Part 3 (2/2)
said Lord Durhahtly estilish inhabitants of Lower Canada at one hundred and fifty thousand, and the French at four hundred and fifty thousand, the union of the two provinces would not only give a clear English majority, but one which would be increased every year by the influence of English eration, and I have little doubt that the French, when once placed by the legitimate course of events in a minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality” But he added that he was averse to every plan that had been proposed for giving an equal number of members to the two provinces The object could be attained without any violation of the principles of representation, such as would antagonize public opinion, and ”when elish population of the Upper Province, the adoption of such a principle would operate to defeat the very purpose it is intended to serve It appears to ement, founded on the present provincial divisions, would tend to defeat the purpose of union and perpetuate the idea of disunion”
Counsels less wise and just prevailed, and the united province was ”gerryainst Lord Durham's protest Lower Canada coood reason In the course of tiration the population of Upper Canada overtook and passed that of Lower Canada The census of 1852 gave Upper Canada a population of nine hundred and fifty-two thousand, and Lower Canada a population of eight hundred and ninety thousand two hundred and sixty-one Brown began to press for representation by population He was ued on behalf of the French-Canadians that they had suber population, and that the Upper Canadians ought to follow their exau that the Lower Canadians had been under-represented for eight years, and that by the time the new representation went into force, the Upper Canadians would have suffered injustice for about an equal terht be struck A more formidable objection was raised by Mr Hincks, who said that the union was in the nature of a co widely different institutions; that the basis of the compact was equal representation, and that Brown's proposition would destroy that basis Cartier said that representation by population could not be had without repeal of the union The French-Canadians were afraid that they would be swaed to accept the laws and institutions of the majority
It is impossible to deny the force of these objections In 1841 Lower Canada had been co power of Upper Canada was arbitrarily increased If this was due to distrust, to fear of ”French do an equal distrust of English doive up the barrier which, as they believed, protected their peculiar institutions Ultimately the solution was found in the application of the federal syste common action, and freedom to differ in matters of local concern
Towards this solution events were tending, and the iitation for representation by population, which gained ier plan of confederation
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Hincks's _Political History of Canada_, p 80
CHAPTER IX
SOME PERSONAL POLITICS
After the burning of the parliaovernment oscillated between Quebec and Toronto Toronto's turn came in the session of 1856 Macdonald was now the virtual, and was on the point of beco the titular, leader of the party Broas equally conspicuous on the other side During the debate on the address he was the central figure in a fierce struggle, and some one with a turn for statistics said that his name was mentioned three hundred and seventy-two ti, and Brown's contribution to the debate was not of a character to turn arath
Save a new turn to the debate He charged that Brohile acting as a member and secretary of a coovernment to inquire into the condition of the provincial penitentiary, had falsified testimony, suborned convicts to commit perjury, and obtained the pardon of h the asse, this outbreak created a sensation Brown gave an indignant denial to the charges, and announced that he would rily interrupted by the solicitor-general, who flung the lie across the House The solicitor-general was a son of the warden of the penitentiary who had been dismissed in consequence of the report of the co personal friend of the warden, and had atte his case before the assembly
Brown pro before he presented that tribunal with a dramatic surprise It was supposed that the report of the penitentiary committee had been burned, and the attack on Broas made upon that supposition When Mr Broas called as a witness, however, he produced the original report with all the evidence, and declared that it had never been out of his possession ”for one hour” The effect of this disclosure on his assailants is shown in a letter addressed to the cohnet, Macdonald's counsel: ”Mr Macdonald,” he said, ”had been getting up his case on the assumption and belief that these minutes had been destroyed and could not be procured, and o to by Mr Brown for that purpose would now be throay; the wholeevidence, etc, would now be altered”
The graver charges of subornation of perjury etc, were abandoned, and Macdonald's friends confined themselves to an attempt to prove that the inquiry had been unfairly conducted, that the warden had been harshly treated, and the testimony not fairly reported It was a political co up all hope of injuring Brown, bent its energies to saving Macdonald from the consequences of his reckless violence The Liberal members asked for a coovern to exonerate Brown if Macdonald were allowed to escape without censure Adeliverance, which was sharply attacked in the legislature Sir Allan MacNab bluntly declared that the charge had been coht to have had the overnment, also said that the attack had failed The accusers illing to allow the matter to drop, and as a matter of fact the report was never put to a vote But Mr Broould not allow them to escape so easily Near the close of the session he ave a new character to the discussion Up to this time it had been a personal question between Brown and his assailants Brown dealt with this aspect of the matter briefly but forcibly He declared that not only his conduct but the character of the other commissioners was fully vindicated, and that a conspiracy to drive hinally failed Conservative members had es, but had pleaded that they o with the party Members had actually been asked to ”pair” off on the question of upholding or destroying his character, before they had heard his defence
From these personal matters he returned to the abuses that had been discovered by the colect and cruelty was told These charges did not rest on the testimony of prisoners
They were sustained by the evidence of officers and by the records of the institution ”If,” said the speaker, ”every word of the witnesses called by the commissioners were struck out, and the case left to rest on the testimony of the warden's oitnesses and the official records of the prison, there would be sufficient to establish the blackest record of wickedness that ever disgraced a civilized country” Amid applause, expressions of aalleries, Brown told of the abuses laid bare by the prison commission He told of prisoners fed with rotten ots; of children beaten with cat and rawhide for childish faults; of a coffin-shaped box in which men and even women were made to stand or rather crouch, their lis scantily supplied with air from a few holes Brown's speech virtually closed the case, although Macdonald strove to prove that the accounts of outrages were exaggerated, that the warden, Smith, was himself a kind-hearted man, and that he had been harshly treated by the commissioners
In a letter written about this tiainst Brown, that he would prove hi so I will only pay hiether in his newspaper”[10] Whatever the provocation may have been, the personal relations of the two ht years afterwards they were members of the coalition ht about, and Brown's intimate friend, Alexander Mackenzie, says that the association was es made in connection with the prison commission That the leaders of the two parties were not merely political opponents but personal enele; and it was certainly waged on both sides with fury, and with little regard either for the amenities of life or for fair play
His work on the co interest in prison reform While the work of the commission was fresh in his mind he delivered an address in the Toronto Mechanics' Institute, in which he sketched the history of prison reforland and the United States, and pointed out how backward Canada was in this phase of civilization He pleaded for a more charitable treatment of those on whom the prison doors had closed There were inuiltless in the presence of Hiuilty ones outside We cannot, he said, expect human justice to be infallible; but we must not draw a hard and fast line between the world inside the prison and the world outside, as if the courts of justice had the divine power of judging between good and evil In Canada, he said, we have no syste the prisoner; even the chaplain or the teacher never enters the prison walls
”Children of eight and ten years of age are placed in our gaols, surrounded by hundreds of the worst criminals in the province” He went on to describe soether hardened cri offences He advocated government inspection of prisons, a uniform system of discipline, strict classification and separation, secular and religious instruction, and the teaching of trades The prisoner should be punished, but not raded by society for the sake of revenge Hope should be held out to those who showed repentance The use of the lash for trifling offences against discipline was condeenerally accepted, and he arded as one of the pioneers of prison reform in Canada
The habit of personal attack was further illustrated in the charge, frequently made by Mr Brown's enemies, that he had been a defaulter in Scotland The _North A its fierce altercation with the _Globe_, but the editor, Mr
Macdougall, had afterwards apologized, and explained that it had crept into the paper during his absence and without his knowledge In the session of 1858, a Mr Powell, member for Carleton, renewed the attack in the House, and Mr Brownhuman interest that not a word can be added or taken away He said: ”This is not the first time that the insinuation has been made that I was a defaulter in ans of the ministry, and at many an election contest have I been compelled to sit patiently and hear the tale recounted in the ears of assembled hundreds For fifteen years I have been compelled to bear in silence these imputations I would that I could yet refrain from the painful thee has now been made, and the fear that the public cause hich I aht suffer by ht to explain the transaction, as I have always been able to explain it, and to cast back the vile charge of dishonesty on those who dared to h, and that he engaged in disastrous business speculations co ten years afterwards in his failure, is undoubtedly true And it is, unhappily, also true, that he did hold a public office, and that funds connected with that office were, at the moment of his sequestration, mixed up with his private funds, to the extent, I believe, of two thousand eight hundred pounds For this sum four relatives and friends were sureties, and they paid the money Part of that money has been repaid; every sixpence of it will be paid, and paid shortly Property has been long set aside for the pay My father felt that while that money remained unpaid there was a brand on hiht as few ations of a sacred character Many a bill of exchange, the proceeds of his labour, has he sent to old creditors ere in need of what he owed For myself, sir, I have felt equally bound with my father; as his eldest son I felt that the fruits of ed until every penny of those debts was paid and the honour of my faret to hear cheering on the person who al advice of his relative, I long ago secured that in the event of -cherished purpose, after the paye of those sacred debts of e on my ample estate Debts, sir, which I was no entleman who hears me For the painful transaction to which I have been forced to allude, I aentleman in this assembly It happened in 1836; I was at that tie, I was totally unconnected with it, but, young as I was, I felt then, as I feel now, the obligation it laid upon me, and I vowed that I should never rest until every penny had been paid There are those present who have known my every action since I set foot in this country; they know I have not eaten the bread of idleness, but they did not know the great object of ht discharge those debts and redeem my father's honour Thank God, sir, my exertions have not been in vain Thank God, sir, I have long possessed property far entle in this country to have property, and another to be able to withdraw a large suht have I laidand calculating if the time had yet arrived, when, with justice to those to whom I stood indebted, and without fear of eht venture to carry out the purpose ofa to the office of priies to the attainment of that end; but I only wish I couldall this, how utterly petty and contehts have been all such considerations, in coe those debts of honour and vindicate those Scottish principles that have been instilled into me since my youth The honourable member for Cornwall [John Sandfield Macdonald] is well aware that every word I have spoken to-night has been long ago told him in private confidence, and he knows, too, that last suht that I was at last in a position to visit e sum necessary for all the objects I conte so by the financial storm which swept over the continent Such, sir, are the circumstances upon which this attack is founded Such the facts on which I have been denounced as a public defaulter and refugee froe, has he sat silent under it? Why if the thing is false has he endured it soone so dear! Say 'It was not I as in fault, it was ht arm than utter such a word! No, sir, I waited the tily ret even now is that I have been compelled to speak before those debts have been entirely liquidated But it is due, sir, to ed father that I explain that it has not been with his will that these i pointed at me, and that it has only been by earnest reere now No enerally known in the community, and I think I could appeal even to his political opponents to say if there is a citizen of Toronto at this day e of all that has passed, and all the consequences that have flowed from a day of weakness, I will say that an honester man does not breathe the air of heaven; that no son feels prouder of his father than I do to-day; and that I would have submitted to the obloquy and reproach of his every act, not fifteen years, but fifty--ay, have gone down to the grave with the cold shade of the world upon ray hairs should have been injured”
Public opinion was strongly influenced in Mr Brown's favour by this incident ”The entire address,” said a leading Conservative paper next day, ”for episode which the records of the Canadian House of Commons possess Every true-hearted man must feel proud of one who has thus chivalrously done battle for his gray-haired sire We speak deliberately when asserting that George Brown's position in the country is at this her than it ever previously has been And though our political creed be diametrically antipodal to his oe shall ever hail him as a credit to the land we love so well”
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Pope's _Memoirs of Sir John Macdonald_, p 161