Document Information

Date: 1864-11-07
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Mr. Brown’s Speech at Toronto”, The Montreal Herald (7 November, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

MR. BROWN’S SPEECH AT TORONTO.

—We reprint elsewhere, from the Globe, which, owing to the lateness of publication, only reached Montreal on Saturday in the forenoon, that part of Mr. Brown’s speech at Toronto, in which, after some graceful compliments to what he saw in the Maritime Provinces, very fit for an occasion when his fellow-citizens were entertaining gentlemen resident in those regions, but of little intrinsic importance, he came to such revelations as he thought it proper to make upon the subject of the agreement arrived at in Quebec. We do this by way of letting our readers see all that was said, and of thus enabling them to pick out such grains of wheat as they may, acknowledging that, for our own parts, we have derived additional information on only one item, that is upon the constitution of the Judiciary in the new Confederation, who are, it seems, to be appointed and paid throughout, including the county judges, by the general government. We had understood previously that there was to be a general Court of Appeals for the entire country—a point of very great importance, indeed, which, however, we do not see touched upon distinctly in Mr. Brown’s speech. We were not, however, before acquainted with the arrangement as to the judges; and, looking at this as one of the most important steps towards the consolidation of the general government and the welding of our whole people into one great nation, eventually to become homogeneous, not by the suppressing of any influence, but by mingling the whole in due proportion, we can fairly bestow upon it our honest approbation. Mr. Galt said nothing about the financial arrangements which had been made, and Mr. Brown declined to speak of them in the presence of the minister specially charged with their management; so that on all the points connected with our fiscal government, the public is as much in the dark as ever. We think that this is in every way a mistake. It is true, probably, as Mr. Brown stated in an early part of his speech, that very little is left to tell; but that little includes a number of isolated affairs, all the difficulties respecting which do not always occur to the same minds at the same moment—small, perhaps, in themselves, but much more easy of adjustment now than at a later period. It is true that those of us whose special business it is to keep open our sources of information have learned by indirect ways certain features of the scheme in addition to those which we have felt ourselves authorized to publish. But information coming in the way that this reaches us is not unfrequently more or less subject to misunderstanding, even when those who possess it are not restrained from using it by other considerations. So far as we know, the agreements on points which remain to be elucidated, if fairly stated, would by no means tend to render the scheme less popular, but rather the reverse, though there may, of course, be some others of a different character. We think, therefore, that the various governments are neither acting fairly to themselves nor to their constituents in withholding an authoritative precis of what has been determined on. It is very possible that suggestions may be made, not hostile to the plan, but tending to render it more perfect, if the work done shall be submitted to public criticism; and we take it that what is already known comprises that part of the arrangement which is most calculated to excite enmity, if enmity is to be excited in any quarter. We know that something has been said about the publication which we desire being forbidden by the etiquette of the Imperial Government; but it appears to us that this is an error. If we understand the term etiquette, it intends some ceremony or order of proceedings, established by precedent for certain transactions or observances. Now it is evident that there can be no etiquette, in this sense, for the carrying out of the scheme of Confederation, since the whole mode of proceeding is new, entirely sui generis, and adopted for this one occasion. There can be nothing official to dictate the reticence of the delegates from the various Provinces, since they met in an entirely unofficial capacity, without any constitutional authority, or appointment from any one having the right to send them to the Conference. Constitutionally, legally, and in fact, they have done nothing more than any other body of men might do to-morrow, except in so far of course as greater weight attaches to their conclusions than would belong to those of other men. They plainly were not acting as responsible Ministers of any Governor, for besides the other objections to that view of the case, we have this conclusive fact, that among them were unsworn members, and members actually in opposition to the Ministries of the Provinces from whence they came. Under these circumstances we cannot imagine any cause but that of expediency for withholding—rather the authoritative form—than the information itself; and considering what we have been allowed to see, it looks like a piece of very supererogatory prudery to affect to conceal the rest. We may add that Mr. Brown put the great question of the Provincial defences on a footing which ought to commend itself to every thinking man here or in England. The correspondent of the London Times, writing from this country, has represented the objection made here to the accepting of all the exaggerated dictation on this subject, which has been hurled at us from England, to a quiet belief that the Americans would not disturb us. No doubt we and others have believed that the probabilities of war being wantonly made upon us by our neighbours were greatly and we may add, sometimes wickedly, and always mischievously exaggerated. But that is by no means the whole story. Many men like ourselves, including Mr. Cartwright, the member for Lennox and Addington,–than whom no one has been more zealous for the defence of the country,–have felt that to attempt that duty without assistance from England, would, in case of serious attack, be a useless expenditure of blood and treasure. We have, therefore, wished that this should be as frankly and openly stated by our Government to the Imperial Government, as the Imperial Government’s just demands are stated to us. We want the preparation which is to be made to be really effective, and in order that it should be so, that the aggregate force required and the proportions in which it is to be furnished should be determined. This we are convinced is the only mode of obtaining any sound military system, and the only one which in case of real danger will prevent ill-will and recrimination between the parent State and the Colony, both of which ought at such a time to be acting with the utmost cordiality. This, as we understand Mr. Brown, is something like the policy which is really to be carried out, and which will involve the recognition not only of our duty to England, but of England’s duty to us.