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Date: 1866-04-25
By: Montreal Herald
Citation: “FRENCH CANADIAN VIEWS OF CONFEDERATION” Montreal Herald (25 April, 1866)
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FRENCH CANADIAN VIEWS OF CONFEDERATION.

—— (From the Journal de Quebec.) The Journal de Quebec, in reply to the Canadien has an article of several columns in length, from which we extract the more important parts:—

You ask of writers, who are at least as independent as yourselves, to say in the name of the Government if it is ready to accept without appeal, the arbitration of the Imperial Government relative to the principle and the details of Confederation, as Nova Scotia has just done. To that we reply: There are five Provinces, all having Parliaments perfectly independent of each other. That of Canada has voted a project of Confederation in all its details, and its work will only be complete when it shall have also voted the two local constitutions for Upper and Lower Canada. The Nova Scotian Legislature, to get out of the impasse where the antecedents of its members had placed it, has given up the destiny of the country it represents to the good will of the Government of the Empire, with a full knowledge of its opinion. Neither New Brunswick, Newfoundland, nor Prince Edward Island, have yet spoken, and it is possible—probable even—that these three Provinces will arrive by different roads at the same end. But which of these colonial decisions soever the Imperial Government may adopt, must we conclude from thence that the Governments and Legislatures whose projects are not accepted, have betrayed the countries they represent, because the favoured Legislature has pleased in its independence to adopt a certain form of constitution? Let us, however, return to the question which Le Canadien considers as of capital importance. The Canadian Parliament has adopted a scheme of constitution which has been approved by England, and that of Nova Scotia has adopted a simple resolution which permits the Government of the Empire to determine its future lot. The first Province numbers more than three millions of inhabitants; the second has but three hundred thousand. Which of these two Provinces will make its opinions prevail in the Councils of the Sovereign, especially when the Sovereign has already pronounced positively on the subject? Moreover, if it is the Parliament of Nova Scotia which has adopted the resolution of which we have just spoken, it is the Parliament of Canada which has adopted the plan of the Quebec Convention, and our Ministers cannot renounce it without the consent of the same authority. Hence we may and do say, that if—which, however, is not probable—the delegates should go to England on the invitation of the Imperial Government before the opening of our Legislature, they must go there to maintain absolutely the plan of the Quebec Convention, and England, even if she desires it, could not go beyond that, because she neither would or could retain Canada against her will.

Every essential modification demanded by the Atlantic Provinces will necessarily require our consent, and must, therefore, be submitted to our Legislature. From that Legislature, moreover, it will be requisite to obtain the permission to give up the Confederation to the arbitration of the Imperial Government. They have, however, already spoken, and why do you suppose that they will give up a long matured work to run after the unknown?

To this the Canadien replies as follows. As before we merely extract the important points, leaving aside the personal discussion:—

As to the real question raised by us the Journal says very little. It is satisfied by affirming that our Government has remained a stranger to the line of conduct followed by Nova Scotia, and that all this does not concern us at all. It assures us that our Ministers will never consent to depart from the plan of the Quebec Conference, and that if the Imperial Government makes essential modifications they will be submitted to us. How does he know? Will his articles bind the Ministry? Does he hope to hinder the Government from doing what they please in England, when he was not able to prevent them from acting in the House in direct contradiction to the solemn engagements which he had undertaken in their name and his own? In his pamphlet published before the session of 1865 he had declared that it was necessary to make some modifications in the plan of the Quebec Conference, and he pointed out some as absolutely indispensible. That, however, was in direct opposition to the policy which the Ministers were about to submit to Parliament. He had, therefore, not at that time been informed that the text of the Constitution was sacred, and that no one would be permitted to touch it—he had been left ignorant of the fact that none of his amendments would be accepted? When Mr. John A. MacDonald placed brutally before the House the alternative of accepting or rejecting the entire project, the degree of influence which our confrere exercised on the Government become known. Evidently the Ministry had not read his wailings, and were unconscious of the humiliating position in which they placed their most faithful partizan. After such an affront, how dare he speak in the name of the Government? If the Quebec Constitution had been carried to England by all the Colonies at once, the Imperial Government, bound by the despatch of Mr. Cardwell, would have procured its adoption without modification by Parliament; but the situation is entirely changed by the general opposition manifested against the project in the Maritime Provinces, and by the attitude taken in Nova Scotia. The Imperial Government knows perfectly that the Quebec constitution accepted as a compromise in Canada has been rejected everywhere else. Nova Scotia makes it the judge of the questions which divide the Colonies, and places herself confidently in its hands. And you tell us that it will in return simply impose upon Nova Scotia, the constitution which she rejects. But really you do not believe this yourself; for in speaking of Mr. Miller, the author of the first proposition for the remission of the project to England, you say that he has not betrayed his principles since last year, he was only hostile to the details of the plan, and this year, he simply remits the subject of detail to the decision of the Imperial Government. If he had not the assurance that the Imperial Government would take account of his objections; if he had like you the conviction that the Colonial Office would impose the Quebec plan, would he not be a trator to principle? The Leader, more frank than you, admits that the Quebec plan must submit to modifications more or less considerable. If the Imperial Government accept the duty of arbiter, it is bound to do so seriously, and must have all the Provinces before it on a footing of equality; and yet you pretend that the Canadian Ministry will simply go and declare that nothing must be changed in the Quebec constitution, and that the other Provinces must accept it just as it is! If the Imperial Government submitted to this ultimatum on our part, the Canadian Government, not the Imperial Government, would be the judge and arbiter. If the questions are reopened for the Maritime Provinces, they must be for us, and if our Government goes before the Imperial Government to plead the cause of Confederation, it accepts in advance of the modifications that the arbiter may determine on.

Has not the Canadian Government a more patriotic course to follow? Our confrere who desired to amend it at any price, must admit that the Quebec constitution is a compromise which contains not the maximum but the minimum of advantages. Since the other Provinces have re-opened the discussion, and torn the treaty, why not follow them—why not convoke a new Inter-Colonial Convention, whose decisions it shall be well understood are to be submitted to the different Legislatures?