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Date: 1865-02-28
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Defeat of Confederation in Sova Scotia”, The Montreal Herald (28 February, 1865)
Other formats: TBA

DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATION IN SOVA SCOTIA.

—The question of Confederation in Nova Scotia has not met with the success which has so far attended it in Canada. The Legislature of the most Eastern of the Continental Colonies has assembled, and the report of the Quebec delegates has been, or is to be, submitted to it; but Parliament is not now, nor at any time which has yet been announced, to be asked to homologate it. That is, at least, the position in which we understand that the affair now stands in that one of our Sister Colonies. The friends of the scheme, of course, endeavour to explain this delay by some motive other than the simple one that they find themselves unable to carry it, or, at least, uncertain of their power to do so, and hence they allege their constitutional desire to permit the people to have a valid voice in the disposal of the question. That, however, would be a reason for a dissolution which they have not determined on either; but then, say these gentlemen again, there has been a dissolution in New Brunswick. If the measure be not carried there, it is of no use for us to attempt it here; so we will wait and see what is done in New Brunswick before we test the question of Confederation in a manner which will carry with it the inconvenience of testing, at the same time, our right to our own seats on the Treasury Benches. All these excuses, however, only too palpably show two things. First of all, that Confederation cannot be carried in the present Parliament; next, that whatever hope may be entertained of the constituencies after proper time has been allowed for manipulation, there is no strong faith in the possibility of obtaining an immediate popular assent to the scheme. Indeed, we understand that the majority in the Parliament against Confederation is known to be so overwhelmingly large, as to make it highly improbable that it could be changed by an election. The numbers, we have heard, would show a majority of about two to one; but this may be an exaggeration. At any rate, the adverse majority seems to be sufficiently large to make the Government of the day postpone any attempt to legislate upon the question, and to induce the Opposition to desire to have it brought forward at once and to deprecate delay as a method of obtaining by intrigue what cannot be had by a spontaneous expression of opinion. It is not easy to forecast the effect of this state of public feeling in Nova Scotia. We now know that out of the six intended members of the Confederacy, two at least—Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia—beg to be excused. This will, in all probability, create at least considerable delay, and that delay is very likely, indeed, to develope opposition in quarters where it has not yet been manifested. In this way the British Government may, perhaps, in its turn be induced to pause before it legislates for several peoples to whom it has granted powers of government fully adequate for the making of any arrangement among themselves, which they may seriously and generally believe to be for their own good. If either or both of the smaller Colonies had been alone recalcitrant, the effect might have been different. The Confederacy might very well get on without Newfoundland, or Prince Edward’s Island, or both of them. The Imperial Government, it is imaginable, even might legislate for these smaller dependencies, considering their opposition as only that of a small minority of all the B. N. A. Colonies. At any rate, it would hardly be reasonable that the Continental Colonies should be kept asunder because these small communities would not join them. But it is manifestly quite otherwise when Nova Scotia declines the honour of the projected alliance. However, it is generally understood that ladies, on certain interesting occasions which do not occur very often in their lives, no less than clergymen, in conjunctures which are as pleasing as infrequent, are expected to say no before they say yes. We, moreover, have very good reasons for understanding that by the use of proper means, legislators, and even constituencies, may be softened from their original obduracy. So that, perhaps, even if Nova Scotia should fail to carry the measure this year, she may only keep the Confederation hanging up a little longer, and give us all breathing time for those second thoughts which are proverbially the most profitable.