culties which he encountered. Earl Grey summed up his rule in Canada: "In conformity with the principles laid down, it was Lord Elgin's first object in assuming the government of the province to withdraw from the position of depending for support on one party into which Lord Metcalfe had, by unfortunate circumstances been brought. He was to act generally on the advice of his Executive Council and to receive as members of that body those persons who might be pointed out to him as entitled to be so by their possessing the confidence of the Assembly. But he was careful to avoid identifying himself with the party from the ranks of which the actual Council was drawn, and to make it generally understood that, if public opinion required it, he was equally ready to accept their opponents as his advisers, uninfluenced by any personal preferences or objections." New difficulties, however, continued to arise in the workings of the Canadian constitution which led up to and hastened Confederation.

Cabinet Government, as understood in Great Britain and as set up in Canada by Lord Elgin, implies government by party. Two strong parties are its usual and best guarantee for success. In Canada the number of parties was legion-Upper Canadian Reformers; Upper Canadian Conservatives; French-Canadian Radicals; French-Canadian Conservatives, with a small, but efficient, group that carried on the most extreme Tory traditions of Upper Canada. It was impossible to combine parties of the same name, for there was no common political platform behind a common name. Coalition government was the result, with all the weaknesses to which such a form of government is heir. Then the religious and racial difficulties did not tend to disappear under the influence of parliamentary and election oratory. The issues at stake, too, were often only local, in which Upper Canadian and Lower Canadian had no common interest. These difficulties led to serious consequences. We find two Premiers, one French, one English. Before long it becomes a constitutional convention that a ministry must command a majority in English-speaking as well as in French-speaking Canada. The whole scheme of government soon became full of anomalies, and ministries quickly followed one another to defeat. Then came the party cry of "Representation by population," which threatened to overthrow the pact of the Act of Union. The Civil War in the United States and the "Trent Affair" helped to bring into relief the weakness of government in Canada, and finally the Canadian Government fell back on the untried scheme suggested in Lord Durham's Report-a federation of British North America.

Large extracts have been made from the Confederation Debates in the Canadian Parliament (No. CLXXVIII). These extracts illustrate, as far as space would allow, every point of view. The history can be followed in Pope, Confederation Documents (Toronto, 1895), and Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald (2 vols. 1894); G. R. Parkin, Sir John Macdonald; J. H. Gray, Confederation of Canada (Toronto, 1872).

1 Earl Grey, op. cit., p. 213.

CLVII

SYDENHAM'S SPEECH TO CANADIAN PARLIAMENT [Trans. Imperial Blue Books relating to Canada, 1841-43, Vol. XIV.] 15th June, 1841. Honourable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly.

I have deemed it right to assemble you at the earliest period which the circumstances of the Province and the duties imposed upon me by the Imperial Act for the Union of the Canadas, under which this Legislature is constituted, have admited; and it is with sincere satisfaction that I now meet you to deliberate on the great and important interests committed to our charge.

A subject of Her Majesty, an inhabitant of this Province', has been I forcibly detained in the neighbouring States charged with a pretended crime. No time was lost by the Executive of this Province in remonstrating against this proceeding, and provision was made for insuring to the individual the means of defence pending the further action of Her Majesty's Government. The Queen's Representative at Washington has since been instructed to demand his release. Of the result of that demand I am not yet apprised, but I have the Queen's commands to assure her faithful subjects in Canada of her Majesty's fixed determination to protect them with the whole weight of her power.

Arrangements were completed during the course of last summer by which, under the directions of the Treasury, the rates of Postage between all parts of this Colony and the United Kingdom were greatly reduced; and a more speedy and regular conveyance of letters between different parts of this Province has since been established by arrangements made by the Deputy Postmaster-General under my directions. A commission has been appointed by me to inquire into and report upon the Post-office system of British North America, and I confidently anticipate that the result of its labours will be the establishment of a plan securing improvements in the internal communication by post within the Colony equal to those which we have already obtained in the communication with the mother-country.

Many subjects of deep importance to the future welfare of the Province demand your early attention, upon some of which I have directed bills to be prepared, which will be submitted for your consideration.

Amongst them, first in importance at the present juncture of affairs is the adoption of measures for developing the resources of the Province i by well-considered and extensive public works. The rapid settlement of the country-the value of every man's property within it-the advancement of his future fortunes are deeply affected by this question. The improvement of the Navigation from the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Huron to the Ocean-the establishment of new internal communications in the inland districts are works requiring a great outlay, but promising commensurate returns. To undertake them successfully large funds will undoubtedly be required, and the financial condition of the Province, as it stands at present, would seem to forbid the attempt. But I have the satisfaction of informing you that I have received authority from Her Majesty's government to state that they are prepared to call upon the Imperial Parliament to afford their assistance towards these important undertakings. In the full belief that peace and tranquillity will be happily re-established in this province, under the constitution settled by Parliament, and that nothing but a relief 1 from its most pressing difficulties is wanting to its rapid advancement to prosperity, they will propose to Parliament, by affording the guarantee of the Imperial Treasury for a loan to the extent of no less than a million

1 See Scrope, op. cit., pp. 224 ff.

JJ

H

and a half sterling, to aid the Province, for the double purpose of diminishing the pressure of the interest on the public debt, and of enabling it to proceed with those great public undertakings whose progress during the last few years has been arrested by the financial difficulties. I shall direct a measure to be submitted to you embracing a plan for this purpose, and I shall lay before you, for your information and that of the people oi Canada, extracts from the despatches which convey to me this most gratifying assurance.

In immediate connexion with the outlay of capital upon public works is the subject of emigration and the disposal and settlement of the public lands. There exist within this Province no means so certain of producing a healthy flow of immigration from the mother-country, and of ultimately establishing the immigrant as a settler and proprietor within the Colony, as the power of affording sure employment for his labour on his first arrival. The assistance of Parliament for the public works which may be undertaken here, will in great measure provide for this; but with a view further to aid immigration, I am authorized to declare to you that Her Majesty's government are prepared to assist in facilitating the passage of the immigrant from the port at which he is landed to the place where his labour may be made available, and that a vote of money for this purpose will be proposed to the Imperial Parliament. The conditions which Her Majesty's government attach to this measure will be submitted to you at the same time that I shall draw your attention to a scheme for the settlement and disposal of the public funds.

It appears highly desirable that the principle of local self-government, which already prevails to some extent throughout that part of the Province which was formerly Upper Canada, should receive a more extended application there, and that the people should exercise a greater degree of power over their own local affairs. I have directed a measure upon this subject to be submitted to you, and I solicit your earnest attention to the establishment of such a form of local government for those districts of the Province which are unprovided with it, as may ensure satisfaction to the people whilst it preserves inviolate the prerogative of the Crown, and maintains the administration of justice pure from party and popular excitement.

A due provision for the education of the people is one of the first duties of the State, and in this Province, especially, the want of it is grievously felt. The establishment of an efficient system by which the blessings of instruction may be placed within the reach of all is a work of difficulty; but its overwhelming importance demands that it should be undertaken. I recommend the consideration of that subject to your best attention, and I shall be most anxious to afford you in your labours all the co-operation in my power. If it should be found impossible so to reconcile conflicting opinions as to obtain a measure which may meet the approbation of all, I trust that at least steps may be taken by which an advance to a more perfect system may be made, and the difficulty under which the people of this Province now labour may be greatly diminished, subject to such improvements hereafter as time and experience may point out.

Gentlemen of the House of Assembly,

The financial accounts of the Province will be immediately laid before you, and I shall direct the estimates for the public service to be submitted to you with the least possible delay. I rely upon your co-operation in the financial measures which it will be my duty to propose to you for taking advantage of the assistance which her Majesty's Government propose to afford, and for carrying into effect the public improvements which are deemed most desirable. I shall earnestly endeavour that whatever you may appropriate for this latter purpose shall be economically employed and rendered effective. Honourable Gentlemen and Gentlemen,

In your wisdom and prudence I confide for the regulation of the different important matters which must necessarily come before you. Canada, united under a constitution which the Imperial Legislature has

framed with an earnest desire for the welfare of this portion of the British Empire, cannot fail to prosper under prudent and sage counsels. The generous aid which I have already announced to you, the determination which I am also empowered to state upon the part of the Government to devote annually a large sum for the military defences of the Provincethe fixed and settled determination which I have the Queen's commands to declare that her North American possessions shall be maintained at all hazards as part of Her Empire, are pledges of the sincerity with which the mother-country desires to promote the prosperity of Canada, and to assist in the well-working of the new institutions which it has established. The eyes of England are anxiously fixed upon the result of this great experiment. Should it succeed, the aid of Parliament in your undertakings, the confidence of British capitalists in the credit you may require from them, the security which British people will feel in seeking your shores, and establishing themselves upon your fertile soil, may carry improvement to an unexampled height. The rapid advance of trade and of immigration within the last eighteen months, afford ample evidence of the effects of tranquillity in restoring confidence and promoting prosperity. May no dissensions mar the flattering prospect which is open before us. May your efforts be steadily directed to the great practical improvements of which the Province stands so much in need, and under the blessing of that Providence which has hitherto preserved this portion of the British dominions, may your counsels be so guided as to ensure to the Queen attached and loyal subjects, and to United Canada a prosperous and contented people.

CLVIII

SYDENHAM TO HIS BROTHER

[Trans. Scrope, op. cit.]

28th August, 1841.

My last feat has been to carry the Municipal District Bill for Upper Canada, word for word after my own ordinance for the Lower Province; thereby not only giving the complement to the Union (for you know I always declared that without such institutions the Union could not work), but setting up my own particular legislation by the sanction of the United Parliament. The bill has passed both Houses, and I proceed to-day in state to give it the royal assent, in order to make perfectly sure of its being law, even if I were to quit this world the day after. But the trouble I have had to do this has completely justified all my anticipations of the next to impossibility of our getting such a measure through a Provincial Assembly, and the utter hopelessness of the effort, but for the course which I followed of dictating it, whilst I was dictator, for one part of the province first. One party hated the measure because it was to give power to the people; another because it placed that power under wholesome control by the Crown; a third because it deprived the members of the Assembly of all their past power of jobbing. But I beat them all three, to the utter astonishment of the spectators; and at last carried my work, the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill, by a majority of forty-two to twenty-nine, or more than one third. I have now accomplished all I set much value on; for whether the rest be done now or some sessions hence, matters little. The five great works I aimed at have been got through the establishment of a board of works with ample powers; the admission of aliens; a new system of county courts; the regulation of the public lands ceded by the Crown under the Union Act; and lastly, this District Council Bill.

CLIX

RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF CANADA,

18411

[Trans. Journals of the Assembly of Canada, 1841, pp. 480 ff.]

I. Robert Baldwin's Proposals.

1. That the most important as well as the most undoubted of the political rights of the people of this Province is that of having a Provincial Farliament for the protection_of_their_liberties, for the exercise of their constitutional influence over the Executive Departments of their Government and for legislation upon all matters which do not, on the grounds of absolute necessity, constitutionally belong to the jurisdiction of the Imperial Parliament, as the paramount authority of the Empire.

2. That the head of the Provincial Executive Government of the Province being within the limits of his Government, the representative of the Sovereign, is not constitutionally responsible to any other than the authorities of the Empire.

3. That the representative of the Sovereign for the proper conduct and efficient disposal of the public business is necessarily obliged to make use of the advice and assistance of subordinate officers in the administration of his Government.

4. That in order to preserve that harmony between the different branches of the Provincial Parliament which is essential to the happy conduct of public affairs 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 harmonizing 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 Provincial Government', will at all times be faithfully represented to the head of that Government, and through him to the Sovereign and Imperial Parliament.

5. That as it is practically always optional with such advisers 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, sanctioned by such Government while such advisers continue in office.

6. That for the like reason this House has the constitutional right of holding such advisers in like manner responsible for using, while they continue in office, their best exertions to procure from the Imperial authorities the exercise of their right of dealing with such matters affecting the interests of the Province as constitutionally belong to those authorities, in the manner most consistent with the well understood wishes and inter ests of the people of this Province.

II. S. B. Harrison's Amendments to Baldwin's Proposals.

1. That the most important, as well as the most undoubted, of the political rights of the people of this Province is that of having a Provincial Parliament for the protection of their liberties, for the exercise of a constitutional influence over the Executive Departments of their Government, and for legislation upon all matters of internal Government.

2. 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 can only be conducted by him, by and with the assistance, counsel and information, of subordinate officers in the Province.

1 These Resolutions were proposed by Robert Baldwin on Sept. 3, 1841. Harrison's amendments, which were carried, are generally assigned to Sydenham's own pen. 2 See No. CXLII.