now be no doubt.
In the first place it was fully entitled to de
mand a public judgment on its general poUcy,
especially in view of the fact, within the knowledge
of all persons, that the opposition in the assembly
was composed of discordant elements, only tempor-
131

LORD ELGIN
arily brought together by the hope of breaking up
the government. In the next place it felt that
it could not be justified by sound constitutional
usage in asking a parliament in which the people
were now imperfectly represented, to settle de
finitely such important questions as the clergy
reserves and the seigniorial tenure. Lord Elgin had
himself no doubt of the necessity for obtaining a
clear verdict from the people by means of "the
more perfect system of representation" provided by
law. In the debate on the Representation BiU in
1853, John A. Macdonald did not hesitate to
state emphaticaUy that the House should be gov
erned by English precedents in the position in
which it would soon be placed by the passage
of this measure. " Look," he said, "at the Re
form Bill in England. That was passed by a parlia
ment that had been elected only one year before,
and the moment it was passed. Lord John Russell
affirmed that the House could not continue after
it had declared that the country was not properly
represented. How can we legislate on the clergy
reserves until another House is elected, if this biU
passes? A great question like this cannot be left to
be decided by a mere accidental majority. We can
legislate upon no great question after we have
ourselves declared that we do not represent the
country. Do these gentlemen opposite mean to say
that they will legislate on a question affecting the
rights of people yet unborn, with the fag-end of
132

THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS
a parUament dishonoured by its own confessions
of incapacity?" Hincks in his "Reminiscences,"
printed more than three decades later than this
ministerial crisis, stiU adhered to the opinion that
the government was fuUy justified by established
precedent in appealing to the country before dis
posing summarily of the important questions then
agitating the people. Both Lord Elgin and Sir
John A. Macdonald — ^to give the latter the title he
afterwards received from the Crown — assuredly set
forth the correct constitutional practice under the
pecuhar circumstances in which both government
and legislature were placed by the legislation in
creasing the representation of the people.
The elections took place in July and August
of 1854, for in those times there was no system of
simultaneous polling on one day, but elections were
held on such days and as long as the necessities of
party demanded.* The result was, on the whole,
adverse to the government. While it stiU retained
a majority in French Canada, its opponents re
turned in greater strength, and Morin himself
was defeated in Terrebonne, though happily for
the interests of his party he was elected by accla
mation at the same time in Chicoutimi. In Upper
Canada the ministry did not obtain half the vote of
the sixty-five representatives now elected to the
iJt was not tintil 1874 when Mr. Alexander Mackenzie was first
minister of a Liberal government that simultaneous polling at a
general election was required by law, but it had existed some years
previously in Nova Scotia.
loo

LORD ELGIN
legislature by that province. This vote was dis
tributed as foUows : Ministerial, 30 ; Conservatives,
22 ; Clear Grits, 7 ; and Independents, 6. Malcolm
Cameron was beaten in Lambton, but Hincks
was elected by two constituencies. One auspicious
result of this election was the disappearance of
Papineau from public Ufe. He retired to his pretty
chateau on the banks of the Ottawa, and the
world soon forgot the man who had once been so
prominent a figure in Canadian politics. His graces
of manner and conversation continued for years
to charm his friends in that placid evening of his
life so very different from those stormy days when
his eloquence was a menace to British institutions
and British connection. Before his death, he saw
Lower Canada elevated to an independent and
influential position in the confederation of British
North America which it could never have reached
as that Nation Canadienne which he had once
vainly hoped to see estabhshed in the vaUey of the
St. Lawrence.
The Rouges, of whom Papineau had been
leader, came back in good form and numbered
nineteen members, Antoine A. Dorion, Holton,
and other able men in the ranks of this once
republican party, had become wise and adopted
opinions which no longer offended the national
and rehgious susceptibilities of their race, although
they continued to show for years their radical
tendencies which prevented them from ever obtain-
134

THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS
ing a firm hold of public opinion in a practicaUy
Conservative province, and becoming dominant in
the pubhc councils for any length of time.
The fifth parliament of the province of Canada
was opened by Lord Elgin on February 5th, 1854,
and the ministry was defeated immediately on the
vote for the speakership, to which Mr, Sicotte — a
dignified cultured man, at a later time a judge —
was elected. On this occasion Hincks resorted
to a piece of strategy which enabled him to punish
John Sandfield Macdonald for the insult he had
levelled at the governor-general and his advisers
at the close of the previous parliament. The
government's candidate was Georges Etienne Car-
tier, who was first elected in 1849 and who had
already become conspicuous in the politics of his
province. Sicotte was the choice of the Oppo
sition in Lower Canada, and while there was no be
lief among the politicians that he could be elected,
there was an understanding among the Conser
vatives and Clear Grits that an effort should be
made in his behalf, and in case of its failure, then
the whole strength of the opponents of the ministry
should be so directed as to ensure the election of
Mr. Macdonald, who was sure to get a good Reform
vote from the upper Canadian representatives.
These names were duly proposed in order, and
Cartier was defeated by a large majority. When the
clerk at the table had called for a vote for Sicotte,
the number who stood up in his favour was quite
135

LORD ELGIN
insignificant, but before the Nays were taken,
Hincks arose quickly and asked that his name be
recorded with the Yeas. AU the ministerialists
foUowed the prime minister and voted for Sicotte,
who was consequently chosen speaker by a majority
of thirty-five. But all that Hincks gained by such
clever tactics was the humiliation for the moment
of an irascible Scotch Canadian politician. The
vote itself had no political significance whatever,
and the government was forced to resign on
September 8th. The vote in favour of Cartier had
shown that the ministry was in a minority of
twelve in Upper Canada, and if Hincks had any
doubt of his political weakness it was at once
dispelled on September 7th when the House re
fused to grant to the government a short delay of
twenty -four hours for the purpose of considering a
question of privilege which had been raised by the
Opposition. On this occasion. Dr. Rolph, who had
been quite restless in the government for some
time, voted against his coUeagues and gave con
clusive evidence that Hincks was deserted by the
majority of the Reform party in his own province,
and could no longer bring that support to the
French Canadian ministerialists which would enable
them to administer public affairs.
The resignation of the Hincks-Morin ministry
begins a new epoch in the poUtical annals of Can
ada. From that time dates the disruption of the old
Liberal party which had governed the country so
136

THE LIBERAL-CONSERVATIVE PARTY
successfuUy since 1848, and the formation of a
powerful combination which was made up of the
moderate elements of that party and of the Conser
vatives, which afterwards became known as the
Liberal-Conservative party. This new party prac
ticaUy controlled public affairs for over three
decades until the death of Sir John A. Mac
donald, to whose inspiration it largely owed its
birth. With that remarkable capacity for adapting
himself to pohtical conditions, which was one of
the secrets of his strength as a party leader, he
saw in 1854 that the time had come for forming
an aUiance with those moderate Liberals in the
two provinces who, it was quite clear, had no
possible affinity with the Clear Grits, who were not
only smaU in numbers, but especially obnoxious to
the French Canadians as a people on account of the
intemperate attacks made by Mr. Brown in the
Toronto Globe on their revered institutions.
The representatives who supported the late min
istry were still in larger numbers than any other
party or faction in the House, and it was ob
vious that no government could exist without
their support. Sir Allan MacNab, who was the
oldest parliamentarian, and the leader of the Con
servatives — a small but compact party — was then
invited by the governor-general to assist him by
his advice, during a crisis when it was evident
to the veriest political tyro that the state of parties
in the assembly rendered it very difficult to form a
137

LORD ELGIN
stable government unless a man could be found
ready to lay aside all old feelings of personal and
political rivalry and prejudice and unite aU factions
on a common platform for the pubhc advantage.
AU the pohtical conditions, happUy, were favour
able for a combination on a basis of conciUation
and compromise. The old Liberals in French Can
ada under the influence of LaFontaine and Morin
had been steadily inclining to Conservatism with
the secure establishment of responsible government
and the growth of the conviction that the integrity
of the cherished institutions of their ancient pro
vince could be best assured by moving slowly
(festina lente), and not by constant efforts to
make radical changes in the body politic. The
Liberals, of whom Hincks was leader, were
also very distrustful of Brown, and clearly saw
that he could have no strength whatever in a
province where French Canada must have a guar
antee that its language, religion, and civil law,
were safe in the hands of any government that
might at any time be formed. The wisest men
among the Conservatives also felt that the time
had arrived for adopting a new pohcy since the old
questions which had once evoked their opposition
had been at last settled by the voice of the people,
and could no longer constitutionaUy or wisely be
made matters of continued agitation in or out of
parliament. "The question that arose in the minds
of the old Liberals," as it was said many years
138

A PARTY FUSION
later by Thomas White, an able journalist and
pohtician,* " was this : shaU we hand over the gov
ernment of this country to the men who, caUing
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 ap
prove ? Or shaU we not rather unite with the
Conservatives who have gone to the country de
claring, in reference to the great questions which
then agitated it, that if the decision at the polls
was against them, they would no longer offer
resistance to their settlement, but would, on the
contrary, assist in such solution of them as would
forever remove them from the sphere of pubUc
or poUtical agitation." With both Liberals and
Conservatives holding such views, it was easy
enough for John A. Macdonald to convince even
Sir AUan MacNab that the time had come for
forgetting the past as much as possible, and con
stituting a strong government from the moderate
elements of the old parties which had served their
turn and now required to be remodelled on a wider
basis of common interests. Sir Allan MacNab
recognized the necessity of bringing his own views
1 See "The Last Forty Years, or Canada Since the Union of 1841,"
by John Charles Dent, Toronto, 1881, vol. II., p. 309. Mr. White
became Minister of the Interior in Sir John Macdonald's government
(1886-88) but died suddenly in the midst of a most active and useful
administrative career.
139

LORD ELGIN
into harmony with those of the younger men of his
party who were determined not to allow such an
opportunity for forming a powerful ministry to
pass by. The political situation, indeed, was one
calculated to appeal to both the vanity and self-
interest of the veteran statesman, and he accord
ingly assumed the responsibility of forming an
administration. He communicated immediately
with Morin and his coUeagues in Lower Can
ada, and when he received a favourable reply
from them, his next step was to make arrange
ments, if possible, with the Liberals of Upper
Canada. Hincks was only too happy to have an
opportunity of resenting the opposition he had met
with from Brown and the extreme Reformers
of the western province, and opened negotiations
with his old supporters on the conditions that the
new ministry would take immediate steps for the
secularization of the clergy reserves, and the settle
ment of the seigniorial tenure, and that two mem
bers of the administration would be taken from his
own followers. The negotiations were successfuUy
closed on this basis of agreement, and on September
11th the following ministers were duly sworn into
office: Upper Canada. — Hon. Sir AUan MacNab, presi
dent of the executive council and minister of
agriculture ; Hon. John A. Macdonald, attorney-
general of Upper Canada ; Hon, W, Cayley,
inspector-general ; Hon. R. Spence, postmaster-
140

THE NEW PARTY
general ; Hon. John Ross, president of the legis
lative councU.
Lower Canada. — Hon. A. N. Morin, commis
sioner of crown lands; Hon. L. P. Drummond,
attorney-general for Lower Canada ; Hon. P. J. O.
Chauveau, provincial secretary; Hon. E. P. Tachd,
receiver-general ; Hon. J. Chabot, commissioner
of public works.
The new cabinet contained four Conservatives,
and six members of the old ministry. Henry
Smith, a Conservative, became sohcitor-general for
Upper Canada, and Dunbar Ross continued in
the same office for Lower Canada, but neither of
them had seats in the cabinet. The Liberal-Con
servative party, organized under such circumstances,
was attacked with great bitterness by the leaders
of the discordant factions, who were greatly dis
appointed at the success of the combination formed
through the skilful management of Messrs. J. A.
Macdonald, Hincks and Morin,
The coaUtion was described as "an unholy aUi
ance" of men who had entirely abandoned their
principles. But an impartial historian must record
the opinion that the coalition was perfectly justified
by existing political conditions, that had it not
taken place, a stable government would in aU
probabiUty have been for some time impossible,
and that the time had come for the reconstruction
of parties with a broad generous pohcy which
would ignore issues at last dead, and be more in
141

LORD ELGIN
harmony with modern requirements. It might with
some reason be called a coalition when the recon
struction of parties was going on, but it was reaUy
a successful movement for the annihilation of old
parties and issues, and for the formation on their
ruins of a new party which could gather to itself
the best materials available for the effective con
duct of public affairs on the patriotic platform of
the union of the two races, of equal rights to aU
classes and creeds, and of the avoidance of purely
sectional questions calculated to disturb the union
of 1841,
The new government at once obtained the sup
port of a large majority of the representatives from
each section of the province, and was sustained by
the public opinion of the country at large. During
the session of 1854 measures were passed for the
secularization of the reserves, the removal of the
seigniorial tenure, and for the ratification of the
reciprocity treaty with the United States. As I
have only been able so far in this historical narra
tive to refer in a very cursory manner to these very
important questions, I propose now to give in the
foUowing chapter a succinct review of their history
from the time they first came into prominence
down to their settlement at the close of Lord
Elgin's administration in Canada.

142

CHAPTER VII
THE HISTORY OF THE CLERGY RESERVES,
(1791-1854)
FOR a long period in the history of Canada the
development of several provinces was more or
less seriously retarded, and the pohtics of the coun
try constantly compUcated by the existence of
troublesome questions arising out of the lavish
grants of public lands by the French and English
'governments. The territorial domain of French
Canada was distributed by the king of France,
under the inspiration of Richelieu, with great gener
osity, on a system of a modified feudal tenure,
which, it was hoped, M'^ould strengthen the connec
tion between the Crown and the dependency by the
creation of a colonial aristocracy, and at the same
time stimulate the colonization and settlement of
the vaUey of the St. Lawrence ; but, as we shaU see
in the course of the foUowing chapter, despite
the wise intentions of its promoters, the seigniorial
tenure graduaUy became, after the conquest, more
or less burdensome to the habitants, and an impedi
ment rather than an incentive to the agricultural
development and peopUng of the province. Even
Uttle Prince Edward Island was troubled with a
land question as early as 1767, when it was stiU
143

LORD ELGIN
known by the name St. John, given it in the
days of French rule. Sixty-seven townships, con
taining in the aggregate 1,360,600 English acres,
were conveyed in one day by baUot, with a few
reservations to the Crown, to a number of military
men, officials and others, who had real or supposed
claims on the British government. In this wholesale
fashion the island was burdened with a land mono
poly which was not wholly removed until after
the union with the Canadian Dominion in 1873,
Though some disputes arose in Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick between the old and new
settlers with respect to the ownership of lands after
the coming of the Loyalists, who received, as else
where, liberal grants of land, they were soon settled,
and consequently these maritime provinces were
not for any length of time embarrassed by the
existence of such questions as became important
issues in the politics of Canada, Extravagant grants
were also given to the United Empire Loyahsts
who settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence and
Niagara rivers in Upper Canada, as some compen
sation for the great sacrifices they had made for the
Crown during the American revolution. Large tracts
of this property were sold either by the Loyalists or
their heirs, and passed into the hands of speculators
at very insignificant prices. Lord Durham in his
report cites authority to show that not " one-tenth
of the lands granted to United Empire Loyahsts
had been occupied by the persons to whom they
144

THE CLERGY RESERVES
were granted, and in a great proportion of cases not
occupied at aU." The companies which were also in
the course of time organized in Great Britain for
the purchase and sale of lands in Canada, also
received extraordinary favours from the govern
ment. Although the Canada Company, which is
stUl in existence, was an important agency in the
settlement of the province of Upper Canada, its
possession of immense tracts — some of them, the
Huron Block, for instance, locked up for years —
was for a time a great pubhc grievance.
But all these land questions sank into utter
insignificance compared with the dispute which
arose out of the thirty-sixth clause of the Consti
tutional Act of 1791, which provided that there
should be reserved for the maintenance and support
of a "Protestant clergy," in the provinces of Upper
and Lower Canada, "a quantity of land equal in
value to a seventh part of grants that had been
made in the past, or might be made in the future."
Subsequent clauses of the same act made provision
for the erection and endowment of one or more
rectories in every township or parish, " according to
the estabhshment of the Church of England," and
at the same time gave power to the legislature of
the two provinces " to vary or repeal " these enact
ments of the law with the important reservation
that aU bUls of such a character could not receive
the royal assent until thirty days after they had
been laid before both Houses of the imperial
145

LORD ELGIN
parliament. Whenever it was practicable, the lands
were reserved under the act among those already
granted to settlers with the intention of creating
parishes as soon as possible in every settled township
throughout the province. However, it was not al
ways possible to carry out this plan, in consequence
of whole townships having been granted en bloc to
the Loyalists in certain districts, especiaUy in those
of the Bay of Quints, Kingston and Niagara, and it
was therefore necessary to carry out the intention
of the law in adjoining townships where no lands
of any extent had been granted to settlers.
The Church of England, at a very early period,
claimed, as the only " Protestant clergy " recognized
by English law, the exclusive use of the lands
in question, and Bishop Mountain, who became
in 1793 Anghcan bishop of Quebec, with a juris
diction extending over aU Canada, took the first
steps to sustain this assertion of exclusive right.
Leases were given to applicants by a clerical cor
poration estabUshed by the Anglican Church for the
express purpose of administering the reserves. For
some years the Anglican claim passed without
special notice, and it is not until 1817 that we
see the germ of the dispute which afterwards so
seriously agitated Upper Canada. It was proposed
in the assembly to sell half the lands and devote
the proceeds to secular purposes, but the sudden pro
rogation of the legislature by Lieutenant-Governor
Gore, prevented any definite action on the reso-
146

OPPOSITION TO CLERGY RESERVES
lutions, although the debate that arose on the
subject had the effect of showing the existence of a
marked public grievance. The feeUng at this time in
the country was shown in answers given to circulars
sent out by Robert Gourlay, an energetic Scottish
busy-body, to a number of townships, asking an ex
pression of opinion as to the causes which retarded
improvement and the best means of developing the
resources ofthe province. The answer from Sandwich
emphaticaUy set forth that the reasons ofthe existing
depression were the reserves of land for the Crown
and clergy, " which must for long keep the country
a wilderness, a harbour for wolves, and a hindrance
to compact and good neighbourhood; defects in the
system of colonization; too great a quantity of land
in the hands of individuals who do not reside in the
province, and are not assessed for their property,"
The select committee of the House of Com
mons on the civU government of Canada reported
in 1828 that "these reserved lands, as they are
at present distributed over the country, retard
more than any other circumstance the improve
ment of the colony, lying as they do in detached
portions of each township and intervening between
the occupations of actual settlers, who have no
means of cutting roads through the woods and
morasses which thus separate them from their
neighbours." It appears, too, that the quantity
of land actuaUy reserved was in excess of that
which appears to have been contemplated by the
147

LORD ELGIN
Constitutional Act. "A quantity equal to one-sev
enth of aU grants," wrote Lord Durham in his report
of 1839, "would be one-eighth of each township,
or of all the public land. Instead of this proportion,
the practice has been ever since the act passed, and
in the clearest violation of its provisions, to set
apart for the clergy in Upper Canada, a seventh of
aU the land, which is a quantity equal to a sixth of
the land granted. ... In Lower Canada the same
violation of the law has taken place, with this
difference — that upon every sale of Crown and
clergy reserves, a fresh reserve for the clergy has
been made, equal to a fifth of such reserves." In
that way the pubhc in both provinces was syste
maticaUy robbed of a large quantity of land, which.
Lord Durham estimated, was worth about £280,000
at the time he wrote. He acknowledges, however,
that the clergy had no part in "this great misappro
priation of the public property," but that it had
arisen "entirely from heedless misconception, or
some other error of the civil government of the
province." All this, however, goes to show the mal
administration of the public lands, and is one of the
many reasons the people of the Canadas had for
considering these reserves a pubhc grievance.
When political parties were organized in Upper
Canada some years after the war of 1812-14, which
had for a while united all classes and creeds for the
common defence, we see on one side a Tory com
pact for the maintenance of the old condition of
148

OPPOSITION TO A STATE CHURCH
things, the control of patronage, and the protec
tion of the interests of the Church of England;
on the other, a combination of Reformers, chiefly
composed of Methodists, Presbyterians, and Bap
tists, who clamoured for reforms in government
and above aU for relief from the dominance of the
Anglican Church, which, with respect to the clergy
reserves and other matters, was seeking a quasi
recognition as a state church. As the Puritans of
New England at the commencement of the Ameri
can Revolution inveighed against any attempt to
estabhsh an Anglican episcopate in the country as
an insidious attack by the monarchy on their civU
and Tcligious Uberty — most unjustly, as any im
partial historian must now admit* — so in Upper
Canada the dissenters made it one of their strongest
grievances that favouritism was shown to the Angli
can Church in the distribution of the public lands
and the public patronage, to the detriment of aU
other rehgious bodies in the province. The bitter
ness that was evoked on this question had much to
do with bringing about the rebellion of 1837.
If the whole question could have been removed
from the arena of political discussion, the Reform
ers would have been deprived of one of their most
potent agencies to create a feeling against the
^See remarks of Dr. Kingsford in his "History of Canada" (vol.
VII., pp. 266-273), showing how unjust was the clamour raised by the
enemies of the church in New England when a movement was in
progress for the establishment of a colonial episcopate simply for
purposes of ordination and church government.
149

LORD ELGIN
"famUy compact" and the government at Toronto,
But Bishop Strachan, who was a member of both the
executive and legislative councils — in other words,
the most influential member of the "family com
pact " — could not agree to any compromise which
would conciliate the aggrieved dissenters and at
the same time preserve a large part of the claim
made by the Church of England, Such a compro
mise in the opinion of this sturdy, obstinate ecclesi
astic, would be nothing else than a sop to his
Satanic majesty. It was always with him a battle
a Voutrance, and as we shall soon see, in the end he
suffered the bitterness of defeat.
In these later days when we can review the
whole question without any of the prejudice and
passion which embittered the controversy whUe it
was a burning issue, we can see that the Church of
England had strong historical and legal arguments
to justify its claim to the exclusive use of the clergy
reserves. When the Constitutional Act of 1791 was
passed, the only Protestant clergy recognized in
British statutes were those of the Church of Eng
land, and, as we shaU see later, those ofthe established
Church of Scotland. The dissenting denominations
had no more a legal status in the constitutional
system of England than the Roman Catholics, and
indeed it was very much the same thing in some
respects in the provinces of Canada. So late as 1824
the legislative council, largely composed of AngU-
cans, rejected a bill allowing Methodist ministers
150

A POTENTIAL ARISTOCRACY
to solemnize marriages, and it was not until 1831
that recognized ministers of all denominations were
placed on an equaUty with the Anglican clergy in
such matters. The employment of the words " Pro
testant clergy " in the act, it was urged with force,
was simply to distinguish the Church of England
clergy from those of the Church of Rome, who,
otherwise, would be legaUy entitled to participate
in the grant.
The loyahsts, who founded the province of Upper
Canada, established formaUy by the Constitutional
Act of 1791, were largely composed of adherents of
the Church of England, and it was one of the dear
est objects of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe to place
that body on a stable basis and give it aU the influence
possible in the state. A considerable number had also
settled in Lower Canada, and received, as in other
parts of British North America, the sympathy and
aid of the parent state. It was the object of the
British government to make the constitution of the
Canadas "an image and transcript" as far as possible
of the British system of government. In no better
way could this be done, in the opinion of the
framers of the Constitutional Act, than by creating
a titled legislative council;* and though this effort
came to naught, it is noteworthy as showing the
lA clause of the act of 1791 provided that the sovereign might, if
he thought fit, annex hereditary titles of honour to the right of being
summoned to the legislative council in either province, hut no titles
were ever conferred under the authority of this imperial statute.
151

LORD ELGIN
tendency at that time of imperial legislation. If
such a council could be established, then it was all
important that there should be a religious body,
supported by the state, to surround the political in
stitutions of the country with the safeguards which
a conservative and aristocratic church like that
of England would give. The erection and endow
ment of rectories " according to the estabhshment
of the Church of England" — words of the act to be
construed in connection with the previous clauses
— was obviously a part of the original scheme of
1791 to anglicize Upper Canada and make it as far
as possible a reflex of Anglican England,
It does not appear that at any time there was
any such feeUng of dissatisfaction with respect to
the reserves in French Canada as existed through
out Upper Canada, The Protestant clergy in the
former province were relatively few in number, and
the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated the
whole country, was quite content with its own
large endowments received from the bounty of the
king or private individuals during the days of
French occupation, and did not care to meddle in
a question which in no sense affected it. On the
other hand, in Upper Canada, the arguments used
by the Anglican clergy in support of their claims
to the exclusive administration of the reserves were
constantly answered not only in the legislative
bodies, but in the Liberal papers, and by appeals to
the imperial government. It was contended that
152

A PRESBYTERIAN VICTORY
the phrase "Protestant clergy" used in the Con
stitutional Act, was simply intended to distinguish
aU Protestant denominations from the Roman
Catholic Church, and that, had there been any
intention to give exclusive rights to the Anglican
Church, it would have been expressly so stated in
the section reserving the lands, just as had been done
in the sections speciaUy providing for the erection
and endowment of Anghcan rectories.
The first successful blow against the claims of
the Enghsh Church in Canada was struck by that
branch of the Presbyterian Church known in law as
the EstabUshed Church of Scotland. It obtained
an opinion from the British law officers in 1819,
entirely favourable to its own participation in the
reserves on the ground that it had been fully recog
nized as a state church, not only in the act uniting
the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, but
in several British statutes passed later than the
Constitutional Act whose doubtful phraseology
had originated the whole controversy. While the
law officers admitted that the provisions of this
act might be "extended also to the Church of
Scotland, if there are any such settled in Canada
(as appears to have been admitted in the debate
upon the passing of the act)," yet they expressed
the opinion that the clauses in question did not
apply to dissenting ministers, since they thought
that "the term 'Protestant clergy' could apply
only to Protestant clergy recognized and estab-
153

LORD ELGIN
hshed by law," We shaU see a little further on
the truth of the old adage that "lawyers will differ"
and that in 1840, twenty-one years later than the
expression of the opinion just cited, eminent British
jurists appeared to be more favourable to the claims
of denominations other than the Church of Scotland,
UntU 1836 — ^the year preceding the rebeUion —
the excitement with respect to the reserves had
been intensified by the action of Sir John Colborne,
heutenant-governor of Upper Canada, who, on the
eve of his departure for England, was induced
by Bishop Strachan to sign patents creating and
endowing forty-four rectories* in Upper Canada,
representing more than 17,000 acres of land in the
aggregate or about 486 for each of them. One can
say advisedly that this action was most indis
creet at a time when a wise administrator would
have attempted to aUay rather than stimulate
public irritation on so serious a question. UntU
this time, says Lord Durham, the Anglican clergy
had no exclusive privileges, save such as might
spring from their efficient discharge of their sacred
duties, or from the energy, abihty or influence of
members of their body — ^notably Bishop Strachan,
who practically controlled the government in rehg
ious and even secular matters. But, continued Lord
Durham, the last public act of Sir John Colborne
made it quite understood that every rector pos-
1 Thirteen other patents were left unsigned by the lieutenant-
governor and consequently had no legal force.
1.54

SIR JOHN COLBORNE'S PATENTS
sessed "aU the spiritual and other privileges enjoyed
by an English rector," and that though he might
"have no right to levy tithes" (for even this had
been made a question), he was "in aU other
respects precisely in the same position as a clergy
man of the estabhshed church in England." "This
is regarded," added Lord Durham, "by aU other
teachers of religion in this country as having at
once degraded them to a position of legal inferiority
to the clergy of the Church of England; and it has
been most warmly resented. In the opinion of many
persons, this was the chief predisposing cause of
the recent insurrection, and it is an abiding and
unabated cause for discontent."
As soon as Sir John Colborne's action was known
throughout the province, pubhc indignation among
the opponents of the clergy reserves and the Church
of England took the forms of public meetings to
denounce the issue of the patents, and of memorials
to the imperial government caUing into question
their legahty and praying for their immediate an
nulment. An opinion was obtained from the law
officers of the Crown that the action taken by Sir
John Colborne was " not vahd and lawful," but it
was given on a mere ex parte statement of the
case prepared by the opponents of the rectories;
and the same eminent lawyers subsequently ex
pressed themselves favourably as to the legality of
the patents when they were asked to reconsider the
whole question, which was set forth in a very
155

LORD ELGIN
elaborate report prepared under the direction of
Bishop Strachan. It is convenient to mention here
that this phase of the clergy reserve question again
came before able English counsel at the Equity
Bar, when Hincks visited London in 1852. After
they had given an opinion unfavourable to the
Colborne patents on the case as submitted to
them by the Canadian prime minister, it was
deemed expedient to submit the whole legal ques
tion to the Court of Chancery in Upper Canada,
which decided unanimously, after a fuU hearing of
the case, that the patents were vahd. But this
decision was not given until 1856, when the whole
matter of the reserves had been finaUy adjusted,
and the validity of the creation of the rectories was
no longer a burning question in Upper Canada.
When Poulett Thomson came to Canada in
the autumn of 1839 as governor-general, he recog
nized the necessity of bringing about an immediate
settlement of this very vexatious question, and
of preventing its being made a matter of agita
tion after the union of the two provinces. The
imperial authorities had aheady disaUowed an act
passed by the legislature of Upper Canada of 1838
to reinvest the clergy reserves in the Crown, and it
became necessary for Lord Sydenham — to give the
governor-general's later title — to propose a settle
ment in the shape of a compromise between the
various Protestant bodies interested in the reserves.
Lord Sydenham was opposed to the application of
156

LORD SYDENHAM'S PLAN
these lands to general education as proposed in
several bills which had passed the assembly, but
had been rejected by the legislative council owing
to the dominant influence of Bishop Strachan. " To
such a measure," says Lord Sydenham's biographer,*
"he was opposed ; first because it would have taken
away the only fund exclusively devoted to purposes
of religion, and secondly, because, even if carried in
the provincial legislature, it would evidently not
have obtained the sanction of the imperial parUa
ment. He therefore entered into personal com
munication with the leading individuals among the
principal religious communities, and after many
interviews, succeeded in obtaining their support to
a measure for the distribution of the reserves
among the religious communities recognized by
law, in proportion to their respective numbers."
Lord Sydenham's efforts to obtain the consent
"of leading individuals among the principal relig
ious communities " did not succeed in preventing a
strong opposition to the measure after it had passed
through the legislature. Dr. Ryerson, a power
among the Methodists, denounced it, after he had
at the outset shown an inclination to support it,
and the Bishop of Toronto was also among its
most determined opponents. Lord Sydenham's
weU-meaning attempt to settle the question was
1 " Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Charles Lord
Sydenham, G.C.B.," edited by his brother G. Poulett Scrope, M.P. ;
London, 1843.
157

LORD ELGIN
thwarted at the very outset by the reference of the
biU to English judges, who reported adversely on
the ground that the power "to vary or repeal"
given in the Constitutional Act of 1791 was only
prospective, and did not authorize the provincial leg
islature to divert the proceeds of the lands already
sold from the purpose originaUy contemplated in
the imperial statute. The judges also expressed the
opinion on this occasion that the words "Protestant
clergy" were large enough to include and did
include "other clergy than those of the Church of
Scotland." In their opinion these words appeared,
" both in their natural force and meaning, and stiU
more from the context of the clauses in which they
are found, to be there used to designate and intend
a clergy opposed in doctrine and discipline to the
clergy of the Church of Rome, and rather to aim at
the encouragement of the Protestant religion in
opposition to the Romish Church, than to point
exclusively to the clergy of the Church of Eng
land." But as they did not find on the statute
book the acknowledgment by the legislature of any
other clergy answering the description of the law,
they could not specify any other except the Church
of Scotland as falling within the imperial statute.
Under these circumstances the imperial govern
ment at once passed through parliament a bUl
(3 and 4 Vict., c. 78) which re-enacted the Cana
dian measure with the modifications rendered neces
sary by the judicial opinion just cited. This act put
158

THE QUESTION STILL UNSETTLED
an end to future reservations, and at the same time
recognized the claims of all the Protestant bodies
to a share in the funds derived from the sales of
the lands. It provided for the division of the
reserves into two portions — those sold before the
passing of the act and those sold at a later time.
Of the previous sales, the Church of England was
to receive two- thirds and the Church of Scotland
one-third. Of future sales, the Church of England
would receive one-third and the Church of Scotland
one-sixth, whUe the residue could be apphed by the
governor-in-councU "for purposes of pubhc wor
ship and rehgious instruction in Canada," in other
words, that it should be divided among those other
rehgious denominations that might make apphca
tion at any time for a share in these particular
funds. This act, however, did not prove to be a settle
ment of this disturbing question. If Bishop Strachan
had been content with the compromise made in this
act, and had endeavoured to carry out its provisions
as soon as it was passed, the Anglican Church
would have obtained positive advantages which
it faded to receive when the question was again
brought into the arena of angry discussion. In 1844
when Henry Sherwood was solicitor-general in
the Draper- Viger Conservative government he pro
posed an address to the Crown for the passing of a
new imperial act, authorizing the division of the
land itself instead of the income arising from its
159

LORD ELGIN
sales. His object was to place the lands, aUotted
to the Church of England, under the control of the
church societies, which could lease them, or hold
them for any length of time at such prices as they
might deem expedient. In the course of the de
bate on this proposition, which failed to receive
the assent of the House, Baldwin, Price, and
other prominent men expressed regret that any
attempt should be made to disturb the settlement
made by the imperial statute of 1840, which, in
their opinion, should be regarded as final.
A strong feeling now developed in Upper Canada
in favour of a repeal of the imperial act, and the
secularization of the reserves. The Presbyterians —
apart from the Church of Scotland — ^were now
influenced by the Scottish Free Church movement
of 1843 and opposed to public provision for the
support of religious denominations. The spirit which
animated them spread to other bodies, and was
stimulated by the uncompromising attitude stiU
assumed by the Anghcan bishop, who was anxious,
as Sherwood's effort proved, to obtain advantages
for his church beyond those given it by the act
of 1840, When the LaFontaine-Baldwin minis
try was formed, the movement for the seculariza
tion of the reserves among the Upper Canadian
Liberals, or Reformers as many preferred to caU
their party, became so pronounced as to demand
the serious consideration of the government; but
there was no inchnation shown by the French
160

A PLEA FOR REPEAL
Canadians in the cabinet to disturb the settlement
of 1840, and the serious phases of the RebeUion
Losses BiU kept the whole question for some time
in the background. After the appearance of the
Clear Grits in Upper Canadian politics, with the
secularization of the reserves as the principal plank
in their platform, the LaFontaine-Baldwin cabinet
felt the necessity of making a concession to the
strong feeling which prevailed among Upper Cana
dian Reformers. As they were divided in opinion
on the question and could not make it a part of the
ministerial poUcy, Price, commissioner of Crown
lands, was induced in the session of 1850 to intro
duce on his sole responsibility an address to the
Crown, praying for the repeal of the imperial act of
1840, and the passage of another which would
authorize the Canadian legislature to dispose of the
reserves as it should deem most expedient, but
with the distinct understanding that, while no
particular sect should be considered as having a
vested right in the property, the emoluments
derived by existing incumbents should be guar
anteed during their lives, Mr. Price — ^the same
gentleman who had objected some years previously
to the reopening of the question — showed in the
course of his speech the importance which the
reserves had now attained. The number of acres
reserved to this time was 2,395,687, and of sales,
under two statutes, 1,072,453, These sales had
reahzed £720,756, of which £373,899 4s. 4d. had
161

LORD ELGIN
been paid, and £346,856 15s, 8d. remained stiU due.
Counting the interest on the sum paid, a miUion of
pounds represented the value of the lands already
sold, and when they were all disposed of there
would be realized more than two miUions of pounds.
Price also pointed out the fact that only a smaU
number of persons had derived advantages from
these reserves. Out of the total population of 723,
000 souls in Upper Canada, the Church of England
claimed 171,000 and the Church of Scotland 68,000,
or a total of 239,000 persons who received the Uon's
share, and left comparatively little to the remaining
population of 484,000 souls. Among the latter the
Roman Catholics counted 123,707 communicants
and received only £700 a year; the Wesleyans,
with 90,363 adherents, received even a still more
wretched pittance. Furthermore 269,000 persons
were entirely excluded from any share whatever in
the reserves. In the debate on the resolutions for
the address LaFontaine did not consider the im
perial act a finality, and was in favour of having
the reserves brought under the control of the
Canadian legislature, but he expressed the opinion
most emphaticaUy that aU private rights and en
dowments conferred under the authority of imperial
legislation should be held inviolate, and so far as
possible, carried into effect. Baldwin's observations
were remarkable for their vagueness. He did not ob
ject to endowment for religious purposes, although
he was opposed to any union between church and
162

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION
state. While he did not consider the act of 1840 as
a final settlement, inasmuch as it did not express
the opinion of the Canadian people, he was not
then prepared to commit himself as to the mode
in which the property should be disposed of.
Hincks affirmed that there was no desire on the
part of members of the government to evade their
responsibUities on the question, but they were not
ready to adopt the absurd and unconstitutional
course that was pressed on them by the Clear
Grits, of attempting to repeal an imperial act
by a Canadian statute.
Malcolm Cameron and other radical Reformers
advocated the complete secularization of the re
serves, while Cayley, Macdonald, and other Con
servatives, urged that the provisions of the imperial
act of 1840 should be carried out to the fuUest
extent, and that the funds, then or at a future
time at the disposal of the government "for
the purposes of pubhc worship and rehgious in
struction" under the act, should be apportioned
among the various denominations that had not
previously had a share in the reserves. When it
came to a division, it was clear that there was
no unanimity on the question among the minis
ters and other supporters. Indeed, the summary
given above of the remarks made by LaFon
taine, Baldwin, and Hincks, affords conclusive
evidence of the differences of opinion that ex
isted between them and of their reluctance to
163

LORD ELGIN
express themselves definitely on the subject. The
majority of the French members, Messrs, LaFon
taine, Cauchon, Chabot, Chauveau, LaTerri^re and
others, voted against the resolution which affirmed
that " no religious denomination can be held to
have such vested interest in the revenue derived
from the proceeds of the said clergy reserves as
should prevent further legislation with reference to
the disposal of them, but this House is nevertheless
of opinion that the claims of existing incumbents
should be treated in the most Uberal manner."
Baldwin and other Reformers supported this clause,
which passed by a majority of two. The address
was finaUy adopted on a division of forty-six Yeas
and twenty-three Nays — " the minority containing
the names of a few Reformers who would not
consent to pledge themselves to grant, for the hves
of the existing incumbents, the stipends on which
they had accepted their charges — some perhaps
having come from other countries to fiU them and
having possibly thrown up other preferments."*
The address was duly forwarded to England by
Lord Elgin, with a despatch in which he explained
at some length the position of the whole question.
In accordance with the principle which guided him
throughout his administration of Canadian affairs —
to give fuU scope to the right of the province to
manage its own local concerns — he advised Lord
Grey to repeal the imperial act of 1840 if he
¦¦^Sir Francis Hincks's "Reminiscences of his Public Life," p. 283.
164

THE VIEWS OF A NEW CABINET
wished "to preserve the colony." Ijord Grey ad
mitted that the question was one exclusively affect
ing the people of Canada and should be decided
by the provincial legislature. It was the intention
of the government, he informed Lord Elgin, to
introduce a biU into parUament for this purpose;
but action had to be deferred until another year
when, as it happened unfortunately for the pro
vince. Lord John RusseU's ministry was forced
to resign, and was succeeded by a Conservative
administration led by the Earl of Derby.
The Canadian government soon ascertained from
Sir John Pakington, the new colonial secretary,
that the new advisers of Her Majesty were not
"inclined to give their consent and support to any
arrangement the result of which would too prob
ably be the diversion to other purposes of the only
public fund .... which now exists for the support
of divine worship and religious instruction in the
colony." It was also intimated by the secretary
of state that the new government was quite ready
to entertain a proposal for reconsidering the mode of
distributing the proceeds of the sales of the reserves,
while not ready to agree to any proposal that
might "divert forever frpm its sacred object the
fund arising from that portion of the pubhc lands
of Canada which, almost from the period of the
British conquest of that province, has been set
apart for the religious instruction of the people."
Hincks, who was at that time in England, at
165

LORD ELGIN
once wrote to Sir John Pakington, in very em
phatic terms, that he viewed "with grave apprehen
sion the prospect of colhsion between Her Majesty's
government and the parliament of Canada, on a
question regarding which such strong feehngs pre-
vaUed among the great mass of the population."
The people of Canada were convinced that they
were "better judges than any parties in England
of what measures would best conduce to the peace
and welfare of the province." As respects the pro
posal "for reconsidering the mode of distributing
the income of the clergy reserves," Hincks had
no hesitation in saying that "it would be received
as one for the violation of the most sacred consti
tutional rights ofthe people."
As soon as the Canadian legislature met in
1852, Hincks carried an address to the Crown, in
which it was urged that the question of the reserves
was "one so exclusively affecting the people of
Canada that its decision ought not to be withdrawn
from the provincial legislature, to which it properly
belongs to regulate aU matters concerning the do
mestic interests of the province." The hope was ex
pressed that Her Majesty's government would lose
no time in giving effect to the promise made by the
previous administration and introduce the legisla
tion necessary "to satisfy the wishes of the Canadian
people." In the debate on this address, Morin, the
leader of the French section of the cabinet, clearly
expressed himself in favour of the secularization of
166

THE FINAL IMPERIAL ACT
the reserves in accordance with the views entertained
by his Upper Canadian coUeagues. It was conse
quently clear that the successors of the LaFontaine-
Baldwin ministry were fully pledged to a vigorous
policy for the disposal of this vexatious dispute.
A few months after Lord Elgin had forwarded
this address to the Crown, the Earl of Derby's
administration was defeated in the House of Com
mons, and the Aberdeen government was formed
towards the close of 1852, with the Duke of
Newcastle as secretary of state for the colonies.
One of Sir John Pakington's last official acts was
to prepare a despatch unfavourable to the prayer of
the assembly's last address, but it was never sent to
Canada, though brought down to parliament. At
the same time the Canadian people heard of this
despatch they were gratified by the announcement
that the new ministers had decided to reverse the
pohcy of their predecessors and to meet the wishes
of the Canadian legislature. Accordingly, in the
session of 1853, a measure was passed by the
imperial parUament to give full power to the pro
vincial legislature to vary or repeal aU or any part
of the act of 1840, and to make aU necessary
provisions respecting the clergy reserves or the
proceeds derived from the same, on the express
condition that there should be no interference with
the annual stipends or aUowances of existing in
cumbents as long as they lived. The Hincks-Morin
ministry was then urged to bring in at once a
167

LORD ELGIN
measure disposing finaUy of the question, in accord
ance with the latest imperial act ; but, as we have
read in a previous chapter, it came to the opinion
after anxious deliberation that the existing parlia
ment was not competent to deal with so import
ant a question. It also held that it was a duty to
obtain an immediate expression of opinion from
the people, and the election of a House in which
the country would be fully represented in accord
ance with the legislation increasing the number of
representatives in the assembly.
The various political infiuences arrayed against
Hincks in Upper Canada led to his defeat, and
the formation of the MacNab-Morin Liberal-Con
servative government, which at once took steps
to settle the question forever. John A. Macdonald
commenced this new epoch in his pohtical career
by taking charge of the biU for the secularization
of the reserves. It provided for the payment of
all moneys arising from the sales of the reserves
into the hands of the receiver-general, who would
apportion them amongst the several municipalities
of the province according to population. AU annual
stipends or allowances, charged upon the reserves
before the passage of the imperial act of 1853, were
continued during the lives of existing incumbents,
though the latter could commute their stipends or
allowances for their value in money, and in this
way create a small permanent endowment for the
advantage of the church to which they belonged.
168

THE CONTROVERSY CLOSED
After nearly forty years of continuous agitation,
during which the province of Upper Canada had
been convulsed from the Ottawa to Lake Huron, and
political parties had been seriously embarrassed, the
question was at last removed from the sphere of
party and religious controversy. The very poli
ticians who had contended for the rights of the
Anglican clergy were now forced by public opinion
and their political interests to take the final steps
for its settlement. Bishop Strachan's fight during
the best years of his hfe had ended in thorough
discomfiture. As the historian recalls the story of
that fight, he cannot fail to come to the conclusion
that the settlement of 1854 relieved the Anghcan
Church itself of a controversy which, as long as it
existed, created a feeling of deep hostility that
seriously affected its usefulness and progress. Even
Lord Elgin was compelled to write in 1851 "that
the tone adopted by the Church of England here
has almost always had the effect of driving from
her even those who would be most disposed to
co-operate with her if she would allow them," At
last freed from the pohtical and the religious
bitterness which was so long evoked by the ab
sence of a concihatory policy on the part of her
leaders, this great church is able peacefully to teach
the noble lessons of her faith and win that respect
among aU classes which was not possible under the
conditions that brought her into direct conflict
with the great mass of the Canadian people. 169

CHAPTER VIII
SEIGNIORIAL TENURE
THE government of Canada in the days of the
French rdgime bore a close resemblance to
that of a province of France, The governor was
generally a noble and a soldier, but while he was
invested with large military and civil authority by
the royal instructions, he had ever by his side a
vigUant guardian in the person of the intendant,
who possessed for aU practical purposes stiU more
substantial powers, and was always encouraged to
report to the king every matter that might appear
to conflict with the principles of absolute govern
ment laid down by the sovereign. The superior
council of Canada possessed judicial, administrative
and legislative powers, but its action was hmited
by the decrees and ordinances of the king, and its
decisions were subject to the veto of the royal
council of the parent state. The intendant, gener
aUy a man of legal attainments, had the special
right to issue ordinances which had the full effect
of law — in the words of his commission "to order
everything as he shaU see just and proper." These
ordinances regulated inns and markets, the building
and repairs of churches and presbyteries, the con
struction of bridges, the maintenance of roads, and
171

LORD ELGIN
aU those matters which could affect the comfort,
the convenience, and the security of the community
at large. While the governmental machinery was
thus modelled in a large measure on that of the
provincial administration of France, the territory
of the province was subject to a modified form of
the old feudal system which was so long a domi
nant condition of the nations of Europe, and has,
down to the present time left its impress on their
legal and civil institutions, not even excepting
Great Britain itself Long before Jacques Cartier
sailed up the River St. Lawrence this system had
gradually been weakened in France under the per
sistent efforts of the Capets, who had eventuaUy,
out of the ruin of the feudatories, built up a
monarchy which at last centralized all power in the
king. The policy of the Capets had borne its full,
legitimate fruit by the time Louis XIV ascended
the throne. The power of the great nobles, once at
the head of practically independent feudatories, had
been effectually broken down, and now, for the
most part withdrawn from the provinces, they
ministered only to the ambition of the king, and
contributed to the dissipation and extravagance of
a voluptuous court.
But while those features of the ancient feudal
system, which were calculated to give power to the
nobles, had been eliminated by the centralizing
infiuence of the king, the system stiU continued in
the provinces to govern the relations between the
172

THE FEUDAL TENURE
noblesse and the peasantry who possessed their
lands on old feudal conditions regulated by the
customary or civil law. These conditions were, on
the whole, still burdensome. The noble who spent
aU his time in attendance on the court at Ver-
saiUes or other royal palaces could keep his purse
equal to his pleasures only by constant demands
on his feudal tenants, who dared no more refuse
to obey his behests than he himself ventured to
flout the royal wiU.
Deeply engrafted as it stiU was on the social
system of the parent state, the feudal tenure was
naturaUy transferred to the colony of New France,
but only with such modifications as were suited to
the conditions of a new country. Indeed aU the
abuses that might hinder settlement or prevent
agricultural development were carefuUy lopped off.
Canada was given its seigneurs, or lords of the manor,
who would pay fealty and homage to the sover
eign himself, or to the feudal superior from whom
they directly received their territorial estate, and
they in their turn leased lands to peasants, or tiUers of
the soU, who held them on the modified conditions
of the tenure of old France. It was not expedient,
and indeed not possible, to transfer a whole body
of nobles to the wilderness of the new world — they
were as a class too wedded to the gay life of
France — and aU that could be done was to estabhsh
a feudal tenure to promote colonization, and at the
same time possibly create a landed gentry who
173

LORD ELGIN
might be a shadowy reflection of the French
noblesse, and could, in particular cases, receive titles
directly from the king himself.
This seigniorial tenure of New France was the
most remarkable instance which the history of
North America affords of the successful effort of
European nations to reproduce on this continent the
ancient aristocratic institutions of the old world. In
the days when the Dutch owned the Netherlands,
vast estates were partitioned out to certain "pat-
roons," who held their property on quasi feudal
conditions, and bore a resemblance to the seigneurs
of French Canada. This manorial system was per
petuated under English forms when the territory
was conquered by the English and transformed
into the colony of New York, where it had a
chequered existence, and was eventually abohshed
as inconsistent with the free conditions of Ameri
can settlement. In the proprietary colony of Mary
land the Calverts also attempted to estabhsh a
landed aristocracy, and give to the manorial lords
certain rights of jurisdiction over their tenants
drawn from the feudal system of Europe. For
Carolina, Shaftesbury and Locke devised a consti
tution which provided a territorial nobility, called
landgraves and caciques, but it soon became a
mere historical curiosity. Even in the early days of
Prince Edward Island, when it was necessary to
mature a plan of colonization, it was gravely pro
posed to the British government that the whole
174

THE FIRST SEIGNIORIES
island should be divided into "hundreds," as in
England, or into "baronies," as in Ireland, with
courts-baron, lords of manors, courts-leet, aU under
the direction of a lord paramount; but whUe this
ambitious aristocratic scheme was not favourably
entertained, the imperial authorities chose one which
was most injurious in its effects on the settlement
of this fertile island.
It was RicheUeu who introduced this modified
form of the feudal system into Canada, when he
constituted, in 1627, the whole of the colony as a
fief of the great fur-trading company of the Hun
dred Associates on the sole condition of its paying
fealty and homage to the Crown, It had the right
of estabUshing seigniories as a part of its under
taking to bring four thousand colonists to the
province and furnish them with subsistence for
three years. Both this company and its successor,
the Company of the West Indies, created a number
of seigniories, but for the most part they were
never occupied, and the king revoked the grants
on the ground of non-settlement, when he resumed
possession of the country and made it a royal
province. From that time the system was regulated
by the Coutume de Paris, by royal edicts, or by
ordinances of the intendant.
The greater part of the soil of Canada was
accordingly held en fief or en sdgneurie. Each grant
varied from sixteen arpents — an arpent being about
five-sixths of an English acre — by fifty, to ten
175

LORD ELGIN
leagues by twelve. We meet with other forms of
tenure in the partition of land in the days of
the French regime — for instance, franc aleu noble
and franc aumone or mortmain, but these were
exceptional grants to charitable, educational, or
religious institutions, and were subject to none of
the ordinary obligations of the feudal tenure, but
required, as in the latter case, only the performance
of certain devotional or other duties which fell
within their special sphere. Some grants were also
given in franc aleu roturier, equivalent to the
English tenure of free and common socage, and
were generaUy made for special objects.*
The seigneur, on his accession to the estate, was
required to pay homage to the king, or to his
feudal superior from whom he derived his lands. In
case he wished to tranfer by sale or otherwise his
seigniory, except in the event of direct natural suc
cession, he had to pay under the Coutume de Paris
— which, generaUy speaking, regulated such seign
iorial grants — a quint or fifth part of the whole
purchase money to his feudal superior, but he was
allowed a reduction (rabat) of two-thirds if the
money was promptly paid down. In special cases,
land transfers, whether by direct succession or
otherwise, were subject to the rule of Vixen le
^ See on these points an excellent article on the feudal system of
Canada in the Queen's Quarterly (Kingston, January, 1899) by Dr. W.
Bennett Munro. Also Droit de banality, by the same, in the report
of the Am. Hist. Ass., Washington, for 1899, Vol. I.
176

FEUDAL RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
fran^ais, which required the payment of relief, or
one year's revenue, on aU changes of ownership, or
a payment of gold (une maille d'or). It was obU-
gatory on aU seigniors to register their grants at
Quebec, to concede or sub-infeudate them under
the rule oi je7i defief, and settle them with as little
delay as practicable. The Crown also reserved in
most cases its jura regalia or regalitates, such as
mines and minerals, lands for mUitary or defensive
purposes, oak timber and masts for the building of
the royal ships. It does not, however, appear that
military service was a condition on which the
seigniors of Canada held their grants, as was the
case in France under the old feudal tenure. The
king and his representative in his royal province
held such powers in their own hands. The seignior
had as Uttle influence in the government of the
country as he had in military affairs. He might be
chosen to the superior council at the royal pleasure,
and was bound to obey the orders of the governor
whenever the mihtia were caUed out. The whole
province was formed into a mihtia district, so that
in time of war the inhabitants might be obhged to
perform mihtary service under the royal governor
or commander-in-chief of the regular forces. A
captain was appointed for each parish — generaUy
conterminous with a seigniory — and in some cases
there were two or three. These captains were fre
quently chosen from the seigniors, many of whom
— ^in the RicheUeu district entirely — ^were officers
177

LORD ELGIN
of royal regiments, notably of the Carignan-Sal-
i^res. The seigniors had, as in France, the right of
dispensing justice, but with the exception of the
Seminary of St, Sulpice of Montreal, it was only in
very rare instances they exercised their judicial
powers, and then simply in cases of inferior juris
diction (basse justice). The superior council and
intendant adjudicated in all matters of civil and
criminal importance.
The whole success of the seigniorial system, as a
means of settling the country, depended on the
extent to which the seigniors were able to grant
their lands en censive or en roture. The censitaire
who held his lands in this way could not himself
sub-infeudate. The grantee en roture was governed
by the same riUes as the one en censive except with
respect to the descent of lands in cases of intestacy.
AU land grants to the censitaires — or as they pre
ferred to call themselves in Canada, habitants — ^were
invariably shaped like a parallelogram, with a nar
row frontage on the river varying from two to three
arpents, and with a depth from four to eight ar
pents. These farms, in the course of time assumed
the appearance of a continuous settlement on the
river and became known in local phraseology as
Cotes — for example, C&te des Neiges, Cote St. Louis,
Cote St. Paul, and many other picturesque viUages
on the banks of the St. Lawrence. In the first
century of settlement the government induced the
officers and soldiers of the Carignan-Sali^res regi-
178

RENTS AND DUES
ment to settle lands along the Richelieu river and
to build palisaded viUages for the purposes of
defence against the war-like Iroquois; but, in the
rural parts of the province generally, the people
appear to have foUowed their own convenience
with respect to the location of their farms and
dweUings, and chose the banks of the river as
affording the easiest means of intercommunication.
The narrow oblong grants, made in the original
settlement of the province, became narrower stiU
as the original occupants died and their property
was divided among the heirs under the civil law.
Consequently at the present day the traveUer who
visits French Canada sees the whole country divided
into extremely long and narrow parallelograms each
with fences and piles of stones as boundaries in
innumerable cases.
The conditions on which the censitaire held his
land from the seignior were exceedingly easy during
the greater part of the French regime. The cens et
rentes which he was expected to pay annuaUy, on
St, Martin's day, as a rule, varied from one to two
sols for each superficial arpent, with the addition of
a smaU quantity of corn, poultry, and some other
article produced on the farm, which might be com
muted for cash, at current prices. The censitaire
was also obliged to grind his corn at the seignior's
mill (vioulin banal), and though the royal authori
ties at Quebec were very particular in pressing the
fiilfUraent of this obligation, it does not appear to
179

LORD ELGIN
have been successfully carried out in the early
days of the colony on account of the inabihty of
the seigniors to purchase the machinery, or erect
buildings suitable for the satisfactory performance
of a service clearly most useful to the people of the
rural districts. The obligation of baking bread in
the seigniorial oven was not generally exacted, and
soon became obsolete as the country was settled
and each habitant naturaUy built his own oven in
connection with his home. The seigniors also claimed
the right to a certain amount of statute labour (cor
vee) from the habitants on their estates, to one fish
out of every dozen caught in seigniorial waters, and
to a reservation of wood and stone for the construc
tion and repairs of the manor house, mUl, and
church in the parish or seigniory. In case the
censitaire wished to dispose of his holding during
his hfetime, it was subject to the lods et ventes,
or to a tax of one-twelfth of the purchase money,
which had to be paid to the seignior, who usuaUy as
a favour remitted one-fourth on punctual payment.
The most serious restriction on such sales was the
droit de retraite, or right of the seignior to pre
empt the same property himself within forty days
from the date of the sale.
There was, no doubt, at the establishment of the
seigniorial tenure, a disposition to create in Canada,
as far as possible, an aristocratic class akin to the
Tioblesse of old France, who were a social order quite
distinct from the industrial and commercial classes,
180

THE TITLED SEIGNIORS
though they did not necessarily bear titles. Under
the old feudal system the possession of land brought
nobility and a title, but in the modified seigniorial
system of Canada the king could alone confer titular
distinctions. The intention of the system was to
induce men of good social position — like thegentils-
hommes or officers of the Carignan regiment — to set
tle in the country and become seigniors. However,
the latter were not confined to this class, for the
title was rapidly extended to shopkeepers, farmers,
sailors, and even mechanics who had a little money
and were ready to pay for the cheap privilege of
becoming nobles in a smaU way. Titled seigniors
were very rare at any time in French Canada.
In 1671, Des Islets, Talon's seigniory, was erected
into a barony, and subsequently into an earldom
(Count d'Orsainville). Franpois Berthelot 's seigniory
of St. Laurent on the Island of Orleans was made
in 1676 an earldom, and that of Portneuf, Rdn^
Robineau's, into a barony. The only title which has
come down to the present time is that of the Baron
de Longueuil, which was first conferred on the
distinguished Charles LeMoyne in 1700, and has
been officially recognized by the British govern
ment since December, 1880.
The established seigniorial system bore conclus
ive evidence of the same paternal spirit which sent
shiploads of virtuous young women (sometimes mar-
chandises mtlees) to the St. Lawrence to become wives
of the forlorn Canadian bachelors, gave trousseaux
181

LORD ELGIN
of cattle and kitchen utensUs to the newly wed,
and encouraged by bounties the production of
children. The seigniories were the ground on which
these paternal methods of creating a farming com
munity were to be developed, but despite the wise
intentions of the government the whole machinery
was far from reahzing the results which might
reasonably have been expected from its operation.
The land was easily acquired and cheaply held,
facihties were given for the grinding of grain and
the making of fiour; fish and game were quickly
taken by the skilful fisherman and enterprising
hunter, and the royal officials generally favoured
the habitants in disputes with the seigniors.
Unlike the large grants made by the British
government after the conquest to loyalists, Prot
estant clergy, and speculators — grants calciUated
to keep large sections of the country in a state
of wildness — the seigniorial estates had to be
cultivated and settled within a reasonable time
if they were to be retained by the occupants.
During the French dominion the Crown sequest
rated a number of seigniories for the faUure to
observe the obligation of cultivation. As late as
1741 we find an ordinance restoring seventeen
estates to the royal domain, a;lthough the Crown
was ready to reinstate the former occupants the
moment they showed that they intended to perform
their duty of settlement. But aU the care that was
taken to encourage settlement was for a long time
1 QO

SOCIAL CONDITIONS
without large results, chiefly in consequence of the
nomadic habits of the young men on the seigniories.
The fur trade, from the beginning to the end of
French dominion, was a serious bar to steady in
dustry on the farm. The young gentilhomme as weU
as the young habitant loved the free hfe of the forest
and river better than the monotonous work of the
farm. He preferred too often making love to the im
pressionable dusky maiden of the wigwam rather
than to the stolid, devout damsel imported for his
kind by priest or nun. A raid on some EngUsh post
or viUage had far more attraction than following the
plough or threshing the grain. This adventurous
spirit led the young Frenchman to the western
prairies where the Red and Assiniboine waters
mingle, to the foot-hiUs of the Rocky Mountains,
to the Ohio and Mississippi, and to the Gulf of
Mexico. But while Frenchmen in this way won
eternal fame, the seigniories were too often left in
a state of savagery, and even those seigneurs and
habitants who devoted themselves successfully to
pastoral pursuits found themselves in the end har
assed by the constant caUs made upon their miU'
tary services during the years the French fought to
retain the imperial domain they had been the first
to discover and occupy in the great vaUeys of
North America. StiU, despite the difficulties which
impeded the practical working of the seigniorial
system, it had on the whole an exceUent effect on
the social conditions of the country. It created a
183

LORD ELGIN
friendly and even parental relation between seign
eur, cure, and habitant, who on each estate consti
tuted as it were a seigniorial family, united to each
other by common ties of self-interest and personal
affection. If the system did not create an energetic
self-reliant people in the rural communities, it arose
from the fact that it was not associated with a
system of local self-government hke that which
existed in the colonies of England. The French
king had no desire to see such a system develop in
the colonial dependencies of France. His govern
mental system in Canada was a mild despotism
intended to create a people ever ready to obey the
decrees and ordinances of royal officials, over whom
the commonalty could exercise no control what
ever in such popular elective assembhes as were
enjoyed by every colony of England in North
America. During the French regime the officials of the
French government frequently repressed undue or
questionable exactions imposed, or attempted to be
imposed, on the censitaires by greedy or extrava
gant seigniors. It was not until the country had
been for some time in the possession of England
that abuses became fastened on the tenure, and
retarded the agricultural and industrial develop
ment of the province. The cens et rentes were
unduly raised, the droit de banalite was pressed to
the extent that if a habitant went to a better or
more convenient mill than the seignior's, he had to
184

ABUSES OF THE SYSTEM
pay tolls to both, the transfer of property was
hampered by the lods et ventes and the droit de re
traite, and the claim always made by the seigniors
to the exclusive use of the streams running by or
through the seigniories was a bar to the establish
ment of industrial enterprise. Questions of law
which arose between the seigneur and habitant and
were referred to the courts were decided in nearly
aU cases in favour of the former. In such instances
the judges were governed by precedent or by a
strict interpretation of the law, whUe in the days of
French dominion the intendants were generally
influenced by principles of equity in the disputes
that came before them, and by a desire to help the
weaker Utigant, the censitaire.
It took nearly a century after the conquest
before it was possible to abolish a system which
had naturally become so deeply rooted in the social
and economic conditions of the people of French
Canada, As the abuses of the tenure became more
obvious, discontent became widespread, and the
politicians after the union were forced at last to
recognize the necessity of a change more in har
mony with modern principles. Measures were first
passed better to facilitate the optional commutation
of the tenure of lands en roture into that of franc
aleu roturier, but they never achieved any sat
isfactory results, LaFontaine did not deny the
necessity for a radical change in the system, but he
was too much wedded to the old institutions of his
185

LORD ELGIN
native province to take the initiative for its entire
removal. Mr. Louis Thomas Drummond, who was
attorney-general in both the Hincks-Morin and
MacNab-Morin ministries, is deserving of honour
able mention in Canadian history for the leading
part he took in settling this very perplexing
question. I have already shown that his first
attempt in 1853 failed in consequence of the ad
verse action of the legislative council, and that
no further steps were taken in the matter untU the
coming into office of the MacNab or Liberal-Con
servative government in 1854, when he brought
a bill into parliament to a large extent a copy of
the first. This biU became law after it had received
some important amendments in the upper House,
where there were a number of representatives of
seigniorial interests, now quite reconciled to the
proposed change and prepared to make the best of
it. It abolished aU feudal rights and duties in
Lower Canada, "whether bearing upon the censi
taire or seigneur," and provided for the appoint
ment of commissioners to enquire into the respective
rights of the parties interested. In order to enable
them to come to correct conclusions with respect
to these rights, aU questions of law were first sub
mitted to a seigniorial court composed of the judges
of the Queen's Bench and Superior Court in Lower
Canada. The commissioners under this law were as
follows: — Messrs. Chabot, H. Judah, S. Leh^vre,
L. Archambault, N. Dumas, J. G. Turcotte, C.
186

CHANGES EFFECTED
Delagrave, P. Winter, J. G. Lebel, and J. B.
Varin. The judges of the seigniorial court were: —
Chief Justice Sir Louis H. LaFontaine, president;
Judges Bowen, Aylwin, Duval, Caron, Day, Smith,
Vanfelson, Mondelet, Meredith, Short, Morin, and
Badgley. Provision was also made by parhament
for securing compensation to the seigniors for the
giving up of all legal rights of which they were
deprived by the decision of the commissioners. It
took five years of enquiry and deUberation before
the commissioners were able to complete their
labours, and then it was found necessary to vote
other funds to meet all the expenses entailed by a
fuU settlement of the question.
The result was that aU lands previously held en
fief, en arriere fief, en censive, or en roture, under
the old French system, were henceforth placed on
the footing of lands in the other provinces, that is
to say, free and common socage. The seigniors re
ceived hberal remuneration for the abolition of the
lods et ventes, droit de banalite, and other rights
declared legal by the court. The cens et ventes had
alone to be met as an estabhshed rent (rente con-
stituee) by the habitant, but even this change was
so modified and arranged as to meet the exigencies
of the censitaires, the protection of whose interests
was at the basis of the whole law abohshing this
ancient tenure. This radical change cost the coun
try from first to last over ten miUion doUars,
including a large indemnity paid to Upper Canada
187

LORD ELGIN
for its proportion of the fund taken from pubhc
revenues of the united provinces to meet the claims
of the seigniors and the expenses of the com
mission. The money was well spent in bringing
about so thorough a revolution in so peaceable and
conclusive a manner. The habitants of the east were
now as free as the farmers of the west. The seign
iors themselves largely benefited by the capitaliza
tion in money of their old rights, and by the
untrammelled possession of land held en franc aleu
roturier. Although the seigniorial tenure disap
peared from the social system of French Canada
nearly half a century ago, we find enduring mem
orials of its existence in such famous names as
these: — Nicolet, Vercheres, Lotbini^re, Berthier,
RouviUe, Joliette, Terrebonne, SiUery, Beauprd,
BeUechasse, Portneuf, Chambly, Sorel, LongueuU,
Boucherville, Chateauguay, and many others which
recaU the seigniors of the old regime.

188

CHAPTER IX
CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES
IN a long letter which he wrote to Earl Grey
in August, 1850, Lord Elgin used these sig
nificant words : "To render annexation by violence
impossible, or by any other means improbable as
may be, is, as I have often ventured to repeat, the
polar star of my policy." To understand the full
significance of this language it is only necessary to
refer to the history of the difficulties with which
the governor-general had to contend from the first
hour he came to the province and began his efforts
to aUay the feeUng of disaffection then too preva
lent throughout the country — especially among the
commercial classes — and to give encouragement to
that loyal sentiment which had been severely
shaken by the indifference or ignorance shown by
British statesmen and people with respect to the
conditions and interests of the Canadas. He was
quite conscious that, if the province was to remain
a contented portion of the British empire, it could
be best done by giving fuU play to the principles
of self-government among both nationalities who
had been so long struggling to obtain the appli
cation of the parliamentary system of England in
the fullest sense to the operation of their own
189

LORD ELGIN
internal affairs, and by giving to the industrial and
commercial classes adequate compensation for the
great losses which they had sustained by the sud
den abolition of the privileges which England had
so long extended to Canadian products— notably,
flour, wheat and lumber — in the British market.
Lord Elgin knew perfectly weU that, while this
discontent existed, the party which favoured annex
ation would not fail to find sympathy and encour
agement in the neighbouring republic. He recalled
the fact that both Papineau and Mackenzie, after
the outbreak of their abortive rebeUion, had many
abettors across the border, as the infamous raids
into Canada clearly proved. Many people in the
United States, no doubt, saw some analogy be
tween the grievances of Canadians and those which
had led to the American revolution. "The mass of
the American people," said Lord Durham, "had
judged of the quarrel from a distance ; they had
been obliged to form their judgment on the appar
ent grounds of the controversy ; and were thus
deceived, as all those are apt to be who judge
under such circumstances, and on such grounds.
The contest bore some resemblance to that great
struggle of their own forefathers, which they regard
with the highest pride. Like that, they believed it
to be the contest of a colony against the empire,
whose misconduct alienated their own country;
they considered it to be a contest undertaken by a
people professing to seek independence of distant
190

A CONTRAST
control, and extension of popular privileges." More
than that, the striking contrast which was presented
between Canada and the United States "in respect
to every sign of productive industry, increasing
wealth, and progressive civiUzation" was considered
by the people of the latter country to be among
the results of the absence of a political system
which would give expansion to the energies of the
colonists and make them self-reliant in every sense.
Lord Durham's picture of the condition of
things in 1838-9 was very painful to Canadians,
although it was truthful in every particular. "On
the British side of the line," he wrote, "with the
exception of a few favoured spots, where some
approach to American prosperity is apparent, aU
seems waste and desolate." But it was not only " in
the difference between the larger towns on the two
sides" that we could see "the best evidence of our
own inferiority." That "painful and undeniable
truth was most manifest in the country districts
through which the hne of national separation passes
for one thousand mUes." Mrs. Jameson in her
"Winter Studies and Summer Rambles," written
only a year or two before Lord Durham's report,
gives an equaUy unfavourable comparison between
the Canadian and United States sides of the
western country. As she floated on the Detroit
river in a little canoe made of a hollow tree, and
saw on one side "a city with its towers, and spires,
and animated population," and on the other "a
191

LORD ELGIN
little straggling hamlet with all the symptoms of
apathy, indolence, mistrust, hopelessness," she could
not help wondering at this "incredible difference
between the two shores," and hoping that some of
the colonial officials across the Atlantic would be
soon sent "to behold and solve the difficulty."
But while Lord Durham was bound to empha
size this unsatisfactory state of things he had not
lost his confidence in the loyalty of the mass
of the Canadian people, notwithstanding the severe
strain to which they had been subject on account
of the supineness of the British government to
deal Adgorously and promptly with grievances of
which they had so long complained as seriously
affecting their connection with the parent state
and the development of their material resources.
It was only necessary, he felt, to remove the
causes of discontent to bring out to the fuUest
extent the latent affection which the mass of
French and English Canadians had been feeling
for British connection ever since the days when the
former obtained guarantees for the protection of
their dearest institutions and the Loyahsts of the
American Revolution crossed the frontier for the
sake of Crown and empire. "We must not take
every rash expression of disappointment," wrote
Lord Durham, "as an indication of a settled aver
sion to the existing constitution; and my own
observation convinces me that the predominant
feeling of all the British population of the North
192

LORD DURHAM'S VIEWS
American colonies is that of devoted attachment to
the mother country. I believe that neither the
interests nor the feehngs of the people are incom
patible with a colonial government, wisely and
popularly administered." His strong conviction
then was that if connection with Great Britain was
to be continuous, if every cause of discontent was
to be removed, if every excuse for interference
"by violence on the part of the United States" was
to be taken away, if Canadian annexationists were
no longer to look for sympathy and aid among
their republican neighbours, the Canadian people
must be given the fuU control of their own internal
affairs, while the British government on their part
should cease that constant interference which only
irritated and offended the colony. "It is not by
weakening," he said, "but strengthening the influ
ence ofthe people on the government; by confining
within much narrower bounds than those hitherto
aUotted to it, and not by extending the interference
of the imperial authorities in the details of colonial
affairs, that I beheve that harmony is to be restored,
where dissension has so long prevailed ; and a regu
larity and vigour hitherto unknown, introduced
into the administration of these provinces." And he
added that if the internal struggle for complete
self-government were renewed "the sympathy from
without would at some time or other re-assume its
former strength."
Lord Elgin appeared on the scene at the very
193

LORD ELGIN
time when there was some reason for a repetition of
that very struggle, and a renewal of that very
"sympathy from without" which Lord Durham
imagined. The political irritation, which had been
smouldering among the great mass of Reformers
since the days of Lord Metcalfe, was seriously
aggravated by the discontent created by commer
cial ruin and industrial paralysis throughout Canada
as a natural result of Great Britain's ruthless fis
cal pohcy. The annexation party once more came
to the surface, and contrasts were again made
between Canada and the United States seriously to
the discredit of the imperial state. "The plea of
self-interest," wrote Lord Elgin in 1849, "the most
powerful weapon, perhaps, which the friends of
British connection have wielded in times past, has
not only been wrested from my hands but trans
ferred since 1846 to those of the adversary." He
then proceeded to contrast the condition of things
on the two sides of the Niagara, only "spanned by
a narrow bridge, which it takes a foot passenger
about three minutes to cross." The inhabitants on
the Canadian side were "for the most part United
Empire I^oyalists" and differed httle in habits or
modes of thought and expression from their neigh
bours. Wheat, their staple product, grown on the
Canadian side of the line, "fetched at that time in
the market from 9d. to Is. less than the same
article grown on the other." These people had
protested against the Montreal annexation move-
194

THE REMEDY FOR DISCONTENT
ment, but Lord Elgin was nevertheless confident
that the large majority firmly beheved "that their
annexation to the United States would add one-
fourth to the value of the produce of their farms."
In dealing with the causes of discontent Lord
Elgin came to exactly the same conclusion which,
as I have just shown, was accepted by Lord
Durham after a close study of the pohtical and
material conditions of the country. He completed
the work of which his eminent predecessor had
been able only to formulate the plan. By giving
adequate scope to the practice of responsible gov
ernment, he was able to remove aU causes for
irritation against the British government, and pre
vent annexationists from obtaining any sympathy
from that body of American people who were
always looking for an excuse for a movement —
such a violent movement as suggested by Lord
Elgin in the paragraph given above — which would
force Canada into the states of the union. Having
laid this foundation for a firm and popular gov
ernment, he proceeded to remove the commercial
embarrassment by giving a stimulus to Canadian
trade by the repeal of the navigation laws, and the
adoption of reciprocity with the United States.
The results of his efforts were soon seen in the
confidence which aU nationalities and classes of the
Canadian people felt in the working of their system
of government, in the strengthening of the ties
between the imperial state and the dependency, 195

LORD ELGIN
and in the decided stimulus given to the shipping
and trade throughout the provinces of British
North America,
I have already in the previous chapters of this
book dwelt on the methods which Lord Elgin
so successfully adopted to establish responsible
government in accordance with the wishes of the
Canadian people, and it is now only necessary
to refer to his strenuous efforts during six years
to obtain reciprocal trade between Canada and the
United States, It was impossible at the outset
of his negotiations to arouse any active interest
among the politicians of the republic as long as
they were unable to see that the proposed treaty
would be to the advantage of their particular party
or of the nation at large. No party in congress was
ready to take it up as a political question and give
it that impulse which could be best given by a
strong partisan organization. The Canadian and
British governments could not get up a " lobby" to
press the matter in the ways pecuhar to professional
politicians, party managers, and great commercial
or financial corporations. Mr, Hincks brought the
powers of his persuasive tongue and ingenious
inteUect to bear on the pohticians at Washington,
but even he with aU his commercial acuteness and
financial knowledge was unable to accomphsh any
thing. It was not until Lord Elgin himself went to
the national capital and made use of his diplomatic
tact and amenity of demeanour that a successful
196

THE WASHINGTON MISSION
result was reached. No governor-general who ever
visited the United States made so deep an impres
sion on its statesmen and people as was made by
Lord Elgin during this mission to Washington, and
also in the course of the visits he paid to Boston
and Portland where he spoke with great effect
on several occasions. He won the confidence and
esteem of statesmen and politicians by his urbanity,
dignity, and capacity for business. He carried
away his audiences by his exhibition of a high
order of eloquence, which evoked the admira
tion of those who had been accustomed to hear
Webster, Everett, Wendell Phillips, Choate, and
other noted masters of oratory in America.
He spoke at Portland after his success in nego
tiating the treaty, and was able to congratulate
both Canada and the United States on the settle
ment of many questions which had too long alien
ated peoples who ought to be on the most friendly
terms with each other. He was now near the close
of his Canadian administration and was able to sum
up the results of his labours. The discontent with
which the people of the United States so often
sympathized had been brought to an end "by
granting to Canadians what they desired — the great
principle of self-government." "The inhabitants of
Canada at this moment," he went on to say, "exer
cise as much influence over their own destinies
and government as do the people of the United
States. This is the only cause of misunderstanding 197

LORD ELGIN
that ever existed ; and this cannot arise when the
circumstances which made them at variance have
ceased to exist."
The treaty was signed on .Tune 5th, 1854, by
Lord Elgin on the part of Great Britain, and
by the Honourable W. L. Marcy, secretary of
state, on behalf of the United States, but it did
not legaUy come into force until it had been form
aUy ratified by the parliament of Great Britain,
the congress of the United States, and the several
legislatures of the British provinces. It exempted
from customs duties on both sides of the line
certain articles which were the growth and produce
of the British colonies and of the United States —
the principal being grain, flour, breadstuffs, animals,
fresh, smoked, and salted meats, fish, lumber of aU
kinds, poultry, cotton, wool, hides, ores of metal,
pitch, tar, ashes, flax, hemp, rice, and unmanufac
tured tobacco. The people of the United States and
of the British provinces were given an equal right
to navigate the St. Lawrence river, the Canadian
canals and Lake Michigan. No export duty could
be levied on lumber cut in Maine and passing
down the St. John or other streams in New Bruns
wick. The most important question temporarily
settled by the treaty was the fishery dispute which
had been assuming a troublesome aspect for some
years previously. The government at Washington
then began to raise the issue that the three mile
Umit to which their fishermen could be confined
198

THE THREE MILE LIMIT
should foUow the sinuosities of the coasts, includ
ing bays ; the object being to obtain access to the
valuable mackerel fisheries of the Bay of Chaleurs
and other waters claimed to be exclusively within
the territorial jurisdiction ofthe maritime provinces.
The imperial government generaUy sustained the
contention of the provinces — a contention practi
caUy supported by the American authorities in the
case of Delaware, Chesapeake, and other bays on
the coasts of the United States — that the three
mUe limit should be measured from a Une drawn
from headland to headland of all bays, harbours,
and creeks. In the case of the Bay of Fundy, how
ever, the imperial government aUowed a departure
from this general principle when it was urged by
the Washington government that one of its head
lands was in the territory of the United States, and
that it was an arm of the sea rather than a bay.
The result was that foreign fishing vessels were
shut out only from the bays on the coasts of Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick within the Bay of
Fundy. AU these questions were, however, placed
in abeyance for twelve years, by the Reciprocity
Treaty of 1854, which provided that the inhabitants
of the United States could take fish of any kind,
except sheU fish, on the sea coasts, and shores, in
the bays, harbours, and creeks of any British pro
vince, without any restriction as to distance, and
had also permission to land on these coasts and
shores for the purpose of drying their nets and
199

LORD ELGIN
curing their fish. The same privileges were extended
to British citizens on the eastern sea coasts and
shores of the United States, north of the 36th
paraUel of north latitude — privileges of no practical
value to the people of British North America com
pared with those they gave up in their own prohfic
waters. The farmers of the agricultural west ac
cepted with great satisfaction a treaty which gave
their products free access to their natural market,
but the fishermen and seamen of the maritime
provinces, especiaUy of Nova Scotia, were for some
time dissatisfied with provisions which gave away
their most valuable fisheries without adequate com
pensation, and at the same time refused them the
privilege — a great advantage to a ship-buUding,
ship-owning province — of the coasting trade of the
United States on the same terms which were
allowed to American and British vessels on the
coasts of British North America. On the whole,
however, the treaty eventuaUy proved of benefit
to all the provinces at a time when trade required
just such a stimulus as it gave in the markets
of the United States. The aggregate interchange of
commodities between the two countries rose from
an annual average of $14,230,763 in the years pre
vious to 1854 to $33,492,754 gold currency, in the
first year of its existence ; to $42,944,754 gold
currency, in the second year ; to $50,339,770 gold
currency in the third year; and to no less a sum
than $84,070,955 at war prices, in the thirteenth
200

REPEAL OF THE TREATY
year when it was terminated by the United States
in accordance with the provision, which allowed
either party to bring it to an end after a due
notice of twelve months at the expiration of ten
years or of any longer time it might remain in
force. Not only was a large and remunerative trade
secured between the United States and the pro
vinces, but the social and friendly intercourse of
the two countries necessarily increased with the
expansion of commercial relations and the creation
of common interests between them. Old antipathies
and misunderstandings disappeared under the influ
ence of conditions which brought these communi
ties together and made each of them place a higher
estimate on the other's good qualities. In short,
the treaty in aU respects fuUy reaUzed the expecta
tions of Lord Elgin in working so earnestly to
bring it to a successful conclusion.
However, it pleased the politicians of the United
States, in a moment of temper, to repeal a treaty
which, during its existence, gave a balance in
favour of the commercial and industrial interests
of the republic, to the value of over $95,000,000
without taking into account the value of the pro
vincial fisheries from which the fishermen of New
England annuaUy derived so large a profit. Temper,
no doubt, had much to do with the action of the
United States government at a time when it was
irritated by the sympathy extended to the Confeder
ate States by many persons in the provinces as weU
201

LORD ELGIN
as in Great Britain — notably by Mr. Gladstone
himself. No doubt it was thought that the repeal of
the treaty would be a sort of punishment to the
people of British North America. It was even felt —
as much was actually said in congress — that the re
sult of the sudden repeal of the treaty would be the
growth of discontent among those classes in Canada
who had begun to depend upon its continuance,
and that sooner or later there would arise a cry for
annexation with a country from which they could
derive such large commercial advantages. Canadians
now know that the results have been very different
from those anticipated by statesmen and journahsts
on the other side of the border. Instead of starving
Canada and forcing her into annexation, they have,
by the repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty, and by
their commercial policy ever since, materiaUy helped
to stimulate her self-rehance, increase her commerce
with other countries, and make her largely a self-
sustaining, independent country. Canadians depend
on themselves — on a self-reliant, enterprising pohcy
of trade— not on the favour or caprice of any par
ticular nation. They are always quite prepared to
have the most hberal commercial relations with the
United States, but at the same time feel that a
reciprocity treaty is no longer absolutely essential
to their prosperity, and cannot under any circum
stances have any particular effect on the poUtical
destiny of the Canadian confederation whose strength
and unity are at length so well assured.
202

CHAPTER X
FAREWELL TO CANADA
LORD ELGIN assumed the governor-general'
ship of Canada on January 30th, 1847, and
gave place to Sir Edmund Head on December
19th, 1854. The address which he received from
the Canadian legislature on the eve of his departure
gave fuU expression to the golden opinions which
he had succeeded in winning from the Canadian
people during his able administration of nearly
eight years. The passionate feehng which had been
evoked during the crisis caused by the RebeUion
Losses BiU had graduaUy given way to a true
appreciation of the wisdom of the course that he
had followed under such exceptionally trying cir
cumstances, and to the general conviction that his
strict observance of the true forms and methods of
constitutional government had added strength and
dignity to the political institutions of the country
and placed Canada at last in the position of a semi-
independent nation. The charm of his manner could
never fail to captivate those who met him often in
social Ufe, while public men of all parties recognized
his capacity for business, the sincerity of his con
victions, and the absence of a spirit of intrigue in
connection with the administration of pubhc affairs
208

LORD ELGIN
and his relations with political parties. He received
evidences on every side that he had won the confi
dence and respect and even affection of aU nation
ahties, classes, and creeds in Canada. In the very
city where he had been maltreated and his Ufe
itself endangered, he received manifestations of ap
proval which were full compensation for the mental
sufferings to which he was subject in that unhappy
period of his life, when he proved so firm, cour
ageous and far-sighted. In weU chosen language —
always characteristic of his public addresses — ^he
spoke of the cordial reception he had met with, when
he arrived a stranger in Montreal, of the beauty
of its surroundings, of the kind attention with
which its citizens had on more than one occasion
listened to the advice he gave to their various
associations, of the undaunted courage with which
the merchants had promoted the construction of
that great road which was so necessary to the
industrial development of the province, of the
patriotic energy which first gathered together such
noble specimens of Canadian industry from aU
parts of the country, and had been the means
of making the great World's Fair so serviceable to
Canada; and then as he recaUed the pleasing inci
dents of the past, there came to his mind a thought
of the scenes of 1849, but the sole reference he al
lowed himself was this : "And I shaU forget — but no,
what I might have to forget is forgotten already,
and therefore I cannot teU you what I shaU forget."
204

HIS FAREWELL SPEECH
The last speech which he delivered in the pictur
esque city of Quebec gave such eloquent expression
to the feelings with which he left Canada, is such
an admirable example of the oratory with which he
so often charmed large assemblages, that I give it
below in full for the perusal of Canadians of the
present day who had not the advantage of hearing
him in the prime of his Ufe.
"I wish I could address you in such strains as I
have sometimes employed on sinular occasions —
strains suited to a festive meeting; but I confess
I have a weight on my heart and it is not in me to
be merry. For the last time I stand before you in
the official character which I have borne for nearly
eight years. For the last time I am surrounded by
a circle of friends with whom I have spent some of
the most pleasant days of my Ufe. For the last
time I welcome you as my guests to this charming
residence which I have been in the habit of caUing
my home.* I did not, I will frankly confess it, know
what it would cost me to break this habit, until the
period of my departure approached, and I began to
feel that the great interests which have so long
engrossed my attention and thoughts were passing
out of my hands. I had a hint of what my feehngs
reaUy were upon this point — a pretty broad hint
too  one lovely morning in June last, when I
returned to Quebec after my temporary absence in
England, and landed in the coves below Spencer-
1 " Spencerwood," the governor's private residence.
205

LORD ELGIN
wood (because it was Sunday and I did not want
to make a disturbance in the town), and when with
the greetings of the old people in the coves who
put their heads out of the windows as I passed
along, and cried 'Welcome home again,' stiU ring
ing in my ears, I mounted the hiU and drove
through the avenue to the house door, I saw the
drooping trees on the lawn, with every one of which
I was so familiar, clothed in the tenderest green of
spring, and the river beyond, calm and transparent
as a mirror, and the ships fixed and motionless as
statues on its surface, and the whole landscape
bathed in that bright Canadian sun which so sel
dom pierces our murky atmosphere on the other
side of the Atlantic. I began to think that persons
were to be envied who were not forced by the
necessities of their position to quit these engrossing
interests and lovely scenes, for the purpose of pro
ceeding to distant lands, but who are able to
remain among them until they pass to that quiet
corner of the garden of Mount Hermon, which juts
into the river and commands a view of the city, the
shipping, Point Levi, the Island of Orleans, and
the range of the Laurentine ; so that through the
dim watches of that tranquil night which precedes
the dawning ofthe eternal day, the majestic citadel
of Quebec, with its noble train of sateUite hills, may
seem to rest forever on the sight, and the low mur
mur of the waters of St. Lawrence, with the hum
of busy life on their surface, to faU ceaselessly on
206

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE
the ear, I cannot bring myself to beheve that the
future has in store for me any interests which will
fill the place of those I am now abandoning. But
although I must henceforward be to you as a
stranger, although my official connection with you
and your interests will have become in a few days
matter of history, yet I trust that through some
one channel or other, the tidings of your prosperity
and progress may occasionally reach me ; that I
may hear from time to time of the steady growth
and development of those principles of hberty and
order, of manly independence in combination with
respect for authority and law, of national life in
harmony with British connection, which it has
been my earnest endeavour, to the extent of my
humble means of influence, to implant and to
establish. I trust, too, that I shall hear that this
House continues to be what I have ever sought to
render it, a neutral territory, on which persons of
opposite opinions, political and religious, may meet
together in harmony and forget their differences for
a season. And I have good hope that this wiU be
the case for several reasons, and, among others, for
one which I can barely aUude to, for it might be an
impertinence in me to dweU upon it. But I think
that without any breach of dehcacy or decorum
I may venture to say that many years ago, when I
was much younger than I am now, and when we
stood towards each other in a relation somewhat
different from that which has recently subsisted
207

LORD ELGIN
between us, I learned to look up to Sir Edmund
Head with respect, as a gentleman of the highest
character, the greatest ability, and the most varied
accomplishments and attainments. And now, ladies
and gentlemen, I have only to add the sad word —
FareweU. I drink this bumper to the health of you
all, collectively and individually. I trust that I may
hope to leave behind me some who wiU look back
with feelings of kindly recollection to the period of
our intercourse ; some with whom I have been on
terms of immediate official connection, whose worth
and talents I have had the best means of appre
ciating, and who could bear witness at least, if they
please to do so, to the spirit, intentions, and motives
with which I have administered your affairs ; some
with whom I have been bound by the ties of per
sonal regard. And if reciprocity be essential to
enmity, then most assuredly I can leave behind me
no enemies. I am aware that there must be persons
in so large a society as this, who think that they
have grievances to complain of, that due considera
tion has not in all cases been shown to them. Let
them beheve me, and they ought to believe me, for
the testimony of a dying man is evidence, even in a
court of justice, let them believe me, then, when I
assure them, in this the last hour of my agony, that
no such errors of omission or commission have been
intentional on my part. Farewell, and God bless you."
Before I proceed to review some features of his
administration in Canada, to which it has not been
208

THE QUESTION OF SELF-DEFENCE
possible to do adequate justice in previous chapters
of this book, I must very briefly refer to the
eminent services which he was able to perform for
the empire before he closed his useful hfe amid the
shadows of the Himalayas. On his return to Eng
land he took his seat in the House of Lords, but he
gave very Uttle attention to poUtics or legislation.
On one occasion, however, he expressed a serious
doubt as to the wisdom of sending to Canada large
bodies of troops, which had come back from the
Crimea, on the ground that such a proceeding
might complicate the relations of the colony with
the United States, and at the same time arrest its
progress towards self-independence in all matters
affecting its internal order and security.
This opinion was in unison with the sentiments
which he had often expressed to the secretary
of state during his term of office in America.
While he always deprecated any hasty withdrawal
of imperial troops from the dependency as hkely at
that time to imperil its connection with the mother
country, he beUeved most thoroughly in educating
Canadians gradually to understand the large mea
sure of responsibihty which attached to self-govern
ment. He was of opinion "that the system of
reUeving colonists altogether from the duty of self-
defence must be attended with injurious effects
upon themselves." "It checks," he continued, "the
growth of national and manly morals. Men seldom
think anything worth preserving for which they are
209

LORD ELGIN
never asked to make a sacrifice." His view was
that, while it was desirable to remove imperial
troops gradually and throw the responsibility of
self-defence largely upon Canada, "the movement
in that direction should be made with due caution."
" The present " — he was writing to the secretary of
state in 1848 when Canadian affairs were stiU in an
unsatisfactory state — "is not a favourable moment
for experiments, British statesmen, even secretaries
of state, have got into the habit lately of talking of
the maintenance of the connection between Great
Britain and Canada with so much indifference, that
a change of system in respect to military defence
incautiously carried out might be presumed by
many to argue, on the part of the mother country,
a disposition to prepare the way for separation,"
And he added three years later: "If these com
munities are only truly attached to the connection
and satisfied of its permanence (and as respects the
latter point, opinions here will be much influenced
by the tone of statesmen at home), elements of
self-defence, not moral elements only, but material
elements Ukewise, wiU spring up within them spon
taneously as the product of movements from within,
not of pressure from without. Two millions of
people in a northern latitude can do a good deal in
the way of helping themselves, when their hearts
are in the right place," Before two decades of years
had passed away, the foresight of these suggestions
was clearly shown, Canada had become a part of a
210

THE QUESTION OF SELF-DEFENCE
British North American confederation, and with
the development of its material resources, the
growth of a national spirit of seU-reUance, the new
Dominion, thus formed, was able to relieve the
parent state of the expenses of self-defence, and
come to her aid many years later when her interests
were threatened in South Africa, If Canada has
been able to do aU this, it has been owing to the
growth of that spirit of self-rehance — of that prin
ciple of self-government — ^which Lord Elgin did his
utmost to encourage. We can then well understand
that Lord Elgin, in 1855, should have contem
plated with some apprehension the prospect of
largely increasing the Canadian garrisons at a time
when Canadians were learning steadily and surely
to cultivate the national habit of depending upon
their own internal resources in their working out of
the political institutions given them by England
after years of agitation, and even suffering, as the
history of the country until 1840 so clearly shows.
It is also easy to understand that Lord Elgin
should have regarded the scheme in contemplation
as likely to create a feeling of doubt and suspicion
as to the motives of the imperial government in
the minds of the people of the United States.
He recalled naturaUy his important visit to that
country, where he had given eloquent expression,
as the representative of the British Crown, to his
sanguine hopes for the continuous amity of peoples
alUed to each other by so many ties of kindred
211

LORD ELGIN
and interest, and had also succeeded after infinite
labour in negotiating a treaty so well calculated to
create a common sympathy between Canada and
the republic, and stimulate that friendly intercourse
which would dispel many national prejudices and
antagonisms which had unhappily arisen between
these communities in the past. The people of the
United States might weU, he felt, see some incon
sistency between such friendly sentiments and the
sending of large military reinforcements to Canada,
In the spring of 1857 Lord Elgin accepted from
Lord Palmerston a delicate mission to China at a
very critical time when the affair of the lorcha
"Arrow" had led to a serious rupture between that
country and Great Britain, According to the British
statement of the case, in October, 1856, the Chinese
authorities at Canton seized the lorcha although it
was registered as a British vessel, tore down the
British flag from its masthead, and carried away
the crew as prisoners. On the other hand the
Chinese claimed that they had arrested the crew,
who were subjects of the emperor, as pirates, that
the British ownership had lapsed some time pre
viously, and that there was no flag flying on the
vessel at the time of its seizure. The British repre
sentatives in China gave no credence to these
explanations but demanded not only a prompt
apology but also the fulfilment of "long evaded
treaty obhgations." When these peremptory de
mands were not at once complied with, the British
212

AID TO THE INDIAN FORCES
proceeded in a very summary manner to blow up
Chinese forts, and commit other acts of war, al
though the Chinese only offered a passive resistance
to these efforts to bring them to terms of abject
submission. Lord Palmerston's government was
condemned in the House of Commons for the
violent measures which had been taken in China,
but he refused to submit to a vote made up, as he
satiricaUy described it, "of a fortuitous concourse
of atoms," and appealed to the country, which sus
tained him. WhUe Lord Elgin was on his way to
China, he heard the news of the great mutiny in
India, and received a letter from Lord Canning,
then governor-general, imploring him to send some
assistance from the troops under his direction. He
at once sent "instructions far and wide to turn
the transports back and give Canning the benefit
of the troops for the moment." It is impossible,
say his contemporaries, to exaggerate the impor
tance of the aid which he so promptly gave at
the most critical time in the Indian situation.
"TeU Lord Elgin," wrote Sir WUliam Peel, the
commander of the famous Naval Brigade at a later
time, "that it was the Chinese expedition which
relieved Lucknow, relieved Cawnpore, and fought
the battle of December 6th." But this patriotic
decision delayed somewhat the execution of Lord
Elgin's mission to China. It was nearly four months
after he had despatched the first Chinese contingent
to the relief of the Indian authorities, that another
213

LORD ELGIN
body of troops arrived in China and he was able to
proceed vigorously to execute the objects of his
visit to the East. After a good deal of fighting and
buUying, Chinese commissioners were induced in
the summer of 1859 to consent to sign the Treaty
of Tientsin, which gave permission to the Queen of
Great Britain to appoint, if she should see fit, an
ambassador who might reside permanently at Pekin,
or visit it occasionally according to the pleasure of
the British government, guaranteed protection to
Protestants and Roman Cathohcs ahke, aUowed
British subjects to travel to all parts of the empire,
under passports signed by British consuls, estab
Ushed favourable conditions for the protection of
trade by foreigners, and indemnified the British
government for the losses that had been sustained
at Canton and for the expenses of the war.
Lord Elgin then paid an official visit to Japan,
where he was well received and succeeded in
negotiating the Treaty of Yeddo, which was a
decided advance on all previous arrangements with
that country, and prepared the way for larger
relations between it and England, On his return to
bring the new treaty to a conclusion, he found
that the commissioners who had gone to obtain
their emperor's full consent to its provisions,
seemed disposed to caU into question some of the
privileges which had been already conceded, and he
was consequently forced to assume that peremptory
tone which experience of the Chinese has shown
214

SECOND MISSION TO CHINA
can alone bring them to understand the fuU meas
ure of their responsibUities in negotiations with a
European power. However, he believed he had
brought his mission to a successful close, and
returned to England in the spring of 1859.
How Uttle interest was taken in those days in
Canadian affairs by British public men and people,
is shown by some comments of Mr. Walrond on
the incidents which signahzed Lord Elgin's return
from China. "When he returned in 1854 from the
government of Canada," this writer naively admits,
" there were comparatively few persons in England
who knew anything of the great work he had done
in the colony. But his brilliant successes in the
East attracted public interest and gave currency to
his reputation." He accepted the position of post
master-general in the administration just formed
by Lord Palmerston, and was elected Lord Rector
of Glasgow; but he had hardly commenced to
study the detaUs of his office, and enjoy the ameni
ties of the social hfe of Great Britain, when he was
again caUed upon by the government to proceed to
the East, where the situation was once more very
critical. The duplicity of the Chinese in their deal
ings with foreigners had soon shown itself after his
departure from China, and he was instructed to go
back as Ambassador Extraordinary to that country,
where a serious rupture had occurred between the
EngUsh and Chinese whUe an expedition of the
former was on its way to Pekin to obtain the
215

LORD ELGIN
formal ratification of the Treaty of Tientsin. Th
French government, which had been a party to tha
treaty, sent forces to cooperate with those of Grea
Britain in obtaining prompt satisfaction for a
attack made by the Chinese troops on the Britis
at the Peiho, the due ratification of the Treaty c
Tientsin, and payment of an indemnity to the alUe
for the expenses of their military operations.
The punishment which the Chinese received fc
their bad faith and treachery was very complett
Yuen-ming-yuen, the emperor's summer palac<
one of the glories of the empire, was leveUed to th
ground as a just retribution for treacherous an
criminal acts committed by the creatures of the eir
peror at the very moment it was beheved that th
negotiations were peacefully terminated. Five da'y
after the burning of the palace, the treaty was fuU
ratified between the emperor's brother and Lor
Elgin, and fuU satisfaction obtained from the irr
perial authorities at Pekin for their shameless dis
regard of their solemn engagements. The mannc
in which the British ambassador discharged th
onerous duties of his mission, met with the wan
approval of Her Majesty's government and when h
was once more in England he was offered by th
prime minister the governor-generalship of Indij
He accepted this great office with a fuU sense c
the arduous responsibihties which it entailed upo
him, and said good-bye to his friends with word
which showed that he had a foreboding that h
216

GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA
might never see them again — words which proved
unhappily to be too true. He went to the discharge
of his duties in India in that spirit of modesty
which was always characteristic of him. "I succeed
ed," he said, "to a great man (Lord Canning) and
a great war, with a humble task to be humbly
discharged." His task was indeed humble compared
with that which had to be performed by his emin
ent predecessors, notably by Earl Canning, who
had estabhshed important reforms in the land
tenure, won the confidence of the feudatories of the
Crown, and reorganized the whole administration
of India after the tremendous upheaval caused by
the mutiny. Lord Elgin, on the other hand, was
the first governor-general appointed directly by the
Queen, and was now subject to the authority of the
secretary of state for India. He could consequently
exercise relatively httle of the powers and responsi
bUities which made previous imperial representatives
so potent in the conduct of Indian affairs. Indeed
he had not been long in India before he was forced
by the Indian secretary to reverse Lord Canning's
wise measure for the sale of a fee-simple tenure
with aU its poUtical as weU as economic advantages.
He was able, however, to carry out loyaUy the wise
and equitable policy of his predecessor towards the
feudatories of England with firmness and dignity
and with good effect for the British government.*
^See article on Lord Elgin in "Encyclopaedia Britannica" (9th ed.),
Vol. VIII., p. 182.
217

LORD ELGIN
In 1863 he decided on making a tour of the
northern parts of India with the object of making
himself personaUy acquainted with the people and
affairs of the empire under his government. It was
during this tour that he held a Durbar or Royal
Court at Agra, which was remarkable even in
India for the display of barbaric wealth and the
assemblage of princes of royal descent. After reach
ing Simla his peaceful administration of Indian
affairs was at last disturbed by the necessity — one
quite clear to him — of repressing an outburst of
certain Nahabee fanatics who dwelt in the upper
vaUey of the Indus. He came to the conclusion
that "the interests both of prudence and humanity
would be best consulted by levelhng a speedy and
decisive blow at this embryo conspiracy." Having
accordingly made the requisite arrangements for
putting down promptly the trouble on the frontier
and preventing the combination of the Mahomme-
dan inhabitants in those regions against the govern
ment, he left Simla and traversed the upper vaUeys
of the Beas, the Ravee, and the ChenaU with the
object of inspecting the tea plantations of that
district and making inquiries as to the possibihty
of trade with Ladak and China. EventuaUy, after
a wearisome journey through a most picturesque
region, he reached Dhurmsala — "the place of
piety" — in the Kangra vaUey, where appeared the
unmistakable symptoms of the fatal malady which
soon caused his death.
218

LAST DAYS
The closing scenes in the Ufe of the statesman
have been described in pathetic terms by his brother-
in-law, Dean Stanley.* The intelligence that the
iUness was mortal "was received with a calmness
and fortitude which never deserted him " through
aU the scenes which foUowed. He displayed "in
equal degrees, and with the most unvarying con
stancy, two of the grandest elements of human
character — unselfish resignation of himself to the
wiU of God, and thoughtful consideration down to
the smaUest particulars, for the interests and feel
ings of others, both pubhc and private." When at
his own request, Lady Elgin chose a spot for his
grave in the little cemetery which stands on the
bluff above the house where he died, "he gently
expressed pleasure when told of the quiet and
beautiful aspect of the place chosen, with the
glorious view of the snowy range towering above,
and the wide prospect of hiU and plain below."
During this fatal Ulness he had the consolation
of the constant presence of his loving wife, whose
courageous spirit enabled her to overcome the
weakness of a deUcate constitution. He died on
November 20th, 1863, and was buried on the
foUowing day beneath the snow-clad Himalayas.^
1 In the "North British Review," quoted by Wahond, pp. 468-461.
2 Lord Elgin's eldest son (9th Earl) Victor Alexander Bruce, who
was bom in 1849, at Monklands, near Montreal, was Viceroy of India
1894-9. See Debrett's Peerage, arts. Elgin and Thurton for particulars
of Lord Elgin's family.
219

LORD ELGIN
If at any time a Canadian should venture to this
quiet station in the Kangra vaUey, let his first
thought be, not of the sublimity of the mountains
which rise far away, but of the grave where rest
the remains of a statesman whose pure unseffish-
ness, whose fidelity to duty, whose tender and
sympathetic nature, whose love of truth and justice,
whose compassion for the weak, whose trust in
God and the teachings of Christ, are human quah-
ties more worthy of the admiration of us all than
the grandest attributes of nature.
None of the distinguished Canadian statesmen
who were members of Lord Elgin's several ad
ministrations from 1847 until 1854, or were then
conspicuous in parliamentary Ufe, now remain to
teU us the story of those eventful years. Mr.
Baldwin died five years before, and Sir Louis
Hypolite LaFontaine three months after the de
cease of the governor-general of India, and in the
roU of their Canadian contemporaries there are
none who have left a fairer record. Mr. Hincks
retired from the legislature of Canada in 1855,
when he accepted the office of governor-in-chief
of Barbadoes and the Windward Islands from
Sir William Molesworth, colonial secretary in Lord
Palmerston's government, and for years an eminent
advocate of a liberal colonial policy. This appoint
ment was weU received throughout British North
America by Mr. Hincks's friends as well as poUtical
opponents, who recognized the many merits of this
220

COLONIAL APPOINTMENTS
able pohtician and administrator. It was considered,
according to the London Times, as "the inaugura
tion of a totally different system of policy from
that which has been hitherto pursued with regard
to our colonies." "It gave some evidence," contin
ued the same paper, "that the more distinguished
among our feUow-subjects in the colonies may feel
that the path of imperial ambition is henceforth
open to them." It was a direct answer to the
appeal which had been so eloquently made on
more than one occasion by the Honourable Joseph
Howe* of Nova Scotia, to extend imperial honours
and offices to distinguished colonists, and not re
serve them, as was too often the case, for Enghsh-
men of inferior merit. "This elevation of Mr.
Hincks to a governorship," said the Montreal
Pilot at the time, "is the most practicable com
ment which can possibly be offered upon the
solemn and sorrowful complaints of Mr. Howe,
anent the neglect with which the colonists are
treated by the imperial government. So sudden,
complete and noble a disclaimer on the part of Her
Majesty's minister for the colonies must have start
led the delegate from Nova Scotia, and we trust
that his turn may not be far distant." Fifteen years
later, Mr. Howe himself became a lieutenant-
governor of Nova Scotia, and an inmate of the very
iSee Mr. Howe's eloquent speeches on the organization of the
empire, in his "Speeches and Public Letters," (Boston, 1859), voL
II., pp. 176-207.
221

LORD ELGIN
government house to which he was not admitted
in the stormy days when he was fighting the battle
of responsible government against Lord Falkland.
Mr. Hincks was subsequently appointed governor
of British Guiana, and at the same time received
a Commandership ofthe Bath as a mark of "Her
Majesty's approval honourably won by very valu
able and continued service in several colonies of the
empire." He retired from the imperial service with
a pension in 1869, when his name was included in
the first list of knights which was submitted to
the Queen on the extension of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George for the express purpose of
giving adequate recognition to those persons in the
colonies who had rendered distinguished service to
the Crown and empire. During his Canadian ad
ministration Lord Elgin had impressed upon the
colonial secretary that it was "very desirable that
the prerogative of the Crown, as the fountain of
honour, should be employed, in so far as this can
properly be done, as a means of attaching the
outlying parts of the empire to the throne." Two
principles ought, he thought, "as a general rule to
be attended to in the distribution of imperial
honours among colonists," Firstly they shoiUd ap
pear "to emanate directly from the Crown, on the
advice, if you will, of the governors and imperial
ministers, but not on the recommendation of the
local executive," Secondly, they "should be confer
red, as much as possible, on the eminent persons
222

SIR FRANCIS HINCKS
who are no longer engaged actively in poUtical
life," The first principle has, generally speaking,
guided the action of the Crown in the distribution
of honours to colonists, though the governors may
receive suggestions from and also consult their
prime ministers when the necessity arises. These
honours, too, are no longer conferred only on men
actively engaged in pubhc life, but on others
eminent in science, education, literature, and other
vocations of life.*
In 1870 Sir Francis Hincks returned to Canadian
public Ufe as finance minister in Sir John Macdon
ald's government, and held the office until 1873,
when he retired altogether from poUtics. Until the
last hours of his Ufe he continued to show that
acuteness of inteUect, that aptitude for pubhc busi
ness, that knowledge of finance and commerce,
which made him so influential in public affairs.
During his public career in Canada previous to
1855, he was the subject of bitter attacks for his
pohtical acts, but nowadays impartial history can
admit that, despite his tendency to commit the
province to heavy expenditures, his energy, enter
prise and financial abUity did good service to the
country at large. He was also attacked as having
used his public position to promote his own pecun
iary interests, but he courted and obtained inquiry
into the most serious of such accusations, and
1 See on this subject Todd's "Parliamentary Government in the
British Colonies," pp. 313-329.
223

LORD ELGIN
although there appears to have been some careless
ness in his connection with various speculations,
and at times an absence of an adequate sense of his
responsibility as a public man, there is no evidence
that he was ever personally corrupt or dishonest.
He devoted the close of his hfe to the writing of his
"Reminiscences," and of several essays on questions
which were great public issues when he was so
prominent in Canadian politics, and although none
of his most ardent admirers can praise them as
literary efforts of a high order, yet they have an
interest so far as they give us some insight into
disputed points of Canada's political history. He
died in 1885 of the dreadful disease small-pox in
the city of Montreal, and the veteran statesman
was carried to the grave without those funeral
honours which were due to one who had fiUed with
distinction so many important positions in the
service of Canada and the Crown. AU his con
temporaries when he was prime minister also Ue in
the grave and have found at last that rest which
was not theirs in the busy, passionate years of their
pubhc Ufe. Sir Allan MacNab, who was a spend
thrift to the very last, lies in a quiet spot beneath
the shades of the oaks and elms which adorn the
lovely park of Dundurn in Hamilton, whose people
have long since forgotten his weaknesses as a man,
and now only recaU his love for the beautiful city
with whose interests he was so long identified, and
his eminent services to Crown and state. George
224

OTHER CONTEMPORARIES
Brown, Hincks's inveterate opponent, continued for
years after the formation of the first Liberal-Con
servative administration, to keep the old province
of Canada in a state of political ferment by his
attacks on French Canada and her institutions until
at last he succeeded in making government prac
tically unworkable, and then suddenly he rose
superior to the spirit of passionate partisanship and
racial bitterness which had so long dominated him,
and decided to aid his former opponents in con
summating that federal union which reUeved old
Canada of her political embarrassment and sectional
strife. His action at that time is his chief claim to
the monument which has been raised in his honour
in the great western city where he was for so many
years a political force, and where the newspaper he
estabhshed still remains at the head of Canadian
journaUsm. The greatest and ablest man among aU who
were notable in Lord Elgin's days in Canada, Sir
John Alexander Macdonald — the greatest not sim
ply as a Canadian politician but as one of the
builders of the British empire — hved to become
one of Her Majesty's Privy CounciUors of Great
Britain, a Grand Cross of the Bath, and prime
minister for twenty-one years of a Canadian con
federation which stretches for 3,500 miles from the
Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. When death at last
forced him from the great position he had so long
occupied with distinction to himself and advantage
225

LORD ELGIN
to Canada, the esteem and affection in which he
was held by the people, whom he had so long
served during a continuous public career of half
a century, were shown by the erection of stately
monuments in five of the principal cities of the
Dominion — an honour never before paid to a colon
ial statesman. The statues of Sir John Macdonald
and Sir Georges Cartier — statues conceived and
executed by the genius of a French Canadian
artist — stand on either side of the noble parUament
building where these statesmen were for years the
most conspicuous figures; and as Canadians of the
present generation survey their bronze effigies, let
them not fail to recall those admirable quaUties
of statesmanship which distinguished them both —
above all their assertion of those principles of com
promise, conciliation and equal rights which have
served to unite the two races in critical times when
the tide of racial and sectional passion and political
demagogism has rushed in a mad torrent against
the walls of the national structure which Canadians
have been so steadily and successfully building for
so many years on the continent of North America.

226

CHAPTER XI
POLITICAL PROGRESS
IN the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to
review — very imperfectly, I am afraid — aU those
important events in the political history of Canada
from 1847 to 1854, which have had the most
potent influence on its material, social, and poUtical
development. Any one who carefully studies the
conditions of the country during that critical period
of Canadian affairs cannot fail to come to the
conclusion that the gradual elevation of Canada
from the depression which was so prevalent for
years in political as weU as commercial matters, to
a position of poUtical strength and industrial pros
perity, was largely owing to the success of the
principles of self-government which Lord Elgin
initiated and carried out while at the head of the
Canadian executive. These principles have been
clearly set forth in his speeches and in his des
patches to the secretary of state for the colonies as
weU as in instructive volumes on the colonial pohcy
of Lord John RusseU's administration by Lord
Grey, the imperial minister who so wisely recom
mended Lord Elgin's appointment as governor-
general. Briefly stated these principles are as
foUows : — 227

LORD ELGIN
That it is neither desirable nor possible to carry
on the government of a province in opposition to
the opinion of its people.
That a governor-general can have no ministers
who do not enjoy the fuU confidence ofthe popular
House, or, in the last resort, of the people.
That the governor-general should not refuse his
consent to any measure proposed by the ministry
unless it is clear that it is of such an extreme party
character that the assembly or people could not
approve of it.
That the governor-general should not identify
himself with any party but make himself "a media
tor and moderator between aU parties."
That colonial communities should be encouraged
to cultivate "a national and manly tone of pohtical
morals," and should look to their own parhaments
for the solution of all problems of provincial gov-
vernment instead of making constant appeals to
the colonial office or to opinion in the mother
country, "always iU-informed, and therefore credu
lous, in matters of colonial poUtics,"
That the governor-general should endeavour to
impart to these rising communities the full ad
vantages of British laws, British institutions, and
British freedom, and maintain in this way the
connection between them and the parent state.
We have seen in previous chapters how indus
triously, patiently, and discreetly Lord Elgin lab
oured to carry out these principles in the adminis-
228

A LETTER TO LORD GREY
tration of his government. In 1849 he risked his
own hfe that he might give fuU scope to the
principles of responsible government with respect
to the adjustment of a question which should be
settled by the Canadian people themselves without
the interference of the parent state, and on the
same ground he impressed on the imperial govern
ment the necessity of giving to the Canadian
legislature fuU control of the settlement of the
clergy reserves. He had no patience with those
who beheved that, in aUowing the colonists to
exercise their right to self-government in matters
exclusively affecting themselves, there was any
risk whatever so far as imperial interests were
concerned. One of his ablest letters was that which
he wrote to Earl Grey as an answer to the unwise
utterances of the prime minister. Lord John Rus
seU, in the course of a speech on the colonies in
which, "amid the plaudits of a full senate, he
declared that he looked forward to the day when
the ties which he was endeavouring to render so
easy and mutuaUy advantageous would be severed."
Lord Elgin held it to be " a perfectly unsound and
most dangerous theory, that British colonies could
not attain maturity without separation," and in this
connection he quoted the language of Mr. Baldwin
to whom he had read that part of Lord John Rus
seU's speech to which he took such strong exception.
"For myself," said the eminent Canadian, "if the
anticipations therein expressed prove to be weU
229

LORD ELGIN
founded, my interest in pubhc affairs is gone for
ever. But is it not hard upon us while we are labour
ing, 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 between them and the prime minister of
England is only one of time? If the British govern
ment has reaUy come to the conclusion that we are
a burden to be cast off, whenever a favourable
opportunity offers, surely we ought to be warned."
In Lord Elgin's opinion, based on a thorough study
of colonial conditions, if the Canadian or any other
system of government was to be successful, British
statesmen must "renounce the habit of telUng the
colonies that the colonial is a provisional existence."
They should be taught to believe that "without
severing the bonds which unite them to England,
they may attain the degree of perfection, and of
social and pohtical development to which organized
communities of free men have a right to aspire."
The true pohcy in his judgment was "to throw the
whole weight of responsibility on those who exer
cise the real power, for after aU, the sense of
responsibihty is the best security against the abuse
of power ; and as respects the connection, to act and
speak on this hypothesis — that there is nothing in it
to check the development of healthy national Ufe
in these young communities." He was "possessed,"
he used the word advisedly, "with the idea that it
was possible to maintain on the soil of North
230

POWER OF THE GOVERNOR- GENERAL
America, and in the face of Republican America,
British connection and British institutions, if you
give the latter freely and trustingly." The history
of Canada from the day those words were penned
down to the beginning of the twentieth century
proves their political wisdom. Under the inspiring
influence of responsible government Canada has de
veloped in 1902, not into an independent nation, as
predicted by Lord John RusseU and other British
statesmen after him, but into a confederation of
five milUons and a half of people, in which a French
Canadian prime minister gives expression to the
dominant idea not only of his own race but of aU
nationaUties within the Dominion, that the true
interest Ues not in the severance but in the con
tinuance of the ties that have so long bound them
to the imperial state.
Lord Elgin in his valuable letters to the imperial
authorities, always impressed on them the fact that
the office of a Canadian governor-general has not
by any means been lowered to that of a mere
subscriber of orders-in-council — of a mere official
automaton, speaking and acting by the orders of
the prime minister and the cabinet. On the con
trary, he gave it as his experience that in Jamaica,
where there was no responsible government, he had
"not half the power" he had in Canada "with a
constitutional and changing cabinet," With respect
to the maintenance of the position and due influ
ence of the governor, he used language which gives
281

LORD ELGIN
a true solution of the problem involved in the
adaptation of parhamentary government to the
colonial system, "As the imperial government and
parliament gradually withdraw from legislative
interference, and from the exercise of patronage
in colonial affairs, the office of governor tends to
become, in the most emphatic sense of the term,
the hnk which connects the mother country and
the colony, and his influence the means by which
harmony of action between the local and imperial
authorities is to be preserved. It is not, however, in
my humble judgment, by evincing an anxious
desire to stretch to the utmost constitutional prin
ciples in his favour, but, on the contrary, by the
frank acceptance of the conditions of the parlia
mentary system, that this influence can be most
surely extended and confirmed. Placed by his posi
tion above the strife of parties — holding office by a
tenure less precarious than the ministers who sur
round him — having no political interests to serve
but those of the community whose affairs he is ap
pointed to administer — his opinion cannot fail, when
aU cause for suspicion and jealousy is removed, to
have great weight in colonial councils, while he is
set at Uberty to constitute himself in an especial
manner the patron of those larger and higher inter
ests — such interests, for example, as those of educa
tion, and of moral and material progress in aU its
branches — which, unlike the contests of party, unite
instead of dividing the members of the body pohtic."
232

RESULTS OF HIS POLICY
As we study the poUtical history of Canada for
the fifty years which have elapsed since Lord Elgin
enunciated in his admirable letters to the imperial
government the principles which guided him in his
Canadian administration, we cannot fail to see
clearly that responsible government has brought
about the following results, which are at once a
guarantee of efficient home government and of
a harmonious cooperation between the dependency
and the central authority of the empire.
The misunderstandings that so constantly occur
red between the legislative bodies and the imperial
authorities, on account of the latter faihng so often
to appreciate fully the nature of the political griev
ances that agitated the pubhc mind, and on account
of their constant interference in matters which
should have been left exclusively to the control of
the people directly interested, have been entirely
removed in conformity with the wise policy of
making Canada a self-governing country in the fuU
sense of the phrase. These provinces are as a conse
quence no longer a source of irritation and danger
to the parent state, but, possessing fuU independence
in aU matters of local concern, are now among the
chief sources of England's pride and greatness.
The governor-general instead of being constantly
brought into conflict with the political parties of
the country, and made immediately responsible for
the continuance of public grievances, has gained in
dignity and influence since he has been removed
233

LORD ELGIN •
from the arena of pubhc controversy. He now
occupies a position in harmony with the principles
that have given additional strength and prestige to
the throne itself As the legally accredited repre
sentative of the sovereign, as the recognized head
of society, he represents what Bagehot has aptly
styled "the dignified part of our constitution,"
which has much value in a country hke ours where
we fortunately retain the permanent form of mon
archy in harmony with the democratic machinery
of our government. If the governor-general is a
man of parhamentary experience and constitutional
knowledge, possessing tact and judgment, and
imbued with the true spirit of his high vocation —
and these high functionaries have been notably so
since the commencement of confederation — he can
sensibly influence, in the way Lord Elgin points
out, the course of administration and benefit the
country at critical periods of its history. Standing
above aU party, having the unity of the empire at
heart, a governor-general can at times soothe the
public mind, and give additional confidence to the
country, when it is threatened with some national
calamity, or there is distrust abroad as to the
future. As an imperial officer he has large responsi
bilities of which the general public has naturally
no very clear idea, and if it were possible to obtain
access to the confidential and secret despatches
which seldom see the hght in the colonial office —
certainly not in the lifetime of the men who wrote
234

A TRIBUTE
them — it woiUd be found how much, for a quarter
of a century past, the colonial department has
gained by having had in the Dominion, men, no
longer acting under the influence of personal feel
ing through being made personaUy responsible for
the conduct of public affairs, but actuated simply
by a desire to benefit the country over which they
preside, and to bring Canadian interests into union
with those of the empire itself.
The effects on the character of pubhc men and
on the body pohtic have been for the pubhc advan
tage. It has brought out the best quaUties of
colonial statesmanship, lessened the influence of
mere agitators and demagogues, and taught our
pubhc men to rely on themselves in all crises
affecting the welfare and integrity of the country.
Responsible government means self-rehance, the
capacity to govern ourselves, the abihty to buUd up
a great nation.
When we review the trials and struggles of the
past that we may gain from them lessons of con
fidence for the future, let us not forget to pay a
tribute to the men who have laid the foundations
of these communities, stiU on the threshold of their
development, and on whom the great burden feU;
to the French Canadians who, despite the neglect
and indifference of their kings, amid toU and
privation, amid war and famine, built up a province
which they have made their own by their patience
and industry, and who should, differ as we may
235

LORD ELGIN
from them, evoke our respect for their fidehty to
the institutions of their origin, for their appreciation
of the advantages of English self-government, and
for their cooperation in aU great measures essential
to the unity of the federation ; to the Loyalists of
last century who left their homes for the sake of
"king and country," and laid the foundations of
prosperous and loyal English communities by the
sea and by the great lakes, and whose descendants
have ever stood true to the principles of the institu
tions which have made Britain free and great ; to
the unknown body of pioneers some of whose
names perhaps stiU Unger on a headland or river or
on a neglected gravestone, who let in the sunlight
year by year to the dense forests of these countries,
and built up by their industry the large and thriv
ing provinces of this Dominion ; above aU, to the
statesmen — Elgin, Baldwin, LaFontaine, Morin,
Howe, and many others — who laid deep and firm,
beneath the political structure of this confederation,
those principles of self-government which give
harmony to our constitutional system and bring
out the best qualities of an intelligent people. In
the early times in which they struggled they had
to bear much obloquy, and their errors of judgment
have been often severely arraigned at the bar of
public opinion ; many of them hved long enough to
see how soon men may pass into oblivion ; but we
who enjoy the benefit of their earnest endeavours,
now that the voice of the party passion of their
236

THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM
times is hushed, should never forget that, though
they are not here to reap the fruit of their labours,
their work survives in the energetic and hopeful
communities which stretch from Cape Breton to
Victoria.

287

CHAPTER XII
A COMPARISON OF SYSTEMS
IN one of Lord Elgin's letters we are told that,
when he had as visitors to government house
in 1850, Sir Henry Bulwer, the elder brother of
Lord Lytton, and British minister to the United
States, as weU as Sir Edmund Head, his successor
in the governorship of Canada, he availed himself
of so favourable an opportunity of reassuring them
on many points of the internal pohcy of the pro
vince on which they were previously doubtful, and
gave them some insight into the position of men
and things on which Englishmen in those days
were too ignorant as a rule. One important point
which he impressed upon them— as he hoped suc
cessfuUy — was this: "That the faithful carrying
out of the principles of constitutional government
is a departure from the American model, not an
approximation to it, and, therefore, a departure
from republicanism in its only workable shape."
The fact was : "The American system is our old
colonial system, with, in certain cases, the principle
of popular election substituted for that of nomina
tion by the Crown." He was convinced "that the
concession of constitutional government has a tend
ency to draw the colonists" towards England and
239

LORD ELGIN
not towards republicanism ; "firstly, because it
slakes that thirst for self-government which seizes
on all British communities when they approach
maturity ; and secondly because it habituates the
colonists to the working of a political mechanism
which is both intrinsically superior to that of the
Americans, and more unlike it than our old colonial
system." In short, he felt very strongly that "when
a people have been once thoroughly accustomed to
the working of such a parliamentary system as ours
they never wiU consent to resort to this irrespon
sible mechanism."
Since these significant words were written half a
century ago, Canadians have been steadily working
out the principles of parliamentary government as
understood and explained by Lord Elgin, and have
had abundant opportunities of contrasting their
experiences with those of their neighbours under a
system in many respects the very reverse of that
which has enabled Canada to attain so large a
measure of political freedom and build up such
prosperous communities to the north of the repub
lic, while StiU remaining in the closest possible touch
with the imperial state. I propose now to close this
book with some comparisons between the respective
systems of the two countries, and to show that in
this respect as in others Lord Elgin proved how
deep was his insight into the working of political
institutions, and how thoroughly he had mastered
the problem of the best methods of administering
240

THE STRENGTH OF CONSTITUTIONS
the government of a great colonial dependency, not
solely with a regard to its own domestic interests
but with a view of maintaining the connection with
the British Crown, of which he was so discreet and
able a servant.
It is especially important to Canadians to study
the development of the institutions of the United
States, with the view of deriving benefit from their
useful experiences, and avoiding the defects that
have grown up under their system. All institutions
are more or less on trial in a country Uke Canada,
which is working out great problems of political
science under decided advantages, since the ground
is relatively new, and the people have before them
aU the experiences of the world, especiaUy of
England and the United States, in whose systems
Canadians have naturaUy the deepest interest. The
history of responsible government affords another
illustration of a truth which stands out clear in the
history of nations, that those constitutioHs which
are of a flexible character, the natural growth
of the experiences of centuries, and which have
been created by the necessities and conditions of
the times, possess the elements of real stability,
and best ensure the prosperity of a people. The
great source of the strength of the institutions of
the United States lies in the fact that they have
worked out their government in accordance with
certain principles, which are essentially EngUsh in
their origin, and have been naturaUy developed
241

LORD ELGIN
since their foundation as colonial settlements, and
whatever weaknesses their system shows have chiefly
arisen from new methods, and from the rigidity of
their constitutional rules of law, which separate too
sharply the executive and the legislative branches of
government. Like their neighbours the Canadian
people have based their system on EngUsh prin
ciples, but they have at the same time been able to
keep pace with the progress of the unwritten con
stitution of England, to adapt it to their own
political conditions, and to bring the executive and
legislative authorities to assist and harmonize with
one another.
Each country has its "cabinet council," but the
one is essentiaUy different from the other in its
character and functions. This term, the historical
student wiU remember, was first used in the days of
the Stuarts as one of derision and obloquy. It was
frequently caUed "junto" or "cabal," and during
the days of conflict between the commons and the
king it was regarded with great disfavour by the
parliament of England. Its unpopularity arose from
the fact that it did not consist of men in whom
parliament had confidence, and its proceedings were
conducted with so much secrecy that it was impos
sible to decide upon whom to fix responsibility for
any obnoxious measure. When the constitution of
England was brought back to its original principles,
and harmony was restored between the Crown and
the parliament, the cabinet became no longer a
242

THE CABINET
term of reproach, but a position therein was re
garded as the highest honour in the country, and
was associated with the efficient administration of
pubhc affairs, since it meant a body of men respon
sible to parliament for every act of government.*
The old executive councUs of Canada were obnox
ious to the people for the same reason that the
councUs of the Stuarts, and even of George III,
with the exception of the regime of the two Pitts,
became unpopular. Not only do we in Canada, in
accordance with our desire to perpetuate the names
of English institutions use the name " cabinet "
which was applied to an institution that gradually
grew out of the old privy councU of England, but
we have even incorporated in our fundamental law
the older name of "privy council," which itself
sprang from the original "permanent" or "con
tinual" council of the Norman kings. FoUowing
EngUsh precedent, the Canadian cabinet or ministry
is formed out of the privy counciUors, chosen under
the law by the governor-general, and when they
retire from office they still retain the purely honor
ary distinction. In the United States the use of
the term "cabinet" has none of the significance it
has with us, and if it can be compared at all to any
EngUsh institutions it might be to the old cabinets
who acknowledged responsibility to the king, and
were only so many heads of departments in the
iSee Todd's "Parliamentary Government in England," vol. II.,
p. 101.
243

LORD ELGIN
king's government. As a matter of fact the com
parison would be closer if we said that the adminis
tration resembles the cabinets of the old French
kings, or to quote Professor Bryce, "the group of
ministers who surround the Czar or the Sultan, or
who executed the bidding of a Roman emperor
like Constantine or Justinian." Such ministers hke
the old executive councils of Canada, "are severaUy
responsible to their master, and are severally caUed
in to counsel him, but they have not necessarUy
any relations with one another, nor any duty or
coUective action." Not only is the administration
conducted on the principle of responsibility to the
president alone, in this respect the English king in
old irresponsible days, but the legislative depart
ment is itself constructed after the English model
as it existed a century ago, and a general system of
government is established, lacking in that unity
and elasticity which are essential to its effective
working. On the other hand the Canadian cabinet
is the cabinet of the English system of modern
times and is formed so as to work in harmony with
the legislative department, which is a copy, so far
as possible, of the English legislature.
The special advantages of the Canadian or Eng
Ush system of parliamentary government, compared
with congressional government, may be briefly
summed up as follows : —
(1) The governor-general, his cabinet, and the
popular branch of the legislature are governed in
244

THE UNWRITTEN CONSTITUTION
Canada, as in England, by a system of rules, con
ventions and understandings which enable them to
work in harmony with one another. The Crown, the
cabinet, the legislature, and the people, have respec
tively certain rights and powers which, when prop
erly and constitutionally brought into operation,
give strength and elasticity to our system of govern
ment. Dismissal of a ministry by the Crown under
conditions of gravity, or resignation of a ministry
defeated in the popular House, bring into play the
prerogatives of the CroviTi. In all cases there must
be a ministry to advise the Crown, assume responsi
bihty for its acts, and obtain the support of the
people and their representatives in parliament. As
a last resort to bring into harmony the people, the
legislature, and the Crown, there is the exercise
of the supreme prerogative of dissolution, A gov
ernor, acting always under the advice of responsible
ministers, may, at any time, generally speaking,
grant an appeal to the people to test their opinion
on vital pubhc questions and bring the legislature
into accord with the pubhc mind. In short, the
fundamental principle of popular sovereignty Ues
at the very basis of the Canadian system.
On the other hand, in the United States, the
president and his cabinet may be in constant
conflict with the two Houses of Congress during
the four years of his terra of office. His cabinet has
no direct influence with the legislative bodies,
inasmuch as they have no seats therein. The politi-
245

LORD ELGIN
cal complexion of congress does not affect their
tenure of office, since they depend only on the
favour and approval of the executive ; dissolution,
which is the safety valve of the Enghsh or Can
adian system — "in its essence an appeal from the
legal to the political sovereign" — is not practicable
under the United States constitution. In a poUtical
crisis the constitution provides no adequate solution
of the difficulty during the presidential term. In
this respect the people of the United States are not
sovereign as they are in Canada under the con
ditions just briefly stated.
(2) The governor -general is not personally
brought into coUision with the legislature by the
direct exercise of a veto of its legislative acts, since
the ministry is responsible for aU legislation and
must stand or fall by its important measures.
The passage of a measure of which it disap
proved as a ministry would mean in the majority
of cases a resignation, and it is not possible to
suppose that the governor would be asked to exer
cise a prerogative of the Crown which has been in
disuse since the establishment of responsible gov
ernment and would now be a revolutionary measure
even in Canada.
In the United States there is danger of frequent
coUision between the president and the two legisla
tive branches, should a very critical exercise of the
veto, as in President Johnson's time, occur at a
time when the public mind was deeply agitated. The
246

FUNCTIONS OF THE CABINET
chief magistrate loses in dignity and influence
whenever the legislature overrides the veto, and
congress becomes a despotic master for the time
being. (3) The Canadian minister, having control of
the finances and taxes and of aU matters of admin
istration, is directly responsible to parliament and
sooner or later to the people for the manner in
which pubhc functions have been discharged. AU
important measures are initiated by the cabinet,
and on every question of pubhc interest the minis
ters are bound to have a definite pohcy if they wish
to retain the confidence of the legislature. Even in
the case of private legislation they are also the
guardians of the pubhc interests and are responsible
to the parUament and the people for any neglect in
particular. On the other hand in the United States the
financial and general legislation of congress is left
to the control of committees, over which the presi
dent and his cabinet have no direct influence, and
the chairman of which may have ambitious objects
in direct antagonism to the men in office.
(4) In the Canadian system the speaker is a
functionary who certainly has his party proclivities,
but it is felt that as long as he occupies the chair
all political parties can depend on his justice and
impartiahty. Responsible government makes the
premier and his ministers responsible for the consti
tution of the committees and for the opinions
247

LORD ELGIN
and decisions that may emanate from them. A
government that would constantly endeavour to
shift its responsibilities on committees, even of
its own selection, would soon disappear from the
treasury benches. Responsibility in legislation is
accordingly ensured, financial measures prevented
from being made the footballs of ambitious and
irresponsible politicians, and the impartiahty and
dignity of the speakership guaranteed by the pres
ence in parliament of a cabinet having the direction
and supervision of business.
On the other hand, in the United States, the
speaker of the House of Representatives becomes,
from the very force of circumstances, a pohtical
leader, and the spectacle is presented — in fact from
the time of Henry Clay-^so strange to us famihar
with English methods, of decisions given by him
with clearly party objects, and of committees
formed by him with purely political aims, as hkely
as not with a view to thwart the ambition either of
a president who is looking to a second term or of
some prominent member of the cabinet who has
presidential aspirations. And aU this lowering of
the dignity of the chair is due to the absence of
a responsible minister to lead the House. The very
position which the speaker is forced to take from
time to time — notably in the case of Mr. Reed* — ^is
clearly the result of the defects in the constitutional
^ He was speaker of the House of Representatives from 1896 to
1899. 248

FOREIGN TREATIES
system of the United States, and is so much evi
dence that a responsible party leader is an absolute
necessity in congress. A legislature must be led,
and congress has been attempting to get out of
a crucial difficulty by all sorts of questionable shifts
which only show the inherent weakness of the
existing system.
In the absence of any provision for the unity of
poUcy between the executive and legislative authori
ties of the United States, it is impossible for any
nation to have a positive guarantee that a treaty it
may negotiate with the former can be ratified. The
sovereign of Great Britain enters into treaties with
foreign powers with the advice and assistance of
his constitutional advisers, who are immediately
responsible to parliament for their counsel in such
matters. In theory it is the prerogative of the Crown
to make a treaty; in practice it is that of the minis
try. It is not constitutionaUy imperative to refer
such treaties to parliament for its approval — the
consent of the Crown is sufficient ; but it is some
times done under exceptional circumstances, as in
the case of the cession of Hehgoland. In any event
the action of the ministry in the matter is invariably
open to the review of parliament, and the ministry
may be censured by an adverse vote for the advice
given to the sovereign, and forced to retire from
office. In the United States the senate must ratify
all treaties by a two-thirds vote, but unless there is
a majority in that House of the same poUtical
249

LORD ELGIN
complexion as the president the treaty may be
refused. No cabinet minister is present to lead the
House, as in England, and assume aU the responsi
bility of the president's action. It is almost im
possible to suppose that an English ministry would
consent to a treaty that would be unpopular in
parliament and the country. The existence of the
government would depend on its action. In the
United States both president and senate have
divided responsibilities. The constitution makes no
provision for unity in such important matters of
national coligation.
The great advantages of the EngUsh, or Can
adian, system he in the interest created among aU
classes of the people by the discussions of the
different legislative bodies. Parhamentary debate
involves the fate of cabinets, and the public mind
is consequently led to study all issues of import
ance. The people know and feel that they must be
caUed upon sooner or later to decide between the
parties contending on the floor of the legislature,
and consequently are obliged to give an intelligent
consideration to pubhc affairs. Let us see what
Bagehot, ablest of critics, says on this point : — ¦
"At present there is business in their attention
(that is to say, of the English or Canadian people).
They assist at the determining crisis ; they assist or
help it. Whether the government wiU go out or
remain is determined by the debate and by the
division in parhament. And the opinion out of
250

AN OPINION FROM BAGEHOT
doors, the secret pervading disposition of society,
has a great influence on that division. The nation
feels that its judgment is important, and it strives
to judge. It succeeds in deciding because the
debates and the discussions give it the facts and
arguments. But under the presidential government
the nation has, except at the electing moment,
no influence ; it has not the ballot-box before it ; its
virtue is gone and it must wait tiU its instant of
despotism again returns. There are doubtless de
bates in the legislature, but they are prologues
without a play. The prize of power is not in the
gift of the legislature. No presidential country needs
to form daily deUcate opinions, or is helped in
forming them."
Then when the people do go to the baUot-box,
they cannot inteUigently influence the pohcy of
the government. If they vote for a president, then
congress may have a pohcy quite different from
his ; if they vote for members of congress, they can
not change the opinions of the president. If the
president changes his cabinet at any time, they have
nothing to say about it, for its members are not
important as wheels in the legislative machinery.
Congress may pass a biU of which the people
express their disapproval at the first opportunity
when they choose a new congress, but stiU it may
remain on the statute-book because the senate
holds views different from the newly elected House,
and cannot be poUticaUy changed until after a long
251

LORD ELGIN
series of legislative elections. As Professor Wood-
row Wilson weU puts it in an able essay: — *
"Pubhc opinion has no easy vehicle for its judg
ments, no quick channels for its action. Nothing
about the system is direct and simple. Authority is
perplexingly subdivided and distributed, and re
sponsibihty has to be hunted down in out-of-the-
way corners. So that the sum of the whole matter
is that the means of working for the fruits of good
government are not readily to be found. The aver
age citizen may be excused for esteeming govern
ment at best but a haphazard affair upon which his
vote and aU his influence can have but httle effect.
How is his choice of representative in congress to
affect the policy of the country as regards the ques
tions in which he is most interested if the man for
whom he votes has no chance of getting on the
standing committee which has virtual charge of
those questions ? How is it to make any difference
who is chosen president? Has the president any
great authority in matters of vital policy ? It seems
a thing of despair to get any assurance that any
vote he may cast will even in an infinitesimal
degree affect the essential courses of administration.
There are so many cooks mixing their ingredients
in the national broth that it seems hopeless, this
thing of changing one cook at a time,"
Under such a system it cannot be expected that
the people will take the same deep interest in elec-
1 "Congressional Government," pp. 301, 332.
252

AN INCENTIVE TO PUBLIC MEN
tions and feel as directly responsible for the charac-
acter of the government as when they can at one
election and by one verdict decide the fate of a
government, whose policy on great issues must be
thoroughly explained to them at the poUs. This
method of popular government is more real and
substantial than a system which does not aUow the
people to influence congressional legislation and
administrative action through a set of men sitting
in congress and having a common policy.
I think it does not require any very elaborate
argument to show that when men feel and know
that the abihty they show in parliament may be
sooner or later rewarded by a seat on the treasury
benches, and that they wiU then have a determin
ing voice in the government of the country, be it
dominion or province, they must be stimulated by
a keener interest in public life, a closer watchful
ness over legislation and administration, a greater
readiness for discussing all public questions, and a
more studied appreciation of public opinion outside
the legislative halls. Every man in parliament is a
premier in posse. While asking my readers to recaU
what I have already said as to the effect of respon
sible government on the pubhc men and people
of Canada, I shaU also here refer them to some
authorities worthy of aU respect.
Mr, Bagehot says with his usual clearness : — *
"To belong to a debating society adhering to an
a " The English Constitution," pp. 96, 96.
253

LORD ELGIN
executive (and this is no inapt description of a con
gress under a presidential constitution) is not an
object to stir a noble ambition, and is a position to
encourage idleness. The members of a parUament
excluded from office can never be comparable,
much less equal, to those of a parUament not
excluded from office. The presidential government
by its nature divides political hfe into two halves,
an executive half and a legislative half, and by so
dividing it, makes neither half worth a man's hav
ing — ^worth his making it a continuous career —
worthy to absorb, as cabinet government absorbs,
his whole soul. The statesmen from whom a nation
chooses under a presidential system are much infer
ior to those from whom it chooses under a cabinet
system, while the selecting apparatus is also far less
discerning." An American writer. Prof, Denslow,* does not
hesitate to express the opinion very emphaticaUy
that "as it is, in no country do the people feel such
an overwhelming sense of the Uttleness of the men
in charge of pubhc affairs " as in the United States.
And in another place he dweUs on the fact that
"responsible government educates office-holders into
a high and honourable sense of their accountabUity
to the people," and makes "statesmanship a per
manent pursuit foUowed by a skilled class of men,"
Prof, Woodrow WUson says that,^ so far from men
* In the International Review, March, 1877.
* "Congressional Government," p. 94.
254

PROFESSOR BRYCE'S OPINION
being trained to legislation by congressional gov
ernment, "independence and ability are repressed
under the tyranny of the rules, and practicaUy the
favour of the popular branch of congress is concen
trated in the speaker and a few — very few — expert
parliamentarians." Elsewhere he shows that "re
sponsibihty is spread thin, and no vote or debate can
gather it." As a matter of fact and experience, he
comes to the conclusion "the more power is divided
the more irresponsible it becomes and the petty
character of the leadership of each committee con
tributes towards making its despotism sure by
making its duties interesting."
Professor James Bryce, it wUl be admitted, is one
of the fairest of critics in his review of the institu
tions of the United States; but he, too, comes to the
conclusion* that the system of congressional gov
ernment destroys the unity of the House (of repre
sentatives) as a legislative body ; prevents the capa
city of the best members from being brought to
bear upon any one piece of legislation, however
important ; cramps debate ; lessens the cohesion
and harmony of legislation ; gives facUities for the
exercise of underhand and even corrupt influence;
reduces responsibihty; lowers the interest of the
nation in the proceedings of congress.
In another place,^ after considering the relations
between the executive and the legislature, he ex-
1 "The American Commonwealth," I., 210 et seq.
^Ibid., pp. 304, 305.
255

LORD ELGIN
presses his opinion that the framers of the con
stitution have "so narrowed the sphere of the
executive as to prevent it from leading the country,
or even its own party in the country." They
endeavoured "to make members of congress inde
pendent, but in doing so they deprived them of
some of the means which European legislators
enjoy of learning how to administer, of learning
even how to legislate in administrative topics. They
condemned them to be architects without science,
critics Avithout experience, censors without responsi
bUity." And further on, when discussing the faults of
democratic government in the United States — and
Professor Bryce, we must remember, is on the
whole most hopeful of its future — he detects as
amongst its characteristics "a certain commonness
of mind and tone, a want of dignity and elevation
in and about the conduct of public affairs, and
insensibUity to the nobler aspects and finer respon
sibUities of national life," Then he goes on to
say* that representative and parUamentary system
" provides the means of mitigating the evUs to be
feared from ignorance or haste, for it vests the
actual conduct of affairs in a body of speciaUy
chosen and presumably qualified men, who may
themselves intrust such of their functions as need
peculiar knowledge or skiU to a smaUer governing
body or bodies selected in respect of their more
^Ibid., Chap. 96, vol. III.
256

THE AMERICAN SYSTEM
eminent fitness. By this method the defects of
democracy are remedied while its strength is re
tained," The members of American legislatures,
being disjoined from the administrative offices,
"are not chosen for their abUity or experience; they
are not much respected or trusted, and finding
nothing exceptional expected from them, they be
have as ordinary men,"
"If corruption," wrote Judge Story, that astute
poUtical student, "ever silently eats its way into
the vitals of this Repubhc, it wUl be because the
people are unable to bring responsibUity home to
the executive through his chosen ministers,"*
As I have already stated in the first pages of this
chapter, long before the inherent weaknesses of the
American system were pointed out by the eminent
authorities just quoted, Lord Elgin was able, with
that intuitive sagacity which he appUed to the
study of political institutions, to see the unsatisfac
tory working ofthe clumsy, irresponsible mechanism
of our republican neighbours.
"Mr, FUlmore," he is writing in November, 1850,
"stands to his congress very much in the same rela
tion in which I stood to my assembly in Jamaica.
There is the same absence of effective responsibUity
in the conduct of legislation, the same want of
concurrent action between the parts of the pohtical
machine. The whole business of legislation in the
American congress, as weU as in the state legisla-
1 "Commentaries," sec. 869.
257

LORD ELGIN
tures, is conducted in the manner in which raUway
business was conducted in the House of Commons at
a time when it is to be feared that, notwithstanding
the high standard of honour in the British parUa
ment, there was a good deal of jobbing. For
instance, our reciprocity measure was pressed by us
at Washington last session just as a raUway bUl
in 1845 or 1846 would have been pressed in parha
ment. There was no government to deal with. The
interests of the union as a whole, distinct from local
and sectional interests, had no organ in the repre
sentative bodies ; it was aU a question of canvassing
this member of congress or the other. It is easy to
perceive that, under such a system, jobbing must
become not the exception but the rule," — remarks
as true in 1901 as in 1850.
It is important also to dweU on the fact that in
Canada the permanency of the tenure of pubhc
officials and the introduction of the secret baUot
have been among the results of responsible govern
ment. Through the influence and agency of the
same system, valuable reforms have been made in
Canada in the election laws, and the trial of contro
verted elections has been taken away from partisan
election committees and given to a judiciary inde
pendent of pohtical influences. In these matters the
irresponsible system of the United States has not
been able to effect any needful reforms. Such
measures can be best carried by ministers having
the initiation and direction of legislation and must
258

GOVERNMENT BY PARTY
necessarily be retarded when power is divided
among several authorities having no unity of pohcy
on any question.
Party government undoubtedly has its dangers
arising from personal ambition and unscrupulous
partisanship, but as long as men must range them
selves in opposing camps on every subject, there is
no other system practicable by which great ques
tions can be carried and the working of representa
tive government efficiently conducted. The framers
of the constitution of the United States no doubt
thought they had succeeded in placing the president
and his officers above party when they instituted
the method of electing the former by a body of
select electors chosen for that purpose in each state,
who were expected to act irrespective of aU poUtical
considerations. A president so selected would prob
ably choose his officers also on the same basis. The
practical results, however, have been to prove that
in every country of popular and representative
institutions party government must prevail. Party
elects men to the presidency and to the floor of the
Senate and House of Representatives, and the
election to those important positions is directed and
controUed by a poUtical machinery far exceeding in
its completeness any party organization in England
or in Canada. The party convention is now the aU
important portion of the machinery for the election
of the president, and the safeguard provided by the
constitution for the choice of the best man is a
259

LORD ELGIN
mere nuUity. One thing is quite certain, that party
government under the direction of a responsible
ministry, responsible to parliament and the people
for every act of administration and legislation, can
have far less dangerous tendencies than a party
system which elects an executive not amenable to
public opinion for four years, divides the responsi
bihties of government among several authorities,
prevents harmony among party leaders, does not
give the executive that control over legislation
necessary to efficient administration of pubhc
affairs, and in short offers a direct premium to
conflict among all the authorities of the state — a
conflict, not so much avoided by the checks and
balances of the constitution as by the patiencCj
common sense, prudence, and respect for law
which presidents and their cabinets have as a rule
shown at national crises. But we can clearly see
that, while the executive has lost in influence,
congress has gained steadUy to an extent never
contemplated by the founders of the constitution,
and there are thoughtful men who say that the
true interests of the country have not always been
promoted by the change. Party government in
Canada ensures unity of policy, since the premier of
the cabinet becomes the controUing part of the
political machinery of the state ; no such thing as
unity of policy is possible under a system which
gives the president neither the dignity of a gov
ernor-general, nor the strength of a premier, and
260

THE CANADIAN SYSTEM
sphts up political power among any number of
would-be party leaders, who adopt or defeat meas
ures by private intrigues, make irresponsible recom
mendations, and form political combinations for
purely selfish ends.*
It seems quite clear then that the system of
responsible ministers makes the people more im
mediately responsible for the efficient administration
of public affairs than is possible in the United
States. The fact of having the president and the
members of congress elected for different terms,
and of dividing the responsibilities of government
among these authorities does not aUow the people
to exercise that direct influence which is ensured, as
the experience of Canada and of England proves,
by making one body of men immediately respon
sible to the electors for the conduct of public affairs
at frequently recurring periods, arranged by weU un
derstood rules, so as to ensure a correct expression
of pubUc opinion on aU important issues. The com
mittees which assist in governing this country are
the choice of the people's representatives assembled
in parhament, and every four or five years and some
times even sooner in case of a crisis, the people have
to decide on the wisdom of the choice.
The system has assuredly its drawbacks like aU
systems of government that have been devised and
worked out by the brain of man. In aU frankness I
confess that this review would be incomplete were
iggg story's "Commentaries," sec. 869.
261

LORD ELGIN
I not to refer to certain features of the Canadian
system of government which seem to me on the
surface fraught with inherent danger at some time
or other to independent legislative judgment. Any
one who has closely watched the evolution of this
system for years past must admit that there is a
dangerous tendency in the Dominion to give the
executive — I mean the ministry as a body — too
superior a control over the legislative authority.
When a ministry has in its gift the appointment
not only of the heads of the executive government
in the provinces, that is to say, of the Ueutenant-
governors, who can be dismissed by the same power
at any moment, but also of the members of the
Upper House of Parhament itself, besides the
judiciary and numerous coUectorships and other
valuable offices, it is quite obvious that the element
of human ambition and seffishness has abundant
room for operation on the floor of the legislature,
and a bold and skilful cabinet is also able to wield
a machinery very potent under a system of party
government. In this respect the House of Repre
sentatives may be less hable to insidious influences
than a House of Commons at critical junctures
when individual conscience or independent judg
ment appeairs on the point of asserting itself. The
House of Commons may be made by skUful party
management a mere recording or registering body
of an able and determined cabinet. I see less Ua-
bUity to such sUent though potent influences in
262

A COMPARISON
a system which makes the president and a House of
Representatives to a large degree independent of
each other, and leaves his important nominations to
office under the control of the senate, a body which
has no analogy whatever with the relatively weak
branch of the Canadian parUament, essentiaUy weak
whUe its membership depends on the government
itself I admit at once that in the financial de
pendence of the provinces on the central federal
authority, in the tenure of the office of the chief
magistrates of the provinces, in the control exer
cised by the ministry over the highest legislative
body of Canada, that is, highest in point of dignity
and precedence, there are elements of weakness ;
but at the same time it must be remembered that,
whUe the influence and power of the Canadian
government may be largely increased by the exer
cise of its great patronage in the hypothetical cases
I have suggested, its action is always open to the
approval or disapproval of parliament and it has to
meet an opposition face to face. Its acts are open
to legislative criticism, and it may at any moment
be forced to retire by pubhc opinion operating upon
the House of Commons.
On the other hand the executive in the United
States for four years may be dommant over con
gress by skUful management. A strong executive
by means of party wields a power which may be
used for purposes of mere personal ambition, and
may by clever management of the party machine
263

LORD ELGIN
and with the aid of an unscrupulous majority retain
power for a time even when it is not in accord with
the true sentiment of the country; but under a
system Uke that of Canada, where every defect in
the body pohtic is probed to the bottom in the
debates of parliament, which are given by the pub
lic press more fully than is the practice in the
neighbouring repubhc, the people have a better
opportunity of forming a correct judgment on
every matter and giving an immediate verdict
when the proper time comes for an appeal to them,
the sovereign power. Sometimes this judgment is
too often influenced by party prejudices and the
real issue is too often obscured by skUful party
management, but this is inevitable under every
system of popular government ; and happUy, should
it come to the worst, there is always in the country
that saving remnant of inteUigent, independent men
of whom Matthew Arnold has written, who can
come forward and by their fearless and bold criti
cism help the people in any crisis when truth,
honour and justice are at stake and the great mass
of electors faU to appreciate the true situation of
affairs. But we may have confidence in the good
sense and judgment of the people as a whole when
time is given them to consider the situation of
affairs. Should men in power be unfaithful to their
pubhc obhgations, they wiU eventually be forced by
the conditions of pubhc hfe to yield their positions
to those who merit pubhc confidence. If it should
264

IDEALS IN PUBLIC LIFE
ever happen in Canada that public opinion has
become so low that pubhc men feel that they can,
whenever they choose, divert it to their own selfish
ends by the unscrupulous use of partisan agencies
and corrupt methods, and that the highest motives
of pubhc hfe are forgotten in a mere scramble for
office and power, then thoughtful Canadians might
weU despair of the future of their country ; but,
whatever may be the blots at times on the surface
of the body politic, there is yet no reason to beheve
that the pubUc conscience of Canada is weak or
indifferent to character and integrity in active
pohtics. The instincts of an English people are
always in the direction of the pure administration
of justice and the efficient and honest government
of the country, and though it may sometimes
happen that unscrupulous pohticians and dema
gogues wiU for a whUe dominate in the party arena,
the time of retribution and purification must come
sooner or later. English methods must prevaU in
countries governed by an English people and Eng
Ush institutions.
It is sometimes said that it is vain to expect a
high ideal in pubhc life, that the same pruiciples
that apply to social and private hfe cannot always
be appUed to the pohtical arena if party govern
ment is to succeed ; but this is the doctrine of the
mere party manager, who is already too influential
in Canada as in the United States, and not of a true
patriotic statesman. It is wiser to beheve that the
265

LORD ELGIN
nobler the object the greater the inspiration, and at
aU events, it is better to aim high than to sink low.
It is aU important that the body pohtic should be
kept pure and that public Ufe should be considered
a pubhc trust. Canada is stiU young in her pohtical
development, and the fact that her population has
been as a rule a steady, fixed population, free from
those dangerous elements which have come into
the United States with such rapidity of late years,
has kept her relatively free from any serious social
and pohtical dangers which have afflicted her
neighbours, and to which I beheve they themselves,
having inherited Enghsh institutions and being
imbued with the spirit of Enghsh law, AviU always
in the end rise superior. Great responsibUity, there
fore, rests in the first instance upon the people of
Canada, who must select the best and purest among
them to serve the country, and, secondly, upon the
men whom the legislature chooses to discharge the
trust of carrying on the government. No system of
government or of laws can of itself make a people
virtuous and happy unless their rulers recognize in
the fuUest sense their obhgations to the state and
exercise their powers with prudence and unselfish
ness, and endeavour to elevate and not degrade
pubhc opinion by the insidious acts and methods of
the lowest pohtical ethics. A constitution may be
as perfect as human agencies can make it, and yet
be relatively worthless whUe the large responsibih
ties and powers entrusted to the governing body —
266

THE FORCE OF LAWS
responsibUities and powers not embodied in acts of
parliament — are forgotten in view of party triumph,
personal ambition, or pecuniary gain. "The laws,"
says Burke, "reach but a very Uttle way. Constitute
government how you please, infinitely the greater
part of it must depend upon the exercise of the
powers which are left at large to the prudence and
uprightness of ministers of state. Even aU the use
and potency of the laws depend upon them. With
out them your commonwealth is no better than
a scheme upon paper, and not a Uving, active,
effective organization."

267

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
For accounts of the whole career of Lord Elgin see Letters and Jour
nals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin, etc., edited by Theodore Walrond,
C.B., with a preface by his brother-in-law. Dean Stanley (London 2nd.
ed., 1873) ; for China mission. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission
to China and Japan, by Lawrence Oliphant, his private secretary
(Edinburgh, 1869) ; for the brief Indian administration. The Friend of
India for 1862-63. Consult also article in vol. 8 of Encyclopcedia
Britannica, 9th ed. ; John Charles Dent's Canadian Portrait Gallery
(Toronto, 1880), vol. 2, which also contains a portrait; W. J. Rattray's
The Scot in British North America (Toronto, 1880) vol. 2, pp. 608-641.
For an historical review of Lord Elgin's administration in Canada, see
J. C. Dent's The Last Forty Years, or Canada since the Union of 18^,1
(Toronto, 1881), chapters XXIII-XXXIV inclusive, with a portrait;
Louis P. Turcotte's Le Canada Sous F Union (Quebec, 1871), chapters
I-IV, inclusive ; Sir Francis Hincks's Reminiscences of His Public
Life (Montreal, 1884) with a portrait of the author ; Joseph Pope's
Memoirs of the Rt. Hon. Sir John A. Macdonald, G.C.B. (Ottawa
and London, 1894), with portraits of the great statesman, vol. 1, chap
ters IV- VI inclusive ; Lord Grey's Colonial Policy of Lord John RusselFs
Administration (London, 2nd ed., 1863), vol. 1 ; Sir C. B. Adderle/s
Review of the Colonial Policy of Lord John RusselFs Administration, by
Earl Grey, and Subsequent Colonial History (London,1869).
For accounts of the evolution of responsible government in Canada
consult the works by Dent, Turcotte, Rattray, Hincks, Grey and
Adderley, just mentioned ; Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of
British North America, submitted to parliament, 1839 ; Dr. Alpheus
Todd's Parliamentary Government in The British Colonies (2nd ed.
London, 1894) ; Bourinot's Manual of the Constitutional History of
Canada (Toronto, 1901) ; his Canada under British Rule (London and
Toronto, 1901), chapters VI- VIII inclusive ; Memoir of the Life of the
Rt. Hon. Lord Sydenham, etc., by his brother G. Poulett Scrope, M.P.,
(London, 1843), with a portrait of that nobleman ; Life and Correspond
ence of Charles, Lord Metcalfe, by J. W. Kaye (London, new ed., 1868).
For comparisons between the parliamentary government of Great
269

LORD ELGIN
Britain or Canada, and the congressional system of the United States,
see Walter Bagehot's English Constitution and other political essays
(New York, 1889) ; Woodrow Wilson's Congressional Government
(Boston, 1885); Dr. James Bryce's American Commonwealth (London,
1888) ; Bourinot's Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics, in Trans.
Roy. Soc. Can., vol. VIII, sec. 2 (old ser.), and in separate form
(Montreal, 1891). Other books and essays on the same subject are
noted in a bibliography given in Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., vol. XI, old
ser. J sec. 2, as an appendix to an article by Sir J. G. Bourinot on Par
liamentary Government in Canada.
The reader may also profitably consult the interesting series of
sketches (with excellent portraits) of the lives of Sir Francis Hincks,
Sir A. MacNab, Sir L. H. LaFontaine, R. Baldwin, Bishop Strachan,
L. J. Papineau, John Sandfield Macdonald, Antoine A. Dorion, Sir
John A. Macdonald, George Brown, Sir E. P. Tache, P. J. O. Chau
veau, and of other men notable from 1847-1864, in the Portraits of
British Americans (Montreal 1866-67), hy J. Fennings Taylor, who
was deputy clerk of the old legislative council, and later of the senate
of Canada, and a contemporary of the eminent men whose careers he
briefly and graphically describes. Consult also Dent's Canadian Por
trait Gallery, which has numerous portraits.

270

INDEX

Amnesty Act, 91
Annexation manifesto, 80, 81
Annexation sentiment, the, caused
by lack of prosperity and political
grievances, 191 f.
Archambault, L., 186
Aylwin, Hon. L C, 45, 60, 63, 187
B
Badoley, Judqb, 187
Bagehot, on public interest in poli
tics, 260, 261 ; on the disadvan
tage of the presidential system,
263, 264
Bagot, Sir Charles, favourable to
French Canadians, 30 ; 31
Baldwin, Hon. Robert, 28 ; aims of,
31 ; 46, 50, 61 ; forms a govern
ment with LaFontaine, 62 ; his
measure to create the Univer
sity of Toronto, 93, 94 ; resigns
oflBce, 103 ; death of, 104 ; views
on the clergy reserves, 160, 162
Blake, Hon. W. H., 50, 63, 69
Boulton, John, 123
Bowen, Judge, 187
Brown, Hon. George, 110; editor
of Globe, 111 ; raises the cry of
French domination, leads the
Clear Grits, 112 ; enters parlia
ment, 113; his power, 114; urges
representation by population,
117, 125, 187, 138 ; his part in
confederation, 225

Bryce, Rt. Hon. James, on the dis
advantages of congressional gov
ernment, 255-267
Buchanan, Mr., his tribute to Lord
Elgin, 123, 124 C
Cameron, John Hillyard, 60, 112
Cameron, Malcolm, 60, 63, 110,
113, 117, 126, 134, 163
Canada Company, 145
Canada, early political conditions in,
17-40 ; difficulties connected with
responsible government in, 26;
the principles of responsible gov
ernment, 228 ; a comparison of
her political system with that of
the United States, 241 f.
Canning, Earl, 217
Caron, Hon. R. E, 43, 63, 109, 113,
126, 187
Cartier, Georges Elienne, 136, 136,
226
Cathcart, Lord, succeeds Lord Met
calfe as governor-general, 38
Cauchon, 126, 164
Cayley, Hon. W., 140, 163
Chabot, Hon. J., 126, 141, 164, 186
Chaderton, 48
Chauveau, P. J. O., 46, 60, 109,
113, 126, 141, 164
Christie, David, 110
Church of England, its claims under
the Constitutional Act., 145, 160 f.
Church, Presbyterian, its successful
contention, 153
271

LORD ELGIN

Clergy Reserves, 101, 102, 103, 119,
127 ; secularization of, 142 ; the
history of, 143, f. ; report of select
committee on, 147 ; imperial act
passed, 158, 169 ; its repeal urged,
161 ; value of the reserves, 161-
162 ; full powers granted the
provincial legislature to vary or
repeal the act of 1840, 167 ; im
portant bill introduced by Sir
John A. Macdonald, 168
Colborne, Sir John, his action on
the land question, 164 ; the Col
borne patents attacked and up
held, 165, 166
Company of the West Indies, 175
Craig, Sir James, 1, 19
D
Daly, Dominick, 35
Day, Judge, 187
Delagrave, C, 187
Denslow, Prof., 264
Derby, Lord, his views of colonial
development, 121
Dessaules, 108
Dorchester, Lord, 1
Dorion, A. A., 108, 134
Dorion, J. B. E., 108
Doutre, R., 108
Draper, Hon. Mr., forms a ministry,
35 ; retires from the ministry, 43
Draper-Viger ministry, its weakness
44 ; some important measures,
45 ; commission appointed by, 64
Drummond, L. P., 109, 113, 126,
141 ; his action on the question
of seigniorial tenure, 186
Dumas, N., 186
Durham, Lord, 2, 14 ; his report,
15, 23, 26 ; compared with Elgin,
272

16 ; his views on the land question,
144, 145, 148, 154, 166 ; his views
on Canada after the rebellion,
191 ; his suggestions of remedy,
192, 193
Duval, Judge, 187 E
Educational Reform, 87-89.
Elgin, Lord, his qualities, 3-4 ; con
ditions in Canada on his arrival,
on his departure, birth and family
descent, 6 ; his parentage, 6 ; his
contemporaries at Eton and Ox
ford, estimate of by Gladstone, 7;
hy his brother, 7-8 ; enters par
liament, his political views, 8 ;
appointed governor of Jamaica,
death of his wife, 9 ; mediates
between the colonial office and
the Jamaica legislature, 12 ; re
signs governorship of Jamaica,
returns to England, 13 ; accepts
governor-generalship of Canada,
marriage with Lady Mary Louisa
Lambton, 14 ; compared with
Lord Durham, 16 ; creates a fav
ourable impression, recognizes the
principle of responsible govern
ment, 41 ; appeals for reimburse
ment of plague expenses, 48;
visits Upper Canada, 49 ; com
ments on LaFontaine-Baldwin
ministry, 62-53 ; correspondence
with Lord Grey, 66 ; hostility to
Papineau, 66 ; on the rights of
French Canadians, 55-66 ; his
commercial views, 67-60 ; his
course on Rebellion Losses bill,
71-78 ; attacked by mob, 74 ; his
course sustained by the imperial

INDEX

Elgin, Lord. — Continued
parliament, 78 ; visits Upper Can
ada, 79; raised to the British
peerage, 80 ; his condemnation
of annexation manifesto, 81 ;
refers to causes of depressions
and irritations, 82 ; urges reci
procity with United States, urges
repeal of navigation laws, 82 ; his
views on education, 88-89; his
views on increased representation,
118-119 ; his views on the Upper
House, 120 ; visits England, 123 ;
tribute from United States minis
ter, 123-124 ; visits Washington
and negotiates reciprocity treaty,
124 ; advises repeal ofthe imper
ial act of 1840, 164, 166 ; his
efforts against annexation, 189-
190, 194, 195; his labours for
reciprocity, 196 ; visits the United
States, 197 ; receives an address
on the eve of his departure, 203 ;
his reply, 204^206 ; his last speech
in Quebec, 206-208 ; returns to
England, 209 ; his views on self-
defence, 209-212 ; accepts a mis
sion to China, 212 ; his action
during the Indian mutiny, 213 ;
negotiates the treaty of Tientsin,
214 ; visits Japan officially, 214 ;
negotiates the treaty of Yeddo,
214 ; returns to England, 215 ; be
comes postmaster-general under
Palmerston, 215 ; becomes Lord
Rector of Glasgow University,
215 ; returns to China as Ambas
sador Extraordinary, 216 ; be
comes governor-general of India,
216 ; tour in northern India, 218;

holds Durbar at Agra, 218 ; Na/-
habee outbreak, 218 ; illness and
death, 219 ; views on imperial
honours, 222 ; on British con
nection, 229, 231 ; views on the
power of his office, 231-232;
beneficial results of his policy,
233, 235 ; on the disadvantages of
the United States political sys
tem, 267, 268 F
Feudal System, the, in Canada,
172, f.
Free Trade, protest against, from
Canada, 39, 45 ; effects of, on
Canada, 67-68
French Canadians, resent the Union
Act, 23, 24 ; resent portions of
Lord Durham's report, 23 ; in
crease of their influence, 31
G
Garneau, 123
Gavazzi Riots, the, 125
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., his
opinion of Lord Elgin, 7 ; 78
Gore, Lieut. -Governor, 146
Gourlay, Robert, 147
Grey, Lord, colonial secretary, 13 ;
36,77; views on clergyreserves,166
H
Haldimand, Governor, 97
Head, Sir Francis Bond, 1, 22
Hincks, Sir Francis, appointed in
spector-general, 31 ; 38, 60, 53,
100, 101 ; views and qualities of
107 ; forms a ministry, 107 ; 112,
113, 126, 127, 128, 138, 134, 136,
136 ; becomes a member of the
Liberal - Conservative ministry,
273

LORD ELGIN

Hincks, Sir Francis. — Continued.
140, 141, views on the clergy
reserves, 163, 165, 166, 196 ; ap
pointed governor of Barbadoes
and Windward Isles, appointed
governor of British Guiana, 220,
222 ; receives Commandership of
the Bath, 222 ; retirement, 222 ;
receives knighthood 222 ; be
comes finance minister, 223 ; final
retirement, 223 ; his character
and closing years, 223-224
Hincks-Morin, ministry formed, 108;
its members, 113 ; its chief meas
ures, 114^120; reconstructed, 125-
126 ; dissolves, 131 ; resigns, 136
Holmes, 50
Holton, L. H., 108, 134
Hopkins, Caleb, 110
Howe, Joseph, his assertion of loy
alty, 22; 51, 92, 101 ; on imperial
honours and offices, 221 ; appoint
ed lieutenant-governor of Nova
Scotia, 221
Hudon, Vicar-General, 48
Hundred Associates, 176
I
Immigrants, Irish, measures to re
lieve, 46-47 ; bring plague to
Canada, 47-48
Imperial Act, authorizes increased
representation, 122

Jamaica, Lord Elg^n, governor of,
9-13
Jameson, Mrs., her comparison of
Canada and the United States,
191-192
Judah, H., 186
274

luAsakssBX, 108
LaTerriere, 164
Laflamme, 108
LaFontaine-Baldwin cabinet, 1842,
31 ; resignation of, 35 ; the sec
ond government, its members,
63 ; its importance, 54 ; dissolved,
85 ; some of its important meas
ures, 85-103
LaFontaine, Hon. Hippolyte, and
the Union Act, 24; aims of, 32;
44, 46, 60 ; forms a government
with Baldwin, 62 ; his resolu
tions, 67-68 ; attack upon his
house, 76 ; resigns office, 104 ;
becomes chief justice, receives
baronetcy, his qualities, 106 ;
views on the clergy reserves,
162, 164 ; conservative views on
seigniorial tenure, 186 ; 187
Lebel, J. G., 187
Lelievre, S., 186
Leslie, Hon. James, 53
Leslie, John, 110
Liberal-Conservative Party, the],
formed, 137
Lytton, Lord, his ideal of a gov
ernor, 4 M
Macdonald, Rt. Hon. Sib John
Alexander, reveals his great
political qualities, 43, 44, 50, 110,
114, 118, 127 ; his argument on
the Representation BiU, 132; 137,
139, 140, 163 ; views on the clergy
reserves, 163 ; takes charge of
the bill for secularization of the
reserves, 168 ; monuments to his
memory, 226-226

INDEX

Macdonald, John Sandfield, 60 ; his
rebuff to Lord Elgin, 127-129, 135
Mackenzie, William Lyon, 17 ;
leader of the radicals, 21 ; 22, 51 ;
returns to Canada, 91 ; his quali
ties, 91-92 ; 103, 112, 127
MacNab, Sir Allan, 31, 60, 61, 68 ;
attitude on Rebellion Losses Bill,
76 ; 110, 137, 139 ; becomes a
member of the Liberal-Conserva
tive ministry, 140 ; his coalition
ministry, 140 ; 141, 224
McDougall, Hon. William, 110
McGill, 45
Meredith, Judge, 187
Merritt, WiUiam Hamilton, 50, 97
Metcalfe, Sir Charles, succeeds
Bagot as gov. -gen., 32 ; his de
fects, 32, 33, 37 ; breach with La^
Fontaine-Baldwin ministry, 34,
35 ; created baron, death of, 37
MiUsj Mayor, dies of plague, 48
Mondelet, Judge, 187
Montreal, ceases to he the seat of
government, 78
Morin, A. N., 32, 43, 50, 61, 109,
113, 126, 127, 133, 140, 141 ; fav
ours secularization of the clergy
reserves, 166 ; 187
Morris, Hon. James, 113, 126
Morrison, Joseph C, 126
N
Navigation laws, 38, 46 ; repealed,
83
Nelson, Wolfred, 22, 60, 91
Newcastle, Duke of, secretary of
state for the colonies, 167
O
Ottawa, selected as the seat of

government, later as the capital
of the Dominion, 79

Pakington, Sir John, adverse to
the colonial contention on the
clergy reserve question, 165, 167
Palmerston, Lord, 212, 213
Papineau, Denis B., 35, 44, 66
Papineau, Louis - Joseph, 17; aims
of, 20, 21 ; 22 ; influence of, 60,
61 ; 66, 66, 90, 91, 117 ; his final
defeat, 134
Peel, Sir Robert, 78
Price, Hon. J. H., 60, 63, 160, 161
Postal Reform, 86, 86
Power, Dr., 48 R
Railway development, under Bald
win and LaFontaine, 99-101 ;
under Hincks and Morin, 114-
117
RebeUion Losses BiU, history of,
63-78 ; commission appointed by
Draper-Viger ministry, 64 ; re
port of commissioners, 65; La
Fontaine's resolutions, 67, 68 ;
new commission appointed, at
tacks on the measure, 68 ; passage
of measure, 70 ; Lord Elgin's
course, 71 f. ; serious results of,
73, 74 ; 203
Reciprocity treaty with United
States urged by Lord Elgin, 82 ;
treaty ratified, 142 ; signed, 198 ;
its provisions, 198-200 ; beneficial
results, 201 ; repealed by the
United States, 201 ; results of the
repeal, 202
275

LORD ELGIN

Richards, Hon. W. B., 60, 113, 128
Richelieu, introduces feudal system
into Canada, 175
Richmond, Duke of, 2
Robinson, Sir John Beverley, 105
Rolph, Dr. John, 110, 112, 113,
126, 136
Ross, Mr. Dunbar, 126, 141
Ross, Hon. John, 113, 126, 141
Roy, Mr. 48
RusseU, Lord John, 26 ; supports
Metcalfe, 37; 78
Ryerson, Rev. Egerton, defends Sir
Charles Metcalfe, 36 ; his edu
cational services, 89, 90 ; opposes
Sydenham's measure, 167
S
Saint R^al M. Vallieres de, 31
Seigniorial Tenure, 101, 102, 119,
126, 142 ; history of, 171 f. ;
originates in the old feudal sys
tem, 171-174 ; introduced by
Richelieu into Canada, 175 ; des
cription of the system of tenure,
175 f; judicial investigation by
commission, 186, 187
Sherwood, Henry, becomes head of
ministry, 43 ; defeat of Sherwood
cabinet, 60 ; 68, 159
Short, Judge, 187
Sicotte, 126; elected speaker,135,136
Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor, 18
Smith, Henry, 141, 187
Spence, Hon. R., 140
Stanley, Lord, 9 ; supports Met
calfe, 37
Strachan, Bishop, established Trin
ity college, 96 ; refuses compro
mise on land question, 160 ; 164,
169 ; meets with defeat, 169
276

SuUivan, Hon. R. B., 53
Sydenham, Lord, appointed gov
ernor-general to complete the
union and establish responsible
government, 26-29 ; qualities of,
29 ; death of, 30 ; his canal policy,
96-99 ; his action on the land
question, 166, 157
T
TaohiS, Hon. E. P., S3, 109, 113,
126
Trinity College, established, 95
Turcotte, J. G., 186 U
Union Act of 1840, its provisions,
22, 23 ; restrictions concerning
use of French language removed,
61 ; 117 ; clauses respecting the
Upper House repealed, 120
United States, comparison of their
political system with that of Can
ada, 241, ff
University of Toronto, created from
King's CoUege, 94
V
Vanfelson, Judge, 187
Varin, J. B., 187
Viger, Hon. L. M., forms a minis
try, 36, 63, 66, 108
W
Waleond, Mk., 215
White, Thos., 139
Wilson, Woodrow, on the United
States system, 252 ; on political
irresponsibility, 254, 255
Winter, P., 187

Young, Hon. John, 118, 126

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