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Date: 1867-01-18
By: True Witness
Citation: “No title”, True Witness (18 January, 1867)
Other formats: TBA

The Toronto Globe appears to be somewhat alarmed by the statements of the Minerve‘s London correspondent on the School Question, and the intentions of the Canadian delegates thereupon:—

La Minerve is Mr. Cartier’s organ at Montreal, and its editorial correspondence from London is written by a member of its staff sent over to watch the passage of the Confederation scheme through the Imperial Parliament. It is very likely that his speculations relative to the school questions are inspired by Mr. Cartier himself. The language which we have translated is not as clear as it might be, but it makes two things plain—first, that there is great anxiety in certain quarters to convince the readers of La Minerve that the interests of the hierarchy are safe in Mr. Cartier’s hands; and, secondly, that the danger of an attempt to tamper with the school system of Upper Canada is not past. The counting of heads in which the writer in La Minerve indulges, is possibly indicative of disagreement among the delegates themselves. We have not thought it necessary to keep up the discussion of this question, while it was not known what Ministers really proposed to do, or what exact meaning was to be attached to the mysterious hints which were thrown out some time since by their organs. But if the delegates do attempt to disregard the settlement of the school question sanctioned by the Quebec conference, and by the Canadian Parliament, and to prepare the way for forcing a new and more odious Separate School Law upon the people of Upper Canada, there will be an opportunity before such an outrage can be pushed through the Imperial Parliament, to make known in England the feelings of the people of Upper Canada on the subject. As soon as it becomes known what the plan of the delegates really is, we can promise them that if they propose a scheme to place our school system at the mercy of the Romish hierarchy, little time will be lost in making the voice of Upper Canada heard. Their safety lies in adhering honourably to the terms of the Quebec resolutions.

It will be seen from the above that the Globe is as much in the dark as we are ourselves, as to the means which M. Cartier intends to adopt, to redeem his oft reiterated pledges, that the Catholic minority of Upper Canada shall, in the event of Confederation, and in the matter of Education, be placed on precisely the same footing as the Protestant minority of Lower Canada. We must wait with patience until the details be made public; and then it will be the interest, as well as the duty, of the Catholics of both sections of the Province, to tender to them, and to the Ministers who introduce them, their hearty support, as a set-off to the threatened hostility of Mr. George Brown and the Clear-Grits of Upper Canada. A Ministry, honestly desirous of doing justice to the Catholics of that section of the Province as well as to the Protestants of this, will have many obstacles to encounter from the Upper Canadian Liberals; and to surmount them, it will need the co-operation of all the friends of Freedom of Education, whose interests, we have reasons for believing, will be carefully attended to by His Grace the Archbishop of Halifax now in London, and by others in whom Catholics can well afford to place unlimited confidence. Such guarantees as shall satisfy them will, of course, be sufficient to satisfy the Catholic laity, and in their hands, without any misgivings as to the result, we should all be well content to leave the matter.