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Date: 1864-11-09
By: The Montreal Herald
Citation: “Mr. Dorion on Confederation”, The Montreal Herald (9 November, 1864)
Other formats: TBA

MR. DORION ON CONFEDERATION.

—The letter of Mr. Dorion, published elsewhere, will no doubt be read with the attention which its calmness of tone and fair argumentative character justly entitles it to receive. Mr. Dorion, not unnaturally from his own point of view, objects that the scheme which has been adopted to ward off the supposed evils of representation according to population, have really made those evils overwhelming for the persons and the population which have hitherto professed to fear them. No doubt he must feel that after having for years been the object of attack among his own countrymen on account of his supposed willingness to do justice to Upper Canada in a mode unfavorable to French Canadian supremacy, he has a kind of revenge in witnessing his old opponents give up more than was ever demanded from them under the old regime. We need not of course say that we have no complaint to make on this score, though there are undoubtedly some points in the arrangement as respects the position of the British speaking inhabitants of Lower Canada which require amendment, if that class of the population is to have any guarantee for exerting its fair share of influence in the country; for it may happen, according to the present plan, that while the race obtains predominance in the Confederacy, a part of the race may be extinguished, both in the Confederacy and the State, if State be the name by which the existing Provinces are hereafter to be called. On the subject of the finances we have feared from the first that the plan would be weak. The natural tendency of all such arrangements is towards extravagant expenditure, because the weaker parties, whose consent has to be obtained, take the opportunity of holding back for terms, and the mode of satisfying them is by pecuniary favours. There may be a good reason, to be made manifest hereafter, why the Confederacy should go into the market and buy up the wild lands of Newfoundland to the extent of a million and a-quarter of dollars; but one does not at first sight perceive the propriety of this exceptional arrangement; nor why, if the lands are worth that money to the Confederacy, they should not be worth a great deal more to private parties dealing with the Province of Newfoundland itself. In this and in many other ways we have very little doubt that the weight of the taxation now borne will be greatly augmented. We cannot hope for any prospect of a fulfilment of the promises of reduction which are made in some quarters; and all that can be expected is a compensation in other shapes, as it is said the Italians have in the increase of liberty and its accompanying blessings a set off against the augmented taxes which have fallen upon them with their new state of political being. Another important subject is touched on in Mr. Dorion’s letter—it is the right of carrying a project such as the present, without affording the people an opportunity for the expression of opinion on it. We, of course, understand the dogma of the British constitution, that the three estates of the realm—King, Lords, and Commons in Parliament assembled—can do anything they please; but when a constitutional authority is alleged for any course, it is manifest that such course cannot be one that will destroy the constitution. To say otherwise would be as rational as to cite an article of a creed for the purpose of destroying confidence in the founder of the faith which the creed was intended to set forth. Plebiscites, indeed, are methods unknown to the British constitution and to British practice; but nothing is more common than a dissolution of Parliament and an appeal to the people at the hustings upon any new question which has not previously been discussed before them, and we cannot think that any theory of justice or reason can be constructed which would authorise a set of men appointed by the people to vote away the rights of those who elected them—the right, for example, of choosing Legislative Councillors instead of having them nominated. Among those who will have to vote on that question in Parliament are the present Legislative Councillors. It is understood that most of these will be appointed for life under the new constitution, and thus if, as Mr. Dorion supposes, the Confederation is to be carried without an appeal to the people, we shall have the spectacle of a number of gentlemen appointed by their principals to act for eight years, who take advantage of the confidence reposed in them to usurp a hold on their seats for the [term?] [of?] [illegible] It would be a strange kind of constitution which would sanction any thing so hostile to common honesty, and we can scarcely think that such a course will be attempted unless indeed the signs of acquiescence are so general as to make it plain that any appeal to popular opinion would be mere waste of time and labour.