Part 3 (1/2)
Hincks once told hiical conclusion of that course was the dissolution of the union There was a measure of truth in this If he had said dissolution or ht Between the ideas of Upper Canada and Lower Canada there was a difference so great that a legislative union was foredoomed to failure, and separation could be avoided only by a federation which allowed each community to take its oay Brown did not create these difficulties, but he emphasized them, and so forced and hastened the application of the re parliament, his policy had related mainly to Upper Canada In parlia fro opposition In theRo them power to hold lands, to control education, and otherwise to strengthen the authority of the Church over the people It is not necessary to discuss these measures in detail The object is to arrive at Brown's point of view, and it was this: That the seat of governislation and adely controlled by the French-Canadian priesthood He coard to legislation and expenditure; that its public opinion was disregarded, and that it was not fairly represented The question of representation steadily assumed more importance in his mind, and he finally came to the conclusion that representation by population was the true rerievances of which he co now nuave it equality of representation
In all these e Brown and the Lower Canadian representatives idening, while he was beco more and more the voice of Upper Canadian opinion When, in the intervals between parliamentary sessions, he visited various places in Upper Canada, he found hireat public iven in his honour
The proatherings illustrates at once the weakness and the strength of his position He satisfied the ”Nonconformist conscience” of Upper Canada by his advocacy not only of religious equality but of the prohibition of the liquor traffic and of the cessation of Sunday labour by public servants But this very attitude made it difficult for him to ith any political party in Lower Canada
In 1853 there was a re _Star_, a Conservative journal, illustrating the hold which Brown had obtained upon Upper Canadian sentiiven to Brown by the Reforret that the honour was given on party grounds ”Had it been given on the ground of his services to Protestantisereed with Brown about the clergy reserves, but if the reserves must be secularized, every Conservative in Canada would join Brown in his crusade against Roman Catholic endowments” Then follows this estiitator or des of common sense, a sober will to attain the useful, the practical and the needful He has patient courage, stubborn endurance, and obstinate resistance, and desperate daring in attacking what he believes to be wrong and in defending what he believes to be right There is no cant or parade or tinsel or clap-trap about his, against the tyranny which violates men's roofs, and the intolerance which vexes their consciences True, he is wrong on the reserves question, but then he is honest, we knohere to find hiive us to understand that he will support us and then turn his back He does not slip the word of pro the reserves out of the question, George Brown is e principle, as all his writings will show, is to reconcile progress with preservation, change with stability, the alteration of incidents with the itation for vanity, for applause or mischief, he has contemptuously repudiated He is not like the Clear Grit, a republican of the first water, but on the contrary looks to the connection with thevision, but as alike our interest and our duty, as that which should ever be our beacon, our guide and our goal”
In 1853 the relative strength of Brown and the hout Canada The Hon Jaives a vivid description of Brown as he appeared at a banquet given in his honour at Galt: ”He was a striking figure Standing fully six feet two inches high, with a well-proportioned body, well balanced head and handsome face, his appearance not only indicated th, but conveyed in a marked manner an impression of youthfulness and candour These impressions deepened as his address proceeded, and his features grew anihted up by his fine expressive eyes” His voice was strong and soft, with a well-h accent His appearance surprised the people who had expected to see an older and sterner-looking ; as was usual with him he stammered and hesitated until he warmed to his subject, when he spoke with such an array of facts and figures, such earnestness and enthusiasm, that he easily held the audience for three hours[8]
On October 1st, 1853, the _Globe_ was first issued as a daily It was then stated that the paper was first published as a weekly paper with a circulation of three hundred On November 1st, 1846, it was published twice a ith a circulation of two thousand, which rose to a figure between three thousand and four thousand In July, 1849, it was issued three times a week When the daily paper was first published the circulation was six thousand To anticipate a little, it may be said that in 1855 the _Globe_ absorbed the _North American_ and the _Examiner_, and the combined circulation was said to be sixteen thousand four hundred and thirty-six The first daily paper contained a declaration of principles, including the entire separation of Church and State, the abolition of the clergy reserves and the restoration of the lands to the public, cessation of grants of public money for sectarian purposes, the abolition of tithes and other compulsory taxation for ecclesiastical purposes, and restraint on land-holding by ecclesiastical corporations
An extract froiven:
”Representation by population Justice for Upper Canada! While Upper Canada has a larger population by one hundred and fifty thousand than Lower Canada, and contributes eneral revenue, Lower Canada has an equal number of representatives in parliaraiate free from sectarianised with the separate school syste
”A prohibitory liquor law--Any htful evils of intemperance”
The inclusion of prohibition on this platfor habits of that day In a pamphlet issued by the Canada Corants, whiskey was described as ”a cheap and wholesoe” Its cheapness and abundance caused it to be used in soland, and it was a co with the food supply of the fa prohibition was introduced in the Canadian parliament there were frequent references to the convivial habits of the hter He good-naturedly said that he ell aware of the cause of hilarity, but that he was ready to sacrifice his pleasure to the general good
Sir Allan MacNab, the leader of the Opposition, moved a farcical ae of abstinence, and to be disqualified if he broke it Brown made an earnest speech in favour of the motion, in which he remarked that Canada then contained nine hundred and thirty-one whiskey shops, fifty-eight steamboat bars, three thousand four hundred and thirty taverns, one hundred and thirty breweries, and one hundred and thirty-five distilleries
The marked diminution of intemperance in the last fifty years may be attributed in part to restrictive laws, and in part to the work of the temperance societies, which rivalled the taverns in social attractions, and were effective agents of , _op cit_, pp 58, 59
CHAPTER VIII
RECONSTRUCTION OF PARTIES
In June, 1854, the Hincks-Morin governislature on a vote of censure for delay in dealing with the question of the clergy reserves A combination of Tories and Radicals deprived Hincks of all but five of his Upper Canadian supporters
Parlia election was a _melee_ in which Hincks Reforled in confusion Broas returned for Lambton, where he defeated the Hon Malcoleneral under Hincks
The Reforislature, and if united could have controlled it with ease But the internal quarrel was irreconcilable Hincks was defeated by a coeneral reconstruction of parties followed Sir Allan MacNab, as leader of the Conservative opposition, formed an alliance with the French-Canadian overnment and with soave his support to the new co of opinion that the coovernment was supported presented the only solution of the difficulties caused by a coalition of parties holding no sentiland I dee the short period that I continued in public life”[9]
Whether the MacNab-Morin government was a true coalition or a Tory combination under that name was a question fiercely debated at that time It certainly did not stand for the Toryisoverny reserves, and the participation of French-Canadians in the government of the country It had at first soradually came to represent Conservatism and the personal ascendency of John A Macdonald Robert Baldwin, froave his approval to the combination, and hence arose the ”Baldwin Reformer,”
blessed as a convert by one party, and cursed as a renegade by the other
Reconstruction on one side was followed by reconstruction on the other Upper Canadian Reformers rallied round Brown, and an alliance was fores This was a natural alliance of radical Reforht is thrown on it by an article published in the _Globe_ in 1855 The writer said that in 1849, so men of Montreal, fresh from the schools and filled to the brim with the Republican opinions which had spread frohout all Europe, for extreainst priestcraft and tyranny with all the ardour and freshness of youth Their talents and the evident purity and sincerity of theiri as they did with the selfishness and mediocrity of other French-Canadian leaders, and the result was that the Rouge party was growing in strength both in the House and in the country With the growth of strength there had coreater islature, at least, the Rouges had not expressed a single sentieneral policy to which a British constitutional Reforht not assent They were the true allies of the Upper Canadian Refor the French-Canadians They had Reforh standard of political morality They stood for the advance of education and for liberty of speech They were the hope of Canada, and their attitude gave prohter day was about to dawn on the political horizon
It was unreasonable to expect that the Liberals could continue to receive that solid support from Lower Canada which they had received in the days of the Baldwin-Lafontaine alliance In those days the issue hether French-Canadians should be allowed to take part in the government of the country, or should be excluded as rebels The Reformers championed their cause and received the solid support of the French-Canadian people But when once the principle for which they contested was conceded, it was perceived that Lower Canada, like Upper Canada, had its Conservative element, and party lines were for alliance between Upper Canadian Reformers and Lower Canadian Conservatives, and especially with those Lower Canadians who defended the power and privileges of the Church He was perfectly willing that electors holding these views should go to the Conservative party, which was their proper place The Rouges could not bring to the Liberal party the nuth of the supporters of Lafontaine, but as they really held Liberal principles, the alliance was solidly based and was es was A A Dorion, a distinguished advocate, and a man of culture, refinement and eloquence He was Brown's desk-ly contrasted, they were drawn together by the chivalry and devotion to principle which characterized both, and they for friendshi+p ”For four years,” said Mr Brown, in a public address, ”I acted with hihly the uprightness of his character, the liberality of his opinions, and the fireneral policy we heartily agreed, and regularly voted together; on the questions that divided all Upper Canadians and all Lower Canadians alone we differed, and on these we had held many earnest consultations fro at the conviction that e had the opportunity we could find the mode” Their habit was not to attenize the the remedy It was rarely that either presented a resolution to the House without asking the advice of the other They knew each other's views perfectly, and on many questions, especially of commerce and finance, they were in perfect accord
By this process of evolution Liberals and Conservatives were restored to their proper and historic places, and the as cleared for new issues These issues arose out of the ill-advised atteislative union A large part of the history of this period is the history of an attempt to escape the consequences of that blunder This was the reason why every ministry had its double name--the Lafontaine-Baldwin, the Hincks-Morin, the Tache-Macdonald, the Brown-Dorion, the Macdonald-Sicotte This was the reason why every eneral east for Lower Canada and its attorney-general west for Upper Canada In his speech on confederation Sir John Macdonald said that although the union was legislative in na Upper Canada alone, Upper Canadian members claimed and usually exercised, exclusive power, and so with Lower Canada The consolidated statutes of Canada and the consolidated statutes of Upper Canada islating for one province alone was not confined to local or private matters For instance, as the two communities had widely different ideas as to Sabbath observance, the stricter laas enacted for Upper Canada alone Hence also arose the theory of the double eneral policy, have a majority from each province
But all these shi+fts and devices could not stay the agitation for a radical remedy Some Reformers proposed to dissolve the union Brown believed that the difficulty would be solved by representation by population, concerning which a word of explanation is necessary When the provinces were united in 1841, the population of Lower Canada exceeded that of Upper Canada in the proportion of three to two ”If,”