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Date: 1866-06-21
By: Viscount Monck
Citation: Letter from Viscount Monck to John A. Macdonald (22 June 1866), MG26-A, Vol. 51, 20211-20215].
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Confidential
June 21, 1866.
My dear Macdonald,
I am getting so uneasy at the inaction in Parliament with respect to the completion of our portion of the Union plan, that I feel compelled to put you in possession of the strong opinion I entertain on the question, and of the course of conduct in reference to it which I have marked out for myself.
It is not merely that no step has been taken in either House of Parliament for the arrangement of the plan of Local Governments, but the subject of education in Lower Canada, which ought to be settled before the passing of the Union Act, appears to
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have also dropped out of sight.
I cannot help thinking that valuable time is being lost, and a great opportunity in the temper and disposition of the House is being thrown away by the adoption of this system of delay.
I see a great many accidents, as I have already mentioned to you in conversation, which might change the mood of the House, and so render it impossible to keep the members together and complete the scheme this session.
I entertain so grave an apprehension of the evil results which might flow from such an occurrence, that I should feel bound to take the strongest measures to dissociate myself personally from all responsibility for it.
Under ordinary circumstances,
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my constitutional course would be to break up the Ministry and have recourse to other advisers.
I am quite aware, however, that I have it not in my power to adopt this line.
I felt when I formed the present Administration that my last card in that suit had been played, and that, if it did not win, the time would have come when I ought to give up the attempt to manage the affairs of Canada.
After reviewing all the circumstances of my position here with the most anxious care, I have come to the deliberate conviction that, if from any cause this session of Parliament shall be allowed to pass without the completion of our portion of the Union scheme, a similar crisis in
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my career will have been reached, and that my sense of duty to the people of Canada and to myself would leave me no alternative except to apply for my immediate recall.
I do not mention this to you by way of threat. I am not such an egotist as to imagine it could have any significance in that way, and I think too highly of you to suppose such a mode of treatment would affect your determination ; but looking to the relation in which we stand to each other, I think you are entitled to be informed when I have deliberately resolved on a course which may exercise some influence on the public business of the province, and it is in order
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that you may not be taken by surprise that I make this communication to you in the same frank and friendly spirit which I venture to flatter myself has always marked our intercourse with each other.
Believe me to be
Yours most truly
Monck
The Hon.
J.A. Macdonald