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Date: 1866-03-08
By: Montreal Herald
Citation: “CONFEDERATION IN THE LOWER PROVINCES” Montreal Herald (8 March, 1866)
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CONFEDERATION IN THE LOWER PROVINCES.

—We shall probably learn to day something authentic about the position of the New Brunswick Government upon the question of Confederation. There has been a great deal of talk about what is to happen in that Province, and regarding the speaking of truth as the chief duty of journalists, we have not disguised the fact that there have been indications of a change in public opinion, more or less important, in a direction favorable to the scheme of Confederation, which was so unequivocally condemned by the People of the Province at the last election. It may, perhaps, be hardly worth while, considering the nearness of definite information, to speculate upon what after all must be in great part conjectural reasoning. Nevertheless, we may make one or two remarks of a general character on the situation, as it seems to present itself to those who profess to have official information, and whose judgment upon the scheme of Confederation is favorable, and, therefore, different from our own. From their statements we gather that they suppose the New Brunswick Government has been induced to come to a decision favorable to a union of some kind between the B. N. American Colonies;—that in fact a compromise either has taken place, or is to take place, between the two political parties, and that the one agreeing that there shall be a union or Confederation between the Colonies, the other agrees to modify the plan which was adopted by the Quebec Convention. In the same way the writers of whom we speak affect to consider that their plan has been virtually carried in Newfoundland, because the Legislature has expressed an opinion that “in the abstract” there are advantages in the scheme of Confederation which cannot be denied; adding, however, that the Quebec scheme, in its present shape, is inadmissible. For our own parts we believe that we are for the present much better as we are, or rather, perhaps, as we should be with a simple Zollverein, and a low tariff, common to all the Provinces, than with any cumbrous system of union, which must, from the moment of its initiation, give rise, in some shape or other, to those questions of State rights which have proved so troublesome with our neighbours, and which in our case would be raised gratuitously, since in the British Crown we have that common bond of political union for defence which the Americans could only find after the revolution in the federal tie. We, therefore, cannot desire the success of the scheme, no matter with what modifications; but we confess that we regard the abandonment of the Quebec platform as a very great point gained in favour of the future good government of these Provinces, if we are to be forced to assume a new nationality as the price of Mr. George Brown’s eighteen months enjoyment of official life. The Constitution drawn up by that Convention was in several respects admirably calculated to secure a catastrophe, especially by the constitution of the Legislative Council, which would have bestowed upon that body a power such as no part of a mixed legislature, except the Sovereign, had ever before possessed. There can be no question that the intention of that clause was to make the Council thus arbitrarily constituted, and with irresponsible power, a barrier against all changes, however much they might be desired by all, but one class of the population; and it is not difficult to see what would have been the effect on other parts of the population, having constituted authorities of their own, when the Legislative Council came to exercise unfavorably to them the extraordinary functions so imprudently conferred upon it. We imagine that, in any revision of the proposed Constitution, should we ever come to that pass again, it will be found impossible to carry anything so foolish and dangerous as a Legislative Council, which could neither be changed nor influenced by Crown or People, and yet could have the right to veto anything, even though Crown and People were united in desiring to effect it. But we suppose, moreover, that history will not repeat itself quite so accurately as to enable any Canadian Ministry again to palm or force upon Parliament the absurd story of a treaty, which had been made by negotiators without any official or constitutional power whatever, and yet which was to be swallowed whole without change in any jot or tittle. One would think that a Canadian legislator, who voted for the plan in the manner thus dictated to him, must blush when he now sees that the treaty, which was, a few months ago, so sacred for us that it could not even be amended, is repudiated by all the other parties in whose name it was made, and that the very Ministry who forced it upon them is now willing to accept modifications from others. The method of going it blind, therefore, is likely to be exploded, and that being so, we may expect such an examination of the entire subject in our own Legislature as it has not yet received, and then, possibly, a very different decision may be arrived at. In the meantime, we are, of course, reasoning upon the assumption that the other Provinces are prepared to give up the objections they have hitherto felt to a union per se. In New Brunswick we believe that there is a tendency in that way. But in Nova Scotia, so far as we can judge, the feeling against Confederation is daily hardening, and the avowal of an approval of an abstract idea in Newfoundland does not seem to carry us very far towards a practical solution of a question which is so completely one of details. Of course, moreover, we are not taking into account either coups d’etat or wholesale purchases of reluctant politicians. We expect from British statesmen a respect for the constitutions they have themselves bestowed upon the Colonies—if they do not show such respect, why make more constitutions?—and thus we arrive at the conclusion that nothing will be done except with the assent of the several Colonies given in the usual manner.